Reaper of Souls has been officially revealed as the first expansion to Diablo 3.
Official website:http://us.battle.net/d3/en/reaper-of-souls/Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Opening Cinematic
The official Gameplay Teaser
New Features:
- Loot Runs
- Crusader class
- Nephalem Trials
- New Environments
- New Monsters
- Enhanced Paragon System
- Level cap has been raised to 70
- New Skills and Runes for all classes
- The Mystic Artisan returns
- And more!
Locations: "From the sprawling streets of Westmarch to the ancient walls of the Pandemonium Fortress, battle with a host of deadly new enemies throughout the all-new Act V of the Diablo III storyline."
New class: Crusader
"Impenetrable armor, gleaming weapons, and heavy, heavy damage–wield the power of the Crusader, unbreakable new hero of the mortal realms."
The Crusader's Gamescom Reveal video
As with the others, Crusader will let you choose male or female.
Back story - A fierce melee warrior whose command of the battlefield is matched only by his unwavering conviction. The Crusaders are a special forces group of the Knights of Westmarch, aka Paladins. Hundreds of years ago, the Knights went West to spread the Zakarum faith with fire and sword, ultimately founding Westmarch. Meanwhile, the Crusaders went East on a secret mission. and now at the end of all things, the Crusaders have returned to stop the forces of darkness yet again.
Creation - They wanted a mid-range melee character. They decided to mix the Paladin (that knight in shining armor), with the Spartan war ethos, mixed with a modern armored tank - the result was something so heavily armored it is 'literally an immovable object' and uses its armor as part of its weaponry.
Role - "A war machine made human - a tank in human form" Mid-range, Strength-based melee. Due to his heavy armor, Crusader wants to be in the middle of the enemies, and can use their holy spells to control the battlefield to keep enemies coming towards them or destroy ranged enemies in the distance.
Class Gear - Crusader Shields, Flails, ?
The Crusader's armor percentage is calculated into the damage the Crusader does.
Resource - Wrath
The Crusader's previewed Skills include: Punish, Justice, Scourge, Shield Bash, Blessed Shield, Blessed Hammer, Fist of the Heavens, Sweep Attack, Slash, Shield Glare, Judgment, Heaven's Fury, Laws of Valor, Laws of Justice, Consecration, and Falling Sword.
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http://media.mmo-champion.com/images.../d3small05.jpg
http://media.mmo-champion.com/images.../d3small04.jpg
The skills are supposed to feel really fun to combo together and give you tactical options.
Fist of the Heavens is the mid-range melee ability, so while in the middle of enemies you can strike at a distance as well.
Falling Sword was created to take the Fist of the Heavens concept even further. If a Crusader is a tank, and a tank can fire a shell, what can the Crusader do? The Crusader becomes the artillery strike himself using holy power to teleport to a distant location and crash down with the fires of Heaven.
Shield Glare causes holy energy to come down from the heavens and reflect off your shield, blinding enemies.
Consecration creates a circle on the ground that will heal friends, and a rune will make it deal holy fire damage to enemies.
Laws seem to be Crusader's version of Auras/Mantras. Laws of Valor is a passive ability where you gain extra damage as you deal critical hits, and also has an activation bonus of extra damage for everybody.
The Crusader might have the least amount of Passives of any of the classes. with 10 on the preview image, versus 16 on Barbarian, 14 on Monk, and 15 on the other original classes. (Presumably more will be added since it looks to still be a work in progress as seen on the Fist of Heavens screenshot, where a rune doesn't have a name yet.)
Loot Runs
- 15-20 minute completely random dungeons!
- Random weather!
- Random enemies!
- Random boss!
- Multi-tiered (several levels deep)!
The Mystic Artisan: Originally intended to be released in the core game, she is returning in Reaper of Souls with some new functions! She can 'Transmogrify' items (i.e. putting the armor model of say a level 45 set onto your level 70 item), and her Enchanting will allow you to reroll one of the affixes on rare/legendary items.
Paragon Upgrade: Paragon is now account-wide and functions similar to Borderland 2's Badass Ranks. It is intended to be a customization system and earning Paragon levels will give you points to spend on Core (STR/INT/DEX/VIT), Attack, Defense, or Utility stat increases. All normal characters on an account will share a Paragon level, same for Hardcore (like the Auction House, normal and HC Paragon are separate though), as well as earned Paragon Points.
Bonuses are retroactive. I.E. If you have two p100 heroes right now, the current plan is that you'd have 200 points in RoS.
Nephalem Trials: Will be announced soon, allegedly a Blizzard employee explained it on the forums. "Basically Grimiku explained what Nephalem Trials are.
For the "lore side" they are places "guarded" by Ancestal Nephalems while for the "gameplay side" they are portals that the player can find around whole Sanctuary.
When the player gets in he has to do a trial and the rewards are based on the difficulty of the trial itself and on the "player's efficiency"."
Story: The Black Soulstone has fallen into the High Heavens after being cast down from the Crystal Arch by us, the Nephalem hero. Tyrael decides that the only thing he can do is hide it, and thus he has recruited more humans to join the Horadrim and aid in his mission. The Black Soulstone's chamber is prepared, but as soon as they place it in its bindings Malthael, the former Archangel of Wisdom, returns as the Angel of Death. Most of the new Horadrim are slain, and Tyrael dispatches the sole survivor, Lorath(?), to go get the Nephalem hero.
Tyrael defiantly stands before Malthael, but his Sword of Justice, El'druin, can not harm Malthael. Malthael easily bests Tyrael but does not slay him, instead moving to get the Black Soulstone. Tyrael asks his brother why, but gets no answer from The Silent Angel. Tyrael then says that the Nephalem will stop Malthael, and Malthael finally speaks, "No one can stop death."
Malthael's motives are alleged to be that he wants to end the Eternal Conflict by destroying all demons, a goal which possibly includes the Nephalem/humans as well since they are part demon.
Before the Gamescom announcement, the Reaper of Souls site featured a teaser image: http://i.imgur.com/sxdGW8H.jpg
The text is from the Prophecy of the End Days that was in the Book of Cain. (I don't think the full thing was in the game itself)
And, at the End of Days, Wisdom shall be lost
as Justice falls upon the world of men.
Valor shall turn to Wrath-
and all Hope will be swallowed by Despair.
Death, at last, shall spread its wings over all-
as Fate lies shattered forever.
Each line refers to an angelic aspect, and Malthael is now Death.