Back in late 1999, when Diablo 2 was still under construction (it was released in June 2000), the staff of Diabloii.net, the, as we like to say, Unofficial Diablo II Site, were invited to Blizzard North for three days of wine, women, gaming, and song. Well actually, mostly gaming, especially since 2/3 of our crew were, in fact, female themselves. Elly, Gaile, and me made the trip, and for three days we were given unrestricted access to the pre-beta build and permitted to roam semi-freely through the halls of Blizzard North. (The newer wing was off limits, where they were working on D2X and another never-announced, long-canceled title.)

We produced a great deal of material from the information gathered during our visit, and while the thousands of words of it spent in forum posts and live chat are lost forever, the formal reports we wrote up have now been unearthed and reposted in the Diabloii.net Archives in the DiabloWiki. Now obviously the game info in this isn’t exactly current, but that’s what makes it interesting. What was the game like pre-release,? Which skills looked most promising, what play styles were used, and how did we think the game would play long term, based on our testing and everything the D2 Team had told us? You should also enjoy Gaile’s office tour write-up, with numerous photos of the old Blizzard North offices, the D2 Team when they were young and sleep-deprived, and the Dii.net crew when we were… younger?

The visit main page holds links to all the rest, along with background info and some bonus images. The A-Z report is a massive (9 pages in original HTML format) alphabetical overview of everything, the Amazon, Barbarian, Paladin, Necromancer, and Sorceress reports cover the characters, and there’s even a quick facts collection of stuff we posted from the scene the first two nights, when fans were clamoring for news and we were brain dead from 12+ hours of play time and game discussion.

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Today we dice up the Druid and find out if players are barking up the wrong tree. Is the Druid seen by many as dog meat simply for his affiliation with the Diablo 2 expansion set? Or, is there an actual bone to pick with nature lovers who kill animals and have fire skills? Check out the first paragraph of this weeks slab column and click through to read the rest.

Druid Circles

“Arwooooooo!” I can’t see a thing, and I just cut off something from this hairy patch here. I sure hope he’s in animal form! The Druid has a few fans who really like him, so I had to turn the lights off and take sample slices in secret.  However, a recent Diii.net poll found that the Druid is the least favorite class in Diablo 2, so he’s not exactly the top dog. But is this really from his faults, or is it that the Druid reminds everyone of the Lord of Destruction (LoD) expansion in general which is the bigger culprit? Today we look at what makes him tick and what gives him ticks, namely the LoD expansion he represents. Stick around while we try to repair his Wolffian ducts, tail bone, and canine teeth after Blizzard got their paws on him.

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Greetings everyone on this fine thanksgiving day. We have a few more pieces from the fan art gallery this week to show you. Set back and enjoy the stuffing as we show this weeks fan art.


First up this week we have a fan art from the artist Reigneous first posted by Flux on the Diablo Twitter Watch #3. Check out his Witch Doctor and go on over to his Deviant Art page to see more of his art.


Next up is a new artist StrongCoffee and his four new fan art pieces. One of them is pictured below with a group piece showing off the barbarian, monk and witch doctor.


Last but not least on this fine turkey day we have a second new artist named Leugi bringing us his concept of a heavy armored monk. See his work in progress here in the forums





Click the thumbnails to see larger versions of all these images.

If you enjoy Fan Art and want to contribute to this growing community, please stop by the Fan Creations Forum. Many artists visit frequently, posting works in progress looking for feedback and conversation. You don't have to be "arty" to join in. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to send me a PM.

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A quick note to the community that there are a couple of Beta key giveaways currently up and running in the IncGamers main site today. PC gamers can get their hands on a Beta key for UbiSoft’s new RTS title RUSE and PS3 gamers wanting in on some shooter action can request a beta key for Sony’s upcoming 256 person shooter MAG. There are stack of keys available for both titles so head over and secure one now.

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As HK’s recent posts have shown, we’ve been working to resurrect our old fan fiction bastion, The Dark Library, in preparation for the upcoming fun of Diablo 3 fan fiction. Prompted by that, and today’s US Thanksgiving holiday, I dug up and reposted the Thanksgiving fan fiction I wrote back in 2002. This was the first of five humorous holiday stories staring the seven characters as they engaged in holiday-themed activities with the monsters.

In this first installment it’s Thanksgiving, a truce has been declared, and everyone has assembled for a friendly meal. But how long can a meal stay peaceful with seven characters and six bloodthirsty demons competing for the same turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie?

Here’s a short quote; click to read the whole story in our revitalized FFF.

Steam rose from the giant bird, and picking up the long carving knife, Diablo asked, “Who wants white meat?”

“Allow me.” spoke the Paladin, and leaping to his feet, he snatched the knife away from Diablo. The demons recoiled in alarm as the Paladin’s arm became a blur of Zeal, striking the Turkey faster than the eye could follow. Just seconds later he dropped the knife and sat back down, wiping the splatters of grease off of his hand.

“Well,” said Diablo, eying the perfectly sliced turkey. “I guess that skill does come in handy at times.”

The Lord of Terror leaned over and stabbed several slices, lifting them with the fork and carving knife. Plates were passed and loaded with turkey, and the meal began. The Barbarian ate hugely, stuffing slices of turkey and globs of stuffing into his mouth with his bare hands. Next to him the Sorceress looked horrified as she took small, neat bites, occasionally pausing to emit a flame or puff of frost from one finger, as she heated or cooled a bit of turkey to the perfect temperature.

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That’s the title and the premise of a new article on Mtv’s MP blog. The five topics?  Pets and Loot, Open Classes, Inventory, Enhancing Items, and Shared Stash. Here’s a quote:

If you’re skeptical that a “budget” game could outdo Blizzard’s warhorse, “Diablo 2,” here are five things that Runic Games managed to improve on…and five things that I better see in “Diablo 3.”

1) Pets and Loot
You start off your “Torchlight” adventure by choosing your class and your pet, a cat or a dog. Your pet isn’t merely cosmetic, though. They’ll fight for you, they’ll hold loot for you and, best of all, they’ll sell stuff for you. One of the most tedious aspects of “Diablo 2” has always been the need to constantly head back into town to sell unneeded loot. Now you can load up your pet with crap, click a button, and they’re gone for around a minute. When they come back they’ll give you the profits, no questions asked. It’s a little dubious (as evidenced in this Penny Arcade comic), but in terms of convenience and cutting down on the tedium, it’s genius.

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With some interesting revelations over last week, the topics of discussion in the Diablo 3 forums reflect this.

Somehow, three out of five threads highlighted this week are made by Leugi. And before you ask, no he's not doing me any indecent favours, he's just the general Diablo flavour of the week it seems!

If you've seen an especially interesting thread, report it to us at , so it gets the fame it deserves.


Tree skills begone discussion

• Bandreus elegantly brings up everything we know about the new skill tree design. Help give input, or just take in others' in this popular thread.

Why change "uniques" to "legendary" items?

• Something we'd all like to know and our own local hippie Leugi is actually asking out loud.

4 acts? 5 acts? More acts?

• Another thread by Leugi: Just because Diablo II had four acts does not necessarily mean Diablo III will have the same amount. What do you think?

Somewhat Official Diablo 3 Release Date Pool

• If you somehow missed this massive thread started by Mad Mantis over a year ago, you need to check it out. Some unfortunate updates in the last few weeks...

Heavy Armored Monk WIP

• Inspired by last week's Armoured Monk thread, Leugi has started drawing his own concept. Give input or perhaps make your own version.

Thanks everyone for reporting on interesting threads. That's all for now, and remember to continue to send cool/fun/interesting/sad forum links to !

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The “what will D3 have if not skill trees” debate keeps rolling along. Blizzard teased about it in a couple of more tweets today, and Bashiok used a forum thread to shoot down yesterday’s moment of skeptical speculation about the Dungeon Seige style “use a skill and it improves” mechanic.  Here are the tweets:

	Blizzard Quote:
	Can you say why you guys decided to drop the skill tree? What deficiencies did it have that you felt another system could do better?—by JeffKamo Focus.   That is hard, so many games rely on skill trees. My guess would have to be… “skill” items that you find or even create for skills.—by CaptainCasey Sounds like you’re talking about our skill rune system, which is still very much a part of the game.

And here’s Bashiok’s latest forum post, in reply to someone who didn’t like the possible Dungeon Siege style mechanic at all, since it would force grinding and practicing to improve skills outside of regular gameplay.

	Blizzard Quote:
	I’m guessing you’re saying this because I quoted one guy on twitter proposing this type of skill system and I said that it was a popular guess. Well, I think I can pretty safely say that we would never use that type of skill system. It works for some games, it just wouldn’t work for us. We’re dropping too many items, we’re moving too fast, and we’re opening up too many avenues for customization and re-customization.

You’ll note that none of this even hints at what they are doing. It just refutes guesses about what they’re not doing. Which means the floor is entirely open for us to speculate. Have fun.

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Blizzard tweeted yesterday about some recent Act 3 play testing:

	Blizzard Quote:
	We have weekly playtests to focus feedback on areas and features. Last week was an Act III dungeon.

This got a fan excited enough to mention it in the B.net forum, to which Bashiok gave this reply:

	Blizzard Quote:
	The game isn’t being developed in a linear fashion so us saying we’re working on things in Act III doesn’t really mean anything in regards to how much of the game is finished. Since we’re constantly evolving the tools and processes for creating the various assets for the game (and just plain getting better at it), it’s best to have as wide a perspective as possible. Otherwise we’d probably paint ourselves into a corner. All of the work being produced at the end of the game would look far and above better than the stuff that was produced at the beginning, and so we’d probably have to go back and redo a lot of that work.

Elsewhere, a fan gets all Lore-intensive about the Diablo timeline, which prompts Bashiok to offer a ret-con-tastic apology.

	Blizzard Quote:
	1) Diablo 3 webpage. Entry #17 ” Originally built as a Horadric monastery sometime around 912 (see my entries pertaining to ancient mystical traditions for more information on the secretive Horadric order), the building was later converted to a Zakarum cathedral. “ 2) In Diablo timeline. “Year 1019 “Diablo is finally captured by a group of Horadrim monks led by Jered Cain. The monks bury Diablo‘s Soulstone near the river Talsande in Khanduras, and a Horadric monastery with a network of catacombs is built over the burial spot.” ...the dates don’t match. Its impossible that the Horadric monastery was built around 912 when the order was created in 1004. Bashiok: We’ve known about some of the inconsistencies for a while, and there’s an ongoing project to convert a lot of our internal documents to a standardized dating system to help correct them. Hopefully to be completed soon. Meanwhile, the timeline on the website is infallibly canon. Everything else falls to it for correct dates.

Or we could just say that Abd al-Hazir‘s journal entry about Tristram has the wrong date—in the game fiction AaH is just a man compiling information; he can make mistakes or be mislead by incorrect source materials. Right up until he’s torn apart and devoured by invisible beasts in broad daylight.

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A press release about the 2009 G-Star show in Busan has some welcome news, for any South Korean Blizzard fans.

G-Star 2009 welcomes more than 198 exhibitors and sponsors which is jumped from 162 last year. The first-time participant Activision Blizzard as well as South Korean first-tier publishers such as NCsoft, NHN, Nexon are going to offer a glimpse of their upcoming games; Activision Blizzard showcases playable versions of StarCraft2 and Diablo 3, while NCsoft unveils Blade&Soul. NHN shows the highly anticipated game Tera, and Nexon shows Dragon Quest and four other games.

We’re assuming the D3 build is from Blizzcon, and thus won’t show anything new or changed. And who knows if anyone will even play it, with Starcraft 2 sitting nearby in SC-mad Korea. But maybe we’ll see some ninja cell phone videos or articles from major media…

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