[CarbonatedFalcon]

• 5/15/12

* Reviews won't be up until later today at the earliest, but will most likely trickle in over the next week or two, as there were no review copies. Reviewers got access the same time as everyone else.

* And Yoshichan gets his own Eurogamer article. (Don't bother reading the comments.) GAF > Internet > GAF

* GAME IS LAUNCHED EVERYWHERE! Enjoy slaying demons!

• 5/14/12

* Be sure to enable Enhanced Tooltips and Elective Mode in the options menu. Elective Mode allows you to assign your skills in any manner, rather than being forced to choose from a specific category for each slot - allowing many more possible builds. Both are disabled by default.

* Error 37 is likely to happen if logging in as soon as the servers go up in your region. If you receive this error, just try again later. Read the last paragraph of the launch day guide for details.

* Spoiler thread is up here.

* If you pre-downloaded the game, it can now (finally) be installed. If you have issues (such as Error 108) please check the official tech support forums here for PC or here for Mac.

• 5/12/12

* If you previously download the English or German EU clients, you'll need to download a new installer (links in the OP have been updated). If you install to the same directory, it'll only be a ~50MB patch, otherwise it will download the full 7.6GB again. More info here: https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4410912

• 5/10/12

* OT Updated - Please check this post for a full list of changes.

* Closed beta players rejoice! For you are now "One of the Chosen".

* Please be sure to visit the launch site to claim your exclusive class sigils. The last day to do so is May 18, after which they will become unavailable forever. Note that you do not actually have to submit anything to Facebook. If you fill out all the other information on the last page, a regular "Finish" prompt will light up, and you should receive a confirmation email after clicking that.

* If you haven't already, I recommend setting up your Battletag so you're ready to go when Diablo III launches (this is different from your SC2 identifier). I also suggest you acquire an Authenticator, as it will greatly increase your account security. The Dial-In and Mobile App Authenticators are free, or you can get a keychain one for $6.50 at the Blizzard Store.

• 5/8/12

Please discretely tag all major story spoilers until May 29 or |OT2|, whichever comes first, which should be ample time for most people to at least complete normal. Feel free to post sans tags in the dedicated spoiler thread.

Appropriate: The Act 3 boss is a rainbow-striped pony!? I never would have guessed.

Not Appropriate: The Diablo dance-off with Deckard Cain in Act 4 was certainly unexpected.

Any minor random events (e.g. Jar of Souls or The Matriarch’s Bones) or other gameplay-centric elements do not need to be tagged.

• Release Date | May 15, 2012 - WORLDWIDE
• Server Unlocks | US: 12:01 AM PDT / EU: 00:01 CEST / AU: 5:00 PM AEST / ASIA: 12:01 a.m. Taiwan Time
• Platform | PC + Mac
• Price | $59.99 US ($99.99 Collector’s Edition)
• Genre | Action Role-Playing Game
• Players | 1-4 Online Co-Op PvP Coming Soon™
• Developer | Blizzard Entertainment (Game Director - Jay Wilson)
• Rating(s) | ESRB: M / PEGI: 16 / BBFC: 15 / AU: MA15+ / GRB: 18

Collector's Edition Contents

PC Requirements

Minimum:

• Windows® XP/Vista/7 (latest service packs) with DX 9.0c
• Intel Pentium® 2.8 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4400+
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800GT or ATI Radeon™ X1950 Pro or better
• 1 GB RAM (XP), 1.5 GB (Vista/7)
• 12 GB available HD space
• DVD-ROM (required for retail disc versions only)
• Broadband Internet Connection
• 1024x768 minimum resolution

Recommended:

• Windows® Vista/7 (latest service packs)
• Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
• 2 GB RAM
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 260 or ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 or better

Mac Requirements

Minimum:

• Mac® OS X 10.6.8, 10.7.x or newer
• Intel® Core 2 Duo
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT or ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 or better
• 2 GB RAM
• 12 GB available HD space
• DVD-ROM (required for retail disc versions only)
• Broadband Internet Connection
• 1024x768 minimum resolution

Recommended:

• Mac® OS X 10.7.x or newer
• Intel® Core 2 Duo
• 2 GB RAM
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M or ATI Radeon™ HD 4670 or better

The latest system requirements can be found here.

You can be extra prepared to face the forces of Hell by downloading the game ahead of time, even if you didn’t preorder a digital copy, using the links below. Just select your desired language and OS.

Windows
en-US
en-GB
en-SG
German
French
Spanish-ES
Spanish-MX
Italian
Polish
Taiwan Mandarin
Korean
Portugese

OS X
en-US
en-GB
en-SG
German
French

You mean there's a reason for all that clicking besides loot?!

Evil
Is.
Back.

Twenty years have passed since the Prime Evils were defeated and banished from the world of Sanctuary. Now, you must return to where it all began – the town of Tristram – and investigate rumors of a fallen star, for this is the first sign of evil’s rebirth, and an omen that the End Times have begun.

For a refresher on Diablo 1 and 2, see this video series by NeoGAF’s ZealousD that covers all the cutscenes and other major in-game events of the first two entries in the series.

The narrated lore series by Force Strategy Gaming is worth a look as well: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

If you don't have much time to spare, but still want to slay demons with a purpose, IGN's Diablo In 5 Minutes might be the primer for you. Though I highly recommend both both ZealousD's and Force's if you have the time to watch them.

Still not enough lore for you? Then you can check out the Book of Cain, the Sin War Trilogy, and Diablo 3: The Order, releasing May 15th.

Click the class crest to view the respective “Heroes Rise” video. Click anywhere else in each banner to go to the official class page.

As heroes make their way across Sanctuary in Diablo 3, they’ll encounter several individuals who may accompany them on their quest. These companions will assist players in combat with powerful skills of their own as well as flesh out the story on the run with banter between themselves and the player character. In addition to regular equipment the player finds, each follower can be equipped with special items unique to them, such as Templar Relics, to increase their power.

*Note that in multiplayer games, where the might of multiple heroes bears upon the forces of Hell, followers will have to stay in town.*

As with the character class banners, click on each follower to go to the respective official page.

Crafting in Diablo 3 is not done directly by the player, but carried out by skilled artisans who agree to assist the hero on his/her journey.

• The Blacksmith salvages unwanted magic (blue) or better items into crafting materials which he then uses to craft weapons and armor. While they often have some fixed properties or pre-defined ranges, like most items in Diablo, the arms created by the Blacksmith have randomly generated properties.
  
• The Jeweler can combine lower quality gems into better ones, add sockets to items, as well as extract gems from equipment - for a price. Gems give powerful stat enhancements when socketed and have different, special properties if inserted into a helm or weapon. You’ll need to invest in these precious stones for your heroes to be at the peak of their capabilities.

Initially upgraded with only gold, eventually artisans will require pages, books, or tomes of knowledge to advance their craft to the highest level (10). Even then, the absolute best craftable items must be learned from rare recipes found in the world.

In addition to an in-game player-to-player trade interface (which should be familiar to anyone who’s played WoW), as well as the ability to simply drop items on the ground as a means of trading items, Diablo 3 features a full-fledged auction house. Unlike other games, you don’t access the auction house from a physical location in the game, but through a menu interface accessed from the character selection screen. From there you can view your shared stash as well as the inventory of all your characters. Due to the randomized nature of most items in Diablo 3, weapons and armor can be found primarily by using a series of filters (e.g has the intelligence stat, with a minimum of value of 7) as search parameters.

Besides the gold auction house, which relies solely on the currency generated in-game, Blizzard has introduced the optional Real Money Auction House (RMAH) where players can buy and sell items for real-world currency. The proceeds from auctions in the RMAH can be added to either your Battle.net balance or cashed out via PayPal (for an additional fee) in certain regions. The RMAH will go online approximately one week after the launch of Diablo 3.

Transaction Fees:

There is no listing price - these fees will be charged only if an auction successfully sells.

EQUIPMENT

Transaction Fee: 15% of Final Sale Price (Gold Auction House) $1.00 USD/$1.00 AUD per item (RMAH)
Transfer Fee (to PayPal): 15% of Amount Being Transferred

COMMODITIES

Transaction Fee: 15% of Final Sale Price (Gold Auction House) 15% of Final Sale Price (RMAH)
Transfer Fee (to PayPal): 15% of Amount Being Transferred

Adding an authenticator to your account increases the maximum Battle.net balance from $100 to $250. Also note that Battle.net SMS Mobile Alerts are REQUIRED to be able to cash out auctions to PayPal.

The above is hardly a comprehensive resource. For more information, please read this guide and be sure to check the FAQ.

PayPal Cashout Profit Table

Difficulties - It’s Not Over Till Inferno

Diablo doesn’t end when the story is over. A significant amount of new content to be explored awaits brave adventurers after completing an initial run through the story. The more advanced Nightmare and Hell difficulties return from Diablo 2, as well as the brand new Inferno difficulty, available only after the Hell difficulty is defeated, and is balanced around players at the level cap (60). Inferno is intended to be an intense challenge that requires both potent equipment and skillfulness to overcome, though it can be completed solo, as well as in a party. As players advance through each difficulty, they will encounter:

• More vicious monsters with a greater number of affixes, some of which can’t be found in Normal
• Progressively more powerful weapons and armor, including legendary and unique items and sets
• Rare recipes for crafting
• And More…

Think it will be easy? Think Again.

Nephalem Valor - The Item Hunt Evolved

Designed to prevent endgame magic-find runs from becoming stale, Nephalem Valor is a buff that kicks in at level 60. Players will receive a stacking buff to magic and gold find for every rare or champion pack they kill. Killing a boss while the buff is active will result in extra loot drops from the boss. However if you change a skill, rune, passive, or leave the game, the effect wears off - encouraging endgame players to pick a solid build and stick with it for the most efficient farming. Thus doing full run-throughs of areas, sweeping for champions and rares, rather than simply rushing to the boss will be the most effective way to find the best items at level cap.

Hardcore - One Life To Live

Hardcore makes a comeback in Diablo 3, and is as unforgiving as ever. Unlocked after leveling at least one character to level 10 in “softcore”, you have just one life to live in this mode. If When you are slain, your character is dead for good and becomes inaccessible, including weapons and armor equipped, along with anything else that may have bee in their inventory. Dead champions level 10 and up can be viewed in a “Hall of Fallen Heroes” which displays a model of the character at time of death, along with their gameplay statistics. Hardcore characters have a separate shared stash and pool of gold (as well as artisans) from softcore characters, and at least at launch will not be able to access the real-money auction house - only a hardcore exclusive gold auction house.

If you think you can endure the challenges posed by Hardcore, there are sure to be special achievements in store, as well as unique banner customization options.

Screenshots







Videos

Official Community Site
Game Guide
DiabloFans - News, Community
IncGamers - News, Community
/r/Diablo - News, Community
Diablowiki.net - Wiki
Diablowiki.com - Wiki
DiabloProgress - Rankings
Diablo 3 Database - Database, like Wowhead - has some neat tools

Special Thanks to ZealousD for his series of D1 and D2 videos as well as the avatars, MrMister for the creating the Battletag List and Graphic, and the indomitable Yoshichan (along with the other two) for advice and helping edit the OT.

[winnarps]

YES.

Incoming.




Seriously, CF: gj on the thread. Those class banners are badass.

[Tragicomedy]

Posting in the most legendary thread of the 21st century. Hype overload.

[injurai]

All I know is that, when he beckoned... I had to follow him. From that moment, we traveled together, East. Always... into the East."


edit1:

Anyone that uses Steam I just created a public group called DiabloGAF. Go check it out and join. I'll post this every so often to get the word out. Falcon maybe you could even edit the OT with the information. http://steamcommunity.com/groups/DiabloGAF

[Dragonzord]

oh my godddddddddd

GOD DAMN 60 SECONDS RULE

[BrokenEchelon]

Awesome. So much fucking hype.

[sorijealut]

Thank you! FINALLY OT OT

[TheExodu5]

Goodness me.

My Summer is forfeit.

[lordy88]

OMG OMG OMG OMG IT'S HERE!

In one week...

[LordCanti]

Thank you based CarbonFalcon for this OT.

Sooo hyppppeeeeeee!!!!!

[~Kinggi~]

DIABLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

The greatest game of our times to be sure.

Sweet OT my friend.

[JohnnytheFuture]

The thread looks great man! Nice job, and worth the wait!

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Reserved. (Mod Please move this post to #2 - I have a few things to add there.)

[Salz01]

Awesome!!

[Realyn]

omg it lives.

sorry about your #2 post ... but since that got ruinied :D.

[ZealousD]

Haha you didn't need that second post anyway, Carbonated.

[Yoshichan]

Behold, NeoGAF!



The thread everyone's been waiting for, whether they're aware of it or not. I want to thank every single one of you who contributed to the Diablo 3 Beta-thread (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443339). It's been a long ride but it's finally here - it's time to progress to something bigger. Much bigger!

I am positive that this thread is very important for some people... but for me, it is more than that. It'll single-handedly be the most important thread on GAF. And if that wasn't enough, Diablo 3 is the most hyped gaming-release of of all time, and I can't wait to go through hell (over and over again) with some of you guys! I also want to give a HUGE thanks to CarbonatedFalcon, along with everyone else who contributed making this OT possible - a job well done indeed! I truly do hope that D3GAF will turn out to be a strong and dedicated community, and that there will be tons and tons of funny/rage stories shared within this thread!

Let the clicking begin!

[TylerD]

Why hello there new hotness!

[Negator]

OH MY GAWD

[TheOnlyMook]

Oh my, hype train is at full speed

[Dragonzord]

Witch Doctors rule, Wizards drool

[pxleyes]

So much for waiting for post #2.

I've waited 12 long years for this.

[AndersTheSwede]

Epic OT for an Epic return to hell.

[sazzy]

Jesus Christ finally.

[goldensun]

DIBS

Btw, HOLY SHIT IT'S HERE FUCK YES!

[Megasoum]

Woot!

And Claiming avatar:


Thanks guys, amazing work!

[TheDancingWatermelon]

taking as my avatar, amazing OT!

[Elginer]

IT HAS BEGUN!!!!!


DIABLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

FUCK AWESOME OT!

[Zuly]

Preparing to destroy my mouse this summer thanks to Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2.

[The_Reckoning]

Awwwwww yeah! Still no clue which class, but I'm in.

[VertPin]

DIBS!

[Yoshichan]

The class-section is screwed up! Fix it quick :3

[Max]

Amazing OP. Less than a week away!! Although I may have to wait a couple days for the CE to arrive

[Realyn]

Damn, will need to take this one.

[Aeana]

How do you get added to the BattleTag list thing?

[StriKeVillain]

Oh yes, my CE is ready (when it gets here from AMZ).

[Twie]

Fantastic! Got my hype hat on!

[chualie]

It's beautiful.

[Rokk]

So much for waiting for post #2. I've waited 12 long years for this.

it has been a doubling in age for me :(

[sazzy]

Witch Doctor is best class.

This is fact.

[scy]

oh god the OT is up.

Also, grabbing this:

[Junie12]

At long last the Diablo 3 OT!

SO HYYYYYYYYPED

[vetrox]

My new night shift jobb says HELLS YES to this game. Now I just have to make my poor old laptop agree.

[depward]

Diablo!!!! Can't wait!!! Wooo

[-Mikey-]

Very well done! Well worth the wait!

[sorijealut]

I'm gettin' this one!


Edit: no I'm not. Someone's claimed it. I will replace mine soon.

[Riggs]

Carbon you are the man, AWESOME OT!!!!!

Diablo, here we come mother fucker!

[JAFAR]

goodbye world

[The Int3rsect]

IS THIS REAL LIFE?

[sazzy]

Diablo 3 is not the official title.

Diablo III is.

Please fix it :(