[CarbonatedFalcon]

|OT1| |OT2| |OT3|

• 7/3/12

* Blog post about proposed Magic Find (Gear Swapping) changes here. There are issues with the current state of MF, so this goes over possible solutions - community input will be evaluated before making a final decision on how to change it.

* Also! Commodities coming to the RMAH soon. Gold trading won't be enabled initially however.

• 6/25/12

* Patch 1.0.3a will be deployed during downtime tomorrow. Patch notes here.

• 6/21/12

* Launch site promotional sigils seem to finally be going through today! Log in and step into a game and you should get 5 shiny new Feats of Strength.

• 6/19/12

* New stuff plus round up of older stuff! I don't get around to updating this as often as I should, though I'm not sure how many people at this point are checking here often anyway.

* 1.0.3 patch finally going live today! (for the Americas region - EU should be tomorrow) Patch notes here.. This is the first "major" patch to the game with quite a large amount of significant changes and bug fixes. Much too much to list here (go read the full notes!), but I'll round up the major highlights:

• Increased Attack Speed stat cut by 50% on all items (except quivers), previously existing or not.
  
• Inferno difficulty generally reduced in Acts 2, 3, and 4.
  
• Item drop rates in Inferno have been changed. The highest iLevel items (63) can now drop in Act 1 and 2, but have a lower chance of dropping than in Act 3 and 4. Read the patch notes for the details (the change is too complex to explain here).
  
• Destructible objects now no longer have a change to drop items (it's because of the botters, but seriously, WTF?!?!)
  
• Repair costs have been increased for item levels between 53 and 63
  
• Crafting costs reduced significantly for both the Blacksmith (across the board), and gem combines for flawless square and below. Gold training cost for the Blacksmith has been cut in half.

* Diablo III Reddit AMAA transcript is here. Lots of good info in there, some about 1.0.3 (which now won't be as relevant), but also a bunch of interesting stuff about future patches and general design decisions. A must read.

* RMAH went live last week (6/12/12 for the Americas). Reminders/more details here. At least some of the information in the section on that here in the OP is outdated for now, but I'll get around to it eventually. The 1.0.2c patch that came with it was extremely minor.

* Cheating Reminder. A ban wave went out recently, with surely more to come (apparently this first primarily only targeted one bot, and there are at least a couple more out there so far unaffected.)

• 6/12/12

* OT4 is here! I've cut down on stuff to save space. If you want to witness the full original glory of the OT, take a look at the links above. To see previous updates in this section, you'll need to head to the archived OTs. Further updates here to commence shortly.

• 6/6/12

* Patch 1.0.2b went live today. Mostly minor bugfixes, though commodity auctions seem to be up again. Yay!

* Be sure to check out the /r/Diablo AMAA (Q&A) with the developers later today from 3-5 PM PDT. You can ask questions directly yourself - don't miss it!

* Patch 1.03 Changes coming later this month. Too much here to list, but they're all very welcome fixes.

• 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 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 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 (which generally start dropping on Nightmare and above) 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.

/!\ ATTENTION ABOUT THE BATTLETAG LIST FOR NEW AND EXISTING ENTRIES /!\

Send a PM to CarbonatedFalcon, ZealousD, HenryHSH, Nacire, or MrMister with your GAF Name, Battletag, Server Region, Class, and whether you will be mainly Hardcore or Softcore. It should be updated within a few days at most. (I usually do them in batches.)

Official Community Site
Game Guide
DiabloFans - News, Community (Curse Network)
IncGamers - News, Community
/r/Diablo - News, Community
D3RMT - Website by NeoGAF's Svafnir. Has various useful tools + news.
Diablowiki.net - Wiki
Diablowiki.com - Wiki
DiabloProgress - Rankings (Though not yet functional.)
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.

Wall of Shame

To be updated...

[CarbonatedFalcon]

Welcome to OT4!

[LiK]

$$$$

[Hoo-doo]

The RMAH is live? I haven't played the game in a week.

Anyone making bank already?

[earvcunanan]

We made it!

[Kiraly]

Looking to get back to this game after the Euros!

How is the RMAH doing?

[Interficium]

Should have been Real Money Auction House |OT4|

[BlazingDarkness]

Presumably the AH isn't a massive clusterfuck anymore then?

[tjohn86]

I kind of want to go home and sell all of my equipment.

[The_Darkest_Red]

This whole RMAH thing is so insane right now.

[Kunohara]

Anyone else's auction house button greyed out? US servers? I have an authenticator and the sms set up by the way.

[kennah]

The RMAH is live? I haven't played the game in a week. Anyone making bank already?

Supposedly a couple GAFers have already pulled in over $100.

[saelz8]

How many dollars might I get by selling 300K gold?

[Kiraly]

The RMAH doesn't seem to work in Europe yet?

[Houston3000]

I kind of want to go home and sell all of my equipment.

Same

I love the game but if I can sell all my Inferno equipment and make $200... too bad I'm at work right now.

[LordCanti]

It still won't let me sell off my gold stash ;_;

I should have bought items to sell to the suckers currently paying crazy prices.

[Kinitari]

Input limit reached! Seems to be a new error that prevents you from creating a new game every few seconds and farming gobs. :(

[Glix]

Anyone else's auction house button greyed out? US servers? I have an authenticator and the sms set up by the way.

Mine was. I logged out then logged back in and it was fine.

[scy]

I wish there was a way to track all the sales so far so we can see how much money Blizzard made on Day 1 of the RMAH.

[whalenapp81]

How many dollars might I get by selling 300K gold?

Commodities are not up yet.

[TommyT]

DOLLA BILLS YO!

[J0dy77]

"The AH is so hot right now." - Jacobim Mugatu

[inky]

Meh, got late to the stormshield party. I should've put up mine right when it went live.

[Artanisix]

Prices are going to plummet like crazy soon.

[Revoh]

ARrrgh, I wanna add 10$ to my Battle net wallet but I won't let me.

[Lord-Audie]

I hope the RMAH alleviates the bloated prices on the gold AH.

Those prices are insane.

is 1.03 also live?

[Thoraxes]

Time to make some bank.

In all honesty, I just want to be able to buy Starcraft 2 after months of saving.

[scy]

Meh, got late to the stormshield party. I should've put up mine right when it went live.

$250 would've been neat I bet.

[Zuly]

I'm laughing so hard right now.

[jersoc]

anyone else getting input limit reached while trying to resume a game?

[Rufus]

is 1.03 also live?

No.

[darkpaladinmfc]

How many dollars might I get by selling 300K gold?

$3 if you're lucky, likely a lot less.

[Azure Dream]

We made it!

Jesus Christ, I think we've got it! Yeah!

And who are you?

Just a guy.

...*Leaves thread slowly*

[Glix]

It doesn't seem to let you put gold up yet.

[Ashhong]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

[StickSoldier]

Does paypal option work for anyone

[Macattk15]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

Fucking WHAT? 800 dps 2hander???? At level 60???????? That DPS is horrible for level 60.

[KMD]

WOO MONEY! Come on people buy my junk :(

[scy]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

wut.

[djplaeskool]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

If this is true...OH WOW.

[Sophia]

Quite absurd that I have to inconvenience a family member just to send it to paypal, but whatever.

Made a deal with them to let them have part of the profits for helping. >_>;

[saelz8]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

Good god.

[Thoraxes]

Is it down in the Americas?

Button is grey for me.

[Lombax]

Re-posting from OT3

My #2 tip for US RMAH swindlers: People are not watching the GAH right now because they're too busy being mind-boggled by the RMAH. Snipe stuff on the GAH and sell it on the RMAH.

Yes please do as stated earlier I put up a cloak last night selling for 500,000 with a 500,311 buyout. Please buy it.

[Ferrio]

Bah I go home to sell my shit, and can't log into servers.

[Entropia]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

Proof.

[LordCanti]

Does the calendar trick still work for cancelling auctions? I may have been...a little overzealous with my prices :P

[Rufus]

Someone on the old thread said that it doesn't.

Made a deal with them to let them have part of the profits for helping. >_>;

Ah, family.

[JetBlackPanda]

[Dahbomb]

Sold a 800dps 2 hander for 100$. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yea!

Not surprised at all, that's the current going price of a 800-900K 2 hander. A XBow similar to mine is going for $150 and aside from a socket, mine is actually better.