Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

Digital Foundry Reviews Diablo III On Switch

I've heard a lot of friends talk about buying Diablo III again on the Switch. I've also heard it's a great port and from Digital Foundry's review, it seems if you want to head back to Tristram with Deckard Cain this is a great way to do it. Plus with the new Diablo Immortal coming to mobile this seems like it might be the best way to play it on the go.

It's Gets Dark In Tristram... Again!

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Last year the developers of Diablo celebrated it's big anniversary by adding a mode to the game where you could play it with pixelated graphics and take on a dungeon that felt eerily like the original game. Seems like Blizzard is bringing the even back starting now and ending on January 31st.

"Your journey begins on the trail of a group of mysterious cultists causing trouble in Sanctuary. As you hunt them down in Adventure Mode, you’ll uncover clues leading to a portal into Tristram’s past, and the terrifying darkness that took hold of the town so many years ago. . . .

Follow the clues and you’ll soon find yourself in a realm of glorious RetroVision, where an... Read All

3 All New Zones Coming To Adventure Mode In Upcoming 2.6.0 Patch!

Not only is the upcoming Diablo III 2.6.0 patch supporting the Necromancer DLC($15) but it's also dropping 3 new zones for free if you have Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. One of the three new zones is The Shrouded Moors and it's featured in the embedded clip above.

"Fetid swamps stretch beyond your vision, obscured by a dense fog that commands malevolent intent. Ancient structures long since abandoned are scattered across the sunken mire, and the absence of human activity might have something to do with an ongoing eerie sense of being watched. Still, despite the sense that something unnatural looms in the distance, the notion that treasure and glory may await tempts even... Read All

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls The Necromancer Arrives 6/27/17

With the release of a new "reel" Blizzard announces the arrival of the Necromancer for next week. You can find more details in the link below. It appears that we still have a week before we can purchase the DLC. I was kind of surprised that it only costs $15. I was expecting maybe double that and I probably would have been happy to pay it. New Challenge Rifts are being added as well.

I've been looking forward to this since it's initial announcement. Since I've played through the campaign twice with each class, once for each gender, I feel some hesitation on starting a new champaign. But, of course there are new cinematics and voices, so I plan to start a new campaign... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 06/21/2017 at 04:07am

Since their full expansion cost $40 at launch, they'd be seriously shooting themselves in the feet if they tried to charge more than $20 for this.

I'm stoked, I'd pay $5 of that just for the stash tabs at this point, but the gameplay looks great!

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/21/2017 at 04:13am

Good thing it's only $15 then! Not sure i'll have time to play it right on the 27th but i'll pick it up sometime around then to play it.

It's a fun class, curious to see all the skills and armor sets at the higher levels.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/21/2017 at 04:01pm

>Good thing it's only $15 then!

Yep! I was responding to Greg saying he expected double on it. Blizzard is pretty good about sweet-spot pricing.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/22/2017 at 03:58am

Yep.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/23/2017 at 05:36am

"First Look: The Shrouded Moors and Beyond" https://youtu.be/MIRWZXi5YvI

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/27/2017 at 10:56pm

What gender Necromancer did you guys create and what did you name him or her? I chose a male and I came up with a funny name, NeckRomancer. LOL I'm playing through the campaign and when I finish I think I'll create a female and go through the campaign with her. I just don't know what to name her.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/28/2017 at 03:26am

> I just don't know what to name her.

"Fun With Corpses"

Travis Admin wrote on 06/28/2017 at 05:35am

I was going to go with NeckRowManSir but it was too long. Considered NeckRomancer too but ended up with Saul based on a biblical story where Saul has a witch necromance someone for him.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/28/2017 at 04:49pm

http://kotaku.com/diablo-iiis-necromancer-is-the-best-spellcaster-yet-1796485987

Travis Admin wrote on 06/28/2017 at 08:45pm

I think I agree with Kotaku. After about an hour with it last night, it's super fun. The corpse explosion chains are magical. Literally and figuratively, I suppose.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/28/2017 at 09:20pm

What level of difficulty are you guys playing on? I think I'm on Torment II or III. As for skills, I prefer to use Syphon Blood or others that heal me. I also prefer to use either the skeletons or Golem. I like the Army of Skeletons, but it takes a long time to recharge, which leaves me alone, which sucks. Reviving corpses is cool, but you have to have corpses first. They also don't last very long. Corpse Explosion is pretty good.

What are your prefer skills?

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/29/2017 at 12:42am

Ah, it just dawned on me! A great female Necromancer name would be Corpse Bride! Hopefully you get the movie reference. :)

Travis Admin wrote on 06/29/2017 at 03:23am

Katie named her's Embeth after Embeth Davidtz, whose character was necromanced in Army of Darkness.

Started on Expert difficulty to ease back into it. I couldn't get into the siphon skills, I'm still using spikes, and throwing out wraiths and skeletons like candy.

And good god, the corpse explosions.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 06/29/2017 at 04:39am

Awesome <3 Katie!!! She should send me a Blizzard.net friend request. :)

I'm not sure what difficulty I started on, but I kept increasing it as I saw fit at the beginning as I usually do. I'm doing Torment III now and I'm surviving at least.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/01/2017 at 01:23am

Behind the Scenes: https://youtu.be/kNnXPgJvcdQ

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/01/2017 at 02:10am

Cool. Added to watch later!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/14/2017 at 05:12am

Paragon level about 220 and I just now (hours ago) finally had an opportunity to go to the Vault. It was my first and only time. Cool stuff.

Also, my local friends told me about Elective Mode, it's under Options. It lets you choose whatever ability you wish to put in whichever slot, even if two abilities are on the same page. So now, I'm using Revive instead of Devour. I've been running around with the Blood Golem, but now I've added skeletons to that, too (both are on the same skill page).

Travis Admin wrote on 07/14/2017 at 01:11pm

Katie and I ran some rifts with a friend of mine who's been playing for like 3 weeks now, but he's gotten help to get boosted, so he's running T13. We basically stayed back while he destroyed everything. The paragon levels, gold, and loot were like candy.

I figure, we've put in our time. We played a ton before loot 2.0 and barely played since running Crusaders through Act V when it launched. And the game is designed for this to work, so it doesn't feel like cheating. But damn this guy playing for three weeks with such a higher paragon level, gold, loot, everything else than we had. The game has changed so much.

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I Played The Diablo III Necromancer Beta And It's Incredible

jdodson gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

jdodson gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

A week ago I was let in to the Diablo III Necromancer Beta and to put it simply the Necromancer is a ton of fun. If you loved Diablo III and Reaper of Souls and want a new reason to jump back into the game to play all the new updates you should check out the upcoming Necromancer update. To be clear, The Necromancer will be a separate DLC that you will need to buy and is launching this summer(no word on the pricing yet).

"As a master of the dark arts, you wield the powers of life and death necessary to restore the Balance! Necromancers are powerful spell casters who lay waste to their enemies using curses and reanimation—along with an obedient cadre of pets. This new... Read All A week ago I was let in to the Diablo III Necromancer Beta and to put it simply the Necromancer is a ton of fun. If you loved Diablo III and Reaper of Souls and want a new reason to jump back into the game to play all the new updates you should check out the upcoming Necromancer update. To be clear, The Necromancer will be a separate DLC that you will need to buy and is launching this summer(no word on the pricing yet).

"As a master of the dark arts, you wield the powers of life and death necessary to restore the Balance! Necromancers are powerful spell casters who lay waste to their enemies using curses and reanimation—along with an obedient cadre of pets. This new class employs a controlled gameplay style using the raw materials of life: blood and bone."

The Necromancer is a class that feels at home in Diablo III. It was my most played class in Diablo II and I was expecting it to be a near clone of the Diablo II class and I was surprised that it plays differently but feels very similar in tone to the original. My current Necromancer character "DeathsDoor" has the dual Scythe as his main attack(it sends out two Scythes that hit all enemies in front of him) and a long ranged bone spear alternate attack that takes up mana. This bone spear is a good powered attack for taking down enemies at a distance and travels through all enemies in it's path. That said the main fun of my current Necromancer build is my massive army of Skeletons, Corpse Explosion, the Flesh Golem and Bone Armor.

When you play as the Necromancer whenever you kill an enemy a corpse drops on the ground. The Necromancer has many abilities to use corpses and one that's my favorite is Corpse Explosion. This allows a crazy chain reaction where you start exploding enemies in a chain to take down a huge mob. The only downside to sinking most of your abilities into corpse attacks is that if you don't have any corpses available you can't do much. Corpse explosion works well for huge mobs but not bosses so having good alt abilities here is useful.

Another cool ability is Bone Armor which is activated when you select it over a group of enemies and it yanks out their bones and you wear them as armor for a time. It's a fun and totally gross ability that fits the Necromancers theme well.

I haven't leveled my Necromancer to max yet but already have had a blast just taking it as far as I have. The Necromancer is a very fun addition to Diablo III and one I am very interested in playing more of when it launches this summer. With that, I still wonder what the future of Diablo III is and I hope they add another campaign to the base game as I really enjoyed the last one in Reaper of Souls. That said, the Necromancer update should be well worth checking out and if you want to jump back in to Diablo III it might be a good time to do it.

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20698502/necromancer-beta-now-live-5-23-2017

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2017 at 04:16am

That sounds cool. I always thought it looked like a cool class to play. I intend to get it when it's out. I don't think I'll take mine through Story Mode, as I've overplayed it. I need to check out Adventure Mode more.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/01/2017 at 04:26am

If you like collecting moar loot, Adventure Mode is the way to go. I miss the campaign so I think i'll take the Necromancer back through that again.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/02/2017 at 01:54am

I'll always take a new class through the story, but I'm definitely glad you don't have to just repeat the story over and over like back in the day. I'm looking forward to trying this!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/02/2017 at 07:02am

Is there any indication when it might become available? I'm not sure how long the beta testing phase lasts for D3.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/02/2017 at 01:43pm

No indication yet, but I would guess very soon barring the unforeseen. The beta tests for less involved updates (by which I mean, not massive expansions or loot 2.0) tend to last under a month. This is the first update we will have gotten that's not super major but also not just balancing and things like that, so it's less clear.

Travis Admin wrote on 06/02/2017 at 01:43pm

They've announced it's coming in patch 2.6 but nothing about when that patch will drop.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/02/2017 at 07:30pm

Thanks, Travis!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/03/2017 at 04:23am

After seeing the new cinematic, I may actually start a Necromancer Campaign, or two. https://youtu.be/3Ajt6rOoFw4

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/05/2017 at 09:03pm

New information dropped today about what will be in the Necromancer DLC pack: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20838873

Travis Admin wrote on 06/06/2017 at 01:53pm

BUT WHEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNN

Seriously excited for this.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/13/2017 at 05:45pm

New legendary set: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20845157

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Prep Your Barbarians Because Diablo III Season 6 Is Live!

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If you are looking for something to play and haven't opened Diablo 3 in a bit you might want to check out the latest Diablo season. You know, in between Hearthstone matches, Fallout 4's new DLC, Stardew Valley, Battleborn, Dark Souls 3 and the upcoming Doom reboot. We all have that kind of time right?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20108628

Diablo III Season 5 Ends & Season 6 Beings on April 29th. What Does That Mean For Our Last Season Progress?

When Diablo III season 5 rolled out I was hooked on it for a week or so. All the changes they had made to the game to that point along with the season bonuses seemed too incredible to pass up. I unlocked a few items and found some legendary recipes and was bummed that might not roll over permanently. As it turns out, a lot of your progress will roll over or transfer to a normal character.

"Those who have played through a few Seasons know there has been no shortage of gold, gear, or Paragon levels to earn. So what happens to all that hard earned progress when a Season ends? In short, you get to keep just about all of it.

Seasonal heroes will be converted to either... Read All

You Might Want To Check Out Season 5 of Diablo III

If you're like me and picked up Diablo III you had fun with the single player and didn't delve too deeply in the content beyond that. I spent some time with a couple Nephalem rifts at Reaper of Souls launch but didn't delve too deeply. That said, Blizzard hasn't been idle since the last expansion launch and recently dropped patch 2.4.0 as well as Season 5 that is well worth checking out.

If you didn't know, seasons last three months and contain a set of objectives that if completed grant you special stuff. To date, I haven't put much thought to completing them as they weren't very interesting but for me, Season 5 and patch 2.4.0 has changed that. To read more about... Read All If you're like me and picked up Diablo III you had fun with the single player and didn't delve too deeply in the content beyond that. I spent some time with a couple Nephalem rifts at Reaper of Souls launch but didn't delve too deeply. That said, Blizzard hasn't been idle since the last expansion launch and recently dropped patch 2.4.0 as well as Season 5 that is well worth checking out.

If you didn't know, seasons last three months and contain a set of objectives that if completed grant you special stuff. To date, I haven't put much thought to completing them as they weren't very interesting but for me, Season 5 and patch 2.4.0 has changed that. To read more about Season 5 check the link below but i'll clip out some of the more epic parts.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/19993877/first-look-season-5-12-22-2015

* There are no more Season exclusive legendaries. All new Legendaries included in Patch 2.4.0 will be made immediately available to be found by players regardless of Season participation.
* We’ve introduced Haedrig’s Gift, a special bundle of Set items you’ll receive on completion of certain stages of the Season Journey. Starting in Chapter 3, three of the objectives in the Season Journey will reward you one of these bags, each containing two pieces of one of your class sets.
* Be careful, though; each step of the Season Journey will only reward one Haedrig’s Gift (for a total of three bags per Season/one full set of gear), regardless of how many characters you might play in a given Season. Make sure to claim these gifts on the character you want to receive their set!
* Last, but certainly not least, is the addition of a totally new Season-exclusive feature called the Season Rebirth. This allows you to take any non-Seasonal character you have and instantly transform them into a Seasonal character, ready to jump straight into the action on day one.

The special armor set Haedrig's Gift is pretty epic depending on the class you open it with. I've seen some incredible stuff including the video linked above of a Barb tanking an 82 greater rift.

Also, the changes made to Nephalem Rifts, leveling, item drops and power since base Reaper of Souls has been really interesting and has made the game feel much more streamlined and whichever character I pick feels very satisfying to play with. If you have Diablo 3 on PC and have had an inkling to get back, head in for a season and work on the chapter progression. So far, it's been a hell of a time.

Travis Admin wrote on 01/22/2016 at 04:51am

I was wondering if you could get Haedrig's Gift on multiple characters. Good to know. I'll probably do Monk for the first round.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/22/2016 at 05:09am

So, it's not exactly a glorified version of Campaign Mode? I've played a hell of a lot of that in the last year and feel like I'm done with Campaign mode for a long time.

I thought it was cool that you mentioned in the latest roundtable that you jumped in with a Witch Doctor. I was thinking of checking out the new-to-me stuff and the Witch Doctor was probably the first that came to mind. I enjoyed that class, perhaps mostly because of the summons.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/22/2016 at 05:27am

Also, is a Season played alone or with others?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/22/2016 at 07:01am

Greg: Seasons can be played with anyone to my understanding. For instance, each time I play I open my game to others and get people joining in with me, it's nice because you get bonuses for playing with more people.

Frankly it feels like they took some nods from Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm in that Seasons are like quests. It gives you something to work against other than simply leveling your character to make them beefy. I like having things to accomplish and the end goal of collecting cool stuff that holds over is a really nice reward. Currently more than half-way through the 3rd set of objectives.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/22/2016 at 07:02am

Travis: I plan on getting the gear bags but I am unsure which character I will open it for. The Wizard bonuses look incredible.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/22/2016 at 09:25am

Awesome sauce! Well, I'm not sure how I feel about playing with strangers, but with friends, that would be sweet! How many others do you normally play with? You said you're playing with a Witch Doctor, how many other Witch Doctors do you play with? Would it be too weird to play with another (me)?

So, it kind of works like Adventure Mode's bounties and Nephalem Rifts? Campaign Mode had objectives, but it was basically story driven and since I've been through the story very many times already, I'm not interested in repeating it any time soon. If or when a new expansion comes, I hope that I could bypass the current bits of Campaign Mode that we have.

How many objectives are there? Do you finish all of them with one character and come back with another for more?

Sorry to bombard you with questions about it, but you have more experience with Seasons than anyone else I know and I haven't done any "research" into them. I just know they go for a few months, take a break, release a patch, and come back again. I also know you can get various items, but aside from that and what you've posted here, I know nothing else.

I do enjoy playing games with you guys. I enjoyed that one time you joined me while I was playing. I look forward to playing more games with you all.

Oh and I like that they've made it so pets are actually useful instead of just cosmetic. I have an astral dog, so it'd be cool to get in and see what it can do for me. Also, being able to get more storage space is always helpful. I got all that I could before the latest patch and had so much extra stuff, I ended up storing them on other characters.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/22/2016 at 03:45pm

Seasons are a game mode that uses a different set of characters. You can now import a character to be seasonal but it is stripped of items. In seasons you can compelte objectives in single player or adventure mode. I recommend adventure mode and using bounties and rifts to complete goals. A Season objective would be something like "level up the blacksmith to 10" or "collect 10,000" gold.

http://www.diablowiki.net/Seasons

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Diablo III Patch 2.4.0 Drops Next Week Adds New Zone, Armor Sets, Dungeons and More!

"Miles off the coast of Westmarch lies an island that many believe to be little more than legend. Cut off from the rest of Sanctuary’s developed civilizations, Greyhollow was once the center of a grand empire. Often times, such isolated societies grow and advance at incredible rates, and Greyhollow was no different. Its citizens devoted their cause to a mysterious and, as is often the case in Sanctuary, completely evil being. For reasons still unknown to this day, this unimaginably advanced society collapsed, leaving ruin, chaos, and a lingering curse behind."

Diablo III is still getting some major attention from Blizzard and the upcoming 2.4.0 patch contains a bunch... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 01/11/2016 at 10:54pm

Whoa, they're adding new locations without charging for an expansion, that's great post-launch support. I wonder if it's a teaser for the next expansion.

I guess we can expect one new class and act, since that's what RoS added.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/11/2016 at 10:57pm

True, that said they are not rolling in loot 2.0 or adventure mode, which was a huge revamp of the original progression system and a ton more content plus changes to the online requirement(you are still required to be online but the PC client caches a ton more). So my thought it they will have time for more content? I could be wrong, but it's a nice thought.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/13/2016 at 01:11am

Are you guys speculating on a new expansion or is that really expected? I think I'd definitely buy one, assuming it adds to the single player game. As I've stated before, I really do enjoy Diablo III (including RoS), much more than I expected. I'm not sure if this new patch will get me to jump back in. Eventually I'll probably check it out. There are numerous additions I still have not yet experienced, since I've pretty much only focused on Campaign Mode. I did play around a bit with Adventure Mode, though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/13/2016 at 01:23am

We are talking about an expansion that they haven't discussed.

I'd recommend heading back to d3 at some point to nab the kanai cube. It's like the horadric cube from d2.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/13/2016 at 01:40am

Are there sources hinting at an expansion, or are you guys doing some wishful thinking?

Yeah, I know about both, but only by name. I've only very briefly played D2. I remember reading about the Kanai Cube, but I don't remember what I read about it. LOL

Travis Admin wrote on 01/13/2016 at 03:44am

They said early on they were planning on two expansions.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/13/2016 at 04:34am

Frankly if they want to keep launching D3 expansions i'll keep buying them as long as they look good.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/13/2016 at 06:06am

@Travis Awesome, I wasn't aware of that.

@Jon I agree!

I found another video going over what's new. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8exDyPoV3fg

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/14/2016 at 06:20am

Here is a nice post on Kotaku about all the new stuff you might want to check out:

http://kotaku.com/eight-cool-things-in-diablo-iiis-new-patch-1752672498

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 01/14/2016 at 06:26am

Wow cosmetic pets pick up gold and Keywardens are shown with an arrow if they're around. That's cool, stuff! Jumping back into the game and playing with the new patch sounds like a cool idea, but now that I have a character of every class and both genders, I'm not sure which one to choose. LOL

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 01/14/2016 at 05:52pm

I started my first Denon Huntress a couple nights ago and I am having a blast playing the game. I also loaded my old SnuggyBunny Witch Doctor and found they've really changed up the skill system significantly since d3 launch. He plays like a totally different character now.

With that, the Demon Huntress is great and I am just going through the story again. It's been a really fun time. I might switch back to an existing character to try Greyhallow at some point though OR just wait till I get there with my DH.

Travis Admin wrote on 01/15/2016 at 05:37pm

I've never heard anyone call the female Demon Hunter a "Huntress" before :D

Greyhallow is a big area but it's not huge. You can get through it all pretty quick.

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Diablo 3 Patch 2.3.0 Out Now Featuring Ruins of Sescheron, Kanai's Cube, New Seasons & Difficulty Levels

Blizzard isn't stopping the Diablo 3 update train post Reaper of Souls for a very interesting patch 2.3.0. I'll clip out the more interesting bits we've been talking about in the run up to the patch drop.

"The Ruins of Sescheron
The frozen wasteland that is the Ruins of Sescheron are now open for exploration! Filled with new enemies, traps, and environmental hazards, you'll be able to explore the region and learn more about what befell the barbarians of Mount Arreat. Explore the Immortal Throne and obtain the ultimate treasure: Kanai's Cube.

New Feature: Kanai's Cube
Kanai's Cube is a new artisan that offers a slew of new recipes to fully customize your items and... Read All