General

• All characters have been wiped. As part of this process, artisans, gold, and items (including those placed on the auction house or in a shared stash) have also been reset.
• Switching out class skills will now require the use of a new feature known as the Nephalem Altar. Nephalem Altars are currently located in New Tristram, as well as in key locations throughout Act I. Clicking on an altar will open up the skill UI, allowing both active and passive skills to be selected or exchanged.
• The Cauldron of Jordan is no longer available in beta content. It will be rewarded to players at a higher level in the game.

Quests

• Gold rewarded from quests has been significantly reduced
• Experience rewarded from quests after level 4 is now based on the number of mobs you’d have to kill to earn the same amount of experience, rather than being a strict percentage of a level

Skills

• New passive skills have been added for all classes. See individual class notes below for more information.
• AoE (Area of Effect) skills for all classes have had their damage reduced
• Single-target skills for all classes have had their damage increased
• All skills are now based off weapon damage

User Interface

• The in-game UI has been updated with general art and usability improvements

Classes
Barbarian

• Active SkillsThe Barbarian’s Fury Generators have received a tuning pass.  Bash, Cleave, and Frenzy now generate more Fury whereas the other Fury Generators now generate less.
• Additional changes include:Battle RageDamage bonus reduced from 30% to 20%
• RevengeThe chance for this ability to activate has been increased from 10% to 15%
• Weapon ThrowFury cost reduced from 20 to 10
• Damage decreased from 210% to 180%
• Passive SkillsNew passive skills have been added:Nerves of SteelUnlocked at level 12
• Your defense is increased by 25% of your Vitality

Demon Hunter

• GeneralMaximum Hatred reduced from 150 to 125Active SkillsThe order in which skills are awarded has been adjusted for levels 1 to 13.
• Resource management for the Demon Hunter has been reworked significantly. Skills for the class now fall into the three categories: Hatred Generators, Hatred Spenders, and Discipline SpendersHatred GeneratorsBola Shot: Generates 2 Hatred
• Entangling Shot:  Generates 4 Hatred
• Evasive Fire: Generates 4 Hatred*
• Grenades: Generates 2 Hatred
• Impale: Generates 6 Hatred
• Hatred SpendersChakram: Costs 10 Hatred
• Elemental Arrow: Costs 5 Hatred
• Hungering Arrow: Costs 10 Hatred
• Rapid Fire: Costs 30 Hatred (initially) and 1.5 Hatred per second for each additional shot
• Discipline SpendersCaltrops: Costs 8 Discipline
• Shadow Power: Costs 20 Discipline
• Vault: Costs 10 Discipline
• *Evasive Fire: Costs 4 Discipline to Backflip
• Additional changes include:Bola ShotOn-hit damage increased from 100% to 105%
• ChakramDamage reduced from 150% to 135%
• GrenadesDamage increased from 75% to 80%
• Hungering ArrowDamage increased from 115% to 145%
• Pierce chance is once again a fixed 35% rather than scaling with level
• ImpaleImpale has been given a new spell effect. It is now a thrown dagger instead of a bow shot.
• Rapid FireDamage increased from 35% weapon damage per shot to 38% weapon damage per shot
• Shadow PowerAttack speed bonus reduced from 50% to 30%
• Passive SkillsNew passive skills have been added:Tactical AdvantageUnlocked at level 10
• Whenever you use Vault, Smokescreen, or backflip with Evasive Fire you gain 60% movement speed for 2 seconds

Monk

• Active Skills
• Mantras
• All Mantras now have a 15 second cooldown and grant a bonus effect for the first 3 seconds after activation
• Additional changes include:Blinding FlashSpirit cost reduced from 50 to 30
• Duration reduced from 5 second to 3 seconds
• Breath of HeavenSpirit cost reduced from 75 to 25
• Healing amount reduced
• Crippling WaveDamage increased from 120% to 135%
• Deadly ReachDamage increased from 110% to 120%
• Fists of ThunderDamage increased from 100% to 120%
• Lashing Tail KickSpirit cost increased from 25 to 30
• Damage increased from 130% to 180%
• Passive SkillsTranscendenceHealing per Spirit reduced

Witch Doctor

• Active Skills
• All Witch Doctor skills now do damage based on your weapon damage and cast at a speed based on your weapon attack speed.
• Passive skillsNew passive skills have been added:Circle of LifeUnlocked at level 12
• Whenever an enemy dies within 12 yards there is a 5% chance that a Zombie dog will automatically emerge
• Jungle FortitudeUnlocked at level 10
• Reduces all damage taken by you and your pets by 20%

Wizard

• Active Skills
• The order in which skills are awarded from levels 6 to 13 has been adjusted. Players will now unlock offensive and defensive spells in an alternating order.
• All Wizard skills now do damage based on your weapon damage and cast at a speed based on your weapon attack speed.
• Passive Skills
• New passive skills have been added:Critical MassUnlocked at level 12
• Your critical hits reduce the cooldown of your spells by 1 second

Followers

• TemplarSkills
• Guardian
• Ability now unlocks at level 20, instead of level 5
• Heal
• Healing provided by this ability will now scale properly
• When activated, ability will heal you for ¼ of your total health every 15 seconds
• Will only heal when player is below 50% health, down from 67%
• IntimidateSlow amount reduced from 80% to 50%
• InterveneIntervene is the new name for Taunt, and now unlocks at level 5
• Radius of monsters to be taunted reduced from 30 to 10 yards
• Duration reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds
• Will now only cast when player is below 50%
• Cooldown increased from 15 seconds to 30 seconds
• LoyaltyLife regenerated by this ability will now scale properly

Items

• General
• Players now start with 5 health potions
• Health globes now heal you over 1.5 seconds rather than over 5 seconds
• The number of chests, shrines, and other interactable items (e.g. bookcases and loose stones) has been greatly reduced across the entire game
• Items sold from vendors will now be at least one item level lower than those that are currently available to a player via drops from monsters
• The level of an item is now much more likely to match or be close to the level of the monster from which it dropped, and the affixes that appear are much more likely to be from the upper range
• Weapons
• Several significant changes have been made to weapons and weapon damage affixes:The damage bonus granted to two-handed weapons over one-handed weapons has been reduced from 15%-38% from level 1-60 to 13%-32%
• Wands attack speed has been increased from 1.2 to 1.4
• Quivers, Orbs,  and Mojos will now always come with +Min/Max damage
• Ceremonial Daggers will now frequently come with +Mana Regen
• Wands will now frequently come with the +Max Arcane Power
• The amount of inherent slow granted by cold weapons has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1 second
• One-handed crossbows and daggers now pull from a separate pool of affixes for + damage
• The damage variance between weapons of the same type has been reduced.
• Bug Fixes
• Fixed an issue that was causing two-handed Monk combat staves to not receive the proper damage bonus

Monsters

• General
• A new Mortar affix has been added to the game. Mortar monsters will lob grenades at enemies outside melee range.
• Lightning bolt damage from Electrified-enchanted monsters has been reduced by 40%
• Monsters that are enchanted to an element (Molten, Electrified, etc.) now correctly have 50% resistance to their chosen elementEx: Molten monsters will have 50% damage resistance to Fire at equal level
• Wretched Mothers in Act I can now only summon one zombie at a time
• Treasure Goblins are now immune to fear
• Bosses
• Skeleton King
• Whirlwind damage increased from 100% to 300%
• Cleave damage increased from 80% to 100%

Crafting

• Artisans
• Blacksmith
• Blacksmiths now start with a Fist weapon and a Dagger weapon option to craft
• Blacksmith leveling and crafting recipes have received a tuning pass
• Items
• Pages of Training will now drop starting at level 6, down from level 8
• The chance for Magic and Rare items to salvage into higher quality crafting material has been increased from 1% to 5%
• Salvaging blue items now has a 1% chance to salvage into Legendary crafting material

You also get a couple of privileges alongside this one mainly:

• Diablo III FREE – Download the digital version via Battle.net for free when the game launches early next year. This is the full game, not a trial edition.
• Tyrael’s Charger WoW Flying Mount – Ride for the Archangel of Justice on all current and future characters on a single World of Warcraft account. Tyrael’s Charger will arrive via in-game mail with the upcoming launch of patch 4.3.
• Access to the Next WoW Expansion Beta Test – Get a guaranteed spot in the beta test for the next World of Warcraft expansion (at a time to be announced in the future).

The Diablo III: Collector’s Edition will be available exclusively at retail on DVD-ROM for Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7 and Macintosh.  The release date, suggested retail price, and other details for this game will be announced in the months ahead.

With this Collector’s Ed, you basically get the following:

Diablo III PC/Mac Game
The full version of the Diablo III game on DVD-ROM.

Diablo Skull and 4GB USB Soulstone
Shackle your PC into unholy slavery with this 4GB USB soulstone and Diablo skull base. The USB also includes full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction so you can retrace the sinister path of the Dark Wanderer once more.

Exclusive In-Game Content
Diablo III – Aesthetic Artifacts
Call forth glowing angel wings, unfurl an exclusive banner, and dye your armor sets with the Bottled Cloud or Bottled Smoke items.

World of Warcraft – Fetish Shaman Pet
Journey throughout the World of Warcraft with the fetish shaman at your side.

StarCraft II – Battle.net Portraits
Display your status as a hero of the mortal realms with an exclusive army decal and three Diablo-themed Battle.net portraits.

Behind the Scenes Blu-Ray/DVD Set
Meet the teams behind the creation of Diablo III with this exclusive Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set. Enjoy over an hour of interviews detailing how the world of Sanctuary came together from the combined efforts of artists, writers, programmers, designers, musicians and animators.

The Art of Diablo III
Delve into the game’s stunning artistic development with this 208-page art book, which catalogues countless pieces, from early concepts to final 3D renderings.

Diablo III Soundtrack
Experience twenty four original pieces from the Diablo III soundtrack on CD and deepen your music collection with a sound as timeless as the Eternal Conflict itself.

We’re pleased to announce that in most regions, PayPal will be our payment-service partner for the Diablo III auction house, allowing players who trade with real-world currency the ability to cash out the spoils of their battle-torn adventures via a PayPal account.

PayPal will also soon be added in several regions as a payment option on Battle.net, providing another convenient and secure payment method for digital purchases of Blizzard products and services.

We’ll share region-related specifics, as well as further details on everything mentioned above, in the near future. Stay tuned!

To help clear up some concerns regarding the recently-announced Diablo III Beta Key Sweepstakes, we’ve put together a quick FAQ featuring the most common questions that we’ve seen from the community.

Q. Why did you replace the opt-in with a sweepstakes on Facebook?
A. The Diablo III Beta Key opt-in has not been replaced. The sweepstakes is simply an additional way for us to randomly give out keys to our Facebook followers. We’ll still be sending out beta invites to players who have opted-in, as normal.

Q. Why Facebook?
A. When we release important news and announcements about Diablo III, Facebook is among the ways we get the message out. Since a significant portion of our players have Facebook accounts, we’d like to encourage them to follow us so that they can stay up-to-date on the latest Diablo news and events.

If you already follow us on Facebook, but seem to miss our posts, be sure to mark any updates from us that you like as a “Top Story.” This will increase the chance that Diablo-related posts will appear in your Facebook feed. Every news item and story that goes out on our site we also send out on Facebook, so it’s a great way to keep up on Diablo goings-on.

Q. Why is my country unable to participate in the sweepstakes?
A. Unfortunately, some countries have laws or restrictions which prevent us from making contests available to their residents. The beta opt-in is still running, however, and does not have the same rules and limitations. If you’re unable to participate in the Facebook sweepstakes we encourage you to sign up for the opt-in through Battle.net Account Management: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/3435025

Q. Do I need a Facebook account to enter this promotion?
A. No. While entering with a Facebook account will provide you with some additional benefits, such as sharing if you’ve won with your friends, you don’t need an account to participate. If you’d like to enter, but don’t have a Facebook account (and don’t want one), you can click on the “Alternate Method of Entry” link at the bottom of the official rules page: https://apps.facebook.com/diabloiiibetasweeps/contests/159910/rules

Q. The contest states that Facebook will not be given my personal information. What do you guys need it for?
A. If you’re selected as a random winner, we’ll need your name and email address to ensure that you receive your beta key. We will not use this information for any other purpose.

As for Facebook application itself, while it will request access to your Friends List, it will not generate any unwanted notifications, messages, or wall posts. The request will simply allow the application to show you your friends list in case you want to let them know about the sweepstakes.

For additional information, please feel free to check out our privacy policy: http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/privacy.html

Q. When exactly will the weekly drawings be held?
A. Drawings will be held every Monday, starting October 17th. We’ll gather up all of the entries submitted before 11:59 p.m. each Monday and then randomly select 200 qualified winners from that pool to receive a beta key. Out of those 200 winners, 50 of them will receive two keys, sent to the email provided in the entry form. Winners will be removed from the entry pool and the process will repeat again the following Monday for 8 weeks.

Please note that if you are randomly selected as a winner, it may take a few days before you are notified and receive your beta key via email. In the meantime, we ask that players please refrain from posting on Facebook or the official forums about whether or not they’ve been selected.

Lylirra

And it’s no paradox, either. Blizzard has the resources to spend the best part of a decade working – and reworking – every last detail of a complex formula, yet it also has the design experience to ensure that such an enormity of interlocking systems and variable mechanics all end up channelled directly into a game that unfolds with…

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