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Posted August 22, 2013 by Mac Barredo in Gaming
 
 

Blizzard’s BIG Reveal at GAMESCOM!

Here it is boys and girls. I told you I would be back to update you on something BIG and it is indeed huge! Blizzard just showcased another addition to it’s famed Diablo franchise during this year’s Gamescom held at Cologne, Germany. The following news has MAJOR SPOILERS for those who haven’t been able to play Diablo 3 yet.

Finally after more than a year from the release of Diablo 3, a new expansion has just been announced and previewed. The expansion will be called Reaper of Souls and will continue along from when Diablo was defeated once again and Leah’s soul trapped within the Black Soulstone. At the ending cinematics for Diablo 3, some may notice that a piece of the Black Soulstone drifted towards earth once again (this is of course due to the final battle being held at The High Heavens itself). This shard was seen once again in the opening cinematics of the upcoming expansion. Tyrael (Angel of Wisdom) swore to hide this shard from all evil and brought a handful of new Horadrims with him to secure this piece in a hidden dungeon of sorts. Everything was going so well when Malthael: former Angel of Wisdom turned to Angel of Death decides to crash in on the party and kill every Horadrim in sight (sparing Tyrael for some odd reason) and take the Black Soulstone shard for himself. Malthael, much to Tyrael’s surprise hasn’t been around ever since The Worldstone was destroyed back in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. Little did everyone know that this guy went missing and finally showed up to take Death’s mantle hence the title Reaper of Souls.

Here’s some of the confirmed changes/updates on the upcoming expansion to watch out for:

New Act:

Act V

Confirmed Areas in Act V:
– Westmarch.
– Pandemonium Fortress.

New class: 

Crusader

- A mid-range class with shields, flails, and heavy armour.
– Very paladin-esque.

Class Resource:
– Wrath.

Main Stat:
– Strength.

Known abilities:
– Shield Bash.
– Fist of the Heavens.
– Sweep Attack.
– Blessed Shield.
– Blessed Hammer.
– Shield Flare.
– Falling Sword.
– Law of Valour.
– Slash.
– Judgement.
– Heaven’s Fury.
– Punish.
– Justice.
– Scourge.

Known runes:
– Fist of the Heavens – Tempest of the Heavens.
– Fist of the Heavens – Well of Retribution (Lightning AoE).
– Fist of the Heavens – Lightning Rod.
– Fist of the Heavens – Reverberation.
– Scourge – Bound Fate.
– Scourge – Razor’s Edge.

Known passive abilities:
– Indestructible.
– Finery.
– Wrathful.
– Heavenly Strength.
– Long Arm of the Law.
– Wrecking Ball.
– Holy Cause.
– Stand Your Ground.
– Against All Odds.
– Vigilant.

New Monsters:

Confirmed so far:

Seraph.
Summoner of the Dead.
Executioner.
Death Maiden.

Loot 2.0:

‘Smart Drops’ System:

- Items drop less frequently.
– When they do, they have a real purpose instead of being screen-clutter.
– Rare (yellow) and Legendary (orange) items can roll as a ‘Smart Drop’.
– Smart Drop rolls mean that their stats are adjusted for the class your are currently playing.

Creafting Reagents:
– Common (white) items will now be used as a crafting reagent.

Transmogrify Appearances:
– Magical (blue) items will now be used for transmogrification looks.

Other:
– More meaningful legendary drops.
– Legendaries will be build-changers.
– Legendaries will drop across all difficulty-levels, with appropriate ilvls.
– Many looted items will be exclusively BoA.

New Artisan:

Mystic

- Transmogrification (change item looks).
– Enchanting (re-roll a rare legendary affix).

New Endgame Options:

Currently Confirmed New Modes:

Loot Runs
– This is a new feature with randomized 15-20 minute dungeons to mix up the endgame a bit.

Nephalem Trials

Other notable features:

Design focus:
– More focus on endgame variety.
– Improved loot.
– Character customization.
– A darker game; assets, story, etc. More evil.

Fixes:
– Transitions between external and internal locations are now seamless.

Credits to Cyberbard from the D3 forums for this collated information and to those who contributed to get all of these gathered.

And finally, here’s the trailer and a small gameplay teaser compliments of Diablo’s official YouTube channel:

The bad-ass cinematic sequence as described above:

The brand new gameplay teaser:

No announcement made yet when this will be released and what platforms it would be available on. Most likely this would be launched 2014 on PC and possibly on PS4 and XboxOne later on. We will gather more information as more becomes available in the coming months.


Mac Barredo

 
Hi I'm Mac. The day my father Odin banished me from Asgard, I was bitten by a vampire and had radioactive waste dumped into my eyes. To make matters worse, my mutant ability to control weather activated just as I was hit by a blast of gamma radiation.