Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.
Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.
I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)
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For the past 3 weeks, Blizzard Entertainment has been in contact with members of the press, Twitch/Youtube content creators and fansites to confirm shipping address, and to inform a gift was coming soon from the Diablo II: Resurrected team.
In compliance with FTC rules, I inform to you that Blizzard Entertainment is sending me a review copy of Diablo II: Resurrected this week; and shipped the following sponsored gifts — all at a free cost to me.
Among the Diablo II: Resurrected items gifted to me are:
A large framed poster of The Dark Wanderer.
Asobu Hot & Cold Clarity Tumbler for Tea and Coffee
Diablo II: Resurrected imprinted journal notebook
Seems a Diablo II: Resurrected Game Pad will be shipped at a later time
I’m determining whether to give the shipped gifts away — not because I wish to keep them, but because of the shipping costs (lol). Still reeling from the shipping costs of gifts I $hipped to Germany and Brazil a few years ago. Still burnnnnns.
You can purchase Diablo II: Resurrected for PC, Xbox One/Series X/S, PlayStation 4/5, or Nintendo Switch here.
After the break, I will share some of the tweets sent by other content creators/fansites. Blizzard didn’t ship the same items to everyone.
Diablo II: Resurrected principal director Rob Gallerani and project lead Michael Bukowski discussed details about the game with several press and fansite members on Monday, Sept 13 (just 10 days before the launch).
The team wants to focus on perfecting the core game for launch, but hinted at ideas they may add to the game post-launch: class balance, new items, etc.
Ladder-specific content has been unlocked so that single player and non-ladder benefits from it: Runewords, for example.
The team decided not to make changes to the Stamina bar as it would break the game in ways. There is gear with run/walk stats and stamina potions.
In consoles, you can toggle Run/Walk by pressing down the left-stick in your controller. As you might have seen in my early access videos, you can use a controller plugged to your PC and the game’s HUD will automatically switch to console mode when you press any controller button.
Act II presented a problem where the original game showed pillows in the harem as painted over the ground, and D2R has individual 3D pillows. What happens when a sword item is on the ground colliding with 3D pillows? The physics, and how to match a 2D game pretending to be 3D. (VentureBeat)
Auras presented a challenge as it clipped with grass and rocks or treasure chests.
In consoles, teleport works better by the game picking a default spot to teleport to.
D2R is considered a live service. The team will continue to support the game.
Act VI is not on the table, but he said he will never deny it either and it is not off the table either.
Things they are willing to do post-launch if the community reaction to launch is good: new builds, new runewords, new items.
You can play Uber Diablo offline, and you only need one Stone of Jordan offline to summon Uber Diablo. The Team is going to monitor Uber Diablo and the economy of Stone of Jordan ring and take action if they think it is necessary in multiplayer. (Inven.co.kr)
The team is considering new content, but currently focusing on shipping the game and server stability.
New ladder content is not excluded, but nothing to announce at the moment.
Quality-of-Life changes that might be added post-launch: stack gems and potions — but not official. It is merely in discussion internally. There is room for more Quality-of-Life changes in the future.
Lag and latency issues will be monitored, and they will make changes and improvements if the need arises.
Method of storing items in Global Battle.net has been improved, as well as the method of trading to prevent cheating. The team will continuously monitor this and make changes where needed.
Cross-play is being considered, but not official at the moment. The team is open to the possibility of cross-play. It is under internal discussion.
Translation is loose, but there seems to be a system that keeps multiple records between each ladder season that players can feel proud of. This sounds like a sort of achievement system or maybe displaying who were the top players in each season filtered year after year.
Currently, they plan to hold 6-month ladder seasons. But there can be continuous adjustments, so this means they are open for shorter seasons. Not final.
CONSOLES
Players can now invite their friends to their game directly or through a Party Finder to join other players from Sanctuary. we implemented additional options for the Party Finder function. In this way, players can better coordinate and find other people on the same missions.
The improvements provided by Xbox Series X | S cannot be underestimated. Quality of life features such as fast resume in offline play allow players to switch from another game to this one seamlessly, saving the current state of the game at any time. Additionally, players will be able to load the game itself and zones faster.
When former Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha testers launch the app today, they will encounter a new message that wasn’t there before: “This account has expired. Do you want to create another account?”
Answering “OK” will prompt a Battle.net EULA and Agreement page that you can reject or agree to. Once you agree, you are taken to the lobby as usual, but there is a second change.
Up until now, Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha characters were still present in our phone files — those of us who participated in the testing. If you had your Google Play setting to auto-install new Diablo Immortal updates, then when you launch the game, and click on servers you will notice “My Characters” tab no longer exists. This means there was a character wipe pushed in a recent update.
BEFORE
NOW
But there is more to this. There is precedent of this happening before. Read after the break.
Community Manager PezRadar posted an update in the forum to address concerns about Console Lobbies, TCP/IP removal, and Ultrawide Screens. (Thanks, Greg2GG)
During the Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 investors call, president and chief operating officer Daniel Alegre informed that Diablo Immortal release date had been pushed to the first half of 2022. This time range can land anywhere between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022 (which is the lapse of time covering the first half of 2022). You can read the full transcript.
Daniel: “Recent testing reveals some exciting additional opportunities the team is going to pursue to make the title even more engaging for a wider audience. While that means the game is now planned for release in the first-half of 2022, we believe these efforts will set the title up for even greater contribution next year and beyond.”
About 20 minutes before the investors call, Blizzard Entertainment posted a Diablo Immortal developer update explaining further what they plan to do during this extended development cycle.
As the countdown to the release of Diablo II: Resurrected approaches (Sept 23-24), Blizzard Entertainment dropped the first of the class trailers focusing on the Barbarian. More trailers have been added each day except Saturday, Sunday and (Labor Day holiday) Monday.
Blizzard improved the characters’ models for this teaser. It’s unknown if the same is true for the game. Videos after the break.
The Stealth Runeword can be equipped at level 17 and only consists of two runes easily obtainable. The Stealth Runeword provides 25% faster run/walk and 25% faster cast rate — which makes it perfect for Sorceress, and other fast cast reliant classes.
In addition, it adds Regenerate Mana and Maximum Stamina.
A good weapon runeword for Sorceress level 19 who want to prepare for Duriel in Act 2. This runeword adds 33% cold resistance and other good stats.
Requirement:
Level 19 to equip the Sorceress weapon
Short Staff or Superior Short Staff with 2-sockets (these are sometimes sold by Akara in Act 1 or looted from monsters; or a Gnarled Staff from Drognan in Act 2).
Melee classes in Diablo II: Resurrected can benefit early in Act 1 from crafting a Malice Rune Word weapon. All you need is to farm the Countess boss in the Forgotten Tower Level 5. You can find the tower in the Black March (found beyond the Passage Way in Dark Wood).
The countess has a % chance to drop Ith, El and Eth Runes. These are required to craft the Malice Rune Word. Just leave the game after you kill the Countess, and enter a new game to kill the Countess again and again until you loot all three runes from her.
From top-to-bottom: the order in which you must place the runes are Ith, El and Eth.
Once you obtain these, you can socket them into a sword or flail with 3-sockets. Mostly, gray-colored text weapons have these sockets. These drop from monsters, jars or treasure chests.
Paladins benefit more from a flail due to its base attributes, but if you are in a rush, imbue a crystal sword or superior crystal sword with 3-sockets.
Terrific news for old-school Diablo II players. Diablo II: Resurrected is bringing all the ladder-only content to non-ladder players. Season 1 Ladder will be available at some point after launch, not because of what people speculates, but to monitor and improve server performance in the first weeks before introducing ladder, to make sure everyone’s experience is the best.
Here is a quote from Hooley on Diablo II: Resurrected ladder and non-ladder plans.
