BlizzCon 2019 Diablo 4: Unveiled Panel Transcript

LEGENDARY ITEMS

Luis: Alright, then what good would all these monsters be if they weren’t dropping awesome stuff? So, items are one of the most important elements of Diablo, if not the most important. We’re really leaning into legendaries as opening-up build possibilities. We realize that with D3, we maybe emphasized sets a little bit too much; and we want to make sure that we leave room for legendaries moving forward, so that we have build variety, and that we don’t overstep on that customization. Sets will continue to be there, but they won’t dominate. Even non-legendary affixes will also lean into customization.

We will have affixes that will improve your skill ranks, will have affixes that will improve your passive talent ranks; and we hope that will further differentiate your build from my build; and then also we’re just building in our tools, our pipelines, and our know-how; and we’re bringing even more legendaries on average over to the table.

John: Yeah, we’re making so many legendaries, and these are just a few of them here; and actually, you’re gonna get to see something at the show today, which is pretty cool.

Luis: Super excited. That’s spike one right there is my favorite.

Tiffani: How are you supposed to hold that?

Luis: You bleed.

John: It looks like it would give you a tetanus.

Luis: Alright. So there is much, much more to come. A game of this scope takes time. This is a very, very early first step. We’re not coming out soon. Not even Blizzard soon. We’re just excited to take this first early step in the journey together with you. We have a demo ready for you guys to play back there. We have our first three classes. We’re gonna have five when we ship. We also have three dungeons, lots of events — including the world event that Tiffany described; and a very small sliver of Scosglen — which in of itself is just a small region of the world.

Please, give us feedback. We want to hear what you like, what you didn’t like. Again, this is just the first step in the journey; and then, if you can’t be here, if you’re watching over the internet at home, we have streams both days. We’ve partnered with streamers where you can go experience the demo vicariously; and then we also have a website live with info, and we’re on the hook now with you guys to update that website on a quarterly basis with a weblog to keep you up-to-date as to how we’re going in the development.

John: Alright, that’s super exciting. So we have so many things for you to see at the show. Luis talked a lot about the demo, I’m gonna talk about stuff beyond the demo. It’s crazy. So there is literally a 12-foot-tall Lilith in the front of Hall D.

Tiffani: I can see her.

John: Yeah, I know. I can literally see her from here. It’s absolutely crazy. Built by the incredible Steve Wang and his incredible team. We have a slightly smaller version of Lilith crafted by our very talented sculptors in which you will also see at the show. We have brought artifacts from the world of Diablo on display at the dark gallery.

The dark gallery is kind of a first time of doing something like this. We’ve brought a piece of sanctuary here, filled it with artifacts, some of them are made by our team. We’ve had some other people chip in, and it’s really something pretty extraordinary; and we’re excited for you to see it.

We also have the artist Brom here who created the cover to Diablo II, yeah right; and did many beautiful paintings for Diablo III; and he’ll be here signing prints; and he painted Lilith. So you can watch, that’ll be in the dark gallery. Please, stop by and get a poster signed, nerd out with us about all the things that we’re going to be doing in the future; and share your stories.

Tiffani: I’m gonna add one more plug to the dark gallery. It’s like a really messed up museum. There’s also a cultist sacrifice going on in there. So if you’re really big on taking photos, you can go get sacrifice on an altar. Just a suggestion, if you have some free time. Go in to the dark gallery and check out some art. Maybe a good sacrifice.

John: That guy is terrifying

Tiffani: Yeah.

Luis: Send that picture to your friends and relatives. Freak them out a little bit.

John: Yeah. You came to BlizzCon, and you got sacrificed. That’s true Diablo fans.

Tiffani: Alright. We touched on a lot of things today, really briefly; but you can find out way more in our other panels this weekend for Diablo IV. So starting off tomorrow morning, there will be a live art demonstration from Diablo for artists if you’re interested in seeing how we create character assets for the game. So that’s over in the Darkmoon Faire; and that’s at 10:00 a.m. on the Epic Stage.

If you’re interested in learning more about the systems and features — because we just touched really lightly on them this morning, if you’re interested in learning about the classes, the skills, monsters, and bosses, dungeons, items… check out that Systems and Features panel tomorrow, right here on the stage at 12:15pm.

If you’re interested in learning more about the world that we’re building, and all the characters and where they’re going; and how we even got here — check out the World & Lore panel also on the stage tomorrow afternoon at 3:15pm; and learn more from our World & Lore team.

Last, but not least; all this beautiful art — if you want to take a look at that and listen to a multidisciplinary discussion on our approach for returning to darkness in Diablo, come to the art panel with John and some artists. Awesome, awesome artists at the Legendary Stage tomorrow afternoon at 4:15pm.

So, these three ladder panels will have Q&A, so we would love to hear your questions and answer them. We’re actually– you can actually submit a question physically here over at the demo station. There’s a little box. You can write your question on a card, and drop it into that box; or if you’re watching online you can tweet at us at #D4QA. We’ll be going through those questions, picking the best ones, and answering those in our panels.

Luis: Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions. I know there’s a lot of speculation that like we won’t. We will take them. So give us some hard questions.

Alright. So, like we mentioned at the beginning this is a stacked Blizzcon. We realize you had a choice of demos and presentations. We’re really, really happy that you came to see us and hear what we had to say and show you. Thank you. We three represent a very, very passionate team; and we want you to know that we have our team staffing the demo area and the dark gallery. That you’ll see us wearing the blue shirts. Please, stop by. Talk to them. Let them know what you like, what you didn’t like. Share your Diablo stories. Ask them what their favorite class is. Maybe you let them know what classes you like and don’t like. We’re just super excited to just nerd out with us and finally be able to share what we’ve been working on with you guys. So thank you on behalf of the entire Diablo team. Once again, thank you all; and we’ll see you in Hell.

BLIZZCON 2019 DIABLO IV: UNVEILED PANEL TRANSCRIPT
1. Intro	2. What is Diablo IV?	3. Classes	4. Character Customization
5. The World	6. Dungeons	7. Monsters	8. Legendary Items

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