Diablo IV Developer Update - January 2024 | Diablo III Dev Tracker

Transcript (by Youtube)

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1231s	ah welcome
1233s	wonderer I sense that recent events have
1236s	brought you to
1238s	me these are strange times
1241s	indeed so many fear the
1244s	inexplicable I deal in it and you you
1250s	seek
1253s	answers this will lead you to the
1256s	knowledge you
1257s	desire Legends State this Rune is the
1261s	missing piece of an Arcane
1265s	construct a mighty weapon capable of
1268s	harnessing ancient power for the one
1271s	strong enough to control it but be warn
1276s	for the construct is buried deep beneath
1279s	kistan in the ancient vaults of zultan
1283s	Co untouched for centuries they are
1287s	protected by deadly traps of K's own
1292s	design and guarded by his mechanical
1299s	Horrors but the architect zlan K
1304s	overestimated his
1307s	cleverness in his hubris the Mage
1310s	abandoned his work leaving darker forces
1313s	free to corrupt his minations and claim
1317s	the vault's power for
1322s	themselves the answers await you in the
1326s	depths take the
1328s	run if you
1347s	dare
1349s	season of the construct has so much
1350s	going on new quest lines new legendary
1353s	items new unique items new mechanics
1356s	challenges and
1360s	more in the season of the construct you
1362s	learn of a wondrous Place beneath the SS
1364s	of kistan filled with Untold treasure
1367s	nearly all who seek this treasure never
1369s	return those that do return are haunted
1372s	or worse yet possessed you seek out this
1374s	place to put an end to whatever is
1376s	lurking there following a lead you
1378s	discover a sprawling network of
1379s	underground vaults it houses the loom a
1382s	Priceless apparatus built Long Ago by
1385s	the brilliant Mages zon cool in aan of
1387s	Calum to shape the elements and build
1390s	tools to serve Humanity while exploring
1392s	the network you rescue aan only to
1395s	discover that the demon malfus has taken
1397s	over the loom to create its own private
1400s	hell malfus is a servant of Diablo he's
1403s	unlike other demons we've enountered
1404s	Diablo 4 he's shapeless manipulates
1407s	others takes on forms other than his own
1410s	he has possessed one of zolan Cool's
1412s	prized constructs and you must work with
1415s	aan to explore the vaults gain access to
1417s	the loom and defeat malfus this season
1420s	introduces constructs these elementally
1423s	powered monsters were originally created
1425s	by aan insultan to protect and maintain
1427s	the loom unfortunately malf has taken
1430s	control of them and twisted them to his
1431s	liking they're powered by various
1433s	different elements giving them different
1435s	abilities and strengths and weaknesses
1437s	you also find them of course in the
1439s	vaults themselves protecting the many
1442s	Treasures within as players engage with
1444s	the storyline of the season of the
1445s	construct they're going to come across a
1446s	broken version of the ca during the
1448s	quest line the cesa is a special
1451s	construct that was built to command the
1452s	other constructs based on Ian's in zon's
1455s	direction aan of Calum repairs the ca to
1458s	follow your
1462s	orders the Cal construct is your
1465s	companion it's a rebuilt construct that
1467s	will accompany you throughout the season
1469s	your construct's power will grow along
1471s	with you the senal construct has many
1473s	different abilities that can complement
1475s	the players build it can deal damage
1478s	Crow control monsters or even support
1480s	you directly by healing you or providing
1482s	you a damage bonus magical stones are
1485s	the key to customizing and empowering
1487s	your construct they are primarily found
1489s	in vaults you get governing stones from
1491s	the season quest line and you get tuning
1493s	stones from playing through the seasonal
1495s	content a governing stone is a core
1497s	construct ability while a tuning stone
1499s	is a singular modification for any
1501s	number of governing Stones as players
1504s	are progressing through the season of
1505s	the construct and they're leveling up
1506s	their Center Shaw adding new abilities
1508s	and improving them they're going to find
1510s	abilities are going to deal damage to
1511s	packs of monsters to single monsters and
1513s	also abilities that are just focused on
1515s	buffing the power of the player
1517s	themselves so that players have
1519s	different options as they're progressing
1520s	through the season one cool ability is
1523s	auto defense Auto defense summons a
1525s	magical barrier around your construct
1527s	that shoots down enemy projectiles
1529s	another cool ability that your construct
1531s	has is focus fire it is a channeled Ray
1533s	of fire that can chain to multiple
1536s	enemies use combinations of tuning
1538s	stones to transform a seemingly simple
1540s	skill into something truly
1545s	crazy vaults are seasonal dungeons that
1548s	are filled with a high concentration of
1550s	deadly traps where you can farm for the
1552s	magic stones for your sential constructs
1555s	you can find the entrances in different
1556s	zones of sanctuary when the player
1558s	enters a vault they are met in a
1560s	familiar area of sanctuary then the
1563s	player teleports to the Vault proper
1565s	encountering great challenges vaults not
1567s	only have our new construct family in
1569s	them but also new traps built for this
1572s	season players are going to discover
1574s	many new hazards inside these Vault
1575s	spaces you know whether it is spinning
1577s	pillars shooting out Flames or other
1579s	traps players need to stay on their toes
1582s	while they're progressing through these
1583s	vaults in order to stay alive each vault
1585s	culminates in a gauntlet of true skill
1588s	players must avoid traps while fighting
1590s	waves of enemies and a powerful Elite if
1592s	you survive that the traps will turn off
1595s	and the treasure room is revealed if you
1597s	get hit by a trap you lose one stack of
1599s	Zan's warding zoltan's warding is a
1601s	special buff players can get by
1603s	interacting with a statue of zolan cool
1605s	when they enter a vault if they have a
1607s	pearl of warding Ward woven chests are
1611s	special chests players can interact with
1613s	at the end of a vault if they have
1614s	enough stacks of zultan warning left
1616s	over if a player has more than one stack
1619s	they can open a rare Ward woven chest
1622s	those have even better rewards this
1624s	season introduces our first stationary
1626s	boss in Diablo 4 this is going to be a
1628s	fight against this massive protective
1630s	Golem meant to watch over the vaults the
1633s	malus once again has managed to corrupt
1635s	and control because it's stationary it
1638s	gives us the opportunity to include some
1639s	of the season's new traps into the arena
1642s	this presents a lot of unique and new
1643s	Mechanics for the players to navigate
1645s	and fight the player is going to need to
1647s	bring all of their skills and abilities
1649s	to bear as they try to destroy and fight
1651s	off these malfus controlled constructs
1654s	they're also going to make good use of
1655s	their own CAW make sure they remain
1657s	upgraded in the fights to
1661s	come The Gauntlet is a new thick seed
1664s	nonlinear dungeon for players have a fix
1667s	amount of time to achieve high scores by
1669s	proving their might any player who
1670s	unlocks World tier 4 torment mode can
1673s	compete in The Gauntlet The Gauntlet
1675s	starts several weeks into the season of
1677s	the construct at the beginning of each
1679s	week a new Gauntlet replaces the current
1681s	one unlike other dungeons every time you
1683s	and other players enter The Gauntlet
1685s	that week it will be exactly the same
1687s	same monster positions same affixes
1690s	everything this makes it a Fair
1692s	competition additionally monsters within
1694s	the gauntlet start at level 100 this is
1697s	meant to test your fully leveled up and
1699s	geared out build it's highly replayable
1701s	enabling a broad set of player choices
1703s	players can try different classes and
1705s	strategies for achieving high scores
1707s	leaderboards are a place for top players
1709s	to compete with one another in The
1710s	Gauntlet these were set each week when a
1712s	new Gauntlet appears there are Solo
1714s	leaderboards for each class as well as
1716s	party leaderboards that vary with party
1718s	size and of course there are a set of
1721s	leaderboards just for hardcore players
1722s	too but some players may not be ready
1724s	for that type of play so we've created
1726s	goals for them as well each leaderboard
1728s	has a ladder that you climb to reach it
1731s	each rung of the ladder Awards a seal
1732s	that you can show off and when you earn
1734s	the Seal of the worthy you'll be ready
1736s	for leaderboard competition
1738s	can't wait to see you in
1751s	[Music]
1755s	sanctuary hello Diablo Community uh
1758s	welcome to another Diablo 4 developer
1761s	update live stream uh my name is Adam
1763s	Fletcher I am the community lead for the
1765s	Diablo franchise and of course I'm
1767s	joining by some special guests here
1769s	today uh I'm joined by Dan and mine you
1771s	guys want to introduce yourselves sure
1773s	thing I'm Dan tangue I am the lead
1776s	designer for season 3 season of the
1779s	construct cool and I'm mateline James
1781s	and I'm one of our Quest designers on
1782s	Diablo 4 and what you guys probably
1784s	don't realize is or maybe you do if you
1787s	watch these streams uh often you'll
1789s	you'll most definitely realize we're in
1791s	a completely different set today uh
1793s	we're actually live from Albany New York
1795s	at blizzard Albany and we're doing the
1797s	stream up here here uh and so now we
1799s	have two different sets we have one in
1800s	Irvine and one in Albany and we actually
1802s	have another guest that will be joining
1804s	us today and it's a very familiar face
1806s	to all our our live streams that's Mr
1807s	Adam Jackson he's live from the Irvine
1811s	Studio hi Adam good to see you and we'll
1813s	be talking to you soon because we're
1815s	going to be talking about uh uh balance
1817s	and classes and everything so we'll be
1820s	joining uh Adam here shortly but we have
1823s	a lot to talk about um you know a lot
1825s	with season 3 we announced it earlier
1827s	this week uh with season of the
1829s	construct we've seen a lot of cool
1830s	feedback and great feedback from uh
1832s	players uh related to the trailer and
1834s	everything that that released out uh
1836s	earlier this week um but we did want to
1838s	talk a little bit before we jump into
1840s	season 3 and and those items we do want
1842s	to talk a little bit about you know the
1845s	new year and obviously going through the
1847s	holiday and season two where we had a
1849s	season of blood uh where players got to
1852s	jump in of course fight Lord zir jump
1854s	into different blood harvests and
1855s	everything and what was awesome to see
1857s	uh with season of the blood was you know
1859s	or season blood is that we ended up
1861s	getting really great feedback from
1862s	players about how they enjoyed you know
1865s	um some of the aspects with it and you
1866s	know just hearing that feedback has
1868s	helped us a whole lot in terms of how
1871s	we're going to build out Diablo 4
1872s	especially in future seasons and one big
1874s	thing that you know we introduced was
1876s	the boss ladder uh with you know of
1878s	course Uber duriel being part of it uh
1881s	and it was a a good opportunity for
1882s	players to kind of uh Target Farm Uber
1885s	uniques which was really great uh and we
1887s	got to see a lot of players actually
1889s	obtain Uber Unix this season uh and I
1891s	will say like you know we plan on having
1893s	the boss ladder again for season 3 uh
1896s	with some some tweaks which we'll talk
1898s	about here uh shortly uh with um the
1900s	stuff that we're going to be talking
1901s	about with quality of life changes and
1903s	everything and of course we had Avatar
1905s	of zir this was a new endgame uh feature
1908s	that we ended up uh announcing at
1910s	BlizzCon and we introduced right before
1912s	the holidays for players to check out
1914s	and you know I I do want to give a huge
1917s	shout out to the community because we
1918s	got a lot of feedback about Avatar's
1920s	year and uh this feedback is really
1923s	important because we are planning on
1925s	additional endgame activities in the
1926s	future I will say that Avatar is year
1928s	will not be present in season 3 um but
1931s	based off the feedback we ended up
1933s	hearing from players um we'll have more
1935s	news to to share in the future about you
1938s	know maybe next iterations or or growth
1941s	from what we've learned with that
1942s	endgame future with Avatar Zer so thanks
1944s	again to the community for all the great
1946s	feedback with that uh and then we have
1948s	midwinter blade which was our first
1950s	event our first holiday event uh in
1952s	Diablo I uh where players got to
1954s	actually collect really really cool um
1957s	Cosmetics if you wanted to carry some
1958s	bells and race around on your back or on
1961s	your weapons and everything like that
1962s	you had the opportunity for that another
1964s	good opportunity for our players to
1966s	actually provide feedback because this
1967s	was our first like holiday event and so
1970s	we're actually going to have future
1971s	holiday events uh you guys will hear
1972s	about one pretty soon uh in the future
1975s	uh and you know based off of a lot of
1977s	great feedback we got you'll be seeing
1979s	that feedback applied to some of these
1980s	future events that we have coming
1982s	forward and of course at the end of the
1983s	year we ended up going over kind of all
1985s	the the big stats since uh Diablo 4
1988s	launched and a ton of people have joined
1990s	uh Diablo 4 uh to you know to slay
1994s	demons with us in sanctuary and a lot of
1997s	people have died as well uh and some of
1999s	these stats you know these numbers have
2000s	only grown uh since we posted these uh
2004s	uh late last year of course we had 37
2006s	million people died to the sure now more
2008s	for sure uh since we ended up having
2010s	that we've had over a trillion monsters
2012s	killed which is absolutely crazy uh and
2016s	you know lots of Hardcore desks lots of
2017s	Hardcore desks for people who choose to
2020s	play a little bit more risky uh and and
2022s	play hardcore specifically and our two
2024s	most popular classes being the Sorcerer
2026s	And The Necromancer not too surprise on
2028s	The Necromancer Necromancer is a fan
2030s	favorite has always been a fan favorite
2032s	with D2 and D3 uh I actually funny
2036s	enough I I might actually be playing
2038s	Necromancer here for season 3 I don't
2040s	know what you guys were planning on
2042s	playing for season 3 but the team makes
2044s	fun of me I play Sor every single season
2047s	that's my favorite I play last season
2049s	too so I don't blame you I've been
2051s	meaning to play Druid so I might do that
2053s	the trend there there we go I did Drew
2055s	in season one I did Sor in season two
2058s	feeling Necromancer in season three so I
2060s	think that's going to be my choice there
2062s	but uh so it was great to see all the
2063s	numbers and and all the the stats from
2066s	from uh Diablo since launch but today we
2069s	are here to talk about season 3 season
2072s	of the construct uh it's arriving
2074s	January 23rd uh Dan do you want to give
2077s	us a quick little sure yeah so season of
2080s	the
2081s	construct um is packed with a lot of
2083s	content and so um there's a lot of
2087s	things we're going to cover coming up I
2088s	mean uh the first thing we're going to
2090s	talk about is our all new quest line
2093s	that delves beneath the Sands of
2096s	kistan nothing good happens beneath the
2098s	Sands of kistan so that's where we're
2101s	headed and um in addition to that uh as
2105s	you've seen from a lot of the the
2107s	promotional materials uh we are now
2110s	introducing a seasonal companion called
2112s	the cesa construct and that is something
2115s	that you can upgrade and really kind of
2119s	round out your builds in new ways uh in
2122s	addition to that we have a couple of new
2124s	repeatable activities the first is the
2126s	vaults which is an all new dungeon type
2129s	and the second is Arcane trimmers which
2131s	is a new Overworld activity and last but
2133s	surely not least in terms of the season
2136s	3 package is the gauntlet and
2139s	leaderboards and those are coming pretty
2141s	soon uh but uh we'll give you a bit of a
2145s	tease right now I think yeah so I know a
2148s	ton of stuff for season 3 this is most
2151s	definitely the biggest season yet for
2152s	Diablo 4 uh with a lot of content and as
2155s	you mentioned quest line and story being
2158s	the first thing that we wanted to dive
2159s	into meline I think this is a good
2161s	opportunity to talk to us a little bit
2163s	about uh what we can expect for the
2164s	quest line for abely so as Dan mentioned
2166s	we have a new quest line for for season
2168s	3 in it you are going to assist the Mage
2171s	aan to purge the demon malus from the Z
2175s	uh vaults of zultan cool um malfus has
2179s	taken over the vaults um turned them
2181s	into his own little kingdom and it's
2184s	turned the hazards and the constructs in
2187s	inside of them um against their makers
2191s	um I think a a good question to start
2194s	with is kind of why constructs it's a
2196s	little bit of a departure from from
2197s	Seasons uh past you know season one
2200s	dealt with malignancy and um season two
2204s	dealt with vampires both stemming from
2206s	Lilith's influence um but Sanctuary is
2208s	such a big place um and so many
2210s	different um stories and lore where
2213s	present day Sanctuary is kind of the
2215s	Dark Ages we've had you know thousands
2216s	of years of um different technology and
2219s	magic and this is one of those stories
2222s	um we spent a lot of time discussing as
2224s	a team what we even wanted to do for for
2226s	season 3 um and the story team really
2229s	fell in love with um Mage glands we deed
2233s	into um a lot of Diablo lore we delved
2236s	into the sin war books we delved into
2239s	the rodri Vault Etc um and the Mage
2243s	Clans for people that don't know were
2244s	these ancient Mage societies that really
2248s	um were expertise in certain um levels
2252s	of of magic and we love the viai um
2255s	they're typically the bad guys um
2257s	typically delve into demoic magic even
2259s	though they're not you know
2261s	traditionally evil per se um and visai
2265s	created constructs they took U machinery
2267s	and their demotic magic and made these
2270s	soldiers or these guards um our
2273s	protagonist aan is not technically visai
2275s	he's part of the inad Clan with a zultan
2278s	cool um but their goal was to take these
2281s	idea of constructs and make them their
2283s	own and you know do him in a different
2285s	way um yeah and zultan Cole is kind of a
2289s	you know a familiar face for everyone in
2292s	he's a cool dude yeah yeah no no pun
2296s	intended definitely pun intended pun
2298s	intended Zan played a part in the Diablo
2302s	3 story and of course we saw him in
2304s	Diablo Immortal as well yes Sultan was
2306s	one of the original horadam um good old
2309s	uncle tyriel gave him the Original Soul
2311s	Stones it's like hey I trust you take
2314s	care of him um zolan went a little bit
2316s	off script and he's like what if I made
2319s	these better and so he created his his
2321s	Dark Soul Stone um which was his own
2324s	kind of flaw attempt at ending the
2326s	Eternal conflict um it didn't go quite
2329s	as he expected and the rest of fom said
2331s	we don't really like what you're
2333s	doing you got to get out so they killed
2335s	him um
2338s	were too frightened of you um but zolan
2340s	and aan knew each other um in their
2342s	youth and became business partners um
2345s	and eventually friends and they shared
2347s	this vision of if we can create our own
2349s	version of constructs and um create this
2352s	alternate power source that's not using
2354s	demonic magic the loom um they these
2358s	constructs can fight Heaven and Hell and
2360s	Humanity can flourish um unfortunately
2363s	didn't go as expected they couldn't just
2366s	get they couldn't get right and zolan
2367s	was just like you know what I'm going to
2369s	move on to bigger and greater things
2371s	this is a failure let's move on and aan
2373s	was like no I really we we have
2375s	something here let's keep going um and
2377s	unfortunately that created a rift in
2378s	their friendship and that Rift allowed
2381s	for the demon malus to infiltrate their
2384s	work um malfus is a demon that you're
2387s	going to en uh encounter in the quest
2390s	line and then fight an Uber version of
2392s	him later in the season um he's a little
2394s	bit different than our typical demon you
2396s	know you think of you know big scary guy
2399s	with horns um like I said before we took
2401s	inspiration from sin war and they have a
2404s	lot of different types of demons they
2405s	have different abilities um different
2407s	shapes one of them is like this Stone
2410s	liquid Mouse uh Mass with a mouth on top
2414s	and so the original malus um was like
2416s	this Red Mist and that allowed him to
2418s	kind of sleak into sneak into Corners
2421s	that he wasn't supposed to um malus is a
2423s	named demon um and he's one of Terror
2426s	but very unimportant in the hierarchy of
2428s	hell and that kind of bothers him um we
2431s	joked around on the team that he he had
2433s	a death job in hell um so when he took
2436s	found the opportunity to sneak into
2437s	sanctuary and to corrupt the vaults he's
2439s	like this is my this is my time to shine
2441s	this is my kingdom I'm going to rule it
2443s	um and he did that successfully for many
2445s	many years and he might have gotten away
2447s	with it forever except he was a little
2449s	bit too prideful he's like I'd like to
2452s	sneak out and and leave the vaults yeah
2454s	he's not satisfied with the vaults he
2456s	now wants to start trying to T take over
2459s	a sanctuary itself and that's where the
2460s	player comes in yeah so I think we have
2463s	a footage of the the quest line uh the
2465s	early Parts um you are going to start in
2467s	gay cool um where malus's influence has
2471s	has seeped in um villagers and demons
2474s	don't typically go well I can't even
2476s	imagine their insurance rates um but
2478s	they hire you and they're like hey
2480s	something's going on something up north
2481s	please figure it out for us um and so
2483s	you find the the first um vault and you
2487s	you delve into it to try and get a sense
2489s	of what's going on and these are where
2491s	you're going to start um uh seeing the
2494s	first hostile constructs that malus has
2496s	corrupted and find your own construct um
2499s	you start finding pieces of it you're
2501s	going to keep traveling through and
2502s	eventually you're going to find aan who
2504s	is in a less perfect than ideal
2507s	situation under U malus's influence um
2510s	you eventually free him he's like thank
2513s	you so much I don't even know what's
2515s	going on but let's figure this out to
2516s	together and he fixes the the cesa
2520s	construct for you he's like you're
2521s	probably going to need this as we we
2523s	delve into and force malfus
2526s	out yeah and here we're seeing like part
2529s	of the quest line like obviously
2530s	building up and kind of creating your
2532s	your own sental construct yeah now I
2535s	think we have footage of of the malus
2537s	fight as well oh yeah we can jump into
2539s	that so malus is our first stationary
2541s	boss um he uses the environment the the
2544s	hazards in the room as well as his to to
2547s	smack you around um there are different
2550s	um elements in the in the boss fight
2552s	that are going to periodically switch um
2555s	like I said before he's you know this
2557s	Red Mist but for this fight he is um
2560s	possessed the the largest construct he
2562s	could find the guardian um to to fight
2565s	you um and the loom is in the background
2569s	yeah so you know uh imagine then malfus
2572s	has pretty much become like the
2575s	embodiment it it's it's it's the Vault
2577s	itself and the vault is now coming alive
2579s	to to try and kill when you delve into
2581s	the vaults it's definitely going through
2582s	his literal body um he definitely wants
2585s	you out he doesn't want you in there
2586s	he's going to do every throw everything
2588s	in the kitchen sink at you yep we also
2590s	have footage of our new seasonal town
2592s	the gate Hall um this is kind of the
2594s	gate World Gateway between the the
2597s	vaults and the upper World um you're
2599s	going to go through it in the quest line
2600s	and then it is going to turn into a town
2602s	for you to use um has a waypoint so easy
2606s	travel
2607s	um most of the the vendors that you know
2609s	and love um you see here that they're
2611s	actually construct vendors that Ian has
2614s	fixed for you to help you out um and
2617s	here you're going to be accessing um the
2619s	vaults you can also access them in the
2620s	Overworld if you choose so so it should
2622s	be a really convenient place for you to
2624s	to visit and and turn into your your
2626s	main hub for the season yeah we we
2628s	expect a lot of players will be hanging
2630s	out here in in the the gate Hall since
2633s	all your vendors will be here it'll be
2634s	easy access to the vaults and everything
2636s	so kind of the new Hub specifically for
2639s	season 3 so yeah sounds really cool yeah
2641s	really excited for the the the quest
2643s	line and story for for season 3
2645s	obviously we talked about CAW constructs
2647s	and how that's actually going to be um a
2650s	big part of the storyline people have
2652s	been talking about it all this week with
2654s	you know seeing the footage of like wow
2655s	it looks like we have these little
2656s	companions with us now for season 3 so
2659s	uh Dan can you talk us a little bit
2661s	about you know what CAW construct yeah
2663s	so the caw construct is a a seasonal
2666s	companion and the seasonal companion is
2669s	kind of the embodiment of your power
2671s	Chase for the season so every season we
2673s	try to develop a new type of power Chase
2676s	and you know power is really important
2678s	to our players obviously this is a game
2680s	about becoming super powerful and
2682s	killing lots of demons and we're always
2683s	trying to find new ways to do that so we
2686s	really wanted to stretch ourselves this
2687s	season and you know find a way that uh
2690s	players hadn't seen before and so uh
2694s	that is how the the ca came into being
2697s	now the the ca is this little construct
2701s	uh well maybe not so little but it
2703s	follows you around and um it has uh
2707s	different skills and abilities and I
2709s	will note ah I will note you can pet
2712s	your construct your your construct but
2715s	you you you have to be able to pet it so
2717s	yes absolutely important yeah and so um
2721s	you can have two skills on your ca
2725s	construct
2727s	those are given to uh the construct
2731s	using what is called a governing Stone
2733s	and governing stones are the
2735s	semi-precious stones that you can find
2738s	throughout your adventures in season 3
2740s	they drop in a lot of those repeatable
2742s	activities I mentioned which we'll cover
2744s	soon and um there's lots of different
2747s	types I think there's about 12 that you
2749s	can slot
2751s	in we weren't satisfied with that though
2754s	uh cuz I mean okay 12 skills it's cool
2756s	don't get me wrong but we wanted to
2759s	allow players really to modify those
2762s	skills however they saw fit and so we've
2766s	also developed 27 different tuning
2769s	Stones another type of stone that you
2771s	can slot in then to modify that skill
2774s	and so you've got those two governing
2776s	stones and then each governing Stone has
2779s	three different tuning stones that can
2781s	modify it and just create really wild
2785s	combination of powers that'll allow
2788s	players to experiment how they see fit
2792s	um and so kind of with that breadth of
2794s	powers then you've got a lot of
2795s	different options for being able to um
2799s	kind of round out your build and create
2802s	new types of ways to kill demons awesome
2807s	that's very cool it sounds really cool
2809s	and I I think we we might actually have
2811s	examples and footage of like you know
2813s	what some of these would be yeah so let
2814s	me tell you what's going on here um so
2817s	we've brought up our construct
2819s	menu and this is in the inventory UI but
2824s	it's its own separate UI so you know
2826s	your construct is not going to take up
2828s	your your traditional inventory space
2831s	and uh this construct has two governing
2834s	Stones equipped right now one is called
2836s	Focus fire which was that beam of fire
2838s	that was coming out the other one is
2840s	called lightning bolt and you can see
2841s	it's shooting some lightning bolts like
2844s	I said two skills not too bad you're
2846s	killing some folks here um but we want
2849s	to we want to amp things up a bit so in
2853s	addition to being able just to get
2854s	Stones as drops from activities you can
2857s	also craft stones and so we've gone to
2860s	our gate Hall here and we're crafting a
2862s	new uh Stone we're going to see what we
2864s	get in this case it's a Pummel Stone a
2866s	governing Stone I already have that
2869s	skill so um it's just going to count
2871s	towards XP towards leveling up Pummel uh
2875s	and I'm going to kid out my uh uh CAW a
2878s	little bit different so we've got Focus
2880s	fire and I think the first thing we're
2883s	going to add is voluminous support uh
2886s	fancy way of saying that it's going to
2888s	increase the area of effect for your
2890s	attacks uh we're also going to add
2892s	electrocution now even though Focus fire
2894s	is a fire attack electrocution is going
2896s	to add some lightning damage to it and
2898s	it's also going to add a little bit of
2900s	chance of stun and so now we're dipping
2902s	our toes into this crowd control and
2905s	then finally uh we're going to add
2907s	arcing support and arcing support's
2909s	really cool because arcing support
2911s	allows your abilities to chain and so
2914s	now let's see what that power is going
2915s	to look like when we bring it back
2919s	up all right so here now you can see
2922s	that Focus fire is chaining amongst
2924s	enemies you can see that some of them
2927s	are getting stunned little electricity
2929s	around them and it had a bigger area of
2931s	effect similarly if we were to apply
2933s	some of these to the lightning bolt
2934s	attack uh let's say we gave it
2936s	multi-shot in that arcing support now it
2939s	can just blast through enemies um so
2942s	yeah it's got a lot of options there we
2945s	yeah so we're kind of seeing some
2946s	examples of what players can potentially
2947s	do with their their senol constructs and
2950s	actually um uh make adjustments and and
2953s	modify them to kind of suit your
2955s	specific play style I think a big
2956s	question is like can you actually add um
2959s	a you know maybe some uh status effects
2962s	or things like that like can you
2964s	potentially add in a tuning and that may
2966s	make enemies like vulnerable for
2968s	instance yes absolutely so again we
2970s	wanted to give all of you a lot of
2972s	different options to play with we want
2974s	this to be a toy that you can experiment
2976s	with and so that means that you know
2978s	some of the examples we showed were more
2980s	damage dealing where the the Cals doing
2982s	the damage but then we also want to give
2984s	players the ability to just kind of set
2986s	up you know enemies for you to go in and
2989s	you know uh land the killing blow so um
2992s	there are a lot of different support
2993s	stones that can make things vulnerable
2996s	bleed things electrocute them chill them
2999s	I mean the list goes on I mean pretty
3001s	much any of the you know the verbs in
3003s	the game so your your possibilities are
3005s	are are massive with what you can do
3007s	with your your cesa and you know one
3010s	thing this is actually something that um
3011s	sea white who was in the video our uh
3014s	our Dev insights video before the actual
3016s	start of the stream uh pointed out
3018s	yesterday on on social media to to
3021s	players that were asking a little bit
3022s	more or for more clarity on some some
3024s	items but the C construct actually does
3026s	scale one to one with like specific um
3029s	like secondary type of stats or even or
3031s	uh things that are associated with your
3033s	your actual character so things like
3035s	attack rating or uh crit chance for
3038s	instance yeah it was very important for
3040s	the ca to feel as if it was an extension
3043s	of you if you wanted to be that also we
3045s	really didn't want to get you know a CA
3047s	that was just outclassed when you got
3049s	the level 100 cuz then where's the fun
3051s	right so uh yes absolutely the caw will
3055s	be become more powerful as you become
3057s	more powerful awesome yeah so Central
3059s	constructs obviously playing a huge role
3062s	uh and with the construct and you now
3064s	being able to customize and uh change
3067s	things up for how you want to play
3069s	there's new challenges and that are
3071s	associated with uh uh the season season
3074s	3 season of the construct and one of
3076s	them is vaults uh which I know we do
3079s	want to dive a little bit more into uh
3081s	specifically um so yeah do you guys want
3083s	to talk a little bit more about vaults
3085s	sure vault are a new dungeon for the
3087s	season and we have four types of of
3090s	vaults um like I said before they are
3093s	the extension of malfus um and because
3095s	of that he has turned the hazards inside
3097s	of them into um enemies and and of
3101s	themselves we wanted to explore the
3102s	fantasy of a environment that was
3105s	hostile and it was ready to kill you
3107s	often and uh so they're filled with
3110s	hazards um that you know spinning fires
3113s	of death um floor plates that come alive
3116s	um arrows that shoot out of the walls
3118s	and with our construct enemies I think
3120s	we have some some footage of the the
3122s	vaults as well to kind of walk you
3123s	through it um so yeah constructs in them
3128s	per usual um these because they're so um
3131s	hostile and dangerous we wanted them to
3133s	have a good um be lucrative and be risk
3137s	reward um so we have a lot of different
3139s	loot I think a little bit later in the
3142s	video there's like an explosion of gold
3143s	and that's just going to be common um
3146s	and our dungeon designers you know
3148s	typically with the dungeon experience
3151s	you know you get a popup and you're like
3153s	okay it's telling me to kill all the
3154s	enemies I know what to do um the dungeon
3156s	designers wanted to explore a little bit
3158s	of a I'm not sure what I'm going to be
3160s	experiencing I have to go find my
3161s	objective and so they're the um
3164s	objectives are vague a little bit on
3166s	purpose but typically vaults end in this
3169s	uh what we call informally as a Death
3171s	Room a danger room um where it is
3174s	everything is being thrown at you all
3176s	the traps From the Vault um accumulated
3178s	in in one large
3180s	room so yeah we're really excited to
3183s	it's a bit of new gameplay you know
3185s	dodging traps and and this is one of the
3188s	the danger rooms for example um yeah
3191s	we're really excited to get people to to
3193s	dive into this and experiment you know
3196s	yeah and and obviously with vaults like
3199s	what like tons of traps here there I
3202s	know that there's some gameplay
3203s	associated with like kind of avoiding
3205s	and rewards associated with those as
3207s	well yes absolutely so um certainly
3210s	meline has outlined a lot of the risks
3212s	associated with vaults I mean those
3214s	hazards are going to be pretty
3216s	unforgiving uh but if we're putting a
3218s	lot of risks in front of you guys uh we
3221s	want to make sure there's a lot of
3222s	rewards too so you you saw a little bit
3224s	of it already with like some of the
3226s	basic chests in the uh uh vaults have
3229s	been souped up so they're you know more
3231s	rewarding than those chests you'd find
3233s	in other dungeons but there's another
3234s	mechanic at Play too and that's called
3237s	zultan Waring so as you ENT Vault um
3241s	after you've cleared some of malus's
3244s	influence out of the Vault uh you can
3246s	find the Statue of Zan cool because of
3248s	course Zan cool he has to have a statue
3251s	got to have statue in every Vault I mean
3252s	that's just how he rolls right so um if
3256s	you're able to find a a special uh it's
3258s	called a pearl of warding you can offer
3261s	that to the Statue and in return the
3263s	statue is going to Grant you zolan
3265s	warding uh this is a
3267s	buff it doesn't really help your combat
3271s	too much but what it does is it gives
3274s	you additional rewards and you can see
3276s	right there there's uh kind of that
3278s	glowing one to the side with the icon
3280s	that is a w woven chest that uh contains
3283s	extra rewards if you're able to keep
3286s	that buff and so as you get better and
3289s	better at the vaults um you're going to
3292s	start basically challenging yourself to
3295s	keep the buff and you keep the buff by
3297s	avoiding the hazards and so the game
3300s	play really becomes focused on trying to
3302s	make sure that you're moving as cleanly
3304s	as possible through the vaults in
3307s	addition to fighting the enemies in
3308s	order to get the highest pay up and I
3310s	you know if you if you make like
3312s	mistakes like I know I will make
3313s	mistakes like I am I am a person that
3317s	get hits by like every single trap Under
3319s	the Sun uh are there ways of being able
3321s	to like help mitigate like some of that
3324s	that that those of mistakes you can have
3326s	multiple stacks of Buffs so you you know
3328s	pearl one Pearl is I believe three
3330s	stacks and so if you want to go grind
3332s	the overal activity get the pearls
3334s	you're like okay I have a bunch of
3336s	stacks I have a really good chance um
3339s	and if you don't make it and you no
3342s	Stacks left there were two chests at the
3344s	end you still always get a a loot um but
3347s	the super great loot comes from so boing
3351s	yep got it so yeah so there there are
3353s	opportunities for players to actually
3354s	get multiple chess uh and you can
3357s	actually have multiple stacks of of
3360s	warding uh to essentially create a
3362s	buffer if you know you're planning on
3364s	playing a little bit more sloppy you
3366s	really really want to brute force your
3367s	way through you can but you got to
3369s	invest a little more time got it no that
3371s	makes sense that's that's great to know
3372s	and like I guess with uh the pearls and
3374s	Overworld activity I know that has like
3377s	uh to to earn those types of bus like
3379s	how how do players actually right so uh
3382s	that's our second repeatable activity
3384s	that I'd mentioned which is the Arcane
3386s	Tremors and so Arcane trimers is uh a
3391s	new type of Overworld activity that's
3393s	really localized around the entrances of
3395s	the Vault so remember how we were
3397s	talking about malus and malus's sites
3400s	have become grander now that he controls
3402s	all the vaults and so all the constructs
3404s	are starting to spill out into sanctuary
3406s	and cause trouble additionally uh some
3409s	new types of Hazards have Unearthed and
3411s	are starting to appear around the vaults
3414s	and so it's your job to every so often
3417s	go in and beat back you know all these
3420s	uh uh construct invasions or incursions
3423s	essentially uh that are creating the
3425s	Tremors and so I can talk a little bit
3427s	about this activity we can uh Hue up
3430s	some uh video for that
3432s	too and so uh here uh you've arrived and
3436s	you see basically a roaming band of
3438s	constructs and you know obviously it's
3441s	your job to go in and uh kill them and
3444s	send them back to where came from but um
3448s	that's not all uh you need to do within
3450s	this activity uh what you're looking to
3452s	do to really Advance the activity is
3455s	look for these cores that you can use uh
3458s	to draw out malus's most powerful
3461s	lieutenants and so you're getting a core
3463s	here from an obelisk which is an
3465s	Overworld Hazard and you've got to make
3467s	sure to not get hit by that and if you
3469s	collect enough cores you're able to
3472s	depos them in a braer which you can see
3474s	on screen here here glowing and the
3477s	braer is a signal that you are now
3479s	challenging uh one of the Heralds of
3481s	malus and the herald of malus you see
3483s	appearing right there uh you and
3486s	hopefully a bunch of other of your
3487s	friends will you know gang up and defeat
3489s	the herald of malfus get some cool
3491s	rewards in addition to those pearls that
3494s	we were talking about before which you
3496s	can then use to supercharge your rewards
3498s	elsewhere awesome yeah and I know like
3500s	this being an Overworld activity you
3503s	know we one thing that and this is based
3505s	off of feedback that we've gotten from
3507s	from the community as well even with
3508s	season uh season of blood there was
3511s	blood Harvest which were Overworld
3513s	activities and now there's kind of
3515s	activities everywhere there there's and
3517s	they all have different various rewards
3519s	for the player whether that's vaults
3520s	whether that's doing uh some of the the
3523s	the um the activities on on the
3525s	Overworld for the season you have
3527s	opportunities of actually being able to
3528s	get rewards kind of all over the place
3530s	yeah Our intention is for season one you
3531s	kind of stayed in tunnels and then
3532s	season two you kind of stayed in the
3534s	Overworld most of the time we would
3535s	didn't want to make the players feel
3537s	like they're stuck and they can only
3538s	stay in one place and this is it so the
3540s	intention is you do some dungeons you do
3542s	some overall activities maybe do some
3544s	bounties along the way you should feel
3546s	like you're mobile and not hey I have to
3548s	stay here for the season yep yeah and I
3550s	and just uh another thing that I know we
3553s	we briefly touched on which was vaults
3555s	and how there are uh nightmare
3557s	variations of that yes and that's
3559s	something that um is additional to just
3563s	going through vaults as well so you the
3565s	vaults are fully dungeons in that
3568s	respect and so we have the ability and
3570s	have made nightmare versions of all of
3572s	these Dungeons and the nightmare
3574s	versions of the dungeons obviously have
3576s	more difficult combat but they also have
3578s	a lot more rewards so those those chests
3581s	we talked about before the ward woven
3582s	chests uh you actually get more of those
3585s	as you advance in the nightmare system
3587s	so then your Vault runs become even more
3589s	and more rewarding in that case yeah and
3592s	like how would you access something like
3594s	that specific right so uh we're going to
3596s	use the uh nightmare dungeon sigil
3598s	system but we've created a way uh that
3601s	the game can now award unique seasonal
3604s	sigils and in this case they're called
3606s	Vault sigils and so we did that because
3609s	you know for those folks who really want
3610s	to focus in on vault play uh you can
3614s	earn the Vault sigils and now you can
3615s	Target Farm the vaults instead of
3617s	leaving it up to random chance very cool
3620s	one last dungeon the the mega Uber
3622s	dungeon it's kind of a it's very large
3625s	it's the best uh features of all the
3628s	other vaults put into one and that is
3630s	where malfus lives and so you will be
3633s	quest line You'll defeat him and then
3634s	Uber version of him post quest line for
3636s	the rest of the season and so there is
3638s	an Uber version of malus uh that is even
3641s	more challenging than the quest version
3644s	and um he kind of
3647s	sits parallel to the the current boss
3649s	ladder so you don't need to do him for
3652s	the boss ladder but it's certainly going
3653s	to be a bonus for you if you do
3655s	awesome so yeah way way more additional
3658s	content in in this season um and we have
3661s	a lot of different VAR ways of being
3663s	able to play and and take your character
3664s	you can do it activities on the
3666s	Overworld uh you can actually use those
3668s	activities to help you out in the vaults
3669s	uh you can do nightmare variations of
3671s	the VA vaults we have Uber vaults now
3675s	with with a larger more difficult Vault
3677s	uh with uh with you know a new boss here
3680s	for season 3 as well and this is just a
3683s	little bit of of what we have for season
3685s	3 with you know of course we have senal
3687s	constructs which will'll be around with
3688s	you all the time and with that we of
3691s	course have one additional component to
3693s	season 3 and that's with the gauntlet
3696s	and leaderboard and I you know I will
3698s	caveat like I know we mentioned this in
3699s	the blog earlier this week so the
3701s	gauntlet and leader board are actually
3702s	not going to launch at the start of this
3705s	season um and that's really because you
3707s	know we we want players to actually go
3710s	through the season and actually grow and
3712s	learn the season with their character
3714s	before we actually launch the leader
3716s	boards so uh we will have uh information
3718s	on when we actually do launch uh
3720s	Gauntlet leaderboards uh really soon but
3723s	uh Dan I know wants to kind of dive
3725s	deeper into what leaderboards are and
3728s	what the gauntlet is for players so they
3730s	have a better idea yeah so a lot of you
3733s	saw a taste at BlizzCon of what the
3736s	gauntlet and the trials leader boards
3738s	are going to be and so we can go in a
3740s	bit more depth here um and hopefully
3744s	start to answer some of your questions
3747s	um so the gauntlet is another new
3750s	dungeon type uh The Gauntlet is
3754s	something that unlocks with the overall
3756s	leaderboard feature in World tier 4 and
3760s	um basically that means that it's
3762s	targeting more of your your in-game
3764s	players at this point folks who have
3767s	really decided on a build they're
3770s	starting to really round it out it's
3772s	become more powerful and now they want
3774s	to prove their might uh not just to
3776s	themselves but you know obviously to
3778s	show off and have bragging rights so um
3783s	The Gauntlet itself uh new type of
3786s	dungeon is kind of based around three
3788s	different principles uh the first is
3790s	that it is fix seed the second is that
3793s	it is nonlinear and thirdly like I said
3796s	it's there to prove your might and so
3798s	I'm going to kind of unpack that a
3800s	little bit um fix seed means really that
3804s	it is trying to be as Fair as possible
3807s	for everyone everyone gets the same
3810s	Gauntlet every week and so you're not
3814s	fishing for you know the best role of a
3816s	rift or something like that um it's
3819s	really a Level Playing Field at this
3821s	point and let me tell you that was kind
3822s	of hard to do our game is not very good
3825s	at doing one thing it it loves to do
3827s	random things but in this case we felt
3830s	competition demanded that it be fair
3832s	yeah um
3835s	nonlinear is really all about how the
3838s	dungeon is laid out it is not a dungeon
3840s	where you travel from the beginning to
3842s	the end it's not about trying to get to
3844s	the end as quickly as possible it's
3845s	about the choices you make while you're
3847s	within that dungeon and so uh the layout
3851s	uh basically allows you to develop all
3853s	manner of strategies I mean when we had
3856s	people uh testing the dungeons uh the
3859s	gauntlets uh there would be arguments
3861s	over or not even arguments sometimes
3863s	people would just kind of say what was
3865s	the best path you took oh I think I can
3867s	do better than that and so a lot of it
3869s	is trying to figure out your way through
3871s	the dungeon each week and then finally
3874s	proving your might is about killing
3878s	enemies and Gathering what we're calling
3880s	promite and then trying to get the
3883s	highest score possible so it's not about
3885s	just going fast certainly going fast
3887s	helps but it's really about how
3890s	effective and efficient are you at
3892s	combat and that's going to be reflected
3895s	in your score and so at the end of a
3897s	gauntlet you're going to get uh a score
3900s	and uh you're going to say okay um can I
3904s	do better than that and we're going to
3905s	say well you know we've got a couple
3908s	targets you can try and hit but really
3910s	you're going to be shooting for those
3911s	leaderboards yeah um but let's Circle
3913s	back on strategies a little bit and I
3915s	think we've got a little bit of video to
3917s	help with that so here's the gauntlet
3920s	right here um it for all intensive
3923s	purposes look like a normal dungeon uh
3926s	but we said again it's World tier 4 it's
3928s	targeting level 100 players so we're
3931s	going to throw a dungeon boss at you
3933s	right at the start yeah and I I will
3934s	note like I know we're mentioning level
3936s	100 technically you can do Gauntlet
3938s	before level 100 it's just more probably
3940s	more efficient to do it at level 100
3942s	just because it is an endgame activity
3944s	that and it'll be challenging I mean if
3946s	you think you're ready to tackle The
3948s	Gauntlet below level 100 by all means
3950s	it's just it's not tuned that way um and
3954s	so here uh you're fighting you know the
3957s	tomb Lord and he's pretty powerful but
3961s	um you're more powerful in that case you
3963s	defeated him now the cool thing about
3965s	defeating that boss is it doesn't drop
3967s	loot it drops a shrine and that Shrine
3970s	can then be used as a power up to you
3972s	know further increase your power within
3974s	the gauntlet and there's other types of
3976s	new shrines within the gauntlet too uh
3978s	we just hit previously here a pillar of
3981s	proving and that's a a shrine that
3984s	actually respawns all the enemies around
3986s	you now why would you want to do that
3988s	cuz you want to kill them again and get
3989s	their score right so we've got the
3992s	pillar of proving we've got the pillar
3994s	of Glory which is a way to basically get
3996s	a multiplier on your score and we've
3999s	even got chests scattered all throughout
4001s	the dungeon that you can earn keys for
4003s	and you see Keys up in the corner on the
4005s	HUD there and those keys give you even
4007s	additional score so a lot of the the
4010s	strategy of a gauntlet is you know as a
4012s	solo player at least trying to find the
4015s	most optimal path through it and use
4018s	that as a way to you know take your
4020s	really cool build and get the highest
4022s	score possible and you know something we
4025s	saw in the footage obviously the first
4026s	thing we ran into was a boss like a tomb
4028s	Lord right there um and so you could
4031s	technically take that tomb Lord further
4034s	into the dungeon if you want to you're
4036s	not stuck in the room yeah you're not
4038s	you're not stuck in the room you you can
4040s	you can draw that tomb Lord right next
4042s	to another Shrine and do a combo with
4044s	and then start building up even higher
4046s	score than exactly and so that's the
4047s	thing I think with with gauntlets like
4049s	you we're going to start to see some
4051s	really and because they change weekly
4053s	and these leaderboards will be weekly uh
4055s	we're going to see players kind of
4057s	create different combinations of what
4059s	what's the best way of optimizing for
4061s	the best score possible um you know
4064s	taking advantage of the shrines taking
4065s	advantage of the chess taking advantage
4067s	of like should I drag a bunch of enemies
4069s	over here just because I know I'll have
4071s	a shrine ready and stuff like that so
4072s	it's going to actually be really
4073s	interesting to see and I think it adds
4075s	even more complexity to the to the idea
4078s	once you start adding additional players
4080s	to it as well yeah now the uh we had a
4083s	lot of fun testing this especially in
4085s	parties because parties can then start
4088s	dividing and conquering what you need to
4090s	do in order to get that high score and
4092s	so we expect party scores to be frankly
4095s	ridiculous parties got got to play with
4098s	friends there for that and stuff and so
4100s	I know with leader boards uh when you're
4103s	you're looking at leader boards like I
4104s	think we actually have an image of uh
4106s	the leader boards here just like a a
4108s	quick uh throw up here but you can see
4110s	um based off of how leader boards are
4112s	there is an overall leaderboard uh for
4115s	for players um but then you can you have
4117s	the ability of actually being able to uh
4120s	filter by class so you can see where you
4122s	are within your own class yeah so each
4124s	class does have a unique ladder and uh
4127s	that's those those first five icons you
4129s	see right there represent each of those
4131s	classes if you're playing solo and that
4134s	was was really important to us cuz we
4135s	were talking about that that component
4137s	of fairness that we want uh to make sure
4139s	that you know the competition is a Level
4141s	Playing Field we understand that you
4143s	know a a ball lightning sorc for example
4146s	uh probably shouldn't be compared to you
4149s	know a rogue or something like that and
4151s	so uh we allow each class uh to compete
4155s	independently and then there are also
4157s	ladders for each of the different party
4160s	sizes because obviously a four person
4163s	party probably is going to be able to
4165s	cover more ground than a twers party and
4168s	so that actually creates eight ladders
4171s	with leaderboards right there and then
4174s	we also multiply that by two because we
4177s	have separate uh ladders for our
4179s	hardcore players because they are well
4182s	they're competing on Hardcore Mode they
4183s	should get their own ladders exactly
4185s	exactly and then we also have uh filters
4189s	and leaderboards for the different
4191s	platforms yeah so you can actually
4193s	compare your yourself if you're playing
4195s	on Xbox you can compare yourself to
4196s	other players on Xbox uh same thing for
4199s	PC or which is great to see like we have
4201s	the option of being able to kind of
4203s	really uh filter out and see where we we
4205s	stack against other players in the
4207s	leaderboard and that all gets rolled up
4209s	into a global leaderboard as well and
4212s	all of those leaderboards we mentioned
4214s	you are also able to uh filter uh by
4217s	friend and by Clan if you want to be
4219s	able just to see the people you're
4221s	familiar with and not compete with uh
4223s	kind of the community at large yeah so
4225s	it's it's catered and customized to like
4227s	allow players to actually really get
4229s	into like almost like a granular type of
4231s	uh look of how they may compete against
4233s	you know just maybe everyone or maybe
4235s	just everyone on Xbox or maybe just your
4237s	friends or maybe just people in your
4238s	clan which is really cool to see um and
4241s	of course with leaderboards and you know
4244s	tackling leaderboards as you mentioned
4246s	it is a separate dungeon uh there are
4248s	kind of rewards associated with
4249s	leaderboards as that's right
4252s	so we straight up here though the the
4254s	ultimate the ultimate reward of a
4256s	leaderboard is glory and bragging rights
4258s	exactly and so you know only the top
4261s	1,000 players during a week are going to
4264s	be able to get on the
4265s	leaderboards and um it's going to be a
4268s	pretty big
4269s	accomplishment but we got to do a little
4271s	bit better than that and so not only do
4274s	we have the weekly leader boards we have
4276s	the Hall of the Ancients which is the
4279s	top 10 players from every ladder each
4282s	week get written to the Hall of the
4283s	ancient now unlike the weekly
4285s	leaderboard the Hall of the Ancients
4287s	don't reset and so that is a permanent
4289s	record of everyone who is the best of
4292s	the best each week each season and it's
4295s	not going to ever get erased going to be
4297s	there forever more so yeah you always
4298s	have bragging rights if you ever want to
4300s	show to other people like even if you
4303s	come back like in a later season or
4305s	something you can always go like I trust
4307s	me I know what I'm doing typ of thing
4308s	yeah uh but we've got some additional
4310s	rewards too uh we've got some neat
4312s	Cosmetics for folks who you know maybe
4315s	don't hit the Hall of the Ancients but
4317s	they hit another threshold on the
4318s	leaderboards and we've also introduced
4321s	another type of reward called seals now
4325s	I like to think of myself like I could
4326s	compete but I I know better than that I
4329s	I am never going to be ranking on those
4330s	leaderboards ever and so
4333s	um the seals are meant for players
4336s	frankly like me who just uh you know not
4340s	ready for the leaderboards yet and so
4342s	what the seals are is you know let me
4345s	describe it this way so we've got that
4348s	ladder we were describing right and each
4350s	rung of that ladder is going to have a
4352s	seal associated with it and so as you
4355s	get better and better each week for that
4357s	Gauntlet you're going to be able to earn
4359s	seals and start ranking up in terms of
4361s	the seals that you have and um it's
4365s	going to go from kind of uh I believe
4367s	it's called seal of the blooded which is
4368s	the Baseline all the way up to seal of
4371s	the worthy and once you hit seal of the
4373s	worthy now you're ready according to the
4375s	game to be able to compete in the
4377s	leaderboard so for myself I'm probably
4379s	just going to be trying to get seal of
4381s	the worthy each week um but it's going
4383s	to be pretty
4384s	with seal of the Worthy is still
4388s	something that's pretty cool that you
4389s	can display to other players to let them
4391s	know that you know you're still pretty
4393s	good at the leaderboards it's just maybe
4395s	you're not on the leaderboard itself I
4397s	Believe In You Dance yeah we believe in
4399s	you yeah belief belief is great but I I
4403s	know my limits
4404s	so yeah so uh lots of lots of cool stuff
4407s	for season 3 Gauntlet being a huge part
4409s	of it as we mentioned right at the
4411s	beginning that Gauntlet won't be at the
4413s	start of the season but we do plan it is
4415s	a season 3 thing it it is coming in
4417s	season 3 um we just want to make sure
4419s	that players can actually uh grow their
4421s	characters at the beginning of season 3
4423s	it's not like a speedrun type of thing
4425s	just to jump into to Gauntlet especially
4427s	on the first week of Gauntlet if we were
4429s	to have it with the launch of of of the
4431s	actual season so uh players can uh we'll
4434s	hear more news about when Gauntlet
4436s	actually hits really really soon we'll
4438s	have information on that and we'll be
4439s	sharing that with players but thank you
4441s	guys for for sharing a little bit about
4443s	some of those season three components of
4445s	course with season uh a new season there
4447s	are uh there's a new season journey and
4449s	there is a new battle pass there's a lot
4451s	of uh uh feedback that we got um from
4454s	players and some data that we actually
4456s	saw from players related to um season
4458s	journey and some optimizations that
4460s	we've kind of made to make it a little
4461s	bit more friendly a little bit better
4463s	for players specific specifically I know
4464s	one big thing uh that we uh ended up
4467s	hitting on specifically was uh for
4469s	instance like the um one of the
4472s	components for season Journey last
4474s	season was like hey you need to kill 10
4477s	people in
4478s	PvP which made it a little difficult for
4480s	some people and we we even saw that in
4482s	some of our data from from players yeah
4484s	yeah we yeah we we're looking over the
4486s	data we're listening to your feedback
4489s	and um yeah PVP objectives just aren't
4494s	that popular and so um because we're
4498s	always keeping an eye on you know
4500s	improving the game and improving the
4502s	objectives for the season Journey uh we
4504s	decided to modify some of the PVP
4506s	objectives that exist and then there's
4509s	one in particular that we ripped out it
4511s	just had such a low completion rate so
4513s	yeah there's been optimizations based
4515s	off of player feedback and of course
4516s	data that we've seen from that end um
4519s	and then I know that one uh big thing is
4521s	like some of the rewards associated with
4523s	season Journey uh we we uh kind of amped
4527s	them up a little bit it's super
4529s	important for us to make sure that the
4530s	season journey is rewarding I mean it's
4532s	it's one of the backbones of our season
4535s	and if folks feel as if they're not
4537s	compelled to you know go in and
4539s	participate then that's that's a Miss
4541s	for us so you know we went back and
4543s	really took a close look at the rewards
4546s	and amped them up in a couple of key
4547s	ways um the first way we amped them up
4551s	is uh we made sure that it was a good
4553s	vehicle for earning some of those
4555s	governing stones and tuning Stones we
4557s	talked about and so you actually get an
4561s	advanced look um for some of those
4564s	governing and tuning Stones if you play
4565s	the season journey and so you'll get the
4567s	drops a little bit sooner and that'll
4569s	give you a little more of a leg up uh
4571s	with specking out your CAW um the other
4574s	thing we did is we looked at those later
4576s	chapters you know champion and Slayer
4579s	and
4580s	destroyer and we said wow those still
4582s	don't feel reward boing enough I mean
4584s	we're asking players to do a lot there
4586s	we're asking them to go into the boss
4588s	ladder defeat bosses you know really
4591s	invest a lot of time so we wanted to
4592s	make sure those rewards felt meaty and
4595s	so we added a number of ancestral
4597s	legendaries there including some that
4599s	are 925 high power so hopefully
4603s	hopefully that will be something that
4606s	folks will really enjoy and uh you know
4609s	get more folks you know wanting to take
4611s	that Journey with the season also
4612s	something slightly related to season
4614s	journey and feedback is we got some
4616s	feedback that um previously um for our
4618s	quest lines you had to complete certain
4620s	levels of season journey to even um
4623s	progress in the quest line got a lot of
4625s	feedback it people didn't like it we
4628s	don't want people not to feel good with
4630s	it so starting season 3 you can just do
4632s	it start to finish there's no season
4634s	Journey break yep very so it's no longer
4637s	says level up to you know chapter three
4639s	of the Season Journey yeah yeah most
4642s	definitely yeah it's uh and again
4644s	Community feedback has been so helpful
4645s	for us especially as we uh have been uh
4648s	iterating on seasons and going from
4650s	season to season so it's been super
4651s	great uh another big thing that's coming
4654s	uh with at least um season or with
4657s	season 3 is it's a cosmetic that I think
4660s	a lot of players have been are have been
4663s	looking forward to and first actually
4665s	let's actually jump into uh all this the
4667s	actually can we throw that graphic back
4668s	up there we go uh yeah so there lot new
4671s	Cosmetics coming one big thing I know
4673s	that was really popular with season 2
4674s	was the town portal SK everyone everyone
4677s	is rolling with the blood portal I am
4680s	not rolling with the blood portal I'm
4682s	like the the one person that's rolling
4684s	with like the angelic wings one uh if
4687s	there's other people like that like
4688s	shout out to those people you're part of
4690s	my crew uh but there are also um cool
4693s	new skins and of course new emotes that
4695s	are coming with the new uh premium
4697s	battle pass uh for uh season 3 and then
4700s	one uh item that I think we actually
4704s	haven't really added to since launch is
4707s	emblems specifically uh emblems are kind
4709s	of like on your character title and on
4711s	your character on the uh the character
4713s	bar for your screen uh I have been
4715s	rocking the tree of Whispers one for a
4717s	long time I'm going to put it into
4719s	retirement uh because we are adding new
4721s	ones here I believe we're adding um I
4724s	think it's three I believe for this
4725s	season so you will get two new emblems
4730s	per uh your adventures in the season
4733s	Journey and then three through the the
4735s	battle pass awesome so yeah we're adding
4737s	in emblems I know that's something that
4739s	people were were asking about because we
4741s	we've always had the three at launch and
4743s	so uh this now gives you the opportunity
4745s	of actually collecting additional
4746s	emblems in season 3 and of course uh
4749s	season blessings are also getting uh
4751s	adjusted for uh the new season because I
4754s	know with the last season of course they
4756s	were specifically catered towards season
4758s	of blood uh this one is uh of course
4761s	being updated for season 3 including um
4764s	items that uh affect like like tuning
4766s	stones for instance uh specifically for
4768s	players so uh season blessings will be
4771s	getting uh updated for this new season
4773s	and then um I know that one thing that
4777s	um people and something I mentioned in
4780s	the beginning which is uh the boss
4781s	ladder items that is most definitely uh
4784s	uh coming back for season 3 so players
4787s	can expect uh to to have the opportunity
4790s	of being able to tackle uh through the
4792s	boss ladder and we actually do have some
4793s	optimizations that we'll be talking
4794s	about here really shortly related to uh
4797s	being able to jump into boss ladders so
4800s	yeah lots of stuff for season 3 tons of
4804s	stuff for season 3 biggest season yet
4806s	for Diablo I um and you know we we
4809s	covered a lot I'm looking forward to
4811s	people jumping in it begins on January
4813s	23rd uh where players will be able to
4815s	actually jump in and uh create new
4816s	characters for the season so uh Dan mine
4820s	thank you guys so much oh you're welcome
4822s	really appreciate it and then I know for
4824s	the next part of our broadcast we're
4826s	actually going to use some amazing Tech
4828s	first time we're doing this uh because
4830s	we now have two different sets one here
4832s	in Albany which is themed like Cathedral
4834s	of light you know we're in a colder
4836s	environment uh it is cold outside in
4838s	Albany I'm not used to that as a a
4840s	California person I'm sorry about that I
4843s	landed lots of snow um but it's like
4846s	Cathedral of light fracture Peaks you
4848s	know kind of feeling and of course we'll
4850s	be going to Irvine where we're in like
4852s	the I hate to say the bits of Hell her
4855s	Vine is not like hell I promise I live
4858s	there but our studio is like that and we
4861s	are going to be joined by uh Adam
4863s	Jackson uh Adam hopefully you're there
4866s	there you are hello hey I hope you can
4868s	hear me I'm always I can hear you live
4871s	from
4872s	Irvine Adam you know they always call it
4875s	the Adam and Adam show whenever you and
4876s	I are on and of course we're going to be
4878s	talking a little bit about um some of
4881s	the balance changes uh coming with uh
4884s	season 3 and and what players can expect
4887s	and and a little bit about um some of
4888s	the philosophy as well of what you have
4892s	kind of uh or what what you want to
4893s	actually present to the players of what
4895s	they can expect uh going forward
4897s	especially with gauntlet being involved
4898s	so do you want to uh take it
4900s	away yeah totally got lots to talk about
4903s	today so I'm pretty excited so I'm
4906s	really going to be going over three
4908s	different major topics today we talk
4910s	about uh what's coming in for season 3
4911s	and Beyond so the first one is I think
4913s	what everybody expects we have some new
4915s	class updates coming uh a little bit of
4917s	a caveat here though I'm not going to be
4919s	going over every single note or every
4920s	single update but I am going to give you
4922s	kind of a high level of what's coming
4923s	for every class uh but you'll definitely
4925s	find out some more stuff when you look
4927s	into the patch notes and see other
4928s	things we're doing um and patch notes
4930s	are going to be coming out very soon
4931s	like tomorrow is tomorrow actually yeah
4933s	they they they're coming out tomorrow so
4935s	players going to expect to see them
4936s	tomorrow we we'll give you a preview
4938s	today but you'll see the full patch ons
4939s	tomorrow correct so it'll be a preview
4941s	but you know you'll still get an idea of
4943s	kind of what we're thinking and what
4944s	we're doing uh next I want to do a brief
4946s	explanation of kind of how we currently
4947s	view class balance you know the game's
4949s	gone through a lot we've been out for a
4950s	little while we also have the gauntlet
4952s	coming so uh you know a lot of changes
4954s	coming and we're going to be adapting to
4956s	it and then the last thing is kind of a
4958s	road map for our plans for seasonal
4959s	updates going forward I kind of want to
4961s	give people some more concrete ideas of
4964s	when we update and how we update so
4966s	first we're going to start with the
4967s	class updates so first for the Barbarian
4970s	uh we got a few things going on uh the
4972s	first one is some big improvements to
4974s	charge uh you know right now charge is
4977s	you you need a bunch of different
4978s	legendaries and other effects to make it
4980s	really kind of seen and be powerful and
4982s	we're going to be moving a lot of power
4983s	to the Baseline skill from legendaries
4985s	and other effects uh it's going to do a
4987s	lot more damage now than it did before
4989s	uh we might be insane but I think it's
4992s	really cool and so we're going to do it
4994s	but you can see here kind of season two
4996s	what the damage numbers look like uh you
4998s	know did like 1,200 and then season 3
4999s	it's like 12,000 so you know like like8
5002s	extra something like that so it's going
5004s	to do a lot of damage now Baseline of
5006s	course legendaries are adjusted to
5007s	compensate but yeah you should have a
5008s	lot more fun with it out the gate uh
5011s	we're also doing a lot of Buffs to keepy
5012s	passives uh such as walking Arsenal uh
5015s	to kind of keep them uh up to date with
5017s	the one that most people pick that shall
5019s	not be named uh and then also we're just
5022s	seeing a lot of shouts you know we got a
5023s	lot of feedback that players don't
5025s	really like feeling kind of mandatory
5027s	that they put all the different shouts
5028s	on their bar I played a barbarian last
5030s	season I know how it feels um so we're
5032s	trying to kind of walk this line where
5033s	we want it to be fun and you can put all
5035s	the shouts on your bar but it's not
5037s	required and you kind of feel like
5039s	there's good reasons not to so we've
5041s	done some changes
5044s	there and you know if I were a Betty man
5047s	I'd say I'd put my money into you know
5049s	charge and maybe some key passives as
5052s	far as things that I think you'll be
5053s	happy to see so I think you'll be uh
5056s	kind of happy uh with our changes there
5057s	you know Adam whenever we have you on
5059s	you have to talk about class stons and
5061s	this is this is I like my STS
5065s	yes so next let's go over to the
5067s	sorcerer again these aren't all the
5069s	changes these are just high level stuff
5071s	uh first one is you know we've we know
5073s	that sorcerer players have kind of had
5075s	some pain trying to apply vulnerable to
5076s	enemies so we're giving it to lightning
5078s	spear now so just Baseline Lightning
5080s	Spear when it crits enemies will now
5082s	make them vulnerable so you have another
5083s	Avenue there that isn't Frost Nova to
5085s	consistently apply it uh we also have
5088s	some Buffs to various Paragon legendary
5090s	nodes that you can look forward to that
5091s	kind of open up or make some things
5093s	stronger and last but not least uh for
5096s	you meteor fans meteor build is getting
5098s	quite a few updates and Buffs across the
5100s	board uh we also are giving a are giving
5103s	them a new unique that kind of changes
5104s	how you think about it and how it plays
5106s	that I'll be showing off in a little bit
5107s	so uh can't wait can't wait to see it
5109s	it's so good it's so good yeah totally
5111s	so again here uh meteor players and
5114s	Elemental Summoner players like the ones
5116s	that like to use the different
5117s	conjurations we got some stuff there in
5119s	the legendary or the Paragon legendary
5121s	node space that should make you happy
5124s	and next we've got the
5126s	Rogue so we've got quite a few changes
5129s	coming to the Rogue there's a lot of
5130s	Buffs to really underuse skill and skill
5132s	upgrades you know a lot of people use
5134s	you know twisting blades and poison INB
5136s	and things like that and we're really
5137s	targeting some of the things that people
5139s	aren't using so much and giving them
5140s	some
5141s	love um in particular we're targeting
5144s	range builds to make them more viable
5145s	and fun uh I know I think it's the
5148s	Precision key passive is is getting a
5150s	bit of a rework and a lot of stuff
5152s	coming for things like penetrating shot
5153s	and stuff like that and we're also
5155s	updating pretty much all the range
5157s	uniques including windforce Sky Hunter
5158s	and Eagle horn they're going to be quite
5160s	a bit more usable and Powerful I think
5163s	um so here again some Buffs coming
5164s	really to range builds in general and
5166s	also Cal trops which is a bit of an
5168s	underuse skill that we we're giving some
5171s	love and then we' got the jured next so
5175s	here we've got some Buffs coming to
5177s	various Spirit bonds that aren't seen as
5178s	much play as others as example a prickle
5181s	skin is the one that gives you some
5182s	thorn
5183s	uh the amount there is being increased
5185s	by a lot you can see here in season two
5186s	it gives about 300 at this level and
5189s	then season 3 I think it's doing about
5190s	4X what it used to so uh some big Buffs
5193s	coming to various spirit boes that are
5198s	underused and then uh also rabies is
5201s	getting quite a few upgrades uh we got a
5203s	new legendary coming in for rabies
5205s	that's pretty neat and then we also have
5206s	a buff to enhance rabies so for all of
5208s	you that love spreading your poisons
5210s	among enemies uh you're going to be a
5212s	little bit happy in season
5213s	3 so here again we got some Buffs uh I
5217s	put rabies here but also lightning storm
5219s	and we'll be showing off a new unique
5220s	there to I'm actually probably going to
5222s	play lightning storb in season 3 because
5223s	it's got a really cool unique coming
5225s	that we're going to so you'll have that
5227s	to look forward to yeah I'm I'm I'm so
5230s	excited for you to show these uniques I
5232s	think people are going to um probably
5234s	cater their builds for those classes to
5236s	the some of those uniqu they're pretty I
5237s	mean we have uniques coming for every
5238s	class we're just going to be showing
5239s	those two off today again not everything
5241s	but they're pretty cool uh last but not
5243s	least we got Necromancer so blood and
5245s	iron golems uh so fun fact for those of
5248s	you who didn't know but the Bing Golem
5249s	when it when it attacks enemies with its
5251s	normal attack it actually uh Cleaves and
5253s	hits nearby enemies and the blood and
5254s	iron golems didn't and they were very
5256s	jealous and unhappy and so we just
5258s	decided to give it to them so now all
5260s	your Golems uh your Golem friends are
5262s	going to AOE cleave when they attack uh
5264s	I didn't mention put in a no here but
5265s	also just golems in general are getting
5267s	some Buffs and I think we even some
5268s	other minion Buffs across the board but
5270s	you can see those in the patch notes
5273s	and then uh a quality of life change
5274s	coming is that a bone prison uh friendly
5276s	players and your minions can now move
5278s	through them uh you know we've seen some
5279s	situations I know I've played it where
5281s	you'll bone prison an enemy and your a
5283s	minion build and then your minions
5284s	actually can't get to the enemy or you
5286s	know they start they want to go
5287s	somewhere else and the bone prison
5288s	actually blocks them so now you and your
5290s	friends will just be able to go through
5291s	it um it'll be a lot more
5293s	usable and then we got a lot of bone
5296s	Spirit upgrades uh including a redesign
5298s	of one of the aspects which is the
5299s	aspect of swolling curse I think bone
5301s	Spirit players are going to be really
5303s	happy um so you can see here on the left
5305s	is kind of the old version of bone
5307s	spirit and it basically dealt increased
5309s	damage based on distance traveled and
5310s	the gameplay there was you want to be
5312s	kind of far away from your enemy and
5313s	then let it slowly creep towards them it
5314s	would do more damage uh but it turns out
5317s	uh bone Spirit players really just kind
5318s	of shotgun it and try and get next to
5320s	enemies so it wasn't really very usable
5321s	or good most of the time so now we
5323s	change it where this legendary gives you
5325s	everything a bone Spirit player would
5327s	want you get more more crit chance on
5329s	bone Spirit which means X CDR goes down
5331s	thanks to its upgrades and then when you
5333s	hit enemies your max Essence is
5335s	temporarily increased which means uh
5337s	more damage on bone spirit so this
5339s	really just kind of gives you everything
5340s	that you
5342s	want and so here again uh we got some
5345s	Buffs coming to Bone spirit and to
5347s	Golems for the necromancers so if you
5349s	use either of those I think you'll be
5350s	eating pretty well this
5352s	season and again these are just some
5354s	examples we got a lot more stuff in the
5356s	patch not for
5357s	everybody next let's go over the couple
5360s	new uniques so the first one is that
5361s	meteor one I talk Al about so this
5363s	unique is the Starfall coordinate it
5366s	basically being like a spender skill
5369s	into a charge based skill so now you can
5371s	actually run meteor with other things
5373s	like Fireball or incinerate or firewall
5376s	and it makes it into a very powerful
5378s	cooldown base skill that summons a bunch
5380s	of meteors uh it also synergizes with
5383s	your enchantment um and you basically
5385s	just drop a lot more metors on around
5387s	like carpet bombing enemies with them
5389s	it's it's pretty
5391s	awesome
5393s	and then the next one is the new jid
5395s	unique this is for lightning storm uh
5397s	basically what this does is it makes
5398s	your lightning storm grow quicker so you
5400s	can get up to that maximum amount I
5402s	think it's five four or five Stacks
5404s	really quickly and then also when your
5405s	lightning bolts crit uh an additional
5408s	lightning bolt will come down and do
5409s	more damage and that additional
5410s	lightning bolt also ex ex still a
5412s	lightning storm lightning bolt so you
5414s	get all of your synergies with all of
5416s	your other effects so basically it turns
5417s	into lightning everywhere is is pretty
5420s	cool when you combine it with all the
5421s	other uh lightning based legendaries and
5426s	stuff next uh now that we're done with
5428s	the class updates I kind of want to talk
5430s	a little bit about how we've been
5431s	viewing class balance and how we're
5433s	going to be thinking about going forward
5434s	in season 3 and
5436s	Beyond so one of the things that we've
5439s	been talking about a lot on the team is
5441s	kind of thinking about how should we be
5442s	updating the game when it comes to
5444s	buffing and nerfing classes and builds
5446s	and then also how often should we update
5447s	it and I kind of want to get a little in
5449s	the weeds here to understand where we're
5451s	coming from
5455s	uh so first is that we want to balance
5457s	kind of two competing Concepts that are
5459s	always at odds with each other that we
5461s	believe players want that really make
5463s	for a fun game and a fun experience
5464s	particularly in Diablo I but this is
5467s	honestly kind of true for most games as
5469s	far as when they update when it comes to
5472s	balance so the first one is we believe
5475s	that players really want to feel like
5477s	know you all can have fun with powerful
5478s	builds that you discover kind of a core
5480s	part of playing these games is is you
5483s	know you think outside the box or you
5484s	discover something or maybe even you
5486s	follow a guide but you're you find
5488s	something that's really cool and awesome
5489s	and then you want to go wreck demons and
5491s	you know kill stuff with it right you
5492s	want to feel like you have this sense of
5494s	permanence where you know you can make
5496s	something it's going to be cool and you
5497s	can go and have fun with
5499s	it but then on the flip side uh here we
5503s	also believe that players want the meta
5506s	to refresh so that the same things
5507s	aren't obviously the best choices
5509s	forever right uh looking back at season
5511s	2 easy thing to point to is ball
5513s	lightning right you know ball lightning
5515s	was really fun and awesome news flash it
5517s	was also kind of bugged uh but you know
5520s	during season two it a lot of people had
5522s	a lot of fun with it uh but we believe
5524s	that you know if we just kept things
5525s	like ball lightning or Hoda Barb or
5527s	these things that are really powerful
5528s	for many seasons over and over uh not
5530s	only sorcerer players in the case of
5532s	ball lightning but even players of other
5534s	classes would start to feel this kind of
5535s	gravitational pull and a lot of pressure
5537s	to play the things that are obviously
5539s	more powerful than other things and then
5541s	players would start to feel pigeon hold
5542s	into being forced to play very specific
5544s	things and so kind of this dichotomy of
5546s	these two competing factors where you
5548s	want to have a sense of permanence and
5550s	finding things and having fun and not
5551s	being afraid that blizzard is going to
5553s	take it away from you but you also want
5555s	to have a sense of you know the same
5556s	thing isn't strong forever and you look
5557s	at the leaderboards or you look on
5559s	forums or wherever you you know look for
5561s	your feedback and everybody just is
5563s	playing the same things and you feel
5564s	like not everything is viable
5567s	right so in this vein um some of the
5570s	larger changes that you're going to see
5571s	and season 3 there are kind of bug fixes
5573s	or Nerfs uh and you know before uh a lot
5577s	during BlizzCon and before we've talked
5578s	about how you want to give players a
5579s	heads up of what's coming um so these
5581s	are the things you're going to see when
5583s	at the launch of season 3 that are kind
5584s	of being they're having their power
5585s	lowered uh the first one is the ball
5587s	lightning enchantment uh or enhancement
5589s	sorry is causing it to deal well too
5591s	much damage obviously um the Rogues uh
5594s	Rogues have also been getting extra
5596s	combo points via very specific unique
5598s	interactions that's made them very
5599s	powerful uh twist twisting blades again
5602s	on the Rogue and poison mbu have had
5603s	some interactions that were cleaning up
5605s	that makes it do more damage than was
5607s	intended uh the Druid very recently kind
5609s	of climbed to the top of the power level
5611s	in the game due to kind of a an
5614s	unfortunate interaction with blurred
5615s	beasts uh where we you can double dip
5617s	damage uh and really we've had a couple
5619s	cases like this earlier in the game so
5621s	we're redesigning this Legendary Power
5623s	uh where you know you can kind of apply
5625s	a DOT or some effect and then something
5627s	else does damage based on the dot or
5629s	some dealing damage on something else
5631s	and then that damage double dips and
5632s	then just goes into Crazy Town really
5634s	quick um so we're we're nipping that in
5636s	the bud uh for the Barbarian the Hammer
5639s	of the Ancients the violent Hammer of
5640s	the anches which is one of the upgrades
5641s	that you can get was always being
5642s	applied whether or not you had it and
5644s	we're we're cleaning that up so
5646s	basically everybody would always take
5647s	the other upgrade and then they were
5648s	getting both and then overpower this is
5650s	more of an oversight not a bug but it
5652s	was kind of just too strong in general
5654s	if you remember when season 2 launched
5655s	we we redid All the combat math in the
5657s	game and back then overpower you know
5658s	nobody was really playing it and then we
5661s	really wanted to give it some love and
5662s	we definitely did uh so it's a little
5664s	bit too strong right now and so it's
5666s	just getting toned down
5669s	in and now next I want to talk about our
5671s	season road mapap kind of uh you know
5673s	when we were talking about how we think
5674s	about how often we should update the day
5676s	update the game we wanted to let you the
5678s	community know kind of what the
5679s	conclusions we came to and what we're
5681s	going to be doing so right now our plan
5683s	is to update the game twice per season
5685s	when it comes to class balance uh and
5688s	really just class updates we're going to
5689s	do one update at the launch of a season
5691s	where you're going to see see more kind
5692s	of large scale things The Meta is kind
5694s	of expected to shift a little more and
5696s	then we also plan to do a mid-season
5697s	update and that'll come somewhere around
5699s	the center of the Season you know
5701s	depending on the exact dates of patch
5703s	cycle so you'll get a little bit smaller
5705s	of an update there but still something
5707s	that'll you know do a bunch of Buffs and
5709s	we're go into detail what you can expect
5711s	of
5711s	these so first let's talk about season
5714s	launch and what you can expect when a
5715s	new season comes when it comes to
5716s	classes and systems on
5719s	balance so the first thing is we're
5721s	going to be giving you some new content
5722s	you can count on this uh we're going to
5723s	be giving new legendaries and uniques
5725s	that are added to the game uh the amount
5727s	that we do can be variable but what we
5729s	can commit to is that every class should
5731s	be getting something new in this space
5733s	so you can expect some amount of new
5734s	legendaries and some amount of new
5736s	uniques that'll give you new toys to
5738s	play with next there are balance updates
5741s	uh we'll be doing both balance and
5743s	design updates for all the classes and
5744s	by Design updates I mean you know some
5746s	more in-depth things where we change
5747s	around functionality rather than just
5748s	moving numbers up and down uh again the
5751s	amount is very variable here it kind of
5753s	depends on the needs of the game at the
5754s	time and how much other stuff that we're
5756s	doing but as a general idea just so you
5758s	you can know what to expect we plan to
5759s	do many Buffs to things that are
5761s	underperforming a few Nerfs to the
5763s	things that are really overperforming
5765s	and then bug fixes which can honestly be
5767s	both Buffs or Nerfs depending on what
5769s	the actual bug is and then we also plan
5771s	to do other game updates you know our
5772s	team isn't really only just doing
5774s	classes we also look at Monster balance
5777s	and feeli we do systems with drop rates
5779s	and things like that um how quickly
5781s	players can get things that let them
5783s	have access to different uh types of
5784s	content all of that so you can expect
5786s	that the beginning of a season and then
5789s	last but not at least are larger updates
5790s	and initiatives right these aren't
5792s	guaranteed every season uh but we want
5794s	to launch these when they're ready these
5795s	are kind of you know the the big things
5797s	that really shake up the game and change
5799s	how players fundamentally interact with
5800s	things an example of some things here or
5803s	couple things that we did in season 2
5804s	you know we updated the resistance uh
5806s	math and combat math to the game and
5808s	that was kind of a really big change of
5810s	just how uh players interact with
5812s	monsters and how they interact with
5813s	their gear and stats and how they scale
5815s	things but we also do support for other
5817s	things that might not seem so obvious
5819s	like content like Avatar of year where
5821s	we have to go and look at the monsters
5822s	we have to look at the scaling
5824s	we when they do these things so uh you
5827s	know we we support all those larger
5828s	updates and initiatives well and you can
5830s	expect these kinds of things going
5831s	forward in Seasons but again not every
5833s	season just depends on uh when it's
5835s	ready to come
5837s	out and next let's talk about the
5839s	mid-season patch and kind of what that
5840s	looks like
5842s	so the first thing is we want to bring
5843s	back previous season fan favorites you
5845s	know one of the nice things about a
5846s	seasonal kind of model for a game is
5848s	that we can experiment with things and
5850s	then bring back the things that work so
5852s	an example of where we did this uh
5854s	before was the malignant rains you know
5855s	a lot of the malignant hearts in season
5857s	1 had really cool designs that people
5859s	really liked and got attached to and we
5861s	were able to bring that back in the form
5862s	of unique rins right um going forward we
5865s	think that these the way that we bring
5866s	back these designs could be legendaries
5868s	uniques or even other ways right like we
5870s	can maybe just add it as paragon nodes
5872s	or passives or actives or other ways
5873s	skill tree we don't really want to be
5875s	limited to it must always be uniques or
5877s	it must always be Legend but what we do
5879s	want to limit ourselves to is that we
5881s	definitely want to promise that we can
5882s	do one thing per class and we also think
5885s	that we can pull from all seasonal
5886s	designs not only from the previous
5888s	season right if the design of the power
5890s	mechanic of a season doesn't really fit
5892s	into something that's ever green for
5893s	players then we don't want to be limited
5895s	to trying to shoehorn it in we may just
5896s	bring back you know maybe a lot of
5898s	malignant hearts or a lot of blood seals
5900s	uh people really got attached to we
5902s	don't want to be limited to like oh we
5903s	can only bring back four or five things
5906s	and then we can never bring more so
5907s	we're just going to kind kind of look
5908s	like what happened in the past and
5909s	people liked and then bring some of
5911s	those things
5912s	back and then the balance updates we
5914s	also want to do this in the mid-season
5915s	patch uh the scope of this will be
5918s	smaller compared to the beginning of the
5920s	Season uh and we also want to do other
5922s	game updates you know like I said before
5924s	to monsters systems drop rates and some
5926s	some of those things uh we also want to
5928s	try mix in a lot of Buffs for each class
5930s	and then we will be doing bug fixes and
5932s	these will be both Buffs and Nerfs and
5934s	we'll go into a little more detail of
5935s	that in a minute and then we're really
5937s	going to try and hit this Goo uh no
5939s	promises these are famous last words for
5940s	me but you know we want to try and do
5942s	few to no Nerfs that really aren't bugs
5944s	and our kind of thinking and philosophy
5946s	here is that we know that unlike the
5947s	beginning of a season players spent a
5949s	lot of time farming for these things and
5951s	we don't want you to be scared of making
5953s	powerful stuff and then knowing that
5955s	we're going to take it away if it's too
5956s	strong right and we want to have a sense
5958s	of permanence when you start a season
5959s	that you can try and Target something
5960s	that's cool and then finish it um but
5964s	you know sometimes we need to if
5965s	something's way too far out of control
5967s	particularly now that we have the
5968s	gauntlet coming in and we our plan is to
5970s	really broadcast the Nerfs uh whether
5972s	they're design or bug fixes before the
5974s	mid-season update so that you have an
5976s	idea of what's coming so that you can
5977s	adjust your builds and play
5980s	accordingly so now let's give a couple
5982s	examples here of kind of you know if
5984s	these things that existed in season 3
5986s	and Beyond how would we think about and
5987s	how would we handle these in a
5988s	mid-season
5990s	patch so you know in season 2 like I
5992s	mentioned before the Hammer of the
5994s	Ancients this upgrade violent Hammer of
5995s	the Ancients was just always being
5997s	applied right uh basically overpower
5999s	builds were just getting 30% more
6001s	multiplicative damage for free uh it was
6003s	a bug not intended at all this is
6005s	something that we would fix in a
6007s	midseason patch so like if this happened
6009s	in season 3 you could expect that in the
6010s	mid-season patch we would bug fix this
6012s	and you know that would be a NERF to
6014s	that
6015s	build on the other hand a little bit
6017s	more complicated one uh so if you
6019s	remember aifi essence you Necromancer
6021s	play ERS uh this was your key passive
6023s	and it was really really really good um
6026s	it basically says that your bone skills
6028s	deal more damage based on each point of
6029s	essence you have above 50 the game play
6032s	here that we had intended was you know
6033s	you try you try and increase your mass
6034s	Essence which is a fun little
6036s	itemization game that you have but then
6038s	you also have some gameplay of trying to
6039s	Only cast and then get back to Max as
6041s	soon as you can so you care about
6042s	resource regen like there's all these
6044s	cool gameplay and itemization things
6045s	going on uh what we didn't anticipate
6048s	though was that players would get as
6050s	much Max Essence as they were able able
6051s	to or that they were able to keep it as
6053s	high as they were able to and those were
6054s	really just oversights on our part so
6056s	then in season two you know we we Nerf
6058s	this by 50% a whopping 50% and I still
6061s	think this is probably one of the
6062s	strongest key passives in the game
6064s	that's how good it was it's really good
6066s	um but you know it still keeps all the
6068s	gameplay that it had before so what if
6070s	this existed in season 3 well here this
6074s	would kind of be more of a question mark
6075s	for us uh we may fix it in the
6078s	mid-season patch we would definitely fix
6080s	it at the start of next season but
6081s	technically this isn't a bug it's just
6083s	something that is just really strong
6086s	that we kind of had an oversight about
6088s	um here we would be looking at you know
6089s	Community feedback um how badly is it
6092s	warping The Meta are other builds in
6093s	Necromancer really not able to function
6095s	at all because this one is so much
6096s	better we'd be looking at other more
6098s	things like that that are qualitative uh
6100s	types of feedback and then make a
6102s	judgment call there and you know in
6104s	these cases this is where it gets really
6105s	doodly sometimes we may be wrong but
6107s	we're going to really try and lean on
6108s	the side of not changing unless we
6110s	really feel feel like it's needed to
6112s	keep the game
6114s	healthy so again kind of a recap a tldr
6118s	uh first our strategy here with players
6119s	is to communicate early and communicate
6121s	often we want to let you know
6122s	particularly when it comes to Nerfs
6124s	what's coming and really what we're
6125s	thinking um and then again at the start
6127s	of the Season you can expect some new
6128s	content in the form of legendaries and
6130s	uniques we'll also be getting some more
6132s	in-depth balance updates including
6134s	design update updates to things that we
6135s	feel we could do better at uh lots of
6137s	Buffs few Nerfs but bug fixes that are
6139s	both Buffs and Nerfs to keep the in a
6141s	healthy State and then in the mid-season
6143s	patch you get new content in the form of
6145s	uh previous fan favorites from other
6147s	seasons and then we will be doing a
6149s	balance patch uh it'll be a bit smaller
6151s	it'll be mostly Buffs and then bug fixes
6153s	that are both Buffs and Nerfs and
6155s	hopefully few to know to know design
6157s	Nerfs uh is what we're going to try and
6159s	commit to and so again the reason why
6161s	we're doing this is we really want you
6162s	to know kind of where we're thinking and
6164s	we want to try and commit to concrete
6166s	things we can and this is something that
6168s	we feel we can commit to you as far as
6170s	what we bring uh to DIA before going
6171s	forward um again last thing is that you
6174s	know we are open to feedback on this
6175s	this isn't set in stone that forever
6177s	more we'll be only doing two updates per
6179s	season when it comes to balance um we're
6181s	trying to find that right amount of time
6184s	where you feel like you can experiment
6185s	and have fun but the same thing isn't
6187s	strong forever so you know please give
6189s	us your feedback let us know what you
6191s	think um but this is how we're going to
6192s	start and then we're going to go from
6194s	here so thank
6195s	you awesome thank you so much uh Adam
6199s	for going over all the balance changes
6201s	coming for season 3 along with the road
6203s	map which is really important and so
6204s	that's that's a big thing that we will
6208s	make sure we do is obviously communicate
6210s	often communicate early specific about
6213s	uh or specifically about all the balance
6215s	changes that may occur with the start of
6217s	a season and of course with that
6218s	midseason patch and just for like like
6221s	better understanding within the
6222s	community if you follow version numbers
6224s	of our our our our updates because we
6226s	usually do client patches with um uh big
6228s	patches uh usually mid-season patch is
6231s	land around like around the3 variant of
6234s	a patch if if if you want to go
6237s	specifically in that um we do have a lot
6239s	of uh other quality of life items that
6241s	are also coming within season 3 that we
6243s	do want to get into before we jump into
6245s	Q&A uh and we did want to uh tackle some
6248s	of these because these are really big
6249s	and these are based off of uh players
6251s	and what they're telling us and of
6252s	course uh things and improvements that
6254s	we've already talked about beforehand
6255s	that are now actually coming into uh
6257s	Diablo 4 um one big thing that I know
6259s	that we mentioned uh in one of our prior
6262s	streams with campfire chat Mr Joe Shelly
6264s	our game director actually brought up uh
6266s	which was hell Tides uh hell Tides was
6269s	you know something we learned within
6270s	season 2 and season of blood is everyone
6272s	really enjoyed blood Harvest and blood
6274s	Harvest was always up uh hell Tides
6276s	though were kind of timed in specific uh
6278s	moments and you know hell Tides was
6281s	something that we wanted to improve upon
6283s	uh for players and now hell Tides will
6285s	actually be up pretty much all the time
6287s	uh so players will be able to actually
6288s	jump into hell Tides whenever they need
6290s	to there is a 5 minute break uh to kind
6292s	of reset the zone and stuff but uh every
6295s	hour you will be able to jump into a
6298s	hell TI which is great so it's more
6300s	opportunities to earn Cinders uh and of
6302s	course uh more opportunities to uh earn
6305s	and obtain loot or even like things like
6307s	living steel and stuff to kind of go
6308s	through the uh the Uber boss ladder
6310s	which is great um the other thing is and
6312s	this is this is a controversial topic
6314s	because I don't know how people actually
6316s	uh pronounce this but I've always called
6318s	it wasdi other people call it wasda some
6321s	people call it WD we need a PLL up I
6324s	almost want to put a poll up within uh
6326s	within twitch chat maybe you guys can
6327s	chime in here and let me know what you
6329s	prefer calling it I'm going to call it
6331s	WD uh but WD controls are coming to
6334s	Diablo 4 this is actually something we
6336s	talked about way back at the launch of
6338s	the game we heard a lot of players
6340s	asking specifically for additional
6342s	control um uh opportunity or options for
6345s	them and this actually is a a great
6348s	feature that uh Drew I know who's uh
6352s	on on the D4 team shout out to Drew I
6355s	know he's watching but and he's here in
6358s	this office but the but at least for Wy
6360s	it uh it offers more uh accessibility
6363s	options for players uh which is great to
6366s	see so uh wasy controls are going to be
6368s	in Diablo I and this is something we've
6370s	been talking about we're also really
6372s	lucky it came online just as we were
6374s	putting all those hazards in the
6375s	dungeons so now you know the players
6377s	have even more precise control to avoid
6380s	wda feel very good WD however you want
6384s	to pronounce it uh that is uh going to
6388s	be chat likes Wy according to Rich it's
6391s	to
6392s	be uh but yeah it is coming to the game
6395s	and what's really great about this as
6396s	well is that it is customizable you can
6399s	actually uh uh change things out and
6401s	stuff if you'd like uh so um really
6404s	happy to see it and we're happy to hear
6405s	uh feedback from players and their
6407s	experiences with it uh once they jump
6409s	into season 3 uh and then of course uh
6412s	we have uh a a new resp mode coming to
6415s	the skill trees you know this is um uh
6418s	respecing on skill trees has always been
6420s	a little difficult and now there's a
6421s	more optimized way of being able to do
6423s	so another big uh uh Community item that
6426s	a lot of players have been asking for uh
6429s	this kind of goes uh uh hand inand with
6431s	the opportunity of actually taking your
6433s	whole Paragon board and completely
6434s	resetting it before as opposed to doing
6436s	it one by one that we had beforeand a
6438s	lot yeah there's there's more
6440s	opportunities to actually Respec and do
6442s	it in a a much more organized fashion
6444s	with
6445s	this and then uh this has been a huge
6448s	one this is specifically for console
6450s	players um I probably get this question
6453s	maybe like once every single day about
6455s	gold trading um obviously more gold is
6457s	in the uh Diablo
6460s	4 economy or ecosphere with this with
6464s	season especially since season 2 and uh
6467s	for console users like trading gold has
6469s	been very difficult uh it's been slow uh
6472s	almost it's it's you could be there for
6475s	quite a while trying to trade a
6476s	significant amount of gold and so the
6478s	gold trading UI has been updated for
6480s	console users uh so they'll be able to
6482s	actually trade gold without having to
6484s	maybe spend 5 to 10 minutes doing so in
6486s	one trade so I know that is a big thing
6488s	that players have been asking for so
6490s	we're happy that's actually being
6492s	included and then this one is also kind
6495s	of calling back to uh What uh Joe shell
6498s	had brought up in a a prior campfire
6500s	chat uh which was uh item higher item
6504s	scaling in World tier 4 I think he uh
6506s	used a really good example of how uh
6509s	World bosses was kind of like hey you
6511s	you get 925 gear off of them uh and at
6513s	times it feels like maybe that's like
6515s	the most optimized way of doing it and
6517s	it didn't feel very rewarding in other
6519s	uh types of activities such as like
6521s	nightmare dungeons for example so higher
6524s	item scaling in World tier 4 is actually
6526s	coming into uh season 3 and and going
6529s	forward for Diablo four uh so even when
6532s	you're doing uh like higher nightmare
6534s	dungeons you're going to have way more
6535s	opportunities of actually obtaining um
6539s	uh I 925 gear uh as opposed to uh you
6543s	know before where it was it was a much
6545s	lower chance and it felt like you should
6547s	be doing other types of activities
6549s	beforehand so making sure that you know
6551s	there's more options available as
6553s	opposed to just kind of pigeon huling
6555s	yourself into maybe timed World bosses
6557s	and stuff like that from that
6559s	end
6561s	and then um this one is is a a point of
6564s	feedback that we've gotten from a lot of
6566s	players and this is something that you
6567s	know we kind of optimized uh within
6570s	season two last year things like the
6572s	living steel buff based off of community
6574s	feedback was really big and so we're
6576s	actually increasing opportunities to
6577s	earn the Beast and Ice uh summoning
6579s	items so uh this kind of goes back to
6582s	what I was saying earlier in the in our
6583s	our stream where uh with the boss ladder
6586s	there will be more opportunities for
6587s	players to kind of jump into those uh so
6589s	there'll be additional summoning items
6590s	for beast and Ice uh which will then of
6592s	course help you eventually get to Uber
6594s	durial um and this goes hand inand with
6596s	some of the living steel Buffs that we
6598s	ended up doing in season 2 uh within
6600s	hell tide so a lot of quality of life
6602s	updates and there's additional ones that
6604s	players will end up seeing uh within the
6605s	patch notes that'll be releasing
6607s	tomorrow uh so you should uh check out
6609s	the patch notes that'll be hitting on
6610s	Diablo 4.com uh specifically for uh all
6614s	the details and all the the items that
6616s	even Adam Jackson was talking about
6618s	earlier um now we come to the part where
6621s	I I always mess up names uh but actually
6625s	actually before we do that um I'm I'm
6627s	breaking order produ the our wonderful
6630s	production group here is going to be
6631s	like what's wrong with you Adam um one
6634s	thing I did want to call out is we
6635s	actually have a new uh promo for for
6638s	twitch starting with season 3 and that
6640s	is our support of streamer Pro promo uh
6643s	we had the support of streamer for
6645s	season 1 we have it again for season 2
6647s	it is a new amount that players can
6649s	actually earn this time it's different
6651s	uh before we only had a select group of
6652s	streamers I think it was like around
6654s	like 2,000 streamers that signed up and
6656s	opted in now it's for any streamer that
6659s	streams Diablo 4 thank you twitch for
6661s	making the engineering updates to allow
6663s	for it to be just across the whole
6664s	entire category any streamer that is
6666s	streaming Diablo 4 if you a viewer and
6669s	you happen to be watching them you can
6670s	either purchase a a uh sub from them or
6673s	gift a sub and to a total of two so it
6676s	could be one gifted one purchase or two
6678s	gifted and you'll actually end up Ear
6680s	earning the mount as well you just need
6682s	to make sure that your battl net account
6683s	is actually linked with your Twitch
6685s	account and uh you are watching a
6688s	participating uh Diablo 4 streamer it'll
6690s	note it on their channels and stuff uh
6692s	for you to earn that amount so that is
6694s	coming and there'll be a Blog later
6696s	today about that specific um uh twitch
6699s	supporter streamer program that's going
6700s	to be launching uh with the start of
6702s	season 3 on January 23rd so make sure to
6704s	check it out and I believe it's actually
6705s	going to be running for quite a while
6707s	like like a month or so uh so players uh
6709s	will be able to kind of uh take part in
6711s	that uh from their end but uh now our
6714s	favorite part which is uh the Q&A and
6717s	we're actually going to be going back
6718s	and forth between Irvine and here in
6720s	Albany because Adam Jackson of course is
6722s	still with us uh to answer any specific
6725s	questions related to class and class
6727s	balance that uh players may have but I
6730s	know one question um that as as we queue
6733s	up questions specifically from our side
6735s	and have my my live feed right here we
6737s	attempt to not butcher names uh maybe I
6740s	will I will spoilers uh but uh one
6743s	question that we do have is uh how have
6745s	the team's thoughts changed in regards
6746s	to balance since Diablo 4's release this
6749s	is a question for Mr Adam Jackson and
6751s	Irvine if you could uh help us with that
6756s	answer yeah um let me
6760s	think it's a deep question but uh I
6763s	think okay so uh I guess we'll start
6768s	with because you know there's like a
6769s	long history of pal right I think
6770s	there's actually a very good story and
6772s	we could start even before launch and
6773s	going into launch and how we thought
6774s	about things um but I think we'll start
6776s	with like season one and the transition
6779s	from kind of the launch version of the
6781s	game into our first season right um
6783s	obviously we launched the game we had
6785s	some pretty benign ideals I think of you
6787s	know hey we want all the classes to be
6789s	within a certain power range of each
6790s	other and everything should be viable
6792s	for everyone and you know basically
6793s	everything feels good and there's a lot
6794s	of different ways to play right um and
6797s	then one of the issues that we ran into
6798s	this season one that I think is
6799s	interesting to talk about is we realized
6802s	that in the in our quest to make items
6805s	and and item stats really fun and
6806s	powerful and interesting we had over
6808s	budgeted on quite a few of them and I
6810s	think just in the interest of time I'll
6811s	pick on cooldown reduction it's a very
6813s	scary stat to me and the team um so you
6816s	know we realized in the launch version
6818s	Game the cooldown reduction was too high
6819s	right and so players are basically able
6822s	to solve cooldown reduction us that with
6824s	air quotes um and get to a point where
6826s	they had very low if any cooldowns on a
6828s	lot of their skills and and this was
6831s	true for many stats not just cool down
6832s	reduction but one of the problems that
6834s	we knew was going to come up that was a
6836s	kind of futur us problem but really
6838s	almost immediately us problem is that if
6840s	we let players solve these things
6842s	whether it's you know defensive stats
6843s	cooldown reduction resource whatever it
6845s	may be then and we let them solve it
6848s	only in gear then we're going to get to
6850s	a state where we can't give exciting
6852s	things to you anymore that you're going
6854s	to be really happy about and that will
6856s	feel impactful because you just got it
6858s	all in gear right and while gear does
6859s	need to be cool interesting if you
6861s	completely solve these things I can't
6862s	give you a legendary power or I can't
6864s	give you something late game that really
6866s	Buffs and changes your build in a
6867s	meaningful way if you got it from Just
6870s	One Source and so then we launched
6872s	season one and we're like okay you know
6873s	we're going to kind of eat our
6874s	vegetables here and we're going to
6876s	preserve the long Health term health of
6877s	the game but we're going to do these
6878s	very necessary Nerfs and there were
6880s	quite a few right and even at the time
6882s	we did this we knew you know we tried to
6884s	mix in a bunch of Buffs and you know try
6886s	and make it feel good but we we just
6887s	didn't hit the mark right we kind of
6889s	failed in that endeavor ever we did you
6891s	know do the necessary things to bring
6892s	the game in a long-term healthy state
6894s	but it came at the the cost of player
6897s	fun and player sentiment and so you went
6898s	from you know the beginning preseason to
6900s	season 1 and the game overall just got
6902s	quite a bit less fun because you were
6904s	just less powerful and you weren't
6905s	compensated enough from the player point
6907s	of view and so we kind of learned a
6910s	lesson there of like we need to be a
6911s	little bit more thoughtful and careful
6913s	of when we roll out these things and how
6915s	we roll them out and then also how we
6916s	communicate it right because we didn't
6917s	really tell people the the interest
6920s	because of these problems we just came
6921s	out with a patch and you know let you
6922s	figure it out and that didn't go too
6924s	well right so then in season 2 came
6926s	around and you know we did a big combat
6928s	math update to the game we were kind of
6930s	a little worried cuz you know we had to
6931s	kind of need thread this needle of we
6933s	also were nerfing player power because
6935s	we changed a lot of multiplicative
6936s	synergies to be additive but we wanted
6938s	to do it in a way where you felt more
6939s	powerful and it felt more fun and fair
6941s	so we had to do a lot of more work on
6943s	the monster side and balance monsters to
6945s	the new expected player power when you
6946s	know vulnerable is not always
6947s	multiplicative and all these other crazy
6949s	things going on
6950s	and and I think we threaded that needle
6952s	really well a little bit to my surprise
6954s	I'll be honest I was a little scared
6955s	going into it because it's just such a
6957s	big update right um and then we also
6959s	decided during season two when it came
6961s	to balance that instead of trying to you
6963s	know Nerf and whacka all things that are
6965s	really strong and immediately take them
6968s	away because it's not supposed to be
6969s	that way we just kind of let it ride and
6971s	so that's why you saw things like you
6972s	know ball lightning Hoda Barb uh the
6974s	Druid uh poison Druid uh Rogue combo
6977s	like many classes had just something
6979s	that was kind of cra crazy um and we
6981s	just Let It Go um but even now you know
6984s	towards the the end of season two we're
6986s	seeing that you know some people are
6987s	starting to be a little upset of like
6989s	hey you know these same builds are just
6990s	killing everything and if I want to do
6992s	the really hard content I have to be one
6994s	of these things because that's the only
6995s	thing that works um and obviously we
6997s	don't want that to be the future of the
6998s	game forever and so now we're we're
7000s	trying to come up with a more balanced
7002s	approach of how we see these things and
7004s	that's why again I was saying kind of in
7005s	my presentation we're thinking a lot of
7007s	you know how often do we update actually
7009s	really matters I think from from your
7011s	point of view as a player because that
7013s	determines how long you are safe to do
7015s	something that feels crazy and awesome
7016s	and Powerful but then also how we update
7019s	the game matters as well of like hey are
7020s	we okay with you know one or two things
7023s	being really strong for a while or what
7025s	is the the range that something can be
7027s	too strong before we consider it a
7029s	problem uh that's another subject that
7031s	maybe I like to go into in the future
7032s	but or more in depth in the future but I
7035s	think that kind of answers the question
7036s	it's already a little longwinded so I'll
7038s	there all good no I appreciate it Adam
7041s	and uh so we're going to go through some
7043s	additional questions I might be going
7045s	going back to Adam but I know uh one
7048s	question that we at least have gotten
7050s	regarding uh season 3 is um this is from
7054s	Ice Vixen I'm attempting uh what about
7057s	group play in vaults how does that
7059s	specifically work um because obviously
7061s	there's like the warding buff and
7062s	everything how how do rewards kind of
7064s	associate with that right so you were
7067s	able to group up and play through a
7071s	vault and um yeah it behaves pretty much
7075s	like any other nightmare dungeon and so
7078s	you know um there are instances uh where
7082s	if you leave the dungeon uh you will
7085s	lose the buff so we're trying to avoid
7088s	some cases where players might try to uh
7091s	cheat their way to the end yeah uh but
7093s	overall you know we're trying to be as
7095s	supportive as possible for group play
7097s	awesome makes sense and then I know uh
7099s	this is a question back for Adam a
7101s	popular question uh regarding uh minion
7105s	builds uh and plans for Minion builds I
7108s	know I know this one has been uh brought
7111s	up in chat quite often uh what are the
7113s	plans for like uh like maybe Necromancer
7115s	Dre minion Bill specifically yeah yeah
7118s	yeah um yeah I definitely don't get
7120s	asked this all the time uh
7123s	so let me
7127s	think so we we know the feedback that
7129s	people want minion builds to be kind of
7131s	more impactful and and these are now I'm
7133s	kind of going into my opinion but I
7135s	think a lot of that feedback comes from
7136s	a combination of you know they don't
7138s	feel uh necessarily maybe as powerful as
7141s	other builds which we we can and we do
7142s	and if you've noticed in our past
7144s	patches we've consistently been number
7145s	buffing minion builds um and even this
7147s	patch does have some number Buffs in
7148s	that realm but I I think a more hard
7151s	more complicated difficult problem to
7153s	solve is kind of the relationship
7154s	between the player and the minion and
7155s	making the minions feel really cool and
7158s	awesome and your investment into them
7160s	really pay off in a way that is kind of
7161s	more visceral um that is a harder
7164s	problem to solve that
7166s	requires um in my mind and I'm not
7169s	promising anything but you know these
7170s	are things like you know rethinking of
7172s	how the Book of the Dead upgrades work
7174s	and that relationship between
7175s	sacrificing and Minion upgrades and and
7178s	really trying to make them do more uh
7180s	visually I think cool and awesome things
7182s	and maybe more reacting to you and so
7184s	you feel like they're they're doing a
7186s	lot more on their own a little bit um
7190s	that's kind of the the direction that we
7191s	think we don't have anything to announce
7193s	right now as far as that and J
7194s	companions I think are kind of in a
7195s	similar vein even though they don't have
7197s	quite the the same supporting fantasy
7199s	that Necromancer does because they don't
7200s	have a book of the Dead for example but
7202s	I think players really just want this
7203s	visceral feeling like my I've got my
7205s	gain with me and we're all going and and
7207s	messing with stuff um so you know we're
7209s	doing number Buffs now uh it is a thing
7212s	that we are looking at I don't have any
7214s	promises of when because again this is
7216s	something that I think is a little more
7217s	difficult to tackle and we have other
7218s	things that we're tackling that are you
7220s	know a little more difficult coming in
7221s	the near future but um it is something
7223s	that we know of and that will definitely
7225s	be coming I just don't know when awesome
7228s	I appreciate it um a question related to
7231s	uh Uber uniques on Uber vaults uh is
7234s	that something that players can find
7236s	there or like what can they find in that
7238s	so so Uber uniques are still the domain
7240s	of of duriel at this point that's going
7242s	to be your best shot for getting Uber
7244s	uniques uh but we still wanted to make
7246s	the Uber Vault rewarding and so um for
7249s	the CAW construct we've actually created
7252s	several unique tuning Stones uh which
7256s	really we haven't given away too much
7258s	information about but um defeating Uber
7261s	malus is going to be the only way to
7262s	earn those awesome yeah so players like
7265s	will be able to get really really like
7267s	powerful unique tuning Stones
7269s	specifically from those and I will spoil
7272s	it a little bit we did technically have
7275s	uh like PC Gamer did a a good interview
7278s	with with uh uh with Sean and and I know
7281s	it was kind of like revealed
7282s	specifically in in one of the the shots
7284s	there so if people want like a sneak
7286s	peek of what one does there there is an
7288s	opportunity to actually check it out
7290s	there so um people can actually see it
7292s	there um another question back for Adam
7295s	uh this is another big question within
7296s	chat oh by the way beef cake monster
7298s	asked that last question I forgot names
7300s	but this one is actually asked by a lot
7302s	of people so just many names
7305s	specifically um snapshotting
7307s	snapshotting is something that um uh
7310s	kind of appeared especially as players
7311s	were going through like Avatar of Zer uh
7314s	do we have any plans regarding
7316s	snapshotting what we might do for that
7319s	yeah uh we do have things coming I don't
7321s	have anything to announce today uh it
7323s	won't be at the beginning of season 3
7324s	but we we do have fixes coming for
7326s	snapshotting we're aware of the problem
7329s	um it came on it came out a little hot
7331s	at the end of season two but uh yeah
7333s	we've talked about it we've seen it we
7334s	we kind of know the intricacies of it
7336s	and we will be taking a look at it in
7338s	the future
7340s	awesome I appreciate it um a question
7342s	that I've also seen a few times in chat
7344s	about Zen Co funny enough uh do we like
7347s	encounter Z zultan cool in this do not
7350s	encounter him he is still dead no
7351s	digging up his head this time um but you
7353s	will hear his voice um we have several
7355s	lore books that Dro throughout the
7357s	vaults and generally his presence um and
7359s	aan speaks of him quite often of course
7362s	we have to hear zultan Co and his
7363s	wonderful voice of talking down to
7366s	everyone um so that that makes perfect
7368s	sense um I know
7370s	a question regarding um The Vault
7372s	specifically is that an area that
7374s	players can actually maybe potentially
7375s	level up Paragon glyphs or is that still
7377s	something that is uh uh tied to
7381s	nightmare dungeons so the nightmare
7383s	versions of vaults should work the same
7385s	way as nightmare dungeons in that
7386s	respect you should be able to to level
7388s	up your glyphs there too awesome yeah I
7390s	know that a lot of people were hearing
7392s	about the nightmare vaults and they're
7393s	going like well does that serve also the
7395s	same like can I do almost like get both
7398s	objectives in one type of thing which
7400s	you now can uh so and that was from G
7402s	055 who asked that question uh
7405s	specifically and then um I know a
7408s	question we have from uh you and tanks
7411s	up uh bad terrible Adam uh how many
7415s	times can we do the gauntlet in a week
7418s	so we have not restricted players access
7422s	to the gauntlet um I think it's you know
7425s	it's the type of content we want people
7427s	to try and master and in order to be
7430s	able to do that you've got to be able to
7432s	practice and you've got to be able to
7434s	improve and so really it's you can play
7437s	it as much or as little as you want um
7441s	which is a change again from something
7442s	like a nightmare dungeon where you need
7444s	a Sigil the only requirement right now
7447s	is that you are World tier 4 and that
7449s	you think you're ready yeah so again you
7452s	can jump into uh uh these specifically
7455s	before gauntlets specifically before
7457s	hitting level 100 usually preferred to
7459s	go in at level 100 but uh you can try
7462s	tackling it a little bit earlier if you
7464s	want uh and you can do it as many times
7465s	as you want which is really cool so it's
7467s	like it's I'm excited to see how players
7470s	optimize uh because of course they
7472s	change every single week and they get to
7473s	kind of like learn and they get to kind
7475s	of maybe modify based on how many people
7477s	are within their party which is really
7479s	really cool um a question that we also
7482s	have been getting regarding um uh some
7485s	of the uh the hold I lost my question
7490s	now I'm so bad at this U the itemization
7492s	updates that we have talked about in the
7494s	past a lot of people are asking like hey
7496s	is that still on track for season 4 this
7498s	one was specifically from uh Ferell uh
7501s	yes that is still on track for season 4
7503s	we have a a really massive itemization
7505s	update coming uh specifically for That
7508s	season uh and we'll have more news to
7510s	share as we get closer to season 4 uh
7512s	but for right now we don't have news to
7514s	share with with the community uh for for
7516s	season 3 regarding that but uh it it
7519s	will be pretty significant and we'll be
7521s	talking about that more in a future uh
7523s	stream here coming down the line um and
7526s	then uh let's see any updates regarding
7529s	like some of the group finders or social
7531s	features I know that is also another big
7533s	question that um a lot of players have
7535s	been asking over the last you know uh
7538s	couple months specifically about hey are
7540s	we making any changes and everything
7542s	towards that and really this is
7544s	something that we addressed at BlizzCon
7545s	as well I think Tiffany answered this
7547s	one where um it is something that that
7549s	we're looking into and we're the the
7551s	team is obviously seeing the feedback
7553s	and it's something that we're we're
7554s	planning on working and making better as
7556s	through the lifetime of Diablo I um so
7559s	players can expect to see better and
7561s	more optimizations towards the social
7563s	features and the Friend Finders
7565s	specifically from that end
7568s	um let's see uh do we get more sources
7572s	of uber uniques um uh for this specific
7576s	season uh really the the best way of
7578s	grabbing Uber uni is through the boss
7580s	ladder for sure through uh Uber durial
7582s	and there are more uh you know you can
7584s	of course find Uber uni anytime
7585s	throughout the game it's just there are
7587s	higher chances through uh Uber durial uh
7590s	and that is still the same specifically
7592s	for this season and then of course now
7594s	more opportunities to go into that fight
7596s	now since we've like amped up a lot of
7598s	the uh the drops specifically around uh
7601s	like living steel from season two to the
7603s	be some nice uh summoning items now with
7605s	season 3 so players will actually be
7607s	able to kind of jump into uh ubu dual
7609s	specifically from that end um let's see
7613s	I know we get a lot of questions about
7614s	field of view uh from from players uh
7617s	asking like hey is there any update of
7619s	like are you guys planning on actually
7621s	uh uh increasing the field of view uh
7623s	right now we don't have any plans uh
7625s	towards that it's just something that
7627s	you know we we've been hearing a lot
7628s	from from players uh there's a lot of
7630s	work that of course has to go into
7632s	something like that um so but you know
7634s	we'll we if whenever we do have an
7636s	update we'll we'll make sure to actually
7637s	provide that specifically on that end
7639s	uh codex updates is another big thing
7641s	because people have been asking about
7643s	you know the Codex updates I'm just like
7645s	kind of shotgunning quite I'm seeing
7647s	like Words appear in chat I'm like oh
7649s	yeah that thing um that is something
7652s	that we talked about before and that
7653s	work is currently underway uh and that
7655s	will also be part of a future season uh
7658s	and it is a massive update there
7660s	something that we had talked about
7661s	beforehand on previous streams which was
7663s	uh kind of helping out with inventory uh
7666s	making sure the those specific uh
7668s	aspects were like pulled out of
7669s	inventory and kind of stored uh within
7672s	within the character or cataloged within
7674s	the character so uh we will have more uh
7677s	info on when that actually ends up
7678s	hitting soon um but there's a ton of
7681s	things that are coming to uh D4 to to
7684s	help address a lot of some of this
7685s	community feedback specifically on that
7688s	end and then um question regarding
7690s	Gauntlet um this is from uh RM dragonart
7695s	uh will you be able to inspect the top
7696s	players in Gauntlet and see what builds
7698s	their potentially using so you will be
7700s	able to inspect the top players from
7702s	Gauntlet there will be a link from the
7704s	leaderboard to a player's
7707s	profile um and you'll be able to see
7709s	what they're playing currently uh but we
7712s	do not save a snapshot right now of what
7715s	they played at that moment got it
7717s	awesome so yeah if you want to see kind
7719s	of like uh you know top builds and stuff
7722s	like that you have the opportunity to
7723s	but it does if they happen to change
7725s	their build overnight or something like
7727s	that it's going to grab whatever that
7728s	existing build is specifically from that
7730s	end um and then uh I know we've gotten
7734s	or this was a question from Max not TV
7736s	regarding malfus um do we have any plans
7739s	of malfus becoming maybe potentially an
7740s	endgame boss outside of the season um or
7744s	are we planning on maybe you know
7747s	introducing it in like a boss letter in
7749s	the in the future right so every season
7752s	you know uh much as Adam described for
7755s	power you know we take a look at those
7757s	elements that we really liked from a
7759s	previous season to see if we can bring
7760s	them forward um certainly people uh on
7764s	the team like fighting malus hopefully
7766s	you all enjoy fighting malfus too uh if
7769s	you like fighting him enough then
7772s	perhaps in the future yeah we could
7774s	bring them over to the boss ladder but
7776s	just like foran yeah but we're not with
7778s	no commitments to that quite yet awesome
7781s	cool well I know we went through some
7783s	questions here and we're we're a little
7785s	over be we're aiming for for 90 minutes
7788s	we're a little Beyond it's totally fine
7790s	though um really yeah a lot of stuff in
7792s	season 3 really appreciate everyone uh
7794s	providing uh questions and if you have
7796s	additional questions of course um make
7798s	sure to ask them over social media
7801s	Reddit forums we're always checking
7803s	those out and of course we'll we'll try
7804s	to address them in either future streams
7806s	or immediately if we can uh after the
7808s	stream again patch notes for season 3
7811s	and the new the new uh 1.3 patch are
7813s	going to be hitting tomorrow so make
7815s	sure to check diablo.com specifically
7817s	for those patch notes
7819s	um it's a it's a big one always a big
7821s	always a big patch notes uh when you
7823s	start off a new season specifically um
7826s	and you know we have a lot of of other
7828s	activities that are going on within the
7829s	Diablo Universe Diablo I started their
7832s	new season uh just a couple weeks ago uh
7835s	D2 repping D2 today there we go d2r um
7839s	uh D2 I know we've gotten a lot of
7840s	questions about when the next ladder
7842s	will be we'll have more news on that in
7843s	February we don't expect it a ladder
7845s	reset to happen until February but we'll
7847s	give you a specific date uh as we get
7849s	closer to February of course Di has a
7851s	ton of new updates as well they had a
7852s	big big update before the holiday
7854s	regarding uh familiars being added to
7856s	the game and they've been expanding on
7858s	that um so there's a ton of stuff coming
7860s	to uh to the Diablo Universe D4 even
7864s	earlier this month we we we uh talked
7866s	about how uh we will have uh Ray tracing
7869s	and uh a lot of those features coming
7871s	into Diablo 4 here really soon uh so um
7874s	players should expect to see that um uh
7877s	within a future update really soon so
7879s	I'm I'm super excited for that those
7881s	items um but lots of stuff within the
7883s	diaa universe and of course uh season 3
7886s	hitting on January 23rd um I Just Want
7889s	to Thank You Know meline Dan Adam
7892s	Jackson from Irvine uh I'm looking
7894s	forward to uh flying back and saying hi
7897s	again Adam but I want to thank you guys
7900s	for for of course joining us on uh this
7903s	special uh developer update live stream
7905s	for season 3 um and just a heads up for
7908s	for people that are watching uh we uh
7910s	our friends at Xbox are actually doing
7913s	an Xbox developer direct uh that's going
7914s	to be starting here really soon uh so
7916s	make sure to check that out on their the
7918s	Xbox channel on Twitch and on YouTube
7920s	and of course uh we'll be raing into
7922s	some of our our wonderful Diablo
7923s	Partners on YouTube and twitch so make
7925s	sure to tune in to them immediately
7927s	after the stream um but thank you guys
7929s	again for for tuning in for the
7932s	developer update uh for season the
7935s	construct which is launching on January
7937s	23rd Pion notes tomorrow on Diablo 4.com
7940s	and yeah thank you guys from alany
7942s	really appreciate it you have a good
7956s	[Music]
7963s	one

Diablo IV Developer Update - January 2024

Transcript (by Youtube)

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