BlizzCon - Diablo III Gameplay Q&A - hellforge

Blizzard just finished conducting their Q&A Panel, and here are some of the things that they shared:


General:
No decision made on powerlevelling.


There will be respecs.


Classes do not have 'roles' like an MMO would. All classes are DPS classes.


There's hell, nightmare, normal modes (but we knew this already).



Deaths:
Special deaths - some monsters have hand-crafted animations that are theirs specifically.


Skill-driven Deaths - "you can't have a disintegrate skill if it doesn't actually disintegrate something" - so there are now locusts, acid bursts, that sort of thing. The death is very much part of the skill.


Rare Deaths - Characters are full of "evil" - so when they die, obviously, they have to explode. Why? "Explosions are cool!"

Basic Monster Deaths
Other half of the visceral equation Physical forces Damage flavoured deaths Critical deaths - "we wanted to make them noticeable... so they *have* to explode!" (different and awesome deaths, mainly - dependent on attacks, damage, and characters)



Runes:
Runes modify skills, and there are tier levels in runes.


You can swap runes in your skills. Runes drop frequently. Runes are solely a modification of your skills, not items like D2. Higher tier runes have a greater effect. High end runes are rare and are a big find.


For example, runes can make skills cost less, or do more damage, or perform other changes to your skills (e.g. knockbacks and reflecting damage). A teleport skill with the "strike" rune does damage to nearby enemies that you teleport close to.


Skill System:
- Evolution of Diablo 2 Skill System
- Synergies integrated as new skills
- Skill Runes (new system)
- Respec (although it's not designed yet)

- Simple to understand
- Compelling earlygame and lategame (taking difficulty levels into consideration)
- Large variety of build possibilities
- Supportive of 6 active skills



Skill system has you focusing on six or so skills of your choice throughout the game. No more swapping between the same 2 skills over and over.


The problem with Diablo 2's skill system is that it really focused people into 2 or 3 main skills of the same element, so immunities were imbalancing. Immunities will be toned down.


The focus on the new system is to target six skills, and not 2 or 3.


New spells announced for Witch Doctor:
Firebat Swarm, Plague of Toads


The Wizard's Disintegrate:
Disintegrate is a ranged skill that allows you to hold down your mouse button and move your mouse around to sweep the beam everywhere. It gets stronger the longer you leave it on, but uses exponentially more energy.



Other Questions:
Will there be a Paladin / Hammerdin or similar class?
We haven't announced it yet


Does Wirt have a fourth leg?
Possibly. Post suggestions on the Official Forum on what you'd like to see, because Blizzard wants to bring him back.


Is there a secret cow level?
It's a secret.