Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls: Everything you need to know

 

Blizzard brought the big guns to this years GamesCon, announcing the much anticipated expansion to Diablo 3. Called “Reaper of Souls“, the Expansion will center around Malthael, the angel of death, who has seized control of the black soulstone, which houses the soul of Diablo himself. Blizzard promises a “darker” game this time a round, and Malthael is certainly dark, able to siphon souls from the people of Sanctuary, even allowing him to turn citizens into his minions. Of course, Reaper of Souls will include new monsters, including fallen angels.

Here’s the official cinematic that announced the expansion.

There are a lot of changes coming with this expansion, a new class, enemies, levels, loot rules, etc. We’ve listed them all below for your convenience, Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls: Everything you need to know:

1. A new class, the Crusader:

Without a doubt this is the most exciting announcement for already existing players. The Crusader, which will be a type of old school Paladin, was and always had been a very popular choice for any D&D player. The Crusader class is a holy knight, not unlike Diablo 2′s Paladin. They are described as “a war machine made human. The Crusader packs skills like shield bash and a deadly technique called Falling Sword, which basically turns the Crusader into a bolt of lightning crashing down from the heavens.  These Templar-esque warriors served as Palain special forces before the Westmarch incident, and now they’re on a mission to retake the town.  Crusaders wield shields and flails, and are described as “mid-range melee” warriors, specializing in shield bashing and smiting. Diablo 2′s Fist of the Heavens holy lightning strike returns and Crusaders can follow up with Falling Sword, a teleporting drop attack that turns the Paladin’s heavily armored body into an artillery strike. Paladins were all about support, Crusaders have replaced their benevolent auras with AOE zones that help co-op partners and injure enemies at the same time. Below is a list of the crusaders Abilities and Skills:

Class Resource:
– Wrath

Main Stat:
– Strength

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

 

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

 

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

Here’s a few more images from the Epic Crusader, Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls: Everything you need to know :

 

2. A New Villain and Story:

The indestrutible black soulstone that housed Diablo’s spirit in Diablo 3 is transported deep underground to hide it from evil gods. THREE SECONDS LATER evil god Maltheal glides in, reaps the souls of Tyreal’s honour guard, wounds Tyreal and steals the soulstone. “Fetch the nephalem!” says Tyreal, in the weary tone of a man who really wishes he hadn’t given up all his awesome angel powers in the base game.

The tall and sinister Maltheal is still an angel at heart, which means he wants to rid the world of demons. Unfortunately, he considers humanity to be demonspawn, and lays waste to the city of Westmarch to raise an army from the dead. That’s where the new expansion will be set. It’s dark, gothic, and wreathed in fog. It feels like a conscious move back to the grimmer locales of Diablo 1 and 2. Blizzard promise that its environments and dungeons will feature more randomisation to encourage re-runs, and you can move in and out of its underground sections seamlessly. No more glowing yellow doorways and loading screens.

 

3. Changes to Paragon:

Blizzard are rebalancing loot drops in a big way to try and make more drops relevant to your character. There will be fewer common (white) drops, and they can be melted down into a new crafting reagent to stop them being completely useless past level 10. Rare drops will be reduced but there’s a high chance of a “smart drop.” These items will feature stats tuned to your character. More legendary items will drop, and they’ll come with new interesting new effects. Blizzard’s examples included a weapon that spawned an instant treasure goblin when equipped, and a staff that adds a chance to spawn hydras from dead bodies.

They’re also adding a new artisan: The Mystic. She can transmogrify items, letting you transfer desirable stats onto items you like the look of, preserving your warrior’s sense of style. They can also enchant items, which lets you re-roll one affix for an item you own. Enchant your Barbarian’s sword and there’s a chance that pointless +100 intelligence stat will flip into a +100 strength stat, for example. It’s another system designed to give players a way to make powerful but unusable items relevant.

Blizzard will expand the paragon levels that increase money and magic drop rates to apply to all of your characters. When you hit a paragon level, you’ll also get a paragon point that you can apply to buff a stat for any of your characters.

In Summary:

– Paragon levels are now account-wide.
– They no longer have a level cap.
– They reward points which you can invest in account-wide bonus statistics.

Below is a screenshot of the Paragon Point Allocation shown during the GamesCon presentation:

 

 4. Changes to Loot

 

Reaper of Souls will also introduce a Smart Drop system, this new system will include:

– Items drop less frequently.
– When they do, they have a real purpose instead of being screen-clutter.
– Rare (yellow) and Legendary (orange) items can roll as a ‘Smart Drop’.
– Smart Drop rolls mean that their stats are adjusted for the class your are currently playing.
– Common (white) items will now be used as a crafting reagent.
– Magical (blue) items will now be used for transmogrification looks.
– More meaningful legendary drops.
– Legendaries will be build-changers.
– Legendaries will drop across all difficulty-levels, with appropriate ilvls.
– Many looted items will be exclusively BoA.

Here is a video interview on the new Loot 2.0 via GameSpot.

5. Loot run

Finally, Reaper of Souls will add a new game mode called Loot Run. This lets you and a few friends run an completely randomized 15-20 minute dungeon. Assets, layout, lighting, weather, monsters, loot and the end boss are all randomized. It’s designed to offer a fresh and profitable dose of Diablo 3 in a manageable chunk of time.

 

6. Other Changes to Game-play

There’s quite a few game-play changes as well, some of them expected, some of them pretty darn cool:

New Level-Cap: 70

New Monsters:  Seraph, Summoner of the Dead, Executioner, Death Maiden.

New Artisan: Mystic that does Transmogrification (change item looks) and Enchanting (re-roll a rare legendary affix).

 

Blizzard seems to have addressed many of the current issues players have been having with Diablo. Our suspicions are that the Reaper of Souls Expansion will bring back quite a few of the players that stopped playing out of anger and frustration.

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Also see:

• Blizzard Announces Diablo 3 Expansion “Reaper of Souls” with Cinematic
• The State of Diablo 3 and its online players
• Blizzard Releases Diablo 3 Book of Tyrael
• Diablo 3 on PS3/4 – Everything you need to know
• Diablo 3 One Year Anniversary Infographic

 

 

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