Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products.
6 blue posts you need to read before the release of Diablo 3
Evil is returning in just a few days, and if you want to be ready for all the death and destruction that's out there, you'll want to be sure to read up on what the blues are saying. We've collected some of the more important posts over the last week to share with you.
Keep in mind that when Diablo 3 does finally release this Tuesday, all WoW Annual Pass subscribers will get instant access. You can upgrade your account later to the Collector's Edition if you've ordered that. Also remember that you can download the client files now so you won't have to wait around much on release night.
We're also planning on having some Diablo 3 lore material for you to enjoy on Monday, so stay tuned for that.
Hit the jump to learn about special beta titles, known issues in the D3 release, and why feeling like a total overpowered badass is a good thing.
SPOILER WARNING: If you have not yet completed Diablo III on Normal, some issues described in this list may include spoilers.
Achievements Auction House
Battle.net
Combat
Environment Monsters Followers Quests Starter Edition Tools
Compatibility Mac
The description of the Feat of Strength for "One of the Chosen" does not specifically state that it was granted to Closed Beta players, not all Beta players.
The description of the achievement "Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?" is misleading.
The description of the achievement "Crispy Critters" implies that all critters are found in one zone, but they are not. Good luck finding them!
You cannot list equipped items that have been bought from a vendor.
It is possible to get ERROR 37 (The servers are busy, please try again) when logging in if the servers are under heavy stress. This error literally means that the servers are busy and that you should try again, so please try again in a minute or so!
Very quickly entering, leaving, and switching chat channels over and over can cause a player from getting locked out of chat channels.
It is possible for a friend to be on your friend's list with no name if that friend has a BattleTag but has never logged into Diablo III and is offline.
Changing your account's Parental Controls while you are in Diablo III can disconnect you from Diablo III. Workaround: Exit Diablo III before changing Parental Controls.
Damage over time debuffs are not benefiting from items that grant crit chance.
The resurrection animation speed is being calculated by the player's attack speed. It actually should be a set amount across all players.
Act 2 - Players who cast Town Portal while standing in a tar pit will cause the tar pit slowing debuff to stay on your character until you leave the game or manually walk into and out of a tar pit.
The gold dropped from Treasure Goblins can be picked up by all members of the party. Items dropped by the Treasure Goblins are still individual player drops.
It is possible for Champion-class monsters with the Waller affix to cast their walls at their location rather than at the player's location.
The total life for Followers is rounding incorrectly and is off by 1.
Act 1 - The Scoundrel can fail to appear if monsters are present at his spawn location at the start of the quest "The Broken Blade : Go to the Drowned Temple".
Workaround: Leave the game and create a new one, or don't kite monsters to Scoundrel' spawning area.
When a Starter Edition character hits level 13, the experience bar will read 0/0. If the player upgrades, they will start a 0 experience towards level 14.
If the user has any connections configured in "Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings" and they're set to "Dial whenever a network connection is not present," the install won't proceed past 10%.
It is possible for your cinematics to stutter and not play well if you begin playing Diablo III immediately when reaching Yellow Data. Workaround: Exit Diablo III and fully patch your game. Your cinematics should play fine then.
Running programs that put an overlay over Diablo III (such as Mumble, Xfire, and MSI Afterburner) can cause Diablo III to crash. Use these overlays at your own risk.
The Restore Hero button does not become available after deleting a hero until leaving and returning to the Select Hero page.
Game client window becomes unresponsive when a dialog box is opened in the background.
To choose your correct region: Ensuring your correct region is selected, attempt logging in again, and watch the breaking news window for additional service information.
At the log in screen click on Options
Choose the Account tab
Select your correct region in the Region drop down
Some of that is cool. Some of what makes a Diablo game is the idea (and fact) that you can kind of outsmart the game and break its mechanics. Unlike a game like World of Warcraft where the core design of the game is to create a balanced experience and every change funnels into that, Diablo III just doesn't take the same approach. We don't mind if there are some inconsistencies and emergent favorites, we'd rather have tons of customization than boil it all down for the sake of balance. With a purely co-op (and eventually non-competitive PvP environment) we have that luxury, whereas World of Warcraft does not.
What we don't want to happen, and what we will absolutely work to patch and fix as quickly as possible, are the situations we simply can't predict that could trivialize parts of the game. There could be some build we never thought of that is super effective against a specific boss in Inferno, and we'll likely want to rein those situations in.
I'm not personally worried about Inferno being too hard. People can complain all they want about that. I'm more worried about people focusing too specifically on clearing Inferno, someone beating it too quickly through cheesy tactics or bugs or broken OP builds, and everyone going nuts saying Inferno is clearly too easy (although they themselves will probably still be in Nightmare). People naturally want to focus on a competition of who can beat what first, or speed runs, or other time-based achievements, which is at odds with what the game is really all about (the item hunt).
If your submission was successful, you'll see the "You've successfully redeemed your sigil!" message and should receive a confirmation email at the address entered. To earn all five hero sigils, repeat steps 3 - 7 for each class.
Hope that helps! If the process is still kind of confusing, let me know. You may also want to check out this thread for some additional details and tips.
Step 1: Go to the Diablo III launch site
Step 2: Click on the Claim Your Sigil button (far right)
Step 3: Click on CREATE BANNER
Step 4: Select a class to create your banner, click "Next"
Step 5: Select your background, customize your banner, and then customize your sigil
Step 6: Once your selections are made, click "Next"
Step 7: Enter a nickname (any nickname will work, doesn't have to be your BattleTag), your Battle.net email address, toggle the "I agree" option, and then click "Finish"
In order to be eligible for "One of the Chosen," you must have had a Diablo III closed beta license attached to your Battle.net account (it isn't necessary to have downloaded or logged into the beta itself). Please note that players who participated only in the Open Beta Weekend, but were not invited to the closed beta, will not receive this Feat of Strength.
Thank you once again to all of our beta participants. We look forward to seeing you in Sanctuary!
ATI is aware and investigating. Until a solution can be provided we recommend those affected use the Catalyst 12.3 drivers.
Update
This issue has now been resolved in the AMD Catalyst 12.4a hotfix driver. Users of the ATI Radeon HD 2400, 2600, 2900, 3400, 3600 and 4500 graphics cards are the only AMD customers who need to download this hotfix driver.
Evil has returned! 1.2 million WoW players are getting Diablo 3 for free thanks to the Annual Pass. You can get prepared for the evil with WoW Insider's launch coverage. From the lore of Diablo, to the important blue posts and the basics of Diablo gameplay, we'll get you on the inside track for the return of evil.
