Diablo 3 Secret Level: Whimsyshire

by TheHaven on May 17, 2012

Diablo 3 Secret Level WhimsyshireThe secret level has been unveiled, and boy it can’t be anymore different then the Diablo 2 secret cow level. Almost everyone that was following Diablo 3 back in 2008 knows there were a lot of people voicing their opinion about how “cartoonie” the game looked (which people still do today), so Blizzard decided to make a T-shirt that was a rainbow with unicorns saying Diablo 3, stating it was the official logo.

With the release of Diablo 3, the development team decided to not add another secret cow level but play on their humor of the unicorn(pony) T-shirt and make the secret level Whimsyshire. Below are the steps you need to take to acquire this secret level:

Step 1 (Acquire the following items):
- The Black Mushroom from Cathedral level 1 in Act 1
- Leoric’s Shinbone from the fireplace in Leoric’s Manor in Act 1.
- Liquid Rainbow in a Mysterious Cave from a Mysterious chest in the Oasis Act 2. To enter the cave you must find a random spawn vendor in the Oasis.
- Wirts Bell from a vendor in the Bazaar Act 2. This item costs 100,000 gold.
- Gibbering Gemstone drops from Chiltara, a rare spawn in the Frozen Cave Act 3. This is in the same area that you destroy the ballistics.
- The recipe for the Staff of Herding drop of Izual in Act 4.

Step 2 (Build the Staff):
- Using all the items found above, the recipe for the Staff of Herding, and 50,000 gold. This is built at the Blacksmith.

Step 3 (Enjoy):
- Take the staff to the open red glowing crevasse on Old Tristram Road in Act 1, use the staff and accept the quest.

If you’ve had a chance to play on this secret level or you’re just seeing it for the first time, lets hear what you have to say about this fun and overly happy secret pony level.

Solo Witch Doctor Guide To Defeating Diablo On Normal

by Jon on May 17, 2012

Diablo 3 - Diablo Phase 1Trying to solo Diablo as a Witch Doctor on Normal mode? This build/guide should help and assumes you are level 30.

Build – Mouse over for a quick visual.
Mouse 1 – Poison Dart with Splinters skill rune.
Mouse 2 – Wall of Zombies – no skill rune available before 32.
Skill 1 – Summon Zombie Dogs with Final Gift skill rune.
Skill 2 – Sacrifice with Next of Kin skill rune.
Skill 3 – Fetish Army – no skill run available before 34.
Skill 4 – Gargantuan with Humongoid skill rune.

Why These Skills?

There is little use for AOE abilities in all 3 phases of the Diablo fight on Normal difficulty but because of a need to constantly move, Poison Dart is ideal due to it’s long ranger than Corpse Spiders (not by a huge amount) or similar spells that require you to stand still a little longer while chain casting.

Wall of Zombies is useful for distracting/escaping the Shadow Clone’s that spawn in phase 2 of the fight but you need to focus fire them down quickly before getting back on Diablo. Because of it’s short CD, you should burn it every time.

Zombie Dogs are also useful for phase 2 of the fight and should be quickly Sacrificed in phase 1/3 due to quick deaths. Let them get a few hits in and when they begin to drop in health, blow them up. Be careful of blowing your CD and losing your dogs prior to phase 2 as they’re a great help there.

Fetish Army are your go to guys when your dogs are on CD as well as your Gargantuan. This is more likely in phase 2 so don’t burn it just prior to entering.

Gargantuan can tank Diablo but he can die quickly in phase 2 if you’re too slow to get the clones down. Focus them and you shouldn’t have a problem.

Don’t be afraid to move around a lot of the map in phase 2 as there are no other mobs on the map nor will you spawn any extras.

Diablo 3 - Diablo Phase 2Phase 3 is almost a repeat of phase 1 but you’ll need to dodge his breath by running in the opposite direction or out range it by being at a distance.

It’s best to fight in either the east or west corner near the health pools in case you need them in phase 1 or 3. If you do use one, move towards the opposite health pool and use when required. They refresh so move back towards the other if you use both.

Soloing Diablo on normal difficulty as a Witch Doctor is not hard but your mistakes are less forgiving compared to playing with a group.

Passives

Zombie Handler – The additional dog means another opportunity for a health globe to drop when they eventually die. These globes can be used to top yourself and the Gargantuan up as well as any left over dogs.

Pierce the Veil – Because this build is not mana intensive, an additional cost of 30% is a non issue and nets us an extra 20% damage.

Fetish Sycophants – This passive has great synergy with Poison Dart and the Splinters skill rune as the additional darts provide us with additional opportunities to spawn Fetish Sycophants. 3% odds doesn’t sound high but you’ll get a team of them going in no time.

As we’re moving, shooting darts and then moving again, they will begin to spawn all over the place and can DPS Diablo while you’re moving away from his fire and cages. If you’re too slow and you get caught in a cage, you’ll want to mash your health pot hot key as Diablo will grab and release you with an almost empty HP pool.

Did you find this guide useful or have a better one of your own? Let us know in the comments below and submit your witch doctor build for normal difficulty so others can vote on it.

Do Pages Have A Higher Drop Rate From Bookcases

by Jon on May 16, 2012

Do Pages Have A Higher Drop Rate From BookcasesIf you’ve reached Nightmare mode and you’re working on your Artisans, you’re no doubt in need of many pages of Blacksmithing and pages of Jewelcrafting.

If you’re buying them straight off the auction house – where they’re fetching a much higher price due to current demand or swapping required pages with friends, you’re only real choice is to grind for them.

The question is though, do they have a higher drop rate from bookshelves?

Logically, it sounds like common sense but looking at it technically, it’s unlikely there is any difference. In fact, the drop rate could even be lower going by what Blizzard have previously said about items that drop from bookcases and similar objects.

Speaking of ashes and loose stones – do they share the same item drop rate as mobs or is it higher/lower?

Everything in the game has varying chances to drop loot. You could absolutely get a legendary item from smashing an urn, but the chances are insanely small compared to a champion/rare which has a higher chance.

 

Having said that – it probably doesn’t hurt to check all bookcases for any loot given they’re not commonly found in all areas.

Levels 1-30 Witch Doctor Build Guide

by Jon on May 15, 2012

Levels 1-10

I’ve found Poison Dart with the Splinters skill rune (attained at level 6) to be ideal as you grind towards level 30. Splinters enables you to shoot 3 Darts instead of 1. There is little to no need for Numbing Dart from levels 1-30 as Grasp of the Dead with the Groping Eels skill rune is more than enough to slow large packs of mobs.

You’ll pick up Summon Zombie Dogs at level 4 but they feel like they suffer until you’re able to grab Sacrifice (level 13) a little later. The Rabid Dogs skill rune is nice but I’ve changed to Final Gift for the additional health orbs from level 19 onwards.

At level 9, you gain access to Soul Harvest which is the very first spell I use in an encounter with a pack of mobs. Due to little mana issues, you’re much better off using the Siphon skill rune (takes life from mobs to heal you) which becomes available at level 21 as you will experience some situations where running into a pack to get off your Soul Harvest can be dicey and lead to death.

You’ll want to assign a key or extra mouse button to free movement so you can move in and out quickly and without trouble. If you’re not using a move key, you best start now as you’ll rely on it in later difficulty modes.

Levels 10-20

Zombie Dogs really begin to come into their own once you gain Sacrifice at level 13 and become chain castable when skill runed with Next of Kin (level 24). Through levels 13-18, Sacrifice will often leave you with no Zombie Dogs at all which results in you retreating while it’s on cool down. Getting the Gargantuan at level 19 fixes that issue as he is a strong tank for large packs of mobs while you wait for your Zombie Dogs to refresh. The Humongoid skill rune improves his ability to gain agro of a large bunch of mobs, keeping you safe. This really only becomes an issues towards the late 20′s but it’s still nice to have.

Levels 20-30

Once you gain the basic spells and skill runes for this build, you can begin to attack much larger packs of mobs by running in, casting Soul Harvest and gaining 5 stacks. You then cast Grasp of the Dead to maintain them in a small clump. As you run out, your Zombie Dogs move in and you can begin chain cast Sacrifice to decimate them. You’ll often get lucky and be able to chain cast 4 or 5 times in a row. If timed correctly, you can recast Zombie Dogs and continue the explosions if required.

Witch Doctor Passives 1-30

As passives are somewhat more restrictive while leveling, you have little room for choice until you hit level 20. Jungle Fortitude is of little use at the later stages as we’ll be Sacrifing our dogs anyway. Spiritual Attunement also has little use as I have not experienced any mana issues. Circle of Life and Gruesome Feast make a good combination due it’s ability to stack with Final Gift. Pierce the Veil is a no brainer once you hit 27 and it’ll carry you along nicely to the mid 30′s.

Launch Day Happenings & Updates

by Jon on May 14, 2012

We’ll have more information specific to Diablo 3 builds in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, check out the builds section in the navbar above or stop by the forum and get involved in the discussion.

Athene is the first to claim Level 60 with video proof. It’s unknown yet if anyone else has claimed before him but I personally know Kripparrian is yet to hit 60 and the Method guys were 59 at last check before the EU servers went down for maintenance. It’s unknown if any of the Korean guys managed to get it earlier. Regardless of who got world first, Athene beat Kripparrian in the rush to 60. We now look towards World First Inferno clear and World First Hardcore 60.

Kripparrian has hit 60 and his group are currently tackling The Butcher on Inferno mode.

That’s it for updates in this post, look for more information in newer ones.

World first information:

  • Kripparrian is currently Level 13 18 22 28 30 34 35 48 49 50 currently 54 although a few hours ago Athene attained level 60.
  • Athene’s group is currently in Nightmare mode and all currently Level 35 37 39 stopped streaming so unsure at this time. Unsure what Athene is doing now.
  • Method’s (EU) group are currently Level 58.
  • Reports are coming in that Diablo has been beaten in Nightmare mode on the Korean servers.
  • Players have already reached Hell difficulty.
  • (headed to bed now, I’ll continue updates in a few hours time) updating again back to bed now – I’ll continue updates regarding Inferno status tomorrow.

Servers are down for maintenance. Servers are back up!

1:55 p.m. PDT – Starting at approximately 2:15 p.m. PDT, we will be bringing Diablo III servers in the Americas offline for urgent maintenance to address several issues that are impacting the game. We anticipate that maintenance will last for about an hour and that servers will be available at approximately 3:30 p.m. PDT. We will provide further updates as they are necessary. Thank you for your patience.

 

Diablo 3 is live in Asia as well as Europe. It’s scheduled to go live shortly in the America’s American Diablo 3 servers are now LIVE!. You can watch the American launch online and that broadcast will go live within the hour is now active finished.

  • The launch has not been without it’s problems and players in Europe have been receiving Error 37 when trying to log into the game. Bashiok advises that if you receive this error, you should continue to try to log in as they are increasing capacity as stability issues are being addressed. You can check out this link to get the server status of each region which includes the game servers, hardcore servers, gold AH and real money AH (due to go live in 1 week). Only time will tell if the American launch will run into any similar problems.
  • If you’re still receiving Error 315300, Bashiok has advised players should submit a support ticket.
  • Error 33 simply means your region is not live yet.
  • Global play is currently disabled but should go live once the American servers go up.
  • Normal mode has already been finished in the Asian regions although it’s still far too early to know who is going to make claim to the world first level 60 and hit Inferno first. If you don’t care about spoilers, there is this confirmation image – SPOILER warning.
  • For Australian’s impacted by Game going into administration, Blizzard is kindly offering a rebate on the amount of money you lost. Read more here.
  • If you are seeing “Unsupported video card” error and your card is supported, Blizzard is aware of the issue:

Ok, I’ve got enough samples now, thanks.  Our QA department will be taking a look into why this might be happening.  Unfortunately, I can’t provide any sort of eta as to when it will be addressed.  For now, simply hit the escape key to bypass the warning and you should be able to play.

I see several reports from users of ATI HD 4000, 5000, and 6000 series cards getting a message about their video cards not being supported.

 

We’ve read that some people have figured out a fix for the unsupported video card error by doing the following:

Search your computer for the file “D3Prefs.txt”. Open it in a text editor and edit the following line: DisableTrilinearFiltering “1″ (from 0) HardwareClass “1″. If that doesn’t work, try DisplayModeWindowMode “1″ (from 0).

  • European users are reporting Error 3006 is caused by trading an equipped shield with the Templar which results in players being booted from the game and unable to log back into the game.
  • Error 12 fix (no licence attached to account) can be done by logging into your bnet account via the website and changing your password.
  • It has been reported that someone has already reached level 52 on the Asian servers but have run into a difficulty wall in Nightmare mode.
  • Error 37 simply means servers are busy and is to be expected as the American servers have now gone live.
  • Some players lucky enough to log in are receiving Error 316005 which appears to occur when you unsuccessfully create a character and then run out of character slots. No known fix yet.
  • Players are reporting across various sites that they’re able to log in so it looks like the stability issues are slowly being addressed.

Looks like the American launch is being plagued by Error 37. Given the Asian and European launches had identical problems, this is not unexpected. Hopefully they’ll improve stability so more people can log on in the coming hours.

Check back throughout the day as we update with more information. Don’t forget to enter our Diablo 3 CE competition which includes a Jay Wilson signed poster!

Diablo 3 Mega Prize Give Away

by Jon on May 13, 2012

Missed out on a Diablo 3 CE? Have you always wanted a Diablo 3 poster signed by Jay Wilson himself? We have all that plus more in our next giveaway thanks to our friends @Blizzard_ANZ

Diablo 3 Mega Prize Pack

1st Prize

  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Headset
  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse
  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse Mat
  • Limited Edition BlizzCon 2011 Mini Tyrael Maquette
  • Diablo 3 Poster signed by Jay Wilson, Diablo 3 Game Director (we’re unsure what this looks like so no image unfortunately)
  • Diablo 3 Collector’s Edition

2nd Prize

  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Headset
  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse
  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse Mat

3rd Prize

  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse
  • Steelseries Diablo 3 Mouse Mat

How To Win

Post a comment in this thread (the forum, not this article!) about which class you intend to roll first and why. Include your twitter handle in your post if it differs to your forum username.

Once you’ve done that, follow @Blizzard_ANZ and @Diablo3Builds and tweet out the following to let us know you’ve completed your entry!

“I want to win the Diablo 3 mega prize giveaway thanks to @Blizzard_ANZ and @Diablo3Builds”

After that, you’re done!

Competition will run from the 14th of May through to the 31st of May with the 3 winners announced on the 1st of June. Good luck to all!

Official confirmation can be found at the bottom of this thread.

Forum Winners Announced

by Jon on May 13, 2012

Congratulations to the following 3 people who have each won a standard edition of Diablo 3.

Please send Jon a message via the forum to claim your prize.

Diablo 3 Retail Box

If you missed out, don’t fret as we will have news of our next competition with an even better give away in the next couple of hours (coffee just needs to kick in!).

Diablo 3 Character Profiles Coming Soon

by Jon on May 11, 2012

In a feature that looks to mimic the armory from WoW, Diablo 3 will gain a similar tool shortly after launch. It’s unknown at this point if it will include statistics such as monsters slain versus bosses slain (official blog only states “foes slain”), cumulative gold earned, gold spent, items bought and so on.

It’s also interesting that they have decided to make ones /played time information publicly available. I am sure some people won’t be comfortable with that idea for numerous reasons.

Diablo 3 Character Profiles

Shortly after the launch of Diablo III, we’ll be adding a new feature to our official site. Profiles will let you review all of your character information at a glance, share it with others, and check out the accomplishments of the other heroes out there.

You’ll be able to look at your heroes (or your friends’ heroes) from any page on the Diablo III site through our personalized menu. If you’re curious about the exploits of your fellow forum posters, it’ll be a simple matter to click over to their profiles and feel envious of their gear or how long they’ve managed to keep their Hardcore characters alive.

Our first profiles release will include these two elements:

  • A career tab that displays all of your heroes, how far you’ve progressed in the Diablo III campaign, how many foes you’ve slain, the names and playtimes of your fallen Hardcore heroes, and more.
  • A heroes tab that shows off your equipment (including dyes, socketed gems, all equipment bonuses, etc.), your attributes and skills, the skills and equipment of your Followers, and more.

We’re planning to add tabs that’ll show off your artisans and achievements as well. Profiles will be available on the site sooner rather than later, but you should feel free to share your suggestions and thoughts in the comments section below or in the  Website Features forum.

We’ve also been hard at work on a ton of other website content, available to help you sharpen your knowledge and prepare to face the forthcoming onslaught. On Monday, May 14, you’ll be able to browse an updated  Items section, which will include Legendary and Set items, as well as some specific hand-crafted items. In addition, you can:

  • Watch the new gameplay overview video –  What Is Diablo III?
  • Experiment with class builds using the  Skill Calculator.
  • Discuss the game on the Diablo III Community forums.
  • Pre-purchase Diablo III.
 

There is also a new video titled “What is Diablo III” just in-case you’re new to the series and are clueless as to who and what Diablo is about.

One Of The Chosen – Beta Achievement

by Jon on May 9, 2012

If you were hoping that your characters and achievements would be retained after the beta, you’re out of luck but you will gain a feat of strength to your account in addition to a unique sigil..

In celebration of a successful beta test, all players who were invited to participate in the Diablo III closed beta will receive the commemorative Feat of Strength, “One of the Chosen.” For eligible players, this feat will appear automatically in the Feat of Strength list after logging in for the first time as well as unlock a unique sigil that can be used on character banners.

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!

 

Those unlucky not to participate in the beta will not be able to gain this feat of strength creating a bunch of haves and have nots. Fair or unfair? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Diablo 3: Wrath – Final Unlock

by TheHaven on May 8, 2012

The final unlock has been released with a short story video based on the diablo-verse long before Sanctuary or man. With the release of this video it seems that it has some controversy over how Blizzard is depicting Imperius. Some on the comments I have found are:

  • “Yeah, that kinda ruins it when you can see the “conversion” coming from a mile away.”
  • “Blizzard NEEDS their corruption theme after all…whoever’s doing the writing has a serious hard-on for corrupting everyone and everything”
  • “And once again a hero turns evil because he’s got anger issues”

Now let me be clear, I’m not really in agreement with the comments above because I think they are premature comments. We don’t have the full story yet and if it does turn out true I don’t really see a problem with “hero turns evil” makes for a high emotional story. So lets hear what you have to say about this new short story from Blizzard & Titmouse Studio in the comments below


Long before the creation of Sanctuary, the Eternal Conflict between angels and demons raged on for untold millennia. Blizzard Entertainment teamed up with renowned director Peter Chung and acclaimed animation studio Titmouse to create this unique vision of a fundamental moment in the battle between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.

 

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