Blizzcon is finally upon us and loads of new information will be coming through. We will be doing live coverage of the event over Twitter and news posts. The event has already been running for a couple hours now and the opening ceremory and Diablo 3 class panel has passed. Below is a quick round up of current information.
Diablo 3
- Demon Hunter class announced (a ranged shadow bounty hunter)
- New skill system
- New traits system (passive skills separate from skill tree). Each trait has 5 levels.
- New talisman system that encapsulates the old charms system. Talisman gets larger as you level.
- Upgraded rune system to augment your skill tree. Runes can now rank up and become stronger.
- PVP and arena battle systems
Starcraft 2
- 4 new custom maps by Blizzard. One of which is Blizzard Dota.
- Fruit Dealer vs SlayerBoxer exhibition match at 8pm.
Aiur Chef
Each round you must travel around the map and kill critters and grab ingredients to create a dish. You have an inventory size of 6 and each recipe uses about 5-6 ingredients, so you must choose wisely. There are 3 types of dishes you can create. The 1st dish gives you the lowest amount of points but gives you an ability that causes all other players to start dancing for a few seconds. The 2nd dish gives moderate points and awards you an ability like blink. The 3rd dish just rewards you with a lot of points. You cannot attack an enemy player directly but you can use your abilities to disrupt them from gathering.
Left 2 Die
Based off the outbreak mission in the campaign, this map is a 2 player co-op where you have to defend waves at night and attack during the day. However there are special infected with awesome abilities, the infected are hunterling, stank, choker, spotter, kaboomer. A quick round-up of the unit types:
Hunterling – A giant flying creature that leaps towards an enemy and latches onto the unit. It slowly eats away health until killed.
Stank – A giant ultralisk that tanks and soaks up damage while delivering a mean punch.
Choker – A giant infestor that shoots tentacles forward and drags the targets toward itself.
Spotter – A giant overseer that corrupts and disables building and spits acid at units.
Kaboomer – A giant baneling that spits acid in an area and explodes when killed.
The game starts with a basic base and you must build up like a regular MP game. However, most of your units are locked until you unlock them with biomass. Biomass is a 3rd resource you earn by killing special infected and buildings during the day. Unlocked units are also shared between your ally, allowing you both to defend with the same units.
Blizzard Dota
Based off the popular DOTA map, you control a hero and must destroy the enemies base. The game comes with all new custom models, art, abilities, spells, gameplay, ui, etc, etc. New models have been created based on WC3 and Diablo heroes.
Sources
- BlizzCon 2010 StarCraft II Invitational Tournament – Day 1 Events
- All-New Blizzard Custom Maps Featured at BlizzCon 2010
- StarCraft II Custom Maps and Editor Panel
- StarCraft II Secrets of the Masters
- StarCraft II Invitational Tournament and Showmatch – Day 1 Recap