im still very happy to hear it tentatively refined down to Q2. At least then I can blame blizzard for yanking me around rather then all these other release dates.

Runestones no longer exist.

It's a little disconcerting the game has been in development like 3-4 years and is supposedly 3-4 months from release and they are still drastically changing fundamental core gameplay elements completely. I mean these aren't exactly small tweeks.

like they said thats how they do stuff:

They take an idea they think is good, go full-on and program everything around it and if they realize it doesnt work as well as they thought they scrap it all up and start over with something else.


It's pretty retarded...

Also means they care about quality over release dates.

I've always liked Blizz attitude towards releases: it comes out when it's ready.
There must be some reason every single game they release is a classic with a diamond polish.

the overwhelming community response was pretty positive with the new rune system.

I, for one, am really really skeptical about it all.



I mean, thats a MAJOR thing we dont have to look forward to once youre max level.

just less item hunting and less ways to be stronger than other players

no, it was announced 4 years ago, mid 2008. but it has been in developement much longer.

i really dont know either and cant give a valued opinion since i havnt had the chance yet to test the game but if they say it improves the game with the new rune system than it might very well be so. they said that there would have been like around 600 different rune items and that this would but pressure on the inventory system.
also, i think you will be more than busy with the endgame. from what we know inferno will be super hard.

yeah i dont know why they were still comparing this build to the unattuned system taht had runes for each skill.


I much prefered just standard runestones with a level on them. Just make them super rare so you dont have a ton of useless ones...

Oh well.

Is there a portion of beta testers that have had a chance to try out the rune system thing?

ill go make a new character

eh, this is misleading.

Your runes just no longer drop as items, but "rune" customization of skills is still in there.

Personally, I like this because I had the same thought that they mention in the article, which is that there are a ****load of skills, each with a bunch of runes. That meant that runes that YOU wanted were almost always going to be something you had to buy on the AH due to the RNG factor of having so many different types drop from monsters.

Good change imo. It also silences those emo kids who were whining about there being "no incentive to level past 30."

not really, runestones used to be a type with a level, not with a skill suffixed

I read something about "wandering merchants." Are these guys going to be found randomly in some areas, or are they always sitting in town?

nothing like that in beta

they probably just mean the merchants for every acts

apparently after the new tristram, the other acts arent really "cities"... I think