Free BattleTag Name Change & More Inferno Kill Videos

Posted 9 hours ago by Kelthar
Blizzard is offering another free name change to allow players to rename their BattleTag, which is the primary identifer used in Diablo III. If you didn't previously use the name change, you will still only have one remaining, so choose wisely!

Blizzard Quote (Source)
During the Diablo III Open Beta Weekend in April, a number of players opted to use their one free BattleTag nickname change in order to try to participate in the beta test. We recognize that in their excitement to try to get into the game, some players did not fully realize how BattleTags would integrate with Diablo III or that the number of free changes was limited, and they ended up choosing nicknames that they weren't happy with.

To help address these concerns, we've done a one-time refresh of the free BattleTag name change feature on all Battle.net accounts, so that everyone once again has one free BattleTag name change to use at their discretion.

This means that if you already used your original free change, you will now have another opportunity to change your BattleTag nickname. If you did not use your free BattleTag name change or have not yet created a BattleTag, you will still only be able to change your BattleTag once for free.

To set or change your BattleTag nickname, log in to Battle.net Account Management, head to the Account > Summary page, and look for the Create or Change option under Account Details. As a reminder, BattleTags aren't unique, so you can pick any name you like as long as it adheres to the BattleTag Naming Policy. For more information, see the BattleTag FAQ and Battle.net website page.

Remember, your BattleTag serves as your public identity when playing Diablo III, meaning you'll be identified in groups and in chat by your BattleTag -- choose your BattleTag wisely!


Zoltun Kulle Inferno Kill




Belial Inferno Kill


Site Updates: Zones Relaunched, Quests Updated & More

Posted 22 hours ago by Astray
Reminder: Contribute to the database this week to win 1 of 7 headsets from Turtle Beach! Read more about this contest.

Database Status Update


It's been a ride the past couple days, but things are finally coming together. Earlier today we went through each and every one of the quests and filtered for  relevant conversations since our database was picking up absolutely everything, including countless exchanges between the player and followers. With this change it should be easier to browse and understand quests in the database, check them out from the menu.

We've also just relaunched our zones section now that we've generated updated maps and NPC relationships. We are still working on adding data here and there, but it's at a very useable state.

Check out the zones for each of the acts:
Next on the agenda is finishing up outstanding issues with the item database, including adding some missing affixes for legendary and set items, displaying set bonuses and enabling both of those item types in the character planner. We're also working on a number of brand new features which will be unveiled in due time!

If you are having any issues with the website or want to drop a suggestion, stop by the forum - we check it regularly.


Scheduled Maintenance for North American Servers


Blizzard will be taking down the North American Diablo III servers for 2 hours from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM PDT.

Blizzard Quote (Source)
We will be performing maintenance on Thursday, May 17th. Maintenance will begin at 5:00 AM PDT and conclude at approximately 7:00 AM PDT. During this time, servers and many web services will be unavailable. 

Thank you for your patience.

The Butcher Inferno Kill & Launch Update

Posted Yesterday by Kelthar
Method looks to be making short work of Inferno difficulty, this time taking down The Butcher. In case you missed it, you can also check out their Skeleton King kill video from earlier.



Diablo III Launch Update


Blizzard Quote (Source)
Diablo Players:

We’d like to extend a very sincere thank you to everyone who joined the global Diablo III launch celebrations this week, as well as to everyone who was ready to jump into Sanctuary the moment the game went live.

To that end, we’d also like to say that we’ve been humbled by your enthusiasm -- and we sincerely regret that your crusade to bring down the Lord of Terror was thwarted not by mobs of demons, but by mortal infrastructure. As many of you are aware, technical issues occurring within hours after the game's launch led to players experiencing error messages and difficulty logging in. These issues cropped up again last night for the Americas and Europe servers. Despite very aggressive projections, our preparations for the launch of the game did not go far enough.

We’ve been monitoring the game 24/7 and have applied several optimizations to help our systems better weather the global rush. As of late last night, specifically 11:50 PM PDT on May 15, all systems have been online and running relatively smoothly. We’re continuing to monitor performance globally and will be taking further measures as needed to ensure a positive experience for everyone. This includes some maintenance to implement additional improvements for each region.

In order to make sure everything is continuing to run as it should, we’ve decided to move out our target launch for the real-money auction house beyond our original estimated date of May 22. We’ll post further updates on that in the near future.

Aside from the tremendous number of players simultaneously logging in to the game, one of the launch-day service issues was linked to the achievement system. Some players began to notice early on that achievements were either not being earned properly, or not being saved between multiple logins. We’re investigating this issue and will provide a specific update as soon as possible.

We greatly appreciate everyone’s support, and we want to sincerely apologize for the difficulties many of you encountered on day one. Please visit the Battle.net Support site or Support forums for the latest service-related updates or for help in troubleshooting any technical issues you may be having downloading, installing, or while playing the game.

Thank you again for your patience while we reinforce the gates of Sanctuary and further strengthen it for your onslaught.

Respectfully,
Blizzard Entertainment

Whimsyshire - Diablo III Secret Level Revealed

Posted Yesterday by Kelthar
WARNING: This post contains spoilers. Hovering over or clicking any of the links for zones/items will spoil the process of discovering this yourself.

Items needed:
  • Item spawns in this zone in ACT1.
  • Item is located randomly in the fireplace in this zone in ACT1.
  • Item is located from the Mysterious chest in the Mysterious Cave in this zone in ACT2.
  • Item is sold by one of the merchants in the city in ACT2.
  • Item drops randomly from the mobs in either of the caves in the battlefield before the bridge in ACT3.
  • The plans drop randomly from this NPC in ACT4.

Thanks to Zeffirelli for the tip.


Skeleton King Inferno Kill by Method-EU

Posted Yesterday by Kelthar
And so it begins... Method has defeated the Skeleton King on Inferno Difficulty and recorded the entire thing.

Remember this is a highly organized and coordinated team. Like a guild clearing a raid within the first 24 hours wearing leveling greens and blues in WoW while the average player needs to farm heroics for weeks before being ready, this is much the same thing. The average player is going to want to farm Hell before venturing into Inferno.

Americas Region Service Issues - 5/15

Posted 2 days ago by Kelthar
Update #1 - Americas Region servers are back up.

Looks like Blizzard has found the source of the issues with connectivity. Unfortunately the servers will be down until approximately 11:45 p.m. PDT while they perform maintenance. We will provide updates as they come.

Blizzard Quote (Source)
We are aware players are experiencing issues logging in to Diablo III, remaining connected to the Battle.net service, and using in-game features. We are currently working to address these issues and will provide further updates as they become available.

Thank you for your ongoing patience as well as your reports.

[Update]
We're continuing to work on the issues currently affecting the Americas region, which are resulting in failed login attempts and service issues. While we've identified the causes and are working to resolve them, we expect our efforts to require an approximate two hours to complete. We expect game services to fully return by approximately 11:45 p.m. PDT. We apologize for the downtime, and appreciate your continued patience.

[Update 11:20 p.m. PDT]
The service is up! We'll be continuing to monitor throughout the night and will provide updates should any further issues occur. We appreciate your continued patience and will see you in-game.                             
                           

Contribute on D3DB to Win One of 7 Turtle Beach Headsets

Posted May 14th, 2012 at 5:51pm by Astray
The gates of Hell are about to be reopened and we've teamed up with Turtle Beach to give away some awesome headsets.

Even though D3DB is able to garner a lot of Diablo 3's information automatically, what really makes the site great are the user contributions. This is all about contributing to D3DB--and it's so easy to enter! You qualify from the following contributions:

  • Uploading a useful video to YouTube and then adding it one of the database pages - make sure they are useful as all videos are moderated before they get approved.
  • Posting a screenshot - make sure your screenshots are high resolution and good quality when you upload.
  • Posting a comment on any of the database pages - don't spam comments as we will be monitoring them.

This sweepstakes will begin at 12:00 AM PDT (GMT -7) on Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 and continue until 11:59 PM on Monday, May 21st, 2012.

Prizes: 
 
Grand Prize (1) One lucky winner will receive a:
Turtle Beach Z6A Headset


 
 
Second Prize (6) 
Six lucky winners will receive a:



Contest Rules & Regulations [Expand Rules]