BlizzCon 2011: Diablo III Gameplay and Auction House Panel (Part 2)

This is a transcript of the second part of the Diablo III Gameplay and Auction House Panel.

The Jeweler

The next thing I want to talk is The Jeweler. The guy is a little shady, but if you have anything gem related, he’s the guy to go to.

So what can he do? He can combine your gems. In the game you have like 14 different ranks of gems. Gems can be put in sockets of your items, and they imbue extra properties.

You want more experience, you can put a ruby in your helm socket, and that gives you plus X percent experience for every kill you make.

The more powerful ones, of course, have to be found and are allowed to be combined — so you have to level him up to get access to those.

He can also add sockets to items. This is great, like say I’m playing, and like I’m really loving Precision and Frenzy kicking butt that way, and I got this item and it has tons of Fury regeneration on it, but I need Precision, so I add a socket to it at the Jeweler, and I can put the gem in there which has the Plus X Precision attribute.

He removes gems from items. This is pretty cool. Let me give you an example here. Leveling up hit level 60 having that experience gem in your helm the entire time, but you’re level 60 now and don’t need the experience.

You go to the Jeweler, and have him take the gem out, put the Plus 20% Life in there, because in Inferno, you’re going to need it, and then you can send that experience gem to your alt character and then that will help him level up faster.

Speaking of leveling up, the Jeweler also levels up. As he level ups he gains the ability to combine more powerful gems and higher ranks. He also uses Pages of Training to level up. You have to pick and choose which ones you want to focus on.

The Blacksmith

Fortunately, they’re account based so, you know, level up Barbarian level 60, and focus on the Blacksmith the entire time.

The Demon Hunter level in and jump in and right there and then the bar of the Blacksmith is already like level 10 and you’re Mythic and you can level her up separately.

Talking about the Blacksmith, we spoke a lot about him already. He can forge items and craft things for you. Boy what we haven’t spoken about. He can craft Legendary and Unique set items for you.

These are things you’d usually find in normal difficulties. Here he’s like making a Sanity’s Edge, just a Legendary two-handed mighty weapon. This comes in a plan you found when you were killing a monster, took the plan to your Blacksmith, and you can make that item again, and again, and again.

He can also make the unique set item. Now this is a normal difficulty unique set. You’re going to find this in the world when playing normal.

The tricky thing about Diablo is that these items can draw from anything. You can take one and just farm that for your set, so we figured, hey, let’s make it easier for you guys and once you get the plan you can then craft every item in this set to get the set bonus.

So here I’ve crafted a Pauldron, the shoulder pieces and the Seething Rage, the one-handed sword.

I crafted those, so I can wear those and get the set bonus. Way easier. In Inferno, you’re going to be arming unique sets.

As you’re progressing through the game you can get a cool factor out of the things.

Auction House

How does the Diablo III Item Life Cycle look with those added features?

When an item is born it can come from a vendor.

It can also come from crafting or from the Auction House. What do I do with it? I can wear it. Definitely going to wear it. If I buy it off the Auction House.

When I’m done with it, I can sell it. That gives me gold for repairs, or for crafting and forging more gear.

I can salvage it and sell those salvaged components on the Auction House.

I can use them to enhance my existing items. I can put it on the Auction House directly and make gold, make real life money. Who doesn’t like that? Or I can trade it.

I can help twink my characters or give it to my friends. It’s not my style. What’s an example of that. Say I’m playing through the game and I get a drop. I don’t need it. It’s not an upgrade. I decided to salvage it. Salvage it into some components I’ve put for sell on the Auction House.

Someone buys that, win, rock and roll. I need some gold. I keep playing for a while, and next week I go and look at the Auction House and see a wicked one-handed axe perfect for me.

Decided to buy that from the Auction House. I didn’t know that was actually crafted from the same salvage that I sold on the Auction House a week earlier.

That’s a life cycle, and that just makes me happy.