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Blizzard Handing Out +50% Experience in Diablo III

By - Source: Blizzard | B 29 comments

Time to level up quick.

What's the best way to get customers back into your game before the expansion pack launches? Give them +50 percent bonus XP for weeks, allowing them to beef up their characters. That's what Blizzard is doing with Diablo III, which is scheduled for a good dose of Reaper of Souls on March 25.

"This hefty XP bonus gives your heroes a leg up on the new Paragon Leveling System, which just went live in patch 2.0.1," reads Blizzard's blog. "The new Paragon Leveling system not only allows ALL of your characters to share and contribute towards a single account-wide Paragon level, but it also grants bonus ability points with each Paragon level gained, which can be discretionally assigned to your character’s stats."

The blog also points out that the pre-expansion patch introduces Loot 2.0, which promises better gear. As an example, Blizzard reports that a Wizard is more likely to find items with Intelligence or bonuses to Wizard skills than a Barbarian. The difficulty system has also been revamped, consisting of Normal, Hard, Expert, Master, and Torment. There are also significant skill updates to all five hero classes.

The new patch actually went live six days ago, adding Pools of Reflection that provides a 25 percent bonus to experience, the Nephalem Glory buff, and new hero stats such as Toughness, Healing, Splash Damage, Cooldown Reduction, and Resource Cost Reduction. Crafting has also received several quality of life changes.

"Plus, for the first time ever, Diablo III players can rally their allies with Clans and Communities, making this the ideal time to get your old adventuring group back together and dive into some serious loot hunting," reads the blog.

Just yesterday Diablo III lead content designer Kevin Martens said that the new Adventure Mode (sandbox) is the primary feature of the expansion, meaning that gamers won't be required to play the story over and over again. That's good news considering that right now each new character must endure the storyline.

"As good as Act V is, once you get into Adventure Mode and you see the promise of everything random that Diablo does; that makes replayability the point of the game. It's not linear anymore so you're experience is different every time you come in," he said.

Enough talk. It's time to level up a few characters.

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  • 8 Hide
    SinisterSalad , March 5, 2014 8:08 AM
    Path of Exile.That is all.
  • 2 Hide
    shakl , March 5, 2014 8:31 AM
    Quote:
    Path of Exile.That is all.
    Right? I wonder which is better, $40 for a game that will be obsolete in a month and will require ANOTHER $40 injection to Blizzards wallet to stay relevant, OR I can pay absolutely nothing and enjoy every piece of content + expansion from the guys at GGG.
  • 1 Hide
    spartanmk2 , March 5, 2014 8:33 AM
    Articles like this just remind me of the horribleness I endured playing the game after the initial release, no thanks.
  • Display all 29 comments.
  • -2 Hide
    DeadRam , March 5, 2014 8:47 AM
    D3 isn't for everyone but I like it. POE is a POS.
  • 6 Hide
    merloin , March 5, 2014 8:58 AM
    I thought D3 the first go around was pretty bad. I then went to POE and it's a good game. My problem with it is that their loot drop rates are truly terrible. I cannot fathom putting as much grind as that game requires to not getting anything out of it. POE's RNG is just bad.I've been back into D3 since 2.0 dropped and so far I'm enjoying it much more the second go around now that I'm actually able to get decent loot. I'll probably still wait on the ROS expansion.
  • 6 Hide
    whiteodian , March 5, 2014 9:02 AM
    How about 50% off the expansion? There is no way I would pay $40+ for it.
  • -2 Hide
    renz496 , March 5, 2014 9:04 AM
    so blizzard really turn diablo into MMO eh?
  • 4 Hide
    Avus , March 5, 2014 9:10 AM
    i rather they discount the game...
  • 0 Hide
    Pherule , March 5, 2014 9:20 AM
    "It's not linear anymore so you're experience is different every time you come in""you're experience"Nice proofreading.Oh and DeadRam, PoE isn't a PoS, it's leagues better than Diablo 3. Had one too many drags at the pipe have you?
  • 5 Hide
    Cazalan , March 5, 2014 9:45 AM
    So far the Loot 2.0 changes have been good. Crafting is also usable now. Definitely will not be paying $39 for just 1 more Act though. I'll wait for it to go on sale.
  • -2 Hide
    knowom , March 5, 2014 11:25 AM
    The system wide paragon leveling is something I suggested when it was initially introduced and they completely ignored. Now they are trying to use it as means to help sell their expansion back essentially along with the XP bonus it's outright pathetic. The Auction House which they touted as a big selling point of the game originally is now being "removed" because it was a disaster in large part due to boxers, botters, dupers, and flippers.PVP just never materialized you might as well say because game balance never did either at least at the point where I stopped playing it hadn't and I gave it way to much of a proper chance.The overall game play they also decided to dumb down in large part as well a few things needed adjustments, but other things like invulnerable mobs were legitimately fine challenges that just kept players on their toes.I wouldn't pay 5 cents for their expansion though I probably made them $40's on the AH playing the game that all just got reinvested into the game itself before I said to hell with it Blizzard Entertainment really doesn't give a rats ask what players thing. I honestly think they were behind the bots, spamming, and mysterious GEMS on RMAH being sold below the crafting material gold cost. I don't trust Blizzard Entertainment one inch they are worse than EA in my eyes and EA is shameful and despicable.
  • -2 Hide
    knowom , March 5, 2014 11:29 AM
    Honestly given the way Blizzard Entertainment is cheating D3 players out of the Auction House feature that they used as a key selling point to the game itself they should give a credit toward the expansion to players that spent money on it back in return crooked weasels.
  • -4 Hide
    Beave Village , March 5, 2014 11:53 AM
    Umm, not sure how or why Diablo III is relevant to Tom's Hardware tech news, but okay. :) 
  • 1 Hide
    Matthew Zweig , March 5, 2014 12:25 PM
    Quote:
    Quote:
    Path of Exile.That is all.
    Right? I wonder which is better, $40 for a game that will be obsolete in a month and will require ANOTHER $40 injection to Blizzards wallet to stay relevant, OR I can pay absolutely nothing and enjoy every piece of content + expansion from the guys at GGG.
    But why not both? I love POE and you know what since this patch i decided to give d3 another shot and they really did well on fixing how broken this game was. I mean as a casual dungeon crawler its definitely playable. Yes POE will always be for the more hardcore.
  • -1 Hide
    digitalexplosives , March 5, 2014 1:37 PM
    All i read are a bunch of whingers. Will you never be happy? a company can't make everything perfect. If you haven't played since release i suggest you install it again and give it a go.

    **downvoted** you people are laughable, the game has been a heap of fun and is worth the price i paid. (even cheaper now)
  • 1 Hide
    robochump , March 5, 2014 4:24 PM
    POE is good if your expectations are low. Since Diablo 3 expectations were huge it will never please a good portion of Diablo fans. I got bored with POE in beta and never finished. I like most of us finished D3 but got bored doing same thing over n over.
  • 0 Hide
    rexbinary , March 5, 2014 5:30 PM
    Quote:
    Path of Exile.That is all.
    True dat, but Marvel Heroes since the 2.0 patch is pretty dam fun too.
  • 0 Hide
    zodiacfml , March 5, 2014 7:54 PM
    why not a 50% discount to the early adopters of d3?
  • 0 Hide
    DSage , March 5, 2014 8:17 PM
    The comments some people make are quite ridicules in this comment section. People argue that the game sucked and was bad but they still put in the time to make it to inferno and clear all the available content. No game is perfect and initially diablo 3 was far from it but with time and listening to the community blizzard is at least actively polishing the game and working toward making it way better then it was for free with content patches like 2.0.1. People argue POE is better ok that is your opinion does POE have the support and fan base of Diablo i highly doubt it. People are arguing blizzard should give them 50% off the expansion this to me seems rather ludicrous a group of people put time into producing new features and new innovative ones like nephalem rifts and adventure mode and they deserve money for there hard work. People waiting for it to go on special i understand that you'd rather spend less for the content that's perfectly fine if you wish to wait then do so. D3 should not be judged in one phase because the game will continue to evolve with time and improve just as d2 did with it's expansion. I simply hope that this point opens the eyes of some readers I apologize for the rant.
  • 0 Hide
    cats_Paw , March 6, 2014 12:28 AM
    Blizzard has killed their milking cows by now, and they are tying to find a way to revive the dead.Giving more drops or XP is even worse as it makes the game even less atractive in the long run, same as the auction house did. Then again, I assume blizzard knows that even if you fall to an all time low, you can start digging.
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