Diablo 3 - How a Weapon's DPS is Calculated

Armada Gaming shows us how a weapons Damage per Second (DPS) is calculated and has provided a web based tool to work it out; Click here for Diablo 3 DPS Calculator.

Diablo Complete Lore and Story

This post covers the Lore of Diablo in great detail and is the result of work Malfore of Reddit and additional media included.


For those who don't have the time it takes to read the story in full but might still be interested in understanding, the TL:DR version: The moral world, Sanctuary was created by an Archangel Inarius and hidden from heaven and hell. They eventually find it though, and things got our of hand. There was an evil gang and the 4 smaller dudes weren't happy with the 3 bigger thugs, so they kicked them from their turf. These 3 bigger thugs then went on to cause a shit storm on this new turf until they were put in jail by the Horadrim popo. One of them manage to escape but he got a beat down. The Dark Wanderer from Diablo I turns into Diablo and frees his two brothers Mephisto and Baal. The five heroes (the five playable classes in Diablo II) track Diablo through his journey into hell, killing Mephisto along the way. They eventually kill Diablo as well. Baal is still alive, and he is coming…with a vengeance, and a really big army. Finally Seven heroes (the 7 playable classes in Daiblo 2: Lord of Destruction) chase Baal to the Arreat Summit and defeat him, but they were not able to do so before he corrupted the Worldstone causing it to drain the mortal world’s energy. Tyrael, the Archangel of Justice was forced to destroy the Worldstone to save humanity. No one knows what will happen next.

Pro-logue

I wanted to start at the beginning so that people will get an overall understanding of how the mortal world came to be and to get a better understanding of what is happening in the subsequent Diablo I, II and III. I didn’t read all the novels and books so some of this might be inaccurate. Feel free to correct me if I'm saying anything that isn’t true, but for the most part it should give everyone an idea of how things came to be.

There are basically three worlds in the Diablo Universe, The High Heavens, Burning Hell, and the mortal world known as Sanctuary. 


In the beginning, Sanctuary did not exist and neither did humans. There was only the High Heavens and Burning Hell. The two worlds battled each other endlessly for control in what is known as the Great/Eternal Conflict. This war has lasted since the beginning of creation, and while each side would gain the advantage every now and then, it has pretty much been a stalemate.

The burning hell was lead by the three Prime Evils, Diablo and his two broth ers Baal and Mephisto.

The High Heavens was lead by the Angiris Council, a group of very powerful Archangels. There was 5 total. They are:

• Tyrael - The Archangel of Justice (Male)
• Auriel - The Archangel of Hope (Female)
• Malthael – The Archangel of Wisdom (Male)
• Imperius – The Archangel of Valor (Male)
• Itherael – The Archangel of Fate (Sexless, neither male or female)

There was one more powerful Archangel that acted as an advisor to the Angiris Council, and his name was Inarius(Male). Inarius was tired of the endless conflict with neither side able to win decisively. He longed for a more peaceful world where there wouldn’t be constant conflict. He gathered other Angels and Demons who felt the same way and created Sanctuary, the mortal world. Using the powers of Worldstone that he stole, Inarius hid the presence of Sanctuary from Heaven and Hell.

Humans were the off springs of Angels and Demons that lived in Sanctuary and were very powerful at first. The first generations of humans were known as Nephalem, and had the potential to be even more powerful than either Angels or Demons. Fearing that humans would become more powerful than him, Inarius modified the Worldstone to make each generation of human weaker and weaker, draining them of their innate powers. He wanted humans to worship him, and created a relgion/cult called the Cathedral of Light. The Prime Evils were the first to discover Sanctuary, and attempted to gain influence over the population and recruit them as soldiers in the Great Conflict. Not wanting to alert the high heavens of Sanctuary's existence, they formed a religion/cult called the Triune. Both religions recruited followers and used them for their own purpose.

A lot more happens before the events of the first Diablo, and they are told through the “Sin War” novels by Richard A. Knaak. Basically the humans tap into their powers to fight back against the Demons and Angels. Inarius is eventually defeated by a human named Uldyssian, the strongest human who lead a revolt against Inarius and the Triune (cult of the prime evils). In order to defeat Inarius, Uldyssian tapped into the Worldstone and unleashed his tremendous power, so great in fact that it was going to destroy all of Sanctuary. Once he realized this, he sacrificed himself to save the mortal world. This is when the Agiris Council discovered Sanctuary and what Inarius has done. They descended into Sanctuary and were going to destroy it since they viewed it as an abomination tainted with demon blood. After all, humans were half demon as they were the off spring of Angels and Demons.

For those who Love to Cleave!

Diablo 3 Open Beta Weekend Review and Early Strategy

This past weekend starting from April 20th (4-20... ye) Blizzard opened the Beta realm to the public for a grand test and tease. Members of SOF took little time to get in with 2 of us breaking through the wall of server hammering and beating the Beta completely that very Friday night. We're well aware of how difficult it was for most people to access the beta, with such errors as 37, 32, 300005 etc... We just kept on trying until we got in and were able to play. We began playing separate games to get a feel for how it would work solo. One of us played the Monk, the other playing the Wizard.

All in it took about 3 hours to complete the Beta for each of us and defeat the Skeleton King. It was truthfully an action packed 3 hours full of lots of learning, and even some glitch finding too.

Through-out the Beta I found myself asking "Why am I picking up gold? if it's all going to be erased in 3 days..." but it didn't matter. We picked up everything, explored every cavern and over-turned every loose stone and jar. With the Wizard having defeated the Skeleton King already, I still continued to do open game 4 man King runs over and over until the level was maxed at 13, just to see what kind of item drop variance we would see. although I had some Magic Find gear (about 28% MF) I still didn't see much more than 2 or 3 magic items each King drop, which mostly lead to Salvaging them at the Blacksmith anyway.


Crafting was particularly neat, can't wait to see the full use come May 15.


By the end of level 13 I was able to get a really hard hitting Wizard formed, never even died once, throwing about 48.83 damage using the wand pictured below:

It quickly becomes apparent that in Diablo 3 items will play just as important a role as they did in LOD if not more so, take note that each class receives damage bonuses based on either Strength, Dexterity and as for the Wizard Intelligence. This made me favor items that added to Intelligence, like Crafting up a +4 Intelligence on a set of Bracers that also had + Vitality was awesome.


With the Wizard being a distance caster I was less concerned with armor and focused more on doing as much damage as possible, part of that meant getting extra damage from rings purchased at a merchant. Rocking 2 rings, both with + 2-4 damage and 4% Magic Find. Shout out to Force Strategy Gaming on the damage rings, he mentioned it in one of his videos.

This got me thinking, it may be advantageous to hoard different sets of gear, say a whole set of gear that has level requirements across the board that focuses on maximizing + Experience Gained, for use when trying to Super Level, seems the Radiant Star Ruby would be good for that.

Or, perhaps another set of gear maximizing Gold Find, since Gold will play a role at the Auction House. The Radiant Star Emerald looks good here too, but there's an error, blizz... Also, left wondering if it says "Can be inserted into Armor with sockets" but lists only Helm and Weapon, what about body armor? Tunics? etc...

Naturally of course, some people will have a Magic Find set of gear for item hunting, similar to D2 the Topaz looks to be the Gem here.

When it came to Skill Strategy I favored the Magic Missile until I could finally use Spectral Blade for Primary. Using Arcane Orb with Obliteration Rune modifier was Secondary. I found myself attack most groups by blasting a few Orb's into them and cleaning up the stragglers with the Missile. At times when I would get surrounded by enemies I would resort to Wave of Force if they were skeletons or the like which were likely to be all killed in one shot. Saving Frost Nova with Shatter for when I really got into trouble and needed to escape.

In general the Graphics were excellent, the Sound was great, AI very interesting and will be curious to see how it progresses through Nightmare and Inferno,

Diablo 3 Beta open but down

Diablo 3 Beta, just waiting to log in... Currently down though and awaiting further updates.

Diablo 3 News, Knowledge and Character Play-Throughs

To date we know so far that Diablo 3 goes Live May 15, 2012. We have learned today that Beta testing stops May 1st, the time is drawing nearer. Brush up on your knowledge by reviewing some of the Diablo III Wiki.


If you're a convert from the Diablo II and LOD series looking to move into the Diablo III series you will find it worth your time to check out this article on the what to expect in terms of differences between Diablo II and III.


Check out some of these great Beta Play-Through Videos for each class, starting with the Barbarian and Wizard. Click "Read More" for the Monk, Demon Hunter and Witch Doctor.






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