Classes and Followers

The five classes of Diablo 3: Monk, Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Wizard, and Witch Doctor are available for both male and female options. Even though all of the five are actually same from Diablo 2, the variety of skills and customization of Diablo 3 made the sequel unique and different from Diablo 2. There are three different followers. Your choice depends on your preference and play style. Eirena the Enchantress can provide magical damage and supportive spells. Lyndon the Scoundrel can supply you with attack bonuses while killing monsters from a distance. Kormac the Templar is able to fight on the front lines and can offer heals for you. Along with customizable equipment, you can now manage the skill tree of your follower.

Skills and Runes

Diablo 3 has the completely revamped skill system, which is the biggest difference from the Diablo series. The wide variety of skills and different modifiers that you can attach to those skills called Runes that are unique to each class. For example, the Witch Doctor's 'Zombie Charger' skill can be augmented with runes to do bonus poison damage towards your enemies, resurrect other corpses upon death, summon more than one charger while do less damage, summon a fire dog to replace the zombie, or summon a group of poison bears instead. Each skill has different runes that are unlocked at different levels; for example, the poison bears requires level 54. In Diablo 2 each class has three skill trees and points are allocated into those trees. Once one point is dropped in, there was no going back. But in Diablo 3, as you can change your skill build and rune combinations no matter when, you are allowed to experience each facet of their selected class without penalty. The runes also add a significant amount of depth since there are countless possibilities and combinations. Almost all the skills in Diablo 3 are based on your weapon damage, so it is very important to keep upgrading that main weapon to do the most damage.

Fight and Difficulty

Fighting in Diablo 3 will feel familiar to most -- point, click, and kill things. You will be able to map your skills and your potions to your skill bar for easy access. But potions aren't the same as in Diablo 2. There is no need to hoard a pile of Full Rejuvenation potions for a tough boss. As you fight through the mobs of demons, Health Orbs will drop from their corpses, which encourages you to keep the action going. The more you kill, the more you can heal up. Historically, Diablo games allow you to play the game again even you have completed, with some things modified to make it more difficult: starting from Normal mode, progress to Nightmare Mode, then on to Hell mode, finally Inferno Mode. The further you progress, the better the item drops may get. If the difficulty isn't challenging enough for you, Hardcore Mode will return in Diablo 3. In this mode you have only one life. If your character dies, the game is over. "Your deeds of valor will be remembered, but you may not continue". Blizzard has recently announced that Hardcore Mode will be unlocked after you take a normal character to level 10.

Crafting, Finding, and Selling

One thing the Diablo series has been good at is getting you hooked on item collecting. a pile of loot sprays out on the ground after you kill a swarm of skeletons. The game implements a personal loot system when playing in team. Each team member will see different item drops on the screen, so there is no need to fight over any items. Diablo 3 also introduces a "Shared Stash" that is upgradeable. If you store an item in your stash on one character, you will be able to find those items in your stash on another character. That is to say, there is no need to transfer between Hardcore and Softcore characters. But random drops isn't the only way to get some great stuff. There are two NPCs of craft in the game that can help you produce and upgrade items. The Blacksmith will create weapons and armor with random stat modifiers and the Jeweler will help you upgrade your gems and slot them into weapons/armor for bonuses. Allowing the Blacksmith to break down the magical items that are no use will supply you with more materials for crafting. You also can spend gold to level these Artisans up for creation of more powerful gear. Players will also be able to buy, sell, and bid on items in the in-game auction house. This inclusion was met with a level of concern when it was also announced that accompanying the in-game gold auction house, there would be a real money auction house as well, at which you could use real money via Battle.net points for trades.

Online Play

Differ from Diablo 2, Diablo 3 requires an internet connection all times. While this disheartened some internet-challenged gamers, it is to ensure the integrity of the game and thwart any malicious users (especially with the real money auction house). Each game can have up to four players in a group at a time. You can jump in and out of games with your friends, and easily find other players in similar areas. Similarly to previous Diablo games, your enemies will get stronger as more players join in, and weaker as they leave. Blizzard has promised the inclusion of PvP in the game, but they have been delayed for a in-time release for the game. This feature will be added in post launch.