It's been nearly twelve years since I first played Diablo II and longer still since I first played the classic that is the original Diablo. Since then, I've been chomping at the bit for more. The first Diablo still ranks as one of my favorite games of all time. Although, Diablo II was damn good it still fell short of the masterpiece that was the first installment of Diablo. Even with the innovations and changes it introduced to the franchise and while it was still a great game, it never captured the atmosphere and memorable moments the way Diablo had.

This made the announcement of Diablo III, a sequel twelve years in the making, not only exciting but very intriguing. I could only fathom what Blizzard had in store for Diablo III after all these years; would it more closely resemble Diablo II with its wide open environments or would the series return to its roots and drag you under ground to the very pits of hell?

Prior to the first rumors about Diablo III surfacing, I admittedly hadn't thought all that much about Diablo for many years. It seems as though neither had Blizzard, considering they seemed to be preoccupied with their money tree, World of Warcraft. Although they did get around to finally releasing Starcraft II, albeit, it too took 12 years to complete. That's not to say that it wasn't well worth the wait.

When the first tidbits about Diablo III were released I was excited, to say the least. Memories of exploring catacombs, casting firewalls, running from The Butcher and getting ripped off by Wart in the town of Tristram all came flooding back. I heard rumblings of a private Beta and before I knew it the Beta had been made public and I completely missed the opportunity to play it, of no fault but my own I must admit. Still I was consumed with excitement as Diablo III's release date grew closer.

Diablo III is one of, if not, the most anticipated game Blizzard has ever released. Evidenced by its pre-order sales being the largest for a PC game in Amazon's history. On top of that, the Beta hosted 2 million people, who logged on to play it over the weekend it was available. Clearly I'm far from alone in my fever-like excitement for the next installment in the Diablo series. Unfortunately, this only serves to exacerbate the gut punch when I learned that Diablo III would require a constant internet connection in order to play it.

Yeahbuhwhy?! I asked myself again and again. My knee jerk reaction was to assume that Blizzard was simply jumping on the bandwagon with Ubisoft and butchering their own game to prevent its resale. However, Blizzard claims this wasn't their motivation. While I'm skeptical, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. The big wigs at Blizzard explained that their motivation for requiring an internet umbilical cord is not related to DRM(digital rights management) at all. And unless I missed it, Blizzard is not requiring any sort of online pass for people who buy the game used so thankfully that isn't their motivation either.

Blizzard reasons that because your character will be saved on their server, Battle.net, if they didn't require a constant online connection to play then your single player character could not be used on multiplayer servers. This would force you to create a completely new character for online play. Quite honestly, I don't think that's such a big deal. Especially considering that's exactly how the original Diablo was.

In the original Diablo, you're given the option play solo or online with friends. The fact that you have to create separate characters to do so doesn't diminish the experience. If anything, it potentially adds to it. Consider the five character classes you have to choose from. Save for the Barbarian, there are no returning character classes so no matter which class you pick you have a completely new experience to look forward to. What's to stop you from having a Wizard as your single player character and a Demon Hunter as your multiplayer character or whatever combination you see fit?

Blizzard references World of Warcraft (WoW) to support their argument. Their claim is that the practice of requiring a constant online connection has been around for years, so why the fuss? There are quite a few holes in their argument though. WoW is a Mass Multiplayer Online game and people are therefore expected to have a constant online connection. Where as, when playing a single player campaign it feels unnecessary to need to be online. Not to mention, you'd be hard pressed to find even the most causal WoW players having only a single character, and restraining themselves to only one server no less.

Another argument is from the stand point of eliminating hacks from the game; a worthy ambition. But can an internet umbilical cord really prevent the problem? Doesn't World of Warcraft still have its fair share of problems with dupes and hacks despite requiring a constant internet connection? If you Google 'WoW gold/items 4 cash websites', the list goes on for hours. Essentially you can pay "X" amount of money for "X" amount of gold or weapons or mounts, specifically ones that don't 'Bind on Pick-Up' or 'Bind on Account.'

As stated earlier, I've reigned in the majority of my initial disappointment. However, I definitely won't be waiting in line at midnight to snag a copy of Diablo III when it's released, nor will I feel that I'm missing out on something great by not doing so. Perhaps, one day I'll breakdown and decide to play Diablo III. Especially if they reintroduce the Necromancer into the series. Short of that, I'd sooner dust off a copy of Diablo or Diablo II and one night, when my internet is down, be reminded why I loved those games so much.

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In this short Diablo 3 Wizard Leveling Guide, we will be taking at look at an overview of the wizard class. Because of their long and storied history, it is important to understand the changes that the wizard class will undergo in Diablo 3 and how to use these changes to your benefit for smooth, quick leveling in Diablo 3. It should be mentioned that, like the other classes in Diablo 3, players will have the choice of leveling with a male or female wizard, with custom animations and character styling to match.

Wizards are generally famed for his or her power to cause huge amounts of mystical ruin although being a bit lagging and weaker in the armor area. The Diablo 3 wizard falls directly in line with these notions...however with several twists.

In Diablo 3, the wizard is a frightfully powerful master of fire, ice, arcane powers, and also time itself. As the story goes, wizards are classified as the renegade rebels of the magic-using world. With mages and sorcerers being fairly submissive to the policies of basic safety and self-control, wizards choose the path of reckless immersion in their amazing capabilities. While traditionally educated as casters, wizards make up the rebellious and powerful elite, adhering to no laws but their own.

Arcane Power is the innovative resource for the Wizard class. Arcane Power has been said to be absorbed by the wizard from the energies on the planet around her or him. as opposed to mana, Arcane Power regenerates quickly with almost always adequate "fuel in the tank" remaining to cast at the least a smaller spell. Having said that, due to fantastic strength of Arcane Power, it will have a cost on the wizard's entire body and can result in exhaustion if over used by casting too many large, powerful spells uninterruptedly. Because of this, many of the wizard's more destructive talents have a rather long cooldown timer. Don't worry though, the wizard character has several smaller spells to cast in between cooldowns. This kind of swiftly regenerating resource will surely help to make the wizard class skilled at fast leveling in Diablo 3.

When it comes to virtually every Role-playing game offered, the wizard class, whether it's a sorcerer, mage, warlock, and so on, has always proven to be highly trained at doling out gigantic amounts of damage using more than just a few tricks up their sleeve. The Diablo 3 wizard class is not an exception. When in the position to step back to a safe range, this character class has the ability to channel their arcane powers and discharge a damaging flurry of sensational attacks that will lay waste to the opponents in rapid fashion.

Experts of the elements, wizards are expert conjurers of AOE, or area of effect attacks. They're able to cause widespread damage to massive amounts of enemies simultaneously, all from a relatively secure range. When wizards land in the path of danger, they're able to cast protective spells such as Teleport and Slow Time to stay away from the inbound destruction.

For armour, Diablo 3 wizards will start with access to cloth armour however will promptly acquire the ability to put on more protective gear such as hardened leather-based chestguards. In the higher levels, the wizard character is going to have access to ornamental and protective equipment such as powerful hoods along with decorated metal plates to accessorize their mighty gowns and tunics.

Wizards will be able to utilize a surprisingly wide variety of weapons in Diablo 3. They're going to have accessibility to the conventional wizard weapons including staves, wands, one-handed swords, off-hand orbs and also mystical daggers. Additionally, the way it is in today's release of the 'beta', it appears that wizards also are able to use a variety of less-common wizard weaponry such as spears, two-handed axes, along with bows.

This Diablo 3 wizard leveling guide has revealed that the newly modified wizard class will certainly have a wide range of abilities, weaponry and armor that will make them both vastly powerful damage dealers as well as fairly sturdy opponents on the battlefield. With all of these powerful new tools at their disposal, the wizard will most certainly be a very viable character choice for fast, efficient leveling in Diablo 3!

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Diablo is a hack'n slash action Role Playing Game (RPG) that was released in late 1996. And almost all gamers who like to play RPGs, have become a fan of it in a very short time. Then, in summer 2000, came the second title in the series, Diablo 2, which later became the favorite game of millions of gamers worldwide for many years. Even now, after more than 10 years, a large number of people continue playing this game and its various mods created by many fans.

Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of Diablo series, made an announcement on June 2008 that turned millions of fans' dreams into reality. They said that they had been developing the third game and trying their best to make it the best hack'n slash RPG ever.

While we are waiting for the release of Diablo 3, let me talk about what is so special about Diablo series, especially Diablo 2, that even after 10 years, the game is able to make itself played by a large number of gamers.

As a long term Diablo 2 player, I can say that this game has the right combination of characteristics an action RPG should have in order to keep the interest of the player alive for a long time. The first thing I want to mention is the story of the game. I really don't remember another game with such an interesting and captivating story. The game starts with an opening cinematic which tells the beginning of the story. Even at that instant, you can feel the greatness and the charm of the game. As you proceed through the acts, by the way there are 5 acts including the expansion, new cinematic videos continue telling the story creating an increasing curiosity and attention. I am quite sure that most of the Diablo players have watched those videos countless times to better get into the game world.

The game has three difficulty options as normal, nightmare and hell; where normal is the easiest and hell is the hardest. Once you complete the game in a difficulty level, the next one will be unlocked and you can continue playing with your character but this time with an increased difficulty and a more challenging world. Better items and greater fun comes with the increased difficulty, and that is the main point that makes gamers play it again and again.

As in all other RPGs, there is a leveling system in Diablo 2 as well. You gain experience by killing creatures and once you have enough experience, your character levels up. There is a level cap in Diablo 2, which is 99, and the game developers had implemented a unique idea which I find to be very successful. It is close to impossible to get to level 99, let me explain it like this: The amount of experience you need to gain a level, increases exponentially with each level and although the amount of experience you gain in the increased difficulty areas increase as well, after a certain point, (like around level 80) it takes more and more time to level up. This is brilliant right? What else could keep the players' focus on the game?

The item system in Diablo 2 is also a really unique and wisely crafted part of the game. Just like the three difficulty levels in the game, items also have three levels as normal, exceptional and elite. At the beginning of the game, you start with getting normal item drops and as you progress in the game and level up, item levels as well as their quality also increases. In my opinion, this system simply is what made Diablo 2 that much successful.

Additionally, all that magic, rare, unique and set items; miscellaneous gems, runes and the limitless combinations you can create, enrich the game and take it to a level where you will not get bored even after hundreds of hours of gameplay.

You now have a better idea about Diablo 2 and I highly suggest you try it if you haven't yet. I am sure you will like it if you are on good terms with action RPGs. Besides, it will be a good idea to do so before Diablo 3 comes out.

I'm a big fan of Diablo game series and love this type of games a lot. You can find much more detail about the game and lot of cool tips and Diablo 3 strategies on my website: Where to buy diablo 3