Diablo III Developer Chat Transcript

Question

Thanks to everyone who joined us on for the Diablo III Developer Chat today!  We had a great turnout and some even greater questions.  For those of you who weren’t able to make it, here is a transcript of the chat to tide you over until May 15th. 
Pre-order Diablo III now!
Developers:
Jay Wilson, Game Director
Jason Bender, Senior System Designer
Jason Regier, Lead Software Engineer
Kevin Martens, Lead Content Designer
Transcript for Chat: 'Diablo III Developer Chat', Tue May 08 16:00:00 CDT 2012
Kyle-BBY: Welcome to the Diablo III Developer Chat new arrivals! We'll be getting started in a few more minutes. Get your questions ready!
Guest-74: When the option is selected to list things in the auction house for a real dollar value selling price, does that money go to the seller or Blizzard?
JayWilson: We charge a $1 dollar service fee, or 15% for commodities. The remainder of the sale price goes to the seller.
Guest-20: With some information out (may or maynot be correct) about how hard monsters hit in Inferno, will WD pets still be viable?
JayWilson: Yes, pets scale pretty well in inferno. You do have to refresh them, but they are useful for tanking mobs.
Guest-228: What was the hardest thing you had to cut from the game due to time/prodcution constraints?
JasonRegier: For me, it was PvP. I had a ton of fun playing it against folks at BlizzCon, but it just wasn't ready for prime time yet.
Guest-106: Will there be anyway to share the wings I get in the Collector's Edition with friends?
JasonBender: Those are just for you, but you can apply them to as many of your characters as you like.
Guest-26: Has anyone from the internal testing found a legendary item yet? Also, when are the stats for the legendaries going to be released?
JasonRegier: I got one during testing, and when it dropped, I jumped up and cheered. It was awesome!
Guest-25: Can you explain us about the bossfights? Will they be like Diablo 2 where the bosses had a fixed number of abilities and they just used them, or it will be more like WoW where the bosses have phases with different abilities and the scenery/positioning its crucial in the fight.
JayWilson: Depends on the boss. Some have a set number of abilities, some have phases. Most are a little more complex than Diablo II.
Guest-157: I will like to start of by saying the game is looking amazing so far, and I'm new to Diablo. Can you use the WASD keys for movement or just the left click on the mouse?
JasonRegier: Basic control in Diablo 3 is very simple. Just click to move, and click on monsters to attack them.
JayWilson: We don't support WASD for movement. We don't think it feels good as a movement scheme from an isometric view.
tomt610: Will you make inferno difficulty easier if people will start telling you that you made it too hard and they cannot beat it, even that it is beatable at this point? Cause I remember in 90s games required skill to beat them and it would be nice to have at least one that kind of game at this point, without life regenerating itself etc.
JasonBender: Inferno isn't for everyone. We would like to keep it as challenging as possible. Also, don't forget Hardcore mode. That's retro-hard!
Guest-70: How many times was the codebase rewritten over the years or was reuse pretty standard?
KevinMartens: We've spent a lot of time and energy getting the servers to be as prepared as possible. The big stress test during the beta was very helpful (thanks for all who participated). We'll have a big support team standing by at launch.
Guest-251: What was your inspiration for the Wizard?
JayWilson: We were inspired by old school pen and paper RPG's. We wanted a magic user who could control time, disentegrate, cast illusions, etc.
Guest-36: Do you have plans to implement the Necromancer or druid at any point in the future?
JayWilson: Any future classes we do are shrouded in mystery (insert scary ghost sounds).
Guest-283: what are the plans for launch day, are the servers prepared for the work load that is coming?
KevinMartens: We've spent a lot of time and energy getting the servers to be as prepared as possible. The big stress test during the beta was very helpful (thanks for all who participated). We'll have a big support team standing by at launch.
Guest-728: when you want to play with a friend who is much lower level than you, are you stuck playing the furthest ACT or DIFFICULTY they have achieved?
JasonBender: They can jump in to your game at a higher level (up to the highest difficulty they've achieved), even though they might miss story points. If the lower level player creates the game you will be limited to their story progress. You're not limited by ACT, but you are limited by DIFFICULTY.
Guest-253: What was the funniest / most awesome bug you discovered during the development of Diablo 3?
JasonBender: Funniest bug? We accidentally had an event that summoned 5 treasure goblins at one time. It was great seeing people scramble to chase them as they ran in different directions. Serious chaos!
KevinMartens: Perhaps a little less funny than awesome but I had an skeleton summoner with a bug with no limit on the number of skeletons and I went to a meeting, came back an the monitor was entirely filled with skeletons. I killed them all with a leap attack
Guest-56: Besides PvP, do you have any plans on adding additional content to Diablo?
JayWilson: To Guest-56 Nothing solid at this point.
Guest-25: Will the game have support for clans/guilds at release? if not, is something its being considered to be added in the future? I remember in Diablo 2 we had to create new characters to add the clan's tag.
JayWilson: No plans at this time.
Guest-23: I have had troubles with the FPS in the beta with my pretty decent upper class notebook, especially when bigger waves of monsters where on the screen? Has the FPS been optimized for notebook users for release since beta?
JasonRegier: It's hard to say without knowing more about your particular configuration. We work really closely with our hardware compatibility department to make sure that lots of people have a great experience with D3, and we're always looking to make performance better.
Guest-236: If i am higher level then my freinds and want to play with them, will there be any kind of handicap? for example will they get less exp
JasonBender: There is an XP penalty for killing monsters too high/low in level relative to your character. It scales based on your level, so at lower levels you can fight a broader range of creatures. This is good because player levels tend to be farther apart earlier in the game.
Guest-389: In the beta I had a hard time determining how much damage a spell did. I later learned that if I held ctrl and moused over a spell it gave me a percentage. Has any changes been made to make actually spell damage info more accessible?
JayWilson: You can set more advanced tooltips to permanently display so you don't need to hold down CTRL. I do feel these could be more accurate in displaying the exact damage you're doing, and we may improve it in the future.
Guest-261: Due to the amount of time it must take to produce the cinematics, how does that influence/affect a more iterative game design process?
KevinMartens: The cinematics team is very, very good at working with us to identify the moments of a cinematic that are most prone to change and leaving those to the last possible moment. There is seldom an issue that we can't change with a line change or a simple new shot. The process and time limits have not been much of a problem at all.
Guest-278: I know that Diablo3 is a click-to-move type game, but for sufferers of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, it can be very painful to click that much. Is controller support available in the future, if not, can players use applications such as Xpadder for use with controllers on the computer?
JasonBender: Right-click drive mode allows you to automatically attack while moving when you hold the right mouse button down instead of clicking. Several of us use this to reduce clicks. (You can imagine how many times we've clicked in the process of making the game!) 
Guest-217: Are the end of the act bosses still going to be the enemies with the highest drop rates for the most sought after gear resulting in "Baal Runs" being the best way to gear up, or will you encourage players to scour the map looking for rarespawns and giving them a higher drop rate instead
JayWilson: We have a new system called "Nephalem Valor" that encourages you to kill randomly placed rares and champions. When you do, you get a stacking buff that increases your gold and magic find, and increases the drops on bosses. This makes it most beneficial to play through random content, then go fight bosses.
Guest-224: Say for example that I am playing a high level character, but I want to play with my friend who only has a low level character. Will me joining his game ruin the experience for him because I could just blast through the content and make it too easy for him?
JayWilson: You could blast him through the content, but his XP will be greatly diminished to the point that it's not very beneficial for your low level friend...unless he likes spoilers. But that's what Youtube is for.
Guest-302: In regards to internal testing, did any of you try out a completely ridiculous build and manage to make it work in a later difficulty?
KevinMartens: We spend a lot of time trying out "wacky" builds like melee Wizards or pet-less Witch Doctors and it is a fun, often challenging way to play. We often find ourselves changing a skill or two when we get stuck on a particular elite monster and sequence. Or more likely, we get tempted into to trying a completely different build when we get some particularly awesome piece of equipment. Melee wizard example above is a good one--I was playing recently with a typical mix of ranged spells and found a big bad-**bleep** sword that had such great stats, I changed my build to a melee wizard just to try out the sword.
Guest-352: How much does the difficulty and greater item quality drop change when your buddy enters the world to play with you?
JayWilson: Depends on the difficulty level you are playing in. I can't remember 'exact' numbers, though. It hovers around doubling monster health per player, but there are other variables as well.
Guest-65: What happeneds after i beat inferno mode? P.S I LOVE YOU GUYS AWESOME JOB WITH THE GAME!
JasonRegier: I'm pretty sure Jay comes to your house and gives you a big hug.
Guest-249: Hey guys, what are the best moments you have from development time?
JasonBender: Blizzcon was super-motivating. Also it's fun when we have hours long discussions about crazy design ideas, then see the exact same arguments happen on the forums.
JasonRegier: For me, one of the best moments was seeing hundreds of people playing the game for the first time at BlizzCon. The response was fantastic! I can't wait for the public to finally play the full game.
Guest-347: Bashiok stated that the display of BattleTags in games was a bug. Today Lylirra said that it wasn't. So is this a bug or not? If not then what exactly is the point of character names at all?
JayWilson: It's not a bug, it is supposed to be displayed in game. We felt showing the Battle Tag was an essential element to identifying your friends and didn't want players displayed with different names in different situations. The purpose of character names is to help the player identify their characters in the case they have multiple of the same class and for extended presence.
Guest-632: In diablo 2 as you got further into NM and **bleep** the areas became much bigger. Will the same happen with the later difficulties of Diablo 3? I remember Durance of Hate level 3 normal vs **bleep** and having a huge area difference.
KevinMartens: The areas do not get bigger in later difficulties and it hasn't impacted the fun at all. Bigger does not equal better in level design, in the vast majority of cases. We've concentrated much more on the second-to-second challenge and item rewards for higher difficulty playthroughs.
Guest-509: Can you keep teleporting if you are under 1 second, using the wormhole rune on the wizard?
JayWilson: You can teleport as many times as the animation will allow in the time before the cooldown is triggered.
Guest-351: My question is..... So if inferno has its own gear tiers Act1 - Act4 will all the normal thru **bleep** gear end up being trash or will some items end up being good way past their level unique items?? Thanks in advance .
JasonBender: You'll need to gear up for a while prior to Inferno, so He|| gear will still be valuable for a while. Inferno ramps harshly, though, so you'll need to farm early inferno to handle late inferno. There is a point where gear becomes useless, but a perfectly rolled rare or legendary item can last a long time if it has the affixes you need. Don't forget crafting components, too. Old items can be used to crafter better ones.
Guest-519: is there a way to switch weapons quickly on the run? (As we did with Diablo 2 by pressing "W") ?
JayWilson: No. In polling players this seemed to primarily be used to hot swap to high magic find weapons right before a boss died, which didn't seem like great gameplay to encourage.
Guest-552: Is there any customization to the character when making a character at the start screen? Also is there any customization later in the the game?
JayWilson: You can also use dyes to customize gear, and even hide pieces of gear that have good stats that you don't like the look of.
JasonRegier: At the starting screen, no. But within the game, there's a huge number of combinations of items and skills to choose from. Those choices really make your character unique.
Guest-367: Was anyone in the internal test team able to beat the fourth difficulty of the game ? If not what is the reason for that ?
KevinMartens: No one has beaten Inferno.
Guest-415: Will third party programs that collect data about how much loot/gold is dropped where and when be allowed to use?
JasonRegier: Using 3rd party programs like those is against the terms of use.
Talen: Many Beta Testers have conserns about the text size of the user interface being either to small, or to large.Do you have any plans at this time to introduce scaling o accessability options for the User Interface and Item Stat Text ?
JayWilson: Not at this time. Every feature has development cost. If there is demand for something like this we'll weigh it against other features we could add to the game. We did, however, increase font size late in the Beta.
Guest-366: For the Witch Doctor, with Zombie Handler and Circle of Life passives, are you able to go well beyond having 4 summoned dogs on the field at once or is there some sort of cap?
JasonBender:  4 is the max for dogs. You can get up to your max nyumber of dogs with a variety of skills (beyond just summoning them), which is good if they're dying a lot in higher difficulties, but that doesn't break the cap.
Guest-335: Developers: Which act is your favorite to play through?
JasonBender: I like Act 3. Because... er... *SPOILERS*!
KevinMartens: Interesting question as that actually changes for me based on the difficulty. I like Act 3 on normal just because of certain battle sequences (no spoilers!!!) but like Act 2 on Nightmare because the bump in difficulty there is a fun challenge for me.
JayWilson: Don't ask me to pick my favorite child.
Guest-248: So I read that we can make a new characters in other regions other than our own, will we be able to copy a character over to that region or will we have to start a new one to play with our overseas friends?
JasonRegier: You will have to start a new one.
Guest-617: Did you find it difficult to convince others (Co-Wokers - Players) that a stat system wasn't very fun and just a math game? And also, was it easy to convince others that a skill system that was developed around experimentation would be more fun than a Diablo 2 system of constantly re-rolling? (I love the skill system lets me try whatever I want to try - I feel rewarded for experimenting. I feel more games should have this type of system.)
JayWilson: Yes, it was difficult.
Guest-847: What is the highest gem level that we can expect to drop?
JayWilson: Tier 5 gems are the highest that drop.
Guest-505: Beyond what we have already seen and the sets in Inferno, how many unique weapons and armor sets can we expect to see in D3? Will more be added? (outstanding job so far!)
JasonBender: We have a ton of cool ideas that we would like to do. A bunch are in the works, but I can't yet say when they'll be ready for you. (The art team loves making these.)
Guest-807: Will there be the option to change the strength of the monsters by pretending to have more players in a game? Like in D2?
JayWilson: Not at release. With the challenge level of Inferno we did not see this as necessary.
Guest-2444: Will Melee Wizards be Viable in **bleep** Mode?
KevinMartens: For difficulty modes: certainly, the challenge will be harder in later difficulty modes. But really, this question points to a cool point of depth/awesomeness in our system. With the right gear and some practice, melee wizard will be viable--maybe barely but still. For Hardcore Mode: Again, with the right gear, maybe, but it is a risky thing to try. Let me know how you do
Guest-906: are the angels wings from the CE, an emote thing? or is it like an item you can trigger on and off? also is there a cooldown on them?
JasonBender: They're linked to a 1x1 item that goes in the inventory, but you can put them in your stash. You can click your wings to turn them on and off. There's no limit to how many times you can use them.
JasonBender: (Also no cooldown on the wings.)
Guest-128: Is there a separate appearance for the female barb when she goes berserker mode (the ability for 15 sec that you unlock at lvl 30)and how does she looks like can we not have a picture or something because we only see the male.
JasonRegier: Yes, she looks different.
Guest-523: Do bosses get more abilities through the difficulties to make them harder or do they just have scaling dmg and life? ie. in nightmare, he||, and inferno. Also, does Nephalem Valor only apply in Inferno?
JayWilson: Not really. We have a couple cases, but they are mild enough that I'd say overall no. Bosses mainly scale in stats. And yes, Nephalem Valor is Inferno only.
Guest-393: The new skill menu has been highly discussed by a large group of players awaiting Diablo III, and there has been much criticism (Despite it being an improvement over the early beta skill UI). Will there be further changes or did we see a finalized version of that system in the last patch of the beta?
JayWilson: Other than polish-oriented improvements (of which I can't recall which made Beta and which didn't) the skill system is basically unchanged from the final one that appeared in Beta.
Guest-347: Thank you for answering my first question. How far back does the behind the scenes in the CE cover? Does it cover any early D3 development or does it only cover the past couple years? Any word on when we can expect the web API for D3 or at least more information on it?
JasonBender: The behind-the-scenes talks about all kinds of crazy stuff, so there should be some good history in there for you. Not sure about the API.
Guest-446: Will certain areas in Diablo 3 have different treasure classes like they did in Diablo 2 for finding higher items or does it just come down to how far you have progressed into the game and is there a diminishing effect of the amount of mf your character can have eg. like a mf cap?
JayWilson: I don't really know how to answer the treasure class one, lots of areas have different treasure classes but we try to make areas relatively equal depending on challenge and monster level. MF is not capped, though.
Smeet: With Diablo 2, enemies in **bleep** difficulty almost all recieved an immunity to one type of damage. Does this trend continue into Diablo 3, or are the enemies / affixes made threatening in different ways?
JayWilson: We do not use immunities as a monster affix. We focused more on powers that change up the monster's threat and challenge different classes in different ways.
Guest-351: LOVE YOU GUYS & D3!!! Thanks for the Answer Also BTW how does sharing MF with a group work and is that group % amp'd up by "Nephalem Valor"
JasonBender: MF is an average of the group's MF rating, so everyone either contributes combat power or boosts the group's MF. Valor covers the party.
Guest-911: will I be able to have multiple keys on the same account IE: Collectors Edition and Standard? and are we able to use"Dual-Boxing" ?
JasonRegier: No, you can have one license attached to the account. Dual boxing isn't supported... you'll need to have multiple battle.net accounts.
Guest-561: How is Inferno difficulty being balanced as a sort of longterm endgame opportunity? Will characters struggle in inferno until they acquire really epic gear or is the aim for Inferno to always be very challenging even when characters are decked out? How does magic find gear play into the balance of being able to clear inferno (E.G. Being able to clear faster and safer vs wearing MF gear vs Nephalem Valor).
KevinMartens: Inferno is balanced to never be trivial, even with the best gear. If some of you end up finding it trivial, we'll certainly be paying attention--good luck! Magic find gear vs. survivability gear works much like you think. You'll probably use MF gear when you are farming an area you know/think you can survive in and switch to survivability gear once you are trying to get further into a tough area.
Guest-776: Send: Do you think that assigning a very specific/distinct personality to each character was a good call? A lot of people seem to be thrown away from wizard for example, just because of his not so cool attitude. Or the not-so-badass grandpa witchdoctor (character wise). Thanks
JayWilson: Yes, we do think it was a good call. We think improving our game story by making the player characters active participants is worth the risk that a few players might get turned off by the choices for those characters. Without making this choice it weakens our story, and strong story is one of the most requested ways the community wanted us to improve Diablo.
Guest-545: Is it an accurate assessment to say that expansions would follow the inferno progression and have a few levels but significant gear upgrades. Or will it be more like a level cap increase with inferno-like content at the end?
JasonBender: We're concentrating on a smooth launch right now. Next up after that: PVP!
Guest-401: Will there be a ladder and ladder-only items to keep Diablo 3 fresh for years to come? I know a lot of people still play Diablo 2, and were excited about the recent ladder reset.
JayWilson: Not currently. We'd prefer to find better ways to accomplish this. If we can't come up with something better we'd consider a ladder in the future. It's not a problem that needs to be solved right away.
DrowningRabbit: Speaking on Inferno mode, Blizzard has in the past made encounters like pre-patch C'Thun that were statistically impossible to finish. While that feat hasn't been repeated in World of Warcraft, is that a concern for Diablo 3's Inferno mode bosses?
KevinMartens: There are not statistically impossible bosses/challenges, at least not by design. There are extremely difficult moments in Inferno but I do think that people, with practice and gear, will be able to finish it. Let the race to end of Inferno begin on May 15th, everyone!
Guest-1326: Any plans for Lobby like Diablo 2?
JasonBender: We support public chat channels, and we are always looking to improve the Battle.net service. It will evolve over time. (The trick is getting the chat gem working juuuuuuuuust right.) :-p
JayWilson: BTW, I said earlier that Nephalem Valor is only available in Inferno. This is incorrect. It kicks in at level 60, regardless of your difficulty level.
Guest-647: Hi Guys. Breathtaking work so far!, I wish you the best for the release!. My question would be how often can we expect to see new patches in terms game mechanics but also item stats in the span of perhaps one year?. Second question to Jay - will be rolling barb & monk combo for the first playthrough on hardcore, what would you say the chances are defeating **bleep**?
JayWilson: We'll patch as the game needs it. Predicting a timeframe isn't something we'd do now. For your second question, need more information. How good are you? I'll just guess. I think you personally have a 37.4% chance to beat Hell.
Guest-311: Can you implement a force Stop key (differing from force Stand Still), where pressing the key will stop all actions including movement and holding the key acts like force Stand Still? Finer movement controls will open up more mechanics!
JasonBender: We always try to keep the controls streamlined where we can, but if there's a need for a new UI element we will surely consider it. No plans just yet on that particular item, though.
Guest-625: Why are the Monk's heals not scaled by stats? The monk can never improve healing with gear. By contrast, the Barbarian's heals scale with damage or max HP.
JayWilson: His heals scale with his level. They are powerful enough that we had concerns that if they scaled with gear they would be too good. Barb heals are personal, but Monk heals are group oriented, which is why they are handled differently.
Guest-303: I Feel that a Dota style pvp map / pvp game mode would be perfect for Diablo..any plans in the works?
JayWilson: That would be like making a whole new game inside our game. There are some parallels, but enough differences that I'd rather we focus on our core cooperative and PVE experiences.
Guest-1639: How large is D3 compared to D2? Will it take as long or longer to clear the game (excluding inferno)?
KevinMartens: Length of the game varies greatly depending on play-style and randomness. Play-style means completist poke around in every corner type people vs. rush the main objectives people--big difference. Randomness affects the length because you could be walking through an area and roll a 2 level dungeon (10-15 minutes of gameplay) or a 30 second ambush event. Depending on what rolls, that can really change your length. But regardless, length isn't the concern in a game so focused on replayability. Not that the game short so much as that is not what the design challenge is.
Guest-785: Can you craft "inferno" level gear? if not what is the highest level gear you can craft?
JasonBender: Yes, and it's awesome! It takes a lot of components to get to the best gear, though.
Guest-846: Are you concerned that the current Skill UI along with the Skill tab for cycling through skills has perhaps been too categorized and requires a potential excessive amount of cycling through to find things? Example: with the Demon Hunter, why not just have three categories with Hatred Generators, Spenders, and Discipline skills instead of how things are split up now? Isn't that much easier to understand instead of the seeminly excessive categories at the moment?
JasonRegier: We've found that categories in the current skill system UI is really helpful for newer players. And the "Elective Mode" option is there for advanced players to customize their builds to their heart's content.
Guest-645: Some people say they will not be rolling a WD because it is a silly class, what do you say to them? Also, Soul Harvest seems too good at the moment....... 6 ..... more...... days ........
JayWilson: I'd rather people be highly opinionated about our classes than not care. We made five classes just in case you don't like one of them.
Guest-184: What's up with gems? Are they going to be socketable in more than just helms and weapons?
JasonBender: Gems can be used in helms, weapons, and a variety of armor slots.
Guest-538: In order to sell items on the real money auction house, do I have to have funds in my battle.net balance?
JasonRegier: No, you can sell items without having any money in your account. There is no charge for posting items.
Guest-340: Would you say that Diablo III's soundtrack is overall, Wagnerian in texture?
KevinMartens: I'm not music history oriented enough to know the right pigeon-hole genre for our score. I think it is too varied to simply fit into one sub-genre.
Guest-348: Do you have any comments on Athene vs Kripp for worlds first Inferno kill?
JasonBender: I guess someone needs to take the other side of that bet, so Athene had better win. I like hot dogs. (The real question is: Who gets the world's first HARDCORE Inferno completion!)
JayWilson: $20 and a coupon for a free hot dog on Kripp.
Guest-520: Is it possible to place the dyes and wings from CE in the shared stash ? (so if i later upgrade my game to CE i could get the CE exclusives for my old heroes)
JasonRegier: Yes.
Guest-313: A new article on a fansite was just posted describing a way to use the WD to sacrafice zombies to do 25,000%+ weapon damage. How confident are you at this time that classes are balanced endgame?
KevinMartens: There are billions of class and skill combinations--literally. They inherently cannot be balanced at time of ship due to lack of working time-machine technology and/or Groundhogs Day -style repeat testing days. We look forward to following all of you as you find incredibly awesome builds.
Guest-844: Will Legendary/Set items have their own unique graphics independent of the "tier" sets or will they look the same?
JasonBender: Legendary items and set always have unique art, stats, names and flavor text.
Guest-876: Is the best gear in the game ("potentially," stats-wise) limited to dropping in Inferno difficulty, or are the differences between Inferno gear and end-game **bleep** gear mostly cosmetic or drop-chance related?
JayWilson: The top three tiers of items, which are the best, only drop in Inferno.
Guest-708: What class are each of you going to play at release? Softcore or hardcore?
JasonRegier: Witchdoctor for me too. Hardcore!
JasonBender: Witch Doctor. Also I'm looking forward to crying over my first hardcore character. And my second. And my third.
KevinMartens: No pornography references, please! (Monk, softcore)
Guest-869: Are there any non-set Legendaries that will only drop in Inferno Act III and IV?
JasonBender: Yes. Legendary items are dropped based on the level of the monster or chest, so we have several at the max level that can only be found in the end of Inferno.
Guest-720: Dueling: Will you ever consider patching in dueling “in-game” without having to lose the current play session and hit the arenas? The purpose is for fun things like settling disputes amongst friends, battling for items, or just killing time waiting for a friend to come back. It cannot be used for griefing due to mutually acceptance of the duel (and could even take a knee like in WoW so as there is no death).
JayWilson: I'm not opposed to this, but it's not a trivial amount of work, and is not a priority for us right now. We want to focus on our team-based arena mode right now.
Guest-547: Will there be any bosses that are only in certain difficulty modes?
JasonBender: Bosses appear in each difficulty, but there are a handful of unique monsters that only appear in certain difficulties. Also there are a number of rare/champion affixes that don't show up until you reach later difficulties.
JayWilson: Hold on, getting Wyatt for all your complex Witch Doctor questions.
Guest-483: How does the treasure goblin scale, in regards to HP, in the higher difficulties? Will they always take a couple of hits to bring down?
KevinMartens: Treasure Goblins are harder to kill at higher difficulties. I never miss one in normal but often fail to kill one in time in higher difficulties, usually because I'm too paranoid about being **bleep**ed by elite monsters to chase him aggressively.
Guest-536: Will there be any more 'randomization pockets' (such as the Hanging Tree and the Corpse Pile) in the areas we played in the beta for us to discover?
KevinMartens: I suspect that the beta players have discovered most, if not all, of the randomization pockets in the beta areas, but there is much more D3 to come. Also, there are rumors of secret things being secretly secreted somewhere secret.
Guest-25: Will the mobs or bosses have diminishing returns/immunity on stun/slow/fear abilities? Or stunlocking them in inferno with 4 barbarians its totally possible?
JayWilson: Elite mobs (bosses, champions, rares) are affected to a lesser degree by control skills, and are immune to a select few. We do not have a system for diminishing returns, as we want CC to be useful even against bosses.
Guest-1803: Does the explosive beast rune for zombie charger work with the final gift rune for zombie dogs? ie zombie dogs from zombie charger dropping health globes? Thanks.
KevinMartens: No, it does not.
Guest-104: Are there any plans to ever had "hotkeys" in the game so we can quickly switch between different spells like in D2 with the F-keys?
JasonRegier: The hotbar at the bottom of the screen gives you easy access to your current skills, and you can change the keybindings for it if you don't like the defaults.
Guest-1064: How will the Monk and Witch Doctor passive skills that avoid death work in Hardcore mode?
JayWilson: They will allow you to avoid death! Congratulations, hardcore player, you have outsmarted mortality!
Guest-367: Do i need to read the quest dialog to fully understand the diablo lore ? or i can simply watch the cinematics and understand what is going on ?
JasonBender: There are several ways to enhance your enjoyment of the story. The cinematics are meant to keep the story clear, but the more you read, the better it should be. (Even the item and skill flavor text adds to the lore.)
JayWilson: Correction: we drop gems up to tier 8.
Guest-376: can we follow treasure goblin through portal to a special dungon?
JasonBender: One wonders where they go!
Guest-1540: I heard a rumor around a month ago that players can recieve an extra reward if they don't switch their build for an entire Act, is this true?
JasonBender: Not exactly true. It's good to explore builds. Nephalem Valor goes away if you respec, but that isn't based on the act.
Guest-713: how will mf work in groups. say if 2 people have mf and 2 are just dps. will it take the groups mf number as a hole or just 1 person for their drops only?
KevinMartens: Magic find is averaged across the party. If you have two MF people with 100% and two DPS people with 0%, then each person has 50% for their drops. Loot is, of course, per player.
Guest-503: Is "rushing" a character possible? Or are there some kind of restrictions that keep a player from getting to Nightmare/**bleep**/Inferno in a significantly shorter time period than usual.
JayWilson: A higher level character can help you jump past content within a difficulty, but you get greatly diminished XP, so you really need to go through legitimately. We have hard level requirements for difficulty levels, though, so no shortcuts there.
Guest-661: I know you don't plan to support Diablo 3 to be a eSport - If the commnunity wants it to become a eSport(without the implied balance), would you support it with replays/spectator mode and more ? 
JayWilson: No. We don't want Diablo 3 to become an E-sport. It's OK to have PVP just for fun. Our focus is on our PVE game, and we want it to stay there.
Guest-302: What was it like being able to take a game I'm sure you all loved, and being able to expand the story, and create amazing things I bet the original creators would never even have thought of?
JasonBender: It was a privilege. Personally, I feel incredibly lucky to be involved with Diablo, one of my favorite game worlds of all time. It was never hard to come up with cool ideas, just tough to pick the best to make the coolest game possible! 
Guest-2203: Many people are trying to get world first 60 and think it is doable in as little as 20 hours. Can you give us any insight on this?
JayWilson: World's first what?
Guest-1729: How do you guys feel about the Barbarian in Inferno (being a melee class and all), especially regarding (the need for?) Shields?
KevinMartens: Survivability is certainly something that you need to gear for in Inferno. Shield is the easiest vs. most obvious choice but certainly you can gear for a higher DPS with a different selection of gear and skills. It is still a fine balance between your play style, your DPS, your survivability stats, etc. None of those things can be out of balance for the way you play in order to survive at Inferno.
Guest-1736: So, you guys are always talking about how diffcult Inferno will be. What about the others? Does this mean nightmare and **bleep** will also be too easy for us just like normal mode? Thats a serious concern for me...
JasonBender: Different players find different things challenging. (This also depends on your gear.) Finishing Inferno in Hardcore mode will not be easy!
Guest-2357: Is stun duration reduced in **bleep**/inferno or is the same as in normal?
KevinMartens: It has been reduced.
Guest-586: Will you share game statistics with the community? For example: ### different Monk builds have defeated <insert boss name>? or other misc data?
JasonBender: We like sharing cool stats, but no specifics yet on what they will be. 
JayWilson: To the person who asked if we might add or remove skills: we'll do whatever we think is right to balance the game and make the classes feel well rounded and effective. In other words...maybe.
Kyle-BBY: Great chat everyone! Thank you for joining us fans and Diablo III Dev team!
KevinMartens: Thank you, everyone, for attending
JasonBender: Thank you so much! Great questions!
JasonRegier: Thanks everyone! See you online!
JayWilson: Thanks everyone! May 15th! WOOOOO!!!!!!

Answer 1

Thanks to everyone who joined us on for the Diablo III Developer Chat today!  We had a great turnout and some even greater questions.  For those of you who weren’t able to make it, here is a transcript of the chat to tide you over until May 15th. 
Pre-order Diablo III now!
Developers:
Jay Wilson, Game Director
Jason Bender, Senior System Designer
Jason Regier, Lead Software Engineer
Kevin Martens, Lead Content Designer
Transcript for Chat: 'Diablo III Developer Chat', Tue May 08 16:00:00 CDT 2012
Kyle-BBY: Welcome to the Diablo III Developer Chat new arrivals! We'll be getting started in a few more minutes. Get your questions ready!
Guest-74: When the option is selected to list things in the auction house for a real dollar value selling price, does that money go to the seller or Blizzard?
JayWilson: We charge a $1 dollar service fee, or 15% for commodities. The remainder of the sale price goes to the seller.
Guest-20: With some information out (may or maynot be correct) about how hard monsters hit in Inferno, will WD pets still be viable?
JayWilson: Yes, pets scale pretty well in inferno. You do have to refresh them, but they are useful for tanking mobs.
Guest-228: What was the hardest thing you had to cut from the game due to time/prodcution constraints?
JasonRegier: For me, it was PvP. I had a ton of fun playing it against folks at BlizzCon, but it just wasn't ready for prime time yet.
Guest-106: Will there be anyway to share the wings I get in the Collector's Edition with friends?
JasonBender: Those are just for you, but you can apply them to as many of your characters as you like.
Guest-26: Has anyone from the internal testing found a legendary item yet? Also, when are the stats for the legendaries going to be released?
JasonRegier: I got one during testing, and when it dropped, I jumped up and cheered. It was awesome!
Guest-25: Can you explain us about the bossfights? Will they be like Diablo 2 where the bosses had a fixed number of abilities and they just used them, or it will be more like WoW where the bosses have phases with different abilities and the scenery/positioning its crucial in the fight.
JayWilson: Depends on the boss. Some have a set number of abilities, some have phases. Most are a little more complex than Diablo II.
Guest-157: I will like to start of by saying the game is looking amazing so far, and I'm new to Diablo. Can you use the WASD keys for movement or just the left click on the mouse?
JasonRegier: Basic control in Diablo 3 is very simple. Just click to move, and click on monsters to attack them.
JayWilson: We don't support WASD for movement. We don't think it feels good as a movement scheme from an isometric view.
tomt610: Will you make inferno difficulty easier if people will start telling you that you made it too hard and they cannot beat it, even that it is beatable at this point? Cause I remember in 90s games required skill to beat them and it would be nice to have at least one that kind of game at this point, without life regenerating itself etc.
JasonBender: Inferno isn't for everyone. We would like to keep it as challenging as possible. Also, don't forget Hardcore mode. That's retro-hard!
Guest-70: How many times was the codebase rewritten over the years or was reuse pretty standard?
KevinMartens: We've spent a lot of time and energy getting the servers to be as prepared as possible. The big stress test during the beta was very helpful (thanks for all who participated). We'll have a big support team standing by at launch.
Guest-251: What was your inspiration for the Wizard?
JayWilson: We were inspired by old school pen and paper RPG's. We wanted a magic user who could control time, disentegrate, cast illusions, etc.
Guest-36: Do you have plans to implement the Necromancer or druid at any point in the future?
JayWilson: Any future classes we do are shrouded in mystery (insert scary ghost sounds).
Guest-283: what are the plans for launch day, are the servers prepared for the work load that is coming?
KevinMartens: We've spent a lot of time and energy getting the servers to be as prepared as possible. The big stress test during the beta was very helpful (thanks for all who participated). We'll have a big support team standing by at launch.
Guest-728: when you want to play with a friend who is much lower level than you, are you stuck playing the furthest ACT or DIFFICULTY they have achieved?
JasonBender: They can jump in to your game at a higher level (up to the highest difficulty they've achieved), even though they might miss story points. If the lower level player creates the game you will be limited to their story progress. You're not limited by ACT, but you are limited by DIFFICULTY.
Guest-253: What was the funniest / most awesome bug you discovered during the development of Diablo 3?
JasonBender: Funniest bug? We accidentally had an event that summoned 5 treasure goblins at one time. It was great seeing people scramble to chase them as they ran in different directions. Serious chaos!
KevinMartens: Perhaps a little less funny than awesome but I had an skeleton summoner with a bug with no limit on the number of skeletons and I went to a meeting, came back an the monitor was entirely filled with skeletons. I killed them all with a leap attack
Guest-56: Besides PvP, do you have any plans on adding additional content to Diablo?
JayWilson: To Guest-56 Nothing solid at this point.
Guest-25: Will the game have support for clans/guilds at release? if not, is something its being considered to be added in the future? I remember in Diablo 2 we had to create new characters to add the clan's tag.
JayWilson: No plans at this time.
Guest-23: I have had troubles with the FPS in the beta with my pretty decent upper class notebook, especially when bigger waves of monsters where on the screen? Has the FPS been optimized for notebook users for release since beta?
JasonRegier: It's hard to say without knowing more about your particular configuration. We work really closely with our hardware compatibility department to make sure that lots of people have a great experience with D3, and we're always looking to make performance better.
Guest-236: If i am higher level then my freinds and want to play with them, will there be any kind of handicap? for example will they get less exp
JasonBender: There is an XP penalty for killing monsters too high/low in level relative to your character. It scales based on your level, so at lower levels you can fight a broader range of creatures. This is good because player levels tend to be farther apart earlier in the game.
Guest-389: In the beta I had a hard time determining how much damage a spell did. I later learned that if I held ctrl and moused over a spell it gave me a percentage. Has any changes been made to make actually spell damage info more accessible?
JayWilson: You can set more advanced tooltips to permanently display so you don't need to hold down CTRL. I do feel these could be more accurate in displaying the exact damage you're doing, and we may improve it in the future.
Guest-261: Due to the amount of time it must take to produce the cinematics, how does that influence/affect a more iterative game design process?
KevinMartens: The cinematics team is very, very good at working with us to identify the moments of a cinematic that are most prone to change and leaving those to the last possible moment. There is seldom an issue that we can't change with a line change or a simple new shot. The process and time limits have not been much of a problem at all.
Guest-278: I know that Diablo3 is a click-to-move type game, but for sufferers of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome, it can be very painful to click that much. Is controller support available in the future, if not, can players use applications such as Xpadder for use with controllers on the computer?
JasonBender: Right-click drive mode allows you to automatically attack while moving when you hold the right mouse button down instead of clicking. Several of us use this to reduce clicks. (You can imagine how many times we've clicked in the process of making the game!) 
Guest-217: Are the end of the act bosses still going to be the enemies with the highest drop rates for the most sought after gear resulting in "Baal Runs" being the best way to gear up, or will you encourage players to scour the map looking for rarespawns and giving them a higher drop rate instead
JayWilson: We have a new system called "Nephalem Valor" that encourages you to kill randomly placed rares and champions. When you do, you get a stacking buff that increases your gold and magic find, and increases the drops on bosses. This makes it most beneficial to play through random content, then go fight bosses.
Guest-224: Say for example that I am playing a high level character, but I want to play with my friend who only has a low level character. Will me joining his game ruin the experience for him because I could just blast through the content and make it too easy for him?
JayWilson: You could blast him through the content, but his XP will be greatly diminished to the point that it's not very beneficial for your low level friend...unless he likes spoilers. But that's what Youtube is for.
Guest-302: In regards to internal testing, did any of you try out a completely ridiculous build and manage to make it work in a later difficulty?
KevinMartens: We spend a lot of time trying out "wacky" builds like melee Wizards or pet-less Witch Doctors and it is a fun, often challenging way to play. We often find ourselves changing a skill or two when we get stuck on a particular elite monster and sequence. Or more likely, we get tempted into to trying a completely different build when we get some particularly awesome piece of equipment. Melee wizard example above is a good one--I was playing recently with a typical mix of ranged spells and found a big bad-**bleep** sword that had such great stats, I changed my build to a melee wizard just to try out the sword.
Guest-352: How much does the difficulty and greater item quality drop change when your buddy enters the world to play with you?
JayWilson: Depends on the difficulty level you are playing in. I can't remember 'exact' numbers, though. It hovers around doubling monster health per player, but there are other variables as well.
Guest-65: What happeneds after i beat inferno mode? P.S I LOVE YOU GUYS AWESOME JOB WITH THE GAME!
JasonRegier: I'm pretty sure Jay comes to your house and gives you a big hug.
Guest-249: Hey guys, what are the best moments you have from development time?
JasonBender: Blizzcon was super-motivating. Also it's fun when we have hours long discussions about crazy design ideas, then see the exact same arguments happen on the forums.
JasonRegier: For me, one of the best moments was seeing hundreds of people playing the game for the first time at BlizzCon. The response was fantastic! I can't wait for the public to finally play the full game.
Guest-347: Bashiok stated that the display of BattleTags in games was a bug. Today Lylirra said that it wasn't. So is this a bug or not? If not then what exactly is the point of character names at all?
JayWilson: It's not a bug, it is supposed to be displayed in game. We felt showing the Battle Tag was an essential element to identifying your friends and didn't want players displayed with different names in different situations. The purpose of character names is to help the player identify their characters in the case they have multiple of the same class and for extended presence.
Guest-632: In diablo 2 as you got further into NM and **bleep** the areas became much bigger. Will the same happen with the later difficulties of Diablo 3? I remember Durance of Hate level 3 normal vs **bleep** and having a huge area difference.
KevinMartens: The areas do not get bigger in later difficulties and it hasn't impacted the fun at all. Bigger does not equal better in level design, in the vast majority of cases. We've concentrated much more on the second-to-second challenge and item rewards for higher difficulty playthroughs.
Guest-509: Can you keep teleporting if you are under 1 second, using the wormhole rune on the wizard?
JayWilson: You can teleport as many times as the animation will allow in the time before the cooldown is triggered.
Guest-351: My question is..... So if inferno has its own gear tiers Act1 - Act4 will all the normal thru **bleep** gear end up being trash or will some items end up being good way past their level unique items?? Thanks in advance .
JasonBender: You'll need to gear up for a while prior to Inferno, so He|| gear will still be valuable for a while. Inferno ramps harshly, though, so you'll need to farm early inferno to handle late inferno. There is a point where gear becomes useless, but a perfectly rolled rare or legendary item can last a long time if it has the affixes you need. Don't forget crafting components, too. Old items can be used to crafter better ones.
Guest-519: is there a way to switch weapons quickly on the run? (As we did with Diablo 2 by pressing "W") ?
JayWilson: No. In polling players this seemed to primarily be used to hot swap to high magic find weapons right before a boss died, which didn't seem like great gameplay to encourage.
Guest-552: Is there any customization to the character when making a character at the start screen? Also is there any customization later in the the game?
JayWilson: You can also use dyes to customize gear, and even hide pieces of gear that have good stats that you don't like the look of.
JasonRegier: At the starting screen, no. But within the game, there's a huge number of combinations of items and skills to choose from. Those choices really make your character unique.
Guest-367: Was anyone in the internal test team able to beat the fourth difficulty of the game ? If not what is the reason for that ?
KevinMartens: No one has beaten Inferno.
Guest-415: Will third party programs that collect data about how much loot/gold is dropped where and when be allowed to use?
JasonRegier: Using 3rd party programs like those is against the terms of use.
Talen: Many Beta Testers have conserns about the text size of the user interface being either to small, or to large.Do you have any plans at this time to introduce scaling o accessability options for the User Interface and Item Stat Text ?
JayWilson: Not at this time. Every feature has development cost. If there is demand for something like this we'll weigh it against other features we could add to the game. We did, however, increase font size late in the Beta.
Guest-366: For the Witch Doctor, with Zombie Handler and Circle of Life passives, are you able to go well beyond having 4 summoned dogs on the field at once or is there some sort of cap?
JasonBender:  4 is the max for dogs. You can get up to your max nyumber of dogs with a variety of skills (beyond just summoning them), which is good if they're dying a lot in higher difficulties, but that doesn't break the cap.
Guest-335: Developers: Which act is your favorite to play through?
JasonBender: I like Act 3. Because... er... *SPOILERS*!
KevinMartens: Interesting question as that actually changes for me based on the difficulty. I like Act 3 on normal just because of certain battle sequences (no spoilers!!!) but like Act 2 on Nightmare because the bump in difficulty there is a fun challenge for me.
JayWilson: Don't ask me to pick my favorite child.
Guest-248: So I read that we can make a new characters in other regions other than our own, will we be able to copy a character over to that region or will we have to start a new one to play with our overseas friends?
JasonRegier: You will have to start a new one.
Guest-617: Did you find it difficult to convince others (Co-Wokers - Players) that a stat system wasn't very fun and just a math game? And also, was it easy to convince others that a skill system that was developed around experimentation would be more fun than a Diablo 2 system of constantly re-rolling? (I love the skill system lets me try whatever I want to try - I feel rewarded for experimenting. I feel more games should have this type of system.)
JayWilson: Yes, it was difficult.
Guest-847: What is the highest gem level that we can expect to drop?
JayWilson: Tier 5 gems are the highest that drop.
Guest-505: Beyond what we have already seen and the sets in Inferno, how many unique weapons and armor sets can we expect to see in D3? Will more be added? (outstanding job so far!)
JasonBender: We have a ton of cool ideas that we would like to do. A bunch are in the works, but I can't yet say when they'll be ready for you. (The art team loves making these.)
Guest-807: Will there be the option to change the strength of the monsters by pretending to have more players in a game? Like in D2?
JayWilson: Not at release. With the challenge level of Inferno we did not see this as necessary.
Guest-2444: Will Melee Wizards be Viable in **bleep** Mode?
KevinMartens: For difficulty modes: certainly, the challenge will be harder in later difficulty modes. But really, this question points to a cool point of depth/awesomeness in our system. With the right gear and some practice, melee wizard will be viable--maybe barely but still. For Hardcore Mode: Again, with the right gear, maybe, but it is a risky thing to try. Let me know how you do
Guest-906: are the angels wings from the CE, an emote thing? or is it like an item you can trigger on and off? also is there a cooldown on them?
JasonBender: They're linked to a 1x1 item that goes in the inventory, but you can put them in your stash. You can click your wings to turn them on and off. There's no limit to how many times you can use them.
JasonBender: (Also no cooldown on the wings.)
Guest-128: Is there a separate appearance for the female barb when she goes berserker mode (the ability for 15 sec that you unlock at lvl 30)and how does she looks like can we not have a picture or something because we only see the male.
JasonRegier: Yes, she looks different.
Guest-523: Do bosses get more abilities through the difficulties to make them harder or do they just have scaling dmg and life? ie. in nightmare, he||, and inferno. Also, does Nephalem Valor only apply in Inferno?
JayWilson: Not really. We have a couple cases, but they are mild enough that I'd say overall no. Bosses mainly scale in stats. And yes, Nephalem Valor is Inferno only.
Guest-393: The new skill menu has been highly discussed by a large group of players awaiting Diablo III, and there has been much criticism (Despite it being an improvement over the early beta skill UI). Will there be further changes or did we see a finalized version of that system in the last patch of the beta?
JayWilson: Other than polish-oriented improvements (of which I can't recall which made Beta and which didn't) the skill system is basically unchanged from the final one that appeared in Beta.
Guest-347: Thank you for answering my first question. How far back does the behind the scenes in the CE cover? Does it cover any early D3 development or does it only cover the past couple years? Any word on when we can expect the web API for D3 or at least more information on it?
JasonBender: The behind-the-scenes talks about all kinds of crazy stuff, so there should be some good history in there for you. Not sure about the API.
Guest-446: Will certain areas in Diablo 3 have different treasure classes like they did in Diablo 2 for finding higher items or does it just come down to how far you have progressed into the game and is there a diminishing effect of the amount of mf your character can have eg. like a mf cap?
JayWilson: I don't really know how to answer the treasure class one, lots of areas have different treasure classes but we try to make areas relatively equal depending on challenge and monster level. MF is not capped, though.
Smeet: With Diablo 2, enemies in **bleep** difficulty almost all recieved an immunity to one type of damage. Does this trend continue into Diablo 3, or are the enemies / affixes made threatening in different ways?
JayWilson: We do not use immunities as a monster affix. We focused more on powers that change up the monster's threat and challenge different classes in different ways.
Guest-351: LOVE YOU GUYS & D3!!! Thanks for the Answer Also BTW how does sharing MF with a group work and is that group % amp'd up by "Nephalem Valor"
JasonBender: MF is an average of the group's MF rating, so everyone either contributes combat power or boosts the group's MF. Valor covers the party.
Guest-911: will I be able to have multiple keys on the same account IE: Collectors Edition and Standard? and are we able to use"Dual-Boxing" ?
JasonRegier: No, you can have one license attached to the account. Dual boxing isn't supported... you'll need to have multiple battle.net accounts.
Guest-561: How is Inferno difficulty being balanced as a sort of longterm endgame opportunity? Will characters struggle in inferno until they acquire really epic gear or is the aim for Inferno to always be very challenging even when characters are decked out? How does magic find gear play into the balance of being able to clear inferno (E.G. Being able to clear faster and safer vs wearing MF gear vs Nephalem Valor).
KevinMartens: Inferno is balanced to never be trivial, even with the best gear. If some of you end up finding it trivial, we'll certainly be paying attention--good luck! Magic find gear vs. survivability gear works much like you think. You'll probably use MF gear when you are farming an area you know/think you can survive in and switch to survivability gear once you are trying to get further into a tough area.
Guest-776: Send: Do you think that assigning a very specific/distinct personality to each character was a good call? A lot of people seem to be thrown away from wizard for example, just because of his not so cool attitude. Or the not-so-badass grandpa witchdoctor (character wise). Thanks
JayWilson: Yes, we do think it was a good call. We think improving our game story by making the player characters active participants is worth the risk that a few players might get turned off by the choices for those characters. Without making this choice it weakens our story, and strong story is one of the most requested ways the community wanted us to improve Diablo.
Guest-545: Is it an accurate assessment to say that expansions would follow the inferno progression and have a few levels but significant gear upgrades. Or will it be more like a level cap increase with inferno-like content at the end?
JasonBender: We're concentrating on a smooth launch right now. Next up after that: PVP!
Guest-401: Will there be a ladder and ladder-only items to keep Diablo 3 fresh for years to come? I know a lot of people still play Diablo 2, and were excited about the recent ladder reset.
JayWilson: Not currently. We'd prefer to find better ways to accomplish this. If we can't come up with something better we'd consider a ladder in the future. It's not a problem that needs to be solved right away.
DrowningRabbit: Speaking on Inferno mode, Blizzard has in the past made encounters like pre-patch C'Thun that were statistically impossible to finish. While that feat hasn't been repeated in World of Warcraft, is that a concern for Diablo 3's Inferno mode bosses?
KevinMartens: There are not statistically impossible bosses/challenges, at least not by design. There are extremely difficult moments in Inferno but I do think that people, with practice and gear, will be able to finish it. Let the race to end of Inferno begin on May 15th, everyone!
Guest-1326: Any plans for Lobby like Diablo 2?
JasonBender: We support public chat channels, and we are always looking to improve the Battle.net service. It will evolve over time. (The trick is getting the chat gem working juuuuuuuuust right.) :-p
JayWilson: BTW, I said earlier that Nephalem Valor is only available in Inferno. This is incorrect. It kicks in at level 60, regardless of your difficulty level.
Guest-647: Hi Guys. Breathtaking work so far!, I wish you the best for the release!. My question would be how often can we expect to see new patches in terms game mechanics but also item stats in the span of perhaps one year?. Second question to Jay - will be rolling barb & monk combo for the first playthrough on hardcore, what would you say the chances are defeating **bleep**?
JayWilson: We'll patch as the game needs it. Predicting a timeframe isn't something we'd do now. For your second question, need more information. How good are you? I'll just guess. I think you personally have a 37.4% chance to beat Hell.
Guest-311: Can you implement a force Stop key (differing from force Stand Still), where pressing the key will stop all actions including movement and holding the key acts like force Stand Still? Finer movement controls will open up more mechanics!
JasonBender: We always try to keep the controls streamlined where we can, but if there's a need for a new UI element we will surely consider it. No plans just yet on that particular item, though.
Guest-625: Why are the Monk's heals not scaled by stats? The monk can never improve healing with gear. By contrast, the Barbarian's heals scale with damage or max HP.
JayWilson: His heals scale with his level. They are powerful enough that we had concerns that if they scaled with gear they would be too good. Barb heals are personal, but Monk heals are group oriented, which is why they are handled differently.
Guest-303: I Feel that a Dota style pvp map / pvp game mode would be perfect for Diablo..any plans in the works?
JayWilson: That would be like making a whole new game inside our game. There are some parallels, but enough differences that I'd rather we focus on our core cooperative and PVE experiences.
Guest-1639: How large is D3 compared to D2? Will it take as long or longer to clear the game (excluding inferno)?
KevinMartens: Length of the game varies greatly depending on play-style and randomness. Play-style means completist poke around in every corner type people vs. rush the main objectives people--big difference. Randomness affects the length because you could be walking through an area and roll a 2 level dungeon (10-15 minutes of gameplay) or a 30 second ambush event. Depending on what rolls, that can really change your length. But regardless, length isn't the concern in a game so focused on replayability. Not that the game short so much as that is not what the design challenge is.
Guest-785: Can you craft "inferno" level gear? if not what is the highest level gear you can craft?
JasonBender: Yes, and it's awesome! It takes a lot of components to get to the best gear, though.
Guest-846: Are you concerned that the current Skill UI along with the Skill tab for cycling through skills has perhaps been too categorized and requires a potential excessive amount of cycling through to find things? Example: with the Demon Hunter, why not just have three categories with Hatred Generators, Spenders, and Discipline skills instead of how things are split up now? Isn't that much easier to understand instead of the seeminly excessive categories at the moment?
JasonRegier: We've found that categories in the current skill system UI is really helpful for newer players. And the "Elective Mode" option is there for advanced players to customize their builds to their heart's content.
Guest-645: Some people say they will not be rolling a WD because it is a silly class, what do you say to them? Also, Soul Harvest seems too good at the moment....... 6 ..... more...... days ........
JayWilson: I'd rather people be highly opinionated about our classes than not care. We made five classes just in case you don't like one of them.
Guest-184: What's up with gems? Are they going to be socketable in more than just helms and weapons?
JasonBender: Gems can be used in helms, weapons, and a variety of armor slots.
Guest-538: In order to sell items on the real money auction house, do I have to have funds in my battle.net balance?
JasonRegier: No, you can sell items without having any money in your account. There is no charge for posting items.
Guest-340: Would you say that Diablo III's soundtrack is overall, Wagnerian in texture?
KevinMartens: I'm not music history oriented enough to know the right pigeon-hole genre for our score. I think it is too varied to simply fit into one sub-genre.
Guest-348: Do you have any comments on Athene vs Kripp for worlds first Inferno kill?
JasonBender: I guess someone needs to take the other side of that bet, so Athene had better win. I like hot dogs. (The real question is: Who gets the world's first HARDCORE Inferno completion!)
JayWilson: $20 and a coupon for a free hot dog on Kripp.
Guest-520: Is it possible to place the dyes and wings from CE in the shared stash ? (so if i later upgrade my game to CE i could get the CE exclusives for my old heroes)
JasonRegier: Yes.
Guest-313: A new article on a fansite was just posted describing a way to use the WD to sacrafice zombies to do 25,000%+ weapon damage. How confident are you at this time that classes are balanced endgame?
KevinMartens: There are billions of class and skill combinations--literally. They inherently cannot be balanced at time of ship due to lack of working time-machine technology and/or Groundhogs Day -style repeat testing days. We look forward to following all of you as you find incredibly awesome builds.
Guest-844: Will Legendary/Set items have their own unique graphics independent of the "tier" sets or will they look the same?
JasonBender: Legendary items and set always have unique art, stats, names and flavor text.
Guest-876: Is the best gear in the game ("potentially," stats-wise) limited to dropping in Inferno difficulty, or are the differences between Inferno gear and end-game **bleep** gear mostly cosmetic or drop-chance related?
JayWilson: The top three tiers of items, which are the best, only drop in Inferno.
Guest-708: What class are each of you going to play at release? Softcore or hardcore?
JasonRegier: Witchdoctor for me too. Hardcore!
JasonBender: Witch Doctor. Also I'm looking forward to crying over my first hardcore character. And my second. And my third.
KevinMartens: No pornography references, please! (Monk, softcore)
Guest-869: Are there any non-set Legendaries that will only drop in Inferno Act III and IV?
JasonBender: Yes. Legendary items are dropped based on the level of the monster or chest, so we have several at the max level that can only be found in the end of Inferno.
Guest-720: Dueling: Will you ever consider patching in dueling “in-game” without having to lose the current play session and hit the arenas? The purpose is for fun things like settling disputes amongst friends, battling for items, or just killing time waiting for a friend to come back. It cannot be used for griefing due to mutually acceptance of the duel (and could even take a knee like in WoW so as there is no death).
JayWilson: I'm not opposed to this, but it's not a trivial amount of work, and is not a priority for us right now. We want to focus on our team-based arena mode right now.
Guest-547: Will there be any bosses that are only in certain difficulty modes?
JasonBender: Bosses appear in each difficulty, but there are a handful of unique monsters that only appear in certain difficulties. Also there are a number of rare/champion affixes that don't show up until you reach later difficulties.
JayWilson: Hold on, getting Wyatt for all your complex Witch Doctor questions.
Guest-483: How does the treasure goblin scale, in regards to HP, in the higher difficulties? Will they always take a couple of hits to bring down?
KevinMartens: Treasure Goblins are harder to kill at higher difficulties. I never miss one in normal but often fail to kill one in time in higher difficulties, usually because I'm too paranoid about being **bleep**ed by elite monsters to chase him aggressively.
Guest-536: Will there be any more 'randomization pockets' (such as the Hanging Tree and the Corpse Pile) in the areas we played in the beta for us to discover?
KevinMartens: I suspect that the beta players have discovered most, if not all, of the randomization pockets in the beta areas, but there is much more D3 to come. Also, there are rumors of secret things being secretly secreted somewhere secret.
Guest-25: Will the mobs or bosses have diminishing returns/immunity on stun/slow/fear abilities? Or stunlocking them in inferno with 4 barbarians its totally possible?
JayWilson: Elite mobs (bosses, champions, rares) are affected to a lesser degree by control skills, and are immune to a select few. We do not have a system for diminishing returns, as we want CC to be useful even against bosses.
Guest-1803: Does the explosive beast rune for zombie charger work with the final gift rune for zombie dogs? ie zombie dogs from zombie charger dropping health globes? Thanks.
KevinMartens: No, it does not.
Guest-104: Are there any plans to ever had "hotkeys" in the game so we can quickly switch between different spells like in D2 with the F-keys?
JasonRegier: The hotbar at the bottom of the screen gives you easy access to your current skills, and you can change the keybindings for it if you don't like the defaults.
Guest-1064: How will the Monk and Witch Doctor passive skills that avoid death work in Hardcore mode?
JayWilson: They will allow you to avoid death! Congratulations, hardcore player, you have outsmarted mortality!
Guest-367: Do i need to read the quest dialog to fully understand the diablo lore ? or i can simply watch the cinematics and understand what is going on ?
JasonBender: There are several ways to enhance your enjoyment of the story. The cinematics are meant to keep the story clear, but the more you read, the better it should be. (Even the item and skill flavor text adds to the lore.)
JayWilson: Correction: we drop gems up to tier 8.
Guest-376: can we follow treasure goblin through portal to a special dungon?
JasonBender: One wonders where they go!
Guest-1540: I heard a rumor around a month ago that players can recieve an extra reward if they don't switch their build for an entire Act, is this true?
JasonBender: Not exactly true. It's good to explore builds. Nephalem Valor goes away if you respec, but that isn't based on the act.
Guest-713: how will mf work in groups. say if 2 people have mf and 2 are just dps. will it take the groups mf number as a hole or just 1 person for their drops only?
KevinMartens: Magic find is averaged across the party. If you have two MF people with 100% and two DPS people with 0%, then each person has 50% for their drops. Loot is, of course, per player.
Guest-503: Is "rushing" a character possible? Or are there some kind of restrictions that keep a player from getting to Nightmare/**bleep**/Inferno in a significantly shorter time period than usual.
JayWilson: A higher level character can help you jump past content within a difficulty, but you get greatly diminished XP, so you really need to go through legitimately. We have hard level requirements for difficulty levels, though, so no shortcuts there.
Guest-661: I know you don't plan to support Diablo 3 to be a eSport - If the commnunity wants it to become a eSport(without the implied balance), would you support it with replays/spectator mode and more ? 
JayWilson: No. We don't want Diablo 3 to become an E-sport. It's OK to have PVP just for fun. Our focus is on our PVE game, and we want it to stay there.
Guest-302: What was it like being able to take a game I'm sure you all loved, and being able to expand the story, and create amazing things I bet the original creators would never even have thought of?
JasonBender: It was a privilege. Personally, I feel incredibly lucky to be involved with Diablo, one of my favorite game worlds of all time. It was never hard to come up with cool ideas, just tough to pick the best to make the coolest game possible! 
Guest-2203: Many people are trying to get world first 60 and think it is doable in as little as 20 hours. Can you give us any insight on this?
JayWilson: World's first what?
Guest-1729: How do you guys feel about the Barbarian in Inferno (being a melee class and all), especially regarding (the need for?) Shields?
KevinMartens: Survivability is certainly something that you need to gear for in Inferno. Shield is the easiest vs. most obvious choice but certainly you can gear for a higher DPS with a different selection of gear and skills. It is still a fine balance between your play style, your DPS, your survivability stats, etc. None of those things can be out of balance for the way you play in order to survive at Inferno.
Guest-1736: So, you guys are always talking about how diffcult Inferno will be. What about the others? Does this mean nightmare and **bleep** will also be too easy for us just like normal mode? Thats a serious concern for me...
JasonBender: Different players find different things challenging. (This also depends on your gear.) Finishing Inferno in Hardcore mode will not be easy!
Guest-2357: Is stun duration reduced in **bleep**/inferno or is the same as in normal?
KevinMartens: It has been reduced.
Guest-586: Will you share game statistics with the community? For example: ### different Monk builds have defeated <insert boss name>? or other misc data?
JasonBender: We like sharing cool stats, but no specifics yet on what they will be. 
JayWilson: To the person who asked if we might add or remove skills: we'll do whatever we think is right to balance the game and make the classes feel well rounded and effective. In other words...maybe.
Kyle-BBY: Great chat everyone! Thank you for joining us fans and Diablo III Dev team!
KevinMartens: Thank you, everyone, for attending
JasonBender: Thank you so much! Great questions!
JasonRegier: Thanks everyone! See you online!
JayWilson: Thanks everyone! May 15th! WOOOOO!!!!!!