The Basics
Click Here to read about the character classes and overall mechanics of the game.

What is the story of the Diablo Series?
Click here to watch a 5 minute recap video to get caught up.

What's new in Diablo 3?
Here is what's new.

What are banners, sigils, and all that noise about?
Here is a video that explains them well. Additionally players who participated in closed beta will be awarded with a special limited edition sigil.

How do the Auction Houses Work in Diablo 3?
This explains everything very well.

Will DarkD3 get me banned?
According to Blue posts on the official forums, DarkD3 is considered a modification of the game files and is therefore a violation of the Terms of Service which COULD result in a ban.

I have D3 standard from the WoW Annual Pass and plan on buying the Collectors Edition, will I be able to gift my standard edition?
MAYBE. There was a blue post from Bashiok saying you could but people are reporting that the CSR's at Blizzard are not currently allowing it. Here is a link stating one such case. Others are stating, as reported in the comments below, that it is allowed. I have personally emailed Blizzard and they told me that they can't guarantee that they would be able to "return" a CD key to me. Either way proceed with caution and do NOT rely on it.

What do I do if my CE isn't arriving until after launch day?
Try and obtain a starter edition or guest pass.
Players on Starter Edition game licenses have the following restrictions:

• Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
• Level 13 cap
• Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
• No Real Money Auction House access

As a reminder, all five hero sigils are now unlocked on the Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise launch site. From now until Friday, May 18, you can earn these exclusive in-game emblems to use on your character banners in Diablo III. All you need to do is create a Mark of Valor and you're set!

Some important notes:

What happens if I mistype my Battle.net email address?
When submitting a Mark of Valor entry, the website will not check to see if your email address is valid at the time that your submission is made, so make sure you type it in carefully! If you make an error, simply resubmit. You'll receive a Mark of Valor confirmation email shortly after submitting your banner image.


How can I tell the email I receive apart from a phishing or scam email?
The automated confirmation email will come from "[email protected]" If you're worried about whether or not an email is legitimate, just know that no action is required on your part if you receive an email from this address. You won’t be asked to reply or click on any links.


The website said my submission was successful, but I never received a confirmation email. How do I know if it worked?
At this time, some Mark of Valor submissions are experiencing a slight delay on receiving a confirmation email. If you've submitted a banner image but have not yet received an email confirming that it was processed, don't worry! We're cataloging every submission made and will be sending out confirmation emails as soon as possible. We'll provide an update when the delay is resolved.


When will I actually receive my sigil?
We're keeping records of all the Battle.net accounts which have claimed each sigil. Within the first couple of weeks of Diablo III's release on May 15, we'll be processing all of these accounts and flagging them to unlock the appropriate sigils. The bonus sigils will automatically appear in-game in the banner customization screen in-game once awarded.

Blizzard released more information regarding RMAH and connecting to other servers.

Quote:Want to take on the hordes of the Burning Hells with a friend from halfway around the world? In Diablo® III, you'll be able to play on game servers in regions outside your own, with a few restrictions, using Battle.net®'s new Global Play functionality. Here's how it works....

Diablo III's global game servers are grouped into three distinct game regions:

• The Americas - For players in the US, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.
• Europe - For players in the European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
• Asia - For players in South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
  

In general, players will create characters and play in their "home" region, which is determined by where they live (specifically, the country of residence registered to their Battle.net account). Global Play gives players the ability to switch to any of the other game regions via the in-game options menu, either before or after they log in to the game.

Note that characters, items, and friends lists do not transfer across regions. Playing on a different region's servers means you'll be creating characters and friends lists specifically for that region, and you'll be accessing the gold-based auction house for that region.

In addition, players will only have access to the real-money auction house (where applicable) when playing in their "home" game region. That means that, for characters outside of your home region, items cannot be bought or sold in any real-money auction house. The focus of Global Play is simply to give you the ability to play Diablo III together with your friends in any region.

For more information on Global Play in Diablo III, see the FAQ.

Information regarding the Diablo III launch event in Singapore has just been released by Blizzard, below are the details of the event.

WHEN
May 15th - 10am to 9pm

WITH BLIZZARD STAFF:
Ben Hsieh
Brand Director
Marc Messenger
Project Director - Cinematics

ACTIVITIES
Hourly drawings
Local Cosplayers
A Collector's Edition for free for the first person in line (Asiasoft removed this !)
Signing of Diablo III copies by Marc Messenger

PRIZES
Steel series mice, mouse pads, headsets and Jinx clothing
Lucky dip - D3 mouspads, headsets and mouse from Steel Series & D3 posters. One dip per box set. Headsets and mouse are considered rare loot though

• The collection process comes in 2 parts – Verification and Collection
• Verification starts at 9am.
• All customers will proceed to our verification counters with their pre-order cards and NRIC. After verification, each person will be issued a queue number. Hang on tight to this – please don’t lose it!
• Collection starts at 3pm, to coincide with the official launch in the United States at 12am.
• At 3pm, we will start calling people in batches into the collection area according to your queue number (e.g. numbers 1 – 50, when called, can proceed into the collection area to collect your boxsets)
• Queue number batches will also be indicated on screens set up around the event area.

Blizzard has just announced that they would be having a open beta weekend this week.

It will start on Friday 12pm PDT (which is Saturday 3am GMT +8). Users may wish to create an account and download the beta client first.

Quote:We're pleased to announce the Diablo III open beta weekend, which offers open access to all players with a valid Battle.net account! Beginning this Friday everyone is invited to log in and help us put the game and servers through their paces in this three day stress test as we march toward the game's release on May 15. You can begin downloading the Diablo III client right now!

From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.

FAQ

What steps do I need to take?

• Log in or create a Battle.net account at http://www.battle.net
• Create your BattleTag™, which is required to play Diablo III (What is BattleTag?)
• Download the game client, install, and play between 12:01 p.m. PDT April 20 and 10:00 a.m. PDT April 23
  

I don't have a Battle.net account -- can I still play?
Absolutely! Just visit http://www.battle.net to create a free Battle.net account. Next, download the client from https://us.battle.net/account/download/index.xml and install it. Create your BattleTag, and then log in to the game using your Battle.net account name (email address) and password to begin slaughtering the demonic hellspawn that dare stand in your way.

Are there any differences for stress test participants versus invited closed beta testers?
Stress test participants will only be able to access the beta between Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), and Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT. In addition, stress test participants will not have access to post in the beta forums and will not be provided Beta Bucks for use in testing the currency-based auction house.

Can all regions/countries participate?
Due to regional differences and features of the stress test client, Korean players will not be able to partake in the stress test weekend. However, beginning the week of April 23, we will be conducting a separate, invitation-only closed beta test that will give players in Korea a chance to try out the game, along with players in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

What if the service is down/laggy/disconnecting me?
It's very possible that players connecting to the stress test could experience issues with the service. While not ideal, this is exactly why we're having a stress test. We want to catch and analyze as many bugs as possible during this stress test period, so that we can try to ensure a smooth launch on May 15.

I'm having an issue, how can I get help?
Due to the limited window of the stress test we encourage you to visit the Technical Support or Mac Technical Support forums if you're having any issues running the game, and checking the Known Issues list if you're running into a bug. As a stress test participant you will not be able to post in the beta forums.

What platforms and languages do you support?
For the stress test we're offering the client in English, French, and German for both Windows and Mac. At release the game will be fully localized into English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Korean, and Traditional Chinese for Windows, and English, French, and German for Mac.

I'm an invited closed beta tester, what happens after the stress test weekend ends?
As an invited closed beta tester you'll continue to have access until the beta ends on May 1.

Diablo III patch 17 has just been released, below are the changes made in this patch.

General

• All characters have been wiped. Items, gold, auctions, achievements, followers, and artisans have also been wiped, and Beta Bucks have been reset to 50.
• Cross-game chat is available! Beta participants can now keep in touch with their Real ID and BattleTag friends, no matter which Blizzard game they're playing.
• Please note that some restrictions do apply for BattleTag chat:
  - You can only send BattleTag invites while logged into the Diablo III beta client
  - You can only receive BattleTag invites while logged into the Diablo III beta client
  

• For a full list of documented game and service bugs, please review the Known Issues sticky located in the Beta Bug Report forum.
• Players should no longer be desynced from the server after watching or skipping a cut-scene
• Projectile spell effects should no longer be invisible when casting them
• The Auction House should no longer lag and generate ERROR_1 when attempting to switch currencies
• The Auction House should no longer display your amount of Beta Bucks as 0 unless you actually have 0 Beta Bucks
  

Lylirra, a community manager, posted on the battle.net forums that the Diablo III beta is coming to an end. Servers will be offline on the 1st of May in preparations for the launch on the 15th of May.

Below is what Lylirra posted on battle.net.

Quote:We'd like to thank everyone who has participated in the Diablo III beta. You've done an admirable job of testing, and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback you provided during this critical phase of development.

In preparation for the launch of Diablo III on Tuesday, May 15, the beta servers will be brought offline on Tuesday, May 1. At that time, all beta accounts and character information will be reset. Leading up to Diablo's May 15 launch date, players will only be able to create comments and forum posts on the official Diablo III community site if they have pre-purchased Diablo III or have a StarCraft II or an active World of Warcraft game license attached to their Battle.net account. In the meantime, we encourage everyone to stay tuned to this website for exciting news and updates regarding the upcoming release.

Thank you again for your participation, and we'll see you soon on Battle.net!

Blizzard just released the Monk class spotlight video, check it out below.




They had also released the Barbarian and Demon Hunter last week.

Community manager Nethaera posted on the forum that Blizzard is sending out 275,000 keys for people who have opt-in for their beta. Below is what was posted on the forum

Quote:We’re in the process of sending out 275,000 Diablo III beta invites to our opt-in testers. As it’ll take us a while to notify all the lucky invitees, we recommend heading to your Battle.net Account Management and seeing if you’ve received a Diablo III beta license. If you have, you’re good to go! Download the beta client and use your Battle.net account and password to log in once it’s installed. While you’re logged into your Account Management page though, don’t forget to create your BattleTag. You can choose this permanent account-wide nickname by clicking on the BattleTag “Create one now” link on the left side of your main Battle.net Account page. Choose wisely as there’s no current ability to change it. A BattleTag is required to play Diablo III, and so whether you get into beta or not you should pick one while you’re there.

Keep in mind that with such a large amount of invites for our test hardware we fully expect a strong possibility of stress test issues, such as an inability to log in, disconnections, and potential lag/latency. We’ll also be testing our queuing system ,which you may see when attempting to enter a game.

Thank you for your continued help, feedback, and patience as we approach the May 15 release.

Patch details available here!

General
All characters have been wiped. Please note that this wipe will also affect gold, items, auctions, achievements, followers, and artisans.
A new feature has been added that allows players to view their FPS while in game
To access this feature, hit Ctrl+R (for PC) or CMD+R (for Mac) while playing
The cooldown on swapping skills while in Normal difficulty has been decreased from 15 seconds to 5 seconds

Classes

Barbarian
Active Skills
Bash
“Clobber” rune now has a 35% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds
Revenge
Heal decreased from 6% to 5%

Demon Hunter
Active Skills
Caltrops
Discipline cost decreased from 8 to 6
Smoke Screen
Discipline cost decreased from 18 to 14
Duration decreased from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
Now provides a 10% movement speed boost while invisible
Can now be used while under the effects of crowd control abilities:
Using Smoke Screen will break the effects of crowd control, as well as cause your character to be immune to additional crowd control abilities for its duration
Vault
Discipline cost decreased from 10 to 8

Witch Doctor
Active Skills
Haunt
Now performs 575% weapon damage over 12 seconds (down from 15 seconds)
Sacrifice
Weapon damage increased from 200% to 275%

Crafting
Gold and material costs for crafting recipes have been adjusted
The chance of salvaging Rate materials from Magic items has been increased

Items
Class-specific items no longer have the chance to be generated with affixes that cannot be used by that specific class
For example, “Increased Hatred Regeneration” will no longer appear on Wands
Demon Hunter one-handed Crossbows have received a damage buff
Spirit regeneration on Monk items has been increased

Monsters
Slow, stun, and other movement-impairing effects are now more effective on Treasure Goblins
In response, Treasure Goblins will now sprint away for a moment after being hit
Scavenger monsters will now burrow less often
Zombies will no longer feast on corpses unless they are full health
This is to address an issue which was preventing zombies’ enrage timer from resetting correctly

Bug Fixes
For a full list of documented game and service bugs, please review the Known Issues sticky located in the Beta Bug Report forum.
Players can now queue for Public Games on “Reign of the Black King” after killing the Skeleton King
Players queuing for a specific Public Games quest should no longer be placed into groups on a different quest
Being hit with a knockback ability while using Tempest Rush will no longer disconnect you from Battle.net
Placeholder text should no longer appear when looking at deceased Hardcore characters in the Hall of Fallen Heroes
There should no longer be a delay when accessing the Auction House
The female monk should now properly play her “Not Enough Resources” error message instead of her “Invalid Location” error message when attempting to perform an ability without the required amount of resources available
Items with affixes that reduce resource costs will now correctly reduce the minimum amount of a resource required to perform a skill
Several Simple and Advanced tooltips have received grammar corrections