This blog is part of the series I have been writing about my experiences in the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls beta.  The beta ended months ago, but I’m not done blogging about it.  These blogs are my way of sharing my thoughts and experiences about the Diablo III Reaper of Souls beta.  It was an honor to be included in the beta, and something that I want to remember.

I was playing a female Crusader (whom I named Joan).  In the previous blog, Joan the Crusader hit Level 27.  This blog will showcase her adventure as she went from Level 27 to Level 28.  The screenshots that you see here were taken on February 24, 2014.

Joan the Crusader’s adventure from Level 26 to Level 27 started in the Dahlgur Oasis.  She brought Lyndon the Scoundrel along with her.  I took a moment to check out the new spells that she now had access to.

Phalanx – Summon powerful avatars who charge forward to the targeted destination. Cost: 30 Wrath

 Judgement – Pass judgement on all enemies in an area, immobilizing them in place for a short duration. Cooldown: 20 seconds

Judgement opened up a new rune: Penitence – Heal for every enemy upon whom you pass judgement.

Every once in a while, I end up with a screenshot that looks really cool.

Joan the Crusader and Lyndon the Scoundrel fought some blue Writing Deceivers.

They found Ancient Cave (Level 1) in the Dahlgur Oasis.  I like to go inside all the little caves and things.  There could be great loot in there!

I don’t recall finding anything extra special in Ancient Cave (Level 1).  Despite that, I still needed to return to town because my bags had filled up.  This is when I noticed something interesting about the Stash.  There were four tabs!  The original Diablo III game only had three tabs.  I am a “digital hoarder”, who has difficultly getting rid of stuff that others would consider to be junk.  I might need it someday!  Learning that the Reaper of Souls beta was going to give players a 4th tab in their stash was exciting!

The small window in the above screenshot is not related to the new 4th tab.  It is telling me that I can spend 10,000 gold to unlock 14 more spaces in the 1st tab.  I cannot recall if I spent the gold for more room or not.  This stash looks pretty full, so I’m guessing I bought more room.  I’m really happy that Blizzard lets players spend the in game currency to buy storage space.  They could have been nasty and required a micro-transaction of real-world money for it.

Back to the Ancient Cave (and into Level 2)!

Next, Joan the Crusader and Lyndon the Scoundrel fought a pack of Chilling Constructs.  They had three affixes: poison, enchanted, plagued.

One of them dropped a nice ring that had a socket.  The Diamond gems were new with the RoS expansion.  After I equipped the ring, I put a Diamond gem into it.  Doing so resulted in an Achievement.  That was unexpected!

Best Dressed: Equip a socketed item in the following slots.

Helm with Socket, Leg Armor with Socket, Amulet with Socket, Chest Armor with Socket, Weapon with Socket, Ring with Socket

Something else that was new with the Reaper of Souls expansion involved a change to Paragon Levels.  In the original Diablo III, each of your characters earned their own Paragon Levels.  The RoS expansion changed that to what many people began calling “Share-a-gon”.  All of your characters add to a combined Paragon Level.  The Paragon points can be used by every single one of your characters – without taking points away from any other character.

Joan the Crusader was only at Level 27, so she had not yet earned any Paragon Levels.  In the original Diablo III, you couldn’t earn Paragon Levels until after your character hit Level 60.  The RoS expansion required players to get their character(s) to Level 70 (the new level cap) before they could earn Paragon Levels.

Therefore, all I could do in the RoS beta was look at the new screens that would – eventually – hold my “Share-a-gon” points.  (I didn’t port any characters into the RoS beta. If I’d done that, I would have been able play around with this new thing).

Paragon Core

Paragon Offense

Paragon Defense

Paragon Utility

All I could do was take a look.  I ended up having to wait until the RoS expansion was released before I could mess around with it.

I stopped to take a look at the Paragon Points while Joan the Crusader and Lyndon the Scoundrel were inside The Forgotten Ruins.  They were working through the beginning of the Zoltun Kulle stuff.  I was playing on Normal Difficulty, and had just killed a mob of monsters.  Clearly, I felt really safe taking the time to block the screen for however long I was staring at the Paragon Points screens.

Joan the Crusader hit Level 28 while she was somewhere inside The Forgotten Ruins.

Looks like I switched from the Scoundrel to the Templar when Joan the Crusader was in town.

It was time to stop playing for the night/wee hours of the morning.  This was the point where I started to wonder how long the RoS beta would last.  I was fortunate enough to have gotten into the beta for the original Diablo III.  Blizzard was really nice about giving players a whole lot of warning about exactly when that beta would end. Would that happen again?  I wasn’t sure, but I hoped so.  The next blog will be about Joan the Crusader’s adventure through the RoS beta after she hit Level 28.

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