Plot
After Diablo is defeated by the Nephalem (the player character), Tyrael recovers the Black Soulstone that contains the essence of all seven of the Great Evils. Knowing it is too dangerous to leave in the hands of mortals or angels, he and six Horadrim take the Black Soulstone back to Sanctuary and attempt to seal it away where it can never be found - deep in the tomb of Rakkis, the first King of Westmarch, the kingdom established to the west of Khanduras. However, the group is ambushed by Malthael, former Archangel of Wisdom and member of the Angiris Council, who had disappeared after the destruction of the Worldstone after it was corrupted by Baal twenty years earlier (at the end of '' Diablo II: Lord of Destruction''). Now calling himself the "Angel of Death", Malthael kills all but one of the Horadrim, incapacitates Tyrael in the process and steals the Black Soulstone. Tyrael sends the surviving Horadrim, Lorath Nahr, to locate the Nephalem. Nahr encounters the Nephalem outside Westmarch City, which has been overrun by the Reapers, Malthael's army of enslaved spirits and renegade angels. With the gates blocked, the Nephalem fights through the city sewers to the Zakarum cathedral in the city center, where they encounter Tyrael. Tyrael reveals that with Diablo gone, Malthael sees humanity as a race of demons based on their descent from the original Nephalem, the offspring of angels and demons; by wiping out humanity, Malthael hopes to end the Eternal Conflict, the long war between Heaven and Hell. A sliver broke off from the Black Soulstone when Malthael took it, and Tyrael attempts to use it to discover Malthael's plans. The Reapers deploy two soul crucibles into Westmarch City to claim the souls of the dead, and the Nephalem locates and destroys them, earning the ire of Urzael, Malthael's chief lieutenant, who awaits the hero in Westmarch Heights. The Nephalem tracks Urzael down to the Tower of Korelan and defeats him in a gruesome battle. The Nephalem learns from Myriam Jahzia, a mystic rescued during the attack against the soul crucibles, that Adria (the witch of Tristram from the original game, who is revealed to have been a servant of Diablo in ''Diablo III'') is in Westmarch seeking to locate the Black Soulstone and resurrect her master again. Lorath decides to accompany the hero, then learns that Adria sealed the tomb's entrance with a rock slide, so he suggests unlocking the guide-stones to open the correct passageway. Travelling into the ancient ruins in the Blood Marsh outside Westmarch, the Nephalem confronts Adria, who manages to locate Malthael at the Pandemonium Fortress (last seen in ''Release
Pre-expansion patch
The pre-expansion ''Diablo III'' patch 2.0.1 deployed on February 25, 2014, one month before the release of ''Reaper of Souls''. The patch updates the game for all owners of the base game, and does not require ownership of the expansion. The patch changed many game systems, including class skills, difficulty, and the number and quality of items acquired. One of the changes in the patch was a change to the paragon level system. Previously, paragon levels were separated between characters and were limited in number. With this patch, all the previous paragon experience was combined into an account wide paragon level that had no maximum. This allowed players to change between different characters and retain the bonuses between them, depending on the game mode being played. The patch also made major changes to the game's item drop system. The change was referred to by developers as "Loot 2.0". Items would now drop in decreased quantity but increased quality, with a greater proportion of high bonuses and more useful properties. Instead of the mostly random item properties, items now found by a character would typically have properties that could be used by the character that found it. Many legendary items were changed to now provide playstyle and gameplay changing properties (a skill may become modified, changing its previous use, or gain new effects that are otherwise unobtainable). Previously bind-on-equip and tradeable pieces of equipment were made account-bound instead, with a limited amount of time to allow trading to other characters who were present in game when the item was dropped. Patch 2.0.1 also streamlined crafting, condensing crafting materials into two categories: crafting items for the levels that comprise the original game, and materials for the expansion. Potions were also condensed into a single type of potion, where previously there were many different strengths and types. This patch added cursed chest and cursed shrine events. These timed events challenge players to fight off several sequential waves of attacking monsters, and provide rewards based on the player's success. The patch also introduced ''Pools of Reflection''. When used, the pools provide a cumulativeNintendo Switch version
Released on November 2, 2018, the Nintendo Switch version includes all expansion content to date as well as several new items. Four people will be able to play together: either four players can play on a single screen, or four separate Switches can be used together using the internet. It can be played both offline and online.Features
''Reaper of Souls'' adds a number of new features to the core gameplay of ''Seasons
Patch 2.1 introduced seasons to the game, which are the equivalent of ladders from ''Adventure Mode
Adventure Mode allows players to freely explore every region currently available in the game, without being restricted by the story. New objectives (including Bounties and Nephalem Rifts), areas and NPCs are also available to the players, and these features can only be found in Adventure Mode. Until patch 2.7.3, the mode was unlockable (and made available for all seasonal and non-seasonal characters on the player's account) only after completing the entire campaign (including Act V) once. However, as of patch 2.7.4, it will be automatically unlocked across all accounts and platforms.Bounties
Players are able to complete five random Bounties for each act when playing in Adventure Mode. Bounties are random missions that may require players to hunt down a specific enemy, clear a specific area, slay a certain number of enemies, or complete a certain event, for example cleanse a cursed chest or a cursed shrine. Upon completion of Bounties, players will be rewarded with certain amount of gold, loots as well as crystalline blood shards, which can be traded for powerful items. Once players complete all five Bounties designated to one act, they will be rewarded with a Horadric Cache, which contains random loots and rewards such as gems, crafting materials, crafting recipes, and equipment. As of patch 2.3, Rift Key Fragments are no longer in the game, and thus have been removed from Horadric caches. Additional bounty areas were added with the Ruins of Sescheron in Act III (patch 2.3), Greyhollow Island in Act V (patch 2.4), the Shrouded Moors and the Temple of the Firstborn in Act II, and the Realms of Fate in Act IV (both patch 2.6).Nephalem Rifts
Nephalem Rifts are dungeons in Adventure Mode that consist of randomized regions and encounters. Players fight enemies and explore areas drawn randomly from all acts. As of patch 2.3 Nephalem rifts can be opened for free and no longer require Rift Keystone Fragments (which have been removed from the game). Players will also find "pylons" that grant players powerful abilities during exploration of the Rifts. In the first major content patch Greater Rifts were added where the difficulty increases each time you complete the rift within the time limit. The final boss in each Nephalem Rift has a chance of dropping a Greater Rift Keystone, which can be used to open these Greater Rifts.Kanai's Cube
Added in patch 2.3, Kanai's Cube is an improvement on the Horadric Cubes used in ''Diablo II''. In Adventure Mode, players will speak to the ghost of Zoltun Kulle in town, at which point he will direct them to the Ruins of Sescheron in Act III to locate the cube. Once found, the cube is available to all characters of the type that finds it (normal or Hardcore; the first character in a new Season must re-acquire it regardless of whether their normal or Hardcore characters have already found it). With certain crafting material combinations, the cube can be used to extract legendary powers (marked in orange text in the item's stats), upgrade rare items to legendary, remove level requirements on items, and other abilities.Mystic NPC
The Mystic is a new NPC featured in ''Diablo III: Reaper of Souls''. The mystic serves two basic functions: Item Enchanting and Transmogrification. Item Enchanting allows players to “re-roll the dice”; players are free to re-roll one property on an item. The selected property can be re-rolled to a higher value or to another property. Transmogrification allows players to change their character's appearance for purely aesthetic purposes.Kadala NPC
Kadala provides gambling services in the game's Adventure Mode. Blood Shards are used to purchase unidentified items from her. Most of the time these items will be magic or rare, with a low chance to roll a legendary or certain set items, regardless of difficulty or magic find. She does not sell items that are only found in Horadric Caches, but does sell Torment-exclusive items.The Darkening of Tristram event
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original ''Diablo'', Blizzard announced atPatch 2.5.0 highlights
Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls Patch 2.5.0 brings many new highlights to the game, such as the armory system, crafting material storage, and seasons for consoles. The armory system allows for you to store five different builds for each of your characters. Saving a build saves your complete current build to include skills, gear, gems, and Kanai's cube powers. Saving builds in the armory system allows for a quick change in game play. For example, it allows you to switch from your solo adventure mode “grinding build” to a “tankier support build” for group play instantly by visiting the wardrobe located by the in game mailbox. Prior to patch 2.5.0, crafting materials would be stored in your inventory. This caused limited inventory space to be filled with crafting materials and gems. Now, all crafting materials will be maintained in a separate storage tab that does not affect your normal inventory space. In an Action RPG game based around RNG “random number generator” gear drops, you need as much inventory space as possible. Seasons were first implemented into Diablo in patch 2.1, but for the PC client. Starting in 2.5.0 console gamers will be able to compete with each other on the same level as PC gamers. It will also allow for console gamers to earn the same season exclusive award previously only available to PC Diablo player base.Rise of the Necromancer DLC
Blizzard's "Rise of the Necromancer" DLC pack introduced the Necromancer class, one of the five original classes of ''Diablo II'', to the game. The new incarnation of the Necromancer was described as a "reimagining" of the earlier version; a number of the signature abilities (such as raising undead minions, bone spear attacks, and causing corpses to explode) were made available, though a number of new abilities were also added, as well as new gear sets and appearances. The DLC also included two additional character slots, more slots in the in-game stash, and cosmetic appearances such as a portrait frame, a pennant worn by the character, and a banner design and sigil. The pack cost $14.99 and was released with Patch 2.6.0 on June 27, 2017.Patch 2.6.0 highlights
Patch 2.6.0 introduced a number of new features, including the "Rise of the Necromancer" pack announced at BlizzCon, as well as 30 new legendary items and four armor sets for the Necromancer class. An additional game mode, "Challenge Rifts", was also introduced. The Challenge Rifts mode takes a "snapshot" of a previously-completed Greater Rift, including the character, armor, and talent build used in that Greater Rift, as well as the enemies and powerups that appeared within it; if the player is able to beat the previously set completion time, they will receive a reward cache (similar to completing bounties). New zones were also added to certain maps in Adventure Mode: The Shrouded Moors and the Temple of the Firstborn near Caldeum (Act II), centered around a strange "blood cult", and the Realms of Fate in the High Heavens (Act IV), consequences of the battle between the Nephalem (player characters) and Diablo in the campaign story in ''Diablo III''.Music
The primary composer for ''Reaper of Souls'' is Derek Duke. Additional music was composed by Neal Acree, Joseph Lawrence, Russel Brower, Glenn Stafford, and Jason Hayes. The soundtrack was released on March 25, 2014 (the same day as the expansion was released) in two formats: a physical CD included in the Collector's Edition of ''Reaper of Souls'', and as a digital release on iTunes.Reception
''Diablo III: Reaper of Souls'' received favorable reviews upon release, with critics praising its iteration upon the base game. OnSales
''Reaper of Souls'' sold 2.7 million copies in its first week on sale. As of August 2014, ''Diablo III'' and ''Reaper of Souls'' have combined sales of 20 million copies. As of June 30, 2015, ''Diablo III'' and ''Reaper of Souls'' have combined sales of 30 million copies.References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diablo III: Reaper of Souls 2014 video games Action role-playing video games Blizzard games Cooperative video games Dark fantasy video games Video games about demons Diablo (series) video games Hack and slash role-playing games Multiplayer online games MacOS games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games Role-playing video games Video game expansion packs Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games scored by Neal Acree Video games with isometric graphics Video games using procedural generation Windows games Xbox 360 games Xbox One games Multiplayer and single-player video games