Diablo 3 - More Blizzcon @ IGN & diablo.iii.net

IGN has a Blizzcon Q & A up with Blizzard's Rob Pardo covering the  wizard class a bit, as well as the new rune system, among other things:

With the big reveal of the third Diablo III character class yesterday—the wizard—we had a chance to talk to Pardo today to find out more.

"She's kind of our most classic magic-using class," Pardo told us. "If you have a mage or a sorcerer or a wizard, she kind of fills that archetype. She's going to be great at ranged combat; she's going to be great at area-of-effect magic. She's also going to be the crazy special effects class."

Pardo wouldn't say exactly when Blizzard would reveal the remaining two classes, and he joked that they'll reveal them when they figure out what those classes will be. But we should expect the last two to be revealed next year, and he repeated something that he told us yesterday when we talked about StarCraft II; Diablo III will ship after the first of the StarCraft II games ship.

On the rune skill system:

Specifically, there's a new rune system that is "definitely a departure from the Diablo II system."

"One of the problems with the Diablo II system is that you kind of lock in with one or two skills. We really wanted to come up with a system that allows you to kind of experiment and try across different areas," he said. Runes are where the experimentation comes in. "You'll actually find drops that are runes out in the world that you can slot into a skill. That will not only augment a skill but it can change it complete... Depending on the type of rune that you got, you might take an ability and it might turn into a multi-shot ability, or it might turn into an area-of-effect ability."

For more Blizzcon blow by blow coverage, fansite diablii.net has a liveblog transcript of the action as well as some highlights of the Arts and Lore Panel presentation.