The much anticipated Diablo 3 was announced over 2 years ago. The third edition to the Diablo franchise promised to bring players back into the world of Diablo with high quality graphics and gaming experience. They certainly didn't disappoint. The public beta started letting players join in during October of 2011 when the release date was slated for Q4 of 2011. Later, the date was pushed back to Q1 of 2012 and now players are beginning to fear another push back.
One of the most promising aspects of the third edition of Diablo was the artisan game mechanic. This system is somewhat similar to the professions in World of Warcraft, but instead of professions being available for in-game characters to learn, the artisans are in-game NPCs you interact with. As you work with these Artisans you have the opportunity to train them which, after much gold and investment, will advance their level from tier 1, Apprentice, to tier 10, Exalted. Once Exalted, your Artisan will be able to do just about everything they were created to do.
Three artisans were designed and implemented into the pre-release version of the game. These included the Blacksmith who crafts and repairs armor and salvages through junk for reusable material, the Jeweler, who inserts and removes sockets from gear as well as combining certain types of gems to make superior gems and finally the Mystic, who enhances and identifies equipment.
Why Was The Mystic Removed?
On January 19th, 2012, when most players were hoping for a release date instead they received a list of major system changes. One of those changes included the removal of the Mystic artisan. Developers at Blizzard said that they just didn't think the Mystic offered the unique feel they had hoped for. They mentioned it was too similar to the existing gem mechanic.
This reduced the number of artisans to 2 and left many players wondering if there was enough variety to draw players to use artisans at all. Considering every character can max both artisans once and utilize them from any character, it will just be a matter of time when the bulk of Diablo players have trained both of their artisans to exalted. This also removes the enhancement mechanic completely, limiting players to gems if they want to improve the quality of their gear.
I will certainly miss the Mystic and look for it in future content patches of Diablo 3. Hopefully Blizzard will figure out how to make it work in the Diablo franchise once again.