A '''[[File:Stone -of Recall''' is an object held in a character's interface that enables easy returns to town-recall-icon. It is not a [[Town Portaljpg]], though it largely replaces the function of that item, which is not otherwise found in Diablo III.
The Stone of Recall works by transporting a player was permanently removed from the dungeon to game during late-phase development. It was last present during the [[Diablo III Beta]] and was removed from the Waypoint game in town. There is no portal cast; the player simply uses the objectBeta version 10 patch, and after a lengthy ten-second casting time (implemented to prevent this item from being an easy way to escape from trouble)on January 23, the character teleports back to town2012.
There is not The Stone of Recall was an interface object allowed a blue portal cast or walked through, though character to transport back to town. Its function was identical to the design theory is Town Portal feature that a portal will appear in townreplaced it. Ironically, through which players can return to exactly the spot they departed the dungeon. (The return portal feature is not working Stone of Recall was introduced as a replacement for an earlier version of the first week of the [[Diablo III Beta]] testTown Portal, when that ability was activated via a scroll.
* See the [[File:Stone-of-recall-tooltip1.jpg|frame|center|Scroll of Recall tooltip.Town Portal]]page for details about the town transportation system in place in the final game.
==Diablo 3 Town PortalsDevelopment Cycle==
[[File:Stone-of-recall-tooltip1.jpg|thumb400px|The Scroll of Recall tooltip.]]
Diablo III initially featured town portal scrolls much as those in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2. During early development, the [[D3 Team]] decided that this feature was too easily exploited as an escape from danger, and removed it. Jay Wilson explained this decision in a 2010 interview with Gamespot. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-interview-gamespot-au/]
[[File:Recall-stone-wizard2<blue>Town Portals are gone.jpg|thumb|270px|[[Wizard]] casting Stone of RecallWe found them to be a crippling combat exploit. We found that while they had some cooperative uses, they tended to split players up a lot. As soon as players wanted to go back to town they did, and then they had to figure out how to get back to their party. We don’t want players to ever be split up.]]
Town Portals returned to the game during development in 2011, as revealed by [[Bashiok]] in a forum post. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/town-portals-return....-sorta/]
<blue>We’ve always been trying to see if we can create a better system than town portals, making waypoints the main travel back to town mechanic. But, it’s looking like it’s just simply more fun and a quality-of-life-nicety to be able to jump back to town from anywhere even if waypoints are all over the place. Plus it’s not really that hard to avoid the few pitfalls that TPs in Diablo II had.</blue>
There are, however, limitations to the new Stone of Recall. It is now a spell which must be channeled for ten seconds, an exact duplicate of the "hearthstone" system from [[World of WarCraft]].
In the image to the left, the Wizard is channeling the spell, meaning that the little red bar above her is draining. Once the bar is drained, the spell is complete. Any damage taken while channeling will cancel the cast.
The Stone of Recall is not a drop. It is a permanent part of the [[UI]] once attained through a [[quest]], similar to the [[Nephalem Cube]].
==Why They Were Removed==
For a long time during Diablo III's development, there were no player-castable town portals. The [[D3 Team]] felt they were an exploitative game mechanism that made it too easy to escape from danger. Jay Wilson explained their reasoning in a 2010 interview with Gamespot. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-interview-gamespot-au/]
<blue>Town Portals are gone. We found them to be a crippling combat exploit. We found that while they had some cooperative uses, they tended to split players up a lot. As soon as players wanted to go back to town they did, and then they had to figure out how to get back to their party. We don’t want players to ever be split up.
<br><br>
But the big thing is that Town Portals were a combat exploit. When players can essentially portal out of any situation, it makes it almost impossible for the designers to create a game that’s challenging and compelling, or a world that you’re really immersed in. To replace the need for town portals we’ve added salvaging and we have a couple of other systems that we haven’t shown yet that help with that. The goal is for you to not really miss them. </blue>
For a time, players could only return to town via [[Waypoints]]. To ameliorate that travel difficulty, the designers introduced various features including [[NPC]] [[merchants]] located in the dungeons, as well as the [[Scroll of Wealth]] (which evolved into the [[Cauldron of Jordan]]) to allow instant item selling from anywhere, as well as the [[Nephalem Cube]] to facilitate salvaging of items from the dungeon.
==Blue Portals==Jay Wilson commented on this subject during an interview at Gamescom 2010: [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-interview-gamona/]
[[File:Sorportal<blue>We’ve put in several things to offset the lack of Town Portals. The most obvious are more frequent Waypoints.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Back into the frayThese give players more opportunities to return to go back to town.]]There were numerous red portals in Diablo II, We’ve also added salvaging to take let players between distant locations break items down into small parts that weren't appropriate for Waypoint travelstack up in your inventory. There were We’ve also town portals cast by NPCs added a Scroll of Wealth that players could not use, such as those the rescued Barbarian NPCs cast in Act Fiveallows you to sell items right on location.</blue>
These types of portals may return in Diablo III. One was shown in the first gameplay movie, from June 2008. In it a [[Barbarian]] rescues [[Deckard Cain]] from the dungeon, and sends him back to safety through a portal. Likely there were still player-usable Town Portals in the game, at that early point in the development. How this sort of [[quest]]-related NPC travel will be handled, now that TPs are gone, is unknown. The Stone of Recall does not initially make a portal. It simply "pops" into a blue arcane-style mini-explosion as the character disappears, and reappears back in town instantly.
HoweverThose other features remained in, but eventually the portal need for a speedy way to return to town became too pressing to ignore, and in 2011 the point where developers revealed that the player used Town Portal function was returning the stone is very similar to the game in a new form. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/town -portals of prior Diablo games, as seen to the right-return....-sorta/]
<blue>We’ve always been trying to see if we can create a better system than town portals, making waypoints the main travel back to town mechanic. But, it’s looking like it’s just simply more fun and a quality-of-life-nicety to be able to jump back to town from anywhere even if waypoints are all over the place. Plus it’s not really that hard to avoid the few pitfalls that TPs in Diablo II had.</blue>
[[File:Recall-stone-wizard2.jpg|left|thumb|A [[Wizard]] casting her Stone of Recall.]]
The new system was called the Stone of Recall, and its function was identical to the town portal system now in the game. A character clicked on their Stone of Recall and went into a casting animation. If they were uninterrupted by a monster or by moving or casting a spell, they would warp directly to town after about five seconds.
Unlike the Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 system, there was no blue portal created in the dungeon; characters were simply warped directly to town. In town a blue portal appeared, which would take the player back to the exact spot from which they'd departed, if they passed through it.
This system seemed to be the final design, until in early 2012 the developers revealed that the Stone of Recall, along with the Nephalem Cube and Cauldron of Jordan had all been removed from the game. The Stone of Recall changed the least, as a Town Portal icon, with an identical function to the Stone of Recall, was added to the belt interface
===Travel Alternatives=Blue Portals in Diablo III==
While Town Portals were out of the game, the [[D3 Team]] stressed that File:Sorportal.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Back into the more frequent [[waypointfray.]]s would prove an adequate substitution. Though the Stone of Recall is There were numerous red portals inDiablo II, there's no indication that waypoints are going to be any less common. Besides Waypoints allowing take players to between distant locations that weren't appropriate for Waypoint travel to and from town (or to other waypoints all throughout the game) there are ways for players to sell items directly from the dungeons (via some NPCs, the [[Cauldron of Jordan]], or by other unspecified methods). There is were also a way for town portals cast by NPCs that players to travel instantly one-way from town to join up with others in the dungeoncould not use, using such as those the [[Banner]] systemrescued Barbarian NPCs cast in Act Five.
Jay Wilson commented on this subject during an interview at Gamescom 2010: These types of portals do not seem to be a feature in Diablo III, other than the ones players see in town, after returning via a town portal. Players can not cast blue portals in the dungeons for other players to use, and while the [[Barbarian]] cast such a portal for the use of [[http:Deckard Cain]] in the first gameplay movie, released with the June 2008 Diablo III announcement, that feature//diablo.incgamersfunction was evolved away from over the course of development.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-interview-gamona/]
<blue><font color="#FFFFFF">Gamona.de: There are no town portals in Diablo 3. What’s the alternative for easy travel?</font><br>
Jay Wilson: We’ve put in several things to offset the lack of Town Portals. The most obvious are more frequent Waypoints. These give players more opportunities to return to go back to town. We’ve also added salvaging to let players break items down into small parts that stack up in your inventory. We’ve also added a Scroll of Wealth that allows you to sell items right on location.</blue>
==Spell Lore==