Azeroth in Sanctuary: A Guide to WoW References in Diablo III

By Wowhead Updated: 2017/04/24

Diablo I and II References in WoWVanity Items

Tyrael's Charger was a reward for participating in WoW's Annual Pass, which also rewarded players who signed up for 12 months of WoW with free Diablo III and beta access. This item is no longer available.

Fetish Shaman's Spear looks like a Fetish Shaman from Diablo II. It is obtained by purchasing Diablo III: Collector's Edition. He's got some neat animations--constantly babbling, bouncing around, and occasionally breathing the Diablo III trademark.

Tyrael's Hilt, summoning mini-Tyrael, was a gift inside the Paris Worldwide Invitation 2008 goody bag. It was made in limited quantities and the code can still fetch quite a bit of cash.

Diablo Stone summons Mini Diablo, <Lord of Terror> as a reward from the Collector's Edition of WoW's launch. The pet will occasionally levitate and spit fire into the air.

Murkablo is a WoW-Diablo hybrid--a murloc from a corrupt soulstone. He likes to breathe a lot of fire and smoke, as well as make typical murloc grunts with a demonic accent.

Treasure Goblin's Pack looks like the in-game Treasure Goblin who drops piles of gold and amazing items. It is obtained by purchasing Reaper of Souls.

Murkalot's Flail is another WoW-Diablo hybrid--based on the new Crusader class coming in Reaper of Souls. This was a reward for BlizzCon 2013.

Gear

Naglering pays tribute to Nagelring in Diablo II, a unique ring known for its large boost to magic find. They both share the bizarre feature of having the attacker take 3 damage.

Polished Jazeraint Armor is a reference to the Illuminated Jazeraint items players could craft in Diablo II.

Band of the Hierophant references a legendary ring, the Hierophant's Seal in Diablo II.

Triune Amulet references one of the cults in Sanctuary, which posed as a peaceful organization yet served the Prime Evils. It's fitting that this item drops from Scarlet Monastery, another example of religion gone bad.

Many base armor types from Diablo II are referenced in WoW BoE sets, such as Archon Chestpiece, Serpentskin Armor, Embossed Plate Armor, Field Plate Armor, Gothic Plate Armor.

Weapons

Eaglehorn Long Bow: named after The Eaglehorn, a unique bow from both Diablo I and II.

Staff of Jordan, Sash of Jordan, Grand Staff of Jordan: References to the Stone of Jordan, one of the most important items in Diablo II, which was used to socket items when no quests were available. They were collected in stacks and used as a form of currency.

Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge, Dal'Rend's Tribal Guardian: Best known to players now as the namesake for the heirloom Venerable Dal'Rend's Sacred Charge, it's a tribute to a weapon set in Diablo II: LoD, Bul-Katho's Children, which also consists of a Sacred Charge and Tribal Guardian.

Butcher's Cleaver from Shadowfang Keep's Razorclaw the Butcher has the exact same name and weapon type as the loot drop from Diablo I's Butcher.

Doombringer: it's lacking good stats, but it's named after Doombringer, a two-handed sword with great stats in all three Diablo games.

The Ziggler: this low-level BoE dagger references The Diggler from Diablo II: LoD, a dirk effective in early levels too.

The Needler could be a reference to the Halo weapon or The Needler from Diablo I.

Heaven's Light: named after Heaven's Light from Diablo II, one of two unique Mighty Scepters in the game.

Grim Reaper: named after Grim Reaper war scythe from Diablo II: LoD, which also was a weapon that was best at lower levels with a damage proc.

Gargoyle's Bite is a low-level BoE with additional armor, named after Gargoyle's Bite from Diablo II, a winged harpoon with life leech.

Glacial Spike is a removed item that used to be a reward from the Sunken Temple mage class quest. The Diablo II version had a cool proc that caused an AoE explosion and froze enemies in place--the WoW version had Frosty Zap, a chance to restore mana when casting Frostbolt.

Locations

Stone Cairn Lake in Elwynn Forest is a lake with an island at the center that has five stones arranged around a memorial. This is most likely a reference to the Five Cairn Stones, an area in Diablo II where you open a portal to Tristram in Act I.

Cow King's Hide is a reference to the Secret Cow Level, the Moo Moo Farm, in Diablo II, which contained Hell Bovines and the Cow King.

One of the loading screens for WoW has "There is no cow level" as a tip.

Tristam Legguards is named after Tristram, one of the most important locations in all Diablo games.

NPCs

Mists of Pandaria added a series of achievements that references the Templar's dialogue when attacking rare spawns: A Worthy Opponent, Could We Find More Like That?, Glorious!.

Kaganishu, a kobold in Borean Tundra, is a play on Rakanishu from Diablo II. Similar to the Diablo boss, the nearby NPCs will scream out his name in all caps in combat.

Razorclaw the Butcher in Shadowfang Keep references the iconic early boss of the same name in Diablo I, brought back as the Act I boss in Diablo III: The Butcher.

Tyrael Flamekissed is an General Goods vendor at the Shattered Sun Offensive.

Maiden's Anguish, formerly used by rogues to brew poison, references Andariel, the Maiden of Anguish. She was the first act boss in Diablo II and had a nasty Poison Spray ability.

Southsea Lamp is named after Wirt, an annoying vendor in Diablo I who would only sell you one expensive item--after you paid 50g to view it. His leg was amputated and replaced with a wooden leg after an attack on his village. In Diablo II, Wirt is dead and his corpse has a ton of gold (for taking all that money in Diablo I) as well as his leg, which is used to open the Secret Cow Level. In Diablo III, you'll need to buy Wirt's Bell as one of the steps to access the secret level Whimsyshire.

WoW References in Diablo IIINPCs

Murlocs make an appearance in this amulet: The Murlocket. It even has a murloc icon and the flavor text references the distinctive murloc grumble: Dredged from the murky shores of Lake Chu, this disturbing amulet emits strange sounds when held to one's ear.

In the Mountains: This Act I achievement for exploring the Highlands references the popular Thorim meme from his dialogue at the start of the encounter.

The achievement for acquiring follower tokens, I Got What You Need has always been one of the money-loving Goblin NPC quotes.

Gehennas from Molten Core is the namesake for these pants with fire resistance: Gehennas.

Sarkoth, a quill elite found in an Act I cellar, is a joke on Sarkoth, one of the first mobs Horde players face.

The Lich King's helm is found in an Ice Cave in Act III.

Expansions

Several of WoW's expansions make appearances as weapons:
Wrath of the Bone King

Cataclysm. The name is fairly generic, but the flavor text relates to the expansion: A weapon of myth and legend. Some say that to use it is folly—that it will rip the land asunder and boil the oceans.

Stood in the FireAchievements

Slad'ran in Gundrak and Belial in Act II share the same achievement inspired by Raiders of the Lost Ark: Snakes. Why'd It Have To Be Snakes?

Looting a Autographed Picture of Tigule in Alterac Valley and completing Act IV on Normal difficulty with a Barbarian reward these similar-sounding achievements, named after a popular political phrase: To the Looter Go the Spoils.

Weapons

Many crafted weapons share similar names in Diablo and WoW. They're not the most distinctive names, but there could be intentional references. For example:
Blackguard, a crafted tanking epic weapon with expensive mats back in vanilla: Blackguard, a legendary weapon with defensive stats.

Helm of Command, a crafted rare dps helm: The Helm of Command, legendary helm taught by trainer.

WarmongerWarmongerCommunity

Bashiok, the former community lead for Diablo III, is a rare with his own achievement: Bashanishu. This achievement requires the player to damage Bashiok with Rakanishu's Blade, found after completing the Shrine of Rakanishu event in the Act II Oasis, which is a similarly tricky encounter. Diablo II players will remember Rakanishu also as the first Lightning Enchanted boss in the game, showing how resistance gear is useful.

Not to be outdone, former World of Warcraft community manager Zarhym has a popular spawn, and there's even a thread about it.

Elitist Jerks: Someone got frustrated by the banhammer too much at Elitist Jerks and named an achievement dedicated to killing elites after the popular theorycrafting site.

It's not specifically a Warcraft reference, but a neat community Easter Egg is Developer's Hell, a dungeon that has all the Diablo III staff wandering about as zombies. Killing Jay Wilson, the Game Director of Diablo III, rewards the Feat of Strength Smash! Jay, Smash! There's also the Quality Well, which features the undead QA team. WoW has done some similar staff tributes with Lake Dumont in Feralas and The Assurance in Stormwind, a ship filled with members of the Burning Crusade Testing and QA teams.

Comments

Comment by Hairband

Fun facts. I think the Diablo-based vanity pets are awesome!

Comment by 953879

There's a Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker in Diablo 3.

Comment by jimbobaus

Probably time to remove references to D3DB given it's now dead.

Comment by Albtraum

Many base armor types from Diablo II are referenced in WoW BoE sets, such as Archon Chestpiece, Serpentskin Armor, Embossed Plate Armor, Field Plate Armor, Gothic Plate Armor.

'xcuse me, but I call BS on this. Or, at least, I'll ask you for proof of that statement.
All this names are either generic 'fantasy armor' names or real armor type names, and they lack any visual similarities to Diablo armorpieces. Thus, I really want to see the reason why they are included to this list.

Tristam Legguards is named after Tristram, one of the most important locations in all Diablo games.

Same here. I see no reference in similarities between pants name and location name. Moreover, this could be an actual reference to the hero Tristam from Arthurian legend (better known as Tristan) or to the character Tristam from 1992 Super NES game "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest".

Azeroth in Sanctuary: A Guide to WoW References in Diablo III

Contribute