Yards are a unit of distance used in Diablo II and Diablo III.
Diablo II
While based on the real unit of measurement of three feet or 91.44cm, the in-game distance is 48 pixels wide by 24 pixels high.
The visible area on your screen depends on whether you use the 640x480 or 800x600 resolution. The status bar on the bottom of the screen conceals 48 pixels, or two yards.
| Resolution | Width | Height |
|---|---|---|
| 640x480 | 131/3 yards | 18 yards |
| 800x600 | 162/3 yards | 23 yards |
Diablo III
Diablo III also utilizes yards for most of its skill ranges, as well as the gold/Health Globe auto-pickup. Most ranged skills have up to 60 yards range, and most area of effect skills have 10-20 yard blast radius.
- The gold/Health Globe auto-pickup, as well as a certain number of the Witch Doctor's skills, Active and Passive, can be increased by equipping gear with the affix 'Pick up Gold +x Yards Further'. The default radius is 3 yards away from the character's location.
- Many buffing/debuffing skills affect entities within a certain radius. These skills cannot be increased in range through gear, and must be timed appropriately in a team game.
- Melee range attacks generally hit enemies up to 3 yards from your hero's location, regardless of the type of melee weapon equipped. This is a change from how melee attack range worked in Diablo II/Lord of Destruction.
Note that despite the yard being a real-world measure of distance (91.4 cm, or 0.9 m), in Diablo III, it does not match the real length. Each "yard" in game extends roughly 1 foot (30 cm, or 0.3m), with most human characters being approximately 7-9 in-game yards tall. In other words, a 10 yard in-game range is somewhere around 3 real-world yards.
On most resolutions, the character is in the center of the screen, and the screen extends exactly 60 yards in all four directions (top, bottom, left and right). Consequently, roughly 85 yards is the maximum distance one can cover with a single mouse click (diagonal corners of the screen).
See also
Video
How far is a yard? Diablo 3- Reaper of Souls Guide