**OFFICIAL** Diablo 3 Thread

[Keeper]

So I have started The Witcher twice and not gotten very far in it. I just assumed based on the beginning that it was like the others. But you still start off with potential to take any path and the practical ability to pursue (though not to any significant power level) throughout the game. So same difference in my book.

And it does seem to be a trend in gaming today. your initial avatar is this formless, nebulous jack of all trades. I am not saying that the Baldur's gate model is 'The Best' in that you have classes that have specific strengths and weaknesses, but it definitely has something different over the generic stuff that is ground out today. And to me (an staunch Wizard supporter), I think it cheapens magic as a whole if EVERYONE can cast it.

I wouldn't have thought that Diablo would succumb to the 'Balanced has to equal Same' paradigm. Given that the war/star craft games had at least some variation in the units, I would have thought that sort of logic would be at least present in this game. But apparently not.

And not saying it isn't Fun. Well, ok. Maybe I am. I think the guy from QFT said it best in that Blizzard tends to make more obsession games than actual fun games. You Absolutely HAVE to continue, not because of the fun factor, but because of the obsession to beat that next boss or find that next item or level up to 60 (or whatever). but maybe that is just me.

Lots of games did well with that obsession draw. The early CIV games come to mind. So many people I spoke to (Back in the day)... "Yeah, what would happen in 5 more turns"...... Or "what if I take Science over...." For me it was the 5 more turn thingy..... And suddenly, it was 3 AM.
Ahhhh, those were good days.

 

[flexy]

Some additional notes why i like this game:

I am an old-school gamer who played already when some of you guys were not even born - and of course my favorite genre RPGs and idontknowhowmuchtimealready wasted in WoW.
Recently, i got a burn out with RPGs in general (especially single player RPGs) since i simply don't have the nerves & enthusiasm anymore since many of the RPGs are so involved with things like crafting etc. (One main reason i only played Skyrim a short time, i can't sit down anymore, for hours farming materials and lvling skills etc. - my wife loves it but it's just too much for me). The missing co-op/MP component is another thing i miss a lot in otherwise good games like Skyrim, The Witcher or whatever other good RPGs there are.

I like D III because it doesn't demand too much tedious leveling of skills, farming herbs or reagents (i can do that in WoW if i feel like it). With D III i can "log on" and then immediately play either alone or with wife or ex WoW guildies.

While kept "simple" with a big focus on the action, it still has some of the good elements WoW has.

I am someone who plays MANY games only for a short time and gets even bored with "the latest and greatest" - but found myself really, really enjoying D III - almost to a point where i am feeling like i am playing a long time back in time where games were less complex but STILL a lot of fun to play.

D III has (IMHO) found a good place between existing games like shooters or extremely involved RPGs - its in its own leage and for the genre ("Action Dungeon Crawler") really, really good and a lot of fun.

Some people elsewhere gave negative reviews (the usual DRM etc. nonsense aside) but also complained how "simple" and "stupid" the game is.

The deal is, an ARPG with a main focus on "blow sh!t up and loot" has its merit and i started to really like it for exactly that. Which is weird since i otherwise didn't like such types of games while my wife loves them.

It's the perfect "farming game" and i really start to like the AH for selling and buying, and the upcoming RMAH starts to become really, really interesting for me.
(I remember when Cata came out, i spent weeks in WoW making a ***load of gold farming cata herbs, so playing a game just for the sake of making gold and selling can be a big motivator as well if you get burn-out from PvP or raiding etc.)

It is clear tho that the RMAH is a way for blizz to make money as well, but i don't mind the idea in the slightest that we will be able to make real money -if anything, it will just another big motivating factor. (Although i am afraid that the RMAH will likely bring about lots of botting, chinese farmers, exploits etc...the thought actually scares me).

 

[Rhezuss]

Just finished the game on Normal 5 minutes ago...dunno if I have the "courage" to do another complete run with the Barb on Nightmare lol...

 

[KaOTiK]

Just finished the game on Normal 5 minutes ago...dunno if I have the "courage" to do another complete run with the Barb on Nightmare lol...

If you have good gear NM is just as easy as normal really. I'm on Diablo on NM right now, I've died no more (probably less) then I did on normal.

 

[thespyder]

Lots of games did well with that obsession draw. The early CIV games come to mind. So many people I spoke to (Back in the day)... "Yeah, what would happen in 5 more turns"...... Or "what if I take Science over...." For me it was the 5 more turn thingy..... And suddenly, it was 3 AM.
Ahhhh, those were good days.

Oh, no doubt. If you play GalCiv2 and try to quit the game, it will even ask you "Would a few more turns hurt?" or something to that effect.

Just saying that Blizzard excels at that type of game. And the obsession is there even if the fun is not so much. Not saying that I am not having fun playing Diablo 3, just saying that I might continue playing out of obsession rather than 'Fun'.

 

[GoStumpy]

Called my wife at work today to see how it was going... all I got was "I can't wait to get home and slay some demons!!!" and "I wonder how my auctions are going??"

She's obsessed :wub:

 

[Anubis]

Screenshots go into a folder just like in D2. Via Print Screen.

At least for me it's not in the normal D3 folder, but a documents folder where saved game data usually goes

C:\Users\user\Documents\Diablo III\Screenshots

 

[KaOTiK]

Called my wife at work today to see how it was going... all I got was "I can't wait to get home and slay some demons!!!" and "I wonder how my auctions are going??"

She's obsessed :wub:

she's a keeper!

 

[Rhezuss]

If you have good gear NM is just as easy as normal really. I'm on Diablo on NM right now, I've died no more (probably less) then I did on normal.

It's not the difficulty i'm worried...is the will to finish it

 

[KaOTiK]

It's not the difficulty i'm worried...is the will to finish it

Leveling up and getting better gear, if you don't have the will for that then Diablo isn't for you sadly

 

[Rhezuss]

Leveling up and getting better gear, if you don't have the will for that then Diablo isn't for you sadly

Hahahah that's what I was saying to myself and so restarted a new game on Nightmare. I prmised to at least get my character to level 60...and hpoing to stumble upon Legendaries at least one time in my travels. So far no luck though.

 

[Zenoth]

I just noticed something, perhaps it was mentioned, I guess it's a "detail".

In Act II, the first time you exit the city's bazaar towards the road that leads to the Sundered Canyon (where you first meet the Enchantress), there's two guards guarding that exit you pass by before getting on that road. The guard to the left speaks to you (he says something like "This road leads to Alcarnus..." when he starts talking). I'm 99% certain that the voice actor voicing that guard is the same who voiced Fenris in Dragon Age 2, and I don't think I heard him anywhere else in the game so far.

I just thought it was interesting. I must say that I really like the voice acting in the game, with the exception of the horrible female Monk voice actress, she's truly not convincing nor authentic. But the others are generally good, some are great, in my opinion. But really, that female Monk is pretty much the only exception, the rest of the voice acting quality shouldn't be ignored because of her.

I'm not very good with the actual real life names of known voice actors and actresses working at (or for) Blizzard. Has anyone else recognized any specific voice actors in DIII that we can perhaps also hear in other Blizzard games (or any other games for that matter)? The guy who is voicing Tyreal, I don't know his name, but I'm convinced I heard him before and I can't for the life of me remember in what game it was. I also have the feeling I heard the Templar's voice actor before... although I'm not quite sure about that one.

 

[KaOTiK]

Beat Diablo on NM, took 2 tries (one was due to me trying to be greedy sigh lol). Made the secret levels staff and did that level. That level has a lot of chests (well clouds that act like chests). I got 6 rares in there, sadly they are all in the high teens to mid 20's. 200k to upgrade the staff so I can do it in NM, I'm tempted hah.

 

[Rhezuss]

Beat Diablo on NM, took 2 tries (one was due to me trying to be greedy sigh lol). Made the secret levels staff and did that level. That level has a lot of chests (well clouds that act like chests). I got 6 rares in there, sadly they are all in the high teens to mid 20's. 200k to upgrade the staff so I can do it in NM, I'm tempted hah.

Secret level?!!?!? What what?!??
On Nightmare?

 

[KaOTiK]

Secret level?!!?!? What what?!??
On Nightmare?

Yeah, its a pony level, have to get some ingredients (most are rareish thanks to RNG) and it cost 150k to make the "key" to access it. To being able to play it at a higher difficulty it cost more to upgrade the "key" for nightmare it cost 200k, Hell I think is 500k, and Inferno is 1m.

 

[darkxshade]

Feels like the AH is in inferno mode itself... so buggy

 

[Anubis]

hey look act 2 and lightning mobs
this brings back horrid memmories of D2

 

[Imported]

Feels like the AH is in inferno mode itself... so buggy

So very laggy.. ugh.

 

[KaOTiK]

So started doing Hell. Everything is easy except the champion/elite mob packs, they are simply ridiculous. Had one that had the following properties, invulnerable, vamperic, fast, vortex. So only 1 guy can take dmg and the rest of his group is invulnerable, bastard heals as he attacks, runs too fast even with all my slow traps, and when I do get decent distance I get vortex'd in. Horrible, every group of the champion packs I came across I had to kite the damn things around the area.

Compared to the rest of hell so far, they are broken, the few "mini" bosses I've killed were a cake walk.

 

[Dominato3r]

Has anyone heard of this azmodan leveling glitch?

Apparently its legal and people are leveling something like 10 levels in 20 minutes

 

[KaOTiK]

Has anyone heard of this azmodan leveling glitch?

Apparently its legal and people are leveling something like 10 levels in 20 minutes

First time hearing of it right now, what do you do? Because blizz doesn't normally let stuff like that fly

 

[Udgnim]

Has anyone heard of this azmodan leveling glitch?

Apparently its legal and people are leveling something like 10 levels in 20 minutes

guessing this is it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feHHTOr6SoQ

I like Diablo 3, but Blizzard made a decent mix of bad & good design decisions and they sure missed some stuff that should have been caught in testing.

 

[Soccerman06]

Its not an exploit, your just completing 2 quests very quick over and over for a large amount of exp. If they wanted to stop it they would either lower exp on the second quest, or make it a longer trip.

Also monk nerfs and other class changes

We're in the process of removing the on-use benefits of the Mantra of Healing rune, Boon of Protection. The hotfix change is:

Amount of damage absorbed is now capped at the amount of healing provided by Mantra of Healing in the first 3 seconds after activation

We recommend discontinuing its use until the rune is replaced with a new rune and mechanic in a future patch.

The Boon of Protection rune was approximately ten times over its budget on the benefits it provided, and it was quite simply a mistake on our part to let the rune ship as it was. We don't intend to take these quick and drastic measures often, but considering the severity of the issue, we felt it important to correct it swiftly.

We're shooting to post a full list of recent hotfixes tomorrow, and will be looking to answer questions once that's live

I think it was a mistake to point this out specifically when I'm sure it will be one of many things hotfixed. Monks are going to think that they're the only ones being hit.
No doubt, but considering the change being made we felt it would have the greatest impact if someone was unaware, and a larger hotfix list couldn't wait. As I said we should have all the hotfixes we've been implementing in a post up tomorrow, and overall are working on our hotfix communication process for Diablo III.

Wait, so you're going to take it out entirely?
It's essentially being nerfed to the point of obsolescence until we can implement a new rune in its place in a future patch.

All great and dandy but now the Monk class is dead late game until some unknown time... Now what?
We've made a number of class changes (again, intend to post about all of them tomorrow) and we want to monitor how those shake out before we attack any content difficulty changes. Our intent is to get classes a bit more aligned, verify no new issues crop up from these hotfixes, and then considering all the factors we'll look at content. It's not a preferred method of operating, I'd say, but just because the game is so new we don't think quick decisions on overall balance is the right approach when the metagame is still shifting.

 

[JamesV]

End game is pretty much a joke right now.

Resume Game -> get mobbed by Vampiric Vortex Extra Health Plagued Jailers, exit game, try again. Try again. And again. Finally get an area without impossible to kill elites, then get utterly destroyed by Fast Mortar Jailer Waller Minion Immunity elites. Reload again. Die more. Reload more. Finally get a manageable area. Rinse and repeat.

This is what Inferno mode is, and it is 20x worse in co-op. I haven't found a co-op group yet that can kill ANY elite pack. Over 50 games and not one elite pack killed in Inferno co-op (4 player).

Not much fun. Either farm gold for a week or two to buy a +200 dps weapon for 10 million gold, or exploit corners and run through areas to get to the easy boss fights and the next act. I dont' feel like a badass wizard, I feel like Harry Potter's gimped apprentice with the wand made in China.

 

[SenorRed]

I have yet to finish the game, but I am a little worried that after I have finished it, it will turn into the other Diablo games (hackers doing what they do, farming for really no reason at all etc..) but right now, I am sincerely enjoying the game play and will at least run the whole thing through with three or four different classes.