**OFFICIAL** Diablo 3 Thread

[StrangerGuy]

I really hope Blizzard completely changes the game with the first major patch (1.1).

One of the things I loved about Diablo was being able to run a 10-15 minute boss run, then do something else in another game. I'm stuck with hour+ long runs now to find better items, and the acts are downright boring to me... I really wish I could wp around ALL acts and do whatever I want for the same rewards.

D3 is getting boring real fast end game, and imo deserves the 'we fixed shit that isn't broken' award.

There is a good reason why D2 MF runs are fun even if the rewards aren't that good, because it is a psychological compulsion to keep doing it just like real slot machines.

Imagine if a casino offered a slot machine that gives the same reward over time except now the lever can only be pulled every hour. Nobody would touch it because they would be bored to tears. That would be D3 and the Blizz pathetic excuses of preventing botting.

Edit: Just found out some Usain Bolt burrowers in A1 can just run over my DH -80% movement speed Caltrops as if they weren't even there. This is an example of 2012 Blizzard quality gameplay design and testing.

 

[railven]

Thanks to the patch my monk went from 20k dps down to 12k dps. Went from dominating act 1 & surviving act 2, to not able to keep up with repair costs in act 1.

When I first killed diablo in hell mode (solo, no one helped me through), I had ~6k dps, 30k hp, ~100 resist all.

Progression is 100% dependent on the auction house, and the only ways to keep up with the current state of the auction house is to either (A) spend $500 in the real money auction house, or (B) set up gold farming bots to run 24/7 in the background. Actually, even option B I do not see myself staying on par with the "professional" farmers.

You had more DPS, HP, and Resist than me when I solo'd Hell Diablo and I one shot her with my Monk.

After investing time with my Demon Hunter, I've come to realize how dependant I was on a few specific Monk abilities that pretty much made the game a breeze: Dash + Dodge Rune, with it and my stats had around 80% Dodge, small invunerability. Crippling Wave + Mangle made me hit like a truck and my character sheet said 4.5K DPS I was definitely hitting for more, Serenity + Time Extension made for a quick get away, the life Regen Aura + Boon glyph made it easy to regen life quickly and mix that with the Dash + Dodge ability and I had 80% dodge and 900 DMG Absorb for ~5 seconds, and finally my Wind Avatar that had my crit stats even if it hit for 200-300 DPS when it crit it was for 4K+ which was very often.

Now on my DH I find myself with a crappy method to regen life and no real in your face abilities, now I get what people meant about kiting. With my Monk's hand-me downs I'm probably OP for my area (Nightmare) but I find myself struggling more than I ever did with my monk. Then again I don't use my traps so clearly I'm doing it wrong.

Skill definitely factors in a lot in this game. After running with my Monk friend for some Inferno runs, and seeing him drop millions in the AH to have ~800 DPS weapons, 40K HP, and ~600 Resist, I out live him and thus out damage him. I solo'd Inferno Act 1 before the nerf, only died twice then Act II was a wall I had no interest in overcoming. Rolled a DH.

 

[waterjug]

There is a good reason why D2 MF runs are fun even if the rewards aren't that good, because it is a psychological compulsion to keep doing it just like real slot machines.

Imagine if a casino offered a slot machine that gives the same reward over time except now the lever can only be pulled every hour. Nobody would touch it because they would be bored to tears. That would be D3 and the Blizz pathetic excuses of preventing botting.

Edit: Just found out some Usain Bolt burrowers in A1 can just run over my DH -80% movement speed Caltrops as if they weren't even there. This is an example of 2012 Blizzard quality gameplay design and testing.

Bingo. I did about 30 butcher runs, and after I would do festering woods. With Neph Val. Takes about an hour. I literally found ZERO usable items in this time. What I'm wearing is 100% AH at this point. So what's the use in even playing the game. They might as well have just made this game Diablo 3: Antiques Roadshow. No gameplay, just a competitive bidding video game to see who can buy the sickest items. Honestly, when I have 400 resists on all, 25k hit points, and on Act II Inferno any elite that has vortex can automatically warp me over and kill me in one hit....what's the point? Seriously. If you run into an elite like that, you automatically die; that's not competitive or challenging, it's just retarded. So what am I supposed to do? Farm the same fucking quest (butcher) for the next 3 months hoping to find enough gold to buy something that bumps my resists to 420? Fuck that. The first 3 difficulty levels took me about 4 days to get through. I was looking forward to a challenge on Inferno, but instead it's just cheap one shot deaths and endless farming on butcher runs.

I never got into D2. Honestly, that was my senior year of college and I was more worried about grinding against women that computer games To me, D3 feels like a 10 year old game and should have more substance to it at this point.

Yeah, they did a few things I liked...honestly the CONCEPT of the AH is nice, a unified stash is nice, and I'm glad the best rares are better than uniques. But the rest of the game just feels slapped together. This is basically WoW 2, and not even a well done version.

 

[bonkers325]

What do you guys do when you've got 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor and run into an impassible situation? I've got 2 difficult packs camping the zone in of one of the caves 'old Zoltun's blood is in. Just log and lose the Valor buff? Already spent like 50k dying trying to kill em....

kite them away to a part of the map you already cleared, take off your gear, and die

 

[railven]

This is basically WoW 2, and not even a well done version.

This notion caught my fancy. How would you even make such an argument? I play Diablo 3 to get away from WoW.

 

[Adrenaline]

This notion caught my fancy. How would you even make such an argument? I play Diablo 3 to get away from WoW.

I love the game but it is more a single player WoW game than it is a Diablo game. The only thing Diablo about this as of now is the name of the game.

They have taken out so many Diablo things that it is disheartening.

 

[railven]

I love the game but it is more a single player WoW game than it is a Diablo game. The only thing Diablo about this as of now is the name of the game.

They have taken out so many Diablo things that it is disheartening.

Again, what makes this a single player WoW game? I'm honestly asking since I don't see any connection between the two minus a few similar UI elements.

 

[BassBomb]

It's not a single player WoW, I wish it was though to be honest because I enjoyed WoW but had no interest in other people

 

[cubby1223]

Now on my DH I find myself with a crappy method to regen life and no real in your face abilities, now I get what people meant about kiting. With my Monk's hand-me downs I'm probably OP for my area (Nightmare) but I find myself struggling more than I ever did with my monk. Then again I don't use my traps so clearly I'm doing it wrong.

hehehe

When I then created a demon hunter after the monk, after hitting level 60 and switching all the items, my demon hunter can fight as if he were a melee character Never had to kite once in act 4 of hell mode.

But this character is stuck on Belial's new 1.03 death timer. It is simple math. My character does this amount of damage per second. Belial has this amount of health. If his health divided by my dps does not equate to under 3 minutes, then Belial is impossible to beat. Skill does not help one bit if the math is not there. And as the game is designed, the only way for me to better the numbers is to purchase items through the auction house.


If your demon hunter is struggling through nightmare mode, all you have to do is open up the auction house, search for bows at your skill level, buy one with the gold you should have built up from your monk (probably only 30-50k gold for a high-end weapon at your point in the game), and now nightmare mode becomes an absolute cakewalk.

 

[JamesV]

Again, what makes this a single player WoW game? I'm honestly asking since I don't see any connection between the two minus a few similar UI elements.

Diablo 2 had none; I repeat no cooldowns at all. You were only limited by your mana. Cooldowns directly come from WoW, and literally destroy the Diablo gameplay. D3 isn't bad, but it doesn't play like Diablo.

- AH
- automatic stat allocation on level up
- end game needs a group (why no single player offline-imagine the bitching)
- Loot modeled off WoW but with RNG - totally different then D2
- multiple bags
- chat setup
- ONLINE ONLY
- everyone using nearly the same builds
- DPS (no such (listed) thing in D2)
- time sink - where before you might find something decent to trade in 10 runs of Meph, now you gotta do complete acts for the best chance, and do that 100 times for upgrade.

I could go on and on if I really thought about it, but these are pretty evident of WoW's influence.

Apparently Diablo 2 was a huge flop and nobody ever played it (according to dumbass - ie lead designer), so they tried to merge WoW into Diablo 3, hoping for another cash cow.

 

[Imp]

Bingo. I did about 30 butcher runs, and after I would do festering woods. With Neph Val. Takes about an hour. I literally found ZERO usable items in this time. What I'm wearing is 100% AH at this point. So what's the use in even playing the game. They might as well have just made this game Diablo 3: Antiques Roadshow. No gameplay, just a competitive bidding video game to see who can buy the sickest items. Honestly, when I have 400 resists on all, 25k hit points, and on Act II Inferno any elite that has vortex can automatically warp me over and kill me in one hit....what's the point? Seriously. If you run into an elite like that, you automatically die; that's not competitive or challenging, it's just retarded. So what am I supposed to do? Farm the same fucking quest (butcher) for the next 3 months hoping to find enough gold to buy something that bumps my resists to 420? Fuck that. The first 3 difficulty levels took me about 4 days to get through. I was looking forward to a challenge on Inferno, but instead it's just cheap one shot deaths and endless farming on butcher runs.

Psh... that's nothing. My barb has 800 resists post-buff, 40k HP, and 13k dps. He can stand in almost anything and even tank a bit in Act 1. He can't even get out of the f*cking gate in Act 2. First elite pack outside the town, first quest, one to two hits and he's dead.

Worst part is the fuc*ers won't die. I tried playing in a group of 4 with a DH and 2 wizards plus me. Every time we wore the elites down to 1/4 health, they started doing some massive area effect damage thing that restored their health. Fuc*ing. Total. Bull. Shit.

From the sounds of it, I need a couple million gold or $100+ on the RMAH to get unique block and damage reduction items, along with higher dps weapon, more armor, etc. Did hours of butcher runs and found jackshit. In D2, item runs were more about pimping your ride than just being able to survive. Ya bla bla bla Inferno si fur elite playas - with money.

 

[KevinCU]

Anyone still have a guest pass available? Looking to try out the game before I buy the full retail version. Thanks!

 

[novasatori]

Psh... that's nothing. My barb has 800 resists post-buff, 40k HP, and 13k dps. He can stand in almost anything and even tank a bit in Act 1. He can't even get out of the f*cking gate in Act 2. First elite pack outside the town, first quest, one to two hits and he's dead.

Worst part is the fuc*ers won't die. I tried playing in a group of 4 with a DH and 2 wizards plus me. Every time we wore the elites down to 1/4 health, they started doing some massive area effect damage thing that restored their health. Fuc*ing. Total. Bull. Shit.

From the sounds of it, I need a couple million gold or $100+ on the RMAH to get unique block and damage reduction items, along with higher dps weapon, more armor, etc. Did hours of butcher runs and found jackshit. In D2, item runs were more about pimping your ride than just being able to survive. Ya bla bla bla Inferno si fur elite playas - with money.

You should try the crit/sprint barb build, it is so cheap and lame, but it can kill anything.

Here is the build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#hUPXik!VZY!bZcaYc
or
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WUPXik!VZY!aZcaYc

You need a life on hit weapon in one of your slots, it can be in your offhand and with low damage but with good strength, about 500-700 LoH is good.

Basically you warcry then leap onto something, use sprint run around and make tornados then hit battle rage so crits give you fury, then if you need it use wrath and keep spamming sprint/ww/battle rage so your fury is never full (if it is full it wont extend wrath timer) you can basically stay wrath 100% of the time, and that is how I killed diablo on inferno with frenzy. I just stayed in wrath so his cages never hit me and I could just stand there and hit him, and if I needed health I would sprint and get it back from the tornados giving me LoH from run like the wind.

FWIW Here are my stats when I killed Diablo on Inferno, I would consider them way below what most people would say is needed:
http://i.imgur.com/5BEfG.jpg

The only thing I had that is good is the 20% string of ears I got on the AH for 70,000 gold and 1600 life on hit from jewelry & weapons. For diablo I went with all tanky passives, tough as nails, nerves of steel and superstition. The fight took awhile and required flawless play, but I am pretty sure I could kill him 100% of the time now if I so desired, and I also fully expect them to add an enrage timer like all the other bosses, so I would get the achievement out of the way while you can.


So that is one of my complaints, the only way to complete the broken content is by using stupidly broken builds, or just suffer through it. Additionally, there are no incentives to play with friends, as you mentioned, on my barb I get owned when I add more people because things just takes too long to die with the extra hit points.

Not to mention the endless stream of junk drops which are not even an upgrade. Love the abundance of level 50-59 items that drop in Inferno.

 

[Aikouka]

Again, what makes this a single player WoW game? I'm honestly asking since I don't see any connection between the two minus a few similar UI elements.

I think he's referring to a technical perspective, and WoW is actually moving more toward this in Mists of Pandaria. Diablo III establishes a partially randomly generated world for a character. I would say that this is pretty similar (if not vastly similar) technology-wise as the World of Warcraft instances.

In Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard is implementing new instance technology that allows them to instance entire zones. This won't be exactly like Diablo III where everyone gets their own instance, but it allows them to join together low population zones across realm servers so people can play together. It also allows them to do the exact opposite. When expansions come out, zones are usually heavily populated, and it can be extremely difficult to get things done. Amusingly enough, in a social game like a MMO, there's very little of a social aspect in regard to grouping for quest with single-spawn targets. So, they'll be able to create multiple instances of the same zone for one realm.

I'm actually really interested in the possible technology sharing that goes on behind the scenes at Blizzard. I'm a software engineer by trade (in a completely different sector), and those sorts of things fascinate me, because my favorite part of software design is the puzzle -- the puzzle of how to make it work properly. Properly even includes aspects such as scalability, future expansion, etc.

 

[shortylickens]

Diablo 2 had none; I repeat no cooldowns at all. You were only limited by your mana. Cooldowns directly come from WoW, and literally destroy the Diablo gameplay. D3 isn't bad, but it doesn't play like Diablo.

- AH
- automatic stat allocation on level up
- end game needs a group (why no single player offline-imagine the bitching)
- Loot modeled off WoW but with RNG - totally different then D2
- multiple bags
- chat setup
- ONLINE ONLY
- everyone using nearly the same builds
- DPS (no such (listed) thing in D2)
- time sink - where before you might find something decent to trade in 10 runs of Meph, now you gotta do complete acts for the best chance, and do that 100 times for upgrade.

I could go on and on if I really thought about it, but these are pretty evident of WoW's influence.

Apparently Diablo 2 was a huge flop and nobody ever played it (according to dumbass - ie lead designer), so they tried to merge WoW into Diablo 3, hoping for another cash cow.

In Titan Quest single player I can eliminate cool downs with mods.
Everyone uses pretty much the same builds for each character but since you have two masteries and theres about 30 or so combinations, its a little more varied.

 

[Newbian]

- automatic stat allocation on level up

That's a good thing as it was very easy to gimp yourself in d2 accidentally with stats / skills and the game had no way to fix it for many years and it forced you to reroll another character.

 

[Phoenix86]

I could go on and on if I really thought about it, but these are pretty evident of WoW's influence.

Your list is quite ridiculous, I especially laughed at the WoW style loot.

 

[JamesV]

That's a good thing as it was very easy to gimp yourself in d2 accidentally with stats / skills and the game had no way to fix it for many years and it forced you to reroll another character.

Things like that *sound* correct, but they aren't. By the time you got to the point where you wish you had spent 5 out of 400 points differently, raising another character up to try that out was easy - you had the gameplay and mechanics down through numerous characters. I could easily lvl a Sorc to 85 in under 6 hours; could do it in 2 hours with help (sell my Forge drops and get rushed through the whole game, and get runned Baal via a max block teleporter Sorc).

Then there's the casual players; who you would think an auto-assign would help, but they wouldn't care about 5 points anyway (being casual).

It's all just dumbing down in the name of casual players who most likely never ran into any of the issues that were so 'bad' because they never got that deep into the game.

 

[OCNewbie]

Here is the build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#hUPXik!VZY!bZcaYc
or
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WUPXik!VZY!aZcaYc

Hey, this worked pretty well! I bought a lower DPS weapon (maybe 350-400) that had like ~750 life on hit, and +250 str, for like 150k.

I will say that I do NOT like whirlwind though, as I was all too frequently accidentally whirlwinding and wasting Fury which would cause me to not have enough fury for Sprint/Run like the Wind, which seems to be the absolute key to this build

 

[thespyder]

That's a good thing as it was very easy to gimp yourself in d2 accidentally with stats / skills and the game had no way to fix it for many years and it forced you to reroll another character.

Or actually plan ahead. That was one of the best things about D2 that they totally neutered in D3.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Too bad planning ahead actually amounts to looking up cookie cutter builds on the internet.

Good riddance. "Plan ahead" only works if you can reasonably expect what the end game will be like based on what's before it. Didn't work that way in Diablo 2 (LOL WELCOME TO HELL, IMMUNE TO ENTIRE TREES).

 

[Rage187]

Tried the RMAH today. Spent maybe $25 and made $12 back. Doubled my DPS.

 

[railven]

hehehe

When I then created a demon hunter after the monk, after hitting level 60 and switching all the items, my demon hunter can fight as if he were a melee character Never had to kite once in act 4 of hell mode.

But this character is stuck on Belial's new 1.03 death timer. It is simple math. My character does this amount of damage per second. Belial has this amount of health. If his health divided by my dps does not equate to under 3 minutes, then Belial is impossible to beat. Skill does not help one bit if the math is not there. And as the game is designed, the only way for me to better the numbers is to purchase items through the auction house.

Since I'm only level 30 on my DH and I don't know what the later skills are yet, I think my struggle is not based on gear and more lack of experience. Act one I just shot everything, it died. Act II I did the same, pewpew dead. Act 3 stuff didn't die by simple pewpew and there was a shit ton more stuff, I found myself getting surrounded. Where in Act I/II I literally only clicked two buttons (Left-mouse for the homing arrow thing with the fire glyph and right-mouse for rapid fire on bosses/elite) I realized I didn't know how to properly use my traps (for slowing to prevent them ganging up one) or my multi-shot ability (to just take out a wave in front of me) or that cool little twirl where I can move away while killing some guys.

My struggle is my own doing. As for Enrage Timers, when I played with my Monk in Infenro I realized I wasn't doing enough DMG on Belial, then I tried the fist ability that creates the orb and stacks to 3 and my DMG shot up by like 1.5-2K and he was cake after wards.

Again not sure what a DH can daisy chain yet to increase DPS, but I'm getting better at it.

If your demon hunter is struggling through nightmare mode, all you have to do is open up the auction house, search for bows at your skill level, buy one with the gold you should have built up from your monk (probably only 30-50k gold for a high-end weapon at your point in the game), and now nightmare mode becomes an absolute cakewalk.

This doesn't solve the issue I explained above. If this is your solution to overcoming a difficulty I can understand why you think the AH is the solution. It makes it easier, sure, but I'd rather learn how to play my character so that skill > gear. And before you say "In inferno it's all gear" of course higher difficulties require better gear, but where someone with just gear struggles someone with gear + skill get by no issue.

Diablo 2 had none; I repeat no cooldowns at all. You were only limited by your mana. Cooldowns directly come from WoW, and literally destroy the Diablo gameplay. D3 isn't bad, but it doesn't play like Diablo.

- AH
- automatic stat allocation on level up
- end game needs a group (why no single player offline-imagine the bitching)
- Loot modeled off WoW but with RNG - totally different then D2
- multiple bags
- chat setup
- ONLINE ONLY
- everyone using nearly the same builds
- DPS (no such (listed) thing in D2)
- time sink - where before you might find something decent to trade in 10 runs of Meph, now you gotta do complete acts for the best chance, and do that 100 times for upgrade.

I could go on and on if I really thought about it, but these are pretty evident of WoW's influence.

Apparently Diablo 2 was a huge flop and nobody ever played it (according to dumbass - ie lead designer), so they tried to merge WoW into Diablo 3, hoping for another cash cow.

Most games I played had CDs, even brawlers to shooters. I don't think WoW created the notion of Cool Downs, but if Diablo 2 really had zero cool downs (ie you could just spam every single ability without restrain) that seems like a design flaw where my above example of just spamming one button == win.

WoW didn't even AH. If the AH isn't even required and I'm a testament. While one person above suggested I go drop 25-50K on weapon I just learned to play my toon better, Struggled in Act 3, cake walked Act 4. Skill will always be greater than gear.

After discusing D2 with other people, it seems some D2 players used cookie-cutter builds. And no, not everyone in WoW uses the same build. I as a prot paladin don't use the Word of Glory talents, but I focus more on threat/DPS.

Time sink? Kidding me? It sounded like D2 was nothing but a grind/farm-a-thon. YOu got gear faster, I assume 2 months out of the gate you were farming every area with easy and raking in the loots/money? Everyone must have been, because you don't even factor in the time difference. I recall a lot of people complaining about Diablo 2 at launch, it seemds LoD fixed almost everything - what was the time gap between the two? 2 months?

Loot modeled off WoW? Are you serious? I wish I could solo a boss in WoW, stack a stat and get 6+7 rare items. WoW loot is static outside of which random pieces drop from a table that is the only "relation" I see. Outside of that D3 seems like a kick in the balls, but then again I can solo Butcher in 30 minutes with 5 stacks of Valor WITHOUT having to do the whole act and get 5+ Rares and now with the new nerf, some of those items are actually useful to people and I'm seein ilvl62 gear much more often and even geared myself up. RNG is definitely a kick in the balls and it seems I have tons of luck gearing myself up but no luck in the AH since anythig I've posted never sold so I just vendor it. My monk has 18K DPS/36K HP/512 Resistance + Resist Aura Glyph and I've spent perhaps 20K in the AH to get two rings because I thought getting above 500 Resist would solve my Act 2 issues (it didn't, but learning what to avoid has and Act 3 is definitely easier.)

And, I don't play this game very hour, I only got about 80 hours on my monk. RNG has been nice to me. I'm well geared but poor as dirt. haha.

 

[JamesV]

Too bad planning ahead actually amounts to looking up cookie cutter builds on the internet.

Good riddance. "Plan ahead" only works if you can reasonably expect what the end game will be like based on what's before it. Didn't work that way in Diablo 2 (LOL WELCOME TO HELL, IMMUNE TO ENTIRE TREES).

Have you not read forums for builds in Diablo 3?

I know my main class (Wiz) has about 90% running the exact same build, with Magic Missile or Shock Pulse. Some exploiting the crit chance of tornados and living lightning now, but that will be nerfed, then 95% will be running the same build.

And 2 immune 'elites' were cake in Diablo 2, unless they had immunity to fire and ice (meteor/orb main), which was very rare (and my merc could kill them anyway).

Honestly, did the D2 setup actively discourage you from playing, because you thought you had to look up builds? I even enjoyed doing that outside of Diablo 2; it was cool to see what people came up with.

 

[JamesV]

Most games I played had CDs, even brawlers to shooters. I don't think WoW created the notion of Cool Downs, but if Diablo 2 really had zero cool downs (ie you could just spam every single ability without restrain) that seems like a design flaw where my above example of just spamming one button == win.

And that is one of the 'misconceptions' I was talking about. It sounds that way, but it isn't. Your mana pool was limited - you could only cast so much, but you could sacrifice health and put points into your mana pool if you wanted to. Or even buff your mana regen at the expense of buffing a damage skill.

You could not cast forever without cooldowns.

WoW didn't even AH. If the AH isn't even required and I'm a testament. While one person above suggested I go drop 25-50K on weapon I just learned to play my toon better, Struggled in Act 3, cake walked Act 4. Skill will always be greater than gear.

Yea, the AH in WoW wasn't required at all, but highly usefull, especially for crafting. I only bought one weapon ever, for an alt, but I did buy materials often for Engineering. I'm only saying the D3 AH is a direct result of WoW; not that it's something bad.

After discusing D2 with other people, it seems some D2 players used cookie-cutter builds. And no, not everyone in WoW uses the same build. I as a prot paladin don't use the Word of Glory talents, but I focus more on threat/DPS.

Please. I played a priest main, and have so on multiple servers. I prefer DPS as Shadow, but I mainly heal because it's needed. I've been in 3 guilds that require certain talent builds (and gear) if you want to get in. Sucks? Yes. But how else can you run the entire Black Temple @ 70 pre-nerf? I'm a hardcore gamer and enjoyed it, even if I didn't like having to run a specific build.

You have to admit, for end game WoW, most builds are very similar.

Time sink? Kidding me? It sounded like D2 was nothing but a grind/farm-a-thon. YOu got gear faster, I assume 2 months out of the gate you were farming every area with easy and raking in the loots/money? Everyone must have been, because you don't even factor in the time difference. I recall a lot of people complaining about Diablo 2 at launch, it seemds LoD fixed almost everything - what was the time gap between the two? 2 months?

Yes, D2 was a time sink, but you could run Act 1 Normal in D2 and find a Stone of Jordan (+1 all skills; extremely good item). Gotta go to work in 15 minutes? You could run Pindle 15 times. Got a half hour before your show starts? Run Meph a few times.

D3. Want to do a run? Got an hour or two to make sure you are doing the most efficient run?

Loot modeled off WoW? Are you serious? I wish I could solo a boss in WoW, stack a stat and get 6+7 rare items. WoW loot is static outside of which random pieces drop from a table that is the only "relation" I see. Outside of that D3 seems like a kick in the balls, but then again I can solo Butcher in 30 minutes with 5 stacks of Valor WITHOUT having to do the whole act and get 5+ Rares and now with the new nerf, some of those items are actually useful to people and I'm seein ilvl62 gear much more often and even geared myself up. RNG is definitely a kick in the balls and it seems I have tons of luck gearing myself up but no luck in the AH since anythig I've posted never sold so I just vendor it. My monk has 18K DPS/36K HP/512 Resistance + Resist Aura Glyph and I've spent perhaps 20K in the AH to get two rings because I thought getting above 500 Resist would solve my Act 2 issues (it didn't, but learning what to avoid has and Act 3 is definitely easier.)

D3's loot is very similar to WoW. I said nothing about drop rates, just the loot itself - With RNG. WoW loot was static; kill Brutalus in the Sunwell and if the item you want drops, it will have the exact stats as every other drop of the same item.

D3 loot is like WoW loot, but the mods are random. Uniques and set items, which used to drop in D2 starting in the first few acts of Normal, were useful and a nice change. Legendarys and set items are far and few between in D3, and universally suck except for a few sought after items.

And, I don't play this game very hour, I only got about 80 hours on my monk. RNG has been nice to me. I'm well geared but poor as dirt. haha.

I don't hate D3. I more then got my money's worth comparing the hours spent vs most other games, but I miss the sequel that never was. Diablo 3 is a reinvention of the IP, when it didn't need to be reinvented.

And, I've nearly 4x your playtime in Diablo 3, and 1000x your Diablo 2 playtime now, yet you seem to know more then me. Rude, yes, but isn't that a question that should be asked? D2's longevity came from hardcore players like me; do I not have a right to rant?