I was suprised we don't have a thread for this yet, but I guess since blizzard is so stingy with the news its not unexpected.
Anyways, straight outta GamesCom we have details on the crafting system!
Looks fast, slick, and unobtrusive. I love how you can break down the "big loot" into crafting shit so you don't have to TP to town constantly to sell big things like armor.
Update with some details on the caravan:
Its that polished UI I have come to expect from Blizzard. Can't wait.
Final class revealed, DEMON HUNTER!
http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/characters/demonhunter.xml
A ranged class like most of us had predicted, looks incredibly badass and fun.
Trailer:
http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/media/movies/demonhunter.xml
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/diablo-iii-beta-coming-before-october-finished-game-might-arrive-by-years-end-updated/3155/
BETA TIME IN Q3?! 2011 RELEASE?!
I JUST CAME!
Watch they pull a star craft and only release a 3rd of the game
If that leaked Blizzard doc is true they already have 2 Diablo 3 expansions coming anyways.
And I think we can all agree at this point that SC2 is nowhere near "1/3rd" of a game.
Updated details on the Runstone system for modifying your skills. Features an old barbarian favorite... whirlwind!
http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/runestones.xml
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2011/06/22/diablo-3-beta-details-coming-your-way-on-august-1st/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MultiplayerBlog+%28Multiplayer+Blog%29
OH SHIT
http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2397-Diablo-3-Auction-House-Announced-Spend-and-Earn-Real-Life-Money!
You will be able to sell items for real life money on the auction house. This takes micro transactions to the next level. I think it is genius on Blizzard's part. What a great way to keep people playing Diablo 3. And then when their next MMO comes out you can use your battle.net funds to pay for the subscription (very advantageous if one also plays WoW, not to mention premium mods for Star Craft 2 that is in the works too).
Blizzard is also requiring an alway on internet connection to prevent cheating and the like
This is what I am thinking...
I buy a Robe of Epic Purple Awesomeness for $5 or 1000 Gold.
I say "fuck it, I spend more on drinks, lemme buy the damn thing with cash"
Blizzard takes a 50 cent fee from the player as their "broker fee" in REAL LIFE currency, not some bullshit MMO gold like on most online auction houses.
Blizzard profits x 9000 billion micro transactions. Diablo is now free to play 4 lyfe. LOLOLZ, MAD CA$H!1!
Blizzard creates a real supply and demand economy, and "if" they wanted to they can increase their profit by manipulating the money supply (ie. drop rates and gold supply).
Blizzard's been learning a thing or two from EA. If I were a game developer, I think it's great for the developer because it allows free to play models to work. As a gamer, game currency to real cash always bothered me. Maybe because developers could totally exploit it to the max.
I honestly think it will work out well for Blizzard from a profitability stand point.
"The beta test approaches! We’ve just updated our System Check program and would like everyone to update their Battle.net Beta Profile information by running the new one. You should do this regardless of whether there have been hardware changes made to your system. "
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=27822632904&sid=3000
Oh snap!
Yeah, this RM AH thing basically turns every Diablo player into a slave labor for Blizzard. Even if you're the type who balks at the idea of buying a virtual item for your character, who can resist the idea of selling a rare that you got that you won't use for real life money? Blizz skims a few cents off each transaction as someone inevitably buys your Erect Hammer of Boning +3 and continues to rake in the dough.
I got invited to the beta yesterday and spent enough time with it to play through the entire area that they had available. It looks and feels very much like what it's suppose to be, Diablo. The graphics are nice the music is right, it uses the classic sound effects and what not. I played the monk, and yes it is very much assassin 2.0. The monk can dual wield any one handed weapon, including spears. There isn't any auto attacking, left click for spirit building attack and right click for special attack, there is also a hot bar where you can place abilities or on use items such as potions (which finally stack). As you play through you get access to one of the companions, the black smith, access to I think level 30 and the skills up to that level, save Deckard Cain yet again and visit Tristam and the Cathedral, and others. There were no cinimatics and some story elements were not included.
I did the free copy thing since I play WoW and don't plan to stop playing in the next year. So awesome of Blizzard to offer such a deal. Still kinda looking more forward to Torchlight II than this though.
Seems they can't get the skills system right, I think is the reason it is taking them so long to release it. It's been changed a ton of times this year and even recently.
I've played a ton of beta. The game is polish as hell. If you've played a hack and slash in the past 10 years you will immediately notice the "quality of life" improvements. Everything is focused on keeping you hacking and slashing, and not management of things like inventory (inventory tetris) and stats. I have never have to stop and figure out which loot I want to pick up or leave, and what items in my inventory I want to drop. Essentially I never have to go back to town.
Also you can be a loot whore if you want to be a loot whore, since everyone get's their own private loot drops. No more suppressing your loot whoring ways because you are in a multiplayer game that people might get mad and kick you.
The only bad thing I can think of is the requirement of being online. I know it's beta, and server stability is not going to be perfect. But man, blowing shit up then all of a sudden enemies stop attack and my spell stop working is annoying as hell. Same when you want to get your Diablo fix and the servers are over capacity. Not saying it will be this bad at launch, but the chance of it happening will still be there.
Lastly, I hear the game was delayed because Blizzard came up with the 1 year contract on WoW thing. They want to lock as many people in as possible. Then there is also the Real Money Auction House. They have to wait for approval in the Korean market, according to the Korean battle.net Diablo site. So that is a hold up too.
I meant polished. A simple mistake, but should be easy to figure out since I used polish in the context of a video game and did not capitalize the "p." Or do you read read as read when it should be read?
Since you brought it up. . . . Speaking of games from Poland because, you know, I actually try to discuss gaming and games here. I've been quite impressed by Polish game developers this year. The Witcher 2 > Skyrim in terms of interesting and meaningful quests (I prefer to take quality over quantity). Graphics on the Witcher 2 is still best right now; sorry Battlefield 3. How dialogue choices and consequences are handled is the best I've seen in a Western RPG (actually to my surprise The Old Republic has some quests that almost take it this far). A Polish game developer did Bulletstorm, another favorite game of mine this year. Another one also did Dead Island; really good for a brand new IP.
May 15th.
MAY FUCKING FIFTEENTH.
SAVE THE DATE!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/03/15/blizzard-sets-release-date-for-diablo-3/
Game over, bros! Time to play some decent action rpg multi-player for a change
Finally! Been going crazy for this game. I have over 150 hours played on the beta, and that is only a very small part of Act 1. I can only imagine how much I will be playing the final game.
Real money auction house is going to be great for everyone to use. Blizzard removed the listing fee requirement, so you can just throw up anything on the auction house without a penalty.
Wehlp, guess it's about time I invest in a serious gaming Laptop. Suggestions?
Really looking forward to this. Just one month away now, woo~
For anyone who didn't get an invite, they are opening up the beta to all battle.net accounts for this weekend for a stress test:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4963739/Diablo%C2%AE_III_Open_Beta_Weekend-4_19_2012
Diablo 3 TV Spot:
SO CLOSE!
I'm doing a release party and marathon livestreamed on twitch.tv if anyone is interested. All day Tuesday for completion of Normal mode. Then all that weekend hopefully to get to level 60.
Game is about 15-20 hours to get through normal mode according to the devs. But the marathon is to get people together and find some games and trade items.
I'll be doing a straight-run through normal too, all in one sitting. Or at the very least play from midnight until I pass out.
What class is everyone planning on starting with? After playing the beta, I've confirmed that Witch Doctor is my starting class. Way fun to play, and pretty powerful to boot.
I'm doing wizard since I put a ton of time researching abilities. I like the monk too, but more for party purposes.
Yeah, wizard is definitely my 2nd choice for character. I think it will shape up to be the most powerful.
I really disliked Demon Hunter at first, but after playing it a lot more I love the technical aspects of the class. You really need to be in control of the battlefield to be effective, but when you are you can tear the badguys apart.
thinking of starting out ranger style.
Launch day guide is up at Blizzard's site:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/5338015
Important stuff:
Some of the achievements in the game, from the strategy guide:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=37579700&postcount=129
Some minor spoilery stuff therein. My favorite achievement title: "Shut up and take my money!"
Pretty badass animated short showing the original battles between Diablo and the arch-angels. GET HYPE!
So Diablo has been killed on Inferno. Very disappointing I must say. The problem is the Act bosses are too easy, so you can just corpse hop and skip all the trash just to down the bosses. I know Blizzard wants people to focus on the item hunt, but what is the point of farming gear if to beat the game does not require the gear? It seems kind of broken.
Now the Champion monsters are hard as hell, which why people came up with ways to skip them. Blizzard has said before release the point of inferno was to take down Champions to farm gear so you can do the next Act. As of now this is completely trivialized because it is not necessary. Also, in my experience most people like to take the path of least resistance when it comes to difficult things if the path is available. Lastly, if the gear is not required does that not fuck over Blizzard's Real Auction Money House? They delayed it a week, maybe this is to get a patch up that fixes inferno before then? You know can't have everyone flooding the market with Inferno rares. It would seem they only intended a few people able to do inferno and put items on Auction house, so the masses will buy gear because they perceive it would give them an easier time.
Then again the masses don't know much about the game; like there is an elective mode that allows you to make better skill builds.
Game is fun as hell and I know will be playing through Inferno a ton with all the characters. But the whole thing seems a bit diminished with the bosses being so easy compared to the trash. The bosses are easy because they have set mechanics that are not hard. Hope Blizzard at the very least fixes some of these "clever use of game mechanics."
So you wanted to beat normal in 7 hours, but you're disappointed that someone has already finished inferno a week after the game has released? Isn't it par for the course among WoW players to blast through the content of an entire expansion within hours anyways, just to say they did it first? I don't think you can really expect any less from Diablo players.
Running past shit just to beat the game seems pointless anyhow. I understand the drive to "first" inferno and all, but the whole Nephalem Valor bonus is based on killing elites/uniques on your way to the boss to increase the MF% to get good drops on the final encounters.
These guys are "beating" the game but they aren't getting "da loot" which is the whole point of the game.
I don't think this a problem that needs to be "Fixed" at this point on Blizzards part, because its just grind players gaming the game to do whatever pleases them. Because of the nature of Diablo 3, how anyone else is playing the game has no impact on me, or the games I play with my friends, so its inconsequential.
I know I personally am looking forward to brutal encounters in inferno for the challenge alone, and to deck my guy out even better for when the PVP Arenas are released.
Uh-oh
So will YOU also be taking this "path of least resistance"? I don't see how the fact that this corpse hopping trick exists impacts the way you can enjoy the game. Just because the warp zones exist in Super Mario Bros doesn't mean you HAVE to use them every time you played the game, right? You can still enjoy the challenge of every level. Same concept here.
If you think the pattern-based boss encounters are too easy, I have no argument with that. I personally find it refreshing, to have a "gamey" element like this for this big encounters rather than the old D2 "run up and mash the bosses face with your 1-2 best powers till he's dead" style of boss fights. But as you stated the random elite/unique mobs are the real challenge anyways.
You say you like a certain level of challenge in the game, but you're disappointed that its possible to skip past the challenging parts? The vibe I'm getting from your post is that you feel like you need to use these same shitty grinder strategies to "keep up"... but with who? You said yourself that you don't care what other people do. If you think grouping makes a boss too easy, then do it solo. If you are getting your ass kicked by hard elite mobs, then gear up and go kick their ass in revengeance.
If being able to willfully avoid combat in inferno ruins Diablo 3's endgame for you, then why even continue playing at this point? You can just run past everything and get to the boss, you don't need gear (?) specifically to kill them in inferno because they're so easy... beat it, get the achievements, and put it on the shelf till the expansion pack comes out?
I just can't see your rage at this, because it's entirely avoidable based on your playstyle. To me its like "oh this is a neat trick, I guess that's one way to get past inferno without having to massively grind gear", then back to playing Diablo 3 the way I like it, having fun.
Your "vibes" are incorrect. I am not talking about how this impacts my enjoyment of the game. I purposely avoided that. I go on these long post when I see there is a misunderstanding and to address points. For example, you said "running past shit just to beat the game is pointless." That is factually wrong. Which is why I described what the point is. Whether you, I, or anyone skips stuff or not does not change that skipping monsters in Inferno factually has a purpose. I get where you are coming from on the "just enjoy the game" but that is not the point of view I was taking. Your point is valid.
Of you course you don't see how it impacts my game because I never stated such nor intended to. My initial disappointment does have to do with the fact Jay Wilson said they had their very best hardcore players spawned with perfect gear as an Inferno focused strike team (as oppose to testers that progress normally, 1-60). He said they could not defeat any boss in Inferno. Add to the fact the difficulty was tuned upward 2x for release compared to testing. From my point of view it is disappointing because the mechanics of the bosses are not hard even when you add more HP and damage. I am allowed to be disappointed with a part of a game based on expectations. Most everyone has something not live up to expectations at one point in their lives (mostly universal human truth here). I'll live lol. That is all there is to it for me. It stops with me just being disappointed with that part of the game. Nothing further.
You are assuming (or unsure?) I think I need to play the game a certain way just because I described those playstyles and methods of other people? I don't get how you receive these so called vibes when I did not state how I plan to play Inferno. Honestly, I have not decided what I will do with Inferno because I am not there yet. But I am likely leaning toward a full "as intended" clear and farming both solo and group. But this is also dependent on if I choose to participate in the Real Money Auction House or not. Or how much participation? Which is up in the air for me right for a couple reasons, one being I don't think Auction House performance is up to par (I've had it eat 20k gold, I am not the only one that has lost gold or items). Two, going through the auction house takes time away from playing the game. Lastly, there are a ton of class changes coming that will have some impact, where entire runes are getting removed from the game until Blizzard comes up with a new one (making a class incomplete or broken temporarily). So decisions, for later.
On the point of me liking a challenge. I am not competing with anyone. I say it should be tougher to escape monsters because Blizzard has stated players will not be able to outrun monsters in Inferno; you know as a feature, like PVP *cough* (I can pull up the quotes if I have to). The way the mechanics work, making it so one does not have the option to run does make the game harder for those that do not plan to run, ie monsters are more aggressive and faster. Again not stating how this impacts my enjoyment here.
An aside: I've found the scaling from single player to multiplayer to be quite balanced. As in fighting stuff feels the same in terms of difficulty and length; as I think it should be. However, the rezzing and banner teleporting while someone is dead kind of throws that balance off. It does diminish the challenge of multiplayer just a bit when the monster scaling for multiple players is otherwise great. Saying just go play solo is missing/ignoring the point.
I am just matching up what Blizzard has said about Inferno as a game feature, and what it actually is right now. It's for the sake of discussing the game.
Here's some recent quotes from Blizzard:
"People kiting the Skeleton King around for an hour with their level 3 characters is fun to see. It's not fun when it's level 60's at end game and item drops matter. To make these kills and thus a character's progression matter we need to try to fight cheesy tactics that allow people to just flop through the game."
- This is why I said stuff needs to be fixed. Because they have acknowledge many times in the past year they want all players playing Inferno a certain way (clearing everything to farm for the next ACT). This is looking at Blizzard's design goals objectively and saying this is not meeting that goal. Here it is Blizzard saying cheesy tactics affect the importance of character progression. They are saying boss kills should matter as part of character progression. However, factually they don't matter right now because of cheesy tactics and difficulty I might add. What I have been saying makes sense from a game design standpoint and from Blizzard's stated design goals of Inferno. I am not speaking on a personal enjoyment of the game level here nor was I ever. I don't think I can be any clearer here.
"The point of the game is efficiency... Killing monsters as quickly as possible to maximize your time to find the drops you want. That is the game. I think you should do whatever you think is fun, absolutely, but if you want to go at a slower pace, not really worry much about maximizing efficiency, and just kind of take it at your own speed you're going to have a pretty rough time in Nightmare let alone Inferno."
"With the Nephalem Valor buff the best loot is off champions, rares, and (assuming the buff is up) bosses. As I said the point is ensuring "legitimate" progression."
- Basically saying slower pace over efficiency is doing it wrong in Diablo III! LOL! But, no. Put the three quotes, along with other info, together it basically says they want the game to be about clearing the ACTS as part of character progression. That is what constitutes legitimate progression; clearing the champions, rares, and bosses for loot so you have the gear to do the next ACT. Do so quickly is in order to maximize your drops. Cheesy tactics are not legitimate progression. This is in line with what Blizzard has been saying about Inferno since the change to a progressive difficulty. They want to ensure legitimate progression. Do you see the problem now? Skipping monsters to clear all the ACT bosses is flopping through the game. Completely skipping ACT I and II farming is mathematically and factually unnecessary; more flopping through the game. It's not "working as intended" as Blizzard likes to say. There is more to it though, like how it affects the Real Money Auction House . I'll put the analysis hat away for now. This is objectively based on what Blizzard wants for the game. The logical conclusion is if it is not what Blizzard intended it should be fixed.
There nothing else to it. The bosses being easy as a dissappointment and not liking how the rez and banner teleporting is implemented as a game mechanic is the only personal thoughts I have mentioned on the game before now. The latter does indeed lessens the difficulty a bit in multiplayer which otherwise scales excellently compared to single player. Saying just go play solo misses/ignores the point. But, I explicitly mentioned these things on purpose and explicitly did not mention how it impacts my enjoyment. See? I have yet to say if this and that has made the game less fun or ruined it. In fact I said the game is "fun as hell." I then said the "whole thing seems diminished" (less important) because it's true from a progression design standpoint (assuming things progressively get harder); as I already explained based on what Blizzard has said it would be. That's Blizzard saying progression should matter, and I agree with them (based on personal taste when it comes to challenge as I a said). Still, I did not say diminished progression impacts my enjoyment. Nor did I state I will be trivializing the intended progression.
I am spelling stuff out here because you interpret me based on vibes that are in your head. That is not my problem and lies totally within you. But just to let you know I do state things explicitly on purpose, so there is no implicit meaning to look for and receive vibes off of. My posts become long for this very reason, so to avoid room for implicit interpretation or vibes.
Anyway, this is me looking at the the game and meta-game and picking it apart and editorializing for the sake of stimulating discussion on the inner workings of the game. Not raging. Also, my original post and parts of the second "Now with with these rushers" (slightly edited to address your point that stuff does not need fixing) were blog entries of mine that I copied and pasted here because I wanted to see what you guys thought on the situation. It's reporting. It was intentionally worded to grab attention in order to start discussion and debate on the matter and not entirely to express my true thoughts about the game; just yet. Also, to get people to start talking about the game, since many of us have been spending a ton of time on playing it.
A little about me, so going forward we can minimize this sort of thing. I don't think you guys really know me. I've kind of been the outsider here, and you guys seem to be more close knit. That is my impression any way based on doing the podcast and such. When it comes to video games, my interest are game design, testing process, development, marketing, and business when it comes to the gaming industry. Why? I follow the game industry with deep interest and all aspects. So if something catches my interest outside my actual play experiences, I will bring it up. It's always been the case with me here and elsewhere. Cool?
It's like when I was testing Final Fantasy XIV and came here and told you guys why the game was bad. And you guys argued with me. And then when you guys actually played it, y'all saw first hand that it was garbage. My intentions are not to persuade people to not buy games or to convince others something is bad based on my taste. Just offer my perspective. And my perspective is someone who tries to play all the major releases, as well as indy releases, and follows all aspects of the gaming industry very closely. This includes the development process. It's a hobby but it is also how I game. I am not claiming to be an authority, just offer a perspective.
I only try to discuss or mention what I find interesting here though. I've played just about every major release in the last two years. Did I make topics about each one? Nope, because I did not find anything interesting to talk about; has nothing to do with how I personally think about those games.
tl;dr
So how does everyone like the game?
I think the game is great. My only complaint during gameplay is having to deal with server lag. I keep getting rubber-banning, it has really dicked me over when trying avoid frozen orbs, or anything I have move out of for that matter. But I expect latency to improve over time.
The game is addictive for me and I totally lose track of time. My sleeping pattern is totally messed up.
The affixes on monsters I have pretty much found strategies for each combination (I am in Hell difficult ACT III. Though Invulnerable minions is really annoying, especially paired with Illusionist. Surviving them is all about Vit and your damage though I have found.
Abilities like Vortex were annoying to me at first, then I found out you can line of sight it. Also it seems you can the abilities, like there is range factor there and how they cycle through them.
There is a ton of content and quite a few surprises when you go exploring; because of the randomization. Like Development Hell is quite funny if you are a Blizzard fan.
Wish there was an invisible mode for battle tag because some people don't understand "Busy" because you know you are logged in the game. Regret giving my battle out to so many people.
Great game exactly what I expected. I need to chill out on this week because I need to play Dragon's Dogma.
On another note I played Torchlight 2 beta. Really something to try when Diablo III has died down if it does for anyone. Pretty good in a different kind of way. There is a lot things that are unlike Diablo III that I like as far as features go. But that is for another time. And it cost 20 bucks. Hell it will probably be on sale for 5 bucks for a steam sale eventually. Very good value because the game feels like a full 60 dollar release based on what I played.
So now that a few of us are actually in inferno, how are you finding it hands-on? I'm only level 57, but hopefully I can grind out those last few tonight and join you dudes in the slaughter.
So what do I think about Inferno so far?
First off, if one can beat ACTS III and IV Hell, one can beat ACT I Inferno with some persistence. ACT I is very tough, but with some time investment it's easy to get on farm.
I know a couple people who are where I am at in Inferno, but cleared ACT I Inferno a week before me. I have discussed Inferno with them and read on some forums about what others are thinking. Me and others tend to agree Inferno ACT I and II sucks; but for different reasons.
ACT I Inferno is a nice challenge and you feel accomplished when you finally beat the Butcher (you have 3 minutes to beat him before he enrages). The Butcher is not hard, just can't make mistakes on the first attempt because DPS will be barely there, or one may make mistakes like getting chained.
Now the reason why ACT I Inferno sucks is the loot table is too wide and level 60 ACT I items are underpowered. Like drops from late Nightmare (level 48-49), but the majority is early Hell to late Hell (51-59). Nothing wrong with that in a random loot system on its own, but in combination with the latter it is.
It becomes problematic when the average rare level 60 items does not have the stat budget to fulfill the requirements to get you through ACT II if you roll the stats you need. One needs an insane amount resistance on gear and a ton of HP and hope it does not gimp your DPS. Even with perfect all resist, on the 11 pieces that can have it, from ACT I inferno gear, that is still getting you to 660. One needs about 700 resistance and over 45k HP to not get one-hit-killed in ACT II. You can't get that high off ACT I gear with perfect stats. Not to mention rolling for perfect stats for all resist, vitality, and damage would take years. Even so one will still get one-shotted and monsters will enrage because the DPS is not there.
If the plan is to try and clear the thing without skipping (like I am doing) a ton of monsters, buying some ACT III and IV gear is mandatory. Usually the advice ACT III and IV farmers are saying is just find someone to give you the ACT III checkpoint. Well I want to do it myself.
But yeah ACT II is on a whole other level. It sucks hard. You will get one-hit-killed right from the gate of the first quest. Normal monsters. It's very very miserable to play through if you are not so much into buying items off the Auction House. There is nothing fun about being one-shotted because something jumped on you from off-screen. Many situation there is no chance no matter how skilled or geared because one can die before an ability can be used. The ramp up in damage and difficulty is absurd.
Blizzard says they are going to nerf the spiky damage in a coming patch. So they acknowledge something is wrong here. They also said you should look at the Auction House to pick upgrades and that is factored into drop rates. . . I been using the Auction House minimally because it takes time away from playing. But, the general strategy most people are saying to do is to do Quest 9 (Cursed Hold) Butcher runs to farm gold to buy items so you can do ACT II. From what I have done in ACT II that is not a bad idea.
I've been farming ACT I Quest 9 for gold and for blacksmith and jeweler plans. I actually found a set piece Amulet that was a nice upgrade. I have a couple spots in ACT II I am farming, though it is not efficient. Found a couple lengendaries, one of which I use for a magic find set for ACT I farming. I am brick walled atm on ACT II, but I am happy to farm easier stuff to relax.
Likely going to try to finish ACT II this weekend.
Inferno mode is me screaming like a little boy, running around in circles until my cool-downs are back up. It's pretty smooth until I came across Elites. Definitely from a game-play standpoint, very awkward. My build is entirely defensive and has been that way since Hell. Grinding Act I seems just enough to get me to complete Act I elites comfortably. I get the feeling I can trash the bosses with ease, which means I should probably just plow through the impossible elites like "arcane, fire chains, reflect damage, molten, vampiric, fuck-you-in-the-ass, illusion" bullshit that pops up often. I can deal with some of the purple/gold dudes with reason (ie.kiting), but those 4x blue guys are fucking retarded (ie. not possible without bullshit kiting tactics).
My only gripe is people are buying AH gear that is from Act III and Act IV just to complete Act II because it's so damn difficult. Seems lopsided to me.
Either way, I need to put on my inferno running shoes and start kiting.
AHHHHHHHHHhh!!!!!!!
I JUST WANNA KNOW WHERE DA GULD AT!
Thanks to HC, Kaz, and Oddies last night I'm almost at 60, just a few more bubbles to go. Then its NV bonus and grinnnndinnng inferno until my arm falls off.
Ok just beat Belial on Inferno. Holy shit! Now this dude is fucking nuts on Inferno. It a whole week of farming to get through ACT II and beat this guy. About 300k spent getting through ACT II with minimal skipping, that's with repairs and potions. The gear I used is stuff I mostly found from farming ACT I and II, the only items I bought from Auction House were a weapon and my boots (with run speed, very important stat to have). OMG was it miserable though, I do not recommend doing it how I did it.
Now Belial actually took on his own between repairs and potion 1 million gold. Holy shit! All three phases are ridiculous in their own way. For phase three you have to get lucky on the Meteor spawns somewhat; though you can kinda control where some of them spawn based on where you are standing.
In my opinion I think the average joe is going to quit in ACT II if before Blizzard fixes it.
But OMG! Going to go have a heart attack now!
Two things.
I cleared Inferno (solo). I wanted to do it before the patch hit (since there were incoming nerfs). Hardest boss is Azmodan followed by Belial. Total time was 212 hours. Most of the time was spent farming ACT I and mostly ACT II. Hardest boss was Azmodan for me. Those blood pools suck.
Second thing. Patch hit today. And very happy with the changes. They made the bosses harder and added enrages to most of them, so you can't cheese it. The trade off though is damage from monsters have been reduced and better items can now drop in ACT I and II. Which is good because some people I know, not as lucky with drops as me, were killing themselves from farming useless gear in ACT I. I will go through the game again and compare the difficulty differences. But, from the patch notes it just seemed they got rid of the annoying things that did not really made the game harder, just frustrating.
Some major Diablo III 1.0.4 changes.
Paragon system is being added. Essentially it's another 100 levels to gain after level 60. You'll gain further stat buffs with each level and your gold find and magic find will increase with each level up as well. Definitely a smart move for Blizzard. Grinding and gear checking as the only form of a progression system after 60 doesn't work too well in an action online RPG with limited content.
Links: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6968517/Introducing_the_Paragon_System-8_20_2012
Major class buffs. Most of the classes are getting their skills buffed so there is more build diversity. Certain overpowered skills were readjusted though.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/
Also, legendaries are being buffed, cheap ass champion pack affixes are being readjusted, weapons are being improved, group play is being improved so you can actually play with your friends and not be punished by a retarded difficulty spike, and the auction house is getting better search functions. The prior patch nerfed Inferno a bit, so with these new changes it should be tolerable.
My question is, why wasn't the game developed like this before it came out? I don't like purchasing incomplete games which I need to beta test. The new changes definitely seem cool and I like the new Paragon system, but did they really think playing a game that's more a chore then being fun, would actually be, oh I don't know, fun? Never design a game that appeals to the minority 1% that likes to torture themselves with bullshit retarded fake content. Don't force certain game behaviors on players. Believe it or not, but sometimes when a game doesn't force you to grind to progress, but to grind because its fun to play with friends and develop an avatar, it's actually better received. Artificial Gear checks don't = a challenge, it = Chinese gold farmer. I think they're finally figuring that out now with these new changes.
I've been following the character updates on the 1.04 patch and while they were interesting, its not a real fix to the problem of the game's replayability. However the details of this paragon mode are VERY much the type of shot in the arm the (nonexistent) end game in D3 needs.
I don't like to grind, but I can't continue playing a game without a clear objective or continual progress. Adding these Paragon levels are a good incentive to keep going, especially if more builds (i.e. not god damn bears) are viable for Inferno play. If the rumors/leaks are true, it seems like they're adding a shitload more Legendaries to the mix as well, with some unique abilities. Here's a list of what's supposed to be coming:
The paragon levels thing is actually something Kripparian suggested to Blizzard a couple months back. If you guys don't know Kripparian, and his friend Krippi, were the only people in the world to complete Hardcore on Inferno before the nerf. Got a ton of attention in the gaming community, reddit, and from Blizzard. Kripparian knows a shit ton about the Diablo III. So it is cool the actually are using his ideas because he knows what the game needs to make it better.
I've been playing still, just to make a little bit of extra money on the RMAH selling high end gems. It was surprising that people were still buying shit when the game was dead. One of my guildmates in WoW actually sold a legendary for $125 a week and half ago before any of this patch stuff was revealed.
I will probably play some more. Since a lot of the holiday titles this year I was interested in were pushed to next year.
How many items have you actually sold for real money, and how much have you made if you don't mind?
And do you think the amount you've gotten in return is worth the time it takes to get a drop that's worth selling on the RMAH? I've steered clear of that whole bees nest but it would be interesting to get some perspective on it.
I've made over $150. Enough to pay for a couple new games that were on sale on Greenman gaming, two nights at the bar and the next two months worth of Gamefly. Which is my intention for selling on the RMAH; to pay for my gaming while gaming. I am quite content with it so far. So, totally worth it for the time I put in because I enjoyed playing the game and I would of probably been using that time to play anyway.
I do it very very casually, as in I am not one those people that play the Auction House by flipping stuff; unless I stumble on a good deal. While I have not sold stuff in two weeks, but when I did I would play about 3 hours for my farming session. I could usually make three gems which sold for $15 each at the time (they sell for 8 bucks right now I think). Basically, I would farm then put really good items on gold AH, then use a portion of the gold to craft gems. I could probably make a ton more if I was not interesting in still decking out my character or playing the AH a bit.
I play the game still to gear up for the most part. Though how I got to this point took a ton of time because farming and getting really good gear, to do ACT III was a huge time sinkt. I had the advantage also of clearing Inferno before nerf too. Still I only used about a quarter of the gold I made to make gems to sell for real money. I used the rest to purchase upgrades because I still very much care about decking out my characters.
Selling gems is the way to go because the price of gems in real money is cheaper than in equivalent gold. They sell very fast! Because they always sell and getting the gold to make them takes little to no effort if you can farm efficiently. The other half is knowing what sells on the Gold AH, so that takes some time to research. Also, not wasting time on picking up all items. You want to discriminate items that don't have a good chance of being good so you are not wasting time emptying bags and identifying stuff. It is not uncommon for me to end a farming run with only 4 items in my bags, but knowing their likely total value together will be at least 1 million gold.
Selling gold is the best though if you don't mind waiting.
I know people that are not really playing the game and are sitting on items that could sell well. Like, Fiery Brimstones for example. I told a guildmate of mine to buy up a ton of Fiery Brimstones with his gold before he quit because the price in gold fell to 140k and 25 cents on RMAH ( Though the trick was to buy lv 59 and 60 legendaries for 100k and salvage them). Because of the patch the price is now 400k gold and 46 cents in RMAH. I expect the price to get close to a dollar when patch hits, and my guildmate is sitting on hundreds. So you can speculate on stuff and it usually pays off with very little effort just by playing the game casually and a little bit of knowledge.
Finally, a friend of mine sold a stack of 200 Exquisite Essences last Thursday. That nets about $36 after fees. That is $36 per 300k gold right now! I was like "Are you fucking kidding me?" Getting a ton of Exquisite Essences is like the easiest thing in the game to do. Was very surprised by that. I did not think they would sell for real money because it is so easy to obtain. But, I guess people are going crazy building up their banks with mats in order to craft the new legendaries with really good stats.
I know I could make quite a bit of money if I spent all my gaming time playing Diablo III and flipping on the AH. But, it is not that appealing to me. I am content with playing the game a few hours a week for fun and making a little bit of money while doing it.
So I played a little yesterday, got halfway through my first paragon level. The game is definitely more playable now, as WD. My pets actually survive quite well in inferno Act 1 now, elite/champ packs still take a little caution but it's not a brick wall soloing. Its nice to actually use skills other than bears with success.
I duo'ed with HC82 and we easily made it through the last part of Act 1.
The game still has the basic problem of just going through the same ol' shit over and over though. Its got me wondering, what exactly is separating this game's "fun factor" from that of D2?
Gameplay-wise, UI, graphics, and player-friendliness hands now D3 has D2 beat. It feel like on a technical level D3 is a better game than D2, but the sum of its parts doesn't have that "magic" that makes it actually more fun to play continually. And I feel like Blizzard is acting as though there is this tangible "fun algorithm" that they can reach by tweaking the values, that somehow if they keep changing shit till its just right then D3 will be as fun, or more fun than D2 was.
Is this even possible? Is what made D2 great even something that can be recreated in a modern game? And what exactly makes D2 so great compared to D3? I feel like I'm doing the same shit, running through levels, killing guys, getting loot; of which most sucks. But why could I have fun doing that on D2 for years on and off, but I'm sick of it on D3 in less than a month?
It's the Auction House. Items drops do not feel meaningful because you know you can get any item with the stats you need instantly if you have the gold or money. Then the gear is not really good for anything in the game once you get it. There needs to be some extra optional challenge to put that gear you have to test. Many people have suggested an endless dungeon that becomes progressively harder.
I like the Path of Exile endgame, where there are random maps that you can get as rare drops that have affixes which will generate a level for you. The affixes on the map describes what you will be in for. For example, you may get a map with affixes like "Enemies have 1000% more HP, 200% damage, 150% better loot from chest." I think that is a really intriguing system.
Blizzard seems to be aware of the issues though and looking to address it. http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/topic/233364-a-message-from-jay/
But yeah the Paragon levels thing did make the game feel fresh for me. I actually joined a Public game and had fun grinding out some EXP. Group play feels less like a chore now with the nerfed HP to monsters.
Expansion pack was announced officially today (after being rumored for a week or so with a teaser site).
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/reaper-of-souls/
Gameplay vid:
The deets:
Powered by Invision Power Board (http://www.invisionboard.com)
© Invision Power Services (http://www.invisionpower.com)