Thoughts on Diablo III?

[Heretic_Cata]

I guess i'm happy that i suck at Diablo games. The normal difficulty doesn't seem very easy AT ALL to me. And in D2, playing with Sorceress on normal was next to impossible for me (managed to finish it with heavy grinding). And let's not even discuss the difficulty of the D1 normal.

 

[Disgustipated]

I may try playing a wizard then...
Thankfully things are getting slightly harder after the skeleton king, so we'll see. I'll still go without my follower though. I don't like his annoying Templar comments. . Blizzard doesn't know how to do companion banter like Bioware, so they shouldn't even try.

I'm tempted to try hardcore, if only for the achievements. I think I can get a lot of those achievements.

Which is another not complaint really, just observation. Achievements. They hook us OCD types (although I'm not really OCD, only about things like achievements). I don't like games that have too many achievements (mainly WOW, Civ5, and now Diablo 3). It will take me a while to get most of those, and I probably won't be able to get all of them. If they didn't put the achievements in, I wouldn't play the game that way. It alters the way I play the game. I'm not exactly sure if that's a good thing.


edit: What's a good weapon for a witch hunter anyways? I still haven't figured out what weapon I'm supposed to be using. The game is easy enough it doesn't seem to matter. In D2 necromancers used wands, but I can't use wands. I can use staves, but they are 2 handed, which means I can't use my witch doctor off-hand thing.

 

[sanabas]

Use any weapon you're allowed to. All that matters is 1H + shield/OH vs dual wield vs 2H. The weapon type is irrelevant, all that matters is the stats on them. Only exception I've seen is the demon hunter, was able to equip melee stuff and therefore couldn't use basic attack at range. But I don't think the two melee classes can equip ranged stuff, and the 2 magic classes use magic attacks, so it doesn't matter if their weapon's ranged or not.

 

[Disgustipated]

Finally finished Act 1. And for those who say it's too easy, I must say it's no easier than Diablo 2. I say that because the Butcher tore me a new one the first time I faced him. Even the second time was close. I had no follower, but I did use my demon dogs. But the dogs go down quickly when facing the butcher. I find this encounter just as difficult as Andariel in Diablo 2 act 1. I can't speak for the rest of normal yet, but I can speak for Act 1. And yes I played Diablo 2 again last year, so I remember well. If anything Diablo 3 is more difficult than Diablo 2. Although that may be based on class. The witch doctor isn't an easy class to play. I'm still trying to get the hang of it.

So yeah the Butcher was a little tough for my witch doctor. Which leads me to believe maybe I'm not playing the witch doctor correctly. Although I didn't realize until the second time that there were health fountains in there. I think I saw 2 of them in there. That certainly helped. On Nightmare I think I'll be using a party, not just myself.

I liked the ending move at the end of Act 1. That was cool. Very nice production values there.

The only reason I'm mostly soloing this is for the achievements and not missing out on lore books and such. But I still missed some books somewhere. Mainly Leah's journal, but others as well. A funny thing is if you go into Leah's room with Leah in your party she says something pretty funny. She also says something when you go into Cain's house.

I may have to give up on the achievements though. There are too many of them. I'm still only at 6%. Do these achievements go across all players on your account? I would assume so since there are achievements for each class. Some of them I'll never get. They look insane. Like killing bosses with no gear on. Killing things in under 2 minutes or some in under 15 seconds.

 

[sanabas]

The various lore books are unlikely to all be seen on one playthrough. In some cases, the books are attached to random dungeons/events, and only some of those appear each time. Unless you're running each quest a couple of times to farm xp, there's no way you'll get all of them on your first run. And yes, it is account wide. I've been right through act 2 4 times now I think, and just got one of the act 2 lorebook achievements.

Killing bosses naked/quickly won't be that tough, especially if you do it at level 60 on a lower difficulty. My level 25 monk easily killed the skeleton king in under 15 seconds and got the achievement (though too much running to find doors meant I finished the whole act in 62 minutes, not 60. ), and also got an achievement for killing one of the act 4 bosses in under 2 minutes, and that was the first time I faced him, at roughly the appropriate level.

Most of the achievements look they'll just turn up by playing the game, plus some for you to go back when at a high level and do something specific.

 

[Double A]

And the point of achievements is...?

 

[MobBoss]

And the point of achievements is...?

Measuring your epeen.

I've heard hints of the equivalent of the sacred cow level, and i've seen a few lore items for sale in game for ridiculously high prices. Anyone up on this?

Oh, and at level 42, I finally got my first orange drop. A nice pair of pants that my Wizard cant use, but a follow on twink certainly will.

 

[sanabas]

And the point of achievements is...?

They have a point? Mostly they give me an easy reference to see what content I've skipped over/haven't seen yet, in terms of conversations/lorebooks/dungeon areas.

I've heard hints of the equivalent of the sacred cow level, and i've seen a few lore items for sale in game for ridiculously high prices. Anyone up on this?

Think you should have only seen one, costing 100k. The other bits are all drops from particular areas. Get hold of the recipe, make the item, and you can go visit the level.

 

[Thrawn]

I've heard hints of the equivalent of the sacred cow level,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB0XHZ7Ee1o

 

[Wolfbeckett]

I must say that is way better than Diablo 2's secret level lol.

 

[blasto]

Measuring your epeen.

I've heard hints of the equivalent of the sacred cow level, and i've seen a few lore items for sale in game for ridiculously high prices. Anyone up on this?

Oh, and at level 42, I finally got my first orange drop. A nice pair of pants that my Wizard cant use, but a follow on twink certainly will.

Google Diablo 3 Whimsyshire. The prerequisites to make it to this level are crazy though. Several rare drops needed along with a 100,000g pattern to make a staff will get you in.

 

[Tecknojock]

Its actually 150k, 100k for wirts bell in act 2 and 50k to manufacture it. Thats only for the normal mode staff of herding. The upgraded staffs are supposedly quite a bit more, but I havn't found the schematics for them yet.

 

[Thrawn]

Google Diablo 3 Whimsyshire. The prerequisites to make it to this level are crazy though. Several rare drops needed along with a 100,000g pattern to make a staff will get you in.

I linked a video a couple posts above yours.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I caved and I bought it (had to search for a store where i isn't sold out).
So far it's fun and I don't miss stat customization as much as I feared I would, but in some other aspects it's bit too much like Diablo 2. I've now begun Act 2, and if Act 3 is in a a jungle I shall be very annoyed.
The difficulty could be higher. I chose a Demon Hunter for my first playthrough and I haven't died yet. The Skeleton King was a challenge with all the teleporting, but the Butcher was pretty easy. I've come close to dying several times in Act 2, but I've chosen my equipment to maximise magic-find. I expect it will get easier again once I switch to proper defensive gear.

Edit: Oh great ! Snake people and a sewer level. Are you f-ing kidding me ?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I did die in Act 2. Three times actually. Once against some waller elite and twice against Belial.
The boss battles are really great. .You always have a fair chance with the right tactic, and I don't miss potion spamming at all.
I decided yesterday to make a hardcore Witch-Doctor and play co-op with random strangers. The teamwork was usually good, but communication was poor. At one point I accepted an event (spider boss battle) and the others declined. I found myself alone against a giant spider which seemed to have had all the bonuses monsters get in multiplayer. It was the most grueling fight I had in a game in quite a while but I made it somehow. Had played any other class my hardcore character would most likely be dead. Those zombie dogs really help and don't crumble at the sight of a boss like summons in D2.

Btw how rare are uniques and set items ? In D2 you usually encounter at least one or two per act but I've now arrived in Act 3 and I've only seen magics and rares and the occasional chipped gem.

 

[Disgustipated]

I must say I like my witch doctor a lot. He rules. I love the guy barfing poison on my enemies. My brother hates it when I barf on him. It's a funny spell effect.

I did try a barbarian. A post higher up said barbarian was pretty easy, maybe easier than the other classes. I strongly disagree. My barbarian sucks compared to my witch doctor. I died in Act 1! I know my gear sucks, but come on. I was playing with my brother, so enemies were twice as strong, but my bash was doing hardly any damage. After he left, I did use the crafter to craft some better armor and sword, and he's a little better, but still not as strong as my witch doctor at that level. I think witch doctor's minions aren't affected by bad equipment as much a a barbarian maybe. Even my poison darts seemed to do more damage than bash though.

witch doctor>>>>>> barbarian. I wish they had kept the paladin class. I'd rather play a paladin. I didn't care for barbarian in D2 either. But maybe I'm just more suited to the witch doctor play style. A post above complained that there were only 5 classes, keep in mind D2 only had 5 classes too (D1 had 3). Most likely they will add 3 or so in an expansion.

Anyways, I'm messing around with my barbarian. Funny thing is a NPC called terrified farmer in a place called Farmer's cellar in the Forlorn Farm. He has some funny comments about his wife. Nice to see a little humor in this game. This may not show up on all maps in Fields of Misery. I think it's random.

My only complaint at this point is the auction house. It's been down the past 2 days it seems. I need to buy better gear for my barbarian I think. I think melee characters are much more dependent upon gear (like in world in warcraft) than caster and ranged characters. My barbarian is taking a beating even in Act 1. My witch doctor can rely solely on drops, but my barbarian isn't doing as well relying on drops.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

That sounds more or less in line with Diablo 2, melee classes were far more reliant on gear in that game than casters were. In WoW every class is gear reliant regardless of what kind, since gear is the only real progression in the game.

 

[GlobularFoody]

I've been playing it, and while it's a decent game, it's nothing like Diablo 2 was. The story and writing are terrible for one thing. It's like it was written by a 12 year old. It really feels to me like a game that shouldn't have been released, and if it weren't for the name "Diablo 3" and made by the WoW people, it would NOT be successful at all. It's really just an average game, with average graphics. Which brings me to...

This game is just another way for Blizzard to leech money from fans of their old games. Everything is set up for Blizzard themselves to sell items on the RMAH without any of the insane grind to actually find the stuff that players will have. They have an unlimited supply of the absolute best items and can sell it at the maximum prices that only the rarest of rare items should have. The AH is completely anonymous, no one will ever know they bought an item directly from Blizzard. The game should be free. I'm also still in disbelief that people actually spend real money on Diablo loot...how meaningless is your life that have money to spare on things like this? The entire game is the hunt for loot, not having it. Once your character is maxed out, there is nothing to do but wait for them to release and expansion or start an character.

That's another thing that bothers me about Diablo 3, the built-in expandability. They really did release an incomplete game because they know without doubt they can sell expansion packs easily. It's exactly like Starcraft 2, except there are no faction to sell seperately. The super-easy to reach level cap, characters' power is 100% items, the ending that wasn't and ending. Diablo 3 expansion will be exactly the same complete reset of your Diablo character that Blizzard does with WoW every 2 years.

 

[carmen510]

Btw how rare are uniques and set items ? In D2 you usually encounter at least one or two per act but I've now arrived in Act 3 and I've only seen magics and rares and the occasional chipped gem.

My friend complained that there were no good items to be had, as in Blizzard never put in as much loot as there was in Diablo 2. So, you're pretty much out of luck I'm afraid.

 

[Disgustipated]

That sounds more or less in line with Diablo 2, melee classes were far more reliant on gear in that game than casters were. In WoW every class is gear reliant regardless of what kind, since gear is the only real progression in the game.

I was mainly talking about the leveling up process. Not the end game. The leveling up process for casters in WOW was very easy, but my warrior and rogue struggled the worst. I had to utilize the auction house because you can't expect to get what you need from item drops or quest rewards. I should note I was mainly referring to before Cataclysm and the revamped quests in vanilla. Back when the game was a little more difficult. When I first started certain classes like shaman were more difficult to level up than classes like hunters (ez mode).

Both games have an end game which of course are gear dependent. At that point, you can't get stronger from leveling (which increases your stats such as strength etc.).

So I'm mainly referring to the leveling up process. I have no interest in end game in either game. Grinding for gear isn't my thing. I'm certainly not paying for it! I will play nightmare, and maybe some of hell to see how tough it is. I have no interest in inferno.

As for the above post, I think the story is decent. It's inline with Diablo 2 (and what I can vaguely remember of Diablo 1). I think maybe you are comparing it to a real rpg. When compared to Diablo 2, I'd say the story is better than D2. I do agree with item selling. But you shouldn't trash a game just because of that one feature. You don't have to use it. Although I admit it makes end game less appealing for me. Why work for items if other players can't tell if you bought them or earned them through skill. There is no incentive for end game for me. Maybe some people will do it for the achievements.