Diablo 3

[Steppenwolf]

Played it for a while now but the game doesn't click for me. It's like Puzzle Quest but without the fun part of the puzzles. Instead just endless chaotic mouse clicking. Really want to like it because i got it as a gift from a much appreciated forum member.

Would you say that if i don't enjoy the gameplay after several hours that it could get fun to me at some point? Don't know if its just the early stages of the game or if it fundamentally isn't my thing.

[-HP-]

Well, not all of us must enjoy everything. Although, I can tell you the game gets better when you switch to act 2. Try and at least finish the normal campaign, you can do it easily in 15 or so hours if you're not a gold farmer.

[dux]

Act 2 sucks steppen don't waste your time, it is the most boring of the acts by far. This won't be dragon age for you this time I don't think. Even I'm struggling to carry on with act 2 nightmare.

[PogoP]

Just started a Wizard, having a blast!

Me and my friend got past Belial on Act 2 Inferno last night, that was so much fun!

[dux]

You suck liam.

[GregBoffins]

Just started a Wizard, having a blast!

Me and my friend got past Belial on Act 2 Inferno last night, that was so much fun!

Those fucking bees in act 2, omg they hurt a lot

[Marvin.Star]

Just started a Wizard, having a blast!

Me and my friend got past Belial on Act 2 Inferno last night, that was so much fun!

Observation: When I 'just start' a character I don't tend to get past nightmare in the same day (often not passed normal in one sitting either).

How much do you guys play!? Also, Wizards are a lot of fun

[PogoP]

Ahh, nah I got to inferno act 3 on my Monk which I've got around 60 hours on. My Wizard is still on act 3 normal!

[Taylor]

My little group of Monk (hello!), Demon Hunter and Barbarian (used to be another DH, rerolled) has now got to Act 3 and we’ve hit another wall where we can kill normal enemies fine but elites are impossible.

We now need to all gear up again but there is no productive way to do this. I’m struggling to stay awake at my keyboard as I run through the easier bosses I’m totally over-geared for, knowing I won’t get an upgrade but hoping I get something I can sell (and actually getting sub-60 junk items seemingly competing with each other to be the least effective items in the game). It struck me that this is the only end-game Diablo 3, with its bad itemisation and vested interest in promoting the auction house, can actually support.

I'm even having second thoughts about the skill system. Because, while I support the idea of changing your base skills around and promoting experimentation, the fact is Inferno kind of squishes everyone into the same build anyway, and the itemisation does very little to differentiate builds outside of random +5% Damage On Random Skill stats. This is the complete opposite of Diablo 2 where each build within each class focused on specific groups of items to make it viable in addition to just picking the skills. There are a lot of ways the new system can be intertwined with items, and I think the game would be better for it, but it is not happening at all right now.

Gearing up in Diablo 3 gives me flashbacks to when I worked in an accounts office; there’s some extremely intricate and completely soulless spreadsheet powering all this and not much else. The main concern seems to be keeping everything scaling forever as evidenced by my clear goals as Monk: I need all resist, poison resist (one with everything), dexterity, vitality and LoH. The more of this I get the better I objectively become at everything and none of them have hard caps.

Sets and uniques became obsolete on day 1 because they just adhere to their ilvl * mod with appropriate stats and there are much higher ilvl’s available deep into Inferno. Increasing the power differentiation for an equivalent ilvl item in 1.03 will make these better but they’re not going to actually become interesting. The easiest example Is Tal Rasha as this is in both games.

The hell are those set bonuses? Remember the Trang-Oul Necromancer set in Diablo 2 that changed your appearance and gave you 3 abilities not even native to your class? Was hardly the best gear in the game but it was pretty damn cool.

I’m worried this is because of the RMAH. They don’t want to make interesting uniques and sets because when they stamp out another tier of ilvl they don’t want people holding onto old items that scale well or do interesting things. This clearly was the case with the WoW expansions where they wanted everyone moving into the next tier of gear; so they added “ratings” rather than percentages and items like the Luffa started getting fail rates over a certain level.

[Sentura]

what took you so long?

[PogoP]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm we tried Act 3 of Inferno tonight and it made me do this

Nowhere near as fun. I'm annoyed that it has got so difficult, and not even in a 'oh dont worry, im gonna get better' kinda way. It has turned ridiculously hard, to the point where I can barely kill or tank anything any more. Granted, we were in a group of 3, but that's what Diablo's all about. I don't want to have to solo the game to get the best loot!

Looking forward to the next patch, but then Inferno will be easy and I'll have nothing else left to do in the game.

[Zyn]

So .. the big day. Real Money Auction House is expected to be up today, and people are lining up their terrible items for $100 a piece. But then, after this mornings maintenance ...

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3688889/No%20M ... 0House.jpg

Well I don't care, I just want patch 1.0.3

[Taylor]

what took you so long?

I still think the skill system could work if the itemisation and end-game supported it. And even if the skill system was void that doesn't mean permanent choices and rerolling characters wins by default.

Edit: I notice you sent me a PM wanting to discuss this with your battletag, but you also addressed me as “a fucking asshole.” Are you bipolar? I hope you don’t actually expect a sensible argument after that? It's likely to be along the lines of me suggesting going back to Diablo 2's system, but using the tools, techniques and methods hypothesised by The Internet’s Sentura to balance everything objectively perfect.

[Sentura]

jeez it was a joke/term of endearment/sign of respect. rather than calling someone out on it why not just reply to the pm the old fashioned way?

[Rick_D]

My little group of Monk (hello!), Demon Hunter and Barbarian (used to be another DH, rerolled) has now got to Act 3 and we’ve hit another wall where we can kill normal enemies fine but elites are impossible.

We now need to all gear up again but there is no productive way to do this. I’m struggling to stay awake at my keyboard as I run through the easier bosses I’m totally over-geared for, knowing I won’t get an upgrade but hoping I get something I can sell (and actually getting sub-60 junk items seemingly competing with each other to be the least effective items in the game). It struck me that this is the only end-game Diablo 3, with its bad itemisation and vested interest in promoting the auction house, can actually support.

I'm even having second thoughts about the skill system. Because, while I support the idea of changing your base skills around and promoting experimentation, the fact is Inferno kind of squishes everyone into the same build anyway, and the itemisation does very little to differentiate builds outside of random +5% Damage On Random Skill stats. This is the complete opposite of Diablo 2 where each build within each class focused on specific groups of items to make it viable in addition to just picking the skills. There are a lot of ways the new system can be intertwined with items, and I think the game would be better for it, but it is not happening at all right now.

Gearing up in Diablo 3 gives me flashbacks to when I worked in an accounts office; there’s some extremely intricate and completely soulless spreadsheet powering all this and not much else. The main concern seems to be keeping everything scaling forever as evidenced by my clear goals as Monk: I need all resist, poison resist (one with everything), dexterity, vitality and LoH. The more of this I get the better I objectively become at everything and none of them have hard caps.

Sets and uniques became obsolete on day 1 because they just adhere to their ilvl * mod with appropriate stats and there are much higher ilvl’s available deep into Inferno. Increasing the power differentiation for an equivalent ilvl item in 1.03 will make these better but they’re not going to actually become interesting. The easiest example Is Tal Rasha as this is in both games.

The hell are those set bonuses? Remember the Trang-Oul Necromancer set in Diablo 2 that changed your appearance and gave you 3 abilities not even native to your class? Was hardly the best gear in the game but it was pretty damn cool.

I’m worried this is because of the RMAH. They don’t want to make interesting uniques and sets because when they stamp out another tier of ilvl they don’t want people holding onto old items that scale well or do interesting things. This clearly was the case with the WoW expansions where they wanted everyone moving into the next tier of gear; so they added “ratings” rather than percentages and items like the Luffa started getting fail rates over a certain level.

wonderfully sums up why i abandoned this after a while