Diablo 3!

[Griffith]

That satisfies all four points of criteria for a good name. Good choice.

Thanks, it's a family name to boot. The Etruscan root of my last name and the earliest my family is aware of.

Looks like servers are down for a bit of maintenance. I've only had about 15 minutes to play so far. Me and Griff attempted to play as soon as it launched last night (3 a.m. for me), to no avail. Servers were jammed.

Yeah, seeing as how they didn't clear up until 4:30am your time, that would have been a tough road to hoe.

Btw, Griff. Now that you've changed your BattleTag, do you still have those random numbers at the end? I was wondering if those were standard, or if I just got fucked on my name.

Yeah, still have the random four digit number, and I can say with confidence there weren't any other Tarchons because I re-registered the name on Diablo II, which is unique, right after. =)

 

[Walter]

For anyone who's been a little frustrated at the way Blizzard railroaded the way your skills are distributed on the toolbar, and handcuffed them to certain mouse buttons, I'm about to blow your mind.

That's right, my Barbarian has both Frenzy and Cleave at the same time. To achieve this, go into Options / Gameplay / and check Elective Mode. Then you will be able to select a skill slot from the skills menu and then navigate using the arrow buttons to any cluster of abilities you have.

Earthquake on Mouse Button 1? It's possible. Pretty fucking stupid—BUT POSSIBLE!

This has completely changed the way I play the gmae, and it might be even more important to other classes, like the Wizard.

 

[Aazealh]

To achieve this, go into Options / Gameplay / and check Elective Mode. Then you will be able to select a skill slot from the skills menu and then navigate using the arrow buttons to any cluster of abilities you have.

I set this up in my options when I first started the game. Didn't realize you were restricted otherwise.

Totally love my wizard, by the way. She's pretty badass.

 

[seppuku]

The wizard is a lot more fun when you're using frost nova/wave of force/arcane blast combos. I really look forward to the archon ability and slow time is pretty neat.

About the act 1 end boss:

Spoiler

It was a fun fight, but they did a bad job with the lore. In Diablo 1, The Butcher was this notorious serial killer/cannibal demon who slept in a room of corpses and could hack you up in mere seconds. Saying that there's an army of them and that they are stitched from the bodies of other creatures makes him no longer unique and is far too similar to the abomination and unburied back stories. Oh well.

I can't believe that there are already official reviews out for this game with numbers slapped on considering that none of these 'professionals' could have given this game more than 3 days. Some of them were up 2 days after launch and at least 1 was up the day after launch. No member of the press was given access to the complete game in advance.

 

[turkitage]

I'm about to blow your mind.

Mind blown. I read somewhere Blizzard wanted people to "stick" to their builds so that's why you're limited to 1-4, left, right click. I would hope that each 4 of these skill.. um bars? You wouldn't waste by not using one or using all of your Bar 1 skills. Might be handy lower levels though and not so much higher levels, We'll see.

 

[Griffith]

That's right, my Barbarian has both Frenzy and Cleave at the same time. To achieve this, go into Options / Gameplay / and check Elective Mode.

Discovered this as well after you and everyone signed off, expecting that it would just let me change the button configurations, not change which powers I could have active. My mind was indeed blown. Every restriction you'd expect to have put on you in this game isn't. Needless to say, I like that. =)

Earthquake on Mouse Button 1? It's possible. Pretty fucking stupid—BUT POSSIBLE!

Not so stupid if you have all three of your Rage skills at the ready to spam within seconds of each other. Become a one man multiplayer wrecking crew!

About the act 1 end boss:

Yeah, Diablo lore has sucked since D1 (it was pretty cool stuff at the time, all the extra info in the manual and strat guide) which is why they're still going back to that well, even if they end up peeing in it (the plotting and dialogue is awfully lame here). My objection to that boss was... he's not really important in that way (I actually would have preferred Leoric, or even Maghda, since they actually had a presence in Act I), and he was cooler in the original context you mentioned (it's weird seeing his face in your profile, next to lesser/prime evils). Anyway, I'm in Act III, which basically confirms it's like a best of album or nostalgia act. Can't wait for Diablo to come out on stage at the end for the big reunion jam!



My level 28 Barb build is destroying Act III:

Strength: 329
Damage Per Second: 342.71 (445.20 with Battle Rage, which is always on =)
Attacks per second: 2.26 (that's BEFORE Frenzy takes effect)

Skills:
LM - Frenzy
RM - Whirlwind
1 - Ground Stomp
2 - Battle Rage
3 - Call of the Ancients
4 - Earthquake

Passive:
Ruthless
Weapon's Master

Pretty simple really, I put everything into strength/speed/damage and everything dies before I do. It's kind of like playing a Vanguard in Mass Effect 2 or something, the best defense is your offense. =) You wipe things out FAST, the faster the better, because lack of vitality means your vulnerable otherwise (it's totally worth it to avoid a slow, boring dungeon grind though). It's a fast paced and exhilarating style, and it actually makes great use of the health globs because they come much more frequently when you kill everything with one hit. Or, you could just mow down groups alternating Ancients and Earthquake every 60 seconds and clear the room that way. In the meantime, Whirlwind with those damage numbers is almost equivalent to a Rage skill.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll be making improvements and experimenting with some other skills (the Might skills are awkward, but have potential), but I'm laying waste and leveling up seemingly faster and easier than ever, so a great and fun way to play for now.

On the flip side of my all offense dungeon sprinting, for bosses I go the opposite direction and have an alternate armor set in my stash that's basically all defense and vitality boosters. Reduce damage taken by half, get me over 4000 life, and switch skills accordingly (Ignore Pain, Threatening Shout, Pound of Flesh, etc) and you're good to go. Multiplayed the end of Act II with four friends (I was the only one that knew what to expect) and basically spent the whole time reviving them and spamming the Rage skills for the win. I'd never want to play with this setup otherwise though because it would take FOREVER to kill everything and you'd get so swarmed it would negate the defensive benefits. That's why in the long run I'll be looking out for high strength+vitality items; that is, if this simple offense/defense philosophy isn't moot at the higher difficulty levels.

 

[Walter]

I've been following Griff's advice of just maximizing attack speed and strength attributes, with vitality being secondary. Here's my guy:

Lv. 34 Barbarian: Gaiseric, in mid-Act 1 on Nightmare​

 

[seppuku]

I've been following Griff's advice of just maximizing attack speed and strength attributes, with vitality being secondary.

If you use the Auction House, you won't need to compromise either. I use it all the time for items and gems. It's not uncommon for me to spend 20k gold and have my character's hp and damage go up 30-40%.

I also learned
- Do not bother with the blacksmith. He will run you broke and when you pay thousands to roll items, you'll most likely wind up with crap.
- Don't combine gems up through radiant. It's actually far cheaper to just buy 1 gem of the next tier.
- Don't salvage magic items; sell them. Crafting sucks, and magic items actually sell for a couple of hundred gold pieces each (I'm level 36 in Act 1 nightmare). Subtle essence and fallen teeth sell for very little on the auction house. Shimmering essence and lizard eyes don't sell for much either.

 

[jackalj]

Aside from the tips from Groovy Metal Fist.

Do you guys have some other good gold farming tips?

 

[Griffith]

If you use the Auction House, you won't need to compromise either. I use it all the time for items and gems. It's not uncommon for me to spend 20k gold and have my character's hp and damage go up 30-40%.

I haven't used it yet, but that sounds like the way to go. No need to decide between items that majorly boost your damage or vitality when you can buy one that does both. BTW, I only seem to find high level double attribute boosting items for intelligence + dexterity. I should probably be selling those at the auction house instead of getting a couple hundred bucks for them. =)

- Don't salvage magic items; sell them. Crafting sucks, and magic items actually sell for a couple of hundred gold pieces each (I'm level 36 in Act 1 nightmare).

I figured this out because I wasn't making enough money for the time I was putting in before I realized salvaging/the blacksmith was a waste of both.

 

[seppuku]

Aside from the tips from Groovy Metal Fist.

Do you guys have some other good gold farming tips?

Kill monsters and loot the dead bodies of someone's father or husband like the hero you are. Also, you can stack gold find to increase the amount of gold monster's drop. Magic find isn't as useful because you are restricted to 10 auctions at a time, each auction can last for 2 days, and you can't back out after the first 5 minutes. Most of your money will be coming from gold drops.

Don't get overzealous with the treasure goblins from Act III onward. Packs of monsters can kill you if you try to run right through them.

 

[Griffith]

Kill monsters and loot the dead bodies of someone's father or husband like the hero you are.

Also, you can stack gold find to increase the amount of gold monster's drop. Magic find isn't as useful because you are restricted to 10 auctions at a time, each auction can last for 2 days, and you can't back out after the first 5 minutes. Most of your money will be coming from gold drops.

Yeah, I don't really see the motivation for farming, just play the game and it'll take care of itself. The ultimate currency is XP until you get to the REAL ultimate items, and I'll worry about those when I've pretty much exhausted everything else. By then I'll have more gold than I can spend, and in the meantime I'll just see what drops.

Don't get overzealous with the treasure goblins from Act III onward. Packs of monsters can kill you if you try to run right through them.

Now if you have all vitality items, passive life/armor skills active, ignore pain, cleave, and your 3 rage skills at the ready.

Really, the motivation in this game isn't so much survival as how much one can dominate. Things we'll become more interesting when the player versus player arena opens up and people starting making dueling characters.

 

[seppuku]

Diablo 3 Players have reported getting hacked and having all their items taken. Some believe it's not through phishing but through spoofing session ID's for public games and that people with authenticators aren't safe either:

http://www.shacknews.com/article/73904/blizzard-investigating-diablo-3-account-hack-reports

In less dire news:

http://www.destructoid.com/what-religions-are-allowed-in-diablo-iii--227888.phtml

You can't name your character 'Christian', 'Islam', or 'Atheist', but you can name them 'Protestant', 'Muhammad', or 'Buddhism'.

 

[Walter]

Even in Nightmare mode, I'm finding the game way too easy. Anyone else having this experience?

 

[Griffith]

Even in Nightmare mode, I'm finding the game way too easy. Anyone else having this experience?

Act I was easier than the first time around, but Act II has been more challenging so far. I've switched to a default build (Frenzy, Whirlwind, Ignore Pain, Overpower, War Cry, and Wrath of the Berserker) just to try it out and it's actually been quite balanced, complimentary and effective (I figure they've put more thought into it than I have =). Relentless is a particularly good passive skill with this build, just when it looks like you're in trouble you unlock unlimited Whirlwind to either escape, get health globs, kill everything, or all of the above. It's like I'm playing Diablo II again, except now I can also go Super Saiyan 5.

 

[Walter]

Act I was easier than the first time around, but Act II has been more challenging so far. I've switched to a default build (Frenzy, Whirlwind, Ignore Pain, Overpower, War Cry, and Wrath of the Berserker) just to try it out and it's actually been quite balanced, complimentary and effective (I figure they've put more thought into it than I have =). Relentless is a particularly good passive skill with this build, just when it looks like you're in trouble you unlock unlimited Whirlwind to either escape, get health globs, kill everything, or all of the above. It's like I'm playing Diablo II again, except now I can also go Super Saiyan 5.

Well, that's reassuring. I'm at the end of Act I right now, and like I said, I've found it absurdly easy. Instead of it being more risky to engage enemies, it feels like they just need a few extra hits to take down.

 

[seppuku]

I second Griffith's statement about Act II nightmare vs Act I nightmare.

Anyway, Walter, you still have the remainder of Nightmare, all of Hell, and all of Inferno to go. I saw game play streaming videos and people were dying multiple times a minute in both those difficulties.

The Belial fight was the easiest end Act fight in normal, but he chews threw your health damn quick in nightmare; I have a hard time telling where he's going to strike.

I just got to the part in nightmare Act III after you raise all the catapults. So far nothing's been hard, in Act III but I have Archon form now, which Act III was made for.

In Archon form, your armor goes up 40% and you have a fatter version of the disintegrate beam that does 310% weapon damage (twice the regular disintegrate). You also have infinite energy in that form. Archon form is on a 2 minute cool down and lasts 15 seconds, but is extended 1 second for every enemy you kill.

 

[Walter]

The Belial fight was the easiest end Act fight in normal, but he chews threw your health damn quick in nightmare; I have a hard time telling where he's going to strike.

Really? I thought Belial was the only difficult boss fight in the entire game on Normal. I died twice, which is 2/3 of the times I died in the 20 hours I played.

 

[seppuku]

Really? I thought Belial was the only difficult boss fight in the entire game on Normal. I died twice, which is 2/3 of the times I died in the 20 hours I played.

In normal, Diablo was the only end act boss to kill me. I got her on the second try.

 

[Griffith]

I tend to agree with Walter on Belial, but I imagine different classes yield different experiences. Diablo didn't give me much trouble, I was over-prepared, and he/she was sort of a letdown overall anyway; Azmodan and especially Belial were much cooler. I was expecting things to escalate in that vein, not revert to old form, which I thought they were almost parodying with Belial in Act II ("That's it, that's his true form!? ... HOLY SHIT!" =). Though, you know who really killed the shit out of me for some reason? The boss right off the bat in Act IV, and I've yet to talk to someone else that had similar trouble. I don't know if I just had my items/skills out of whack, my strategy was wrong, or what, but he gave me a hell of a time for some reason and I still barely beat him and his little shadow fuckers.

 

[seppuku]

Spoiler

Did anyone else feel that Deckard Cain's death was completely wasted? Diablo didn't kill him, none of the lesser evils killed him, an errand girl for one of the lesser evils killed him in an in game engine cut scene. It didn't make me feel any more invested in the story.

I still can't figure out why the warrior who killed Diablo in the first game was retconned as the son of King Leoric or given the name Aiden. How did erasing the nameless hero who entered the dungeon armed with nothing but scraps improve the story?

I did like how in this game when demons threaten all of mankind, they actually launch an assault on a town. I was also pleased with Act IV overall. Heaven was a refreshing change and a suitable stage for the final battle, even if it does remind me of the Protoss too much. At least the didn't make heaven this

 

[frankencowx]

Anyone else displeased with the class selection in this game? (looking at you witch doctor) The absence of a real support class sucks. Even the mercs for hire seem like potentially more interesting candidates. Sadly I'm already looking forward to an expansion.

 

[Walter]

Anyone else displeased with the class selection in this game? (looking at you witch doctor) The absence of a real support class sucks. Even the mercs for hire seem like potentially more interesting candidates. Sadly I'm already looking forward to an expansion.

The witch doctor is actually quite cool at higher levels, once you get more unique/useful abilities. Plays pretty much like the Necro, as we all expected he would.

And yeah, the classes aren't the best selection. I like what D2 offered a little more. As I've said before I had hoped for some kind of Dark Knight.

 

[Griffith]

Spoiler

Did anyone else feel that Deckard Cain's death was completely wasted? Diablo didn't kill him, none of the lesser evils killed him, an errand girl for one of the lesser evils killed him in an in game engine cut scene. It didn't make me feel any more invested in the story.

Spoiler

Of course, and notice it was the only scene of its kind, with that awkward and unflattering close up on the in game graphics. Then she doesn't even go on to be a lingering threat or Act boss, though I was sure glad when she was gone.

Anyway, they did manage to sneak some nice Star Wars quotes in there. =)

I still can't figure out why the warrior who killed Diablo in the first game was retconned as the son of King Leoric or given the name Aiden. How did erasing the nameless hero who entered the dungeon armed with nothing but scraps improve the story?

Yeah, went nowhere at all. In a way it canonized the "heroes" in D2 in a much more significant sense, "Oh, so THAT was actually MY character." Think they'll do the same thing to them in Diablo IV?

I did like how in this game when demons threaten all of mankind, they actually launch an assault on a town. I was also pleased with Act IV overall. Heaven was a refreshing change and a suitable stage for the final battle, even if it does remind me of the Protoss too much. At least the didn't make heaven this

Good call on the Protoss, and yeah, my dad was telling me that as part of the D3 informal economy, people we're offering their services as guides to take people to the Whimsyshire or Hell for like $50,000 gold.

Anyone else displeased with the class selection in this game? (looking at you witch doctor) The absence of a real support class sucks. Even the mercs for hire seem like potentially more interesting candidates. Sadly I'm already looking forward to an expansion.

And yeah, the classes aren't the best selection. I like what D2 offered a little more. As I've said before I had hoped for some kind of Dark Knight.

I think that's more perception than reality. I actually think they're more interesting than the stock classes from previous games, and the build system... no contest. It is like the tropical Skittles of Diablo classes, though. Fortunately, they still have my favorite flavor in there.

 

[seppuku]

Of course, and notice it was the only scene of its kind, with that awkward and unflattering close up on the in game graphics. Then she doesn't even go on to be a lingering threat or Act boss, though I was sure glad when she was gone.

Spoiler

If they were determined to kill Deckard Cain, why not after Leah transformed into Diablo? The cinematic could have made for a much cooler death.

A member of the forums came up with far more elaborate and imaginative suggestions than mine.This guy should be on the writing team:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5150111877