Game: Diablo III

http://www.blizzard.com/diablo3/

Blizzard put a teaser picture up on the front page a few days ago, and after some speculation of what game it was, it's announced that it is Diablo III.

I'm very excited at this, I remember all the good times playing Diablo II and the hours upon hours I spent on item finding. I haven't been playing too much PC games recently, but with D3 and SC2 announced, that should change whenever they are released.


Diablo 3 Comprehensive Information FAQ.


http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/5...2222223ky0.jpg

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

My god.. I never thought I would see the day when Diablo 3 would be announced...
This is the best video game related news I have heard since Starcraft II.

But.. What could be left after Diablo II ? What kind of demon will Blizzard take out of Hell for our pleasure?
(The site is not really Opera compatible.. It works with IE though..)

So far, I'm a bit disappointed by the red orb system thing.. I fear it might make the game too easy...
But at least there are some great addition, like ladders, awesome traps with loots, destructible environment, kill enemies with collapsing walls, massive swarm of enemies... etc...

Bwhahaha Cain still live! This seems to take place 20 years after Diablo II.. he just don't die.
"Stay a while and ____*
"It is time for shedding our enemies' blood, not idle talk."
"Aww no ones ever listen.."

I wonder who that girl in the teaser was... she looked like an important character...

Love the fact that we can now choose between Female and Male for each class. I hated being restricted to male/female only class...

Sweet, I've been waiting for this for a long time.

I only hope that this installment of the series will provide as many hours of enjoyment as its predecessors.

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Originally Posted by BioAlien

So far, I'm a bit disappointed by the red orb system thing.. I fear it might make the game... too easy...
But at least there are some great addition, like ladders, awesome traps with loots after, destructible environment, kill enemies with collapsing walls..

Bwhahaha Cain is still alive! This seems to take place many years after Diablo II, as Cain seems much older now.
"Stay a while and ____*
"It is time for shedding our enemies' blood, not idle talk." "Aww no ones ever listen.."

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The red orb worries me a bit as well, but as long as they don't heal too much, too fast, or appear too often it should be fine, and I agree the destructible environment looks great, it should add some more interactivity into the game. I also got a chuckle out of that conversation with Deckard Cain.


And you're right about it taking place many years after Diablo II, in the FAQ is says :

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It has been twenty years since the events of Diablo II. Of those who faced the Lords of Hatred, Terror, and Destruction in the battle over the fate of Sanctuary, there are few still living who can bear to remember the horrors that the Prime Evils wrought upon the world. And of those who did not witness the terrible events firsthand, most believe the stories to be little more than myth. But something evil is stirring once again in Tristram, and it may already have claimed its first victim: Deckard Cain.

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Man I'm excited about this game, maybe we could make a GotWoot clan in the future :D.

Edit : Oh, and I forgot to comment on it, but the boss biting the head off of the Barbarian in real time near the end of the game play trailer was awesome, hopefully there'll be a lot of detailed deaths like that in the game-- at least in the boss fights anyways.

Any word on when this game will actually be ready?

I didn't play the first Diablo as I wasn't into gaming at the time. Then when Diablo II came out, I heard too many reviews calling it a disappointment and saying how repetitive it was, so I didn't try it. I imagine they fixed any complaints in this new game.

Hmm... You still see Diablo II in bargain bins regularly. I wonder if I should check it out. It's certainly a well known title but for some reason I never played neither the first nor the second. Back then I didn't play RPGs that much at all (not on computers anyway).

They stated that it's only gonna have 5 character classes and since Barbarian and Witch Doctor are already revealed, there's only 3 left. Meh, seems like a crappy amount of variety. I would've preferred them to have implemented all of D2's classes and then some.

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Originally Posted by animus

They stated that it's only gonna have 5 character classes and since Barbarian and Witch Doctor are already revealed, there's only 3 left. Meh, seems like a crappy amount of variety. I would've preferred them to have implemented all of D2's classes and then some.

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I hope the other 3 classes are:

Assassin (we need something sneaky and dark)
Paladin ( fighting against evil without a "holy" class? IMPOSSIBLE)
Mage (we need more magic!)

I have trust in blizzard, but I really hope that at least the paladin and assassin are playable... but since they don't have a physical-range-class yet, one class is pretty much going to be the Amazone... :( I want my Paladin and Assassin 8[ blizzard, don't fail me and do what I say!

Or maybe they reveal another new class... like a rogue which is able to use daggers/bows with poison etc.

I don't think Blizz wants us to confuse Diablo with Warcraft, so I'm thinking that if they do have a rogue or mage class, it's going to be quite different than what you're talking about. I'm eager to get caught up in the storylines again.

Linking the two games could mean more success if kids do confuse the two, or decide to give the other a try since they enjoy one so much. A player who finishes Diablo III could see WoW as a way to continue developing his character, or vice versa.

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Originally Posted by python862

I don't think Blizz wants us to confuse Diablo with Warcraft, so I'm thinking that if they do have a rogue or mage class, it's going to be quite different than what you're talking about. I'm eager to get caught up in the storylines again.

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I'm talking about d2 classes and not WoW classes... the assassin was very powerfull (if not the most powerfull class) with a lot of poison charms and I'm just saying that I want something like that again... a martial arts-class, which is also playable with a bow + traps (trapsin)...well ya ok, since you threw warcraft in: pretty much like the hunter in WoW just without a pet and focussed on poison.
I don't like the amazon from d2, thats why I hope they combine the two classes.

btw I just said "mage" because I don't know how to spell "sorcerer" (d2 class) ^^

and the paladin was/is the coolest class in d2... big shield, heavy armor and god-given-powaaaaaaarrrgh

he's the perfect class to combine magic with physical skills.


The witchdoctor is btw just another name for "necromancer".... pretty much the same skills..the only difference is that he has firemagic and not bone-magic.

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Originally Posted by Animeniax

Linking the two games could mean more success if kids do confuse the two, or decide to give the other a try since they enjoy one so much. A player who finishes Diablo III could see WoW as a way to continue developing his character, or vice versa.

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I dont see that ever happening since any game Blizzard make is destined to be a great seller by now, and that is thanks to the quality of their games and the service that follows. Cant ever imagine that blizzard would be linking two different worlds together so that maybe some more kids will buy their games, they simply dont need it they will buy them anyways

Diablo 2 introduced skill trees, meanningful difrencess between charecters and broader, more vaired fields of action.
I didn't catch anything special about the third game. the site didn't say anything, but that's not so suprising, the game won't be released until 2012, at best.

also, I hate the site. I hate everysite that works with moving gifs and flash.

PC 2 weak? at least blizzard-sites don't need to load 5 minutes like some others... GRAW/LP/Overlord and so on.

I like it and all their other sites too (especially sc2)

Yaaay, this is the best gaming news I've heard in a long time, and D3 is now my most anticipated game.

I was obsessed with Diablo 2 back in the day and even these days from time to time I will reinstall it and mess around with my old characters. My friends and I would even hold dedicated LANs just to play it 24/7, back when we were at university. So much fun and a true lifestyle of the time for many.

It looks like they've done everything right this time around - the gameplay video looks amazing, I especially like the idea of the destructible environments. The boss battles looked impressive, and the boss one-shotting that Barbarian by biting his head off was a surprise, that will add another edge to all boss battles if they can do that.

Hmm, lots of people at various forums are saying they'll quit WoW for this, I wonder how many players WoW will lose. With D3 and SC2, who can tell? I know I will, WoW just needed something special to pry me away.

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Originally Posted by animus

They stated that it's only gonna have 5 character classes and since Barbarian and Witch Doctor are already revealed, there's only 3 left. Meh, seems like a crappy amount of variety. I would've preferred them to have implemented all of D2's classes and then some.

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You realize Diablo 2 only had 5 classes originally, right? They'll most likely add more in an expansion pack or something, they won't just leave them out.

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Originally Posted by Raven

The boss battles looked impressive, and the boss one-shotting that Barbarian by biting his head off was a surprise, that will add another edge to all boss battles if they can do that.

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I think this was just a fatality blow... he was going to die with the next hit

I don't think you can get caught with full health, that would be kinda unfair and add too much luck into a boss fight.

But I like it very much too. this way its more fun to play with friends. because you get to see something like this more often... this is truely not a singleplayer game anymore in my opinion... everyone who plays this alone is wasting its potential

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Originally Posted by Raven

Yaaay, this is the best gaming news I've heard in a long time, and D3 is now my most anticipated game.

I was obsessed with Diablo 2 back in the day and even these days from time to time I will reinstall it and mess around with my old characters. My friends and I would even hold dedicated LANs just to play it 24/7, back when we were at university. So much fun and a true lifestyle of the time for many.

It looks like they've done everything right this time around - the gameplay video looks amazing, I especially like the idea of the destructible environments. The boss battles looked impressive, and the boss one-shotting that Barbarian by biting his head off was a surprise, that will add another edge to all boss battles if they can do that.

Hmm, lots of people at various forums are saying they'll quit WoW for this, I wonder how many players WoW will lose. With D3 and SC2, who can tell? I know I will, WoW just needed something special to pry me away.


You realize Diablo 2 only had 5 classes originally, right? They'll most likely add more in an expansion pack or something, they won't just leave them out.

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What I meant was both D2 and it's expansion. But then again I would've preferred them having totally new unique classes instead of re-implementing the barbarian.

Best news for me today. yipeee!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4612...3_15_2012#blog

can anyone confirm this please? I'm a bit drunk right now, gotta go to sleep.

It's official, i preordered mine like an hour ago.

You pre-ordered a digital release? Oh lord....

I dislike physical copies of games, and the price difference of getting it retail was like 9$ or some such, i might aswell just get the digital one.

And while i don't get any actual benefit of pre-ordering it digitally, the same goes for waiting until release and then ordering it, so whats the point in waiting?

I'm getting a physical copy. I like seeing my collection of games on my shelf. We are kinda celebrating here in my office how the release date has been officially announced. yey!

Can't wait for this, never played any of the others as they weren't really in my time, but this looks great, love these type of games :)

I play World of Warcraft and they had an annual pass deal that lets you sign up for 12 month WoW subscription and you would receive Diablo 3 digital, an in-game mount in WoW and a beta key for the next WoW expansion (although i think they should have given us D3 beta instead >_<) when that launches. So i've already had D3 on my list of games on battle.net for a while. The 1 advantage it gives us that pre-order it digitally is that we get pre-download it so it's ready to go once the servers come up.

I'm with Penner. Physical copies are just a bother. I end up downloading it anyways from steam/origin/battle.net rather then installing it with the disc. And you get nothing with a physical copy that is useful in anyway unless you get a collectors edition. What i still don't get is why is it so much more expensive to buy digitally rather then a physical.

A physical copy needs a disc to be pressed, a case (and many times a big carton box) and a big ass manual. On top of that all parts need to be shipped to the same place to be assembled into the box you buy in a store (unless they make all of that on the same location). Then it needs to ship all over the world to middlemen that in their turn ship it to retailers. And in the end you can still DOWNLOAD by inserting the product key in to steam/origin/battle.net. A digital copy only needs to be downloaded and the only cost is the bandwidth (that shouldn't even count since physical buyers can use that too). So what is making digital cost around 25% more then a physical?

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What i still don't get is why is it so much more expensive to buy digitally rather then a physical.

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where and when is that the case?
even steam is cheaper thanks to deals, because most shops will always sell at the Suggested retail price(the same goes for steam btw when the game is not on sale)

if you buy the games on key-sites its *alot* cheaper though
around 33-50%...

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A physical copy needs a disc to be pressed, a case (and many times a big carton box) and a big ass manual.

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How I wish it were true.
the smell, the stories written in there, the pictures...

games don't have that anymore, witcher 2 is probably one of the few recent games which has the things you mentioned

Yeah, MW3 and every other COD really is cheaper online...oh wait no they aren't.
MW3 is still 60 euros online (steam), while I can get a boxed copy for 30, in fact the elite edition would cost me 50.
Steam deals are the only things that are worth it digitally, cause new releases are always the same as retail price or even higher.
I mean I got Batman arkham city CE at retail for 60, the standard edition is now 20 at retail...guess how much it still is on steam? full price 50 euros.
Plus a disc installs in 15-30 minutes, I don't generally download 11-30GB's in that speed.

I rolleyed at penner's pre-order, because pre-orders are a means of ensuring you are getting your copy, digital releases will never run out so a pre-order is almost like an oxymoron; especially seeing how no retail preorder deals have been disclosed yet.

Oh and most games I've bought recently have manuals with pictures and story...but yeah I guess it's a declining trend.

steam
lol
steam sold AoE3 as a deal for 20(?)€ even though you were able to download it for free (or 10cent) on gog or Windows live (can't remember) months before the deal.

and if you don't buy on amazon but at shops where they sell games among other things it will probably cost around 50-60€ too.

don't know about gamestop etc.

http://www.intkeys.com/index.php?mai...ahk22vohj4h6c3

mw3 @ 16€ atm

Cute how you went on an editing spree to justify your "lol steam" reply

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

steam
lol
steam selled AoE3 as a deal for 20(?)€ even though you were able to download it for free (or 10cent) on gog or Windows live (can't remember) months before the deal.

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More like Digital releases lol:
Retail
BAC 20 normal
MW3 30 normal

gamersgate
BAC 50 normal/ no deal
MW3 NOT AVAILABLE

gamestop PC
BAC 40 normal/ 20 deal

Gamesplanet
BAC 50 normal/ 40 deal
MW3 60 normal/ 40 deal

GMG
BAC 50 normal/ 40 deal
MW3 50 normal/ 44 deal

getgames
BAC 50 normal/ no deal
MW3 NOT AVAILABLE

Desura (intkeys)
BAC 16 normal ( till they run out)
MW3 40 normal/ 16 deal (till they run out)

GoG
BAC NOT AVAILABLE
MW3 NOT AVAILABLE

GFWL
BAC 50 normal/ no deal
MW3 NOT AVAILABLE

Gaikai
BAC NOT AVAILABLE
MW3 NOT AVAILABLE

onlive
BAC 50 normal/ 25 deal
MW3 NOT AVAILABLE

As you can see only one outlet gave reasonable pricing, and they run out of keys; MW3 even requires the user to setup a VPN because the key won't work otherwise, and regardless of how easy that may be, it's still annoying.
And even then I still need to wait a lot longer to actually download the files, while said retail disc installs in a fraction of the time.

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and if you don't buy on amazon but at shops where they sell games among other things it will probably cost around 50-60€ too.

don't know about gamestop etc.

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...I couldn've sworn I adressed this in my previous post? Comparing digital to retail, and I'm not from the US, didn't me using euros not make that clear? So no Amazon or Gamestop.

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Cute how you went on an editing spree to justify your "lol steam" reply

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well I decided to add some reasons, sry.
I edit my comments like 20 times *after* I posted it btw, it turned out to be a habit of mine to post stuff before reading it again. just like I'd do in a chat.

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...I couldn've sworn I adressed this in my previous post? Comparing digital to retail, and I'm not from the US, didn't me using euros not make that clear? So no Amazon or Gamestop.

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wtf are you talking about?
whenever I go to the next shop in germany where they sell games, like "Müller" or "Karstadt", MW3 will cost me ~50€
If I go to intkeys, the game will cost me 16€
thats it, nothing to add.
if its a deal or not doesn't matter, you won't have those deals in your store around the corner here
I've yet to see a store which is cheaper than a key-store.

Amazon is probably the cheapest place to buy games whenever you want the box in Germany.
both BAC and MW3 cost over 30€ there,

to sum it up:

Price: Store>Amazon(+co.uk retailers)>Keysites


which brings me back to the question

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where and when is that the case?

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country and time after release?

Battlefield 3 on origin cost $60 dollars on launch but I got my physical Limited Edition copy on a local retail store for only 1600 pesos, that's around $37 dollars. All the other games I have seen on steam/origin is always more expensive than the physical copy. I too does not get why the digital copy is much expensive.

From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4963739

Was just gonna post this. Almost done with the beta download. Only like 10 hours left until it starts now.

BTW do you guys have any idea what you gonna play as your first character yet when the game release is here? I'm gonna play a Witch Doctor if this beta play-trough don't change my mind. I thought i was gonna play Demon Hunter at first but the more i have thought about it i decided to play WD instead. But i also have an open mind about Wizard. All i know is that my first is not gonna be a melee.

Demon Hunter
or Babarian

most likely Demon Hunter though, because I prefer range classes.

Just got finished playing through as Monk. Took me about 3 hours. Really enjoyed it though. It's been a while since I've played D2, took me a bit to get used to, but it was fun.

I completed Demon Huntress, Witch Doctor, and Monk (all female models) on Diablo 3 beta.

I love the Demon Huntress look and skills. Balanced and useful.
Witch doctor was great at mobs, but it was a pain killing Leoric because he teleports to you. I actually died once (due to my own lack of attention) but never even got hit when using the demon huntress (Leoric gets stunned...)
The monk attacks look cool, but it was all glitchy when I was using her. I leveled far faster and was fighting tougher enemies even though I was not doing multiplayer. Must have been a glitch that caused the system to think I was playing with a party even though I was solo with the game not open to the public.

Played it during the weekend and pretty much confirmed the character choices i already had in mind for release, gonna go with Barb as my first character and Monk as second.

Game ran really well on my 2½ year old pc, but thats nothing really surprising since Blizzard games are known to run pretty well on damn near every system ^_^

As if 2.5 years is a lot. The 360 is almost 7 years old you know..

In PC terms i consider 2.5 years without an upgrade quite long, and my pc wasn't really high-end to begin with, and since i haven't owned a console since the PS2 i couldn't care less about those.

It doesn't matter if you "couldn't care less about those", the industry is console driven and diablo 3's graphical fidelity is in line with "console graphics".
Unless it's a game from creative assembly or crytek, it's foolish to think a 2.5 y/o system would be outdated in a 7 year old industry.

Monk is really tough to use. Barb is as easy as it ever was. Wiz damage is just so broken. Good thing they are glass cannons.

Definitely Demon Hunter when the servers go live.

I played the open beta, which is really more of a demo. Unfortunately you really don't get far enough into the skill/rune system to experience any interesting choices or whatever, but it does seem reasonably deep and accessible (and I definitely had more powers at level 10 in D3 than I did at level 10 in D2). It seems like they overreacted to people bitching about how colorful the original previews were, because Act 1 looks like it's taking place at midnight during a goth convention.

Can anyone hook me up with a trial code? No way i can afford it at 60$ right now but i'd like to give it a try, if nothing else at least to see what all the hype's about.

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Originally Posted by Archangel

Can anyone hook me up with a trial code? No way i can afford it at 60$ right now but i'd like to give it a try, if nothing else at least to see what all the hype's about.

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Why didn't you play a few weekends back when it was open?
I dunno. Two hours in and all I had been doing was clicking the left mouse button. Over and over and over.
It doesn't even feel like there's much of a tactical difference between the classes. They all have the same pick and choose of range, aoe, freezing spells, etc.

I think people expectations were a bit too high. It's Diablo through and through. You right click, shit dies and loot drops.
I'm enjoying Monk right now with the different combos, but the game really is too easy so far. I think i need to play on hardcore mode now that i got level 10.

Was watching some pro-gaming stream where they were doing hardcore 4 man runs and it looks pretty frantic, so i think that's the way to go if you're not enjoying the game.

Blizzard dropped the ball with all the access issues.

This is pretty much how it was with Starcraft 2 at launch. It's a shame but i pretty much expects this for every major release that requires online.

I've been able to get on without any real issues except last night.

Man I fucking love this game! I chose the Demon Hunter class and I'm on level 18, ACT 2. Didn't play Diablo 1/2 so this is kinda new to me, had an idea I'd like this game though as I enjoy the style. I say I'll clock a lot more time on this as I want to try some of the other classes too :)

Oh and I wouldn't call it that easy. Fair enough ACT 1 is piss, especially if you're playing co-op, but so far I've been playing ACT 2 on my own and I notice it's a lot more difficult.

I'm a level 11 monk and I'm disappointed in the lack of attack options. Is this the same for all the classes early on? I was hoping the monk would have some magic casting abilities, otherwise he's mostly a nimble warrior type.

Level 37 Demon Huntress, and the nightmare difficulty is a lot easier in D3 than D2, mainly because the death penalty is so cheap.

Yep, 36 Monk here and i'm kinda breezing through Nightmare.

@Animeniax
You need to get to around level 25 to have your full attack range available for like every class.
Go to the option > gameplay and turn on "Elective Mode". This will allow you to fully customize and equip any skill to any slot.

In my opinion, this game has potential for more depth than D2. There isn't a "wrong" or "right" build and everything else is inferior. I've gotten good result mix and matching several set of abilities and some have great synergy. So far I've done Tank/Single target DPS/AOE wave clearing/Aura + heal/Enemy debuff focus with monk and i can see a few more set of skill combos to try once i learned all of the runes.

Monk is also interesting because each of the primary skill is useful for different situation, there's even a passive skill you learn the encourage the use of multiple primaries at once.

Some examples:

If we have a Barb in the team and he's tanking, i'll go something like this to reduce damage everyone takes , If i'm the one tanking i'll go something like this. Nightmare isn't as hard as D2, but i'm starting to see some really nasty elite packs with evil abilities combo (fuck walling/arcane) so i think something like debuff build might be useful on hell difficulty.

58 Witch Doctor right now. I'm on Act3 Hell. For those that say this is easy haven't tried Hell that's for sure. Sure the penalty is cheap. But that doesn't make it easier. I'm in the first tower with the Sin Heart and man i wiped for an hour now with 2 different groups. On hell all rare spawns and champions have 3 abilitys. They can get some crazy combo's. Like Frozen, Jailer and Arcane Enchanted. Can't imagine what Inferno will be like.

Sounds awesome. Can't wait to go to hell.

LOL...

Breezing through hell by just mindlessly AoEing everything down with three friends at the moment, currently playing a 57 witch doctor on act 3. Hopefully act 4 or inferno will ramp up the difficulty enough >:(

It's lots of fun but I'm a bit fearful about the openness off the auction house in the end game, just buy the best gear!

the game is difficult enough already while normal group of mobs are no problem at all, nearly every blue/yellow elite pack one shots me and needs a lot of kiting work. (lol @ ridiculous elite packs with all 3 enhancements like "Frozen, Jailer, Waller"... or "Jailer+Mortar"
the fact that you can't equip yourself doesn't help either, so the auction house is probably the only way to get decent items

i haven't found a single item on nightmare worth keeping and we are now playing hell with equipment I gathered in Normal mode...its annoying.
the smiths doesn't offer anything worth crafting either, I shouldn't have spent a single gold on that guy

All in all I've to say that D3 is by far the worst game Blizzard released so far, very...very very weak story, bad voice acting, some of the worst dialogues I've seen and disney villains.
I'd like to see some more skillslots too, 6 are simply not enough for what I'd like to have.

can't believe it took them so long to release the game, feels like a job any decent company could achieve in 2 years or so.

You think it took them more than 2 years? Hahahahahahhahaha

Finally got to hell, and my Demon Huntress simply cannot survive well solo. She has great damage, but is so weak, like a glass cannon. Elite enemies beat the shit out of me a few times before I manage to kill them... slowly.

whats your build?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...QVT!aYe!YbbabZ

im going with this on hell
both solo and grp.

I'd like to switch hungering arrow to something else... the Bola-shot looks nice, especially the stun version against bosses/elites.

I use my own. I generally don't use (or even look at) set builds because I enjoy creating my own.

The build is similar, but without the pet.

I use a skill slot for Mortal Enemy, which I use against bosses/elites with Rapid Fire.

18 hours played, act 3 on normal, level 27 monk. Not sure how many hours you guys are playing to be on higher difficulties with such high level characters.

Blizzard has its shit down, releasing at the start of summer vacation.

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Originally Posted by Animeniax

18 hours played, act 3 on normal, level 27 monk. Not sure how many hours you guys are playing to be on higher difficulties with such high level characters.

Blizzard has its shit down, releasing at the start of summer vacation.

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So I'm in act 1 on nightmare with a level 33 monk.

This is my grind setup:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ifQ!cbX!aZZZZa

This is my power setup:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...djQ!cbX!ZZaZZa

One thing I especially love to do with the grind setup is combine cyclone with lashing tail or wave of light to alternate drawing enemies into me and knocking them away.

I also have some heavy vitality buffs on my gear, too. I think my monk has like 3600 hitpoints right now.

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Originally Posted by Assertn

So I'm in act 1 on nightmare with a level 33 monk.

I also have some heavy vitality buffs on my gear, too. I think my monk has like 3600 hitpoints right now.

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I went the other direction, sacrificing hp for damage. My level 27 monk has 1250hp, 705 armor, and 205 dps. He annihilates swarms of mobs and bosses quickly, but is susceptible to high damage attacks (I've died 4 times total, twice to Belial and twice to getting swarmed).

If I do play the higher difficulties, I'll probably switch to demon hunter or use the monk but beef up his hp and defense.

Holy shit, saw some of my buddies' characters (level 59 and 60) and they have ~15000 dps. WTF?? Makes my 205 seem puny now.

The high vitality stats make my healing spells more useful. As far as damage, I'm currently going through nightmare act I and still feel like I'm killing stuff pretty fast. If you're overkilling, then you're not gaining anything from the buffs.

Oh I was wrong about my monk's health, btw. It's actually closer to 10000.

I completed normal at around 15 hours on pure solo. It took less to complete nightmare because I had a party. Hell is taking a lot more time.

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Originally Posted by Assertn

The high vitality stats make my healing spells more useful. As far as damage, I'm currently going through nightmare act I and still feel like I'm killing stuff pretty fast. If you're overkilling, then you're not gaining anything from the buffs.

Oh I was wrong about my monk's health, btw. It's actually closer to 10000.

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Not sure why my stats seem so puny at level 27. Maybe everything scales up when you move to nightmare mode? I've surviving everything the game throws at me on normal difficulty, so I guess I'm where I should be stats wise.

I think Monk has the most puny DPs out there. With mg lvl 54 monk, I can't even pass 1k DPS. Although I don't really have any good equips to be proud of but it is decent. We are pretty much farming rare equipment right now for latter levels of hell. And don't bother thinking up combos for monks in the late game, there is pretty much 1 build you can use to survive hell alone or be useful in a party :(.

That's weird, I'm hearing that monks are essential in groups to succeed in the tougher difficulty levels, particularly as a tank.

I wonder if our puny dps is made up for by the number of attacks per second we're able to make. When I throw the fists of fury combos, I hit the mobs several times in a row in succession.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

I completed normal at around 15 hours on pure solo. It took less to complete nightmare because I had a party. Hell is taking a lot more time.

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Are you exploring/scouring every corner of every area? I'm at hour ~20 and still on act 3, level 29.

@Oyabun
At 53 Monk i'm doing around 2k DPS with 30k hp and 150~ resistance to everything using 1hand + shield.

If you're talking about the MoH spam build, that really only works on hell or below. I have 3 friends who are all Monks in inferno right now and they're using very different builds. I think tank monk is the only viable build for inferno though, since i haven't seen anyone post a DPS monk build for it.

In my opinion the best way to go is Vit > Resist > Dex in term of stat allocation.

This is the skill set i'm using. I have lifesteal on my main weapon, and with this set i'm able to tank through some really dumb elite packs (arcane/invulnerable minion/freezing).

But your DPS rating is still low in comparison to the other classes. Animeniax is right, Monk are really essential to a party with its defensive and healing abilities.

Yea that what I said for the latter part of the game, the tank build seems to be the best option to survive hell to inferno. Don't bother being alone though, I read in the forums that the melee types is doomed in inferno. What skill build are you using now Dark Dragon?

I am also using a shield atm for farming and tank purposes and yea my 1 hand weapon sucks, hence the 900 DPS. I pretty much hope to change that after this "farming" period.

Level 43 Monk doing 780 dps and 8000 total life. Just started act 3 Nightmare and I do OK at the moment. My skill set.

I do OK for the most part, but I do die alot. Waiting to see if I can get some good drops or if I can get some good items from the blacksmith.

got hacked today hnnggg.

and I just found out that blizzard will only reset d3 characters 2 times a year.
its not like I've already used it up, but it still sucks to know that someone in China knows your password and the next time this is going to happen will be the last time you can ask for support.

authenticator takes weeks to deliver too (bought it at the same time as the game)... I don't get why they didn't sell it with the game itself.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

got hacked today hnnggg.

and I just found out that blizzard will only reset d3 characters 2 times a year.
its not like I've already used it up, but it still sucks to know that someone in China knows your password and the next time this is going to happen will be the last time you can ask for support.

authenticator takes weeks to deliver too (bought it at the same time as the game)... I don't get why they didn't sell it with the game itself.

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Did someone just guess your pword? Was it a simple pword?

nope, most likely china men doing their gold selling business

@Oyabun

Blizzard pretty much designed Monk and WD to be more utility oriented rather than damage. I can probably get close to DH or Mage damage-wise if i do dual-wield and a full dex build. The problem has to do more with damage melee builds being gimp in Inferno like you said.

On the upside, Barbarian and Monk are the only ones who can solo Inferno up to act 2.

I have a skill build in my last post. What i'm was using up till now was the Mantra of Healing + Shield Rune combine with high spirit generation attack to abuse the constant 15% shield for the party that it generate. Combine that with Blade Storm and Air Ally to generate high constant damage. This build is really broken for anything below hell because it will guaranteed that you will never die.

Now that i'm seeing harder content, it's not really cutting it anymore. I'm switching to a more debuff oriented tank build that focuses on reducing enemies damage while maximizing resistance/health.

I can't stress how dumb the Moh shield build is. I can walk into any elite packs in nightmare and stay alive just by holding down left click and constantly spam the aura button. I think this is definitely going to get nerf sometime soon.

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On the upside, Barbarian and Monk are the only ones who can solo Inferno up to act 2.

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what makes you think that, every class can do it, and I believe the first one to solo inferno completely has been a mage.

I'm mostly curious what's going to happen with the auction house. Things are getting a bit nuts over there the past few days, and in a bad way. Two days ago a perfect square gem would go for about 300,000g, and now it's closer to 85,000g. The market's getting over saturated it seems. It's not even profitable to combine gems up to flawless square anymore.

Wail till the real money system comes online. All the goodiess will go there and the gold auction items will look like crap.

Yeah the auction house is abit worrying, since theres almost no use what-so-ever for items you find, because you can easily gear up with vastly superior items for ridiculously low amounts of gold, and blacksmithing seems completely useless.

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Originally Posted by Assertn

I'm mostly curious what's going to happen with the auction house. Things are getting a bit nuts over there the past few days, and in a bad way. Two days ago a perfect square gem would go for about 300,000g, and now it's closer to 85,000g. The market's getting over saturated it seems. It's not even profitable to combine gems up to flawless square anymore.

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I'm sure you know pretty well why gems sell for less than x days ago, you can always remove them... thats something you couldn't do in D2 and thats why you can't trade with them in D3.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

I'm sure you know pretty well why gems sell for less than x days ago, you can always remove them... thats something you couldn't do in D2 and thats why you can't trade with them in D3.

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Yes, I'm aware of that. However, gems above flawless square can only be crafted by players, and to craft a perfect square costs 30,000g + 3 tomes of secrets + 3 flawless square gems, which totals to about 60,000g just to make the gem. Then, to account for the 15% transaction fee at the AH, the gem has to sell for at least 71,000g just to break even. It's hardly worth the ridiculously expensive setup fee for the artisian crafting skill, as I can make more than the profit margin by just grinding for 15 minutes.

I finished normal mode and started nightmare. I don't typically replay games and I'm not really seeing a reason to play D3 again with the same character. Is there any reason to play through the 3 remaining modes besides to say I did it?

I especially don't like that you have to play with the same character class. I want to try demon hunter or witch doctor, but I don't want to play through normal mode again.

the reason to play through all that again is the difficulty and the urge to improve your character and to see all the runes/spells etc.

thats all.

The challenge is what makes harder modes interesting. Still, I don't intend to play Inferno. It is too much of a timesink, so I will just switch to a wizard and create a battle mage.

Just hit 60 and in Act 4 of Hell. Azmodan has to be the easiest boss in the game.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

The challenge is what makes harder modes interesting. Still, I don't intend to play Inferno. It is too much of a timesink, so I will just switch to a wizard and create a battle mage.

Just hit 60 and in Act 4 of Hell. Azmodan has to be the easiest boss in the game.

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Pretty much. Nightmare mode feels like a different game because you can actually die if you're playing stupid.

I liked nightmare over hell just because there is less frustration, that, and you are still leveling a lot.

Wow, nightmare is already a good deal tougher than normal. You have to pay attention and be more strategic. I'm going to swap dex/dps eq for more hp/vitality eq so I don't risk dying. First sub-boss had me hurting, though not in real danger.

I hope they implement a character swapping system. I'd like to play through nightmare with a new character type with comparable stats for that difficulty (level 30+, decent stats).

With the cash you have, you can buy abnormally good gear for your normal character and breeze through it to get to nightmare.

In any case, Act I is a far cry from Act II in any of the difficulties.

I do recommend finishing Hell because even the creators said that is technically the official end of the game. Inferno is end game material.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

what makes you think that, every class can do it, and I believe the first one to solo inferno completely has been a mage.

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Guess i was mistaken then, it's good to know that any class can finish it.

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Originally Posted by shinta|hikari

With the cash you have, you can buy abnormally good gear for your normal character and breeze through it to get to nightmare.

In any case, Act I is a far cry from Act II in any of the difficulties.

I do recommend finishing Hell because even the creators said that is technically the official end of the game. Inferno is end game material.

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I wonder if fast-leveling a character through normal mode will give me the skill and experience I need to use the character effectively in the harder modes. I've considered either loading up awesome equip or grouping with friends to fast level through normal, but I don't want to use a character whose skills I'm not familiar with in the higher difficulty levels.

It's not so bad using the monk to go through nightmare after all. His HP and dex make his survivability high while still killing most stuff pretty easily.

Didn't have much trouble in Act 1 on nightmare with my monk. If you're soloing, you should make sure to prioritize AoE with stun/knockback and a Serenity skill. I also like having an elemental ally to help aggro, too.

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Originally Posted by KrayZ33

what makes you think that, every class can do it, and I believe the first one to solo inferno completely has been a mage.

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Both the successful Wizard soloing builds were obvious "unintentional use of game mechanics" and have both been patched out. In addition the solo builds relied on skipping ALL the optional trash, because even one or two really nasty mods on a champion/elite pack are more dangerous than an act boss. If you are fully geared in top inferno act 1 gear as a wizard you will get one shot killed by the trash at the start of act 2. It's impossible to defeat most trash without a dedicated tank or some kind of exploit build.

Inferno balance is going to be a big issue. I don't think Blizzard really knows how to have a skill-testing encounter within this game engine yet. Act bosses are pretty much as simple as normal mode with the caveat that you die in one hit and there's a berserk timer that comes into play when you bring a full group, while some champion packs are so fast and do so much damage it's tough to see how they could theoretically be defeated, even with the best possible gear. That isn't a fair or interesting challenge.

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Originally Posted by Assertn

Didn't have much trouble in Act 1 on nightmare with my monk. If you're soloing, you should make sure to prioritize AoE with stun/knockback and a Serenity skill. I also like having an elemental ally to help aggro, too.

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Yeah it hasn't been bad at all, just more challenging. I've yet to die in nightmare with my monk because I've incorporated fleeing into my strategy, something I didn't need to do in normal mode. Definitely utilizing AoE with knockback to keep from being surrounded and wailed on, plus mantra of healing to keep me alive. And my elemental ally has been a mainstay since I got the skill at level 22. He's awesome, almost unfair, like a beefed up companion who you can repeatedly summon. I do miss 7 sided strike but it's less effective than it seems.

Too much Diablo, not enough time to watch anime.

My social life is going to the shitter with this game :rolleyes:

Just finished Hell with my DH and I must say I have lost 90% of my interest in this game. I currently have a wiz on normal, but I don't have the energy to play it. I have played almost 80 hours of the game in the last 10 days, so I guess that makes sense.

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Originally Posted by Y

Both the successful Wizard soloing builds were obvious "unintentional use of game mechanics" and have both been patched out. In addition the solo builds relied on skipping ALL the optional trash, because even one or two really nasty mods on a champion/elite pack are more dangerous than an act boss. If you are fully geared in top inferno act 1 gear as a wizard you will get one shot killed by the trash at the start of act 2. It's impossible to defeat most trash without a dedicated tank or some kind of exploit build.

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I believe having a tank won't help at all, I'm having a much better time with my DH playing solo in act 2.
I can run around with 5 neph-stacks all the time, while my monk buddy with 534 resis, 4,6k armor and 1k life on hit has much more problems because he's melee. (I run around with less than half)

If I try to help him, then my tactic won't work anymore because they have to many healthpoints and they'll deal more damage to my monk buddy.

its just sad, the game is alot more difficult on inferno with friends than it is alone

That's true if your partner is melee.

I'm having a ton of trouble with the Spider Queen on Inferno. The main issue is that my laptop only has an onboard graphics card, and the game is lagging like crazy in the Arranea stages with all the web and nonsense splayed on the screen. If there was no lag, she'd be a piece of cake, but when she teleports around while you are frozen in place, things are not so nice.

I just beat Belial on nightmare and it wasn't nearly as hard as it was in normal mode.

The trick is to highlight below for the spoiler:
Stay right in the middle and attack his torso. You will avoid 95% of his attacks that way.

I'm still enjoying the game, but I can't see myself playing another round after I finish nightmare mode.

Okay, so I just found out that I have been playing Diablo 3 until Inferno with a handicap.

I just tried lowering the resolution, and the performance became super smooth. My DPS also increased in reality. Apparently, when the lag slows down your movement and attacks, it is reflected in the damage. But the best thing about it is that vault actually works. Apparently, I was seeing the attack animation after it has happened before this change, so I had to predict when attacks were landing instead of reacting to them, thinking the whole time that it was the same for all players.

I just finished the Spider Queen in 1 try after lowering res. It was so easy it was funny.

Thinking back, I could have saved dozens of hours had I done this from the beginning. The game looks much smoother and nicer as well.