Game: Diablo III

[Assertn]

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.

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.

[Animeniax]

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.

[KrayZ33]

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.

[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.

[Assertn]

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.

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

[shinta|hikari]

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

[Animeniax]

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).

[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.

[Dark Dragon]

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

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

[Animeniax]

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.

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.

[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.

[Y]

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

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.

[Animeniax]

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.

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.

[animus]

Too much Diablo, not enough time to watch anime.

[gos27]

My social life is going to the shitter with this game

[shinta|hikari]

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.

[KrayZ33]

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.

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

[shinta|hikari]

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.

[Animeniax]

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.

[shinta|hikari]

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.