Diablo III: Not Just a Vitality Race!

[Corvus]

An initial few thoughts. First what could use some improving.

Either the maps are too big or movement is too slow. Seems like you do a lot of jogging around to get places.

For melee oriented, having your primary attack and movement as the same key seems to result in a lot of running around in circles not attacking enemies at times.

Wasn't there meant to be a pick up everything command, or am I thinking of another game? And a toggle to show the names of all points of interest on the map (ie stumps, logs, piles or stones etc) would also be nice.

That said, the game is a lot of fun. I started with the Witch Doctor, got him to level 5, then decided to have a look at the others. Tried the Barbarian but it didn't really amaze me. Then tried the Monk. He is now level 10 and having a lot of fun with kicks and punches that wreck groups of enemies. Only had one rare drop so far - a staff. Not a particularly useful one for the monk either. It only has vitality for a stat on it, so it may end up being disenchanted for crafting mats.

Currently having him wielding a 1H axe that gives life on a hit AND as a percentage of damage. Have been wielding a bucker in the off hand, but reading the monk forums suggests dual wield is better - if you have a good enough off hand weapon.

[Ramza00]

For people who need to upgrade the video card of their desktops here are my recommendations. Note I am recommend video cards that don't require a 6 pin supplemental power connection, and thus will work with most computers stock power supplies. They will not work if your psu is less than 250w, but will work alright if you have a prebuilt computer that is 300w or higher.

• For 720p on low settings with about 60fps
• Radeon 6570 with ddr3 or 6670 with ddr3. The 6570 with ddr3 and the 6670 with ddr3 are the same exact card but the 6670 is a card that is dual slot and the 6570 is not. Do not pay extra for the 6670 with ddr3. The 6670 with gddr5 is much faster see below.
• This card goes for about 60

• For 1080p on high settings with about 50fps
• Radeon 6670 with gddr5, this card is about 25% faster than a 6570 with ddr3. The 25% faster means you can get higher graphical settings.
• This card goes for about 90.

• For 1080p on all high settings at 60fps+ probably in the 75 to 80 area.
• Radeon 7750, this card is about 70% faster than a 6570 with ddr3
• This card goes for $105 to 110

For processor you need a dual core either a core 2, an i3, or a phenom or better. Diablo 3 doesn't need a great processor.

Toms Hardware also did a review here
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...mark,3195.html
Note the 7750 is not listed on that chart. The 6770 and 7750 get very similar performance but the 7750 uses newer technology allowing less power consumption and thus the lack of a 6 pin supplemental power being needed.

I do not recommend any geforce card less than a 450 or 550 for a new card. A 6570 is faster than a 440 or 430 and is cheaper than a 440 or 430. The 450 and 550 on the other hand are great cards but need a six pin. If you have a power supply that provides a six pin connection then I would also recommend these cards.

[Karoht]

So I'm a limitless confused by builds now, from what it seems to me I'm very limited in terms of options. Which sucks, so I hope I am wrong.

Click options, gameplay, check elective mode, if you haven't already.

Story looks good so far, is the Demonhunter related to the Amazon? She spoke about her sister, and given the sorceress and assassin's backstory tge amazon seems the most likely.

Given what is stated about the Demon Hunters and where they come from in Book of Cain, likely not. I'll elaborate more once I get home and get the book back in my hands. Geography is what disagrees here. Luckily, the Book of Cain also features a map of Sanctuary.

PS-The Artbook from the collectors edition and Book of Cain go rather nicely together.


Edit-Okay, the Amazons come from the Skovos Isles and are from the Askarii civilization. The Demon Hunters came from Ivgorod and moved into the areas south of Mt Arreat, with the Skovos Isles quite a ways away to the south end of the map.

[Starwulf]

So, happy happy joy joy, you guys were correct. Played D3 all night long(from 4:30 till 1 this afternoon), and it barely budged my data cap meter :)

[Katana_Geldar]

Edit-Okay, the Amazons come from the Skovos Isles and are from the Askarii civilization. The Demon Hunters came from Ivgorod and moved into the areas south of Mt Arreat, with the Skovos Isles quite a ways away to the south end of the map.

So, who was the demonhunter's sister that went insane then? The DI rogue/Blood Raven?

[MammonAzrael]

So, who was the demonhunter's sister that went insane then? The DI rogue/Blood Raven?

I believe that Blood Raven was intended to be the Rogue from the Original Diablo (the Sorcerer became The Summoner). In fact my biggest dislike of Diablo 3 is the retcon making the nameless Warrior of the first game into Leoric's son. I much preferred him as the nameless valiant hero that left a huge impact upon the world without an identity.

[The_Jackal]

I like the voice actors, but the fact that you say what the game wants you to say seems rather old hat. I know this is not a Bioware game, but maybe I've been spoiled by the dialogue.

I have to differ with you, personally. Coming off SW:TOR, where you're confronted with 3 utterly meaningless dialogue choices and being punished for picking the wrong one (by affection loss from your companion), I'm much, much happier that they put the development time into making the GAME better, instead of blowing money recording dialogue whose outcome changes nothing but an integer next my companion's portrait.

[Othesemo]

Okay, I've been playing since 2:30 this morning. I need some sleep.

Awesome game, so far. I'm running monk and my brother's running witch doctor. It's a good combination.

[Katana_Geldar]

I believe that Blood Raven was intended to be the Rogue from the Original Diablo (the Sorcerer became The Summoner). In fact my biggest dislike of Diablo 3 is the retcon making the nameless Warrior of the first game into Leoric's son. I much preferred him as the nameless valiant hero that left a huge impact upon the world without an identity.

They did WHAT???!!?? That's...that's...

Leoric only had one son, Prince Albecht who becomes Diablo. And it goes against how Cain says that they never caught the Dark Wanderer's name.

Is he illegitimate?

I have to differ with you, personally. Coming off SW:TOR, where you're confronted with 3 utterly meaningless dialogue choices and being punished for picking the wrong one (by affection loss from your companion), I'm much, much happier that they put the development time into making the GAME better, instead of blowing money recording dialogue whose outcome changes nothing but an integer next my companion's portrait.

This is why I have Quinn with me now, it was annoying to lose affection to Vette because I'm evil and pro-Imperial.

[MammonAzrael]

They did WHAT???!!?? That's...that's...

Leoric only had one son, Prince Albecht who becomes Diablo. And it goes against how Cain says that they never caught the Dark Wanderer's name.

Is he illegitimate?

No, he is not. Many of the details can be picked up in The Book of Cain. I don't know how much is easily consumable in game (for obvious reasons ), but I know he's mentioned by name (Aiden). He is, in fact, Leoric's eldest son, returning from afar to slay his cursed father and explore the Cathedral. I like the other stuff they came up with for him (that I know of so far), just not the fact that he's Leoric's son.

[Katana_Geldar]

No, he is not. Many of the details can be picked up in The Book of Cain. I don't know how much is easily consumable in game (for obvious reasons ), but I know he's mentioned by name (Aiden). He is, in fact, Leoric's eldest son, returning from afar to slay his cursed father and explore the Cathedral. I like the other stuff they came up with for him (that I know of so far), just not the fact that he's Leoric's son.

They screwed up the one thing that kept me with Diablo, the story. I even read all of the books and transcribed them in the first game, and played the second with a touchpad.

[MammonAzrael]

They screwed up the one thing that kept me with Diablo, the story. I even read all of the books and transcribed them in the first game, and played the second with a touchpad.

While there is a part of me that completely agrees with you, as the facelessness of the Warrior/Dark Wanderer was just terrific and really added to the atmosphere of the world, try not to think about it too much. On a grand scale it really doesn't make a huge difference...at least, I'm hoping his "true" parentage isn't anything more than an "Oh, and he was that dude's kid." If it turns out to be a plot point...then I'll be truly upset.

[Katana_Geldar]

Particularly when it seems that being possessed by a prime evil seems to run in the family...

[Ogremindes]

My CE arrived! Installing now.

My battletag is Ogremindes#1316

[ex cathedra]

I've never actually encountered people with strong feelings towards Diablo's lore before. It always struck me as somewhat lacking and tacked-on to what was otherwise a random number generator.

Just a thought. Nothing much better to do, considering that the NA servers are down again.

The game was alright while I could actually play it, though. It controls pretty well but the more I look at the skills the more apparent their lack of depth becomes. Oh well. The perspective is really comfortable; comparatively, the D2/Titan Quest/Path of Exile perspective feels a bit constrictive.

I didn't pay a lot of attention to pre-release information regarding D3, but when I learned that there wasn't a skill-point system I realized that all damage would have to be weapon-based to make Wizards scale. Eugh. I mean, it's balanced and intuitive given the nature of D3, but it makes me uncomfortable. It's even based on flat damage, rather than DPS, so it seems to me that unless you come across rather strong off-hands your best bet will be using large two-handers for optimal spell damage. Feels a bit silly and certainly doesn't mesh well thematically. I don't have enough experience to say for sure yet, though.

[Anarion]

I got the game earlier today. Had various things to do, so I only got a wizard to level 10 so far. I've been running with their intended model (i.e. I left elective mode off) just to see what they were thinking, but as soon as I get one more slot I'm probably going to turn it off. Shockwave looks amazing by the way, I want to high-five whoever made that animation.

One question that I can't quite tell. Does weapon attack speed affect how fast a wizard can fire magic missile et al?

My battletag is Anarion55 #1254

edit: @aethernox, the wizard unique offhands (called orbs) add to your damage. At least for the early levels the damage I'm getting from 1-hander+orb is just slightly better than the 2-handers I'm seeing drop.

[ex cathedra]

One question that I can't quite tell. Does weapon attack speed affect how fast a wizard can fire magic missile et al?

I was wondering the same thing; I did a minute amount of testing, but I'm fairly certain that the cast animation for Magic Missile, and perhaps others, is identical to the swing animation of your equipped weapon, and thus takes the same amount of frames. So, yes. On the other hand, slower weapons are probably for valuable simply because they contribute more damage to burst damage sources (e.g. Arcane Orb which is OP) and channeled damage sources (e.g. Frost Ray or whatever it's called).

Edit:
Even Blizzard's websites are crushing under the weight of the end of day-one. I can't even browse crafting recipes.

[Katana_Geldar]

I've never actually encountered people with strong feelings towards Diablo's lore before. It always struck me as somewhat lacking and tacked-on to what was otherwise a random number generator.

I always liked the story, even in the first game, and took the time to read all the books with my sisters when we played. We had no manual when we first played, had no idea who Diablo was (other than being evil and the boss) and worked out Prince Albrecht, Lazarus, Leoric et al with very little information outside the game itself.

[Anarion]

I always liked the story, even in the first game, and took the time to read all the books with my sisters when we played. We had no manual when we first played, had no idea who Diablo was (other than being evil and the boss) and worked out Prince Albrecht, Lazarus, Leoric et al with very little information outside the game itself.

I've never read all the books, but I did read all the in-game lore and listen to all the dialogue for both Diablo and Diablo2+LoD. I think the end of Act II was the best moment. "He moved with demonic speed. And then...then you were there Tyrael." That said, it appears that heaven is as bad, if not worse than hell in the Diablo setting, and mortals really got a bad deal.

[MammonAzrael]

The Diablo universe really has a rich and interesting history, if you delve into it. Admitedly the first game was a bit sparse, but there were enough intriguing tidbits scattered throughout it to really grab me. A lot of the story you could get through the manual and strategy guide. It covered a surprisingly large amount of ground.

D2, obviously, greatly expanded on that, but there is still a lot to dig for. The non-game stories are solid and entertaining, and the whole world is one of my favorites.

While I wouldn't say the High Heaven are worse than the Burning Hells, they certainly aren't everything you'd imagine. In this universe, the High Heavens and the Burning Hells are actual, physical locations, like Mars and Venus are in ours. They aren't on some other dimension or whatnot - you can get to them. The world of Sanctuary, and the race that call themselves human, were created by rogue factions of angels and demons that wanted to escape the Eternal Conflict. There is really a lot of story-meat on the bones of the Diablo universe. I love it.

[Spuddles]

Stupid no offline mode. Blizzard loves that money. I should pirate 1000 copies of the game, just to spite them.

Any idea how long the servers have been down?

There is really a lot of story-meat on the bones of the Diablo universe. I love it.

I anticipate it going down hill, the more they futz with it. I've not really been that impressed with any of Blizzard's franchises past maybe the second game. Warcraft 1 & 2 were good; 3 was ok, the expansion followed by WoW was really meh, contradictory, and dull. And predictable. I feel like Brood War was maybe the apotheosis of their story telling combined with game play. Starcraft 2 kind of felt like WoW in space. Go to here, collect 6 of this, meet a guy, BETRAYAL, go here, save 7 of those....

[ex cathedra]

Stupid no offline mode. Blizzard loves that money. I should pirate 1000 copies of the game, just to spite them.

Any idea how long the servers have been down?

Less than an hour. EU servers are already back up, as is battle.net. They're making progress.

Also, good luck pirating 1000 copies of a game with no offline mode that requires a key. I think you've been outplayed.

[Othesemo]

Also, good luck pirating 1000 copies of a game with no offline mode that requires a key. I think you've been outplayed.

Proxy server. It's only a matter of time, really.

[Zocelot]

Stupid no offline mode. Blizzard loves that money. I should pirate 1000 copies of the game, just to spite them.

I feel like the always online requirement is to prevent RMAH abuse via mods and duplication, and the difficulty of pirating is just a bonus (for them). There was a good explanation of it, that I'll quote below.

DRM sucks. Having to be connected to a server to play alone sucks. And thousands of people are complaining about that today... yet most of them don't understand why Blizzard doesn't offer online play. They say it's to prevent piracy, when it's not.
Blizzard has to run servers for at least 10 years to support this game, as they know from their past franchises, for the (very popular) multiplayer component. It shouldn't be surprising they looked for a way to get some recurring revenue from the game so that the ongoing costs are covered by the people still playing it. Their solution was the real-money auction house.
To run a real-money auction house, they have to absolutely eliminate hacking and duping, or rare items won't be rare and there will be no incentive to create a robust market which Blizzard can earn money from. The only sure way to eliminate hacking and duping is to run D3 like an MMO... put everything on a server you don't control. You can hack your client all day long, but since your characters, the world, mob spawns and deaths, experience and loot are all generated and stored on the server, you can't cheat and create items.
There is no single player game. They never programmed one. To offer one at this point would be as much design and programming effort as creating Diablo 4. So don't expect there to ever be an offline patch for D3. When you play single player, you're just playing a multiplayer server instance that happens to only have one player in it.

While I would rather be playing Diablo than writing this post right now, I'm going to have 10 more years to play D3 before D4 is released, and the server issues will be done in a couple days. I'm trying to think of the grand picture here, and just watch Game of Thrones until the servers come back online.

[Avilan the Grey]

An initial few thoughts. First what could use some improving.

Either the maps are too big or movement is too slow. Seems like you do a lot of jogging around to get places.

For melee oriented, having your primary attack and movement as the same key seems to result in a lot of running around in circles not attacking enemies at times.

Wasn't there meant to be a pick up everything command, or am I thinking of another game? And a toggle to show the names of all points of interest on the map (ie stumps, logs, piles or stones etc) would also be nice.

That said, the game is a lot of fun. I started with the Witch Doctor, got him to level 5, then decided to have a look at the others. Tried the Barbarian but it didn't really amaze me. Then tried the Monk. He is now level 10 and having a lot of fun with kicks and punches that wreck groups of enemies. Only had one rare drop so far - a staff. Not a particularly useful one for the monk either. It only has vitality for a stat on it, so it may end up being disenchanted for crafting mats.

Currently having him wielding a 1H axe that gives life on a hit AND as a percentage of damage. Have been wielding a bucker in the off hand, but reading the monk forums suggests dual wield is better - if you have a good enough off hand weapon.

I haven't played D3 yet, but as someone that has played a lot of D1 and D2:

Map size and movement speed: Looks about correct compared to earlier Diablo games to me.

Melee / movement: If I recall correctly this was the same in D2? I never had a problem with it.

"Pickup all": Never heard of it in a Blizzard game; D1 and D2 never had it, I remember that. A lot of Bioware games does though. I have never played WoW, so I don't know if Blizzard has ever used it.

...

As for the voice acting: This is one thing (watching videos) I DON'T like. Everyone and their grandmother is hamming it up beyond belief. Compare Bioware voice acting... this is really awful performances in comparison.

...

Also, the always online... I don't think those that think this is for the RMAH and Blizzard "making money". That is bull. The reason they did it this way is very simple; lessons learned from D1 and D2 is that if you have a client side solo game option, people WILL hack the servers and ruin the game for everyone else. It is not a matter of IF, it is just a matter of WHEN, since a lot of people simply are slimy little bastards.

[Aotrs Commander]

Woo. D3 arrived, installing it shortly...

Got to say this... Even the regulat boxed set is already winning over ME 3 in terms of presentation, with fold out covers and such. (ME 3 was a normal DVD case with only a bare minimum of documentation, even the game manual was in pdf...)



I have to say, for me, the plot of D2 seemed more or less optional. I never played D1 more than cursorily... Sanctuary never really grabbed me in the lore - not that is was bad or anything, it was just sort of... Well, it felt so diversed from the gameplay of D2 it felt just like a bit of colour. I only paid attention to it the fist time, and not at all after that, so I guess I can say I won't really mind much whatever they've done to the lore in D3, since I didn't pay much attention to it last time.

(Which is unusual for me, normally, I'm all over this sort of thing...)



For reference, in the unlikely case it comes up, my battle tag is AotrsCmdr#2976. (Damn the short character name limit!)

[Archonic Energy]

Diablo 1/2 had a plot?!

i just remember the endless bashing of swarms of enemies

[Avilan the Grey]

Diablo 1/2 had a plot?!

i just remember the endless bashing of swarms of enemies

As a devoted single player yes they had a plot. A decent one, at that.

[J.Gellert]

As a devoted single player yes they had a plot. A decent one, at that.

It was an excuse plot, but it gave the game a certain "tone", a dark theme that I haven't seen since. If you paid attention, it made you feel (it still does today) the weight of your quest on your shoulders with every new cutscene.

And while I didn't care for the silly ending, I didn't play LoD for quite a few years after it came out, so it didn't ruin the experience for me the first time.

And since I finally posted here, I'll just add that I have no interest in DIII; partly because of the "new mood", and partly because of the "always online" problem, but I'll be honest and admit that I will reconsider if the old classes come back in the inevitable expansion.

Perhaps in the future I'll play DIII and enjoy it as a unique game, instead of the third part of a series. Until then... well D2 has aged very well indeed.

[Avilan the Grey]

It was an excuse plot, but it gave the game a certain "tone", a dark theme that I haven't seen since. If you paid attention, it made you feel (it still does today) the weight of your quest on your shoulders with every new cutscene.

And while I didn't care for the silly ending, I didn't play LoD for quite a few years after it came out, so it didn't ruin the experience for me the first time.

And since I finally posted here, I'll just add that I have no interest in DIII; partly because of the "new mood", and partly because of the "always online" problem, but I'll be honest and admit that I will reconsider if the old classes come back in the inevitable expansion.

FIrst of all: What "new mood". What I have seen is EXTREMELY close to the mood of D1. Not D2, but D1.

Second: "Silly ending"? Those female demons were TOPLESS!