ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
edited May 2012
So, I had almost no lag yesterday...
I mean, one short spot of tolerable lag for about 1 min. And it isn't a US vs EU thing, as my US friends were complaining as well. My only issue was that the majority of my achievements disappeared during the 1 hr maintenance, which kinda sucks as I was almost done with Act 2 at the time.
First play through is as a sorc, going full on glass cannon (<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#acYXfS!Yc!aaZaa" target="_blank">Ze Build</a> atm) I will agree that the bosses of Act I are fairly easy, I found more issues with random elites, especially wallers. Seriously, Wallers make me poop my pants every so often when I suddenly end up with walls on 3 sides of me and an elite on the 4th.
I didn't die until almost the end of Act II where a slew of skeletal guardians just slammed my face all at once and I dropped instantly. 100% my fault, should have been more careful, should have dodged, should have used diamond skin, etc.
My 2nd, and 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, and 6th deaths were all to the last boss of Act II. <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Seriously, Glass Cannon just does NOT work there, you take one hit and you die. I ended up with a build of: <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#acQXRS!Xc!aa.a" target="_blank">This</a>. I mean, I have just about no vitality on my gear and this was the first spot that gave me issues.</span> After dropping him I took my leave of the game as sleep is important, so I don't know how Act III stacks up.
Ninja Edit: Battletag is thansal, feel free to add me.
From what I heard, their game servers are rock solid but their login servers are having issues. I wouldn't blame them for that as I don't think the stress test actually hit the login servers nearly as hard as they are being hit now.
puzlThe Old FirmJoin Date: 2003-02-26Member: 14029Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
I just finished Chapter III. I'm really enjoying it but I don't see it having the same longevity as DII did - I think gaming has moved on since this style of game was fresh enough to keep you interested past a couple of plays.
I'd agree with your 7/10. My biggest gripes are a) how easy the game is and b) how predictable the storyline is.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
Almost done with act 3, still enjoying the hell out of it.
I actually expect that I will get more play time with DIII then I did with DII. In DII There were 2 classes that I really enjoyed playing (Necromancer and assassin, and hell, the assassin was an expansion character). In DIII I expect that I will go through at least normal with every character, and will try to go through inferno with at least 2, and probably more of them.
7/10 is pretty accurate for my experience as well. I played up to the end of Act III with friends, then soloed my way to the middle of Act II Nightmare. The difficulty increase isn't very steep (I guess that's why there are four difficulty levels now), but it does make you refine your skill setup. I wouldn't have thought wizards could solo well so far with all the cooldowns, but alternating between teleport, 6 seconds invulnerability (Diamond Skin) and kiting/potions, it works pretty well. Killing everything in 1-3 shots (except bosses of course) help too, but I wonder how long can I keep on mindlessly spamming Arcane Orb...
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
Agreed, soloing with the wiz gets kinda silly. I went with frost nova and diamond skin instead of teleport. Frost armor adds the little bit extra of survivability, and magic weapon makes things die that much faster. However, for attacks I just can't stop using arcane orb and magic missile, they are simply to solo friendly.
When I was grouping with friends it was much better as I could drop almost all of my survivability in favor of more damage. I was using Hydra, disintegration, electrocute and familiar just to add on all of the AOE damage that I could while things beat on our barbarians, great fun.
I'm disappointed with the reviews. Maybe I'll buy it on sale later in the year.
Watching youtube walkthroughs, the game doesn't have that dark creepiness of the previous games. And people say the skill system sucks and gameplay is repetitive.
I don't think the gameplay is more repetitive than before, but the terrain sure feels less randomly generated, which gives much the same feeling at times. I do love the occasional moments when I can make use of height differences and chokepoints, Demon Hunter gets that a lot.
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
The skill system decidedly doesn't suck, a quick example:
My new level 30 wiz has: 8 different free spells 9 different secondary spells 8 different defensive spells 7 AoE spells (aka "Force" spells) 5 buffs 4 awesome spells
For a total 41 spells available to me.
Now, this is only counting the runes that honestly make a difference, so I'm not counting runes that simply make the spell better by adding a straight "Does X% more damage/range/slow/whatever", I'm only counting ones that honestly change how they function. With only 6 slots to fill, that really does force you to make choices.
Now, I will say there are serious limitations here. Soloing as a wiz it's fairly obvious that you will be using one of the 2 variants of magic missile, and probably arcane orb + obliteration (I throw exploding galaxies as people, what do you do?), + a defensive skills or 2, and an armor, leaving one or 2 slots open for choice. I'm sure that, if you wanted to, you could build a Vitality/armor heavy build that lets you make a melee wizard with Blades/arcane orbit/explosive blast/energy twister/whatever, however it's simply easier for me to go a straight glass cannon build.
Oh, right.
Glass cannon.
3 passive slots with 8 skills to pick from (and yes, these REALLY do change how you play).
Any one that just flat out bashes the skill system hasn't played enough, there are a lot of choices and viable builds. Obviously there are problems, however I feel that the variety far out strips the problems.
Oh, and in a party situation what skills are viable change drastically. My party make up forgoes much of my survivability in favor of more insane amounts of AoE, if I have a barbarian tanking all the mobs it lets me sit there and channel spells, so I don't have to focus on the quick firing spells like magic missile and arcane orb.
I'm not going to really bother with game play being repetitive (it's diablo, nuff said), or the "It's not grimdark enough", because I think it is, and that's fairly subjective any way.
The skill system is a million times better than diablo 2 that's for sure. Skills always feel like they're effective NOW rather than after putting a bunch of points in them, or even worse becoming completely pointless to use at later levels, though the fact that a runed skill is simply better than unruned is a little annoying.
<!--quoteo(post=1937284:date=May 19 2012, 02:40 PM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thansal @ May 19 2012, 02:40 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1937284"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Now, I will say there are serious limitations here. Soloing as a wiz it's fairly obvious that you will be using one of the 2 variants of magic missile, and probably arcane orb + obliteration (I throw exploding galaxies as people, what do you do?), + a defensive skills or 2, and an armor, leaving one or 2 slots open for choice.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I will disagree with you. I, for example, find Magic Missile to be less viable for soloing than something like Electrocute with the Chain Lightning rune (increases the amount of mobs it can jump to from 2 to 6). With chain lightning I can hit every mob in most groups at the same time, which means I'm always dealing out some aoe damage. It sucks for single-target damage, which is where I use Arcane Torrent with the Disruption rune. I prefer that one to Arcane Orb since I can direct it exactly where I want - with Arcane Orb it always seems like a single mob from the pack runs ahead and takes one for the team, saving the others from the aoe damage. I use Wave of Force and Frost Nova to keep enemies at distance if they close in before I can kill them, and I use Magic Weapon instead of an armour spell because why bother bolstering my defenses if I can just kill them before they threaten me?
I think skill choices are very subjective at this point, especially for signature skills. You think that magic missile is indispensable for a solo wizard, while I went with Shock Pulse as soon as the Explosive Bolts rune became available, and later switched to Electrocute. On the other hand, I find it difficult to imagine why anyone would pick anything but Cleave as their barbarian's signature, but I could be wrong as well.
<!--quoteo(post=1937497:date=May 20 2012, 09:00 AM:name=LV426-Colonist)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (LV426-Colonist @ May 20 2012, 09:00 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1937497"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Post your chars people. My barbarian as of right now:
Not really fair to show your stats while in that state though :P. Using the 100% extra damage rune and Battle Cry? That said though, how the hell are both of those so high, what items :|?
Here's my level 52 Barb, just heading to kill Leoric in Hell difficulty now.
<!--quoteo(post=1937626:date=May 20 2012, 01:19 PM:name=Thansal)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Thansal @ May 20 2012, 01:19 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1937626"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I was tron between it and Wiz (Wiz won for me).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> <img src="http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/2838/trond.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Yes, but difficulties work like they did in d2 so you wouldn't stand a chance as a level 1 in nightmare or whatever it is now. At best it would be a tedious slog as you kite and hit enemies for 2% of their max hp every hit.
Level 56 monk here. He's become a beast. Basically can't die anymore, unless I get cc'ed multiple times in a row. Also really boring combat since I have 1 combo generator, 1 passive offensive ability and 4 defensive/heal abilities just to stay alive in hell.
Comments
I mean, one short spot of tolerable lag for about 1 min. And it isn't a US vs EU thing, as my US friends were complaining as well. My only issue was that the majority of my achievements disappeared during the 1 hr maintenance, which kinda sucks as I was almost done with Act 2 at the time.
First play through is as a sorc, going full on glass cannon (<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#acYXfS!Yc!aaZaa" target="_blank">Ze Build</a> atm)
I will agree that the bosses of Act I are fairly easy, I found more issues with random elites, especially wallers. Seriously, Wallers make me poop my pants every so often when I suddenly end up with walls on 3 sides of me and an elite on the 4th.
I didn't die until almost the end of Act II where a slew of skeletal guardians just slammed my face all at once and I dropped instantly. 100% my fault, should have been more careful, should have dodged, should have used diamond skin, etc.
My 2nd, and 3rd, and 4th, and 5th, and 6th deaths were all to the last boss of Act II.
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Seriously, Glass Cannon just does NOT work there, you take one hit and you die. I ended up with a build of: <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#acQXRS!Xc!aa.a" target="_blank">This</a>. I mean, I have just about no vitality on my gear and this was the first spot that gave me issues.</span> After dropping him I took my leave of the game as sleep is important, so I don't know how Act III stacks up.
Ninja Edit:
Battletag is thansal, feel free to add me.
From what I heard, their game servers are rock solid but their login servers are having issues. I wouldn't blame them for that as I don't think the stress test actually hit the login servers nearly as hard as they are being hit now.
EDIT: I take that back they are ###### up again.
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/status" target="_blank">http://us.battle.net/d3/en/status</a>
I'd give it a rock-solid 7/10.
I'd agree with your 7/10. My biggest gripes are a) how easy the game is and b) how predictable the storyline is.
Diablo II was easy peasy.
Diablo III is harder than the second, more combination of skills, more difficulties, and enemies use tactics.
Despite this,
Gamers go
"Wha wha, Diablo III is SO CASUAL, cause I like, totally am having no problem on normal!"
Well...######es.
Go play Diablo 1 on Normal...it's pretty freaking easy as well.
You have to sit there and wait to die in Diablo II.
Diablo 1 was hard, Diablo II & Diablo III have always been easy games.
I actually expect that I will get more play time with DIII then I did with DII. In DII There were 2 classes that I really enjoyed playing (Necromancer and assassin, and hell, the assassin was an expansion character). In DIII I expect that I will go through at least normal with every character, and will try to go through inferno with at least 2, and probably more of them.
When I was grouping with friends it was much better as I could drop almost all of my survivability in favor of more damage. I was using Hydra, disintegration, electrocute and familiar just to add on all of the AOE damage that I could while things beat on our barbarians, great fun.
Watching youtube walkthroughs, the game doesn't have that dark creepiness of the previous games. And people say the skill system sucks and gameplay is repetitive.
My new level 30 wiz has:
8 different free spells
9 different secondary spells
8 different defensive spells
7 AoE spells (aka "Force" spells)
5 buffs
4 awesome spells
For a total 41 spells available to me.
Now, this is only counting the runes that honestly make a difference, so I'm not counting runes that simply make the spell better by adding a straight "Does X% more damage/range/slow/whatever", I'm only counting ones that honestly change how they function. With only 6 slots to fill, that really does force you to make choices.
Now, I will say there are serious limitations here. Soloing as a wiz it's fairly obvious that you will be using one of the 2 variants of magic missile, and probably arcane orb + obliteration (I throw exploding galaxies as people, what do you do?), + a defensive skills or 2, and an armor, leaving one or 2 slots open for choice. I'm sure that, if you wanted to, you could build a Vitality/armor heavy build that lets you make a melee wizard with Blades/arcane orbit/explosive blast/energy twister/whatever, however it's simply easier for me to go a straight glass cannon build.
Oh, right.
Glass cannon.
3 passive slots with 8 skills to pick from (and yes, these REALLY do change how you play).
Any one that just flat out bashes the skill system hasn't played enough, there are a lot of choices and viable builds. Obviously there are problems, however I feel that the variety far out strips the problems.
Oh, and in a party situation what skills are viable change drastically. My party make up forgoes much of my survivability in favor of more insane amounts of AoE, if I have a barbarian tanking all the mobs it lets me sit there and channel spells, so I don't have to focus on the quick firing spells like magic missile and arcane orb.
I'm not going to really bother with game play being repetitive (it's diablo, nuff said), or the "It's not grimdark enough", because I think it is, and that's fairly subjective any way.
I will disagree with you. I, for example, find Magic Missile to be less viable for soloing than something like Electrocute with the Chain Lightning rune (increases the amount of mobs it can jump to from 2 to 6). With chain lightning I can hit every mob in most groups at the same time, which means I'm always dealing out some aoe damage. It sucks for single-target damage, which is where I use Arcane Torrent with the Disruption rune. I prefer that one to Arcane Orb since I can direct it exactly where I want - with Arcane Orb it always seems like a single mob from the pack runs ahead and takes one for the team, saving the others from the aoe damage. I use Wave of Force and Frost Nova to keep enemies at distance if they close in before I can kill them, and I use Magic Weapon instead of an armour spell because why bother bolstering my defenses if I can just kill them before they threaten me?
I think skill choices are very subjective at this point, especially for signature skills. You think that magic missile is indispensable for a solo wizard, while I went with Shock Pulse as soon as the Explosive Bolts rune became available, and later switched to Electrocute. On the other hand, I find it difficult to imagine why anyone would pick anything but Cleave as their barbarian's signature, but I could be wrong as well.
I die to almost all the blue/unique mobs... and I only have survival skills at this point. Hope I get some new weapons and armor soon.
I think my wizard is level 24 now or something. Still in act 2.
lvl 51, act 1 hell, 33k life, 8k+ dps
<a href="http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj631/LV426-Colonist/?action=view¤t=my-barb-lvl-51-hell-d3.jpg" target="_blank">http://s1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj631/...-51-hell-d3.jpg</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not really fair to show your stats while in that state though :P. Using the 100% extra damage rune and Battle Cry? That said though, how the hell are both of those so high, what items :|?
Here's my level 52 Barb, just heading to kill Leoric in Hell difficulty now.
<img src="http://a.yfrog.com/img576/1849/hor.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
First the downloader doesn't download the files properly so you have to run it multiple times.
Now I have all the files it won't install because it 'requires a newer version of windows'.
Newer than windows 7 64 bit with all updates installed?!
update: Ridiculous, I had to change the installer's compatibility to Windows XP service pack 3. Now it's installing!
Not sure if fixed
- . -
Or just more broken
Yup
In most of the polls I saw it was on top for "What are you going to play at launch". I was tron between it and Wiz (Wiz won for me).
<img src="http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/2838/trond.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
My image skills are bad and I should feel bad.
Game would look better if only spells had spell effects, instead of every combat attack being flashy and colourful.
Do I have to complete Normal mode to unlock the harder difficulties?
The game keeps putting me with people who can't understand English.