Ah, they just had to pick ONE class, the ONLY one that matters to me, I would have said the same as Doctadeth but no, they had to pull a Paladin / Crusader class.
Gosh, darn, %$&*@!!!!!
They got me for the special edition, I raged with the server issues. Went through the game at normal and said "that's it??" Lost interest somewhere in the middle of nightmare setting... played Torchlight 2 instead (mods are great!).
I think I am a sap, will sigh and hand over my money then do everything in the above paragraph AGAIN.
I will at least stay away from the auction and see how far I get.
So yeah, it has finally happened as we all knew it would – Diablo 3 expansion pack has just been announced. We are all excited about it (some of us are more than others I suppose). The cinematic trailer itself is outstanding and of exceptional quality as is always the case with blizzard’s cinematics. Now, I know for a fact that on my first play-through I will be thoroughly enjoying every minute of the game. I am more worried about what will happen later on. You see, while some of us approach Diablo 3 in such a manner that all we expect from the game is amazing storytelling without any replay value at all, most of us are expecting something more from the game, something that will appeal to us to such an extent that we will play Diablo for years to come, the so called “end game”. If only thing that Blizzard is going to add in the new expansion is additional content then the game will once again greatly disappoint countless players and consequently they will leave the game after a month of two. Diablo's immense popularity will once more, fade away. Additional locations, levels, monsters and items will simply not suffice – Blizzard needs to change the game mechanics of Diablo to keep the hardcore, most loyal playerbase happy. Diablo 3 will never have the same support as WoW simply because we pay for the game only once so why should Blizzard choose to add more content if they earn no money for doing so. While RMAH will grant them some substantial profit, it will be nowhere near the profit margin of WoW. Still, Diablo 3 could be an amazing game without additional content being added to it every month. All it needs is a few fixes and blizzard developers’ change in their design philosophy, perhaps even not a change but a slight shift.
Now let us look at what we know so far shall we.
Here is the list of all the features that the new expansion will add:
· New Class: The Crusader
· New Feature: Loot Runs
· Loot 2.0
· The Mystic
· New Level Cap - 70
· New Act
· Major Paragon Changes
· New Monsters
Good changes overall, seems promising. Still, it is somewhat lacking wouldn’t you agree? Here is what I would like to see in the game:
- Inferno level that is truly INFERNAL.
Yeah, I know, Diablo 3 is a hack’n’slash meaning that it is all about farming items and just standing there in one place. Or is it? Why does it have to be that way? Look at Belial for example – the said fight’s final phase required some sort of skill and coordination in order to avoid certain abilities. I want to see more of that! And in inferno, damage dealt by such an ability should be HUGE and also FIXED. What do I mean by fixed? Fixed meaning constant, not changing – damage dealt scaling with your HP and ignoring all your resistances and armor. So let’s assume that you fail to dodge something and as a result you lose 50% of your HP - your gear is of no consequence. This will make it impossible to simply overgear some fights. At the same time, it might make the fights easier in a way but nevertheless I think it would be a good idea to do it.
- BoE items.
Some of you might be against it claiming that the essence of Diablo 3 is trading. Well, you will still be able to trade your items. Only thing that will change is: less items available in the market thus more fixed prices and slower progression (with less items present in the economy, it will take longer for most of the players to beat the game on hardest difficulty and I believe that is a good thing).
// MOST IMPORTANT ONE:
- Additional game mode with no auction house nor RMAH. Hear me out on this one please. This would allow for Diablo to be more competitive in terms of PvE aspect of the game. People like to race and be the first to take down certain bosses. WoW is all about the world firsts you know. It is important to note though, that progressions takes much longer in WoW because you need to get the items for yourself, you can’t buy BiS upgrades on the AH. Do this in Diablo and additionally, add some sort of ladder and extra achievements/feats of strength to this mode and we are getting close to making a perfect game.
//
- Competitive PvP Arenas with global ladder system.
Speaks for itself, it is outrageous that these have not been added yet given the fact that they were promised at the initial release, years ago.
Add all of the above, and the game will be MUCH MORE APPEALING.
Based on what they have done for the last couple years, I do not expect much innovation.
They will get money out of me, but much later on. Not on release, I was burned by that once, it is not happening again. I will wait for all the patches and the servers to settle down (and the price to go down)
A character with no access to the common chest or auction house would be a great thing for me. They could then put in more frequent/reasonable drops where they don't destabilize the economy. This would go against one of their income plans so it is an unlikely thing.
Yep... this will not be getting a penny from me. I wasted $120 so my wife and I could play Diablo 3, I won't waste anymore money on that franchise. I will eventually buy the third part of the Starcraft 2 series, because I'm a whore for the Protoss, but other then that, Blizzard gets no more money from me.
I was sorely tempted, but then I remembered it had no offline mode. If they add an offline mod I will happily fork over money to try it out.... in a few years when I can get the battle chest discount bundle.
There was a time when a blizzard game was a must buy for me. Over the past couple years that has changed. I was disappointed with D3, not sure I want to sink anymore money into it.
Im fairly intrigued story wise. Always loved the Diablo lore. Up until 3. And Three's I can live with. I wish I could convince myself to shell out for it. But I saw how 3 went and I don't think I can hop into that. not at release, at least.
I find it funny the emotional reaction I have with these guys.
The prior games were the best in the business.
They spoke very highly of Diablo 3 giving it the most buzz out of any of their games.
The "surprises" of the auction and the always online and server issues was like a "breach of trust".
Now they went from "they can do no wrong" to not believing anything they say.
I bought their special edition of Diablo 3, I really wish I had not. Wish they sold the full Diablo 2 crystal with skull separate, that would have been worth the money.
Between Torchlight 2 and Path of Exile these are the better Diablo-like games to play at the moment.
Could we not just get a graphics update of Diablo2 get the Baulder's Gate revamp guys to have a go?
I wonder how this will affect the console release, if at all. Will they be doing it as DLC, separate game, or not give the console the expansion at all?
I remember finishing my run of D3, and realising at the end of the closing cinematic that Diablo 3 wasn't the end. I refuse to accept that diablo is dead.
diablo 3 was an abysmal failure. The only surprise here is that Blizzard is going through the effort of attempting to salvage D3 instead of trying to salvage their own image. As far as I'm concerned SC2 was a complete bomb, and so too was D3. Blizzard needs to pull their head out of their ass and get a new design team together and get some fresh stuff out, sitting on these old universes and ideas is wearing thin and not doing them any favors.
For all its flaws the game still made a lot of money for Blizzard; not liking something doesn't make it a failure.
Before its release, Diablo III broke several presale records and became the most pre-ordered PC game to date on Amazon.com. Activision Blizzard reported that Diablo III had broken the one-day PC sales records, accumulating over 3.5 million sales in the first 24 hours after release and over 6.3 million sales in its first week, including the 1.2 million people who obtained Diablo III through the World of Warcraft annual pass. On its first day, the game amassed 4.7 million players worldwide, an estimate which includes those who obtained the game via the World of Warcraft annual pass.[103] In its second quarterly report, Diablo III was reported to have pushed Activision Blizzard's expectations and as of July 2012, more than 10 million people had played the game. Diablo III remains the fastest selling PC game to date, and also one of the best-selling PC video games. As of the end of 2012, it had sold more than 12 million copies, and as of March 2013, Blizzard stated that Diablo III had around 1 million daily players, with 3 million unique players each month. As of May 2013 Diablo III had been played by 14.5 million unique players, according to Blizzard's released statistics
I agree, but I wouldn't call it a failure, sadly. It would probably have been better if it were, then Blizzard would have reassessed their decisions sooner rather than later.
whembly wrote: The 2.01 patch (pre-expansion) is going online today.
Anyone creating a "Dakka" clan?
Was working on a Monk in Normal difficulty who was just trucking along...cruising to the point of it being very boring. One long download later and suddenly half my abilities operated differently. Ooookay.
Being able to change the difficulty level on the fly sounded like a godsend, so I moved it up a notch. And wow, suddenly I wasn't cruising anymore! I was in fact struggling a little. After a couple hours of playing, I had enough new gear that I was competing better again. But the game is still giving me a fight, and has renewed my interest in the Monk.
Lots of changes...overall I'm pretty positive on them so far.
This polearm was crafted by the finest ungulate smiths—its blade fired in the Hellforge, quenched in the rancid milk of the Cow King, and enchanted by that selfsame monarch. In addition to its significant martial benefits, the Bovine Bardiche may also summon forth a veritable army of cows to fight on its wielder's behalf.
How awesome is getting four cow ghosts with bardiches as followers? Even if they aren't very good in combat.
Although it may look good, i'm not sold on the thin story that blizzard is going with here and what just one more class?.
I might be starting to play D3 when blizzard actually adds something to it worth paying for and fixes the game, after all if you can remove the auction house then surely removing the always online shouldn't be that hard either.
I'm guessing that i'm just beeing picky here and all,but a new class and some new tin content is not enough for this player at least not for the price they are asking for the expansion.
SneakyMek wrote: Although it may look good, i'm not sold on the thin story that blizzard is going with here and what just one more class?.
I might be starting to play D3 when blizzard actually adds something to it worth paying for and fixes the game, after all if you can remove the auction house then surely removing the always online shouldn't be that hard either.
I'm guessing that i'm just beeing picky here and all,but a new class and some new tin content is not enough for this player at least not for the price they are asking for the expansion.
The revamped the whole game... not just Act V + Crusader.
Loot 2.0 is fething great. I having a blast and almost to lvl 70 to unlock Adventure Mode!
If I may chime in - I don't believe Diablo is a game you play for the story. To me, it seems more like ... a guilty pleasure where you are supposed to derive your fun from jumping into hordes of enemies, brutally slaying them with the ever-growing power of your character, and farming ever more powerful gear. The secret is in actually making this grind enjoyable, which requires a good amount of attention to detail.
If you'd remove the 40k background from the Space Marine videogame, it'd remain enjoyable as well, even though its own plot is no less thin, and its action just as mindless.
Now, whether or not the new expansion is worth its price simply depends on how much you enjoyed the main game. Some people can sink hundreds of hours into this stuff, so to them, the added content and new mechanics in Reaper of Souls may well be a good investment. If you're looking for a complex story with deep characters ... ehh, there's other, more suitable games around. I'm not even sure whether or not you could call Diablo an RPG as it is really just an isometric version of Call of Duty*. With swords and magic. But what it is supposed to do, it seems to do well.
(*: chronologically flawed example but you get the idea)
One of my friends from work that played diablo 3's base game with me played this and enjoyed it a lot more. We had both gotten sick of diablo 3's farming for gear/money/treasure goblins and just quit after a while.
He says 'reaper of souls' is much better and they fixed a lot of the crap that was wrong with the base game. Now there's one game without 4 sets of difficulties and you can set your own difficulty which gives better gear for harder versions of the same enemies. Basically you can have a level 10 and a level 40 battling together against the same mobs and having just as much difficulty since the player can set the difficulty. Auction house is gone and it just sounds like a better game.
Now to be fair he's a blizzard fan and a WoW geek so I'm not sure what to think of this. I'd prefer to hear another couple reviews from people I know before taking the dive though I probably will play this anyway.
I find myself somewhat disappointed with blizzard's stories these days and it's really sad because there was a leaked alpha final cutscene in heart of the swarm for the mengsk vs Kerrigan fight and it was infinitely better than the full version. The writing was better and it made more sense. I just felt incredibly disgusted they actually made a better trailer with a non-romantic end that made sense and instead changed it to throw in the raynor/Kerrigan love story fan-fiction.
In fact i'll take a second to find the video to show it here so you guys can see what I mean.
-------------------
The alpha ending scene of 'heart of the swarm':
The final version ending:
Now granted the final version has better acting, voices and visuals for sure. My point is more that certain parts of this just felt kind of dumb. Kerrigan floats away at the end (yeah I know she's supposed to be like an angel but it feels kind of dumb), the whole 'letting the zerg free' thing is no longer there, the stupid 'made you into a monster' mengsk line exists in the final version (why would he say that?) and I felt weird about the xel naga artifact as if these things are just sitting under people's porches or something with how frequently they seem to be found and how often they make it into the game for plot purposes. The implant into Kerrigan that would kill her if she turned made mengsk seem way more evil while at the same time Kerrigan getting her vengeance felt good but bitter. At least mengsk seemed like a bad guy but with more legitimacy than the 'I turned you into a monster' line. If somebody considers themselves a hero in their opinion they aren't going to say something like that. The whole moustache twirling evil villain without a valid reason for his/her actions is just stupid. At least make him seem like he'll win at any cost (which is somewhat how he has always been). I dunno I felt mensk had more character than that. If nothing else considering how his family was assassinated by Kerrigan he actually had a legitimate reason for doing what he did. It also shows that maybe he merely turned into a bad guy over time with the right circumstances (not saying he was ever a good guy but maybe he became consumed by his anger like so many people have). This just sort of takes away any sort of validity this had.
Then again in starcraft 1 at the 2nd last terran campaign we have his whole speech how he will not be stopped by anyone and will rule the sector or see it burnt to ashes around him (or close enough to that).
flamingkillamajig wrote: He says 'reaper of souls' is much better and they fixed a lot of the crap that was wrong with the base game. Now there's one game without 4 sets of difficulties and you can set your own difficulty which gives better gear for harder versions of the same enemies. Basically you can have a level 10 and a level 40 battling together against the same mobs and having just as much difficulty since the player can set the difficulty. Auction house is gone and it just sounds like a better game.
Just wanted to pick on this for accuracy. Monster levels do still exist, and the game difficulty is set by the host - so your level 10 would join the level 40 game and immediately get smashed by the level 40 monsters. You can change the difficulty whenever you want (though you can't increase it while the game is in progress - but you can leave that game and raise the difficulty and continue from the same quest) but everyone in the same game will be on the same difficulty. What is really cool is difficulty isn't based on grinding through different difficulties anymore - you don't have to play through Easy and Normal to get to Hard, you just put it on Hard straight away if you want.
I have got Reaper of Souls so I will set out my opinion on it. I was highly critical of the original game due to its uninteresting gameplay, poor skill balance, unrewarding loot and horrendous story that was impossible to ignore. I found it failed on nearly all metrics, with the one shining star being that the art was well done. The updated Diablo 3 has addressed many of these issues quite well. Firstly, there's a nice option to skip the cinematics, and while there's no option to skip the dialogue, its horror can mostly be abated by hitting ESC as soon as you see the dialogue box appear, which will skip the whole sequence. The skills are much better balanced, with the different runes and so on being generally better-conceived and fun to use. Freed from the constraints of keeping loot interesting while still allowing for trading, the developers have allowed loot to actually drop at a reasonable rate, and what drops for you is generally tailored for your class, with the occasional cross-class item to keep things interesting for alts. As mentioned earlier, you can also set the difficulty to what you want instead of having to go through Normal to Nightmare to Hell to Inferno. The monsters will scale to whatever your level, so the challenge is always appropriate no matter how fast or slow you progress through the game. My gameplay experience was also improved greatly by the addition of an Australian server, so now we can play with ~35ms pings. There are also "Paragon" levels added after you hit the level cap, which are account-wide and provide little bonuses, so you can continue progressing after a fashion after you hit the level cap.
If you do have the original game and didn't like it, I really suggest checking it out again, making sure to tick the disable cinematics option. It's very much worth another try. If you find you still dislike the game even with disable cinematics on, I would recommend not getting the expansion. The experience is very representative. Consider making a new character, as well.
The expansion pack has a few neat features. Firstly, it has a new Act. It's quite cool and varied and has some nice settings. What I liked the most about it, though, is the story. The Saturday morning cartoon vibe of Diablo 3's original story is mostly gone, replaced with something much more reminiscent of the prior games (though there are still some voice lines on the bosses, but nothing on the level of the awful original Diablo 3 evils). Without the need to have the villain of the moment telling you how the prior three plans that couldn't possibly fail may have failed but this next plan will surely stop you, the setting is allowed to breathe, and we get to see little subplots going on in the world that make it feel more alive. The main story is relatively unobtrusive and carries the game forwards without getting in the way, as it should.
On top of that, there's a gameplay mode called Adventure Mode. Basically, once you've beaten the story on one character you unlock Adventure Mode, which is a mode where the entire game world is unlocked and you can move between any waypoint in any act at will. The story is no longer there, though the game is laid out the same way as it is in story mode, and the bosses of story mode are still present. The deal in Adventure Mode is that you get Bounties. The gist is five waypoints in each Act will have some kind of mission at them to go somewhere and kill something or complete an event. When you do that, you get a gold and experience prize! In two specially-marked acts, chosen randomly each day, there's also a special treasure box you get for completing all five bounties in the act.
By completing the bounties you get these dealies called... nephalim rift fragments? Or something. I don't know. Whatever they're called, you can take five of them to this new fellow in town and he'll open a Nephalem Rift for you, which is basically a randomly-generated multi-level dungeon where each level has random themes and critters and so on. You romp through the dungeon killing stuff and once you've killed enough stuff a big angry special boss ("Rift Guardian") will appear, and beating them up results in lots of stuff dropping. Playing in groups you can get quite a lot of rift fragments from adventure mode, so there is no shortage of ability to do rifts. They are pretty fun to do, though you should not expect any grand revelation in gameplay from the story mode - it will all be very familiar. It's just a nice way of playing the game and progressing without having to go through the story over and over.
There is also a new crafting person who can change the appearance of items and can reroll one stat on an item, either to a different stat or a different roll of the same stat, depending. She can help improve items that already have good stats, or help make an item that nearly has the stats you want better. Oh, and there is a new class that is a paladin kinda thing that is quite neat.
In short, if you have the original game, I really suggest giving it a try. The expansion pack is more of the same, so if you enjoy the revamped original then you will almost certainly enjoy what the expansion has to offer. If you don't have the original game... maybe you'd like it? The story is horrid but you can mostly avoid it with the skip cinematics button.
Hopefully this novel has helped or interested someone.
At least on my server that little special treasure box you get in any and all the acts. So five treasure boxes each run. They have a chance to drop legendaries too, have gotten three from there already. The expansion is well worth it.
The Crusader is a lot of fun and can be one mean tank. After lvl 10 you get a passive that lets you use any two-handed weapon one handed with a sheild. He also has another passive at max lvl that gives you extra strenght for every gem you have equiped in your gear. I'm pulling about 400000 damage now.
Plus the adventure mode gives you a new currency called bloodshardes, these can be used at a new vender. This is almost like Greed from Diablo 2, its just gambling. With the new modes you can go highest with Torment 1-6, on lvl 6 you get like a 2000% extra magic find and xp bonus. Playing most the night with a friend when it first came out and we found about 6-7 legendary each as opposed to the 1 we used to find.
Max lvl is now 70 allowing you to upgrade your blacksmith ect. to lvl 12 now and can craft lvl 70 items. Plus Marquise gems drop everywhere so you can upgrade your old gems almost instantly.
Well, since this is the main (only) Diablo thread...just got the Staff of Herding, it's fully leveled, and I'm trolling Whimsyshire. So far in three runs, I've technically picked up 10 legendaries. 7 came from a set though, I found the Hallowed Set gear. Also found Mad King Leoric's mace, a legendary axe and a smaller legendary mace that does tons of holy damage. Very happy with the 'Shire.
timetowaste85 wrote: Well, since this is the main (only) Diablo thread...just got the Staff of Herding, it's fully leveled, and I'm trolling Whimsyshire. So far in three runs, I've technically picked up 10 legendaries. 7 came from a set though, I found the Hallowed Set gear. Also found Mad King Leoric's mace, a legendary axe and a smaller legendary mace that does tons of holy damage. Very happy with the 'Shire.
That actually hacked me off so bad I quit the game. I was grinding through that, found one of the rarest swords that people would murder you for if they could, and when I went and identified its magical properties, I could go back to the start of the game, starting new, and pick up a random drop enchanted sword that was better in every way than that legendary. At L100, finding a piece of worthless that nobody in the game would buy or trade off of me.... after having spent a lot of time farming for a legendary, I got mighty pissed off and dumped the game. There's chance, but that was pure bs.
So, it turns out that when I looked the axe up that I found, it's the #1 chosen two-handed weapon. Skorne, is it? Scourge? Whatever. I looked late last night. The one that has a 95% chance to do 6000-10000 bleed damage for some amount of seconds.
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
Console versions were shipped with loot 2.0.
I'm having a blast with patch 2.1, lots of upgrades and the overall feel of the game seems to have been improved. I highly recommend that if you're not playing it, get the game and give it a shot.
whembly wrote: FYI... Loot version 2.1 is now live and Season (aka Ladder) has just started.
This game is light years better than it's initial iteration.
Bear in mind that this is (as far as I know) only on PC. Console patches should be rolling out in the next week or so after the DDoS attacks that Blizzard suffered over the past week.
Diablo II minimised mouse clicking and instead allowed holding the right button. The player character would follow the pointer and attack with the currently selected skill as soon as it was in range (server-side). To use a different skill or some sort of skill combo you could scroll through the available skills (using a configurable skill order) or switch to a specific skill using some changeable hotkey. All without having to release the mouse button.
Only parts of the above work in Diablo 3 and not always reliably.
I've tried a few different diablo-like games including diablo 3, torchlight, titan quest and sacred and none of them implemented anything quite like the controls in diablo II. I'd say that's quite unique.
In those other games it usually all revolves around selecting and clicking on individual targets or sometimes even multiple button clicks to attack a single target as opposed to just choosing the current skill and the attack direction while holding a mouse button. If you wanted you could clear a whole map in diablo II without letting go of the right mouse button and still use various (up to ten iirc) different skills.
Minx wrote: To use a different skill or some sort of skill combo you could scroll through the available skills (using a configurable skill order)
I think this is the only part that is missing in Path of Exile. Sadly, because it was a nice feature. On the other hand, PoE has the advantage of allowing you to use the middle mouse button, which I do not think Diablo ever allowed.
Minx wrote: To use a different skill or some sort of skill combo you could scroll through the available skills (using a configurable skill order)
I think this is the only part that is missing in Path of Exile. Sadly, because it was a nice feature. On the other hand, PoE has the advantage of allowing you to use the middle mouse button, which I do not think Diablo ever allowed.
I've only tried PoE very briefly and found right-click and hold did not work, i.e. the player character would follow the pointer but not attack or not continue to follow/attack after the initial contact.
I always like to play summoner, so I usually do not attack a lot. Do you mean that in Diablo 2, if you just clicked on the ground, and then moved your cursor over an enemy, it would start attacking the enemy?
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote: I always like to play summoner, so I usually do not attack a lot. Do you mean that in Diablo 2, if you just clicked on the ground, and then moved your cursor over an enemy, it would start attacking the enemy?
As long as you held the right mouse button and the enemy was between your player character and the mouse pointer the character would move toward and then attack the enemy.
Diablo II minimised mouse clicking and instead allowed holding the right button. The player character would follow the pointer and attack with the currently selected skill as soon as it was in range (server-side). To use a different skill or some sort of skill combo you could scroll through the available skills (using a configurable skill order) or switch to a specific skill using some changeable hotkey. All without having to release the mouse button.
Only parts of the above work in Diablo 3 and not always reliably.
That works for me on Diablo3 (PC edition).
I play Sorcerer and routinely hold down the right-mouse button, while I press the SHIFT key to stand pat to "fire" my spells downrange.
Diablo II minimised mouse clicking and instead allowed holding the right button. The player character would follow the pointer and attack with the currently selected skill as soon as it was in range (server-side). To use a different skill or some sort of skill combo you could scroll through the available skills (using a configurable skill order) or switch to a specific skill using some changeable hotkey. All without having to release the mouse button.
Only parts of the above work in Diablo 3 and not always reliably.
That works for me on Diablo3 (PC edition).
I play Sorcerer and routinely hold down the right-mouse button, while I press the SHIFT key to stand pat to "fire" my spells downrange.
That's how I always played in D2.
It doesn't work like it did in Diablo II. Try a melee class and you'll see.
And as i said above parts of the old controls/interface actually do work. If you assign one of the generator skills from the left mouse button to right click then the character does follow the pointer if you hold the key and it will even start attacking as soon as an enemy is in range. The problems start if you want to switch skills, especially if you then want to use the formerly right mouse button skill as it suddenly needs a valid target underneath the mouse pointer (even if it's an AoE) but the pointer will usually be behind the enemy line in the direction you want to move next (it won't always work in those circumstances with a target either).
To summarize Diablo 3 doesn't allow changing/rotating skills during combat like its predecessor and switching the left and right mouse button skills hasn't been properly tested. All in all more a case of me nitpicking than a game breaking lack of a feature.
pretre wrote: That seems like a very fine distinction to be upset about.
It's just a way to play the game that's possible in Diablo II but not in any other diablo-like game, so actually a fundamental difference if you are one of the very few (it seems) who knew and used that different play style. In most games the player is required to actually select and click (and hold or repeatedly click) on every single enemy whereas in Diablo 3 click and hold to specify direction and skill works but just for a single skill. In Diablo II on the other hand click and hold works for ten previously selected and ordered skills. If you then get used to this very natural and fluid way to play diablo II with minimal clicks than every other interface implementation seems inadequate. Diablo 3 has already most of the necessary code in place it just cannot handle skill switching and swapping the default left - right mapping is not fully supported.
Diablo II minimised mouse clicking and instead allowed holding the right button. The player character would follow the pointer and attack with the currently selected skill as soon as it was in range (server-side). To use a different skill or some sort of skill combo you could scroll through the available skills (using a configurable skill order) or switch to a specific skill using some changeable hotkey. All without having to release the mouse button.
Only parts of the above work in Diablo 3 and not always reliably.
That works for me on Diablo3 (PC edition).
I play Sorcerer and routinely hold down the right-mouse button, while I press the SHIFT key to stand pat to "fire" my spells downrange.
That's how I always played in D2.
It doesn't work like it did in Diablo II. Try a melee class and you'll see.
And as i said above parts of the old controls/interface actually do work. If you assign one of the generator skills from the left mouse button to right click then the character does follow the pointer if you hold the key and it will even start attacking as soon as an enemy is in range. The problems start if you want to switch skills, especially if you then want to use the formerly right mouse button skill as it suddenly needs a valid target underneath the mouse pointer (even if it's an AoE) but the pointer will usually be behind the enemy line in the direction you want to move next (it won't always work in those circumstances with a target either).
To summarize Diablo 3 doesn't allow changing/rotating skills during combat like its predecessor and switching the left and right mouse button skills hasn't been properly tested. All in all more a case of me nitpicking than a game breaking lack of a feature.
OH!
I see now.
meh... I got over that. I was more bummed about not being able to "switch gears" at times.
I created a Season character over the weekend. It appears that Blizzard compensated for the inability to use gear from other characters by boosting the quality of the drops that your Season characters get.
I have been playing a lot since ladder opened up. I have a love/hate relation for the greater rifts at the moment. I'll run three in a row and getting nothing but rings each time, then run 2-3 more with no drops at all.
I just need one more piece of the Marauders set to summon all my companions for my Demon Hunter!
Love my seasonal build so far, hard to beat 20-30 million crits a hit. and the new gems are fething cool. attack speed and bleed make bosses drop dead fast!
Ruberu wrote: I have been playing a lot since ladder opened up. I have a love/hate relation for the greater rifts at the moment. I'll run three in a row and getting nothing but rings each time, then run 2-3 more with no drops at all.
I just need one more piece of the Marauders set to summon all my companions for my Demon Hunter!
Love my seasonal build so far, hard to beat 20-30 million crits a hit. and the new gems are fething cool. attack speed and bleed make bosses drop dead fast!
^ lol. The funny thing is that the Demon Hunter is the one char that has never really been tampered with. Pretty much all the others have had "OP" moments, then get nerfed to an oblivion and then slowly work their way back to a reasonable state. You know, the way Blizzard normally handles things . The DH now is practically the same DH I had when I first started playing when the game was released. Save for the new gems and equipment along with new buffs that everyone saw.
Melissia wrote: Speaking of, supposedly they buffed everyone to match the brokenness of that class? Will have to play my wizard again sometime.
Yeah Demon hunter has been broken for a very long time. Mostly because of his invulnerable stat line till they changed it so he doesn't dodge 90% of shots fired at him.
Basically, I'm one of the people that played using disintegration beam as my primary just because it looked and sounded more awesome. Usually with Chaos nexus or Convergence, though Intensify is also awesome.
Also liked magic missile and spectral blade to a lesser extent.
Melissia wrote: Basically, I'm one of the people that played using disintegration beam as my primary just because it looked and sounded more awesome. Usually with Chaos nexus or Convergence, though Intensify is also awesome.
Also liked magic missile and spectral blade to a lesser extent.
I personally don't like any of those XD.
Arcane doesn't look interesting to me. I like stunning my enemy and microing the hell out of my hero.
Y'know the disintegrate build is actually super popular now, coupled with wormhole and meteor shower. I haven't the gear to actually make the build successful, just seen it used.
I actually run a frost build, Ray of Frost as a primary, the source I use allows the ray to pierce enemies so the damage isn't so mitigated.
Melissia wrote: I probably don't have equipment appropriate for it, only completed campaign once with my wizard before I got bored since nothing was dropping anyway.
For things to start dropping, you'd really need to play the Torment difficulties level.
Just last night, in less than two hours... I was doing repeated Rifts runs on Torment3... the following drops:
9 set items
7 unique gears
4 set/unique plans
... and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!
(with zero gear-MF too!)
I will say that to get the full effect you'd need to be 70+ (paragon) and RoS expansion.
Not really. Torment levels beyond Torment I do not particularly do much for your item drop rates beyond for Rare items(read: not Legendary nor Set Items).
It really has to do with the Greater Rifts/Rifts v. the other stuff.
Speaking of, rifts, can someone give a summary of what the benefits and drawbacks of doing a Season character are? I admit I kind of skipped through the "updates" window heh.
the season characters are very much like the old WoW pvp seasons. Its a ladder that is run for a set amount of time, there will be new legendaries unique to that season and once that season is over you will have to make a new season character for the next season.
all legendaries from the previous season will then be able to drop for normal players.
Kanluwen wrote: Not really. Torment levels beyond Torment I do not particularly do much for your item drop rates beyond for Rare items(read: not Legendary nor Set Items).
It really has to do with the Greater Rifts/Rifts v. the other stuff.
The difficulty <=> MF bonus is a linear progression.
Deathklaat wrote: the season characters are very much like the old WoW pvp seasons. Its a ladder that is run for a set amount of time, there will be new legendaries unique to that season and once that season is over you will have to make a new season character for the next season.
all legendaries from the previous season will then be able to drop for normal players.
Oh, then feth that. No need to participate in seasons when I still haven't put more than thirty hours in to the game (sooo busy with IRL stuff)
Automatically Appended Next Post: Well, started playing again... I can see that they definitely have increased the drop rates.
Generally speaking Rifts are a good source of experience and (due to high amounts of elites and rare monsters spawning) net you the best chance for better drops (legendaries, sets, recipes, gems). Additionally with the advent of Greater Rifts, you sacrifice the monster drop rate for a massively improved drop rate from the rift guardian. In greater rifts you run the risk of running out of time and losing the ability to upgrade the level of the gem you used to enter the rift. But, as you're just starting out, it's not really a big deal if you don't meet the time requirements, it's more for gear and the legendary gems that drop.
Seeing as how quite a few of us still play, my battle tag is Frankenberry#1544, if any of you want a wingman for some demonslaying.
I mean, it's weird, I've played monks in various game systems and they usually all adhere to the 'sucks until x level, then god mode', I shouldn't be surprised at my monk running around beating demon face.
And I think my Wizard is going to be retired for a bit, I'm annoyed every time I try to use him.
Deathklaat wrote: the season characters are very much like the old WoW pvp seasons. Its a ladder that is run for a set amount of time, there will be new legendaries unique to that season and once that season is over you will have to make a new season character for the next season.
all legendaries from the previous season will then be able to drop for normal players.
My season character also seems to have a better drop rate on yellow and orange equipment.
Deathklaat wrote: the season characters are very much like the old WoW pvp seasons. Its a ladder that is run for a set amount of time, there will be new legendaries unique to that season and once that season is over you will have to make a new season character for the next season.
all legendaries from the previous season will then be able to drop for normal players.
My season character also seems to have a better drop rate on yellow and orange equipment.
That's been my experience too...
MOAR LOOT!
Ran into a massive squad of goblins last night. It was GLORIOUS!
rifts make the drop rate even more crazy and torment levels just compound that. i have not done a great rift yet but i can only imagine what those will be like.
The only things the expansion really does for you is gets you the new character (which I know you already said you had no interest in) the new act and I don't think you can get past lvl 60 without the expansion. Also after you hit lvl 61 all gems dropped are Marquise. Some legendaries are expansion exclusive so you will miss out on some of those too, like Reaper Wraps a legendary bracer you can make.
For greater rifts torment levels are not supposed to effect them at all. Although the couple times I ran them on torment 6 it felt like I got more loot than normal. Also you can not get more than 3 legendary drops from the greater rift guardians, excluding gems and plans. Greater rifts also are not supposed to have the Conduit pylons in them although at the moment there is a bug that allows them, may also be the bug that makes it feel like torment levels effect the drop rate.
Greater Rifts and Rifts in general with higher torment levels net you an exceedingly wider range of gear, generally. Greater rifts are the only way you can find the legendary gems however, whereas standard rifts allow drops from elite packs, champions, and the final boss; the Greater Rift is only the rift guardian at the end.
Frustratingly, some legendary items only drop from bounties, several of which some classes really thrive on when acquired. Now, due to the RNG system employed even running on T6 isn't a guarantee to get a drop that you want, or even need. So, like I said, frustrating.
But, I highly recommend the expansion if you're looking to get some more hours out of Diablo. Wife and I did the storyline and it took easily as long as the entirety of acts 1-4. Of course there will be that giant 'eyeroll' moment, which you'll know when you see it.
And yet it costs forty fething dollars. It costs as much as the game itself cost. More than the original game cost, really, given that I got the game at a discount.
I don't think I'm being irrational when I suggest that DLC which consists of a single additional character, a few gameplay additions, a short addition to the story, and an increase in power level, and costs the same amount the game itself cost is pretty ridiculous.
Melissia wrote: I don't think I'm being irrational when I suggest that DLC which consists of a single additional character, a few gameplay additions, a short addition to the story, and an increase in power level, and costs the same amount the game itself cost is pretty ridiculous.
No one said you are. People place different values on things they want; to some 40 bucks isn't a big deal for this expac, to you it is. Either way, once you get it let us know what you think.
Melissia wrote: And yet it costs forty fething dollars. It costs as much as the game itself cost. More than the original game cost, really, given that I got the game at a discount.
It's a much better value to pick up the Ultimate Evil Edition on console if you have access to it...
And I prefer, if at all possible, the control scheme of PC games I mostly only have consoles for exclusives, which is why I'm often a generation behind in getting them.
In all seriousness, I'll probably get it somehow eventually. But right now, just can't justify that kind of expenditure on something so minor.
By minor you mean AMAZING.
And by can't justify an expenditure I'm sure you meant GOING TO BUYING SIX COPIES TOMORROW.
Honestly though, I get where you're coming from Mel. After beating the story mode and doing the same bounties 234908345034p587235087235 times it sorta dawned on me that 40 bucks for what is basically DLC wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
