DiabloFans

As per the title - I just started playing again after not playing since the summer, and am currently leveling a Wiz and a Barb in HC. BUT, I want to get back into my (softcore) WD so I don't always have to worry about losing 20 hours on an accident.

So, what's changed in the wonderful world of WitchDoctors?

I notice Visionquest works differently, but that was the only thing I was sure changed.

I read some guides, and several called for corpse spiders. Can these actually keep up with mobs now? Also, several others recommend pets, even in Inferno with >MP0. Are pets actually useful now?

Well? What else?

Eh, wasn't thrilled. It seemed to me to be a poor mix of Diablo 1 and 2.

My biggest issues were combat, graphics, and the story.

As others have said, I thought the combat was clunky. I feel this is more important than some are saying ("oh, I'd rather have good mechanics than combat") because combat is SO much of an ARPG. The skills also didn't seem to be varied. Maybe that was cause I didn't play far enough, or because of my character choice (duelist). I also felt the enemy variety wasn't great.

The graphics - oh sure, it was visually dark (as in, not bright enough), but that also meant it was INCREDIBLY dull. Again, maybe it gets way better in late game, but the early part was just bland muddy shore, bland washed out shore, dark boring cave (yeah, that's what a cave really looks like, boring), dark boring jail (I personally didn't see any awesome doodads), then bland, washed out forest, then muddy dark forest. I put more of this to lack of budget, then actual design intent, just because it would have looked pretty sweet if they got D3 level fidelty. But they didn't. Running through the caves in Act 1 gave me serious deja-vu for D2 Act 5. And it wasn't good. The part that isn't excusable is how enemies tend to disappear in the background.

It hasn't been mentioned yet, probably because it doesn't exist, but what I saw was just abrupt. Maybe it will be better when it's actually "released," but at the moment, I think it'd be better if they just dropped the story, and only gave the blurbs the NPCs have about enemies.

All in all, I'd rather play through D3 again with one of the characters I haven't maxed.

Oh - I did like the economy idea, even if I wish ScoW were a little more common (and worth less) so you have the option to sell un-identified, as opposed to being forced to, but that's easy to change. Also, whoever decided to keep the inventory the same as D2 needs to be beaten. I'm sorry, but SOME improvement is good.

I think the biggest thing against the AH is that people seem to think beating D3 Inferno=D2 Hell/lvl99. My understanding before release (and my goals in regards to leveling characters) was that it was more along the lings of Uber Tristram - Something for the super dedicated people (who put in the needed 200+ hours) to do.

If you look at it that way, then it works out WAY better, and my personal experience is drop upgrades are roughly on par with D2. The drops didn't change, it's just more people were trying the "end game," assuming that anyone was supposed to be able to beat it with not much effort. I guess Blizzard should have made that more clear.

Back on topic, it would be gems. The reason it wouldn't be crafting, imo, is that someone would just dup a bunch of worthless legendaries and turn them into mats. Of course they could just dupe gems...

Quote from Ghost_Sanguis

Quote from TheDFO

Eh, the thing about the AH, is I have yet to see a trade method that is both casual friendly AND hardcore friendly - in other words, easy enough for people who just beat normal to use, and in depth enough for dedicated players to make a game out of it by upselling things.

Also, I feel it has to be said - the AH doesn't have to be used, and there IS a person to person trading function.

That said, I think the problem with the AH (aside from person issues such as "I prefer to trade with a person, not a website") is that good gear became too easy. Possibly because higher level characters sold gear to lower level. Which is basically a nice way of saying the AH made it too easy to trade with other people, making the flow of items to fast. Not sure how it's fixable.

Well, I think it's kind of silly to refuse to use an integral mechanic of a game because it makes the game easier. That's like me ignoring health packs in games because I dislike that it isn't realistic to roll over medical supplies and be healed. What you did say about the good gear becoming too easy is one of my points though. It's not fixable at all as far as I can think.

Do you always set the difficulty slider to easiest? Probably not. I personally see it as a skill that they put in to try something new that can, in moderation, be helpful, but is really easy to become OPed with. While I don't think they shouldn't have had, I think it needs...something. Not sure what, but it makes it too easy to become OPed with.

Quote from IgnatiusReilly

It's not really a big deal when you reach a point of power where your next upgrade is 200m. When that happens, you have no choice but to find your own gear.

I've never bought anything off the AH for more than 5m and that was a few pieces. My best weapon, a 1200 DPS Chantodo wand, was self-found, which actually replaced the last weapon I had bought for 5m, if you can believe that.

The problem with the AH is that it makes it very easy to see just how bad your gear is, and that's a problem for a lot of players and tends to undermine the overall personal enjoyment you might get from playing the game and acquiring power through your own efforts.

Still I don't think it's a very good thing, but I've learned to accept it.

That is a good point about the gear being too bad. Maybe the reason why I like it was because I only used it to replace gear that was very outdated (5-10 levels).

Perhaps they should have, instead of a gold AH, it should have been a trade house. You bid with items?

As to the OP - yeah, that would be fun, sorta. But would it repeat everytime you beat the quest (aka, infinite increase), or just the first time (aka, every is exactly the same at end game, like it is now)?

While that might be cool in a more pure RPG, I never thought questing was what Diablo was about. It's about the fighting and the looting.

As per the game being not dark enough...I just flat disagree. First, my experience is mostly with D2, not Diablo. BUT, did no one else play the last half of Act 1 in D3? You can shot a rack and it mulches a corpse in a spray of blood? Baskets of heads? Piles of Corpses? A poor sap being shoved into an Iron Maiden and coming out a zombie? And the scene where Leoric beheads his wife? or the dude who introduces you to his dead family? Or the Blacksmith who has to kill his zombified wife? Or the soldiers who were fed their own dead by a demon? Or the many screams heard in the background?

I recall less horror, both psychological and physical in D2. People are talking about dead babies and letting people burn. I just do not remember that in any of my previous Diablo playing.

Eh, the thing about the AH, is I have yet to see a trade method that is both casual friendly AND hardcore friendly - in other words, easy enough for people who just beat normal to use, and in depth enough for dedicated players to make a game out of it by upselling things.

Also, I feel it has to be said - the AH doesn't have to be used, and there IS a person to person trading function.

That said, I think the problem with the AH (aside from person issues such as "I prefer to trade with a person, not a website") is that good gear became too easy. Possibly because higher level characters sold gear to lower level. Which is basically a nice way of saying the AH made it too easy to trade with other people, making the flow of items to fast. Not sure how it's fixable.

Quote from KillDiablosMom

Diablo 1 & 2 was my first PC game that I have ever played on my first computer(iMac). Diablo 1 & 2 - was like the Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the Final Fantasy VII, the Super Smash Bro, the Counter Strike. I guess Diablo 3 - is like the Halo 3, the MW 3, the WoW expansions, the Fable 2 & 3. The point is that Diablo 3 is less great and more forgettable.

So, yea i enjoyed Diablo 2 long enough. Sadly not so much for Diablo 3

Yeah, but it's harder to make the third in a trilogy the best game. Just because for every change, there is going to be a loud minority that hates it, and a loud minority that loves it. But I guess it was a bit foolish to think it would ever have the same spot as Diablo 2, what with the playing for 12 years.

Well?

And I'm not talking about a log in here or there. I mean coming back and playing some serious time. I arbitrarily set that at 10 hours. Feel free to raise that, just say why.

Personally, I'm interested in getting a view of how people expected to play Diablo 3. A lot of people seem put out of shape because they got bored after 50+ hours (oh wow, a game that didn't entertain past two days worth of play time).

I never expected to play constantly, as I would only play Diablo 2 every once a year or so. I'd play for a few weeks, and then I'd move on. I mean, did anyone really expect to be able to put in part time job hours in a one time pay game for 12 years straight (and if you did, why? I honestly don't understand that point of view)? Or are these people just talking out of their ass?

Is it boring? No.

Do I still play it regularly? No. I'm burnt out, even though I've "only" put in around 120 hours. Also, that damn steam sale.

Anyway, I knew this would happen based off of my experience with D2. I'd play a bunch for a few weeks, and then drift off for 6-9 months, then play again.

Quote from Derwiv33

The problem with pets not scaling with gear is simple: You gain max level while you are in hell.
If pets don't scale with gear, then they would be overpowered in hell (if you want them to be viable against inferno diablo). This is why pets need to scale with gear.

That's only a problem if they only scale with your level. If it's a combination of your level and the monsters level, it's not a problem. Basically, you set up pet to last a certain amount of time/deal a certain amount of damage, and then improve there stats to the area the WD is in (or, more likely, the highest cleared area, so that way pets don't get worse if you go back an act or something). If you want to make your pets better, you choose more skills or take passives. This gives people a pet build, and keeps pets as a decently viable CC option for those who just want that. I'm not saying it would be tricky to balance, I'm saying that it makes more sense then balancing it off vit/defensive stats, because then they become redundant (only good when you're already a tank) or OP'd (if they decent for glass cannon builds, their unstoppable for tank builds), depending on how they scale.

Quote from Nausicaa

Quote from Nausicaa

Quote from TheDFO

Firebomb - base damage increased to 100% (which is still the lowest damage of the WD's primaries). Additionally, all "repeat" runes such as Roll the Bones and Flash Fire can hit the same enemies repeatedly.

Locust Swarm - Base range tripled. The speed of the cloud reduced by 50% every original length (not sure what it was).

Fire Bats - Range doubled. Fire bats spreads out so that it does less damage the farther away the enemy is. Dire bats range not changed.

Hehe, you might wanna rethink that bouncing on the same target for Flash Fire. You are saying that you want it do do 100% + 85% + 70% + 65% + 50% + 35% = 405% dmg / cast ^^?

I have 0 problems hitting with Locust Swarm.

I wouldn't mind having the non-Dire bat runes reach a little further. That's the main reason everyone runs ONLY Dire bat runes in a VQ spec.

Quote from TheDFO

Okay, so my love of Firebomb got the better of me. But I think that either needs the 100% base, or to hit more than once (maybe not all six, but at least twice)

Also, I think it's a multiplicative reduction. Otherwise it'd be doing negative damage on the last hit (as it stands now, starting at 85%)

And the point with increasing range on LS and FB isn't because we have trouble hitting with it, but because we get hit when we do hit with it. Also, they have to compete with longer ranged skills (such as dire bats) that do just as much damage, and in the case of LS, they do it much faster.

I'll rephrase. I have no trouble hitting with LS without putting myself in any real danger (and yes, I play HC). There are some tricks to it, for example, it does have a small window of travel time which you can use to your advantage. Cast it 1 sec before the mobs chasing you are actually reaching the LS cloud and stuff like that. I also shoots through Waller walls.

I'll rephrase. I think that the low range on LS is not suitably compensanted for. Yes, it CAN do a lot of damage when you're facing a lot of monsters. BUT, because it takes so long, you'll still probably do more damage with a more traditional AoE. So unless you're just going to kite while LS slowly ticks, it's not so great (IMO). It is a fun skill though. I'm just trying to make it more worthwhile without completely changing the skill, or making it much more complicated (such as making the first attack be able to stack, but the spread won't).

That's kingsport? I thought it was supposed to be one of the islands the Amazons came from.

Either way, I doubt it was supposed to be in the game, although I expect it to show up in one of the expansions.

Quote from Hans

Yes there will be hacks and such but I doubt it is really going to be that bad since there is no profit motif for it and there is no real competition. There will be PvP but there will be no ladders or other things like that. The game is just meant to be a good old fashioned Hack and Slash that you can play solo or in a group.

And there was no financial motive (that I'm aware of) for people hacking items in BL, or spreading infectious items that broke other peoples characters (nearly permanently). People also had to deal with a much more closed down system (no modding tools) and had MUCH more to lose (entire XBL accounts). There was also no serious competition in that game.

My point is people are fooling themselves if they think TL2 multiplayer will be some magical land that solves all of D3s woes. And it will have issues, just like any other popular online game. There are just too many selfish asshats out there.

Quote from Aileron

The only problem I have with it is that banning them might cause them to come here or other forums I actually use.

I know the feeling. We've already had a number of people showing up here and creating obviously troll posts as their very first post (none too bright, it seems). But, in time, they get banned here as well.

Quote from Papagaj

Anyways i dont understand why are people complaining cos all other games are fail as well

Also Torchlight 2 will be a HUGE fail cos lack of any kind of anti hack protection ( chars will be stored on PC so it will be like open battlenet on Diablo 2)

I personally love Diablo III and i'm ok with it.

Oh man, I'm looking forward to TL2, but everytime I hear someone mention how TL2 will be better then D3 (in regards to online issues, not class balance) I get Borderlands flashbacks. I mean, that game was hacked inside out, to the point where someone figured out how to drop items that would make you literally invincible, and you couldn't unequip, much less drop. And this was on the 360, which is at least sort of a walled garden. TL2 pubby games are going to be INSANE.

I agree with Doorsfan, in that Leg items should change builds, not just be a straight stat upgrade. Maybe they're specific to a type of build (crit, LoH, big hits, etc).

And to the OP:
No. They should not be like Rune Words. For one, that just means everyone goes for Legendaries. That's it. D2 makes that abudantly clear. And they would probably go for the same small set of Legendaries.

Additionally, I don't think Blizzard should even consider the gear a 300+ (what will probably be 400+) hour player has when balancing these. Such a small % plays there, it would basically be the same thing as making them like Rune Words (as a chance of a Legendary dropping is probably much much higher than a near perfect Rare).

As to where exactly along the "best roll" scale Legendaries should fall, I don't know. Gut feeling, top 75-85th percentile (of best roll, not average drop)? But I do know that essentially repeating the RW issue is a bad idea.