DiabloFans

The way Azmodan talks to her makes it seem like he is not talking to merely some tiny brunette. He sounds like he is talking to someone much more significant, powerful.

SOOOOO sickkkkkk


check the time left on the hourglass at 0:24

Quote from NienteFantasia

cool, minus the spelling error

I like the idea of locking skills only in certain areas, like boss fights, other group instances/dungeons, arena matches, random events, etc. Another possibility, along with the aforementioned, is to add town-only respects in the later difficulties of the game (inferno for sure, maybe hell also). The way I feel is that by the time we hit 30 and unlock all of our spells, we should be just about on our way through the early stages of nightmare..? Maybe those like me who will scour every last inch of the map will get to 30 before the end of normal mode, but we'll see. With that said, we will have freedom throughout the entire nightmare difficulty to swap skills virtually unhindered and eventually develop a build that suits our individual playing styles. Then, come Hell mode, don't leave town unless you have the particular skills you will need for the ensuing adventure.

All in all, the options should be tested out; this is, in fact, the beta. Also, like Jay Wilson said in Force's interview about the runestones, we should not try to pre-fix problems that are yet to be 'problems'.

Cauldron of Jordan and Nephilim Cube ==> eliminate need to go back to town so often to unload lootz.

Skill swapping restricted to in-town only ==> clicks the 'undo' button on the previous statement.

However, I believe this new addition will be much less of a hassle than it used to be in D2 when you would fill up every 5 minutes, especially in early levels when you grab everything to sell for gold. Considering how import gold will be in this game compared to its predecessor, adding the cauldron/cube to get your hands on gold/crafting goods easier belittles the already minimal grief over having to go back to town to quick change skills.

As for a cooldown, screw that noise. I would be pissed off if I went back to town, accidentally traded out my Spirit generator attack for a second Mantra and had to wait 5 minutes to correct it. A cooldown on the recall stone is more understandable... If you get to a waypoint, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to go change skills quick without having to wait on a timer from your last spell switch. A cooldown on the recall stone at least leaves you stranded knee-deep for a little while until you can come back to adjust your skills.

Bottom line is that we are used to going back to town from the previous game for other reasons, and we will be going back to town often enough anyway to stash loot and craft. Would it be cool to just skill swap on the fly? Yes. But, without a in/out of combat toggle mechanic in the game, simple macros will allow people to swap skills and runes seamlessly during any fight they wanted, thus eliminating some character build customization principles... If you can use ANY spell at ANY time and they are all level 60 spells with ANY rune you want, then what we have my friends, are cookie cutter characters constantly cluttering cathedral catacombs.
// as i started typing that i had to keep goin with the c's.


So yeah, in my opinion, send us to town to change spells and put a 1-2 minute cooldown on the stone of recall.

Edit: I just read about another possible solution elsewhere (here). Didn't read what they were saying yet but an option in the poll is to lock skills only in certain areas (boss fights and other group instances, random events, pvp arena, etc.). Also possibly restrict skill swapping to town-only in the later difficulties of the game (Inferno, possible Hell mode also). After everything is unlocked, you will probably start leaning toward a few set skills that you like using the most, and you will probably want to go back to town before switching game plans anyway.

Possibly contradicting some ideas from the pre-edit post, this solution seems very reasonable, practical, logical..

Quote from Calavera666

So barb is not the one from D2?
I'm feeling an growing emptiness in my chest right now..

idk im not too bummed about it... each of the new characters have there own story goin into it, so the barb from D2 would be a separate case if it was the same one. The Hero who saved the world before is a renowned legend in Sanctuary, so why would he be runnin around with a cracked hand axe doing 2dps??? He would be geared out and fighting real monsters if there were any left for him to fight, not bashing quill fiends. The lore in the Diablo series is part of what makes it so fun and interesting to us diehard fans (who are STILL waiting for a beta key <_< ) and simply making the D3 barb the same character as the D2 barb really doesnt fit at all imo. Its time for a new champion.

plus the other trivial matters other than the gear... for one, he would be 20 years older.. idk if the barbarian lore has ever mentioned elongated life spans, but I imagine 20 years later he would be battle weary and much rather sit on a soft seat and tell other barbs to go fight.

And like i mentioned before, he would be famous... all dialogue throughout the game would have to be different for barbs because they would know him as the barb who killed baal. NPC's who talk to a DH would say things like " this noob better prove himself before he tries saving the world" and then they would turn to the D2 barb and say "Mind saving the world AGAIN for us??? plzkthx."

It only makes sense that the barb character is a new character to develop. This is Diablo 3, not Diablo 2.5

ok so i like the wd a lot but not a fan of the summons and still think he can be very powerful without them because of his cc and damage.

the build: http://us.battle.net...Xdfe!XWT!YZacca

the idea is to be doing a ton of damage always by having:
a stong and spamable aoe (fire bats)
a good direct damage (zombie bears)
and a dot with lifesteal (haunt)

these abilities will be boosted with the passive, pierce the veil, and mana should be easier to manage with blood ritual. also, i can do 4 different damage types with this build, poison, fire, arcane and physical (soul harvest with vengeful spirit rune and grasp of the dead).

so without pets you need cc, and i think the best one is horrify becasue the duration can be boosted with phobia rune (6 seconds) and the cooldown time is fairly short (20 seconds) compared to mass confusion (60 seconds). the other cc (kinda) is grasp of the dead with unbreakable grasp, making it an 80% slow on a short cooldown.

so you cast horrify, shit is running around feared and then you cast soul harvest to get the int boost, and haunt to get the life steal (important because of blood ritual). as mobs return to you, cast grasp of the dead to get away and light them up with the bats and zombies while they fight through the slowing hands. my last passive, grave injustice is then triggered, granting life and mana regen and reducing the cooldown time on horrify and grasp of the dead. rinse and repeat.

thoughts?

Quote from Casanova

Quote from Casanova

Ohh here we go

Its like I could see into the future.

impressive

Quote from Casanova

Ohh here we go

Its like I could see into the future.

I'm also kind of shocked people are worried about the difficulty of a game that is a sequel to a game that wasn't extremely difficult in the first place.

For all of you who are acting like you are easily going to beat this game, did you find Diablo 2 incredibly challenging?

A group of three friends and I just ran through normal, nightmare and hell together without farming loot or really doing any runs at all... we just went from A1 normal to A5 hell. One person ended up dying in A5 to gloams and the other two lived.

Diablo isn't meant to be some super challenging game. Sure, it's nice to have things that are very difficult in the game and I'm sure there will be. But Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 both weren't super challenging video games. You guys act like they are dumbing something down that comes from a long line of super challenging games or something.

I hope the difficulty level is right around where Diablo 2 was. I thought that was great.

No offense Magistrate, but you really come across here as not knowing what you're talking about. You claim characters should be level 11-13 when they fight the skeleton king? Try 6-7. The only reason anyone higher than that is fighting him in the beta is cause there's nothing else to do.

And yes, a level 1 character wearing level 13 gear is going to outclass a level 7 fight. Duh. The only thing opened up by levels now is different skills to use, and a fight this simple requires no more strategy than "run away when he's gonna spin". Gear is everything.

So what exactly is the point?

Quote from Graphics_I

I don't think I could emotionally handle killing the paladin from d2.

You wouldn't be able to anyway... paladins were too powerful with all that duped runeword gear

Quote from doombird

i just cant get behind pirates even without the guns

This is the only pirate I'd get behind but not in this game...

Quote from Nugstar

EDIT: I also wanna know in your mind why it's no place for guns with the existence of what you just mentioned.

It's a fantasy game set in a Gothic/medieval time/world. What kind of gun do you REALLY think would fit into this genre and work? Any gun I think of seems absolutely ridiculous and misplaced. The BEST gun I could think of would be an old revolver like Van Helsing would wield, but again it doesn't fit in a world where everyone is wielding huge axes/maces/swords/fist weapons/magic. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, however. You can like guns if you want, I just don't personally think that they fit.

It's a game filled with brute force, magic, and demons. There's no place for guns in such a world...