Diablo III

[Squarecrow]

First time playing the beta. Was so excited I did all the achievements. Did not sleep.

At least at the lower levels things were much different than I expected. I'd been planning Wizard builds in hope of getting into the closed beta and now that I actually get to play, I'm having way more fun with the Demon Hunter. For me it's: DH > Barb* > Wiz > Monk > WD. The DH just has awesome mobility, great kiting, and fantastic DPS (at least single target wise). It feels so tactical and I love it. The Barb on the other hand just rolls over everything with that runed Cleave explosion. Lots of fun sending everything flying. Of course this is just level 13, things can change.

Hoping I can get a CE, I want that Diablo skull USB.

*I plan on playing Hell/Inferno so I really may not play the Barb 'cause I'm a pansy.

[Duo Maxwell]

Well, I got complained from my friends because I fill their screen with dogs, spiders, frogs and bats.

I'd love to have that rune "Rain of Frog" to shit on them more than that.

[Skane]

Just had a interesting game with three Wizards (all female of course ). There was a Barbarian, but apparently he was too busy RPG-ing on the upper levels till we summoned him for the Boss fight.

One was a melee Wizard using Spectral Blade and Ray of Frost, the second was using Magic Missle(Charged Blast) and Arcane Orb, and I was using Magic Missile(Split) and Arcane Torrent.

It was a bloody fun massacre as we basically lawnmowered our way to King Leoric. So many pretty spell effects.

Hehe.

[Paranoid Android]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Perfect world. The Healer is the ultimate PvP if properly built.

The mage = best boss tank because all the bosses stand far away and spam magic spells.

---------

This beta only made me feel the game is not per-order worthy. If I wasn't a Diablo fan, I would have given up on the game because of this beta. The beta is so lacking.

While I thought the beta was -okay- but not amazing, my four of my friends who played it on my Acc all told me it was boring and plain as hell. None of them played previous Diablo games. Which actually doesn't prove anything since the target audience for D3 shouldn't be only towards Diablo fans.

Too much of the game design relies on the assumption that it gets better later on. For me it's the assumption that Blizzard's released games don't suck.

If it wasn't for prior experience with D1 and D2, I'd most likely enjoy Rusty Hearts Beta more than this one (but ew PW entertainment and their ridiculous micro transaction based everything, anything with PW behind it tells me it's gonna suck)


Random extra note:
Why is SaladTosser an inappropriate Character name but not HornyDiahrea?

[Clarste]

Speaking of pretty spell effects, I was pretty disappointed by the Demon Hunter because all the attacks seemed so boring. I mean, as a monk your basic level 1 attack shoots lightning out of your hands, as a barbarian anything you even sneeze on goes flying across the screen when it dies, and of course the wizard and witch doctor both have flashy/cool spells. But with the demon hunter you just shoot arrows until they fall down. Very unsatisfying on many levels.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Android

Too much of the game design relies on the assumption that it gets better later on. For me it's the assumption that Blizzard's released games don't suck.

Well, to be honest D2 was pretty much the same way. Act 1 wasn't particularly exciting until you get the groove of getting awesome loot. And unfortunately, being a beta they can only really show a small part of Act 1, which you can then only repeat ad-nauseum. The appeal of Diablo in general is the expectation of leveling up your character and getting better loot to fight tougher and more numerous enemies and bosses, a progressive experience which the beta cannot really provide as is.

Then again, Betas are not Demos, since the former is really more for program testing and such rather than demonstrating gameplay.

I pretty much treat the D3 beta as a "training aid": to learn the gameplay before the full game comes out, so I don't go scratching my head. Hell, I didn't even know about Elective Mode until aohige mentioned it here, and it turned my D3 Beta experienced into much total awesomeness.

[Skane]

I found out about Elective Mode through the forums. In my excitement to play the Beta, I totally forgot to explore the option menu, and man... are there a lot of tickboxes.

One more week before the Beta ends. Then an excruciating three week wait before I can play the retail game (Damn my ICT for clashing with the release date...) Still trying to motivate myself to level a Barbarian. I already maxed out the other characters (although I lost the Witch Doctor through a patch wipe), and I can safely say that I will probably be either levelling a Wizard or Monk first.

Cheers.

[Jazzrat]

Scariest moment in Diablo series? Meeting the Butcher for the first time in Diablo. That's one classic moment.
Act 3 and Act 4 in the original diablo was pretty scary as well especially when you have to do corpse run or lose all your gear.

D2 onward was a lot less scarier since you don't lose your gear anymore when you die. Enviroment is also a lot brighter compare to D1.

[Duo Maxwell]

Originally Posted by Paranoid Android

While I thought the beta was -okay- but not amazing, my four of my friends who played it on my Acc all told me it was boring and plain as hell. None of them played previous Diablo games. Which actually doesn't prove anything since the target audience for D3 shouldn't be only towards Diablo fans.

Weird. I invited my other 3 friends, who haven't played Diablo before, and they enjoyed the beta as much as me (given we are only playing together, and one of them were exciting while reading the later skills).

You are right, that doesn't prove anything.

[Paranoid Android]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Weird. I invited my other 3 friends, who haven't played Diablo before, and they enjoyed the beta as much as me (given we are only playing together, and one of them were exciting while reading the later skills).

You are right, that doesn't prove anything.

Oh they were playing solo because I was the only one with D3 and I shared my Acc with them. (I played co-op with SCII friends).

Yes the later skills are very exciting and it was very sad I couldn't try them.

Does anyone if Blizzard dota is being made for starcraft 2 or a standalone? It running off the D3 engine would be pretty cool IMO. With the apocalypse medieval fantasy theme.

[Larthak]

Originally Posted by Jazzrat

Scariest moment in Diablo series? Meeting the Butcher for the first time in Diablo. That's one classic moment.
Act 3 and Act 4 in the original diablo was pretty scary as well especially when you have to do corpse run or lose all your gear.

D2 onward was a lot less scarier since you don't lose your gear anymore when you die. Enviroment is also a lot brighter compare to D1.

Meeting Duriel on Hell difficulty for the first time was a hell of a scary experience if you didn't have the proper gear. That freeze aura, geez.

...btw, who else spent like 5 minutes squishing Duriel's poor offspring every time you killed him? I LOVED that sound, way too much!

Originally Posted by Paranoid Android

Does anyone if Blizzard dota is being made for starcraft 2 or a standalone?

I believe it's standalone, yeah.

[aohige]

Meeting Duriel on any high difficulty the first time = hey WTF I'm dead before the loading finished!

[Xacual]

Originally Posted by aohige

Meeting Duriel on any high difficulty the first time = hey WTF I'm dead before the loading finished!

I kind of lucked out on that, my zealadin had enough life steal that I'd get hit lose most of my life and then instantly be full again when I faced Duriel on higher difficulties. Mephisto on the other hand nuked my ass pretty good.

[Duo Maxwell]

And the open beta ended. I'm back in waiting mode.

[Shinova]

Originally Posted by Skane

There are a few things working against the Witch Doctor in the beta demo.

1) He lacks mobility. The Barbarian has Leap, the Demon Hunter has her Vault, and the Monk freaking teleports. The Wizard is the only other hero at this point to lack a mobility skill at Lvl-13.

2) He lacks burst. With Barbarians leaping and cleaving face with 160+ dmg, Monks teleporting in and roundhouse kicking heads with 100+ dmg, Demon Hunters spamming the screen with Rapid Fire, and Wizards firing their LAZORS, the Witch Doctor doesn't get to contribute much to the action with his Lvl-13 skillset.

With loads of spammable attrition spells and impressive CC, he will definitely shine at the higher difficulties, but for now, in the "You Can 1-Shot Everything Because You Outlevel It By 5 Levels" beta demo, he won't seem too impressive.

If you find burst damage lacking with witch doctor, do the following:

- Walk into the middle of a group of enemies, preferably five enemies.
- Hit soul harvest and note that your DPS pretty much doubles.
- Firebats and melt everyone's faces off.


That's how you roll with the WD. And it's pretty overpowered really. One might not expect it, but nothing melts an enemy group like nothing like a WD with soul harvest.



I was in the open beta and it forced me to basically go to bed at about five in the morning every day during its duration.

All the classes are enoyable but if I had to pick the most boring classes, they are the wizard and witch doctor for me. WD it's kind of sit in the back and spam poison dart or firebats while your dogs tank the enemy sort of gameplay. Later on in the beta it's move into enemy group, hit soul harvest, then spam firebats and poison dart until everything's dead. Wizard can get pretty static too: when an enemy group rushes you, hit diamond skin, hold down arcane torrent and move your cursor over everything on the screen you want dead. Rinse and repeat.

Compared to those two, the other three classes are extremely fast-paced and dynamic.

Barbarian feels extremely visceral and gratifying to leap into a group of enemies and start cleaving them to pieces, with the occasional fury-spender to blow groups of them apart. Makes you feel like you could take on the entire game's worth of monsters all at once (not really possible, but it's the feeling that counts).

Monk is fast. FAST. Dude zips all over the place, punching the lights out of people and if you get thunderclap rune for fists of thunder, then you've got a free short-range teleport. Get stuck, dashing strike a summoner in the distance, or use tempest rush and just push everyone out of the way.

DH, like someone mentioned, is very tactical and very high-paced gameplay. It makes wizard and WD feel snail-paced in comparison. Vault into enemy group, caltrops, vault out, then shower them with rapid-fire. See a treasure imp? Vault over on top of it, hit caltrops, then fill it with holes. Both DH and wizard are ranged classes but DH feels so much better due to her MUCH better selection of free-cost skills, and the crazy mobility. Vault is a lot more dynamic than diamond skin for sure.


I've got the collector's edition pre-ordered, so yeah you can tell I'm pretty stoked for this game.

[Shinova]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

It is official. You can't build a melee DH.

Melee wizard can be done but I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around a melee DH as well. I've read ideas like using fan of knives or such, but it's going to be interesting trying to come up with one; and due to the skill system you CAN without going through dozens of hours remaking a character, yay!


Even better idea: a bow-wielding barbarian!! Oh wait, barbarians can't equip ranged weapons anyway----so much for completely free experimentation with builds, eh blizzard?

I think they were going back and forth from letting all classes use any weapons (except class-specifics) to putting in weapon restrictions and I think it's the latter to a degree as the game is now.


EDIT: About melee-DH, you might go with grenades, something like spike traps, and fan of knives as your main hatred skills. You'll need a skill slot for basic attack though, unlike wiz who can use spectral blade.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Shinova

Melee wizard can be done but I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around a melee DH as well. I've read ideas like using fan of knives or such, but it's going to be interesting trying to come up with one; and due to the skill system you CAN without going through dozens of hours remaking a character, yay!

There is only one way to build a Melee DH. Daggers + impale + grenades/bolas where she can pull out of her bra......

I am going back to playing mage when I get home. It is almost impossible to hunt for an hand-xbow.... they NEVER drop for me.

[Duo Maxwell]

Originally Posted by Shinova

All the classes are enoyable but if I had to pick the most boring classes, they are the wizard and witch doctor for me. WD it's kind of sit in the back and spam poison dart or firebats while your dogs tank the enemy sort of gameplay. Later on in the beta it's move into enemy group, hit soul harvest, then spam firebats and poison dart until everything's dead.

I expect he needs to use most of his CC on later level. Beside, running around while fear/grasp/slow the enemy and throwing all those dogs/spider/frog on the enemy is a pretty fun way to play WD compare to just bat-ting all day. It's like a DH I meet only use Rapid Fire and snare for all the course, and then say there is nothing much to do with DH.

[SaintessHeart]

Just got home to pick up something before going elsewhere :



Translation : If you don't like it, wait till it evolves to a stage where you can like it.

[Clarste]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

I expect he needs to use most of his CC on later level. Beside, running around while fear/grasp/slow the enemy and throwing all those dogs/spider/frog on the enemy is a pretty fun way to play WD compare to just bat-ting all day. It's like a DH I meet only use Rapid Fire and snare for all the course, and then say there is nothing much to do with DH.

Honestly, having to jump around and stuff just made me more bored of the DH. I felt weak because I had to do all this set-up just to do the most banal and boring of normal attacks. It's like, you really have to go through all that trouble just to shoot arrows at these guys?

With the witch doctor, I'm throwing spiders everywhere, taking risks to get close and use firebats, or just running past everything while haunting everything. Admittedly, I got higher level with the WD, and it probably isn't indicative of the real game because I was outleveling everything, but I found the Haunt spell alone to be 50 times more fun than anything the DH got in the first 9 levels. I got to level 13 just by testing exactly how Haunt worked.