Diablo III

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Diamond Skin + Ice Armor + Magic Weapon + Wave of Force = Melee Wizard Ownage

Although I am enjoying the hell out of all-range Laser Wizard at the moment. Disintegrate with the Chaos Nexus rune turns your Wizard into a Point Defense Laser system that automatically kills anyone that gets close, and you still get to swing your big, long red shiny laser beam of death around.

Agree I'm having the most fun with the Laser Wizard. Just blasting everything to hell out there. Also like setting up the time bubble with the extra damage to enemies inside rune and really chewing the enemies up. Just get to feel crazy powerful with that character.

[Squarecrow]

Originally Posted by Archon_Wing

The 10 second delay to leave a game as well as the fact your friends can't save your equipment after death makes hardcore a bit less appealing. I've noted in my non-hardcore plays that quite a few people are dying to lag spikes. :S

I've had some serious freezing in the later parts of Act III. Don't know if it's lag or my computer or bad programming. I turned down the settings but still I get random pauses, from 1 even up to 10 seconds. Luckily I'm badass and haven't died from it.

[zibi88]

but is there a way to create key-bindings to skills ?

I mean in a hard fight there are times where we should switch to a different skill... like we are hammered so we teleport out but at this time we have a different skill on it.... so its kinda of nonsesne to press S...chose skill along with a run... confirm and aply it in action... as it takes few sec + few sec cooldown as the skill is beign changed

so kinda a key bindings like in D2 should be needed to fast move in skill tree

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by zibi88

but is there a way to create key-bindings to skills ?

I mean in a hard fight there are times where we should switch to a different skill... like we are hammered so we teleport out but at this time we have a different skill on it.... so its kinda of nonsesne to press S...chose skill along with a run... confirm and aply it in action... as it takes few sec + few sec cooldown as the skill is beign changed

so kinda a key bindings like in D2 should be needed to fast move in skill tree

It seems Blizzard intentionally made that difficult, so you are stuck with your choices until a battle is over. It's about preventing too much synergy and using multiple skills at the same time.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by zibi88

but is there a way to create key-bindings to skills ?

I mean in a hard fight there are times where we should switch to a different skill... like we are hammered so we teleport out but at this time we have a different skill on it.... so its kinda of nonsesne to press S...chose skill along with a run... confirm and aply it in action... as it takes few sec + few sec cooldown as the skill is beign changed

so kinda a key bindings like in D2 should be needed to fast move in skill tree

As Vallen said, ability switching is made intentionally tedious so as to discourage players from easily switching up abilities on the fly in the middle of battle. We can already access any ability and mix them up in any combination using Elective Mode, it would make the game too easy if we can switch to any ability at anytime without repercussion. Game balance has to come in somewhere with the freedom of abilities we have

That doesn't mean that ability switching isn't possible in the heat of battle, but you're gonna have to be fast on your fingers and kite kite kite to successfully pull it off

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

It seems Blizzard intentionally made that difficult, so you are stuck with your choices until a battle is over. It's about preventing too much synergy and using multiple skills at the same time.

I actually don't mind it IMO.

I mean for example take Mass Effect 3. As you level up your character you have to either choose A or B which would lead to two different paths. Once you pick one you have to continue down that route regardless.

In this case, we can pick either A-D and if we don't like B we can switch to C, etc.

I've been playing around with the Doctor and so far I'm liking

Zombie Dogs (rabid), Explosion (with ichor), Garguanta (cleaver), and Bats (Fire) with Zombie Handler.

I tried mana strike and such but I seem to be at ease with the zombie build.

On that manner I find the WD's attacks with giant toad and spider queen a bit weird....in a mob fight which you'll find most of the time they would be somewhat..inefficient.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Game balance has to come in somewhere with the freedom of abilities we have

It's not freedom if you're effectively locked into certain combinations of skills. Customizing spells is fun and all, but it's a bit like going to a buffet but only being told you can pick two items from the table at a time. In a situation like that, the only experimentation players are likely to do is to find the "best" overall combination of abilities for whatever they want to do. Which of course leads you right into the wall of players saying screw it and just picking whatever the most popular build at the time is.

Blizzard may be trying to kill the notion of "cookie cutter", but giving you a ton of abilities and forcing you to whittle that down to a handful of choices is probably not the best way to do it. It's for this same reason that the talent revamp in WoW leaves a lot to be desired. An improvement on the old systems? Sure....but not by much.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by Squarecrow

I've had some serious freezing in the later parts of Act III. Don't know if it's lag or my computer or bad programming. I turned down the settings but still I get random pauses, from 1 even up to 10 seconds. Luckily I'm badass and haven't died from it.

Only 1 freezeup so far for a few seconds, and I think that was just my computer being shit. Fortunately I spammed Q during it and survived.

[Jazzrat]

Just to add on skill switching, At lvl 60 you ll get magic find buffs (nephalem valor) for killing champions and you lose your buff stacks when you swap skill/leave game.

A bit extra reward for folks to stick with their skill setup without penalizing lowbies that just want to swap around their skills and experiment as they level up.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

I just want to announce that I have just purchased and is downloading DIII. Yes, I am still mad that I need a constant internet connection. And I am not even sure the internet speed I have is sufficient to run the game. But still, I am taking a break from Skyrim and needed something else to play.

I am still anti-multiplayer. And I will never forgive Blizzard for betraying players like me. Frankly, they won't even notice the money I just gave them anyway. Their RMA makes my presence irrelevant.

Feel free to mock me.

[Sugetsu]

I too feel disgusted by their tactics, I wont bother paying $60 for the game. All the big gaming companies need to respect their costumers and learn from CD Project (The Witcher) a thing or two when it comes to games.

[Skane]

Currently making progress through NM-Act-2. Starting to meet a lot of... "weirdos" when attempting to join a Public Game. The vast majority of the players seem to be AFK, which is absurd because they would need to open their game to the public to let me in, and the process to get a player at this point is measured in seconds.

Saying greetings does nothing and they just stand there AFK. It is frustrating because I am trying to get a group game going and they are just opening their games without actually playing.

A snap-shot of Macrossarce thus far. I know the fashion is not exactly there...



Cheers.

[MakubeX2]

Originally Posted by Sugetsu

I too feel disgusted by their tactics, I wont bother paying $60 for the game. All the big gaming companies need to respect their costumers and learn from CD Project (The Witcher) a thing or two when it comes to games.

Best by educating the ignorant legions of followers who don't give a damn about DRM/RMA/etc just as long as they can get their fix.

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Sugetsu

I too feel disgusted by their tactics, I wont bother paying $60 for the game. All the big gaming companies need to respect their costumers and learn from CD Project (The Witcher) a thing or two when it comes to games.

See, at the moment I had to tweak my internet to even download the digital copy of the game. I would be most annoyed if I end up unable to play it with my current broadband setup. I wish Blizzard could give me a "test link" to ensure my internet isn't blocked. As it is, it would be another 30 minutes before I could find out if I had wasted 70AUD on something unplayable.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

I just want to announce that I have just purchased and is downloading DIII. Yes, I am still mad that I need a constant internet connection. And I am not even sure the internet speed I have is sufficient to run the game. But still, I am taking a break from Skyrim and needed something else to play.

I am still anti-multiplayer. And I will never forgive Blizzard for betraying players like me. Frankly, they won't even notice the money I just gave them anyway. Their RMA makes my presence irrelevant.

Feel free to mock me.

Originally Posted by Sugetsu

I too feel disgusted by their tactics, I wont bother paying $60 for the game. All the big gaming companies need to respect their costumers and learn from CD Project (The Witcher) a thing or two when it comes to games.

Well, i also hate RMA too, feel it really unnecessary, other than just for their greediness. I means disconnected with off-line game play? Not cool at all

Then there's lag as well, basically a really bad model for future gaming

That have nothing to do with Diablo 3 gaming quality through, as the game developers were probably designed by some other IT guys, currently chaining into their desks so they can't run away and have to keep making Blizzard more expansion pack.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Solace

It's not freedom if you're effectively locked into certain combinations of skills. Customizing spells is fun and all, but it's a bit like going to a buffet but only being told you can pick two items from the table at a time. In a situation like that, the only experimentation players are likely to do is to find the "best" overall combination of abilities for whatever they want to do. Which of course leads you right into the wall of players saying screw it and just picking whatever the most popular build at the time is.

Blizzard may be trying to kill the notion of "cookie cutter", but giving you a ton of abilities and forcing you to whittle that down to a handful of choices is probably not the best way to do it. It's for this same reason that the talent revamp in WoW leaves a lot to be desired. An improvement on the old systems? Sure....but not by much.

You may think that's what happens ingame, but it doesn't. I myself had to switch up my abilities dozens of times just to better suit the situation I'm gonna find myself in. Ability builds are a lot more situational in DIII; an ability combo you may find effective in an open field in may be difficult to use in a restricted dungeon, or a build that allows you to decimate entire mobs may be useless against single large bosses (My laser build is one such build). Hell, there are builds that are awesome in Act 1 that may not be the best in Act 4.

Abilities in this game are basically treated like weapons in a modern FPS game: you can only equip and use a limited number at any time, so you need to choose which abilities to take in a particular combat situation. And for some situations you might have to find creative ways to make your existing build work, or plan ahead and modify your ability build to optimize yourself to the enemy at hand. Considering how much more... tactical DIII is compared to DII at much later levels, your success is more ultimately down to your actual skill as a player and how you best utilize your abilities rather than having overpowered abilities and inflated stats anyhow. If I can instantly switch between all 30 of my skills (and their 150 variants) in a single battle at once, then the game becomes massively too easy, and there'd be no more 'builds' to speak off. It also speaks well to the goal of freedom when they make even your starting spells useful in endgame (for my Wizard, Magic Missile becomes a lot more useful once I've unlocked the runes for it, and with the Split rune it becomes useful even up till' Diablo himself. In contrast, the Sorceress' Firebolt in DII becomes quite useless early on once you get higher level skills).

It's not like you can use ALL your abilities in DII anyway: you still need to queue them to be switched up, and you can only use two abilities at a time. DIII gives you the ability to use a maximum of 6 abilities at once in all manner of combinations (provided you activated Elective Mode). There is a lot more freedom of ability choice in DIII than in many other RPG's I've seen: given that you can access a maximum of 150 spell variants, having a cap on how often you can switch between them in battle is a fair trade-off IMHO.

[Duo Maxwell]

As LoweGear has said, I have yet to see a cookie cutter build because, there is none. You can't have cookie cutter build when everything is working. Unless you have a whole walkthough for specific situations, and then there is problem with champion pack that randomly appears, so the best you can come up is using what is best for you, and manage it in different situation.

[Flying Dagger]

Finished Hell today. I always grp with friends and have access to skype and all of us are experienced gamers. Diablo is pretty much the only fight that really required some planning (wiped ~8 times: the first 6 attempts were "gimped" because we did not want to switch skills or lose the MF buff). The ability to infinitely combat res makes the boss fights rather forgiving.

Inferno mode on the other hand: mobs hit hard and have a lot of HP. Champion mobs have deadly affixes. Molten+mortor+jailer+fast = impossible for now (not to mention some mobs have innate abilities such as knockbacks are untankable).

We are going to farm Act4 hell with all 5 stacks of valor buff tomorrow.

[Archon_Wing]

Is it just me or do public games feel really small?

Also, in act 2 and only 100ish gold to my name since I wasted it on crafting. I really like the kick thing; it seems I can't survive without it even with 1400ish life at my level.

Meanwhile, this monster is merely a poser...

Spoiler for Yes, I have to tune down my settings due to crappy comp:

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Right, I just got my first "disconnect" and got kicked from the game. It is exactly as I feared; at random times, just when new monsters show up, I would get lag and the monsters land free hits. And of course the disconnect I just mentioned. These wonderful things I tried to avoid by NOT playing online games...

I am hoping that in ten years time, when Blizzard releases DIV, that they would be kind enough finally give us a offline singleplayer. In the mean time I will just treat every monster I kill as a Blizzard employee.