Diablo III Open Beta April 20th thru 23rd

[Asquiol]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4511821509

From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.

[Sillywilly]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4511821509

From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion.

Thanks!! It's downloading as we speak.

[Zavon]

Pretty anti-climatic. I was looking forward to trying this out when I got home from work, only to find out that their servers are capped. Gay. Oh well, maybe it will be fixed soon.

[Draconian]

I played a Wizard to like level 8 I think. Meh.

The reality is that I've never liked any action RPG with a true 3d engine... only isometric classics like Diablos and Divine Divinity, etc. They just always feel sluggish in comparison. I could get past that if everything didn't feel so damn linear. No options for skill progression at all? You just get what you get at each level, same skill builds for each class? Reeeeeeeally lame. And yeah yeah, I know about the runes... it's not the same.

Pretty on the fence now about if I wanna even bother. The dialog is cheesy, the graphics are a bit too cartoony and even with gamma adjustments I couldn't really get it to not look washed out and bright. In my head Torchlight did this sort of look much better, but I haven't played that since it came out so maybe I'm wrong.


Not sure if it's worth 60 bucks, especially since I only planned on playing campaign with friends a few times and that's about it.

[Zavon]

Well a couple things Drac:

1. You get a lot more abilities and runes as you level.

2. With that option elective you can put whatever ability you like in whatever slot. So, thats a shit ton of builds.


My take:

They have somehow managed to turn diablo into WoW. From the unlockable level abilities, to the familiar log in screen, to the identical chat window and leveling of craft skills and cartoon graphics-- I truly felt like I was playing WOW.

It was fun, but I feel a bit traumatized. RIP Diablo. I have no idea how I feel about this.

[Garal]

They have somehow managed to turn diablo into WoW. From the unlockable level abilities, to the familiar log in screen, to the identical chat window and leveling of craft skills and cartoon graphics-- I truly felt like I was playing WOW.

God damn it...

[Ero Elohim]

I felt like I was playing Diablo. Sometimes, I think people get way too nostaligic about what Diablo was. It always had cheesy dialogue. The low levels were always sluggish, boring, and dull (as has been pointed out in other places, the beta is basically the equivalent of Diablo II up to Blood Raven.) The login screen is almost the same as Diablo II's.

As far as new stuff: Crafting replaces the god-awful gambling mechanic from Diablo II. Unlocking skills for use as you level and letting you decide the combinations is almost the same as giving you infinite respec options in Diablo II - and the lack of a respec is one of the things I disliked about D2. Misplaced a point? Oh, you're fucked. Not to mention, most of the Diablo II skills were pretty much upgrades from one another, which meant you were stuck waiting until level 24-30 until you got the good stuff.

However, I'm not completely sold. The three major things about Diablo III that make me wary:

- No dependencies in the skill builds. I worry that the ideal way to play will just be with whatever is overpowered at the moment. With a skill tree or some other sort of dependency requirement, you end up with somewhat distinct playstyles. Maybe the prerequisite attack for one build is weaker, but makes up for it with a powerful AOE down the line, while another build has a better sustained damage option with limited AOE effects. In D3, there's really nothing stopping you from taking both the high single-target ability in Slot 1 and the best AOE ability in Slot 2. There's very, very little in the realm of requirements here, which makes the weapons seem superfluous and the skills very similar after a while. Most of them either do damage or do damage with a small additional effect.

- Game speed. The removal of the sprint from Diablo II and the lack of easily accessible +Move Speed items makes the current beta seem incredibly sluggish at times. In earlier builds, you could craft boots with up to +15% move speed and this wasn't such a problem. Their decision to move that up to higher levels is going to make Normal mode seem like a bar crawl instead of a frantic hack-and-slash. I actually find myself having the best times with the Barbarian and Monk because they still get low level teleports and can keep up a reckless pace.

- The game is just damn easy right now. Apparently this gets better by the end of normal and especially on the higher difficulties, but it rubs me the wrong way that I'll be at the end of the story before I'm challenged. Do we really need a 15+ hour story mode that we're all forced to go through before we start fighting more difficult enemies? Not to mention that the second time through on Nightmare, you won't have many (if any) surprises waiting for you. You'll have seen all the tilesets, all the bosses, and all the major enemies. The only new content will be unique rare modifiers and the loot. I'm not sure that's enough to keep anyone but the most hardcore happy.

[Valec]

Felt like Diablo to me. The skill system is different, but it's been different in every incarnation of the game, so no surprise there.

edit: I will say that it did seem ridiculously easy, which I seem to recall even in diablo 2 having to keep an eye on my health potion supply in the very early game. I used like 2.

[Zoobi]

The first real challenge in diablo 2 wasn't really ever until Duriel IMO. He's ridiculously hard on normal because you don't have your best skills yet, he both slows, knocks you back and causes you to go into the recovery frames everytime he hits you which is a pain in the ass. Plus he hits incredibly hard to boot. I don't see the game really getting very difficult until late nightmare at the earliest anyway. Remains to be seen if the game gets difficult though, I'll reserve judgement until I get to play the full game, or at least normal difficulty.

As for the skills issue, I feel the same as Valec and Ero in that regard. For cookie cutter builds, to be expected with power gamers, I do however see a lot of potential(when pvp comes out) to find counters for certain builds. It'll be like a game of starcraft in that regard, the bioballs with terran are/were considered extremely cheesy until people understood the counters to it.To be clear, I don't play starcraft or sc2 but I do enjoy watching casts done by any of the major american casters out there in youtube land(day9 being my favorite because he's informative).

[Draconian]

It always had cheesy dialogue.

The key is that it didn't have as much of it so it wasn't annoying. They've developed entire storylines into the quests and talking to people, which isn't really how it used to be. And the voice acting was better, from what I've seen in the first 10 levels.

Game speed. The removal of the sprint from Diablo II and the lack of easily accessible +Move Speed items makes the current beta seem incredibly sluggish at times.

Agree 1000%

[Sillywilly]

I played a Demon Hunter to like level 8 or 9 last night. I'm kind of MEH.

Things I liked:

-I think the skill animations are a little more creative. I like that when my Demon Hunter snares two targets it shows a chain running between them like he harpooned them together or something.
-Being able to choose gender was long overdue. Even my wife is into Diablo enough to get a kick out of being able to play a female class of any kind.
-You can pick up gold just by running over it like in Torchlight. This was also a feature that was long over due.

Don't like:

-The skill system is like Warhammer minus PvP spec options. You have a set amount of skills that you get as you level. You can modify them a little with runes but it's no where near the same as a choice between 3 spec paths from D2.

-Honestly I was hoping to see more of a reflection in what gear I was wearing. D2 took it a step further than D and I was hoping for a step up or two from that. But different look armor sets still all have that basic design that doesn't change much.

-The graphics are ok. I don't think they are really any better looking than Path of Exhile IMO. I mean F2P by small indy vs multi million Blizzard for 60 bucks? The graphics are definitely not a reflection of the price.

-A couple of the classes are interesting but nothing really reaches out and grabs me. I was hoping there would be more classes with more variety by release date. They obviously didn't try to break any new ground with the graphics or anything else in this game. The skill system is super simple (yes I remember runes) so it shouldn't be that hard to balance classes. And I mean it's your 3rd action RPG, you have tons of experience to build on. Instead we get 5 lousy classes, 2 of them repeats.

Don't know:

The crafting system. I didn't mess with this at all and I don't have any intentions to. I'll craft in an MMO but in my hack n slash RPG I don't see it being something I'd do much.

All in all I am extremely underwhelmed. My expectations were not met which doesn't make it a bad game, just one I may not sink the money into to get. I was hoping a little WoW money might make it's way over into the Diablo series and get us more classes, more class builds, a little more character customization (gender selection was nice), etc. I was praying that WoW INFLUENCE wouldn't make its way over but it did. :-/

My final verdict was something like: "That 60 bucks is like 4-5 months of ToR, or a preorder of TSW or GW2 so why would I?".

[Ero Elohim]

The irony of saying Diablo III seems a bit derivative and doesn't break new ground for its budget, then saying the money would be better spent on TOR.

[Zoobi]

I played a Demon Hunter to like level 8 or 9 last night. I'm kind of MEH.

Things I liked:

-I think the skill animations are a little more creative. I like that when my Demon Hunter snares two targets it shows a chain running between them like he harpooned them together or something.
-Being able to choose gender was long overdue. Even my wife is into Diablo enough to get a kick out of being able to play a female class of any kind.
-You can pick up gold just by running over it like in Torchlight. This was also a feature that was long over due.

Don't like:

-The skill system is like Warhammer minus PvP spec options. You have a set amount of skills that you get as you level. You can modify them a little with runes but it's no where near the same as a choice between 3 spec paths from D2.

There are three builds per class in diablo 2 that are viable/good. Hammadin/Zealadin/Smiteadin, Frenzy Barb/WW Barb/Singer Barb, Meteorb Sorc/ Lightning Sorc, Poison Necro/Bone Necro/Summ Necro, Elemental Druid/Bear Druid/Wolf Druid, SpearaZon/Bowazon/Javelinazon, WW Sin/Trapsin/Hybrid. We won't know how many builds there will be per class, that's all there was in diablo 2 after synergies were introduced. Sure you could use other skills, but they were less than stellar damage wise.

-Honestly I was hoping to see more of a reflection in what gear I was wearing. D2 took it a step further than D and I was hoping for a step up or two from that. But different look armor sets still all have that basic design that doesn't change much.

You should check out the tiered armor sets and how they look on youtube. They go through each and every tier of gears look. Some of them look incredible, others eh not my taste.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1151-...posts-premium/ Click on each of the banners in that post and it will take you to the youtube videos of the way the armor looks for each class

-The graphics are ok. I don't think they are really any better looking than Path of Exhile IMO. I mean F2P by small indy vs multi million Blizzard for 60 bucks? The graphics are definitely not a reflection of the price.

It's a Blizzard game, they've never been on the bleeding edge of graphics anyway. I'm actually pretty surprised to see this complaint since TOR graphics aren't very good either, just stylized in a way that makes them look better than they are.

-A couple of the classes are interesting but nothing really reaches out and grabs me. I was hoping there would be more classes with more variety by release date. They obviously didn't try to break any new ground with the graphics or anything else in this game. The skill system is super simple (yes I remember runes) so it shouldn't be that hard to balance classes. And I mean it's your 3rd action RPG, you have tons of experience to build on. Instead we get 5 lousy classes, 2 of them repeats.

2 of them repeats? The only returning class is the barb, and he actually plays incredibly different compared to the barb in d2(from what I've seen in beta).

Don't know:

The crafting system. I didn't mess with this at all and I don't have any intentions to. I'll craft in an MMO but in my hack n slash RPG I don't see it being something I'd do much.

You're going to have to if you do pick up the game, since crafting will hold some of the best-in-slot gear at endgame. It's a pretty simple system, but it gets the job done.

All in all I am extremely underwhelmed. My expectations were not met which doesn't make it a bad game, just one I may not sink the money into to get. I was hoping a little WoW money might make it's way over into the Diablo series and get us more classes, more class builds, a little more character customization (gender selection was nice), etc. I was praying that WoW INFLUENCE wouldn't make its way over but it did. :-/

My final verdict was something like: "That 60 bucks is like 4-5 months of ToR, or a preorder of TSW or GW2 so why would I?".

All in all, I think you're basing your opinion of the game on too little of content to form an educated opinion of the game. Obviously the game could end up being awful, but I'd wait til some of us that are going to be purchasing it to chime in.

[Sillywilly]

All in all, I think you're basing your opinion of the game on too little of content to form an educated opinion of the game. Obviously the game could end up being awful, but I'd wait til some of us that are going to be purchasing it to chime in.

True I haven't played it all that far but honestly the only way to experience any of that for myself is to buy it and play it in which case the damage is done.

I'm counting the wizard as a sorc because that's not much of a difference in concept at least. I actually liked the idea of class repeats which is why I said 2 were so. I'd at least like a paladin and amazon equivalent. Not so much just play style but idea or background of the class? Not sure how to say that entirely correctly but I was hoping for more than 5 "personas" maybe in the 3rd.

It's a Blizzard game, they've never been on the bleeding edge of graphics anyway. I'm actually pretty surprised to see this complaint since TOR graphics aren't very good either, just stylized in a way that makes them look better than they are.

I actually thought Diablo 2 was a good upgrade in graphics (for it's time and genre). I mean consider the jump in graphics from diablo to d2. From D to D2 we got more playable "races", more skills per race than the original Diablo had combined. Much more detailed graphics and character development, gear choices, uniques, gems/cube recipes, etc. So I was kinda hoping D3 would take a giant leap forward again.

PCs are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were when D2 came out. And RPG like Diablo/PoE etc should be able to do some impressive things on their scale considering they don't have that high of a requirement to begin with plus there's never like more than 8 people together at one time anyway.

It's true ToRs graphics aren't ground breaking but then again how many other MMOs do close ups the way TOR does? Plus you have so many people on screen and everything is larger and more fleshed out and detailed than in a hack and slash RPG. TORs graphics also look much better with the texture upgrades.

The irony of saying Diablo III seems a bit derivative and doesn't break new ground for its budget, then saying the money would be better spent on TOR.

I wasn't implying that I would use that money on TOR because TOR was more inventive than Diablo 3. But if Diablo 3 doesn't have enough inventiveness to draw me in and make me want to play it for 4 months then that money could be better spend on a 4 month subscription or buy in for GW2 or something. I wasn't say I would take the money elsewhere because of an apples to apples comparison. The requirements for individual games to get my attention might not be the same for every game.


To clarify my current disappointment:

Because of it's simplicity and lesser requirements I expected to see the game advance the genre a little. It's the 3rd in what is probably the most successful hack n slash series of all time. The company wipes it's ass with money because of it's WoW revenue.

I would have liked to have seen some kind of advanced character customization. Like maybe 2 heights and 3 physiques. Why? WTF not? Push the genre a little. Give us something to gawk over for a change. Maybe 4 hair colors (blonde, red, black and brown) and 3 skin tones. Caucasian, asian and black. I didn't notice if the game has a dye system or not, I didn't notice it if it did. But if not, WTF not? This is an 8 player per game RPG. It's not like customization features are going to overload a users video like an MMO might.

Give us some real variety in class customization. I've never been suckered in by the "X number of combinations" crap. For example the wizard in DAoC had FOUR different specs. Ice, fire, earth or a hybrid in between one of those 3. Don't try to tell me your wizard class has 1000 different specs just because you could go 21 in fire and 40 in earth or 23 in fire and 39 in earth and on. That's over representing the diversity of a spec.

To me instead of advancing the class design system they simplified it, IMO probably to make balance easier which is why MMOs have gone to identical mirrors for classes across realms. I mean take one of my Demon hunters ranged abilities. The runes allow me to increase it's snare duration. One makes the skill hit 2 additional enemies. The other causes it to generate a little more hatred (DH resource) than normal. Some runes slightly reduce the cost of a skill, etc. I haven't used the bulk of them but with 15 years of online gaming experience I don't see these types of changes creating much diversity on a 2nd play through.


However I do like that they have more sources of resources such as hatred/discipline on my demo hunter. It adds a little bit of dimension to the game play that has been absent in the genre up to this point.

[Zoobi]

True I haven't played it all that far but honestly the only way to experience any of that for myself is to buy it and play it in which case the damage is done.

I'm counting the wizard as a sorc because that's not much of a difference in concept at least. I actually liked the idea of class repeats which is why I said 2 were so. I'd at least like a paladin and amazon equivalent. Not so much just play style but idea or background of the class? Not sure how to say that entirely correctly but I was hoping for more than 5 "personas" maybe in the 3rd.



I actually thought Diablo 2 was a good upgrade in graphics (for it's time and genre). I mean consider the jump in graphics from diablo to d2. From D to D2 we got more playable "races", more skills per race than the original Diablo had combined. Much more detailed graphics and character development, gear choices, uniques, gems/cube recipes, etc. So I was kinda hoping D3 would take a giant leap forward again.

There's only so much you can do to move the hack-and-slash genre forward until a game no longer is hack-and-slash. Uniques were in the first diablo. I can't really respond to whether or not D3 has taken a large step forward until I actually experience the game. You can look at runes on papers and say they don't change much, but the in-game experience might tell you something different.

This is just an example but, in league of legends when Ahri came out, everyone thought she was going to be awful because her numbers didn't look good on paper. In practice she was a monster in the hands of a skilled player. Now to bring this back to diablo, the first rune on my monk changes the way my primary ability functions pretty greatly. The thunderclap rune makes it so I can actually teleport around the field to different opponents. You could say dashing strike already does this, but dashing strike costs a lot of spirit, and doesn't do the damage thunderclap'd fists of thunder do. On the plus side of having dashing strike you can dash much further distances. This is but one example of how differing skills/runes could and very likely will workout.

PCs are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were when D2 came out. And RPG like Diablo/PoE etc should be able to do some impressive things on their scale considering they don't have that high of a requirement to begin with plus there's never like more than 8 people together at one time anyway.

It's true PCs have grown in power over the years, however not everyone owns a gaming PC. On the Diablofans site a guy said he had to skip buying Diablo 3 because his laptop couldn't run it(although this is kind of stupid because Blizzard said they do their optimization to the engine at the very latest they can, will happen in the next few weeks as they go into release)

It's true ToRs graphics aren't ground breaking but then again how many other MMOs do close ups the way ToR does? Plus you have so many people on screen and everything is larger and more fleshed out and detailed than in a hack and slash RPG.

I don't know what you mean by closeups, if you mean the textures on the armor and such, have you actually zoomed in all the way? The textures were pretty awful if you actually zoomed in, so much so that the TOR team actually patched in better textures in 1.2(I read the patch notes before I quit playing).


I wasn't implying that I would use that money on TOR because TOR was more inventive than Diablo 3. But if Diablo 3 doesn't have enough inventiveness to draw me in and make me want to play it for 4 months then that money could be better spend on a 4 month subscription or buy in for GW2 or something. I wasn't say I would take the money elsewhere because of an apples to apples comparison. The requirements for individual games to get my attention might not be the same for every game.

In the end it's your prerogative to not spend your money on Diablo 3, but I do believe you will be missing out on a great game if you do. Especially if you're any fan of the series in the slightest.

[Sillywilly]

I don't disagree with your other points, I think maybe my threshold for many of those is just in a slightly different place than yours. But in the end subjective is subjective. :-)

It's true PCs have grown in power over the years, however not everyone owns a gaming PC. On the Diablofans site a guy said he had to skip buying Diablo 3 because his laptop couldn't run it(although this is kind of stupid because Blizzard said they do their optimization to the engine at the very latest they can, will happen in the next few weeks as they go into release)

What that guy said pisses me off though and it's because I carry a grudge over from it for the MMO genre. He needs to stop fucking playing games. If you can't afford a PC OR laptop that will run the current games, especially a fucking hack n slash RPG like D3, at least on their lower settings then you don't have 60 bucks to be dropping on a video game. My wifes computer cost around 1000 bucks in expensive ass Norway and will run LotRO, TOR, on average settings and of course D3 on it's highest settings.

The forums in everything from MMOs to simpler RPGs are full of bitching because a bunch of cheap tards want to game on 300 dollar Walmart laptops.

[Esfires]

The gameplay has been plenty enjoyable for me, but I'm with sillywilly on the classes and graphics. The animations are wonderful, but I just wish it wasn't all in that corny-ass WoW style, it really ruins the dark ambiance they're trying to go for. Plus the dialogue is just atrocious, in writing and execution.

I wish they had brought back more of the D2 classes, just given them an updated spin. I'm really missing a Paladin variant. The monk doesn't really make up for it, and it's more assassin-like anyway. The Witchdoctor was awesome, the wizard turned me off with the beam skill not hitting reliably, the demon hunter was lackluster, and I haven't tried the barb yet.

The amount of classes is fine for now, though. You have to remember that D2 didn't have the Druid and Assassin at release, they were expansion characters.

EDIT: And how the hell could they have you traipsing through Tristram wihtout the Tristram music?! Somebody better lose their balls over that.

EDIT 2: As an aside, it's been really cool to see all the Diablo 1 references, to relive the events that started the whole series.

[VKhaun]

So this is no longer an open beta, it is a 'stress test' and no one can connect haha. I beat the beta before work yesterday and had a lot of fun, but I really wanted to play a little more this weekend. Doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Good:
I turn the music off on all games and play my own, and I'm fine with the graphics. I can FUCKING SEE WHAT I'M DOING and maybe I didn't play enough WoW to see the resemblance but I'm not bothered by the style. Like the crafting. Like the enemies. Like the lore you can listen to while playing every time you encounter something. I'm really happy with map design. Still pissed they got rid of loot melting in the field, but the inventory is so generous and selling things so easy that it never mattered to me and I didn't think about it until making this post.

At first I didn't like that many maps seemed linear, but as I got closer to the skeleton king and started remembering the big ass areas in D2 that I just wanted to find the exit... the tombs and cathedral in this had a startlingly simple answer to that: Squares and circles! Instead of the maps being 'go left' or 'go right' and long dead end areas like in D2, any direction you could go ended up going around to the next door or the objective.

I think it has a lot of potential for Inferno mode. The big guys who pop into snakes/imps were interesting. They did trivial damage but if you try to kill them without taking ANY damage you'll find they're a bit tricky. Timing is not difficult, but not forgiving either. The skeleton king was also a fun fight to try and take zero damage and I found myself playing with skills during it.




Bad:
Skill system does not work like it does on the website where you have the left/right arrows on the category. The spots you unlock in beta must use skills from their category. I'm hoping that's a testing thing and not game design because it completely neuters their whole spec system if tons of combinations are impossible. My barb build just happens to fit in there anyway but I'm sure there will be plenty of angry players of all classes if that doesn't change.

As usual some rare monsters are harder than the bosses. Got some super fast fatties who did knockback, and I got a swarm of super fast bats with fear effects. Neither killed me, but they were not fun to fight and killing them was pure numbers with no trick to it.

Much of the game is questilized where you have to go back to town and talk to people. D2 had a little of that... and I hated it in D2, too...

They have said on the forums multiple times that they think people 'like' seeing tons of crap fly off bodies and used it as justification to NOT fix classic stupid things about the game like gold and useless loot. You still see tons of 'cracked' or 'worn' items you would never pick up and even though gold doesn't need to be clicked on it's still stupid that random monsters don't just earn gold by killing them and you have to keep running back a step or two to tag the pile on the ground. Chests and weapon stands continue to give jack shit and all my equipment was random monster drops.

[Ero Elohim]

Skill system does not work like it does on the website where you have the left/right arrows on the category. The spots you unlock in beta must use skills from their category. I'm hoping that's a testing thing and not game design because it completely neuters their whole spec system if tons of combinations are impossible. My barb build just happens to fit in there anyway but I'm sure there will be plenty of angry players of all classes if that doesn't change.

Go into the options and find "Elective Mode." Turn it on.

No idea why this is buried in a menu and not just on the goddamn skill page, but there you have it. Sometimes I think Blizzard's tendency to make things for idiots gets in the way of good design.

They have said on the forums multiple times that they think people 'like' seeing tons of crap fly off bodies and used it as justification to NOT fix classic stupid things about the game like gold and useless loot. You still see tons of 'cracked' or 'worn' items you would never pick up and even though gold doesn't need to be clicked on it's still stupid that random monsters don't just earn gold by killing them and you have to keep running back a step or two to tag the pile on the ground. Chests and weapon stands continue to give jack shit and all my equipment was random monster drops.

Honestly, I agree with them here. There's a little jolt of anticipation every time you see a piece of gear you need (like a new weapon) fly through the air. Just enough of a delay exists between you recognizing what's in the air and not seeing the text telling you what it is that your brain instinctively gets a bit giddy hoping its a good one this time. It's basically gambling: Even electronic slot machines have virtual reels that turn, despite being able to instantly display the pattern and potential winnings because the human mind gets off on that anticipation.

[Zoobi]

At first I didn't like that many maps seemed linear, but as I got closer to the skeleton king and started remembering the big ass areas in D2 that I just wanted to find the exit...

According to Blizzard the area that we get in the beta is just a "tutorial" area and randomized areas start to happen more often. However, there are randomization elements even in the beta area. Cathedral Level 2 and 4 are both randomized, you'll see the same kind of "tiles" repeat themselves on multiple runs through, but they're never in the same area though. Cathedral level 3 and the Royal Crypts are both always the same because of the story elements there(yes I realize cathedral level 3 has some random elements, but they're only in between getting kormacs gear and killing JONDAAAAAA)

I think it has a lot of potential for Inferno mode. The big guys who pop into snakes/imps were interesting. They did trivial damage but if you try to kill them without taking ANY damage you'll find they're a bit tricky. Timing is not difficult, but not forgiving either. The skeleton king was also a fun fight to try and take zero damage and I found myself playing with skills during it.




Bad:
Skill system does not work like it does on the website where you have the left/right arrows on the category. The spots you unlock in beta must use skills from their category. I'm hoping that's a testing thing and not game design because it completely neuters their whole spec system if tons of combinations are impossible. My barb build just happens to fit in there anyway but I'm sure there will be plenty of angry players of all classes if that doesn't change.

Answered by Ero Elohim

As usual some rare monsters are harder than the bosses. Got some super fast fatties who did knockback, and I got a swarm of super fast bats with fear effects. Neither killed me, but they were not fun to fight and killing them was pure numbers with no trick to it.

Much of the game is questilized where you have to go back to town and talk to people. D2 had a little of that... and I hated it in D2, too...

They have said on the forums multiple times that they think people 'like' seeing tons of crap fly off bodies and used it as justification to NOT fix classic stupid things about the game like gold and useless loot. You still see tons of 'cracked' or 'worn' items you would never pick up and even though gold doesn't need to be clicked on it's still stupid that random monsters don't just earn gold by killing them and you have to keep running back a step or two to tag the pile on the ground. Chests and weapon stands continue to give jack shit and all my equipment was random monster drops.

I've gotten a rare from a chest, and a rare from a barrel since I started playing it. It's a small chance, but it is there.

Yep

[Ero Elohim]

Also, just in case anyone didn't notice, Jondar is the necromancer from Diablo II. Same gear and same abilities. Obviously not the "canon" necromancer that helped defeat Diablo and Baal, but one of their order. This gives us a taste as to what capacity we'll be seeing the other classes from Diablo II, since they've been hinted as appearing in some capacity throughout the game.

[Sillywilly]

Ok so I beat the beta on my Demon Hunter. I finished at lvl 9 and haven't started over on a new game with him. Did play a barb up to about level 5 though.

So at any point while playing this has anyone said "Man this feels like a Torchlight 2". Cause I have constantly. Something about the way the game moves and flows and the pace of the combat just screams Torchlight to me. Honestly now that I look at alot of the aspects of the game I'm thinking D3 might have been designed with the prospect of taking it to a console in the future.

It feels much more like a Torchlight 2 than a D3 to me. That's the kind of overall feeling I get.

[Valec]

It feels much more like a Torchlight 2 than a D3 to me. That's the kind of overall feeling I get.

I think that's mostly because of the art style and the dead body physics. And, obviously, that Torchlight is a Diablo clone so pretty much the rest plays the same too.

[VKhaun]

TY for the tip on the skills system.
I would not have thought to look for it.
Strange they would do that...



Torchlight felt claustrophobic to me. Even in 'open' areas I always bumped into things and realized I couldn't walk over certain areas. D3 is both more open feeling, and allows me to smack things out of my way. My barb has already flipped over many a table in his quest to vanquish the Skeleton King.

I feel like D3 uses color better than Torchlight did, too. I was always straining to see things on some Torchlight maps and it was difficult to pick out individuals among swarms in Torchlight. D3 is... sharper... ?

I do miss the pet that would go sell things though...

[ofrm1]

I played the game way too much before they released the open beta getting all up to 13 only to have them all wiped, so I have absolutely no desire to log back in until release.

It'll be a decent game, but the skill system pissed me off.

Also, I wish morons would stop claiming that the game is too easy. I've been hearing this since beta invites went out. You're playing the first third of the first act or normal difficulty. What the fuck are you expecting?