Diablo 3

[DeafMute]

With the release of D3 a matter of weeks away (15th may -Servers online at 10am GMT)
I think its time to guage just how many people will be playing this game.

Ramping up the hype for this game with only weeks to go blizz are releasing 1 video every week highlighting the classes, Demon Hunter was last week and this week its the Barbarian.

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2012/04/09/...potlight-video

Im so pumped for this game, I just think ill need to upgrade my gfx card to withstand all thats happening on screen.
My HD 4770 has served me well but I think its time for the old boy to relax alittle.

So, state which server youll be playing on, Hardcore/Softcore. Starting class and lets see if we can play alongside one another come release day!

---
Europe
Softcore (nets too unpredictable to consider playing HC)
Barbarian.

Ill add my friend ID when Ive brought the game.

[Mokino]

Soft core if I buy it. You'd have to be an idiot to play hardcore on a system where a server hiccup could wipe all of your progress.

North America
Undecided on class

[Goobers]

Call me petty, but I might skip this because I don't like the look of any of the characters.

Diablo 1 had a sweet looking Warrior in jet black armour, Diablo 2 had the cool looking tin suit Paladin and bone armoured Necromancer... heck Torchlight 2 has a guy in a steam powered suit wielding a large wrench. None of the Diablo 3 characters tickle my chicken when it comes to aesthetics and because of that I'll probably give it a miss.



At least untill user screen shots start turning up with cool suits of armour, then I may reconsider.

[Codex]

For the only team tournament of DOW2 I ever participated in my team won (we got 2 byes...) and the prize was a CD key of our choice. We chose Diablo 3... wonder if we're still getting those. *shrugs*

I liked D2, and D3 looks good, but I wouldn't be too bothered if I missed out on it.

[TESB]

here is a video of a ton of armor tiers for all classes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z783...IeM_JxswM4XtA=

some of them are quite impressive, although i could see people finding some of them over the top.

personally i really enjoy the art direction of diablo 3 (being a beta player), perhaps not so much the characters but the environments are just incredible.

[Codex]

personally i really enjoy the art direction of diablo 3 (being a beta player), perhapbs not so much the characters but the environments are just incredible.

Oh, that's working out huh? I remember the whole OMG it's not GRIMDARK outcry.

[Mokino]

The environments do have the grim dark feel but the characters look like something from WoW for the most part. It's a weird clash of styles.

[Fish Of Doom]

some of those look weird as FUCK...

[Sinogrim]

I'm still on the fence about this game. From what i heard, this game is looking to become more of an MMO than a dungeon crawler, and that worries and saddens me at the same time.

[Codex]

I'm still on the fence about this game. From what i heard, this game is looking to become more of an MMO than a dungeon crawler, and that worries and saddens me at the same time.

You're worried that it's going to be endless chants of "gimme the money!"?

[konfeta]

O.K.; Art Caring People: if you got an hour to burn, you can get a nice summary of Diablo 3's art direction from Blizzard itself (with pictures).
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1015306/The-Art-of-Diablo

Launch site if you want to be marketed to DIRECTLY (you can GET BANNER PICTURES!); some short story writing if you care about the lore (although it will probably be butchered like WoW/SC2 were, Book of Cain made that fairly clear).
http://reveal.diablo3.com/en_US/
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/game/lore.../demon-hunter/

For people who want to look at the skills:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/bar...f-the-ancients (you can view videos of some skills on the main page, you can find datamined/beta videos on youtube)
(note, on the calculator, skill slots look like they are locked in by type - you can use the arrows on top of the pop-up to use the "elective mode" to bypass this handholding tutorial)

I'm still on the fence about this game. From what i heard, this game is looking to become more of an MMO than a dungeon crawler, and that worries and saddens me at the same time.

Nah, it's still a dungeon crawler (4 players max in a party). You just have no off-line mode, but you can still play solo and ignore other people if you want (not recommended, you should at least trade using the auction house because items are vastly more important this time around - for example, attribute customization now comes entirely from gear).



Oh, also, pretty important for those who missed it: PvP will not be at launch; it is slated to be patched in several months after release.

[DeafMute]

Concerning the attritube distribution worries people have.
For those who havnt worked it out yet the points you used in D2 always ended up the same didnt they?
If you was barb youd place some in str, some in dex then the rest in vit.
Its no customization if everyones doing the same thing. The RNG will be busy come D3, seeing as dex and int will be absolutly useless on a barb. same with all classes, 2 stats are useless gearwise.

The artstyle used to bother me alot, now its not so much the background but the later armor sets are undenyably WoW inspired, which does still bother me somewhat, Is it so much to ask to have armor look like armor?
About the only thing that looks like armor on the barb for instance is the shoulders and helm, the chest pieces arnt bulky as youd expected, they are T-shirts.

Anyway just finishing what Im saying artwise for D3, its a good looking game assuming your on the move, its not a game wre you stay still, zoom in and screenshot.

[Sinogrim]

You're worried that it's going to be endless chants of "gimme the money!"?

I'm more worried that the game's going to turn into an insane grindfest and that in a month after release, everyone's going to be running around in the exact same gear with the perfect point distribution for each and every class and you get spammed to death by a gazillion gold-sellers etc.

[Vintage]

I heard that Diablo 3 was going to have some features that required a monthly fee to use, can anyone confirm or deny this?

[Mokino]

There are no monthly fees (yet) though I believe Blizzard has mentioned offering "premium" services for a free down the line though I suspect that'll be stuff like character renaming and such, similar to WoW.

Sino, part of the reason Blizzard's forcing an online connection on us even to play SP is for the real money auction house that lets players buy gear directly. They're trying to stop the gold sellers by offering legitimate ways to buy and sell gear/gold within the game itself. Personally I'm not fond of the idea as it encourages a "pay to win" mentality.

[konfeta]

I'm more worried that the game's going to turn into an insane grindfest and that in a month after release, everyone's going to be running around in the exact same gear with the perfect point distribution for each and every class and you get spammed to death by a gazillion gold-sellers etc.

Well, given that even unique/set items will have random item affixes and that there are no points to assign, that is highly unlikely. The grindfest aspect, well, inescapable - it's an item hunting game (though, the free respecs means a very significant part of the grind, leveling new characters, has been made unnecessary if you want to try new builds). Gazzillion gold sellers, well, depends on how much money Blizzard puts into policing them.

I heard that Diablo 3 was going to have some features that required a monthly fee to use, can anyone confirm or deny this?

That was before the Real Money Auction House, they were saying that they needed someway to monetize the game. It seems to have replaced the monthly fee, but there might be paid services later on.

Sino, part of the reason Blizzard's forcing an online connection on us even to play SP is for the real money auction house that lets players buy gear directly. They're trying to stop the gold sellers by offering legitimate ways to buy and sell gear/gold within the game itself. Personally I'm not fond of the idea as it encourages a "pay to win" mentality.

Pay to win is a different beast, though. You can only buy what others players find and only if they are willing to sell it. I am very interested in seeing how this works out - and if Blizzard manages to make gold truly important, it should be fairly easy to participate in the RMAH trade simply by farming up gold and selling it to make battle.net cash (or, as they came to be known, bobby bucks).

[DeafMute]

Yeah a big difference between Pay2Win and buying items.
Pay2Win - Korean RPG MMO. Items that are so OP.
Buying Items -D3.
Since D3 is 4player co-op, it really doesnt matter because all items that someone buys you stand a chance to gain yourself through champion pack kills and boss kills.
hell if you are good/lucky enough youll score yourself afew decent items whilst playing on your barb that a WD or Wiz could find really useful.

As for D3's Gold true worth, Last I heard the dev team has econamists working on this so gold truly has a value.
Given how much blacksmithing will take to upgrade to max, then youve the gold cost for upgrading gems, taking gems from armor without breaking either item. I think Gold will have plenty value.

As for Blizz Bucks.
Ill net afew only through selling items, just so ive alittle balance for when Blizz eventually want currency for the vanity items they no doubt have planned.

[TESB]

@Sinogrin:

I'm more worried that the game's going to turn into an insane grindfest and that in a month after release, everyone's going to be running around in the exact same gear with the perfect point distribution for each and every class and you get spammed to death by a gazillion gold-sellers etc.

that was more or less the thing that happened to diablo 2, yet you can still have a lot of fun with it. anyways there is nothing wrong with waiting a bit for the initial release feedback. as for me i will buy it immediately due to beta experience.

[PetarB]

I thought we already had a Diablo 3 thread?

Anyways, of course I will purchase this. I was in the top 10 amazon ladder on Hardcore at 1.10 release back in the day - and a member of The Amazon Basin, at one stage. There's no way I could even consider the idea of doing a ladder grind now though. Sure was fun at the time though.

Hardcore forever!

[konfeta]

Incidentally, you unlock hardcore after reaching level 10 instead of finishing normal this time around.

[DeafMute]

I love browsing /VG/

Now I know for certain were act4 takes place.
Ill spoiler the picture of all the waypoints in D3 if anyone wants to take a peak.

D3 Waypoint list

[Mokino]

@konfeta, what I suspect will happen is that the chinese farmers will take over the game market. Blizz won't care since they're making money off of it this time.

[Kien]

Looking at armor video... so instead of having normal armor like in previous games now we get stereotype fantasy mumbo jumbo armor? -.-

previous games:"you found a chainmail"
d3: "you found a tier 6 monk armor"

[konfeta]

Diablo 2 also had armor tiers. Just less pronounced (recycled models) and Belts/Boots/Gloves didn't affect character appearance. And it's not a tier 6 monk armor, it's a plate mail:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/plate-mail

Every armor piece looks different on every character; armor tiers are just a way to designate the base level of the item and to signify that all items of that tier will combine into a specific look.

Also, find me a normal armor with a giant skull shoulderpad!

[Maktaka]

Every armor piece looks different on every character

Which incidentally is how things worked in D2 as well. Barbarians and Sorceresses never could seem to find a way to wear the armor that entirely covered their chest, and Necromancers always had a supply of spare bones and skulls to gussy up their armor with.

[Nalkor]

That,. along with the Railgun spell is why I love Necromancers in D2... that and they can have a build called The Dentist.

[PetarB]

Ah yes, the dentist. It was always a nice surprise seeing one of those in the game. The other unusual build for the necro was the poison nova thingie. Ah, thems were the days. Welcome back, Repetitive Strain Injury!

[Malachi]

...and this is why it sucks so utterly to not have a Necromancer in D3. Witch Doctor doesn't even come close. I can't fathom why Blizzard decided to get rid of one of the most popular and successful classes in the previous game.

[Nalkor]

I remember long ago watchin videos of the classes like WD and Babrarian in it. I'm sorry, but a zombie wall is nothing to bone prison/wall, and the zombie dogs are stupid when placed next to a GOLEM MADE OF YOUR OWN BLOOD. Or a metal/fire one at that. Fuck, even the clay one was cooler.

[Cortlendt]

I dunno but I like Witch Doctor character. Those frogs and jars with spiders are quite cool to me. Zombie dogs are strange though. I kinda loled a lot when Total Biscuit called WD Animal Planet.

[Malachi]

It's not that I dislike the Witch Doctor. I'm OK with him, he's just a type of character whose theme doesn't really appeal to me personally, similarly to the Druid from D2:LoD, or like the Barbarian, not a character I'd play, but I'm happy he's in the game.

It's the fact that he replaces the Necromancer, by far my favorite class from D2, and by having some semblance of undead minions for the WD, there's very little chance of the Necromancer appearing in an expansion or DLC.

I know the topic has been beaten to death, raised as a zombie and then beaten again, but I just can't get over it, and probably never will. :\

[DeafMute]

Not playing the barb
>2012
>SHIGGYDIGGY

=P

But I hear you when you say that imo the 3 classes that over lap in D3 with D2 classes.
DH - Amazon/Assassin
WD - Necro/Druid
Monk - Assassin/Paladin

Afew gripes with the above 3 classes, Wiz gets a pass because its basically a Soso.
Gripes are the DH is for edgy twlight teens, WD spammable jar noise is -Annoying- and my only issue with the Monk is that skill were he has a bell tower drop infront of him. -WTFMate-. This also leads me into thinking just what can they bring into the expansion class wise, btw 2 expansions are planned. Possibly a shape shifting class since the WD doesnt go into that area of druid related skills.

However my issues with D3 aside, I know full well the game isnt targetted at me, its for 15yr olds with paypal accounts lol =P.

Heres an idea also, when PvP arena is released we should have alittle relic news tournament, with a gold entry fee, 1st 2nd & 3rd prizes depending on how many enter. Could be fun!!

[Nalkor]

I doubt the WD has anything along the lines of golems that tank in any meaningful fashion. Plus, I saw a picture of every classes high end armor and oh my god was it awful looking, all of it.

[Sheep]

Overall i'm looking forward to D3 and testing the various builds offered by each class, as well as crazy team compositions such as 4 man WD summoning spam. Harder difficulties should be fun to coordinate with teammates.

[DeafMute]

WD has a tanky summon.

http://www.diablowiki.net/Gargantuan

[Nalkor]

Did an image search of the Gargantuan and yup, still ugly looking, and not in the awesome way. Looks like a lame Daemon of Chaos from 40k.

[Kien]

The d2 necorguy using poison and golems was stupid. Bone wall and such was just to fill all the 30 holes of skills. Just like "find item" for barbarian or "mana regen aura" for paladin. In vanilla game necro did fine but didn't kill as fast as the other characters. After expansion all his skills were ineffective at hell difficulty. Donno if they changed the the skills or the monsters, useless. Later they added the bonus thing from similar skills giving the option to super focus on bone spirit which would actually do high damage, and magic immunity was the rarest one.

Like someone else mentioned the classes in D3 seems like heavily inspired from previous ones, but what else to expect? What good ideas are there that has not already been done before? I was a bit disappointed to see the barbarian again, never liked that d2 would have such a stereotype simple thing. The monk is something I felt they always had in mind and I'm curious to play him. I'm gonna give the witch doctor a try to see if he has something interesting after all. I donno much what possible skills he would have.

[Nalkor]

I don't play vanilla D2 these days, just the Eastern Suns mod that makes pretty much every skill in each class useful through good synergies.

[konfeta]

In expansion later patches, they eventually fixed his skills. Summoner builds are very powerful and are one of the few builds that could clear Hell naked reasonably effectively (google Fishymancer if you are interested).

The official line of explanation as to why the Necromancer didn't make it in and the Barbarian did was because they felt the Necromancer was perfect-as-is and they could not improve on him, while the Barbarian felt inadequate and had most room for upgrades (considering that 2/3 of his skills were basically passive and that he had only 2 AoE damage moves, I can see that).

@Kien go on the battle.net website and look at their skills. The Barbarian is not exactly stereotypical anymore. Surprising amount of magic skills.

[Makenshi]

I'll try a WD build that uses only those blue "ghost skills" (soul harvest, horrify, etc), 'cause they are the only ones which look good, imo. If it works, cool - if not, its bye bye voodoo guy.


Definitely going to play a Barbarian in co-op as soon as game launches, his late game armors are the dick of the galaxy!

[Malachi]

I'm on the exact opposite to you, Kien. I don't get why it is necessary for Blizzard to always put new, "original" classes in the game instead of the more stereotypical ones. The possible sensible choices end really quick, and we end up with ridiculous, idiotic stuff like the Shadow Hunter and the Monk (indeed, the idea of a martial artist character in a game where otherwise people wield heavy weaponry and armor in melee always seemed incredibly cheesy and silly to me).

I would be perfectly happy with stereotypical characters like a Warrior, Mage, Necromamcer, Assassin and some kind of Cleric (Paladin, possibly).

The official line of explanation as to why the Necromancer didn't make it in and the Barbarian did was because they felt the Necromancer was perfect-as-is and they could not improve on him, while the Barbarian felt inadequate and had most room for upgrades

This is so incredibly idiotic that I cannot even find adequate insults. "The class is perfect, so let's not have it in the game"?

Looking at the price by which D3 is going to go, I'm not sure if I'll buy it. I don't really like any of the character classes, only Barbarian and Wizard are somewhat passable, but nothing to actually make me want to play it, the armor sets look stupid, and the graphics are overall too cartoonish for my taste. And that is in a point, where a lot of my long unseen RL friends are planning to buy it and keep convincing me to join them. If I was to buy the game for what it is, to play it alone or with strangers, I wouldn't even give it another look.

[Nalkor]

I agree with Malachi, the Necromancer being perfect should be exactly why it should have been included. That would mean it wouldn't suffer nearly as many nerfs/balances as the ones that needed constant tweaking.

[DeafMute]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...VPj!Zcg!ZaZaZZ

One of the builds ill be trying out.
And fear not fellas, with 2 expansions on the way im sure we will see afew old faces returning.

[konfeta]

Heh. Just because it was perfect in Diablo 2 doesn't mean it would work in the context of Diablo 3. There are too many changes to just port it over, which would result in a completely different feeling class anyway.

I don't get why it is necessary for Blizzard to always put new, "original" classes in the game instead of the more stereotypical ones.

Heh, Diablo forums were at one filled with complaints about how all the new classes are bland, unoriginal, and DnDesque. Another group complained that we basically got old classes hybridized (DH - Assassin + Amazon; WD - Druid + Necro; Monk - Assassin + Paladin). Can't please everyone.

I am guessing you had a strong dislike for the LoD Assassin?

[Kalimac]

That one hour video on the art direction was very interesting. I did not agree with all of their decisions, but I understand why they made most of them (such as making the characters more distinct from the background etc). With that said, almost all armor sets in the higher tiers look ridiculous. Not sure what they were thinking there, as the Art director said the basic armors were made to look like they could be manufactured in real life, but when it came to higher tier armors they just made them look "cool" (i.e add spikes, spikes everywhere).

[Nalkor]

The lower armors look good, high-tier armor looks like from WoW, especially the WDs and Barbarian's. The female wizard/sorc looks like a Final Fantasy villain.

[konfeta]

Well, Blizzard has an unhealthy infatuation with epic. My #1 awaited feature from the art perspective is a way to downgrade the artwork of high level armor pieces. Most of my favorite armor looks are in the middle of the 16 tier range.

We already have "vanishing dyes" (i.e. makes the armor invisible which I am sure will be in high demand), so why not a conversion dye.

[Nalkor]

As loathe as I am to admit it, TOR's orange armor was a great idea. Practical, nice looking armor with endgame stats due to gear mods.

[Mokino]

I really get the feeling that D3 is geared to attract the WoW crowd more than the D2 one. Blizzard is trying to merge the communities.

A lot of D3 is reminding me of WoW beyond the art direction, and unfortunately not in good ways.

[konfeta]

And so it begins.