7 ms·

Whilst I'm not qualified to comment on the science, I can certainly agree with the conclusion. In Diablo 2, the hunt for loot was part of feeling the "hero" - k

• RegEx 14y ago
  I agree 100% in regards to the Auction House. Me and a buddy are in the middle of Nightmare difficulty, and we hadn't taken a look at the AH yet. Upon visiting the AH, we realized just how bad our gear was, and we managed to cheaply replace almost every piece of armor having stats magnitudes better. Also, the boss fights are extremely disappointing. I fear the only rush I'll get out of the game is rolling a Hardcore character.
  • deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
    • RegEx 14y ago
      That's good to know! I know the nature of Diablo3 is somewhat mindless, but I want to have to pay attention every now and then.
      • julsonl 14y ago
        I accidentally deleted my post, but what I was trying to say previously (in which the parent replied to), was that higher difficulties require thinking, like dodging an Arcane sentry, or moving away from molten/plague pools. Adding to that, I play a monk in Inferno, and I adopted a "guardian" role during group play: dashing and knocking back enemies attacking our glass cannons, healing our tank, breaking CC using serenity (when fighting "Frozen" bosses) and maintaining damage reduction debuffs and buffs, all while making sure that my spirit levels get replenished (or else I'm useless). There's a whole lot more into the game than just gearing up and bashing skulls.
        • danudey 14y ago
          Sure, but the fact that you have to play through the (boring, repetitive) easy mode to get to any sort of challenge takes all the fun out of it. 'Go through the game once without any sort of difficulty before we actually give you something worth doing' doesn't fly with me. If your game isn't fun or challenging on the first play through I'm not interested. I don't want a 'practice run', I want an actual game.
        • zobzu 14y ago
          its ok as a monk i guess. another issue is that 80% of players (thats a pretty random estimate) are DH. So here's what inferno looks like: join/leave/ join/leave/ join/leave/ join/leave/ join/leave/ join/leave/ Because all DH are looking for other classes and don't find it. Its literally a constant spam of join/leave because it's impossible to play with a proper party. Plus there's some inferno elites you simply CANNOT kill as DH (when the whole elite group as reflect damage for example). you CANNOT have crazy DPS and crazy HP, so the more damage you do the faster you die. If you die/rez (with the increasing timer) the elite will go in rage mode after a while (kills you in 1-3s from distance, cannot dodge it) and while you're waiting, heal all the damage you've done. It just doesn't work. One of the many reason why Inferno is not that fun. Most people just skip elites by doing run-die-run loops if they don't have a proper party.
          • guard-of-terra 14y ago
            Time to come to hardcore, no any DHs in sight. Tho you can easily find parties with 3 WD and nobody else :)
          • julsonl 14y ago
            I never play public games and only play with a group of friends, so I can't comment on that aspect. With regards to class distribution, I have a good mix of friends playing various classes (I think I only know one rolling DH).
  • phaus 14y ago
    Sadly Blizzard completely ruined Hardcore play with their requirement to remain connected. If you play an online game for any significant length of time, you will probably experience a lag-spike at some point. Considering how fast one can die in the harder difficulty modes, I don't think I'm going to invest too much time into a hardcore character. I've already died several times due to latency issues on my normal characters. Imagine how frustrating it would be to put over a hundred hours into a character, only to die for reasons that are beyond your control.
    • RegEx 14y ago
      I've seen Kungen's[0] hardcore inferno monk die to a DC. That would be so disheartening :-\ [0]: http://www.twitch.tv/kungentv http://www.twitch.tv/kungentv
  • zobzu 14y ago
    Don't worry, in Inferno it's very very hard, even with AH. You gotta farm for days before u can buy better stuff from AH. But in reality you'll just run-die without killing mobs and only killing bosses. Like everyone else. So that you can farm the bosses later / play hardcore, etc.
• oacgnol 14y ago
  You could say the same about D2's economy - it became about MFing (magic finding) for loot that you could trade in for the equivalent market value in item currencies: Stone of Jordan rings, or later, charms and points on a 3rd party forum (forgot the name). Then, you could buy the specific piece of shiny loot that you want for your character's build. That, or you farm and hope that the piece of loot that you want serendipitously drops.
  • d3throwaway 14y ago
    I believe the 3rd party website you're referring to is d2jsp.
  • SrslyJosh 14y ago
    Yes, but you could at least beat D2 on normal difficulty without resorting to that. The comments on TFA make it sound like it's impossible to complete D3 without buying gear from the AH, which makes me a very sad panda.
    • libraryatnight 14y ago
      On normal it's not just possible, it's easy. Incredibly easy. I personally didn't feel the game even started until Nightmare mode. My experiences were with Witch Doctor & Demon Hunter.
      • alsocasey 14y ago
        Try normal again with a Wizard or Barb... I found both much more challenging than either Witch Doctor or Demon Hunter.
        • Tloewald 14y ago
          Barbarian is stupidly powerful, at least in normal. I killed Diablo first attempt, no AH bought gear (I hate the AH, think it ruins the game, and haven't bought a single item from it). I stood toe to toe most of the fight using the first passive ability and two other survival related abilities. It's funny there's a lot of whining about melee classes being weak and I just don't see it (I'm only halfway through nightmare) -- I'm playing a monk with my wife's wizard and the monk is just as ridiculously overpowered as the barbarian (as in run to the biggest concentration of mobs and make them explode). Demon Hunters have to deal with enemies that are immune to missiles, which is ridiculous. (The worst thing with melee so far is dealing with flies in Act II.) As for the challenge level of normal, I think it's fine for new players. I just wish nightmare were unlocked to start with (with whatever mechanics you like). I don't like games to assume every player has played twenty similar games and knows how to finesse gear, specs, etc. I imagine normal is quite challenging for new players (and I had trouble with two bosses on my DH and one on my Barbarian -- mostly because I had gotten so far using simple minded tactics and actually had to think).
• DrJ 14y ago
  Sure, sponsored by Nike, but the reward cycle happens with every blue/yellow drop. You sell it for gold and eventually go to the AH to get your fix. this changes at the inferno level though, because here the rate of gold gathered vs needed to upgrade jumps significantly. You begin to grub at every blue, yellow drop for the upgrade that gives you a little bit more survivability. I think they the system more of a grubbing for small coins all around the map to buy crack from the AH. They reduced the frustration loop by removing the "oh this wasn't the rare I wanted" and change it to "I can sell everything for gold, I just need a little bit more". Since you can see continuous progression you don't feel frustrated (as much). I would think this is analogues to being told why a que is taking so long instead of waiting blindly in a que.
  • pyre 14y ago
    > que Did you mean 'queue?' Or is this an American English vs. Queen's English thing?
    • cldrope 14y ago
      My friend, I think it's a phonetic thing. In America it's more common to hear it than ever see it. Hell, I only know how to spell it because of scrabble.
  • nagash 14y ago
    I am personally immensely frustrated at the game. It feels pointless to me farming act 1 Inferno over and over just to buy 1 piece on the AH. I think it's intended though, soon as the RMAH rolls around all us terribly frustrated people can just buy our way into progression, without even having to farm for the gold! It's not just the gold farming that bothers me though, I feel like it is gimmicky, not genuinely difficult (as compared to Heroic WoW bosses anyways). Blizzard learnt through WoW that 1-shot deaths, even on tanks, was a horrible prospect and toned down burst damage a lot. They really need to figure out a way to make D3 more difficult without the monster just killing you because you looked at it.
    • slurgfest 14y ago
• deleted 14y ago
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• mtgx 14y ago
  They changed the system so they can make money off the auction house later on. But so far they've delayed the "real-money" auction house indefinitely, because of worries that it may make the whole system even worse than it is now. Too bad they had to ruin the reward system, and for nothing.
• hazzen 14y ago
  Another thing, related but not frequently discussed, is the change in how important gear is vs. other factors. For instance, in Diablo II a high level item would give +20 vitality. Your character got 5 stat points per level which you could, if you wanted, put all into vitality. This high level item was roughly equivalent to only 4 character levels (of which you got 99). In Diablo III, a high-level item is giving you 200+ vitality. I don't know about other characters, but I believe my Monk is getting 2 vitality per level (and there are 60 levels). A _single_ item can give me more of a stat than I gain from leveling all the way from 1 to 60. As such, leveling up doesn't do much other than allow equip items with better stats. Because items in Diablo II gave, comparatively, closer benefits to gaining another level than those in Diablo III, I felt like I was making progress with either a level up or a nice item drop. If my character was getting decimated in Act IV of Nightmare, I could go back and gain a few levels and maybe get some new items in the process. In Diablo III, not only do your levels not increase your survivability or killing power in any way (besides new skill runes), by the time you feel like you aren't strong enough to defeat an encounter you'll most likely have few or even no more levels left to gain. The only tangible measure of progress is "phatter lewt" at this point.
  • Bud 14y ago
    This isn't really entirely accurate: First, a single item of, for instance, 200 vitality, is not giving you a +200 to your vitality at lvl 60. Instead, it's giving you the difference between 200, and what ever the bonus would be on average eq that you can get easily in the game by being level 60 and killing a few things. Second, levels do increase your survivability, in several ways: 1. You get vitality, every level, at +10 life per point plus any percentage bonuses you have 2. You get your key stat, every level, which increases your damage directly and indirectly 3. You become able to wear higher-level equipment when you gain a level, and of course, that equipment improves based on its own level. 4. You learn new skills, not just new skill runes, and both are quite significant. The higher-level skills are more powerful in many cases.
  • guard-of-terra 14y ago
    This is actually a good thing. Diablo II spoiled you with unique items so no magical and almost no rare items could ever be useful. In Diablo III, a very simple item can be very useful because of stat bonuses.