*** The Official Diablo III Thread ***

[PhoenixUK]

Played through as a Wizard and Witch Doctor. I have to say I was quite underwhelmed, this game is Call of Duty with swords and magic.

It's polished and reasonably fun but there is very little depth. I'll be waiting until the game has matured a bit to see if the endgame is any good, because I can't see it being very challenging based on what I've played so far.

To be fair it's impossible to judge from what we've seen, you'd think the same about Diablo 2 if they gave you the first hour of that.

It's meant to get really hard.

This!
I've played Diablo since the first one came out in 1997, finished it with every class then did the same with Diablo II and all the expansions straight on release.

I have to say it reminds a lot of Diablo 1 when you get into dungeon which is nice.

The normal difficulty was never hard and should be finished easily by anyone who can use keyboard without looking at it every 5s to see what he's pressing.

I've finished both D1 and D2 on all the difficulties with any class and I've got to say that the game should be getting A LOT harder on the 2nd and 3rd difficulty level. Also it will get a lot more intense in higher acts.

Remember D2? You could nearly finish the whole first act there all the way to Andariel ruins without wearing any items and adding any points to skills.

What I was more concerned is that early betas over year ago showed the game as a lot slower - they seem to have improved that a lot, everything is super fluid, fast and smooth which is awesome : ).

 

[HungryHippos]

The advantage of this I'm finding is that its helping me choose which main I want!

Really not enjoying the DH so far, it just feels a bit...clunky?

This is pretty close to the finished product.

Gameplay wise maybe yes, but you're missing the vast majority of the actual levels here. As I said in my post above, Titan Quest got a lot better the further in you went, I would be very surprised if this was not the case with D3.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Titan Quest, but if you had only ever played the first parts it would not be the best game ever either!

 

[platypus]

Really enjoyed the beta, played to level 10 as a barbarian. Graphics are absolutely fine imo and the gameplay is just awesome.

This has definitely made me purchase it.

No idea why people are complaining, the action is full of gore and is very visceral, it doesn't complicate you with the D&D ruleset and the story seems interesting of what i saw.

The graphics are fine, there not Crysis, but they still look great in a artistic way.

I guess most of the gaming class are so fixated with graphics they can't see quality when its there, unless its covered in bloom and tessellation.

Agree whole-heartedly.

 

[platypus]

Gameplay wise maybe yes, but you're missing the vast majority of the actual levels here. As I said in my post above, Titan Quest got a lot better the further in you went, I would be very surprised if this was not the case with D3.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Titan Quest, but if you had only ever played the first parts it would not be the best game ever either!

No I loved TQ/TQ:IT. I cannot wait for this release now.

 

[FutileBreadMachine]

There's no punishment to skill tree systems if they also allow respecs. There's no need to remove skill trees and manual stat allocation on level ups as opposed to simply allowing these features to have respecs.

Everything is so dinner down as well, there's hardly any fun to leveling up when everything is allocated automatically with zero chance of character customisation.

But like I said, a skill tree forces you to dump skills into a skill you may not want in order to get a skill you do want. It also disallows certain combinations of abilities due to this requirement. And most importantly, they want it to be fun, they don't want people to have to get out calculators to work out how to get a perfect set of skills.

The other philosophy I believe they are operating on, is that the game is not actually about customising a character/build, it's about GEAR. You don't play the game so that you can get 1 more point on cleave, you play because you want to get fat loot for your character. If you think about it, why else would anyone continue to play at the level cap, when there is no more leveling to do? Character customisation comes from gear, and so does damage, so I believe everything about the game is designed around that.

DOH!!!!! That's why my wizard was weak, I thought he didn't need weapons oops.

Haha, I was wondering why you were saying the Wizard is weak. I ran around with swords and axes all the time, whatever had the highest DPS - I just owned everything. You can get some off-hand orbs in the beta, but they are really weak, and the wands are weak, so I stuck with a shield most of the time for some defence and usually an exceptional saber for dps.

 

[Aeleys]

This!
I've played Diablo since the first one came out in 1997, finished it with every class then did the same with Diablo II and all the expansions straight on release.

I have to say it reminds a lot of Diablo 1 when you get into dungeon which is nice.

The normal difficulty was never hard and should be finished easily by anyone who can use keyboard without looking at it every 5s to see what he's pressing.

I've finished both D1 and D2 on all the difficulties with any class and I've got to say that the game should be getting A LOT harder on the 2nd and 3rd difficulty level. Also it will get a lot more intense in higher acts.

Remember D2? You could nearly finish the whole first act there all the way to Andariel ruins without wearing any items and adding any points to skills.

What I was more concerned is that early betas over year ago showed the game as a lot slower - they seem to have improved that a lot, everything is super fluid, fast and smooth which is awesome : ).

All of the diablo titles are "easy"... so i don't see what the problem is with this one so far since i don't think anyone has played nightmare/hell? even then it was easy, only time you had to actually do anything was in uber tristam

you don't use the keyboard to move/fight? so why would that have anything to do with it.

just seems that people are jumping to conclusions about a game no one has completed

i still want to know what was the thinking behind blizzard allowing everyone to see each others real names?

 

[LateX'Dog]

i still want to know what was the thinking behind blizzard allowing everyone to see each others real names?

Was the case in WoW.

There is nothing wrong with it, helps me identify my friends without thinking "who is mrjohanmkbunny"

 

[bhavv]

'dinner down', what a lame phone browser auto spell correction lol.

 

[Aeleys]

Was the case in WoW.

There is nothing wrong with it, helps me identify my friends without thinking "who is mrjohanmkbunny"

Friends are fine, but EVERYONE? doesn't seem okay to me...i just wanted a reason behind it since there is nothing that can be done lol

 

[LateX'Dog]

Friends are fine, but EVERYONE? doesn't seem okay to me...i just wanted a reason behind it since there is nothing that can be done lol

Perhaps that is the reason.

People can hide behind a handle, they cant hide behind there real name. Real name, real consequences?

 

[orderoftheflame]

It's interesting reading the impressions here and on other forums. Most people have the same complaints I had when I started playing. I thought WTH, the character models are so low in polygons and the environments are kind of cartoony. And I thought it was impossible to really customise your character since you are just selecting 2 primary skills which you can change any time, and the rest just go on your action bar. So it really felt like COD, where you just select the perks you want to use, but nothing is permanent in that regard.

There's no punishment to skill tree systems if they also allow respecs. There's no need to remove skill trees and manual stat allocation on level ups as opposed to simply allowing these features to have respecs.

There's stuff in place to discourage you from chopping and changing your skills every three groups of mobs to suit your character, but leaving you free to respec if you mess up or want to change. Nephalem Valor is just one example of it (this for end game players at the moment, but there are other systems in the game).

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1126-nephalem-valor-buff/

I'd much rather have this system than the Diablo 2 one. Playing through the game putting all your points in a defined pattern to maximize one skill, and only being able to respec once per difficulty. Far better to not completely punish players for experimenting with builds and finding a character that suits them, especially early on as you unlock skills.

There's loads of systems in the game that don't come into play in the beta. I get the feeling that some people that have done no reading about the gameplay whatsover are just assuming that it's going to be the same as what they're playing through the whole game..

Friends are fine, but EVERYONE? doesn't seem okay to me...i just wanted a reason behind it since there is nothing that can be done lol

Pretty sure you can turn it off real name stuff in your Battle.net profile.

 

[Aeleys]

Perhaps that is the reason.

People can hide behind a handle, they cant hide behind there real name. Real name, real consequences?

Yeah sure people can hide, but from other people not the company you are subbed to, or bought a game from i'm sure blizzard know how to handle reports?

 

[bhavv]

I get to hide behind my real name in every game I play No one really cares, 7 years of playing MMOs with my real name and nothing wrongs ever happeded.

 

[fowler002]

tried logging in, initially got the error 3003 but realised I hadn't changed the server from europe to the americas then got the server busy error 37

 

[Aeleys]

I get to hide behind my real name in every game I play No one really cares, 7 years of playing MMOs with my real name and nothing wrongs ever happeded.

Your character name is always your full name? (first and last)

 

[The Asgard]

The whole game is built on the damage of your abilities being calculated from the weapons you have equipped, so even if you don't use the weapon to hit enemies (so WD, Wizard, Monk), the numbers from the weapon are used to calculate how much damage your spells/abilities will do. I believe, as the wizard, when you run out of mana you will do your Signature spell as an attack, so I don't think you can fire arrows. With the other classes, when you run out of energy you hit with the weapon. Can't test the wizard now, but I think that's right, he should just shoot an arcane bolt I think.

That's what I assumed. With regard to the bow. I would have thought the fact I could equip it would mean I could use it? Just the damage would be low.

 

[ChrisJSY]

Pretty sure you can turn it off real name stuff in your Battle.net profile.

I also though it was only for people you added as a friend, otherwise randoms see battletag?

 

[sniffy]

Can someone please post when the servers come up?

I also though it was only for people you added as a friend, otherwise randoms see battletag?

That's how it works for starcraft 2.

 

[Warbie]

I like the mechanics but am not sold on the cartoony aesthetic. It doesn't have the stark, opressive Diablo vibe at all. That's my only gripe at the moment, otherwise all is good. I was dungeon crawling to 4am last night - something that hasn't happened in ages!

 

[Cat_In_Pyjamas]

Remember D2? You could nearly finish the whole first act there all the way to Andariel ruins without wearing any items and adding any points to skills.

Wait...what? Would love to see any of the ranged D2 classes go through Act 1 without equipping anything and not purchasing any skills. It wasn't difficult, but it wasn't as easy as you make out either.

As for other complaints: respecs usually mean gold sinks - the way the game currently feels, it doesn't require another one. You're tight pressed to choose between repairs, upgrading your stash, upgrading the artisans and purchasing gear from said artisans. Heck the choice of whether do salvage magical gear or sell it isn't as clear either. I'd add that you get a new thing unlocked at every level (be it a rune or an ability), and it's not like you HAVE to pick the thing you just unlocked, so really I don't see what the fuss is all about.

Not being able to allocate stat points is sort of a moot point anyway since everyone followed a cookie cutter build. That's not customisation.