official Diablo III

[lalalawawawa]

More beta keys here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4062848557

[Nagisan]

Wish they would just give current beta participants a friend key or two.....

[S00N3R FR3AK]

Wish they would just give current beta participants a friend key or two.....

Yeah this would be nice.

[firey]

Yeah this would be nice.

very much so. well hopefully that does happen.

[trag3dy]

Sorry guys, I would have loved to give my beta key away but they didn't give me any choice. It was bound to my account when I got the email. :wacko:

Anyways, there was talk of a hi-res texture pack a while ago but I don't think D3 needs it. I think the graphics look fine and I'm liking the art style. It's kind of painterly-ish. Similar to GW2.

[Nagisan]

Another big change today, they reworked the default skill system so each slot is meant for a specific skill, like barbarians have a "Tactical" slot which has abilities like his shouts and leap. You can turn a setting on that lets you put any ability in any slot like you could before though. They also activated the skill runes, so you can customize how your skills work to some extent (make it so cleave now causes enemies to blow up when it kills them, dealing a percentage of weapon damage to enemies in the area when it happens, very effective for clearing groups, or as opposed to that, make cleave do more damage to all enemies it hits). But with that, they also change skill levels for many skills....things like disintegrate (wizard) and crippling wave (monk frontal cone AOE with a full AOE every 3rd hit) are no longer available in the beta due to their new level requirements (which really bites, cause Monk is one of my favorite classes only due to his aoe and speed, but less aoe lowers him below barbarian), but on the plus side, one of his other lower level skills gets an AoE on the first 2 of every 3 hits due to skill runes.

Overall we have even less skills to play with now from what I can tell, they did add an interesting wizard skill (or lowered its level requirement) that's basically an ice version of disintegrate, doesn't hit as hard and only hits the first enemy it touches, but it slows them down.

[bjoswald]

Looks like they're dumbing the game down for the casuals (i.e. retards) since they're basically gutting the whole damn thing this late. Hope they don't scrap too much, but considering what they've done with WoW in the past, I have my doubts.

[Kirkburn]

Looks like they're dumbing the game down for the casuals (i.e. retards) since they're basically gutting the whole damn thing this late. Hope they don't scrap too much, but considering what they've done with WoW in the past, I have my doubts.

Hardly 'gutting the whole thing'. Besides, these changes are already in the beta.

They're not really scrapping anything either. No skills or runes have been completely removed, they're just organized differently. The fun part of the runes techs was deciding which to use, not managing their inventory slots and item drop workings.

(Also, drop the ridiculous elitism, it's insulting)

[_neutrino Veteran]

Hardly 'gutting the whole thing'. Besides, these changes are already in the beta.

They're not really scrapping anything either. No skills or runes have been completely removed, they're just organized differently. The fun part of the runes techs was deciding which to use, not managing their inventory slots and item drop workings.

(Also, drop the ridiculous elitism, it's insulting)

Exactly, they are not really dropping content from the game and honestly from my perspective from what i am seeing in the beta is they are making the game and UI more accessible for Console gamers. either way the game still contains the features that will make it great and it is still VERY fun to play.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

I'd love to take a look at the changes they've made but the update is taking so long to download. I rarely get good speeds with Blizzard's downloader. I tried disabling peer-to-peer transfer and that made things worse. :/

[_neutrino Veteran]

only took me about 2 minutes to get the patch installed.

[firey]

hmm from what I have seen, not being able to actually play (no beta access), I am hoping the game doesn't get dumbed down too far. That was what really put me off of WoW was it got too easy to do anything, I sure hope that D3 doesn't have the same effect.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

hmm from what I have seen, not being able to actually play (no beta access), I am hoping the game doesn't get dumbed down too far. That was what really put me off of WoW was it got too easy to do anything, I sure hope that D3 doesn't have the same effect.

i have only played the beta for about 30 min, but from what iv seen so far,, yes they have. as far as the skills/talents and what ever, they either incorporated alot of Mists of Pandara <-> Diablo 3

[firey]

i have only played the beta for about 30 min, but from what iv seen so far,, yes they have. as far as the skills/talents and what ever, they either incorporated alot of Mists of Pandara <-> Diablo 3

So you are saying D3 has been dumbed down? See, I liked the originals because they required time, they required thought, there was planning involved.

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

So you are saying D3 has been dumbed down? See, I liked the originals because they required time, they required thought, there was planning involved.

played even less of D1 and D2 back in the days, so cant judge compared to the previous games. but imo there is nothign to really plan as far as D3, its pick this class and thats it thing.

but like i said i havent played alot of D3, went to first town, and left the town to the next aera, thats pretty much it, think level >5

[Kirkburn]

played even less of D1 and D2 back in the days, so cant judge compared to the previous games. but imo there is nothign to really plan as far as D3, its pick this class and thats it thing.

but like i said i havent played alot of D3, went to first town, and left the town to the next aera, thats pretty much it, think level >5

You still have to decide what skills to use, what runes to use, what gear to use. (Do you really think the first 30 mins are a good judge of a long game?)

The only thing you no longer plan is your character stats and talent tree - both of which were really kinda broken in D2. In both cases, you'd just look up an optimum spec, rather than experiment (because it specifically prevented you doing almost any kind of experimenting ... ugh).

[Hell-In-A-Handbasket]

(Do you really think the first 30 mins are a good judge of a long game?)

now you know why i specifically stated i didn't play it long, and yea if im not finding enjoyment in a game in less then an hour, its highly unlikely i will enjoy it longer

[Kirkburn]

now you know why i specifically stated i didn't play it long, and yea if im not finding enjoyment in a game in less then an hour, its highly unlikely i will enjoy it longer

I absolutely appreciate how you said the length of time you played. However, the issue was about whether the game had complexities and depth, not whether you would enjoy it.

On the face of it, the lack of attribute points and talents would make it seem shallow, if you wanted a direct continuation of D2's depth. However, it's replaced by skill and rune choice - which have a much wider variety. It's not going to be apparent in the first 30 mins, just as it's not in D2 (even less so in D2, tbh). The game in general also just has a lot more variety - NPC stuff, mob types, quests, etc. Plus you get a bit more variety in your followers (they have skills, too).

(FWIW - and this is not to attempt to show off, it's just context - I've played all through the demo about 10 times on all classes, and have played D2 a lot of the years, though never much beyond Normal mode)

[Xilo]

(FWIW - and this is not to attempt to show off, it's just context - I've played all through the demo about 10 times on all classes, and have played D2 a lot of the years, though never much beyond Normal mode)

You played a lot yet never played much beyond Normal? and you're criticising him for only playing 30 minutes?

You're just as bad for criticising when you never experienced the upper end of D2...

[spacer]

I like the skill system changes that came with patch 13. For the most part it is more fluid and seems like a more polished system. The new rune system is much better than the old, itemized one. The one thing I like best about the new system is that characters now get something to unlock almost every level all the way up to 60. (Previously, there was nothing to unlock past level 30) That, for me at least, is a huge boon to this new rune system.

Since patch 13, I have only gone back through the beta content with the barbarian. I have to say that Rupture makes Cleave the best skill by a large, large margin. It's too good. It makes all other skills, including fury spenders, obsolete. Once I hit level 8 and unlocked Rupture, I didn't use any other ability for the rest of the play-through; except for Leap Attack, which I just used to get over obstacles or initiate fights.

I think it's a problem that Rupture makes fury spenders useless because they are supposed to be more powerful and attractive to use compared to Fury generators. (hence the resource cost) I'll be interested to see how/if Blizzard plans to re-tool skills based on the new changes. I find it hard to imagine this is working as intended.

Over the next few days, I'll play through each of the other classes and see what they're like with patch 13. Lets hope this problem with skill imbalance is only specific to Barbarians.

[Kirkburn]

You played a lot yet never played much beyond Normal? and you're criticising him for only playing 30 minutes?

You're just as bad for criticising when you never experienced the upper end of D2...

Normal mode in D2 does not take 30 mins, more like 15-20 hours for my style of gameplay (explore *everything*). I do not rush the game, and generally end up around level 40 by the end. I'd be really quite surprised if not running the later difficulties massively stunts my understanding of the game.

I think it's likely that most people who have played D2 don't run beyond Normal mode, especially offline, and they won't do so in D3 either - unless they manage to make it that much more interesting to do (which is possible). Obviously a large portion of the current continuing community scene does go beyond Normal, but that's because it's made up of fairly hardcore people who are playing a 12 year old game (that is not an insult).

And anyway, do you think I'm missing some huge bit of depth in D2 that isn't comparably in D3? Otherwise, what's your point?

[Xilo]

Normal mode in D2 does not take 30 mins, more like 15-20 hours for my style of gameplay (explore *everything*). I do not rush the game, and generally end up around level 40 by the end. I'd be really quite surprised if not running the later difficulties massively stunts my understanding of the game.

I think it's likely that most people who have played D2 don't run beyond Normal mode, especially offline, and they won't do so in D3 either - unless they manage to make it that much more interesting to do (which is possible). Obviously a large portion of the current continuing community scene does go beyond Normal, but that's because it's made up of fairly hardcore people who are playing a 12 year old game (that is not an insult).

And anyway, do you think I'm missing some huge bit of depth in D2 that isn't comparably in D3? Otherwise, what's your point?

I think you're in the minority. Sorry to say. Playing on normal is a breeze and doesn't require much knowledge to complete.

Playing on hell against Baal and other bosses requires a lot more understanding of the game with builds and ruins and such.

[Kirkburn]

I think you're in the minority. Sorry to say. Playing on normal is a breeze and doesn't require much knowledge to complete.

Playing on hell against Baal and other bosses requires a lot more understanding of the game with builds and ruins and such.

I absolutely get that D2 has builds and synergies, but they don't actually require much more thought than looking up stuff online. That would have been different when D2 launched (the net was less mature), but if the same design road was taken with D3, it wouldn't have worked - optimal builds would be online immediately, and everyone would start using them, and wouldn't ever test something new.

So, I think they've taken a good route with D3 - there will probably still be 'good' builds, but no-one is forced to use them for the entire game, and switching around will be much more interesting and fun to test. Plus, you can work out optimal builds for specific areas ... not just always aim for a specific endgame build, no matter how weird it is along the way. I believe stuff unlocks all the way up to level 60, too - D2 has this to an extent, but it eventually just becomes making a talent/attribute number bigger - rather than something new appearing.

Whether Normal is a breeze or not, I very much doubt most people play past it. I'm not surprised if it's becoming less true in D2, because of it's age and community, but D3 isn't released yet, let alone 12 years matured. Generally people play through games once.

[spacer]

I finished playing through the beta content with all of the classes after patch 13. For the most part, the skill and runes changes have been a big step forward. However, there are still skill damage/usefulness issues with most of the classes.

The Demon Hunter, like the Barbarian has some poor hatred spenders when compared to the hatred generators. Strafe is a prime example. The damage of most of the Demon Hunter's skills were increased, which led to an easier time in the early levels. But the skills that were unlocked later (like Strafe) were just not that useful.

The Witch Doctor, like before, is still the worst class by far. A lot of the abilities are just plain crappy. Haunt looks good in theory, but the long DoT timer makes it useless. It's much more efficient and quicker to just use poison dart. The frogs are still crappy in that they're range isn't very good and you can't control them. There are plenty of other issues with the class, but I won't prattle on about it.

The Wizard and Monk are largely fine, though I don't think they play well with the new skill system (the non-elective version). The guided mode doesn't let wizards or monks pick the best combination of available skills because you can only have one skill from each "category" equipped at any time. At least in this early stage of the game (normal, first part of Act I) there is really no need to have any defensive abilities. So forcing a monk to take Blind over Lashing Tail Kick or Dashing Strike is woefully inefficient. However, you can get around this by turning on the "elective mode" option and pick any set of skills you want. It's just strange to see Blizzard guiding new players (the ones who will be using the guided mode the most) in the wrong direciton.

Speaking of which; both guided and elective modes use the same UI for selecting skills. The new UI works wonderfully for the guided mode. However, the UI is pretty terrible and cumbersome for those who wish to use elective mode. (read: almost everyone who will be playing Diablo 3) I hope they make some adjustments for those who use the elective mode; even going back to the previous version of the skill selection window would be good. But the way it is now, it's just bad. Serviceable and functional, but bad.

[Xilo]

Sounds like the game is completely dumbed down.

Such a shame so many companies are ruining franchises by this dumbing down nonsense.