I think maybe some of the younger newer D3 players are too young to recall what made the Diablo series so popular. A lot of people who wanted to dungeon crawl at the time were complaining about RPG's that were bogged down with too many details to be fun, Diablo was the answer to that. I think Jay Wilson lost sight of that or just ignored it.
And there's another example of why nobody can please everyone all the time. One of the most common complaints I've heard about D3 is that it is too "dumbed down" compared to D2, that too many details have been removed, simplified and streamlined. But yet, from someone else's perspective, it's the opposite.
Unfortunately, refusing to use the auction house is like leveling in World of Warcraft without completing quests. It's probably possible, but only a few crazy people have what it takes. At first, I was like you, I simply used the best damage dealing gear and refused to invest a lot of money into (the auction house and) resistance and vitality gear since I wasn't a tank, I was just there to do damage. Eventually, when I got tired of random trees falling on my head nearby fires one-shotting me, I revisited my policy and succumbed to the double resistance grind.
It was a difficult road, but once I achieved a great deal of resistance, vitality and dps, my DH took on a whole new level of awesome. For a long time I simply kited mobs around, and it didn't bother me. But now, having achieved a significant amount of high level gear (and due to the recent 1.0.4 patch) I have taken on a more bold, aggressive play style. At times, it seems like I die more often than when I was built for kiting. But, if I manage to last a few seconds, mostly due to in-your-face Shadow Power + Gloom tanking, my enemies fell even faster than before.
After watching your video I decided to record a quick Act I Inferno run, starting at the Khazra Barricade, using my aggressive build, and as you can see it doesn't even look like I'm playing on Inferno Mode.
It is possible to play this game in many ways, but you can't ignore/disregard available resources based on an outdated sense of nostalgia.
(I didn't intend to, but this turned out to be a long post)
VegasRage,
Yep, I know exactly how you feel... I felt like that too when I reached Nightmare for the first time.
You don't need the AH to progress through the game unless you want to farm for what you just did several times. In other words, you MUST use the AH to have a natural leveling progression. Although during the first wave of people you could gear extremely well for 5000 a piece, now you simply don't find those pieces for sale, as the number of players still leveling and thus selling low level gear is extremely smaller compared to the first weeks.
Despite the AH problem, I still feel that:
- In D2 you ran faster than 80% of the mobs. In D3, 80% of the mobs run faster than you. This alone is a pain in the butt, as you simply can't run away and shot.
- Life Steal and Mana Steal were completely destroyed, and this together with the previous line, you simply can't have the same gameplay, and thus the same fun, as you had in D2
That alone destroy the game for me. I've tried 4 of the 5 classes, several builds, and just found fun with the Barbarian Sprint / WW build. Why? Simple, because I CAN F_CKING WW FOREVER AND KILL MOBS. Is it that hard to understand?
For the Barbarian, it would be quite easy to solve the problem. All they had to do was create a passive skill or rune that allowed you to WW constantly while hitting one or lets say two mobs. WW gives barbs a lot of advantages, and I understand they not wanting to do that, but on the other hand, I simply don't have fun without that.
Now, Demon Hunter... I remember the Multi-shot amazon or Lightning Javelin awesomeness. I wanted it to be the same, to feel that cool. Can we do that? No, same shit as the barb, you just can't sustain your resources if you shoot constantly. People started using Evasive Fire with a rune to hit 3 mobs, which is a "mini multi-shot". So sad... But, to make things worse, you add to that the fact that you just can't outrun mobs. "Oh, but there is Vault, and disciple abilities, and..." F_ck off. If I run away, I should be able to run away, not give my back to get hit constantly without gaining distance.
Monks are pallys disguised. Heals, auras, bla bla. Difference is, you don't have hammers anymore. Thus, you get a lot of crits and use Sweeping Wind to poop tornados all over that will do what hammers did before... genius...
Without mana potions, the wizard would be useless if it was not for "Arcane Power on Crit". So, maybe this is one of the few classes that still can be played more similar to what you would do in D2, but there is no teleport fun and again, mobs outrun you.
The Witch Doctor is really the one that disappoints me the most. It is like the druid and necromancer of D2 decided to have a gay party and the Witch Doctor was born. Seriously. No arcane fun, no bone spells, no skelly army. Perhaps the Gargantuan is a good hit instead of the Golem, but with the CD is a joke. Then, from the druid part, no tornados (this one went the monk), no bears, and it goes.
Overall, the game is graphically stunning, but the gameplay, due to resource management and problem to gain terrain to do something, very crappy, IMHO.
I like the game, but wish it would be different on a few things.
Maybe you'll find something that will get you some fun. Even if you end up changing classes.
By the way, allow me to congratulate you on your gameplay. You did quite well in that video.
I am pretty sure this isn't Diablo 1 or 2. So how exactly does it makes sense that you should not have to do these things in Diablo 3 when it isn't the same game? People really need to remove their heads from their asses and realize THIS IS NOT A D2 CLONE.
So faithful fans who have bought, played, loved, the Diablo series for 14 years shouldn't expect game-play consistency between games is what you are saying? Really now?
You do realize that it was the faithful fans who made each subsequent game even possible. Lose your base of fans and kiss your game goodbye. Why do you think people eagerly anticipate the next version of the game they came to love?
You don't see similar gameplay from D1 and 2? Really? That's a joke right? I mean, you have a wife and kid so you can't possibly be that stupid to realize the basic gameplay is pretty much the EXACT same. The difference you are crying like a 12 year old girl about is the difficulty. You know why you could power through D1 and D2 using only shit that dropped for you? Because those games were tuned to the skill levels of 6 year olds. D1 and D2 were fun, I admit it, I spent about 8 years playing them, but as far as difficulty goes, it was completely and totally non existent. You could play through them only using your drops because the games were faceroll easy. Guess what kiddo, D3 isn't faceroll easy. Now what you are wearing and the skill choices you are making ACTUALLY MATTER. How exactly did you get a woman to have your child when you haven't got a shred of common sense in your head?
Diablo 3 is the 3rd game in the franchise. The team that worked on D3 is compeltely different from the team that worked on D2. That being said I think they did an ingenius job of updating an obviously out of date game. Unfortunately people like you are so stuck on the past all you can do is piss and moan about the differences to the point where you don't focus on the awesome updates.
-No more skill tree, you can now learn difference skills anytime you want, no more rerolling because you made a bad talent choice in your tree
-No more having to get people to help you swap items to different toons thanks to the shared stash that is also drastically increased in size
-No more having to find sneaky places to drop items in game to xfer them to other toons when no one was around to help you
-No more haunted trade channels for hours on end trying to find an item you want
-No more having to make "all4SoJ" games to get sojs because thats all anyone used as trade currency
-No more getting fucked over by trade scams
-No more getting stabbed in the back by scumbag in public games who bounce to town, flag, and kill you
-Updated graphics
-Destructible environment
-Nephalim Valor buff
But I am sure all of that is complete shit because poor you had to go to the AH to find an upgrade. Something that would not be a problem if you were actually good at the game. Also something that would not be an issue if you had the brains to sell good items you weren't using on the AH as well.
But whatever, keep acting like a manchild crying on unofficial forums about how you don't like a video game because its not the exact same as its prequel (rollseyes).
Also, I am a faithful fan that has played every Diablo game beginning to end on every difficulty. I ran an ebay store using D2 items, made more than 5k dollars doing it. As a faithful fan to the series I think Diablo 3 fixed everything that was shit about Diablo 1 and 2. But I guess my opinion as a faithful Diablo fan doesn't matter because it differs from yours and well, you can obviously cry louder than me.
Writing a long post on a game you spent a chunk of change on and put effort into and was disappointed with is fair play. Writing a long post to insult someone for expressing their views on that game just to posture yourself is childish.
What's it to you if I like or dislike the game that you need be asshole about it? I've never written a post that downs someone for their opinion on something they put effort or money into. You will not find one post from me that goes around telling people they are idiots for loving D3. The content of your post isn't worth replying to. Food for thought.
BTW I looked at my D3 receipt for the $320, add on a game guide and some D3 t-shirts. I spent $320 on D3, you're an ass for even questioning me on it.
(I didn't intend to, but this turned out to be a long post)
VegasRage,
Yep, I know exactly how you feel... I felt like that too when I reached Nightmare for the first time.
You don't need the AH to progress through the game unless you want to farm for what you just did several times. In other words, you MUST use the AH to have a natural leveling progression. Although during the first wave of people you could gear extremely well for 5000 a piece, now you simply don't find those pieces for sale, as the number of players still leveling and thus selling low level gear is extremely smaller compared to the first weeks.
Despite the AH problem, I still feel that:
- In D2 you ran faster than 80% of the mobs. In D3, 80% of the mobs run faster than you. This alone is a pain in the butt, as you simply can't run away and shot.
- Life Steal and Mana Steal were completely destroyed, and this together with the previous line, you simply can't have the same gameplay, and thus the same fun, as you had in D2
That alone destroy the game for me. I've tried 4 of the 5 classes, several builds, and just found fun with the Barbarian Sprint / WW build. Why? Simple, because I CAN F_CKING WW FOREVER AND KILL MOBS. Is it that hard to understand?
For the Barbarian, it would be quite easy to solve the problem. All they had to do was create a passive skill or rune that allowed you to WW constantly while hitting one or lets say two mobs. WW gives barbs a lot of advantages, and I understand they not wanting to do that, but on the other hand, I simply don't have fun without that.
Now, Demon Hunter... I remember the Multi-shot amazon or Lightning Javelin awesomeness. I wanted it to be the same, to feel that cool. Can we do that? No, same shit as the barb, you just can't sustain your resources if you shoot constantly. People started using Evasive Fire with a rune to hit 3 mobs, which is a "mini multi-shot". So sad... But, to make things worse, you add to that the fact that you just can't outrun mobs. "Oh, but there is Vault, and disciple abilities, and..." F_ck off. If I run away, I should be able to run away, not give my back to get hit constantly without gaining distance.
Monks are pallys disguised. Heals, auras, bla bla. Difference is, you don't have hammers anymore. Thus, you get a lot of crits and use Sweeping Wind to poop tornados all over that will do what hammers did before... genius...
Without mana potions, the wizard would be useless if it was not for "Arcane Power on Crit". So, maybe this is one of the few classes that still can be played more similar to what you would do in D2, but there is no teleport fun and again, mobs outrun you.
The Witch Doctor is really the one that disappoints me the most. It is like the druid and necromancer of D2 decided to have a gay party and the Witch Doctor was born. Seriously. No arcane fun, no bone spells, no skelly army. Perhaps the Gargantuan is a good hit instead of the Golem, but with the CD is a joke. Then, from the druid part, no tornados (this one went the monk), no bears, and it goes.
Overall, the game is graphically stunning, but the gameplay, due to resource management and problem to gain terrain to do something, very crappy, IMHO.
I like the game, but wish it would be different on a few things.
Maybe you'll find something that will get you some fun. Even if you end up changing classes.
By the way, allow me to congratulate you on your gameplay. You did quite well in that video.
Thanks, I knew I wasn't alone on this. I know I'm not the greatest gamer, my ego isn't wrapped up in such things; games are just a way for me to relax. In normal mode I'm plowing along just fine and then in nightmare everything that worked very well for me suddenly stops working? Obviously my gaming skills didn't just fall off the face of the earth :lol:, if the problem is me I know it and have no problem admitting it.
I went to AH last night for the first time and upgraded my crossbow from a rare item with 51 HP damage to one that does like 90 HP damage. Now D3 plays like nightmare mode does in D2. I haven't found any loot that even comes close to 90 HP damage for any of my characters in normal mode or ACT1 in nightmare mode. For me finding the good loot as I dungeon crawl is half the fun. I felt like I cheated by going to AH and buying it, almost as bad as if I used a character editor. All I can do is hope Blizzard makes a few changes to D3.
Your argument is based on us believing some fairly improbable, if not impossible, things about your drops. Furthermore you completely dodged the fact that fully half your complaint about gameplay was based on the class you chose, not to mention the rest of my post.
So your $320 outlay was for three copies of the game, including the collector's edition, t-shirts, guides, etc. Okay. That makes sense, but that still means (basically) that you paid $60 to play the game and then decided to piss a bunch of money into the wind in the ridiculous hopes that your wife would want to play it at all or that your son would play it with you (which he doesn't seem inclined to do).
The shirts and guides (who buys a guide when the internet exists? That's an honest question.) are completely and totally irrelevant to the purchase price/enjoyment breakdown, so, in reality, you bought diablo 3 three times and bought a bunch of extra shit on top of it that had nothing to do with the play experience (especially since, if you bought a guide, it would tell you how to play better than you are) and are now complaining that you spent so much money and aren't enjoying it.
I'm sorry, dude, I'm just not buying it. Did you throw a fit when Final Fantasy moved from Espers to Materia? Did you soil yourself in pants-shitting rage when Warcraft went from 2d to dynamic 3d? Did the jump from SC1, in all its functionally broken glory, to SC2 make you mad because you had to learn new ways to use units that were named the same as your legacy units?
Probably not. Diablo3 is not Diablo2 and it's not Diablo1. If you want to play Diablo2 with a twist, there are game mods out there that allow you to do JUST THAT! Unfortunately for you, they are harder than D3, so your play experience will be just as disappointing.
After rereading all of your posts and seeing how you reacted to others' criticisms, you just sound like a fossil who's too old to be playing games. Just like someone's granddad talking about the "good old days" when you could pour vodka and paint thinner in your BelAir and drag race up and down main street drunk and with no seat belt, you are making yourself an anachronism and a martyr for those who feel dispossessed by the progression of the world away from your comfort zone.
100 years ago, you could be prescribed leeches if you had a disease. Times change, dude. You should too.
I'd like to head off this tangent before it flowers into something else. I am easily a few decades Vegas' senior and I'm quite capable of enjoying this game and many others. His rather bland and generally negative critique of the game is a personal problem and not an issue of age.
You're supposed to use that BS to maintain equipment comparable for your level. Once you're in NM, you should also have significant gem upgrades which can make a world of difference as well for socketed weapons at that difficulty bracket.
1) No you do not NEED to use the AH to gear up. Ever. It just makes things faster because it's easier to farm the gold you need or valuable items to sell than it is to farm a perfect item for your class yourself (you have many alts so you this is much less of a problem for you in fact). Just like trading in D2, only much more convenient and now gold has value so you don't have to pray to god a SoJ or HR drops, you can eventually have enough money just from vendoring/pickup and the occasional AH sale.
2) You DEFINITELY don't need to use the AH to beat Normal and Nightmare. You should be able to beat most if not all of Hell without doing any gear grinding or AHing at all. It's only early Inferno that you really start to feel the lack of gear. It's a bit class dependent (eg, Rakanoth on a DH :P) but at worst you can join a party to get you through a boss or two (group play is more fun anyway!).
3) Once you get to Inferno yes you will need to invest time (or gold or $$$ if you're lazy :P) to gear, you can't just kill anything as soon as you see it. Bear in mind Inferno is designed to be hard, it's extra content added to be a challenge and a time sink. But you don't seem to be someone obsessed with plowing to the end of the game ASAP so I think you have the right attitude for Inferno anyway.
4) You also do not need a specific "build" to progress, until level 60 I used every new skill and rune as I unlocked it to try it out (first toon was a DH). Some combinations were absolutely terrible but I still made it through! Especially now that some weaker abilities have been buffed. Even Inferno isn't as skill-dependent as some people make out - there are a few abilities that are clearly a bit better than the alternatives but that doesn't mean you can't progress without using them. Definitely not before Inferno! Take the build you like, it'll probably be fine.
5) I can't view your vid here at work, but if it's true you aren't kiting that's basically the problem. A DH is a glass cannon, they're designed to be that way. Consider using your Monk or Barb as your first toon if you don't like that style. Also Rain of Vengeance is an awesome skill, don't listen to the naysayers! Use Stampede for an AOE knockback while you dump Hate in their faces, it's awesome
Unfortunately, refusing to use the auction house is like leveling in World of Warcraft without completing quests. It's probably possible, but only a few crazy people have what it takes.
LOL, it's really not that bad. Unless you're the sort of person who rages if they can't beat a whole game in 1 week.
I actually had the same feeling when I first hit Nightmare. The gear wall is a pretty steep one admittedly. I don't have any issue using the auction house though so a trip there to grab a few pieces and I was on my way again.
Now I don't doubt I could have sat and farmed for upgrades but it wouldn't have been worth the amount of time it would take in my opinion. I'm not sure what else to say about it. I don't think they're going to revisit the difficulty of the game that early on. Get used to using the AH or prepare for many, many, many hours of farming as harsh as that sounds.
you're totally not playing it right.. you're vaulting way too much, and not using your caltrops to their full extent.. get rid of your spiked traps and go for prep.. you may not have it yet.
also if your not going to use two 1 hand xbows then switch to 2h bow or xbow.. it'll sync with your kiting more.
I actually had the same feeling when I first hit Nightmare. The gear wall is a pretty steep one admittedly. I don't have any issue using the auction house though so a trip there to grab a few pieces and I was on my way again.
The concept of needing to visit the AH prior to inferno (pre-patch) or act2 inferno (post-patch) is completely foreign to me. I leveled all my characters through hell mode without using the AH and only did a very minor amount of quest repetition (usually in act3-4 nightmare and hell respectively) in order to do so. I don't think the gear step at that point is very steep at all. It's simply a matter of finding a relatively effective build for that level, zone, monster combination (there being no penalty for skill swapping pre-NV), and putting in a little hand-work on top of it.
I'm certainly not suggesting that the game was faceroll with the hodgepodge of items I had while leveling up, but I would certainly challenge the assumption that I was lucky five times in a row with my drops.
I had no problem until Hell Act 2 with my barb. I didn't find great gear, but I went back, collected blues and gold, upgraded the crafting guy as far as I could and kept crafting items, once in a while there was an upgrade.
I probably could have done that for a long time w/o ever visting the AH. I'm sure I'd never get good enough gear to make it thru inferno, but that wasn't the intention anyway.
I believe it's already been covered, but for the sake of organization, let's list what can fix this "problem".
-Utilizing the Blacksmith because he isn't just there for aesthetics.
-Researching your class. The internet is a big, scary place, but 30 seconds on Google will probably suffice.
-Understanding this isn't Diablo 2, and it takes more than a pulse to faceroll through content.
-Tied in with point 2: knowing what stats are beneficial. Google, it is your friend.
-No seriously, Google.
I think that about covers it. I suppose one can just complain on the forums over and over and have someone else do the work for them, though.
The problem is that many people who have been loyal to the series get no satisfaction from BUYING anything. Many of us are still addicted to FINDING gear. Buying feels like hex-hacking a D2 local toon and is not satisfying at all. If all you care about is HAVING the gear, then so be it. Some of us care how we got it. For us, the rewards in this game are so rare, it's hard to play even though we REALLY want to like it.
I am pretty sure this isn't Diablo 1 or 2. So how exactly does it makes sense that you should not have to do these things in Diablo 3 when it isn't the same game? People really need to remove their heads from their asses and realize THIS IS NOT A D2 CLONE.
So faithful fans who have bought, played, loved, the Diablo series for 14 years shouldn't expect game-play consistency between games is what you are saying? Really now?
You do realize that it was the faithful fans who made each subsequent game even possible. Lose your base of fans and kiss your game goodbye. Why do you think people eagerly anticipate the next version of the game they came to love?
You don't see similar gameplay from D1 and 2? Really? That's a joke right? I mean, you have a wife and kid so you can't possibly be that stupid to realize the basic gameplay is pretty much the EXACT same. The difference you are crying like a 12 year old girl about is the difficulty. You know why you could power through D1 and D2 using only shit that dropped for you? Because those games were tuned to the skill levels of 6 year olds. D1 and D2 were fun, I admit it, I spent about 8 years playing them, but as far as difficulty goes, it was completely and totally non existent. You could play through them only using your drops because the games were faceroll easy. Guess what kiddo, D3 isn't faceroll easy. Now what you are wearing and the skill choices you are making ACTUALLY MATTER. How exactly did you get a woman to have your child when you haven't got a shred of common sense in your head?
Diablo 3 is the 3rd game in the franchise. The team that worked on D3 is compeltely different from the team that worked on D2. That being said I think they did an ingenius job of updating an obviously out of date game. Unfortunately people like you are so stuck on the past all you can do is piss and moan about the differences to the point where you don't focus on the awesome updates.
-No more skill tree, you can now learn difference skills anytime you want, no more rerolling because you made a bad talent choice in your tree
-No more having to get people to help you swap items to different toons thanks to the shared stash that is also drastically increased in size
-No more having to find sneaky places to drop items in game to xfer them to other toons when no one was around to help you
-No more haunted trade channels for hours on end trying to find an item you want
-No more having to make "all4SoJ" games to get sojs because thats all anyone used as trade currency
-No more getting fucked over by trade scams
-No more getting stabbed in the back by scumbag in public games who bounce to town, flag, and kill you
-Updated graphics
-Destructible environment
-Nephalim Valor buff
But I am sure all of that is complete shit because poor you had to go to the AH to find an upgrade. Something that would not be a problem if you were actually good at the game. Also something that would not be an issue if you had the brains to sell good items you weren't using on the AH as well.
But whatever, keep acting like a manchild crying on unofficial forums about how you don't like a video game because its not the exact same as its prequel (rollseyes).
Also, I am a faithful fan that has played every Diablo game beginning to end on every difficulty. I ran an ebay store using D2 items, made more than 5k dollars doing it. As a faithful fan to the series I think Diablo 3 fixed everything that was shit about Diablo 1 and 2. But I guess my opinion as a faithful Diablo fan doesn't matter because it differs from yours and well, you can obviously cry louder than me.
Writing a long post on a game you spent a chunk of change on and put effort into and was disappointed with is fair play. Writing a long post to insult someone for expressing their views on that game just to posture yourself is childish.
What's it to you if I like or dislike the game that you need be asshole about it? I've never written a post that downs someone for their opinion on something they put effort or money into. You will not find one post from me that goes around telling people they are idiots for loving D3. The content of your post isn't worth replying to. Food for thought.
BTW I looked at my D3 receipt for the $320, add on a game guide and some D3 t-shirts. I spent $320 on D3, you're an ass for even questioning me on it.
Hmm, my reply went poof, I guess I didn't hit submit! So here we go again!
I am an ass for questioning you? You said you spent 320 dollars on THE GAME. Sorry buddy, but shirts and a guide (which you have obviously not used AT ALL) is not 'THE GAME". And why would you wast money on a "guide" for a book that went out of date as of the first patch, especially when you have this magical thing called the internet and "google".
As to the rest of your drivel, I really don't care what you say about me. You made a QQ post based on D3 not being a D2 clone. You lost any and all credibility right there as well as any modicum of respect you may have had as a complete stranger posting on the interwebz. If you have such a problem with it, uninstall it, oh wait, you're still playing it aren't you? So lets QQ on the interwebs about D3 but continue to play it like all the other QQers. You don't even make a single intelligent argument and when people try to talk to you you shoot them down as if your opinion is the only thing that matters then bitch at me about doing the same? Hypocrisy at its finest, though I am not at all surprised TBH.
As to writing a long post to insult you, if you took it as an insult you should grow thicker skin. The simple fact is that you can't handle the extremely mild difficulty increase between normal and nightmare. I would love to be a fly on the wall if you ever manage to get to hell, let alone inferno.
I am sorry that Blizzard decided to update the Diablo franchise and bring it up to par with the difficulty current gamers want. Although the only rewason I am sorry is because it has added your voice to the many QQers crying on these forums about it.
You're supposed to use that BS to maintain equipment comparable for your level. Once you're in NM, you should also have significant gem upgrades which can make a world of difference as well for socketed weapons at that difficulty bracket.
Yep, that is theoretically correct. Of course, in practice, completely incorrect. You hit a wall in, say, Hell. What do you do?
1. Grind for hours/days/weeks to get better gear so that you can progress.
2. Spend a bunch of gold on the BS in hopes that one piece rolls well.
3. Go to the AH and spend 10k on an OP weapon. Proceed to annihilate everything in your path until you hit inferno.
#3 is the obvious choice, and #3 is what 99% of people will chose. So, in practice, that is the design, regardless of the developer's original intent. What you're "supposed to do" is irrelevant. Why would anyone waste time/gold when I have a sure-fire route to success via the AH?
And there's another example of why nobody can please everyone all the time. One of the most common complaints I've heard about D3 is that it is too "dumbed down" compared to D2, that too many details have been removed, simplified and streamlined. But yet, from someone else's perspective, it's the opposite.
It was a difficult road, but once I achieved a great deal of resistance, vitality and dps, my DH took on a whole new level of awesome. For a long time I simply kited mobs around, and it didn't bother me. But now, having achieved a significant amount of high level gear (and due to the recent 1.0.4 patch) I have taken on a more bold, aggressive play style. At times, it seems like I die more often than when I was built for kiting. But, if I manage to last a few seconds, mostly due to in-your-face Shadow Power + Gloom tanking, my enemies fell even faster than before.
After watching your video I decided to record a quick Act I Inferno run, starting at the Khazra Barricade, using my aggressive build, and as you can see it doesn't even look like I'm playing on Inferno Mode.
It is possible to play this game in many ways, but you can't ignore/disregard available resources based on an outdated sense of nostalgia.
Hero link: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/zombieman-2342/hero/1624648
VegasRage,
Yep, I know exactly how you feel... I felt like that too when I reached Nightmare for the first time.
You don't need the AH to progress through the game unless you want to farm for what you just did several times. In other words, you MUST use the AH to have a natural leveling progression. Although during the first wave of people you could gear extremely well for 5000 a piece, now you simply don't find those pieces for sale, as the number of players still leveling and thus selling low level gear is extremely smaller compared to the first weeks.
Despite the AH problem, I still feel that:
- In D2 you ran faster than 80% of the mobs. In D3, 80% of the mobs run faster than you. This alone is a pain in the butt, as you simply can't run away and shot.
- Life Steal and Mana Steal were completely destroyed, and this together with the previous line, you simply can't have the same gameplay, and thus the same fun, as you had in D2
That alone destroy the game for me. I've tried 4 of the 5 classes, several builds, and just found fun with the Barbarian Sprint / WW build. Why? Simple, because I CAN F_CKING WW FOREVER AND KILL MOBS. Is it that hard to understand?
For the Barbarian, it would be quite easy to solve the problem. All they had to do was create a passive skill or rune that allowed you to WW constantly while hitting one or lets say two mobs. WW gives barbs a lot of advantages, and I understand they not wanting to do that, but on the other hand, I simply don't have fun without that.
Now, Demon Hunter... I remember the Multi-shot amazon or Lightning Javelin awesomeness. I wanted it to be the same, to feel that cool. Can we do that? No, same shit as the barb, you just can't sustain your resources if you shoot constantly. People started using Evasive Fire with a rune to hit 3 mobs, which is a "mini multi-shot". So sad... But, to make things worse, you add to that the fact that you just can't outrun mobs. "Oh, but there is Vault, and disciple abilities, and..." F_ck off. If I run away, I should be able to run away, not give my back to get hit constantly without gaining distance.
Monks are pallys disguised. Heals, auras, bla bla. Difference is, you don't have hammers anymore. Thus, you get a lot of crits and use Sweeping Wind to poop tornados all over that will do what hammers did before... genius...
Without mana potions, the wizard would be useless if it was not for "Arcane Power on Crit". So, maybe this is one of the few classes that still can be played more similar to what you would do in D2, but there is no teleport fun and again, mobs outrun you.
The Witch Doctor is really the one that disappoints me the most. It is like the druid and necromancer of D2 decided to have a gay party and the Witch Doctor was born. Seriously. No arcane fun, no bone spells, no skelly army. Perhaps the Gargantuan is a good hit instead of the Golem, but with the CD is a joke. Then, from the druid part, no tornados (this one went the monk), no bears, and it goes.
Overall, the game is graphically stunning, but the gameplay, due to resource management and problem to gain terrain to do something, very crappy, IMHO.
I like the game, but wish it would be different on a few things.
Maybe you'll find something that will get you some fun. Even if you end up changing classes.
By the way, allow me to congratulate you on your gameplay. You did quite well in that video.
What's it to you if I like or dislike the game that you need be asshole about it? I've never written a post that downs someone for their opinion on something they put effort or money into. You will not find one post from me that goes around telling people they are idiots for loving D3. The content of your post isn't worth replying to. Food for thought.
BTW I looked at my D3 receipt for the $320, add on a game guide and some D3 t-shirts. I spent $320 on D3, you're an ass for even questioning me on it.
Thanks, I knew I wasn't alone on this. I know I'm not the greatest gamer, my ego isn't wrapped up in such things; games are just a way for me to relax. In normal mode I'm plowing along just fine and then in nightmare everything that worked very well for me suddenly stops working? Obviously my gaming skills didn't just fall off the face of the earth :lol:, if the problem is me I know it and have no problem admitting it.
I went to AH last night for the first time and upgraded my crossbow from a rare item with 51 HP damage to one that does like 90 HP damage. Now D3 plays like nightmare mode does in D2. I haven't found any loot that even comes close to 90 HP damage for any of my characters in normal mode or ACT1 in nightmare mode. For me finding the good loot as I dungeon crawl is half the fun. I felt like I cheated by going to AH and buying it, almost as bad as if I used a character editor. All I can do is hope Blizzard makes a few changes to D3.
I've got to assume at this point you're trolling.
The shirts and guides (who buys a guide when the internet exists? That's an honest question.) are completely and totally irrelevant to the purchase price/enjoyment breakdown, so, in reality, you bought diablo 3 three times and bought a bunch of extra shit on top of it that had nothing to do with the play experience (especially since, if you bought a guide, it would tell you how to play better than you are) and are now complaining that you spent so much money and aren't enjoying it.
I'm sorry, dude, I'm just not buying it. Did you throw a fit when Final Fantasy moved from Espers to Materia? Did you soil yourself in pants-shitting rage when Warcraft went from 2d to dynamic 3d? Did the jump from SC1, in all its functionally broken glory, to SC2 make you mad because you had to learn new ways to use units that were named the same as your legacy units?
Probably not. Diablo3 is not Diablo2 and it's not Diablo1. If you want to play Diablo2 with a twist, there are game mods out there that allow you to do JUST THAT! Unfortunately for you, they are harder than D3, so your play experience will be just as disappointing.
After rereading all of your posts and seeing how you reacted to others' criticisms, you just sound like a fossil who's too old to be playing games. Just like someone's granddad talking about the "good old days" when you could pour vodka and paint thinner in your BelAir and drag race up and down main street drunk and with no seat belt, you are making yourself an anachronism and a martyr for those who feel dispossessed by the progression of the world away from your comfort zone.
100 years ago, you could be prescribed leeches if you had a disease. Times change, dude. You should too.
I'd like to head off this tangent before it flowers into something else. I am easily a few decades Vegas' senior and I'm quite capable of enjoying this game and many others. His rather bland and generally negative critique of the game is a personal problem and not an issue of age.
You're supposed to use that BS to maintain equipment comparable for your level. Once you're in NM, you should also have significant gem upgrades which can make a world of difference as well for socketed weapons at that difficulty bracket.
1) No you do not NEED to use the AH to gear up. Ever. It just makes things faster because it's easier to farm the gold you need or valuable items to sell than it is to farm a perfect item for your class yourself (you have many alts so you this is much less of a problem for you in fact). Just like trading in D2, only much more convenient and now gold has value so you don't have to pray to god a SoJ or HR drops, you can eventually have enough money just from vendoring/pickup and the occasional AH sale.
2) You DEFINITELY don't need to use the AH to beat Normal and Nightmare. You should be able to beat most if not all of Hell without doing any gear grinding or AHing at all. It's only early Inferno that you really start to feel the lack of gear. It's a bit class dependent (eg, Rakanoth on a DH :P) but at worst you can join a party to get you through a boss or two (group play is more fun anyway!).
3) Once you get to Inferno yes you will need to invest time (or gold or $$$ if you're lazy :P) to gear, you can't just kill anything as soon as you see it. Bear in mind Inferno is designed to be hard, it's extra content added to be a challenge and a time sink. But you don't seem to be someone obsessed with plowing to the end of the game ASAP so I think you have the right attitude for Inferno anyway.
4) You also do not need a specific "build" to progress, until level 60 I used every new skill and rune as I unlocked it to try it out (first toon was a DH). Some combinations were absolutely terrible but I still made it through! Especially now that some weaker abilities have been buffed. Even Inferno isn't as skill-dependent as some people make out - there are a few abilities that are clearly a bit better than the alternatives but that doesn't mean you can't progress without using them. Definitely not before Inferno! Take the build you like, it'll probably be fine.
5) I can't view your vid here at work, but if it's true you aren't kiting that's basically the problem. A DH is a glass cannon, they're designed to be that way. Consider using your Monk or Barb as your first toon if you don't like that style. Also Rain of Vengeance is an awesome skill, don't listen to the naysayers! Use Stampede for an AOE knockback while you dump Hate in their faces, it's awesome
LOL, it's really not that bad. Unless you're the sort of person who rages if they can't beat a whole game in 1 week.
Now I don't doubt I could have sat and farmed for upgrades but it wouldn't have been worth the amount of time it would take in my opinion. I'm not sure what else to say about it. I don't think they're going to revisit the difficulty of the game that early on. Get used to using the AH or prepare for many, many, many hours of farming as harsh as that sounds.
also if your not going to use two 1 hand xbows then switch to 2h bow or xbow.. it'll sync with your kiting more.
The concept of needing to visit the AH prior to inferno (pre-patch) or act2 inferno (post-patch) is completely foreign to me. I leveled all my characters through hell mode without using the AH and only did a very minor amount of quest repetition (usually in act3-4 nightmare and hell respectively) in order to do so. I don't think the gear step at that point is very steep at all. It's simply a matter of finding a relatively effective build for that level, zone, monster combination (there being no penalty for skill swapping pre-NV), and putting in a little hand-work on top of it.
I'm certainly not suggesting that the game was faceroll with the hodgepodge of items I had while leveling up, but I would certainly challenge the assumption that I was lucky five times in a row with my drops.
I had no problem until Hell Act 2 with my barb. I didn't find great gear, but I went back, collected blues and gold, upgraded the crafting guy as far as I could and kept crafting items, once in a while there was an upgrade.
I probably could have done that for a long time w/o ever visting the AH. I'm sure I'd never get good enough gear to make it thru inferno, but that wasn't the intention anyway.
So nothing broken in view...
-Utilizing the Blacksmith because he isn't just there for aesthetics.
-Researching your class. The internet is a big, scary place, but 30 seconds on Google will probably suffice.
-Understanding this isn't Diablo 2, and it takes more than a pulse to faceroll through content.
-Tied in with point 2: knowing what stats are beneficial. Google, it is your friend.
-No seriously, Google.
I think that about covers it. I suppose one can just complain on the forums over and over and have someone else do the work for them, though.
Hmm, my reply went poof, I guess I didn't hit submit! So here we go again!
I am an ass for questioning you? You said you spent 320 dollars on THE GAME. Sorry buddy, but shirts and a guide (which you have obviously not used AT ALL) is not 'THE GAME". And why would you wast money on a "guide" for a book that went out of date as of the first patch, especially when you have this magical thing called the internet and "google".
As to the rest of your drivel, I really don't care what you say about me. You made a QQ post based on D3 not being a D2 clone. You lost any and all credibility right there as well as any modicum of respect you may have had as a complete stranger posting on the interwebz. If you have such a problem with it, uninstall it, oh wait, you're still playing it aren't you? So lets QQ on the interwebs about D3 but continue to play it like all the other QQers. You don't even make a single intelligent argument and when people try to talk to you you shoot them down as if your opinion is the only thing that matters then bitch at me about doing the same? Hypocrisy at its finest, though I am not at all surprised TBH.
As to writing a long post to insult you, if you took it as an insult you should grow thicker skin. The simple fact is that you can't handle the extremely mild difficulty increase between normal and nightmare. I would love to be a fly on the wall if you ever manage to get to hell, let alone inferno.
I am sorry that Blizzard decided to update the Diablo franchise and bring it up to par with the difficulty current gamers want. Although the only rewason I am sorry is because it has added your voice to the many QQers crying on these forums about it.
Yep, that is theoretically correct. Of course, in practice, completely incorrect. You hit a wall in, say, Hell. What do you do?
1. Grind for hours/days/weeks to get better gear so that you can progress.
2. Spend a bunch of gold on the BS in hopes that one piece rolls well.
3. Go to the AH and spend 10k on an OP weapon. Proceed to annihilate everything in your path until you hit inferno.
#3 is the obvious choice, and #3 is what 99% of people will chose. So, in practice, that is the design, regardless of the developer's original intent. What you're "supposed to do" is irrelevant. Why would anyone waste time/gold when I have a sure-fire route to success via the AH?