Barbarian 1.0.5 Video Guide
tryhardenmity is back with his video guides. Starting us off with the 1.0.5 patch, he has covered the Barbarian. Discussing the changes made to the class, he covers two different specs as well as gearing. You can check out his original thread for comments and feedback.
Xah'rith's Difficulty
Some players have voiced concern that Xah'rith, the key warden in Act III, is too difficult between his freezing corpse rain and illusionist abilities. However, Blizzard has stated that his difficulty was set intentionally and may tone him down if most players are finding him too difficult.
It's not a bug, but we're definitely paying close attention to player feedback about Xah'rith's current difficulty -- not just in Inferno, but in all difficulty levels, and at all MP levels too.
We agree that he may be a little bit too challenging at the moment, and are discussing the possibility of either reducing his outgoing damage, tweaking what affixes he spawns with, or moving his spawn location (right now, he's kind of hard to avoid if you're just questing normally). We'd like to hear more from the community on the topic first, though, before we make any decisions.
In the end, we want the keywardens to provide a fun challenge for players, and be a little more difficult than the surrounding wildlife (i.e. a fight you have to put some thought into), but we don't want that to happen at the expense of being able to progress through an Act.
Drop Rates
It has been said before but Blizzard once again confirms that there has been no unannounced changes to drop rates from the 1.0.5 patch. They also reconfirmed that any monster level above zero will result in all monsters in inferno able to drop items level 61 - 63.
- We haven't made any changes to drop rates or drop quality.
- They are same as they were yesterday, when the patch went live.
- We implemented some hotfixes this morning, but they weren't related to items at all.
- Those changes can be found here.
In all likelihood, you're just experiencing normal RNG. If, however, you feel like something may be bugged, go ahead and drop a line in the Bug Report forum so we can investigate. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
did they change the drop rates to be the same for every act yet? was just wondering didn't see it in the patch notes.
I think this will answer your question;
In Inferno at Monster Power 1 or greater, monsters in every Act will also be bumped up to level 63 and share the same high-end item drop rates. This means that no matter which act you're progressing through, the monsters in that act will all have the same shot at dropping items level 61-63, including crafting recipes, Legendary items, and set items.
If you’re interested in reading more information about Monster Power you can find the blog here: http://us.battle.net...n/blog/7540457/
Ultimate Game of the Year Award
Diablo III is up for Game of the Year from GameMaster's Golden Joystick Awards. For all of you Diablo Fans, stop by and vote for the best game.
Diablo III is up for Game of the Year from GameMaster's Golden Joystick Awards.
I was going to make some comment like "If this wins, my faith in the gaming industry is officially dead", but I already read the original reviews of this game.
IMO Xah'rith's not really all that difficult, just keep an eye on the ground and stay out of the patches as much as possible. The one who seems out of whack to me, difficulty-wise, is Nekarat in Act 4, if you are a melee class. If I get hit by his fire patch ability even once (which he casts nearly instantly right underneath him), it can take me from 100% to 0% life WITH a potion being used, with 900 fire resist. Thankfully I got the plans from him after the 10th kill or so and so I don't have to kill him ever again, but still...
Eh, the first playthrough of D3 isn't that bad, the story isn't the best though. I can't honestly see it beating skyrim or dark souls, though. I think I got more hours of entertainment from skyrim and even if dark souls did kill my 360 when I was playing it soon after it came out (bad microsoft hardware was the real problem). It seemed like a wonderful balance of difficulty that could be overcome with skill, rather than cheap difficulty that comes from just doubling numbers.
Eh, the first playthrough of D3 isn't that bad, the story isn't the best though. I can't honestly see it beating skyrim or dark souls, though. I think I got more hours of entertainment from skyrim and even if dark souls did kill my 360 when I was playing it soon after it came out (bad microsoft hardware was the real problem). It seemed like a wonderful balance of difficulty that could be overcome with skill, rather than cheap difficulty that comes from just doubling numbers.
Cant see it beating Skyrim or Dark Souls...
Well, how can they be Game of the Year if they released -last year- ?
Also, who knows if Dark Souls didnt double up the numbers? I bet you wouldnt be saying it was cheap difficulty if Blizzard didnt tell you how the development of their game went. That's why other companies dont do it, so you cant bitch at them for all the shortcuts they take. ALL COMPANIES takes shortcuts, no exception.
Diablo 3 is a great game and I still find many hours of enjoyment from it, but the story... Being a lore geek, the story/presentation alone makes it so this game doesn't deserve a title like that. Unfortunately.
The primary way the story is presented when playing the game as it is intended is indeed lackluster, I'll give you that. Then again, had it been more detailed, you'd see even more complains from those that simply do not care about it. However, luckily there are plenty of alternative ways of dipping into the lore, and the way the universe has been expanded since Diablo II is just magnificent - if you look well enough into it.
Without sidetracking too much from the original topic, I agree that Diablo III doesn't deserve the reward of Game of the Year by a long shot - but it is indeed turning better and better.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It has been said... that in the end of all things... we would find a new beginning. But as the shadow once again crawls across our world... and the stench of terror drifts on a bitter wind... the people pray for strength and guidance. They should pray for the mercy of a swift death... for I've seen what the darkness hides!
... I don't think it's safe here.
Hoping for Pink Chain Lightning in D3!
Website: Virtual Meadows - Twitter: @Gnub
Well, how can they be Game of the Year if they released -last year- ?
If you look at the list more than half of them were released in Q4 2011, with the oldest I believe being GoW3 from Sep 2011. Makes zero sense, media controlled by devs, you can do whatever you want.
Well, how can they be Game of the Year if they released -last year- ?
If you look at the list more than half of them were released in Q4 2011, with the oldest I believe being GoW3 from Sep 2011. Makes zero sense, media controlled by devs, you can do whatever you want.
Or maybe it's game of the year from end of Q3 last year to end of Q3 this year...? Not everything is a conspiracy you know.
Anyways, Diablo III's story was abysmally portrayed. Hell, Skyrim's main story was presented better and that's saying A LOT. My vote went to Skyrim just because it was excellent in so many regards.
IMHO... while this game continues to (slowly) get better and better, by no stretch of imagination, does it deserve to be on any game of the year list, let alone one that has Arkham City, Skyrim, Dark Souls and Uncharted 3.
The way the story was pulled off was quite disappointing for Diablo III. It's enough of a drawback that I'm actually hoping it doesn't win the award, because I believe that there is a more deserving game out there that got both the story and game play right.
Eh, the first playthrough of D3 isn't that bad, the story isn't the best though. I can't honestly see it beating skyrim or dark souls, though. I think I got more hours of entertainment from skyrim and even if dark souls did kill my 360 when I was playing it soon after it came out (bad microsoft hardware was the real problem). It seemed like a wonderful balance of difficulty that could be overcome with skill, rather than cheap difficulty that comes from just doubling numbers.
Cant see it beating Skyrim or Dark Souls...
Well, how can they be Game of the Year if they released -last year- ?
Also, who knows if Dark Souls didnt double up the numbers? I bet you wouldnt be saying it was cheap difficulty if Blizzard didnt tell you how the development of their game went. That's why other companies dont do it, so you cant bitch at them for all the shortcuts they take. ALL COMPANIES takes shortcuts, no exception.
Dark Souls does have new game plus options where they amp the numbers, but they don't try to sell it as a continuation of the game, iirc no stronger versions of weapons, etc.
I'm not sure you ever played DaS, but if you did you'd likely see what I mean, everything is avoidable, if you get particularly good, more than half of the enemies can be parried and left vulnerable, dodge roll immunity, proper blocking, when I think about it, skill plays a stronger role in staying alive than leveling up your stats.
The combat is pretty realistic compared to most games out there, which gives it a plus in my opinion as well. Look at the hit boxes in D3, there's no skill allowed in avoiding melee attacks, that's pretty much the opposite of DaS. If you compare the two on release, in D3 in original inferno, getting vortexed into molten with average gear at the time was instant death almost no matter what. Dark souls punishes you for stupidity, but it doesn't outright kill you because rng says so.
In terms of skill, D3's skill is in equipping your character with the most stats with the least amount of gold. Stats are everything. In Dark Souls skill is learning the enemy attacks and how to avoid or counter them, stats matter, and maybe they could matter more, but they're only part of the learning curve.
I actually went to vote in that award just to be able to vote *against* Diablo 3.
while D3 is a good game, I don't think it deserves the top spot. Not by a long shot.
I did the exact same thing. No way in Sanctuary or any other world, real or imagined, does Diablo III deserve that honor. Ever. The whole game hasn't even shipped, technically, because PvP was advertised as part of Diablo III - and here we are, still waiting on that patch. It has taken months for the game to lose most of its "still in beta" experience.
Xah'Rith isn't that bad. Hes killed me a lot when I engage him in an open area, but if u pull him onto stairs, the illusions dont spread out and u can burn them down before they start dropping corpse bombs.
As someone who played all diablos when the games were current, i feel like my expectations were dashed when it came to presenting the world of sanctuary.
The hype and pics that i had seen durring diablo's development lead me to believe that we were going to be introduced to a wide variety of areas and would have access to the whole world of sanctuary, but in the end, it went back to the same places and played out the same way as Diablo 2 as far as area's are concerned. Each act seemed to be copy paste(tristram area, desert area, Lord of destruction expansion, Terror's stronghold which while a decidedly different wallpaper seemed very reminiscient of act 4 D2).
Asside from the demon's themselves, the world of sanctuary seems very barren and lifeless. Wether this is intentional or not, it felt less epic because we spent 3/4 of a game not actively helping people, but on a lonely quest which kept us on the move not allowing us to take in any side questing of any significant amount, which was made only slightly less lonely by the follower of choice.
Speaking of choice as well, i felt like we were not given any story wise. Some minor decision making should have played a part in the quests where, while minor, would encourage us to go back for that 2nd or 3rd time to play out the scenario. I felt like once we got to a point where we had the option to relax for a moment, we should have been presented with like 5 npc conversations that would allow us to choose a side quest that would play out a minor story in Sanctuary and give us more lore but could only choose one. The game felt too linear, and giving it the excuse that thats diablo's style is deserving of a slap upside the head.
Anyway i could rant and ramble about this forever, but the point is i dont feel that the game world was vast enough to get immersed and because of that fact alone i would not vote it as game of the year. I am hopefull regarding expansion content, but unless i see alot of changes there i will be putting alot more thought and critique into my decision before i buy a blizzard game again.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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tryhardenmity is back with his video guides. Starting us off with the 1.0.5 patch, he has covered the Barbarian. Discussing the changes made to the class, he covers two different specs as well as gearing. You can check out his original thread for comments and feedback.
Xah'rith's Difficulty
Some players have voiced concern that Xah'rith, the key warden in Act III, is too difficult between his freezing corpse rain and illusionist abilities. However, Blizzard has stated that his difficulty was set intentionally and may tone him down if most players are finding him too difficult.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We agree that he may be a little bit too challenging at the moment, and are discussing the possibility of either reducing his outgoing damage, tweaking what affixes he spawns with, or moving his spawn location (right now, he's kind of hard to avoid if you're just questing normally). We'd like to hear more from the community on the topic first, though, before we make any decisions.
In the end, we want the keywardens to provide a fun challenge for players, and be a little more difficult than the surrounding wildlife (i.e. a fight you have to put some thought into), but we don't want that to happen at the expense of being able to progress through an Act.
Drop Rates
It has been said before but Blizzard once again confirms that there has been no unannounced changes to drop rates from the 1.0.5 patch. They also reconfirmed that any monster level above zero will result in all monsters in inferno able to drop items level 61 - 63.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
- We haven't made any changes to drop rates or drop quality.
- They are same as they were yesterday, when the patch went live.
- We implemented some hotfixes this morning, but they weren't related to items at all.
- Those changes can be found here.
In all likelihood, you're just experiencing normal RNG. If, however, you feel like something may be bugged, go ahead and drop a line in the Bug Report forum so we can investigate. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
did they change the drop rates to be the same for every act yet? was just wondering didn't see it in the patch notes.
I think this will answer your question;
In Inferno at Monster Power 1 or greater, monsters in every Act will also be bumped up to level 63 and share the same high-end item drop rates. This means that no matter which act you're progressing through, the monsters in that act will all have the same shot at dropping items level 61-63, including crafting recipes, Legendary items, and set items.
If you’re interested in reading more information about Monster Power you can find the blog here: http://us.battle.net...n/blog/7540457/
Ultimate Game of the Year Award
Diablo III is up for Game of the Year from GameMaster's Golden Joystick Awards. For all of you Diablo Fans, stop by and vote for the best game.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
#GoldenJoysticksFind any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
I was going to make some comment like "If this wins, my faith in the gaming industry is officially dead", but I already read the original reviews of this game.
Already voted
while D3 is a good game, I don't think it deserves the top spot. Not by a long shot.
Cant see it beating Skyrim or Dark Souls...
Well, how can they be Game of the Year if they released -last year- ?
Also, who knows if Dark Souls didnt double up the numbers? I bet you wouldnt be saying it was cheap difficulty if Blizzard didnt tell you how the development of their game went. That's why other companies dont do it, so you cant bitch at them for all the shortcuts they take. ALL COMPANIES takes shortcuts, no exception.
Without sidetracking too much from the original topic, I agree that Diablo III doesn't deserve the reward of Game of the Year by a long shot - but it is indeed turning better and better.
Website: Virtual Meadows - Twitter: @Gnub
If you look at the list more than half of them were released in Q4 2011, with the oldest I believe being GoW3 from Sep 2011. Makes zero sense, media controlled by devs, you can do whatever you want.
Or maybe it's game of the year from end of Q3 last year to end of Q3 this year...? Not everything is a conspiracy you know.
Anyways, Diablo III's story was abysmally portrayed. Hell, Skyrim's main story was presented better and that's saying A LOT. My vote went to Skyrim just because it was excellent in so many regards.
Dark Souls does have new game plus options where they amp the numbers, but they don't try to sell it as a continuation of the game, iirc no stronger versions of weapons, etc.
I'm not sure you ever played DaS, but if you did you'd likely see what I mean, everything is avoidable, if you get particularly good, more than half of the enemies can be parried and left vulnerable, dodge roll immunity, proper blocking, when I think about it, skill plays a stronger role in staying alive than leveling up your stats.
The combat is pretty realistic compared to most games out there, which gives it a plus in my opinion as well. Look at the hit boxes in D3, there's no skill allowed in avoiding melee attacks, that's pretty much the opposite of DaS. If you compare the two on release, in D3 in original inferno, getting vortexed into molten with average gear at the time was instant death almost no matter what. Dark souls punishes you for stupidity, but it doesn't outright kill you because rng says so.
In terms of skill, D3's skill is in equipping your character with the most stats with the least amount of gold. Stats are everything. In Dark Souls skill is learning the enemy attacks and how to avoid or counter them, stats matter, and maybe they could matter more, but they're only part of the learning curve.
I did the exact same thing. No way in Sanctuary or any other world, real or imagined, does Diablo III deserve that honor. Ever. The whole game hasn't even shipped, technically, because PvP was advertised as part of Diablo III - and here we are, still waiting on that patch. It has taken months for the game to lose most of its "still in beta" experience.
So I voted Assassin's Creed: Revelations instead.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The hype and pics that i had seen durring diablo's development lead me to believe that we were going to be introduced to a wide variety of areas and would have access to the whole world of sanctuary, but in the end, it went back to the same places and played out the same way as Diablo 2 as far as area's are concerned. Each act seemed to be copy paste(tristram area, desert area, Lord of destruction expansion, Terror's stronghold which while a decidedly different wallpaper seemed very reminiscient of act 4 D2).
Asside from the demon's themselves, the world of sanctuary seems very barren and lifeless. Wether this is intentional or not, it felt less epic because we spent 3/4 of a game not actively helping people, but on a lonely quest which kept us on the move not allowing us to take in any side questing of any significant amount, which was made only slightly less lonely by the follower of choice.
Speaking of choice as well, i felt like we were not given any story wise. Some minor decision making should have played a part in the quests where, while minor, would encourage us to go back for that 2nd or 3rd time to play out the scenario. I felt like once we got to a point where we had the option to relax for a moment, we should have been presented with like 5 npc conversations that would allow us to choose a side quest that would play out a minor story in Sanctuary and give us more lore but could only choose one. The game felt too linear, and giving it the excuse that thats diablo's style is deserving of a slap upside the head.
Anyway i could rant and ramble about this forever, but the point is i dont feel that the game world was vast enough to get immersed and because of that fact alone i would not vote it as game of the year. I am hopefull regarding expansion content, but unless i see alot of changes there i will be putting alot more thought and critique into my decision before i buy a blizzard game again.