I know others have already done this but having just got into the beta, I know that if I had not, I would love to get yet another opinion of what someone felt about the game.
I'll preface this by saying that I only just got into the beta last Tuesday although I was aware of the various changes to the patches to beta, this is the first time I've gotten my hands of the game. I completed the beta on all 5 classes and got about level 7-9 without grinding when I fought Leroic. Here are some of my thoughts, and note that these are my opinions only and may not coincide with yours.
Demon hunter
I played this class first because of all the not so stella feedback I had heard (this was pre Hatred Generation). I Loved the demon hunter. Everytime she fires off her hand crossbows using some skills there's a "gunshot" sound and it almost feels like holding the Xbox vibrating controller, you feel the impact every time you fire which is almost always. The Barbarian does this too.
I loved the playstyle, and the skills Hungering Arrow and Evasive Fire are amazing, especially Hungering Arrow with its Pierce ability which will actually hit the next closest target, not like Pierce in D2 which only travelled in a straight line. The Hatred Spenders are also amazing, "Rapid Fire" acts like a machine gun and is excellent for Champions and Elites.
I'll admit that until you get a good high damage hand crossbow, the demon hunter is going to feel weak. But once your dps get's up there, there's no stopping her. Not too impressed with the Discipline skills yet, it drains too fast and in normal Act 1 I didn't see much of a need for it.
Over all very happy with this class. And will probably be my top 2 picks.
Witch Doctor
This was another good class. Although I'm not sure why you would pick the Physical realm skills over the Spirit realm due to the difference in mana costs. I do remember Haunt in a previous version being limited to 3 castings at a time? But in this current build, you can Spam Haunt and it will do significant damage and is only 1/2 the cost of Poison dart. Zombie dogs are also awesome, and with the number of health globes, they almost never die. (Of course this is only Normal Act 1)
With Grasp of the Dead, Haunt, Zombie Dogs, you don't need much more. I never ran out of mana except when I used Firebats which is probably a lot more useful later on. And Plague of Toads is awesome, but because of the higher mana requirements, I'd stick with Haunt for lower levels.
Barbarian
I am not a melee person, but even I have to admit there's something awesome about wading into loads of monsters and smashing them. Cleave, Hammer of the Ancents, Ground Stomp were my 3 skills of choice. This was the only class where I did pop a health potion when fighting the Skeleton King. Also, there's a barbarian specific item property which gives you life back when you do damage, very very useful.
As I mentioned, the barbarian and Demon Hunter are the only 2 classes where each attack feels ... solid, as if you're getting feedback from a console controller. It really helps make the class feel special and real.
Overall very impressed and surprized with the barbarian, I actually found a melee class I like and will probably play.
Monk
I'm on the fence with the monk. Don't get me wrong, its a fun class, but compared to the other 4 classes, I'm not sure how well it holds up (then again it could be a personal playstyle issue).
The spirit generator skills are awesome and amazing. I was less impressed with the spirit spender skills or the mantras. I do admit that I need more time with this class, getting a twinked character to the Skeleton King is not hard at all so I mostly used Deadly Reach, Crippling Wave and lashing Tail Kick.
Unlike the other classes, the Monk feels like he's got more defensive/utility skills which are not required in Act 1. So only time will tell.
Wizard
Ahh the wizard. I have alway and will always be a wizard at heart. I also love the magic missile spell. So its with reluctance that I admit that until you reach level 6 and get Arcane Orb, Magic Missile does not hold up to the other class starting skills. Its just a little lackluster. It kills just fine, but in terms of making you feel all powerful and awesome... not really.
However, once you get skills like Electrify and Arcane Orb, say hello to an awesome awesome class. I will also say that of all the 1-H weapons I used, the highest dps I found was Wand + Orb. For some reason the + dmg with Orb really really helps and the 1.4 weapon speed for wands is great.
Weapon Speed
I was very skeptial about weapon speeds. I saw numbers like 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.46. It seemed really minor. But in gameplay, there is a noticible difference for classes like the Wizard. I spam casted Magic Missile using a 1.2 high dps weapon vs a 1.4 Wand. Talk about noticiple difference. Trust me, as depending on the spells you pick, weapons speed matters and spells like magic missle will defintely require a Wand/Orb vs a slow high dps 2 handed weapon.
Co-op
After completing the Skeleton King on all 5 character, I joined co-op games. I love it. Obviously everyone in beta tends to favor running only the final Lich Kind quest. And it really works, its fun and its fast. Even if 1 character get's to the King first, there's a check for all players in the game to start doing the lich king event. This basically means, no one is going to miss killing a boss just cos he's slow or sightseeing.
The only down side? Lag. Lag. Lag. I had a witch doctor with his hounds, a Sorceress using disintegrate, a Demon Hunter and myself. all 4 persons in the same screen, all spamming their highest powered skills ... we're talking huge lags. Still playable, it was not quite a slide show but definately noticible. I'm hoping it is because this is a beta and their servers/infrastructure are not all setup yet.
In D2, I was a loner. I hated multiplayer cos of kill steals, constant message spams, and sudden duels. I'm very happy to say, co-op was a dream in D3. You'll probabaly want to do the initial run thru solo but after that, co-op really is fun.
Crafting
For anyone who thinks Crafting is a joke like it is in most other games, prepare to be amazed. Crafting gave the most powerful weapons and armor. You WILL be doing crafting and it WILL benefit you. For example, the Demon Hunter while fun was taking way too long to kill foes. So I hopped on other characters, finally got the ability to craft Apprentice hand Crossbows and viola! 2 hand crossbows that had over 10.4 dps.
Drop Rates of Pages of Turning
I would not worry about it. On my first character I dispaired of ever finding 5 to turn into a book. By my 4th character I had almost leveled the blacksmith 5 times. It might be a little much now, but remember you'll also unlock the Jeweler and Mystic in the full game.
Gold
I have no issues with gold drops right now. In fact in normal I think the drop rate for gold is just fine. After completing all 5 classes I expanded my stash 4 times, and trained my Blacksmith 5 times, crafted quite a few weapons/armor for all my classes. I was wanting more money, the next stash tab is 10k and I had run out of crafting materials and only had 1kg left.
Overall
This game is as good as I think we all expect it to be. The only reason I'm not playing the game 24/7 is cos also got into SWTOR beta and I don't want to burn out on D3 beta just yet. Hope this was helpful to someone.
Gold may change, I've seen a few posts suggesting that the drop rate of gold (amount per drop) stays the same throughout the rest of the game (nightmare, hell etc...) except costs for things increase drastically. It will be interesting to see what happens.
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Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
Gold may change, I've seen a few posts suggesting that the drop rate of gold (amount per drop) stays the same throughout the rest of the game (nightmare, hell etc...) except costs for things increase drastically. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Can't have this because then gold finding will always be done in normal (path of least resistance), and that's just not fun or challenging.
I'll preface this by saying that I only just got into the beta last Tuesday although I was aware of the various changes to the patches to beta, this is the first time I've gotten my hands of the game. I completed the beta on all 5 classes and got about level 7-9 without grinding when I fought Leroic. Here are some of my thoughts, and note that these are my opinions only and may not coincide with yours.
Demon hunter
I played this class first because of all the not so stella feedback I had heard (this was pre Hatred Generation). I Loved the demon hunter. Everytime she fires off her hand crossbows using some skills there's a "gunshot" sound and it almost feels like holding the Xbox vibrating controller, you feel the impact every time you fire which is almost always. The Barbarian does this too.
I loved the playstyle, and the skills Hungering Arrow and Evasive Fire are amazing, especially Hungering Arrow with its Pierce ability which will actually hit the next closest target, not like Pierce in D2 which only travelled in a straight line. The Hatred Spenders are also amazing, "Rapid Fire" acts like a machine gun and is excellent for Champions and Elites.
I'll admit that until you get a good high damage hand crossbow, the demon hunter is going to feel weak. But once your dps get's up there, there's no stopping her. Not too impressed with the Discipline skills yet, it drains too fast and in normal Act 1 I didn't see much of a need for it.
Over all very happy with this class. And will probably be my top 2 picks.
Witch Doctor
This was another good class. Although I'm not sure why you would pick the Physical realm skills over the Spirit realm due to the difference in mana costs. I do remember Haunt in a previous version being limited to 3 castings at a time? But in this current build, you can Spam Haunt and it will do significant damage and is only 1/2 the cost of Poison dart. Zombie dogs are also awesome, and with the number of health globes, they almost never die. (Of course this is only Normal Act 1)
With Grasp of the Dead, Haunt, Zombie Dogs, you don't need much more. I never ran out of mana except when I used Firebats which is probably a lot more useful later on. And Plague of Toads is awesome, but because of the higher mana requirements, I'd stick with Haunt for lower levels.
Barbarian
I am not a melee person, but even I have to admit there's something awesome about wading into loads of monsters and smashing them. Cleave, Hammer of the Ancents, Ground Stomp were my 3 skills of choice. This was the only class where I did pop a health potion when fighting the Skeleton King. Also, there's a barbarian specific item property which gives you life back when you do damage, very very useful.
As I mentioned, the barbarian and Demon Hunter are the only 2 classes where each attack feels ... solid, as if you're getting feedback from a console controller. It really helps make the class feel special and real.
Overall very impressed and surprized with the barbarian, I actually found a melee class I like and will probably play.
Monk
I'm on the fence with the monk. Don't get me wrong, its a fun class, but compared to the other 4 classes, I'm not sure how well it holds up (then again it could be a personal playstyle issue).
The spirit generator skills are awesome and amazing. I was less impressed with the spirit spender skills or the mantras. I do admit that I need more time with this class, getting a twinked character to the Skeleton King is not hard at all so I mostly used Deadly Reach, Crippling Wave and lashing Tail Kick.
Unlike the other classes, the Monk feels like he's got more defensive/utility skills which are not required in Act 1. So only time will tell.
Wizard
Ahh the wizard. I have alway and will always be a wizard at heart. I also love the magic missile spell. So its with reluctance that I admit that until you reach level 6 and get Arcane Orb, Magic Missile does not hold up to the other class starting skills. Its just a little lackluster. It kills just fine, but in terms of making you feel all powerful and awesome... not really.
However, once you get skills like Electrify and Arcane Orb, say hello to an awesome awesome class. I will also say that of all the 1-H weapons I used, the highest dps I found was Wand + Orb. For some reason the + dmg with Orb really really helps and the 1.4 weapon speed for wands is great.
Weapon Speed
I was very skeptial about weapon speeds. I saw numbers like 1.2 / 1.3 / 1.4 / 1.46. It seemed really minor. But in gameplay, there is a noticible difference for classes like the Wizard. I spam casted Magic Missile using a 1.2 high dps weapon vs a 1.4 Wand. Talk about noticiple difference. Trust me, as depending on the spells you pick, weapons speed matters and spells like magic missle will defintely require a Wand/Orb vs a slow high dps 2 handed weapon.
Co-op
After completing the Skeleton King on all 5 character, I joined co-op games. I love it. Obviously everyone in beta tends to favor running only the final Lich Kind quest. And it really works, its fun and its fast. Even if 1 character get's to the King first, there's a check for all players in the game to start doing the lich king event. This basically means, no one is going to miss killing a boss just cos he's slow or sightseeing.
The only down side? Lag. Lag. Lag. I had a witch doctor with his hounds, a Sorceress using disintegrate, a Demon Hunter and myself. all 4 persons in the same screen, all spamming their highest powered skills ... we're talking huge lags. Still playable, it was not quite a slide show but definately noticible. I'm hoping it is because this is a beta and their servers/infrastructure are not all setup yet.
In D2, I was a loner. I hated multiplayer cos of kill steals, constant message spams, and sudden duels. I'm very happy to say, co-op was a dream in D3. You'll probabaly want to do the initial run thru solo but after that, co-op really is fun.
Crafting
For anyone who thinks Crafting is a joke like it is in most other games, prepare to be amazed. Crafting gave the most powerful weapons and armor. You WILL be doing crafting and it WILL benefit you. For example, the Demon Hunter while fun was taking way too long to kill foes. So I hopped on other characters, finally got the ability to craft Apprentice hand Crossbows and viola! 2 hand crossbows that had over 10.4 dps.
Drop Rates of Pages of Turning
I would not worry about it. On my first character I dispaired of ever finding 5 to turn into a book. By my 4th character I had almost leveled the blacksmith 5 times. It might be a little much now, but remember you'll also unlock the Jeweler and Mystic in the full game.
Gold
I have no issues with gold drops right now. In fact in normal I think the drop rate for gold is just fine. After completing all 5 classes I expanded my stash 4 times, and trained my Blacksmith 5 times, crafted quite a few weapons/armor for all my classes. I was wanting more money, the next stash tab is 10k and I had run out of crafting materials and only had 1kg left.
Overall
This game is as good as I think we all expect it to be. The only reason I'm not playing the game 24/7 is cos also got into SWTOR beta and I don't want to burn out on D3 beta just yet. Hope this was helpful to someone.