New Arcane Enchanted Monster Effect
Arcane Enchanted monsters were modified in the latest Beta patch, they no longer spawn hydras and they now spawn pretty cool looking arcane beams.
ETA on Extra Beta Keys
For those looking to get keys now that a patch is out, please be aware that we're still monitoring stability issues and will be releasing keys as needed once the service is a bit more stable.
It's not a real action/reaction situation. The patch is a big milestone for us, the beta, and the game, but keys are still going to be metered out as we feel additional testers are necessary for testing purposes. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Annoyance of picking up items
This is one of those user experience issues where some players really want convenience, and we have to sort of fight back against that for the betterment of the experience and enjoyment of the game.
It potentially sounds ridiculous. Of course convenience means you're able to have more fun, right? Actually it can seriously degrade even short term enjoyment of a game.
We maintain that the act of clicking to pick up items is important for a few reasons. It obviously allows you to pick and choose what you actually want to pick up, and that's actually an important player choice. And it happens a lot. You could argue that you want to pick up everything! For gold this is true, there's never a reason not to pick up gold, but for items the reality is that in the long term it's pretty unlikely that you're always going to want to pick up every item that drops. In fact I'd personally guarantee it. And for all of the convenience options we have, all of the streamlining, making the game easy to approach (but difficult to master), and all that junk, the fact remains that Diablo is about clicking, clicking, clicking. It works. It has always worked, and we know that it's integral to the formula of why it does.
In my personal outlook, it's a situation where - and this is potentially getting into the psychology of games a little - your direct interaction with the game, where upon completion of a goal (killing demons) you're presented a reward (phat lewt) it's important that you're involved in actually receiving the reward. Hitting a button to vacuum it all up devalues that system, and ultimately the enjoyment of the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Griswold's Edge No Longer Legendary
Griswald's Edge is now a blue item that randomly spawns from the Anvil of Fury. It is no longer a legendary. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Followers can't die
It is intended for Followers to not die when you die. Followers actually can't die, they can only get knocked unconscious. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
How can Griswold's Edge not be legendary? The thing IS legendary in it's own right (though it sucked in every game it was in), the game should reflect the fact.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head!
I liked the hydras version better but hope Blizz will implement both. Knowing it's an arcane (or molten or whatever) but not exactly which way it will attack you would make the game more challenging.
And have to agree with Blizzard on click to collect, I played Sacred where you can vacuum everything and to me it feels a bit like you are tiding your room.
Yeah I agree with Pikke aswell, having mobs attack you with hydra/lasers or various dual elemental abilities would be quite challenging come Inferno mode where your bound to encounter a mob that is "prismaticly" enchanted lol. Imagine laser/blizzard/disintegrate/shock pulse.... I can hear the foul language being shouted across the nation
I love all loot fest kind of game! I will be playing all of them for the next few years. Loot fest games I'm looking forward to: LotR: War in the North,Torchlight 2,Borderlands 2 and of course Diablo 3.
Sigh... They told us at Blizzcon and Bashiok even said himself weeks ago that there would be a wave of beta keys corresponding with the next large patch. But now that the patch is out, we get the same old crap "keys are still going to be metered out as we feel additional testers are necessary for testing purposes." Really disheartening for those of us who have yet to get a crack at this game.
Not a fan of the arcane beams- they just feel out of place, especially on those zombie mobs. Maybe on some kind of Arcane Mage mini-boss or something more powerful, but a random spell effect like that on a zombie, not buying it.
Not a fan of the arcane beams- they just feel out of place, especially on those zombie mobs. Maybe on some kind of Arcane Mage mini-boss or something more powerful, but a random spell effect like that on a zombie, not buying it.
Well, arcane hydras is kinda the same in that regard.
IT'S A TRAP!!! Looks like the enchanted monsters are setting orbed-beams traps for the player and it's easily avoidable...think Pikke said it: there should at least be a 50/50 chance between Hydra and the current "007-laser-beams-in-museum-robbery-orbs" or just a nerfed Hydra. Hydra was good but to powerful.
It's funny how Blizz couldn't see the problem with this implementation into the beta...hopefully they'll hear the cries and fix it somehow in the next path...bleh
So they complain that ranged characters are barely affected by the champion mobs (molten etc.) and put in mortar... and at the same time they take out the ranged killer Hydra and put in some weird orb which has too small range to hit ranged characters??
Hydras were much more of melee killers than ranged killers. They spawned in melee right next to the mob, which gave melee classes practically no reaction time to dodge the purple orbs they spit.
Now that's just silly. Those laser things have a completely inorganic feel, and just doesn't fit to replace hydras in an aesthetic sense. Sure, their combat mechanism makes more sense to help target ranged heroes as well as melee heroes, but it really doesn't feel right. I think there would be many different things you could do instead. For example, how about the hydras spawn randomly near heroes within a larger radius? If a ranged fighter is in combat with the team, but on the outer perimeter, there is a chance that the hydra will spawn next to him/her and the hydra will want to attack those closest to it. For extra madness, you could equip the hydras with laser eyes instead of shooting balls out of their mouths.
I suspect that hydras may be returning in later difficulties and it was just decided that arcane hydras in Normal was too much for beginning players.
I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Hydras returning in Nightmare or Hell. I wouldn't even be surprised if we see a combination of the two come Hell/Inferno, so we're dodging both arcane bolts from hydras as well as maneuvering between laser beams.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Oh pitiful shadow lost in the darkness,
Bringing torment and pain to others.
Your damned soul wallowing in your sin.
Perhaps... it is time to die.
I like it... the beams heave predictably, yet are thrown around in a randomish cluster. So technically they're avoidable, but it will be difficult with lots of them out. Look at how the monk is weaving in and out of range in the vid. Couple this with a champion with lots of health, etc. and you've got a nice fight.
Also, the range goes all the way off the screen, so I don't see how this makes it even easier for ranged classes.
See if they wanted to take it really over the top into awesomeland, what if they made it so Arcane Enchanted monsters dropped Arcane pillars on you, or perhaps some sort of "Arcane ferret" with laser beams eyes.. yea. awesome. That's it.
So they complain that ranged characters are barely affected by the champion mobs (molten etc.) and put in mortar... and at the same time they take out the ranged killer Hydra and put in some weird orb which has too small range to hit ranged characters??
Actually, the Hydras were destroying melee characters, because ranged ones could dodge their projectiles.
I think they lowered the damage by quite a bit, and now it actually feels more tactical choosing when to dodge the beams (specially when they cross each other), instead of instantly dying if you're melee and being forced into constantly moving if you're ranged.
Maybe the old Arcane Enchanted was just a taste of what they could do to us to make the game more difficult (and maybe it comes back on Inferno).
(godammit, after writing all that I read page 2, everybody said everything I wanted to say.. com'on..)
The beams do look a bit ridiculous now. I don't know. Its just a random ball of energy that spawns with a rotating lazer... which just feels weird. I like the "it feels unorganic" comment, its kind of how it feels to me.
I always love their excuses for small things, like picking up items. Maybe, just maybe, the flaw is that everything is worth picking up now? No, lets ignore that. A player shouldn't even -want- to pick everything up. It doesn't matter if you have to click everything manually or you have a special button that does it for you. I don't think Torchlight had one (or I never used it) and I still vacuumed everything, and it still felt bad.
Arcane Enchanted monsters were modified in the latest Beta patch, they no longer spawn hydras and they now spawn pretty cool looking arcane beams.
Blue Posts
Official Blizzard Quote:
ETA on Extra Beta Keys
For those looking to get keys now that a patch is out, please be aware that we're still monitoring stability issues and will be releasing keys as needed once the service is a bit more stable.
It's not a real action/reaction situation. The patch is a big milestone for us, the beta, and the game, but keys are still going to be metered out as we feel additional testers are necessary for testing purposes. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Annoyance of picking up items
This is one of those user experience issues where some players really want convenience, and we have to sort of fight back against that for the betterment of the experience and enjoyment of the game.
It potentially sounds ridiculous. Of course convenience means you're able to have more fun, right? Actually it can seriously degrade even short term enjoyment of a game.
We maintain that the act of clicking to pick up items is important for a few reasons. It obviously allows you to pick and choose what you actually want to pick up, and that's actually an important player choice. And it happens a lot. You could argue that you want to pick up everything! For gold this is true, there's never a reason not to pick up gold, but for items the reality is that in the long term it's pretty unlikely that you're always going to want to pick up every item that drops. In fact I'd personally guarantee it. And for all of the convenience options we have, all of the streamlining, making the game easy to approach (but difficult to master), and all that junk, the fact remains that Diablo is about clicking, clicking, clicking. It works. It has always worked, and we know that it's integral to the formula of why it does.
In my personal outlook, it's a situation where - and this is potentially getting into the psychology of games a little - your direct interaction with the game, where upon completion of a goal (killing demons) you're presented a reward (phat lewt) it's important that you're involved in actually receiving the reward. Hitting a button to vacuum it all up devalues that system, and ultimately the enjoyment of the game. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Griswold's Edge No Longer Legendary
Griswald's Edge is now a blue item that randomly spawns from the Anvil of Fury. It is no longer a legendary. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Followers can't die
It is intended for Followers to not die when you die. Followers actually can't die, they can only get knocked unconscious. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I liked the hydras version better but hope Blizz will implement both. Knowing it's an arcane (or molten or whatever) but not exactly which way it will attack you would make the game more challenging.
And have to agree with Blizzard on click to collect, I played Sacred where you can vacuum everything and to me it feels a bit like you are tiding your room.
Looks like a laser grid from a museum or bank security system.
Well, arcane hydras is kinda the same in that regard.
It's funny how Blizz couldn't see the problem with this implementation into the beta...hopefully they'll hear the cries and fix it somehow in the next path...bleh
Hydras were much more of melee killers than ranged killers. They spawned in melee right next to the mob, which gave melee classes practically no reaction time to dodge the purple orbs they spit.
I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Hydras returning in Nightmare or Hell. I wouldn't even be surprised if we see a combination of the two come Hell/Inferno, so we're dodging both arcane bolts from hydras as well as maneuvering between laser beams.
Bringing torment and pain to others.
Your damned soul wallowing in your sin.
Perhaps...
it is time to die.
Also, the range goes all the way off the screen, so I don't see how this makes it even easier for ranged classes.
I think they lowered the damage by quite a bit, and now it actually feels more tactical choosing when to dodge the beams (specially when they cross each other), instead of instantly dying if you're melee and being forced into constantly moving if you're ranged.
Maybe the old Arcane Enchanted was just a taste of what they could do to us to make the game more difficult (and maybe it comes back on Inferno).
(godammit, after writing all that I read page 2, everybody said everything I wanted to say.. com'on..)
I always love their excuses for small things, like picking up items. Maybe, just maybe, the flaw is that everything is worth picking up now? No, lets ignore that. A player shouldn't even -want- to pick everything up. It doesn't matter if you have to click everything manually or you have a special button that does it for you. I don't think Torchlight had one (or I never used it) and I still vacuumed everything, and it still felt bad.