Hey all,
I am a big fan of Blizz games. (As we all are) : D
I have been on the forums lately, and liked them so much I decided to join.
You guys seem like a great community with a wealth of insight into everything diablo.
I basically am a little tired of SC2 at the moment and went to get back in RPG's. (been playing FF1, and D1 lately, as you can tell graphics don't concern me)
Nice to meet you all!
- ZTZaorish
Blizz games played:
War 2, and War 3 Reign + Frozen
Diablo 1,2
SC1, BW, and SC2.
WoW, vanilla,and TBC
Rock and roll racing (some years ago for fun)
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- Apoc
- Registered User
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Member for 13 years, 6 months, and 28 days
Last active Sun, Mar, 10 2013 20:32:06
- 28 Followers
- 1,189 Total Posts
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Organization isn't that big of an issue, just need to lay down some guidelines - but you're right: the current version of minecraft server/client still run very inefficiently. And Notch has asked server modders to hold on development until they can get a proper minecraft API working. There has even been discussion between Mojang and Bukkit (a server admin mod) to possibly be integrated in the future. So as it stands the game still needs a lot of work, but it's getting there and if people want they can enjoy it now which I think is fantastic.
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Perhaps the only things that could be expanded upon are any interesting bits of lore on the monsters or tactics on how to fight them.
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Overall gameplay
Very satisfying experience (obviously). The statement that they want your character to feel powerful was reiterated through out the entire gameplay, in your abilities, attacks, pets, even down to the level of destroying barrels and breakable objects. We ran into monsters that had light blue titles, which I think implied they had a buff (eg: life link or inherited from their unique) and uniques. I did not see anything with the explicit label "champion" but maybe that's what those blue titled mobs were. Some crafting components dropped but were not usable. The health orbs concept was nice, but didn't drop enough that it annoyed me when they got consumed even at full health.
I'll give a description of each mode/class I played, along with the 3 skills they start you with in the demo (already on action bar), and impressions below it.
Witch Doctor solo PvE
Overall this was a very easy and comfortable class to play with. The combination of ranged skills and minion tanking made it play just like a Summoner Druid.
- Poison Dart
When the demo started, this skill was on the mouse-button slots, so implying that it was to be used as a replacement to the default melee attack. Basically just fired darts from a blowgun and an Indigo rune upgraded it to do burst shots (3 darts in rapid succession). Poisoned target; found myself using it mostly against single targets.
- Summon Zombie Dogs
Summoned one Zombie Dog, up to three max (couldn't tell if that cap goes up at higher levels) at the cost of 10% hp per. Minion AI was good, minions leashed back easily on retreat. Dealt decent damage for the level but didn't feel overpowered.
- Zombie Charger
This skill seemed to summon a Zombie at your feet and it immediately lurches forward slowly dissolving into goo until it hits a target. If no impact, it just liquefies into the ground; short range. On impact I think it placed an armor debuff on the target. Couldn't tell if there was splash dmg. Seemed to have a large collision box, so it was hard to aim through doorways and at uniques surrounded by minions. Didn't find myself using this much after learning Locust Swarm.
- learned: Locust Swarm
Picked this up at first ding. Felt like it had a short range. Unlike dropping an AoE with a reticule, it jumps from the first target up to three if I remember correctly. Spammable made it feel a little overpowered.
Monk multi PvE
Maybe output numbers are not quite tweaked yet, but overall the damage felt underwhelming playing next to a Demon Hunter and Wizard as they blew up stuff. The combat flow was fluid - the Monk would enter and follow through several combo moves and a finisher all rolled up into one button depress. Satisfying to see words "dodge" pop up a lot.
- Circle of Wrath
Group heal that also dealt weak AoE dmg to nearby monsters. Felt useless at this level of difficulty.
- Hands of Lightning
Added lightning elemental dmg to attacks. Animation was complex. There was a short delay as the Monk charged up the attack before shocking the target with claws.
- Radiant Visage
The blind ability was very nice crowd control.
- learned: Way of the Hundred Fists
Felt weak, but was nice to finally get some AoE. Said it hits targets in front of the Monk, but was hard to gauge if it made contact with adjacent targets because of the short range and animation.
Barbarian multi PvE
Was a little confused because they started me out with a 1H sword + shield, but rest of the setup was all offense. No tanking skills were provided.
- Cleave
Hits adjacent targets; small number it felt. Often had to switch to normal attack to regain rage.
- Ground Stomp
AoE stun, which I modified with a rune that made the monsters move slower for 2sec after coming out of the stun.
- Revenge
Had some % chance to enable after being hit, but it must activated - it's not a passive retaliation. On use it caused the Barb to whirlwind once hitting all monsters near and returning some hp. Basically found myself diving into packs and spamming this. Runes would modify to grant more hp leech.
- learned: Frenzy
Each successful attack gave me a short attack speed buff. Stacked up to 2 at level 1. Gave me a little buff icon on the lower center-left of my screen, but was hard to notice amidst the action. Other visual cue is the swirls (just like in D2) around the character, but also hard to notice. The buff time felt very short as it kept falling off all the time, and I also wanted to use Cleave more. Later got a rune that allowed my other Barbarian skills to refresh the Revenge buff
Some extra UI stuff that I noticed: Control-click made items drop from inventory. Gem bonuses were summarized in the tooltip as, "Helm: +xyz" / "Weapon: +xyz" / "Other: +xyz". Seemed to have been reduced to only show for slots that you actually have empty sockets in.
PvP
Found PvP the most enjoyable to be honest. The rounds were intense, quick, and victory was very satisfying, especially coming back from a 1v2 which surprisingly happened more often than I thought possible. I ended up playing mostly as the Barbarian in 2v2. They provided full set of armor and a 2H axe, along with 7 skills:
- Ancient Spear
- Ground Stomp (rune modded to leave a slow on target when it comes out of stun)
- Leap Attack (rune modded to add %stun on hit)
- Sprint (rune modded to leave trailing whirlwinds that dealt 30% of wpn dmg)
- Ignore Pain (rune modded to give group dmg reduction)
- Rampage (rune modded for life leech)
- Whirlwind
I noticed when I moused over my rage orb, it said "adds knockback to attacks when at full rage". Not sure, maybe a trait was providing this.
Since the barbarian's attacks are rage based, starting the match with zero rage felt like a huge handicap. The only skill that I could open with was the basic melee attack and Ground Stomp. Combos were obvious after a few rounds, ie: leap -> stomp -> WW. The addition of "counters" in PvP made the matches play out very well. For example: the Witch Doctor had a Desecrate-like skill that would apply a huge snare, but popping Sprint would break me out of it; using Ignore Pain before Meteor landed; using Ancient Spear after Wizard burns teleport. Initially the Barbarian felt very vulnerable and especially frustrating against Wizards that just kited me around. But with a little caution and well timed gap-closers like Leap Attack, Ancient Spear, and Sprint it was surprising how quickly you could go in a finish someone off. I definitely think with the right set of skills, PvP will bring a totally different level of fun to the D3 player, and hopefully achieve that without leaving a gimped leveling experience.
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I must have played over 40 rounds of the Barbarian PvP and yes at first it does feel like you're getting tooled around by Wizards because of their ranged skills and mobility, but the Barb has so many gap-closers that it never felt like an impossible match. I think Blizz was very deliberate about showing that off since they gave the demo Barb: Chain Spear, Leap Attack, Sprint, and Ground Stomp. 4 of the 7 skills were all designed to keep your opponent from running from you, not to mention the effects of the runes aiding that situation too. Also everything has a cooldown, so teleport isn't spammable.