1. Yes but also debatable. For example the Wizard's Magic Missile (Lvl1) vs Blizzard spell (L26). Is Blizzard better? Sure but you can't spam it like you can with Magic Missile. And if you take the correct passives, MM will even generate AP for you so you can almost spam Blizzard. That's the fun part of the new Active/passive/Rune system.
2. Yes. Magic Missile at level 1 does NOT do 40-61 dmg like it does at level 60. And yes, you get tired of using Magic Missile and just found an awesome weapon that does crazy dmg, switch out your skills to Spectral Blade and now you're a melee wizard.
3. I've heard many different versions on this, but there is no Official word on this. Runes are swappable but not sure if once socketed, are they only for that specific skill. Meaning you can swap runes, but what happens to the rune that just got taken out is unclear.
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- emyln
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Member for 12 years, 7 months, and 24 days
Last active Tue, Aug, 21 2012 10:02:36
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LOL, Let's go to a parallel universe and say it is a surprise 6th class. How do you all think the community would react? I want to say positive cos how could an extra class be a negative? But then I'm always shocked by what people complain about.
To the OP, no clue, what the extra revel will be but, it would be awesome if they finally updated the items list and we could see the actual stats for Legendary items.
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The higher level you are the more you have to lose in HC, if you happen to find a legendary item in HC at max level, should you wear it or keep it for safe keeping in your stash? Remember you will lose ALL items worn if you die. So there's that element of danger and fear, and yes part of it is about ego.
I don't do HC cos I can't imagine not dying in a Diablo game. In D2 as a sorceress, the first time you meet Duriel? I would want to grind till I'm level 20-30 in HC just to be sure I won't die there. I also don't deal well with loss. Others see the graveyard of their fallen heroes with pride, all I can see my hours wasted with nothing to show for it.
I'll definately do HC in D3, but not on my first or even 2nd run through and I have no illusions about hitting level 60 on a HC character.
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OK, I did think her voice was ... too perky as well. But remember this is someone who turned rouge and despite being one of the brightest stars in a Magocracy, turn her back on it (possibly cos it's run by old men with long beards) and forged her own destiny. Killing demons and going after Diablo! Only a teenager would be that daring and foolhardy especially when all you're wearing is shoulder pads and a bikini.
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Also I caution strongly against using a video taken over a year ago. So much dealing with skill design and balance has been changed in the past 4 months alone.
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Its the same argument can be made for Hardcore in Diablo 3. There are gamers who absolutely LOVE hardcore (HC). They relish achieving level 60 and making a mistake a its all gone. But for every dedicated HC player, there are 50 more who are just fine with SoftCore (SC) mode.
But back to your OP, I don't see a need for Ladder resets, or even to think about them until we see how the Diablo 3 economy plays out in Inferno. As I said before, Duping was the problem in D2. It is why everytime you read a build in D2 they would list specific gear needed for those builds (eg. Windforce or Harlequin Crest). In a randomized game like Diablo 2 or 3, there should be no way of guaranteeing such drops.
If someone is crazy enough to want to buy those items on the RMAH, more power to him. I wish I could drop $1000 a month into Blizz-bucks and start buying up gear. But there's not even a lobby where people congregate to show off stuff. The only time you'll see other player's equipment is if you join in a game with them. Ah that point, who cares. Even if he is a crappy player, those uber items should up his character to at least an average player.
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I think you're lamenting a certain kind of gameplay. But be careful, because this is dangerously close to taking the Elitist viewpoint. And if you want really hardcore old school, let's also go back to Ultima Online. Same XP loss, but in UO, people could loot all your equipment before you got back to it, which also let to groups waiting outside safezones and ganking you before you took 2 steps forward then looting your corpse.
Bottomline it was not fun. The only people who found it fun were the bullies. You call it carebear changes, I call it cutting out the really unfun aspects of gameplay. However, that's very subjective. Eg. I lament about how leveling in WoW from 1-60 used to mean something, it was an achievement of perseverance and took a normal person 1-2 months. Now it can be done in 1 week.
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There you go again Mysticjbyrd, constantly pushing your opinions on people.
No one mentioned a specific rune, and I personally was aiming for the Seeker Rune. But to your point, I would rather use Magic Missile Split than to use Shock Pulse or Explosive Bolts. I just don't like the spell in general. That is a preference.
I know in your minuscule closed off mind you cannot seem to comprehend this but ah well, I don't have to convince you. I'm paying for my copy of Diablo 3 and I'm playing it with any skill I want to. Again, preference and choice.
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** BOGGLE** These are the 2 most important spells I can think of for my wizard build. Magic Missile is a preference but Slow time is almost a must on every build I create. It just blows my mind how you don't like it.
Bottomline, it is all about preference. And someone out there will use the spells you don't like. Additionally about Hydra, I do agree that it seems lackluster especially with only have one out at a time, but I so so so so badly want the Hydra which drops a wall of fire. Weather I stick with it is another story.
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- You do realize that D2 was chugging along for about 3+ years before the concept of Ladders came into play correct? The first ladder reset was Oct 2003. Diablo 2 was released June 2000. Part of the main reason was because the Blizzard that developed Diablo 2 and LOD were no longer intact. Its the whole Blizzard North and Blizzard East thing. Bottonline, no true detailed code changes could be done because the original team was no more. So the problem of item duping and balancing and future support of D2 was all done via home grown solutions. Moreover this was by then at least a 3-4 year old game, in game years it was ancient.
- It has been over 12 years since then. Blizzard now has a lot more manpower and expertise and $$$$ to prevent things like item duping. Not to mention every account is tied to a Blizzard account which makes banning very much easier. And the added RMAH is even more incentive to put contingencies in place, non of which will be shared with us until it needs to be.
- Blizzard is well aware of all the issues with Diablo 2. If you don't think they have spent a huge bunch of money researching this and preventing duping and such issues from occuring, I think you're very deluded.
- Will there still be botting or duping etc etc etc. Very likely, you can't ever prevent it 100% but the minute it becomes "popular", it will be banned. And as I said, the company knows with RMAH they have to have contingencies in place for any number of situations or face lawsuits.
2. RMAH.
- Please don't hate the RMAH. You might not like it but many many of us do want it in the game. And many of us see it as a good way for Blizzard to protect its users from fraud.
- Your main concern here is that in 1 year, uber item #1 which drops only once for every million games will now have dropped 100,000 times so in theory 100,000 such items exist. its a GLUT!
- First oof let's have the game go live first. This is an economy problem which might/might not be an issue and we will need to see what happens. And you can and will need to break items down for components, this is a very new game system.
3- Lack of new content.
- Please reference the URL that you read this from. Otherwise this is rumor only. I think I follow D3 pretty closely and don't recall Blizzard ever saying there would be no new content.
- Also let's be clear on new content. If you want new areas, new mobs, new levels, you're most probably not going to get it. This is not a monthly payment game, nor does it have a cash shop. This is an online only solo/co-op game. Pay for it once and play for a long time to come. Expect to get what you pay for.
But chances of more gems being added, of more items or more item affixes, of the Mystic being re-added, those are fully possible. Also a lot of us are sure there will be at least 2 expansions. The only thing preventing this is if the game does not sell well (which I doubt will happen). After that... we'll see.
Your Concerns:
1 The whole reason you could get a full Hammerdin in the best equipment off ebay was becuase almost all those items were dupped. In reality, these items are very hard to find. I myslef have played D2 many many times over the years and only ever found 2 Stones of Jordans. So people who used it as the currency of trading were mostly all using dups. Which we have already said should not happen or will be very much harder in D3.
2 No racing, no "be the best" experiences. Uhhhh.. sorry I never did this and so cannot comment also does not sound like my method of play. Additionally, in D2 items could only be sold for gold. In D3 you can and need to break them down for higher level crafting components. Yes this includes breaking down Legendaries for higher level crafting items. How it will all work out? Only time will tell so please have a little faith.
3 You would not sell any and everything just for the heck of it, although each account will have X number of free transactions a week so only farmers (chinese or otherwise) would run into problems with this limit. You would rather buy a better item or break down your current item for components rather than pay the listing fee. This is a good thing. This means only the really valuable items or components will be on sale on the AH. The economy will work itself out and decide.
And not to sound like a broken record but people constantly talk about the perfect gear required for certain builds. Those items did NOT drop very often. Again many people who got those items and consistently reached level 90+ were all using bots. Which should now be more difficult.
Bots. With a Blizzard account being required, you now need a separate account for each game. In D2 you could use 1 game code, create 100's of users names and create 100's of games all with 1 game code. No Longer. So those farmers will need to purchase 100's of legitimate D3 games and create legitimate bliizard accounts to do this. Which is no different than if 100's of persons buying a copy of D3 and playing hours on end.
I don't see an issue with the longevity and replayability of Diablo3 for myself and a great portion of the gaming population. But if you are expecting a game to last another 10 years based on your $60 investment... that might be pushing it a bit. Diablo 2 (and WOW) are perhaps the only games that I can think of that I played over and over again through the years. But then I'm always after the new shiny.
I'm not totally dismissing your concerns. It might be that a ladder reset might be needed in the future, but until we find such a need, I think this is very very pre-mature. Also I think there are better ways to fix the issues than with a ladder reset which was in itself a stop gap solution.
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You have to complete normal difficulty in order to unlock HC mode. So there's no way to do HC on your first play through.
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There's nothing wrong with SB, but in the build that Eel had, that was the only attack spell out of the 6 slots. I'm just saying I'm not sure if that one attaack spell will be enough for every situation.
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I recommend this one. Keeping Meteor instead of Disintegrate cos this way you can keep hitting while still doing dmg to those around you.
Time Warp and Mocking Demise runes because they will help you deal more damage since your build is mainly to try and have them up as much as possible. Prismatic Armor cos I think all melee wizards need some kind of armor and this one seems to rock.
And I know the thought was to slow every thing you hit with Blades, but having 3 skills with cooldowns really benefits from Evocation.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WkgQPO!abd!YbZZbc
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But all that may change drastically when we get into the higher difficulty levels. But if its an option I will probably always forgo shields and armor spells.
Back to your point, I agree. Energy Armor with the Prismatic Armor rune seems very powerful compared to the other 2. Not sure about the too powerful part. I'd have to see at higher levels how much less armor a wizard would have compared to a Barb or Monk.
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It makes no difference if you're the first person to reach lvl 60 or the 765,111 person to reach lvl 60. Its a game and the fun is in the journey to level 60 and completing Hell and eventually Inferno.
Anyone spending money on the real money AH in the first month is going to get fleeced, until the economy evens out.
Additionally, unless you're playing on the EXACT SAME map for all your characters, the timings mean absolutely nothing. Gear is random and better equipped alts will be faster or you could have a very lucky drop that increases your DPS. The dungeons are randomlized, I've had games where I found the exit to the next level almost immediately and ones where I had to back track cos I overlooked a path where the exit was. This increases game time considerably!
I played the Monk and Wizard last night, my timings were Monk 1:34, Wizard 1:26. What does that prove? Absolutely nothing.
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Are you always equipping the highest DPS weapon you can find even if it's a sword or club? DPS is calculated by the weapon you wield.