DiabloFans

Is there anything better than Diablo'ng it up with your daughter on the couch? I vote local co-op for father/daughter bonding.

Preferably 360 since I have 3 controllers for it and only one for my PS3.

I hate to be the cynical jerk, but I can't help but think the OP is a plant. 1st post on the site? Check. Overtly positive marketing speak? (Bonus points for a bullet point presentation) Check.

Granted the popular opinion on the console version is positive right now, I just can't help shake my initial impression while reading the OP. I wanted to check out the console version myself so I went through quite an adventure to rent the 360 version from Redbox (sadly no PS3 version as I would have preferred). I only spent a little bit of time with the game, but suffice to say my experience wasn't overly positive.

First of all, the dodge mechanic felt worthless to me because once an enemy's swing animation starts and you're in range, you've already been hit with only your passive dodge % to save you. This was causing me lots of frustration last night since I started off playing at Hard and died a LOT because of the "uselessness" of the dodge roll. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it, but I thought it would work more like a dodge would in an action game.

Also Hard definitely doesn't feel like MP4. Feels much harder than playing a naked (or white equipment only) MP10 run where I would routinely not start experiencing close calls until late in the Cathedral. It also did not appear that playing on hard was yielding more XP (then again, this may have been offset by my much, much slower killing speed).

So take my anecdote with a grain of salt. My impressions are from a very limited play experience and I intend on giving the console version a much longer and fairer shake, but for the moment I am still securely on the "PC purist" side for *my own enjoyment* of the game. I'm extremely happy that the console version is now here and will expand the potential audience of the game. More people playing Diablo III on any platform is a good thing.

Recently we - of the Shattered Soulstone podcast - had the pleasure of interviewing the wizard extraordinaire Jaetch. It was a fantastic interview that lasted over an hour and if you would like to know more about Jaetch, I would direct you to check out the interview at: http://www.shatteredsoulstone.com/2013/06/interview-with-jaetch/

I'm still of the opinion that Maghda only facilitated the death of Cain by putting Leah in a situation where her powers would be responsible for his death. That being said she's my favorite because, simply, ALWAYS MAGHDA. (Sorry, inside joke from the Shattered Soulstone podcast) ^^

Erp. Forgot to include my opinion on my least favorite which would be Ghom. Stomach mouths keep me out.

I've been enjoying these State of the Game commentaries. I've been meaning to comment on each one individually, but alas time is not always my friend. I did, however, mention this on-going series (hopefully there will still be much more to come?) on episode 30 of the Shattered Soulstone podcast (which should be available soon^tm) and included links to them in the show-notes on the blog. Thanks for the critical insight and constructive criticism. Hopefully someone at Blizzard has been listening to them and taken some of your points to heart.

Quote from Silvach

You call mindless spamming buttons fun?

I had CM wizzard, playing him was so mortifying i had to reroll. How could i call myself a player or gamer when all i did was spamming few buttons? I could give my keyboard to monkey and he would do same job as anyone.

Good they are nerfing it to the ground. Hope you will find some other ways to play than this highly broken CM build

Just because you don't find it fun doesn't mean others don't enjoy it. My friends quite enjoy the "broken-ness" of the CM-style wizard, it's fun to lock stuff down.

Proc coefficients nerf more than just CM though; it nerfs LoH and APoC as well.

Meteor

• Skill Rune - Star Pact
• Proc coefficient reduced from 0.1 to 0.05
• Skill Rune - Meteor Shower
• Proc coefficient reduced from 0.25 to 0.10625
• Skill Rune - Liquefy
• Proc coefficient reduced from 0.125 to 0.1062

Spectral Blade

• Proc coefficient reduced from 0.222 to 0.14
• Skill Rune - Thrown Blades
• Proc coefficient reduced from 0.111 to 0.08

Sigh. More coefficient nerfs.

I know this has been brought up before, but perhaps the compromise of swapping one skill drops one stack is the best course of action to allow for some flexibility with a moderate cost involved.

Don't forget that Ice Armor will be receiving a flat melee damage reduction as well. Means I *might* be able to bring back Ice Armor/Sleet Storm for my melee wizard.

As far as the continuation of nerfs to Inferno, I think it's a great idea. For those of us who are "have nots" Inferno is still a brick wall. Sure, I get it that it was supposed to be unfair, but when it's unfair on top of an already excruciatingly random loot system motivation to keep on keeping on starts to dwindle. Which means less people playing, less people using the AH, less of an audience of potential buyers to buy the stuff you throw up on the AH. How does opening up the game to more people hurt those that "have"?

Maybe you'd argue that it'll make the game even more boring. As if grinding 100 levels of paragon xp was terribly exciting. Nerfing Inferno just makes it you more efficient, less down-time, more loot (albeit mostly bad loot).

Orrrr you make use of the "players X" feature yet to be detailed to up the challenge/reward system to make the game exciting again for you.

Where's the problem? I don't see it.

Edit: Erp, went somewhat off on a tangent about the Inferno nerf QQ ... sorry ^^;

Drop the red text on the blog and it'll instantly become a lot more readable. Just a criticism from a graphic designer; red text is not friendly on the eyes.

This is no way an exploit but it does carry a huge YMMV with it. It could all just be a happy coincidence, or it could be certain game server IPs do actually generate "better loot tables." I have a friend that swears he's seen more legendary drops based on the criteria, but I haven't had the same luck. Either way this may or may not prompt Blizzard to alter the item generation on game creation ... or impose a stricter game creation limit.

Quote from luizdeh

Quote from Tinyhell

Waller mobs now no longer make a big U shaped wall that makes you run straight at the mob. There is now always a side exit to the wall.

That sucks. It was exciting getting trapped, just you and the mobs and all the while you're thinking 'holy shit don't drop a sentry' or 'so many freaking pools let me gtfo'

That and the radius of frozen/mortar/molten... the easyfication has gone too far!

I can confirm that wallers are still very apt at creating culdesac (u-shaped) walls. Ran into a ton of waller/arcane/plagued/frozen mobs tonight. Made for some hilarious deaths.

I've been a melee wizard since the middle of Act II Nightmare and have absolutely fallen in love with the playstyle. It has it's downfalls and weak points but is an absolute blast to play. I've cleared Act I Inferno but there have been plenty of champion packs that have made me question whether or not going melee is worth it. I temporarily switched out to a more "kiting" style build but didn't enjoy it so back to melee I went.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WZYXfS!fga!aYZacZ

That is my current build and the one I'm most comfortable with. I've tried using energy armor (prismatic, force, and pinpoint barrier) but went back to ice armor with frozen storm for the AoE slowing and damage allowing me to reposition and "mini-kite" if needed. I believe the frozen storm AoE is capable of critical hits which synergizes nicely with critical mass.

I need much better gear to progress in Act II but I'm determined to stick with this build. Have fairly decent up-time on frost nova and diamond skin which makes life a lot easier, more so when playing with a group. Being able to lock the mobs down with frost nova is absolutely amazing while the glass cannons in your group finish them off.

Solo is still exceptionally painful, but mostly doable as long as I don't get awful affix combinations but Inferno is a LOT more fun with friends, more so when you're on mumble/vent/whathaveyou. If you're interested in keeping tabs on my melee wiz build you're welcome to listen to the Diablo community podcast I do, Shattered Soulstone.

Cheers!

Erp, forgot to introduce who I am as a Diablo fanatic. I don't think I bought Diablo I at launch 15 years ago, but shortly thereafter upon hearing the great praise for the game. I was familiar with Blizzard as I played Warcraft I & II but it was Diablo that forever captured my soul and turned me into a life-long fan of Blizzard.

Sadly most of my memories of Diablo I have long been forgotten if only because Diablo II devoured my entire being. I mean, was there really a game before Diablo II? I do remember "hacking" Diablo I to grief people in town. Yes, I was one of those jerks but I've matured since then ... mostly. ^^;

At first I played a paladin in D2 given how into King Arthur I was but eventually I saw the light and switched to my true calling, the sorceress. I wasn't a huge fan of the frost orb sorc, but I did have one. I had a glacial spike sorc prior to the piercing bow bug was fixed which forced my hand into my absolute all-time favorite build, the charged boltress

Come D3 I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'll be creating a sorceress (sorry, not a fan of the name wizard ... blame Harry Potter I guess?) and will happily play with the lightning spells. May not be the absolute best build, but it'll be a ton of fun to me. I also plan on PvP'ng as time allows, but we'll see how things shake out.

Anyhoo, that's a brief look into my Diablo lineage. Enjoy!

Greetings Fellow Loot Deviants!

I'm not sure why I didn't think to introduce myself and the Diablo podcast I do, but here I am. Better late than never, right?

Anyhoo ...

I am the host of the Shattered Soulstone podcast which is apart of the Dawnforge Productions network of shows. Every two weeks'sh (for the time being) I am joined by Breja (@brejapriest) and Jen (@queenofhaiku) to discuss news and lore from a more casual perspective but the real focus of our podcast is you!

Wait, no, not you ... but you over there. Yes you, the one next to that guy over there.

We are a community driven podcast where the focus of our shows is to read listener emails and occasionally bring a listener on to interview them. Have a Diablo blog? We'll pimp it. Have an interesting story? We'll read it. Have a question? We'll try to answer it to the best of our ability.

What we are not is a "hardcore" podcast. If you want in-depth technical analysis and/or 100% accurate information there are other podcasts out there that do it better (Diablo Podcast by Flux and The Worldstone Keep come to mind) so why be another "me-too" podcast?

What the Shattered Soulstone is meant to be is a fun and friendly place to share stories and talk about our shared love of loot ... er, I mean the Diablo franchise. Our inspiration came from the venerable community-driven World of Warcraft podcast Ctrl Alt Wow.

WoW is not a "bad word" on our podcast as we are all fans of Blizzard games right? So if you have a seething hatred of WoW, then maybe our podcast isn't for you since Breja, Jen and I are all fans of WoW so it is brought up from time to time.

It's not over-the-top, but we do tangent into talking about other spheres of influence upon us since we are gamers and play many different kinds of games so don't be surprised if we go off-topic.

Anyhoo, I feel like I've been typing forever, so I'll try to wrap this up.

We've recorded six episodes so far which can be found on iTunes, Stitcher radio or directly from our show blog. We'd love to hear from you about your favorite Diablo stories, or why you're a loot deviant, or what you're looking forward to in Diablo 3, or ... well, you get the idea.

Give us a listen, I promise we don't bite ... unless you're a barbarian. I kid, I kid.

Nevik (@nevikjames)