DiabloFans

The original poster outlined a detailed and thoughtful argument that I totally agree with. It may seem like players who are actually looking forward to these changes are in the minority when you read some of these boards, but I think we'll see that when the game launches, we are in the majority. I, for one, am super-excited about the fact that I can have a legitimate shot at getting each class to the level cap; this was a near-impossibility for almost anyone playing D2. Imagine how many times you had to tinker with a build before you knew that you could take it past level 50 or so and not run into terrible problems with stat/skill point allocation down the road. Now, not only has that problem been solved, but it's been solved in a way that we will have access to all the skills and be able to test out various play styles and synergies at will. This, to me, seems like more time spent in the game having fun, and less time doing the "work" it used to take to theorize, build, test, tear down, and repeat the process of creating a character.

In conclusion, more fun for more people = better.

I would never play D3 on a console, but I would never play a first-person shooter on a console either, and those are crazy successful console games. Growing up at a time where PC gaming was the pinnacle, I grew very attached to the keyboard/mouse way of playing. With all the time I put into D2 and games like Quake, I can't imagine playing similar games on a console. I'm sure there will be a lot of people who will have no problem with it, though, and modern controllers certainly have enough buttons/config options to make it viable. I'd say the lion's share of sales will still be on PC, though.

I think, to a certain degree, your question is your answer. You say that you loved twinking out new characters so that you could mess with crazy builds at low levels in great gear, but now you won't ever have to do that because you're not "forced" to reroll characters. I hate to say this, but you were never forced to reroll! Maybe you learned more about the game and realized that you put your stat points in the wrong categories/ratios. Maybe you wanted to spend skill points more wisely. Whatever the case was, rerolling was your choice, and if your favorite part of rerolling was so that you could try out those low-level uniques, what's to stop you from doing just that in D3? Sure, you don't "have" to reroll that Barb just to use all that cool low-level stuff you found, but wouldn't that be a fun reason for doing so in and of itself?

Also, don't forget about the RMAH and trading. Sure, maybe YOU can't use that low-level unique, but that doesn't mean someone else doesn't want to trade you something awesome for it. It also doesn't mean that someone else might not want to spend good money on it twinking out THEIR new character.

I think the idea of an Act 0 is cool, but I'd rather play as a major lore character and get a glimpse of what happened between D2 and D3. Playing as Tyrael and or just getting to go along with him to do whatever he does after the Worldstone cinematic at the end of D2 would be pretty sweet.

I think this is an awesome question, but the problems you're talking about only exist if they decide to raise the level cap. Obviously, a lot of us think they'll probably do so, but we're thinking that based on the WoW model, not the D2 model. They COULD just leave the cap at 60 and increase the amount of experience needed get from one level to another; this would allow new characters to go through expansion zones while still leveling at the same pace as they would have before the expansion. It would also allow Inferno to stay just as it is. Again, I don't know if I personally believe they'll actually do it this way, but I think it's an overlooked solution as long as a level-cap increase is assumed.

While I'm sure (and this thread is evidence) that a large portion of the community would be willing to pay for beta access, it's kind of a moot point because it's just not going to happen. Blizzard has even stated that the beta test is the size it is for a certain reason, and we are seeing all these fansites getting more keys so that Blizzard can *slowly* ramp up the size of the test. If they were to sell keys, it'd be pandemonium, and the tiny beta servers would probably explode. Bottom line is, while most of us would give money/blood/first born/etc. for a key, it's never gonna work that way.

Just read your thread over the the official forums, and I have to say that while I personally probably won't be using basic/normal attack on my wizard, I still think it should be there. Diablo's always been about freedom of play style and ingenuity/creativity of character builds. Taking away one of the most basic building blocks of the game (the melee attack for all classes) flies in the face of this. It's a slippery slope from here to a change such as "Barbarians can't use a bow," etc., and I think a lot of the fun and memorable moments from D2 came from just that sort of creativity. Bravo for standing up for this issue, Darkmikolai!

Anyone remember the N64 game "Perfect Dark"? It had a PvP mode that allowed live players to "take control" of the mobs in a level one at a time to stop the protagonist live player from reaching the end. I think something of this nature would be pretty sweet in Diablo (although admittedly, didn't work too well in an FPS), and I could see that being the idea behind the Dungeon Crawls. The only other thing I can think of for a PvP Dungeon Crawl would be a simple race to the end between two players or teams of players, and while technically you'd be playing "versus" another person/persons, that doesn't seem like PvP in the Blizzard sense of the term to me.

I don't have a specific date, but my guess for a month if June. Seems like a lot of WoW players wnat to believe that MoP is coming out early summer (definitely not, haha), so I'm thinking that they'll release D3 then to make people happy. Also, beta patch 13 looks like it's putting the *almost* finishing touches on some systems, so if you take into account some more tweaking and time to press/package/ship DVDs, you're looking at early summer.

These changes look amazing. I think it'll really help casual and/or new players to get a better handle on the large mix of skills and runes, while elective mode will allow long-time Diablo enthusiasts to play just the way they want to. Fantastic reworking, if you ask me!

I remember Mephy/Diablo/Baal runs being pretty fun at first... but then I did them hundreds of times, and it got to the point where that's ALL a lot of players did. I'm excited that we're going to have more of an exploration aspect in D3. I think something a lot of people are ignoring is that there will probably be more Champion/Rare monsters in a given zone than bosses, so if they drop better loot, that just means there's more great loot out there than ever before. Sweet!

I'll definitely start with a Wizard and a Witch Doctor. Sorc was my favorite class from D2, and my main in WoW is a Mage, so I'm going to keep the fire burning (literally) with the Wizard. The Witch Doctor just looks too cool to pass up though, so I'm gonna try leveling both concurrently until I cap them or my brain explodes.

I'm passing the time by stalking message boards like this one and eagerly lapping up any and all tiny bits of info on the game that I can get. Also, working on the Salty title in WoW.