**OFFICIAL** Diablo 3 Thread

[PimpJuice]

That's why I just look for items with really cheap buyouts. I kind of like how it does "recommended items" based on your weak spots in your gear and makes suggestions, my shield was really crappy and it showed a bunch that were available so I scrolled over until I found one that was $300 and bought it. It was just as good as those that were 10-20x as expensive.

I decked my character out with all rare equipment. You can find good deals in the AH if you buyout.

 

[Josh123]

Started back at it with my wife last night. We finished up Act II then moved on to Act III. I had a blast in the first part of Act III. I finally found a bad ass 2 handed axe for my Barbarian and I was mowing through mobs. We ended up dying a couple of times but was a blast.

I've been running with:

Cleave/Whirlwind
Leap
Ground Stomp
Revenge

I love pulling packs of demons into me then using Whirlwind to slice through them with the occasional Revenge.

 

[lupi]

How do you check the game connection status. Was still a bit laggy last night, but not to the level of the previous days.

 

[HumblePie]

Finished Act II last night at level 26. So far it's been a breeze with my guy.

Just to point out, I was doing some cross compare with Kabob last night and was very surprised at how far he had gotten with his gear.

For my level 26 monk I have around 968 armor, and 2.3K health. I have 163 dps listed as well. I don't have everything yellow or even up to my level. I have yet to buy anything off the auction house. I basically plow through most everything I see without even being close to dying. Heck, during the end boss fight of Act II with

Spoiler

Belial

I had to go afk for about 2 minutes due to some GF agro. I came back still alive and in the middle of the fight at only half health. Setting up my templar to heal me helped I guess. That's how easy it has been with the monk.


For a side note, I've been watching people stream as well. One group has a bunch of level 59 and 60's doing hell runs, and trying to make their way through inferno difficulty. The only champ between a Barb, Monk, Wizard, and DH that almost never dies is the monk. The DH and Wizard are constantly 1 shotted by any gold or boss. Rare packs destroy the barb, and the monk just stands there tanking away with no problem. The monk only dies when there is 2 or more rare packs that jump on the group and he gets locked down by a jailer or wallmaking rare so he is unable to kite.

The monk doesn't have the DPS of the wizard or the DH though. He is about par with the Barb but MUCH more survivable. Pretty much everyone on the stream comments how much more OP the monk is late game compared to any of the other classes.

Massive CC, massive tankiness, and pretty damn decent DPS.

 

[bguile]

I dunno, Diablo 2 got the expansion what, a year and a half after the original?

I wouldn't get your hopes up. They still have to put in features that were supposed to ship with the game, and RMAH got pushed back again. Not to mention various improvements such as bug fixes and stabilizing online play.

Plus I have seen posts where they flat out say no new content aside from expansions. At best you might get a few new items.

Besides, wasn't Heart of the Swarm supposed to be released last year? Blizzard moves much slower these days.

 

[BD2003]

Finished Act II last night at level 26. So far it's been a breeze with my guy.

Just to point out, I was doing some cross compare with Kabob last night and was very surprised at how far he had gotten with his gear.

For my level 26 monk I have around 968 armor, and 2.3K health. I have 163 dps listed as well. I don't have everything yellow or even up to my level. I have yet to buy anything off the auction house. I basically plow through most everything I see without even being close to dying. Heck, during the end boss fight of Act II with

Spoiler

Belial

I had to go afk for about 2 minutes due to some GF agro. I came back still alive and in the middle of the fight at only half health. Setting up my templar to heal me helped I guess. That's how easy it has been with the monk.


For a side note, I've been watching people stream as well. One group has a bunch of level 59 and 60's doing hell runs, and trying to make their way through inferno difficulty. The only champ between a Barb, Monk, Wizard, and DH that almost never dies is the monk. The DH and Wizard are constantly 1 shotted by any gold or boss. Rare packs destroy the barb, and the monk just stands there tanking away with no problem. The monk only dies when there is 2 or more rare packs that jump on the group and he gets locked down by a jailer or wallmaking rare so he is unable to kite.

The monk doesn't have the DPS of the wizard or the DH though. He is about par with the Barb but MUCH more survivable. Pretty much everyone on the stream comments how much more OP the monk is late game compared to any of the other classes.

Massive CC, massive tankiness, and pretty damn decent DPS.

That's so getting nerfed. I can hear the cries already.

 

[HumblePie]

That's so getting nerfed. I can hear the cries already.

LOL, the monk has been massively nerfed since beta already

 

[isekii]

Finished Act II last night at level 26. So far it's been a breeze with my guy.

Just to point out, I was doing some cross compare with Kabob last night and was very surprised at how far he had gotten with his gear.

For my level 26 monk I have around 968 armor, and 2.3K health. I have 163 dps listed as well. I don't have everything yellow or even up to my level. I have yet to buy anything off the auction house. I basically plow through most everything I see without even being close to dying. Heck, during the end boss fight of Act II with

Spoiler

Belial

I had to go afk for about 2 minutes due to some GF agro. I came back still alive and in the middle of the fight at only half health. Setting up my templar to heal me helped I guess. That's how easy it has been with the monk.


For a side note, I've been watching people stream as well. One group has a bunch of level 59 and 60's doing hell runs, and trying to make their way through inferno difficulty. The only champ between a Barb, Monk, Wizard, and DH that almost never dies is the monk. The DH and Wizard are constantly 1 shotted by any gold or boss. Rare packs destroy the barb, and the monk just stands there tanking away with no problem. The monk only dies when there is 2 or more rare packs that jump on the group and he gets locked down by a jailer or wallmaking rare so he is unable to kite.

The monk doesn't have the DPS of the wizard or the DH though. He is about par with the Barb but MUCH more survivable. Pretty much everyone on the stream comments how much more OP the monk is late game compared to any of the other classes.

Massive CC, massive tankiness, and pretty damn decent DPS.

Monk survives that because he has the dodge + blind ability, not to mention quick heals. Wizard would be tough to solo even in NM. Especially if the mob has the quick moving skill.

 

[HumblePie]

Monk survives that because he has the dodge + blind ability, not to mention quick heals. Wizard would be tough to solo even in NM. Especially if the mob has the quick moving skill.

Pretty much, dodge + blind + heals + serenity = capable of surviving where all the other classes can't.

 

[Kabob]

I decked my character out with all rare equipment. You can find good deals in the AH if you buyout.

Which is what I was planning on doing if the AH was working for me...

Finished Act II last night at level 26. So far it's been a breeze with my guy.

Just to point out, I was doing some cross compare with Kabob last night and was very surprised at how far he had gotten with his gear.

Or maybe I'm just so awesome that gear is irrelevant with me? I'm a walking personification of the "Pro as Heck guide to Yi," but only for Diablo.

For my level 26 monk I have around 968 armor, and 2.3K health. I have 163 dps listed as well. I don't have everything yellow or even up to my level. I have yet to buy anything off the auction house. I basically plow through most everything I see without even being close to dying. Heck, during the end boss fight of Act II with

Spoiler

Belial

I had to go afk for about 2 minutes due to some GF agro. I came back still alive and in the middle of the fight at only half health. Setting up my templar to heal me helped I guess. That's how easy it has been with the monk.


For a side note, I've been watching people stream as well. One group has a bunch of level 59 and 60's doing hell runs, and trying to make their way through inferno difficulty. The only champ between a Barb, Monk, Wizard, and DH that almost never dies is the monk. The DH and Wizard are constantly 1 shotted by any gold or boss. Rare packs destroy the barb, and the monk just stands there tanking away with no problem. The monk only dies when there is 2 or more rare packs that jump on the group and he gets locked down by a jailer or wallmaking rare so he is unable to kite.

The monk doesn't have the DPS of the wizard or the DH though. He is about par with the Barb but MUCH more survivable. Pretty much everyone on the stream comments how much more OP the monk is late game compared to any of the other classes.

Massive CC, massive tankiness, and pretty damn decent DPS.

Granted when we compared stats I was still wearing a lot of gear I got midway through Act 1, but yeah, zero comparison. But it's just like LoL, you've got your tankier characters, your glass cannons, and your in between.

 

[Pantlegz]

How can you guys be already at Nightmare+?!!?!?
Do you work?
I've been playing like crazy when I can, ie level 25 now on normal and in Act II...and can't even fathom how you guys manage to already have finished the game!!!!!!!!

I work full time and I've spent a fair amount of time in the gym this week and I just finished act I on nightmare.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I work full time and I've spent a fair amount of time in the gym this week and I just finished act I on nightmare.

Jesus...my barb is barely into act2 NORMAL!

Hopefully I'll have some time Sunday to get into act3

 

[Madia]

Finished Act II last night at level 26. So far it's been a breeze with my guy.

I'm also playing through with a monk and have found it pretty easy so far. I haven't played any Diablo for about a decade so I'm more or less a noob. I thought the barbarian would be the noob class but I chose the monk instead because I thought he would be more fun to play as. I made the right choice because not only is he fun to play as he's also extremely durable. Right now I'm a little ways into Act III at level 27 and have died maybe 5 times total. I plan to finish the game solo and afterwards post my battletag and start going coop with a wizard.

Since using the auction house I don't think I've bought anything from a vendor. I'm not sure why blizzard just didn't integrate it into the game and sell you auction house items via the merchants. Based on your class/level/equipment/gold they could figure out the best items from the ah to reccomend and sell them for the buyout price via through the in game merchants. Maybe instead of a 15% fee the seller would have the option to pay 20% or 25% if they want to sell their item via in game vendors.

Also is there anyway to search the auction house for only the items you can afford? I hate having 20 pages of items with the bids starting at 50k+ when I only have 15k.

 

[Adrenaline]

How can you guys be already at Nightmare+?!!?!?
Do you work?
I've been playing like crazy when I can, ie level 25 now on normal and in Act II...and can't even fathom how you guys manage to already have finished the game!!!!!!!!

I am level 55 in Hell Act 2 on my Barbarian. I work 12 hour shifts and have a family. I was off T and W and then four hours of sleep each of the last two nights. I want to finish Hell.

My next character may be a Monk since they have a self heal and do good dps. All of my gems sold almost instantly on the AH also.

 

[Adrenaline]

I dunno, Diablo 2 got the expansion what, a year and a half after the original?

The Diablo 3 schedule is an expansion in 18 months and another 18 months after that.

 

[tHa ShIzNiT]

Also is there anyway to search the auction house for only the items you can afford? I hate having 20 pages of items with the bids starting at 50k+ when I only have 15k.

try putting a "Max Buyout" on your searches. I have found that narrows it down for me

 

[crownjules]

The Diablo 3 schedule is an expansion in 18 months and another 18 months after that.

I wonder what the expansions will entail. Throughout the course of D3,

Spoiler

banishing the last of the Lesser Evils back to Hell so they can't escape. The rest of them and the Prime Evils were banished in D2. Are they going to take the fight to Hell to try and kill them for good? Or do you think we'll get in on the Tyrael vs. the Angels conflict? Imperious seemed a little more sinister than you'd think an Angel would be. Sort of reminded me of Sauron from LOTR.

 

[Kabob]

I thought the barbarian would be the noob class but I chose the monk instead because I thought he would be more fun to play as.

Ya know, I never understood why the barb got the reputation as a noob class but he always did. Maybe because he had the most health, I dunno. I'm enjoying playing him in D3 but I've died quite a few times (mostly in Act 2 due to the poison more than anything), that may be more of a gear issue than anything though. I also think I need to ditch my Enchantress in favor of a Templar for some healing.

 

[chronochime]

lol..there IS nothing to "max out", i am running on a GTX 275 which is from before Christ and all settings are on high, except shadow quality.

Saying..unless you have a computer from 1950 it will likely run

HW requirements, IMO are pretty much on par with WoW, means that really any decent PC should be able to run it.

The game showed up(amazon) and tried playing it. Finished my first session last night and didn't realize until this morning that I had the card massively downclocked to like 1/3 of stock(cuz of the fan noise...) Meh.

Ran at stock speed with the damn gpu fan at 65%(man I hate that loud fan, still annoying at 9 feet away), capped fps at 60 like someone mentioned, and seemed to run okay.

I think I am okay with the way it's running right now. Guess I'll hold on a bit longer and wait for the msi 7850 power ed. to come out and maybe waste my money then.

Thanks to all who chimed in. Appreciate it.

 

[blurredvision]

The Diablo 3 schedule is an expansion in 18 months and another 18 months after that.

If I'm not mistaken, that's what they said about the Starcraft 2 trilogy, but we're getting very close to 2 years since the release of the terran story with really not much mention of anything on Heart of the Swarm. I attribute some of that to them not wanting to cannibalize attention from Diablo 3, but Blizzard has been incredibly slow in their development as of late.

 

[crownjules]

Haha I love the WoW quip by the enchantress in the desert.

"If you get thirsty I can always summon you water."

 

[Majes]

Finished Act II last night at level 26. So far it's been a breeze with my guy.

Just to point out, I was doing some cross compare with Kabob last night and was very surprised at how far he had gotten with his gear.

For my level 26 monk I have around 968 armor, and 2.3K health. I have 163 dps listed as well. I don't have everything yellow or even up to my level. I have yet to buy anything off the auction house. I basically plow through most everything I see without even being close to dying. Heck, during the end boss fight of Act II with

Spoiler

Belial

I had to go afk for about 2 minutes due to some GF agro. I came back still alive and in the middle of the fight at only half health. Setting up my templar to heal me helped I guess. That's how easy it has been with the monk.


For a side note, I've been watching people stream as well. One group has a bunch of level 59 and 60's doing hell runs, and trying to make their way through inferno difficulty. The only champ between a Barb, Monk, Wizard, and DH that almost never dies is the monk. The DH and Wizard are constantly 1 shotted by any gold or boss. Rare packs destroy the barb, and the monk just stands there tanking away with no problem. The monk only dies when there is 2 or more rare packs that jump on the group and he gets locked down by a jailer or wallmaking rare so he is unable to kite.

The monk doesn't have the DPS of the wizard or the DH though. He is about par with the Barb but MUCH more survivable. Pretty much everyone on the stream comments how much more OP the monk is late game compared to any of the other classes.

Massive CC, massive tankiness, and pretty damn decent DPS.

Humble, the reason you think monk is overpowered is that you are over leveled for act 2. I bet you plow through everything at level 26 with no difficulty. I agree with your point that monk has the best survivability options. Monks can stack more and better defensive spells than any other character. However, if you stack all defense you wont do DPS... It's a trade-off. Now to be honest, I have not played any of the other characters. But in nightmare I certainly don't feel like my character is overpowered and I tried many, many different builds last night.

 

[waggy]

waggy#1889


add me! just hi tlevel 24 barb. but restarted a monk but think will stick with the barb.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

So I, as with many D3 fans, have seen the response to the long anticipated release of D3 as being rife with scathing criticisms and commentary about how horrible Blizzard is for releasing a game with issues from capacity (authentication and game servers), to bugs (shield equip bug), to no single player offline mode, to downtime on release day. I think it's time we look at these criticisms and have a honest discussion about the release without all the foaming at the mouth by passionate fans upset about various things.

How about we start with the lack of a single player offline mode. Fans are upset about this, and I can understand why even if I disagree. Diablo and Diablo II both were single player games that had multiplayer options, so fans assumed that Diablo 3 would be the same. It's not. Blizzard has stated that this is a multiplayer game with a single player component. Period. If you don't like that, then don't buy the game. There are two primary reasons behind why they decided to flip the model to the opposite of D1/2. The first is that games are moving, and this has been happening for years, into a multiplayer realm by and large. The largest and most popular games are multiplayer ones. The second one, which I largely agree with, is to limit cheating. If they allow offline play, then it's a lot easier to exploit it which some of that can be moved into the online realm.

Now that we have covered the lack of offline single player mode, the logical next move is the authentication server requirement and it's issues. This shouldn't be anything new. WoW has had this from day one. Starcraft II has as well. Why is this such a shock? And if you have such a problem with it, why do you keep buying every title they release? Deal with it or don't buy it. This stuff is nothing new and I don't understand why people are outraged over it. If you don't have an internet connection, then either find a way to get one or play a different game. Bitching about it in the way that people have been is immature and makes them seem like they are 12 year olds who don't even remember playing Diablo 2 before LoD came out and pre-hacking days of it. Grow up, it's just a game.

This leads us to the issues on release day and the core part of what I wanted to talk about in this post. What Blizzard did right with release. They did a beta test that got a few million people to test things. The beta went fairly well from my experience, and I'm sure they worked on many changes on the server side of things from that experience. They have experience with WoW and SCII as well, and they understand the servers and what they need on the backend. They knew that release day would be chaotic and a mess, which is pretty common for them actually (WoW expansions regularly have issues release day) and shouldn't be a surprise to people. Could we criticize them for it? Sure, but in exchange for one or two days of issues we get games that are pretty solid and don't have outages often after that. I think that's a fair trade. Release day is pretty common for issues to arise. The one thing that I could say Blizzard could have done better, was not do a global release. They did it right at opening things at hours on a Tuesday that are less likely to be very saturated with users. If they had not done a global release, things might have gone smoother.

With things happening how they did, I think it was really well thought out move if they were set on a global release. Why you ask? Because they released it on Tuesday, in the early hours of the day. By the end of Wednesday they had many issues worked out, and they took down servers every 4-6 hours for maybe an hour. Yesterday I played for 6 hours straight without a single issue. That's basically day 3 after release, and it's in time for the weekend where they will likely have a much higher demand. So by releasing when they did, it allowed them to work out bugs prior to when the weekend hits where many people are going to want to play. The weekend should be smooth for their customers who have more time and want to be playing.

Can we also just remember that it's just a game, and frothing at the mouth with rage doesn't do anything outside of make you look immature. It's a small portion of people complaining and I'd bet within a month or two that will entirely be removed and forgotten about. Look at ME3, and the ending there. The next new game will come out and people will forget about D3 release day. I'd love to have a conversation about what they did right with this release and if you agree/disagree with my commentary why.

 

[Aikouka]

If I'm not mistaken, that's what they said about the Starcraft 2 trilogy, but we're getting very close to 2 years since the release of the terran story with really not much mention of anything on Heart of the Swarm. I attribute some of that to them not wanting to cannibalize attention from Diablo 3, but Blizzard has been incredibly slow in their development as of late.

Heart of the Swarm is due out this year. Blizzard has pretty much said this based on a fairly recent blog post about what they're going to implement into multiplayer. I believe they said something along the lines of "later this year before the release of Heart of the Swarm".

That's why I just look for items with really cheap buyouts. I kind of like how it does "recommended items" based on your weak spots in your gear and makes suggestions, my shield was really crappy and it showed a bunch that were available so I scrolled over until I found one that was $300 and bought it. It was just as good as those that were 10-20x as expensive.

Yeah, I don't normally spend a lot on items. I actually have quite a few bids out there right now that are between 300-1000g. I would have checked them this morning, but Comcast was being as fantastic as usual!

I've also liked a few items that I got, because they have mixed stats on them (str and dex). While that makes them sub-optimal for my Monk, it also makes them usable for a Barbarian. Since the gear is only leveling gear, it isn't really necessary to get a lasting piece (with proper stats).

I think I may try and find some faster weapons though. I haven't seen anything about how resource generators are normalized. At least on a Monk, you get some flat amount of spirit for each attack, but they normalize the damage for your weapon. When I was using Crippling Wave with a 2H weapon, it was rather painful to wait for the third attack to actually debuff the mobs. It simply took too long.