Diablo III --Impressions start on page 36 --

[Soulchilde]

i've been playing all week with 7 64bit w/o issues.

playing now in fact.

have you tried compatibility mode?

Game ran fine until the latest update.  I'm tired of trying to get it to work.  It's beta so no big deal

[Blackjack]

Saw this mentioned on Blue's...

Diablo III Fansite Q&A
*Technically, Incgamers pasted it in from Blizzard's site, but might as well show some fan site love.

Q. Are you guys happy with where the Witch Doctor is as of patch 15? We noticed as of the last few patches, particularly 14 to 15 the WD has received an enormous amount of tuning compared to the other classes and currently feels a little overpowered at early levels.

Balance is always ongoing. It’s possible the build for patch 15 caught us at a point where we had made a lot of witch doctor changes and not changes to other classes? We generate beta patches to test ongoing updates, and don’t wait to make sure each class has had equal attention. We’re very happy with class balance on our internal builds.

Q. Since DiabloWikiArena is temporary out of picture. Is there any other way to take participate in PvP after D3 launch? Do you plan to implement world pvp mode like D2?

No. There are many reasons why we’re focusing PvP into the arenas and not bringing back hostility. PvP Arenas will only be a few months after release, and in that time people will be trying out classes and perfecting their gear and builds. When they do arrive they’ll be an awesome addition to the game, and players will be ready to face off in some awesome PvP action in a designed and crafted experience.

I definitely found the witch doctor the most frustrating class to play as when I was playing in the test, so I'm glad it's getting some attention.

[leo8877]

WD is what I played. Loved it. Will be my first class in retail.

[Blackjack]

I'm not certain how new this all is, but the official site noted this Demo Hunter page as newly updated:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/
*At the least, there's a snazzy new class video.

During my time in public beta, it's the class I felt most comfortable with. I had a blast with the Barbarian and Monk in their own way. I struggled quite a bit with the Witch Doctor and Wizard. But for my play style, the DH was what I felt most at ease playing.

I never quite got the hang of using the ability to leap out of the way, it seemed to just get me in trouble. And one of the more machine gun like attacks, I seem to recall constantly running out of the hate or discipline needed to use it. And Chakram (the multiple spinning discs) was so much fun to use, I'd forget to use other things. 

[Blackjack]

I haven't been paying attention to D3 forums at all in months. Some recent stuff that may interest folks.

Inferno Difficulty will ramp up and not be "flat"

This is may be a good a time as any to REVEAL TEH SEKRITS! that Inferno monster levels aren't linear any longer. They get progressively more difficult. This was really a reaction to Inferno playtesting. Our original intent was to have a flat difficulty level where you could go wherever you want, farm for items, and it'd be no more or less difficult than any other area in Inferno. This caused a few inherent issues for us, though:

It just felt wrong. It didn't feel right to be progressing through the game and have it stay pretty much the same difficulty the whole time. It felt like a letdown to get to the final boss of the game and it be no more difficult than the first.There’s a wide variety of players out there and we wanted to make sure everybody had something to sink their teeth into. We expect that anybody with enough time and dedication will reach level 60.  But the jump in difficulty to Inferno needed to be different amounts for different people.

For the crazy people they need a HUGE ramp in difficulty, for a more “casual but still hardcore” audience you want an obvious but milder increase in difficulty.  So for the crazy people who play non-stop they’ll hit Act I and get a challenge, but 1 month later they’ll still have something to work on (Acts II, III and IV).  For the “hardcore-casual” they will reach level 60 later and not get brick walled when they reach Inferno.  They can experience some “small victories” working on Act I with the dream of maybe someday reaching the later acts.Longevity.  We know people really want goals to work towards and challenges to overcome.  We made Act III and Act IV really, really brutally hard, for the most elite players only.  It felt wrong to make ALL of Inferno that brutally hard.

Now, you may be saying “I thought you wanted us to be able to farm anywhere we wanted.  Now we only have half as much area in the game to farm in? What gives?” Our goal is to make the loot mathematically better in the later acts without making the earlier gear completely obsolete. We feel Diablo II actually did a very good job with this and we expect Diablo III to perform similarly.

Specifically, people in D2 did Diablo runs, Mephisto runs, Pindleskin runs, Pit runs, Baal runs, etc. because the loot in Diablo is extremely random. Even though the theoretical best items might come from the later Acts, well-rolled items from earlier acts will still be better. Internally we find sometimes after an intense session of brutally hard Inferno it can be really fun to cruise through Hell Act III or IV and it’s not too uncommon surprise when an upgrade drops. We expect this to carry through to Inferno difficulty where somebody who can theoretically farm Act IV will likely still enjoy romping through Act I simply because the drop potential is still there. It’s all because of the highly random items having lots of overlap in their power distribution curves.

And a little more here:
Who Likes The New Progressive Inferno?
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4254464832?page=12#227

His earlier post goes into the difficulty a bit more:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4254459132?page=24#467
*If sounds like the higher difficulty levels will really kick players' butts.

I just don't know if I'll be as inclined to play through all the difficulty levels now as I was in 2000 or 1996-1997. I'm not sure I revel in masochistic difficulties/gameplay experiences quite as much as I used to be. I look forward to us all finding out together.

[Blackjack]

Oh, this is kinda cool -- at the D3 launch site, you can create your own Sigil banner, and it'll be available to you in-game as an option (although there's an option to insert your own photo as a backdrop, it's not required):

http://reveal.diablo3.com/en_US/mark_of_valor/#!/overview
===================

I hadn't read Jay Wilson's update back in March very closely. He did mention:

The most immediately exciting part of that system is that skill runes begin unlocking at level 6, which means that players in the beta test will finally be able to play around with some rune variants.

[Blackjack]

I haven't logged into beta in months so I quickly got a Demon Hunter to 6 to check out the revamped rune system (no skill-based, not item based):


Skill assignment system was revamped (a "free form" Elective option is available under Options/Gameplay for those who want full flexibility), and it's a lot easier to figure out what you should be assigning to which keys.


Here's the "Elective" checkbox if you preferred how it was earlier in beta.


Primary Skills' rune system (I got to at least try Puncturing Arrow, which did have a noticeably different arrow-flying animation)


Secondary Skills' rune system


Defensive Skills' rune system

[Blackjack]

The Launch Site added a Barbarian video trailer:
http://reveal.diablo3.com/en_US/class_gathering/barbarian
*Look like they're adding one about each week leading up to the launch.

[Vidiot]

Still wondering if I will ever get in the beta.

[jersoc]

Still wondering if I will ever get in the beta.

they sent out 250k today, if you didn't get in stop holding your breath. i'd be shocked if this wasn't the last wave and it's pretty much a hype builder wave.

[Blackjack]

Beta was updated April 9 I think, and wiped all the characters again:

Diablo III Patch Notes
Diablo III Beta Patch 16 – v.0.10.0.9183
 
General
-All characters have been wiped. Please note that this wipe will also affect gold, items, auctions, achievements, followers, and artisans.
-A new feature has been added that allows players to view their FPS while in game
To access this feature, hit Ctrl+R (for PC) or CMD+R (for Mac) while playing
-The cooldown on swapping skills while in Normal difficulty has been decreased from 15 seconds to 5 seconds
 
Classes
Barbarian
Active Skills
Bash
"Clobber" rune now has a 35% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds
Revenge
Heal decreased from 6% to 5%

Demon Hunter
Active Skills
Caltrops
Discipline cost decreased from 8 to 6
Smoke Screen
Discipline cost decreased from 18 to 14
Duration decreased from 3 seconds to 2 seconds
Now provides a 10% movement speed boost while invisible
Can now be used while under the effects of crowd control abilities:
Using Smoke Screen will break the effects of crowd control, as well as cause your character to be immune to additional crowd control abilities for its duration
Vault
Discipline cost decreased from 10 to 8

Witch Doctor
Active Skills
Haunt
Now performs 575% weapon damage over 12 seconds (down from 15 seconds)
Sacrifice
Weapon damage increased from 200% to 275%
 
Crafting
Gold and material costs for crafting recipes have been adjusted
The chance of salvaging Rare materials from Magic items has been increased
 
Items
Class-specific items no longer have the chance to be generated with affixes that cannot be used by that specific class
For example, "Increased Hatred Regeneration" will no longer appear on Wands
Demon Hunter one-handed Crossbows have received a damage buff
Spirit regeneration on Monk items has been increased
 
Monsters
Slow, stun, and other movement-impairing effects are now more effective on Treasure Goblins
In response, Treasure Goblins will now sprint away for a moment after being hit
Scavenger monsters will now burrow less often
Zombies will no longer feast on corpses unless they are full health
This is to address an issue which was preventing zombies' enrage timer from resetting correctly
 
Bug Fixes
For a full list of documented game and service bugs, please review the Known Issues sticky located in the Beta Bug Report forum.
Players can now queue for Public Games on "Reign of the Black King" after killing the Skeleton King
Players queuing for a specific Public Games quest should no longer be placed into groups on a different quest
Being hit with a knockback ability while using Tempest Rush will no longer disconnect you from Battle.net
Placeholder text should no longer appear when looking at deceased Hardcore characters in the Hall of Fallen Heroes
There should no longer be a delay when accessing the Auction House
The female monk should now properly play her "Not Enough Resources" error message instead of her "Invalid Location" error message when attempting to perform an ability without the required amount of resources available
Items with affixes that reduce resource costs will now correctly reduce the minimum amount of a resource required to perform a skill
Several Simple and Advanced tooltips have received grammar corrections
If you find the play experience undesirable you may exit the game and resume this download.

[Blackjack]

Some interesting things in Options:

Language and Currency Options


Mmmm... Toast*? wtf does that mean?  

*I assume it's some crazy term all the cool, happening kids use today?

It's true!  

[Asharak]

Mmmm... Toast*? wtf does that mean?  

In the latest beta, all types of healing potions have been replaced by various sizes of Melba Toast. Duh.



- Ash

[stryker]

But I don't like Spam I mean toast!
 

[Blackjack]

I wanted English Muffins, dammit! Thomas's! With nooks and crannies! This is outrageous.    

Seriously, this was introduced for other bnet stuff, but so far Googling doesn't dig up a definition:
http://www.wowace.com/addons/realid-toons/pages/changes/

Version 1.5.1
- Fixed Starcraft II logins not showing the account name in the popup Toast alert

Version 1.2.0
- Fixed the errors caused by bad returns from the Battle.net functions
- Fixed the popup Toast window not displaying the additional information
- Fixed an error that could occur if the first popup Toast was not a friend coming online

Maybe it means like an info window that pops up when someone on your Bnet friends list logs in? Something like that.

[Teggy]

Stop being silly, they just added the ability to burn CDs while you play.

[CeeKay]

you probably need friends to find out.

[Purge]

you probably need friends to find out.

Cold man - REAL cold.

[Asharak]

Cold man - REAL cold.

I note that didn't say anything about him being wrong.

- Ash

[Purge]

It's true!  

He provided his own proof - I can't go against photo evidence.

[Blackjack]

Clearly, I've discovered a new cross-promotion!
The Diablo Toasted Snack Maker

The frustrating thing about all the public beta updates is it wipes out your friends list as well as all characters. I thought maybe it would use the same friends list as SC2, but (at least in beta), it appears to be completely separate.

[CeeKay]

Mmmm... Toast*? wtf does that mean?  

In the latest beta, all types of healing potions have been replaced by various sizes of Melba Toast. Duh.



- Ash

maybe Melba is going to be an purple potion.....

[Roguetad]

I appreciate that they will let us set the toast duration.  We all have different preferences for how we like our toast.  Lightly toasted, toasted, charred...it depends on the individual.  Kudos to Blizzard for building that flexibility into the game. 

   

[Blackjack]

My bud the ex-Blizz employee clarifies:

Popup window that notifies you when friends come online, earn achievements, etc.

This isn't pop-up as in a separate browser window, or a big slab of toast, it's just when info "pops up" in game to notify you of stuff. Just don't ask me why they didn't, you know, call it a pop up windows. Or maybe Pop Tart^TM windows.

I raced through a few levels of the monk and got his first couple Runes. One has you quickly teleport to a target and then attack (unless you're adjacent to it), and another has a pretty cool, fiery, circular area attack with knockback effect.

[Misguided]

Ah, ok, like the ones on Steam, or XBLA.

[The Rocketman]

Anyone know if you have to be continually online? My internet connection is shaky at best (lousy belkin powerline adapters!).

[Sparhawk]

Anyone know if you have to be continually online? My internet connection is shaky at best (lousy belkin powerline adapters!).

Yes you must have an active internet connection to play.

[Isgrimnur]

My bud the ex-Blizz employee clarifies:

Popup window that notifies you when friends come online, earn achievements, etc.

This isn't pop-up as in a separate browser window, or a big slab of toast, it's just when info "pops up" in game to notify you of stuff. Just don't ask me why they didn't, you know, call it a pop up windows. Or maybe Pop Tart^TM windows.

I want a Popple window.

[Purge]

My bud the ex-Blizz employee clarifies:

Popup window that notifies you when friends come online, earn achievements, etc.

This isn't pop-up as in a separate browser window, or a big slab of toast, it's just when info "pops up" in game to notify you of stuff. Just don't ask me why they didn't, you know, call it a pop up windows. Or maybe Pop Tart^TM windows.

I want a Popple window.

We've got Weebles, and My Pet Monster windows only.

You can, however, upgrade your character with a Jem. It's Truly Outrageous - we felt there were significant .. Synergies!

[Isgrimnur]

My bud the ex-Blizz employee clarifies:

Popup window that notifies you when friends come online, earn achievements, etc.

This isn't pop-up as in a separate browser window, or a big slab of toast, it's just when info "pops up" in game to notify you of stuff. Just don't ask me why they didn't, you know, call it a pop up windows. Or maybe Pop Tart^TM windows.

I want a Popple window.

We've got Weebles, and My Pet Monster windows only.

You can, however, upgrade your character with a Jem. It's Truly Outrageous - we felt there were significant .. Synergies!

Yes, but the Misfits will always be trying to get her.  After all, their songs are better.

[CeeKay]

My bud the ex-Blizz employee clarifies:

Popup window that notifies you when friends come online, earn achievements, etc.

This isn't pop-up as in a separate browser window, or a big slab of toast, it's just when info "pops up" in game to notify you of stuff. Just don't ask me why they didn't, you know, call it a pop up windows. Or maybe Pop Tart^TM windows.

Diablo themed Pop Tarts....

[Isgrimnur]

"Cut out and send in three Proofs of Purchase along with a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope to get your very own Wirt's Leg! Kids, get your parents to help."

[CeeKay]

free play time is ending May 1st.

[Purge]

I look forward to the release.

[CeeKay]

there's also a new monk thingamafuckit up.

[Purge]

Nice to see some of the areas get some upgrades (for instance, at ~80% through, there is a tree that attacks in the area right after you kill the blacksmiths possessed wife).

[Misguided]

I haven't been in beta. On the surface, the way they are handling skills seems really lame. The idea that you can only have 6 actives seems crappy. But then, if you were building a character in Diablo II, most of your points get funneled into a small number of skills, anyway, which was probably the point.

How is the skill system in practice?

[Blackjack]

I haven't been in beta. On the surface, the way they are handling skills seems really lame. The idea that you can only have 6 actives seems crappy. But then, if you were building a character in Diablo II, most of your points get funneled into a small number of skills, anyway, which was probably the point.

How is the skill system in practice?

This isn't an mmorpg. The idea isn't to drown you with 75 hotkeys spread over 6 trays spread all over your screen, and train you like Pavlov's dog to memorize them.  

The original Diablo was left key to attack, right key to special attack (whichever one you set it too), and that was it. So compared to THAT, Diablo III is absolutely crazy generous with mouse buttons and keys.

imho, the idea's always been to make you make choices in the skill tree, and choices in the limited number of active skills, and then that's how you differentiate yourself. So you could easily have 4 Demon Hunters teamed up in D3 at higher levels, each with a very different set of attacks.

I like the recently revamped system (which is optional; you can still "free form" assign stuff to keys/buttons if you want, but I don't recommend it, at least not on initial playthroughs), which makes it very clear what "role" a given skill is supposed to serve you. Does it build up hate, power, etc, does it expend it? Is it a buff? Something good to use against a group? etc.

In earlier beta, I often struggled to grasp how I was to divvy up the hotkeys. I had a lot of builds that did great damage but were constantly gasping on "fuel" (my Wizard was like that). Had other builds that built up lots of energy, hate, or whatever, but couldn't hardly do damage at all (my Witch Doctor attempts felt like that). Some folks like experimenting and trying weird builds, so it's good you can still do that, imho. I'm happier though with the "guided" system that's now in place.

While I suspect everyone will have their own favorite skills (Demon Hunter's Chakram flying disc was my fave, and I can't see not using that), I think it'll be fun trying everything out and deciding which of the Rune effects is most to one's liking. We won't really know the full extent of that until we get to play deeper into the game then beta allows. 

[Misguided]

Yeah I think I know what you are talking about with the revised skill system. I was looking at one of the skill configuration doohickeys and I thought at first that each slot dictated what type of skill you had to put there, which seemed like it would be really limiting. Sounds like it is just a guideline.

[Gratch]

I've been trying to ignore the pre-release hype for D3 and focus on the bajillion games I'm currently trying to finish, but it's not working.  I'm feeling the pull all over again.  I've even been listening to the D2 soundtrack all day at work.

However, my first attempt at digital downloading through Battlenet has not exactly been stellar.  Logged in to my account, went to the pre-order link, entered my info, and received an message stating "There has been an error in processing your order.  Please contact Blizzard customer support.".  Thought that maybe the error was incorrect address info, so I tried it again.  Same thing.  Before logging a support ticket, I take a quick peek at my bank account, and sure enough, there are two separate charges of $59.99 taken out from Blizzard today.   Logged the ticket, keeping my fingers crossed they get it sorted out.

Does it show up in your BNet games list when it's been preordered?