Diablo III --Impressions start on page 36 --

[SkyLander]

Looks like I lost about 500 dps on my wizard and I had no IAS gear either. My micro stuttering has gotten insanely worse, as well as general Battle.net lagginess. Guess I'm done with D3 for now.

[Harpua3]

Confirmed 1.0.3 is out today! Hoping to make some progress on Inferno past act 2.5 tonight!

Hopefully it fixes my Mac performance that was perfect until they patched it last time...

What happened with your performance? I think we have the same iMacs but I haven't seen any issues. Did the game slow down?

I started having insane stuttering and the fps would go from 50 to 20 to 10, rinse and repeat. After 1.03 it seems fixed. It was fine up to 1.02b then wonkyness started. But, seems fixed!

[Harpua3]

looks like a good possibility of the patch being tuesday. here's some data mined values remember this is not official http://d3db.com/news/id/268-datamined-10310057-patch-notes-unofficial/


if true IAS is now useless. I'm already finding pieces to replace them on the cheap just in case.

I hope! Fix my d3 blizzard, it worked fine and you tinkered with it too much. I can't sleep without diablo!

I'm pretty sure you can't sleep because of D3.  In any case, I only want to be survivable with my DH and Barb without suffering a huge drop in DPS.  If the IAS drops kill the DH's DPS too much I'll probably start up another character for a while until they tweak things back a bit. 

You watch your mouth!!!!

[TheEgoWhip]

Started Nightmare on Hardcore DH the other day and some of those elite packs are giving me mini-heart attacks.  I'm thinking I need to re-gear from the AH if I want to get much further.

[Caine]

whew, dodged a bullet.  only lost about 100 dps with my DH.  I'll have to play for a bit to see if it's overall worse than before. 

looks like a good possibility of the patch being tuesday. here's some data mined values remember this is not official http://d3db.com/news/id/268-datamined-10310057-patch-notes-unofficial/


if true IAS is now useless. I'm already finding pieces to replace them on the cheap just in case.

I hope! Fix my d3 blizzard, it worked fine and you tinkered with it too much. I can't sleep without diablo!

I'm pretty sure you can't sleep because of D3.  In any case, I only want to be survivable with my DH and Barb without suffering a huge drop in DPS.  If the IAS drops kill the DH's DPS too much I'll probably start up another character for a while until they tweak things back a bit. 

You watch your mouth!!!!

[Rowdy]

D3 for some reason is just not holding my attention the way D2 did.  Early last week I hit Diablo with my wizard, died a few times and have felt zero compulsion to play again.  I don't know if it's just my general level of annoyance with all the MMORPG trappings, but I think I'm done with D3.  I've gone back to Fallout New Vegas and Civ 5 Gods and Kings and haven't really felt the pull at all.

[Roguetad]

I finished normal playthroughs on my barbarian and witch doctor within a day of each other, and I thought it was a little uncanny that my total played time for each varied by only 2 minutes.  Barbarian - 18 hours 33 minutes; Witch Doctor - 18 hours 31 minutes.  Blizzard has this down to a science. 

For most of the game my Witch Doctor was easier to play (on normal).  Against a few bosses, Diablo included, my Barbarian had an easier time.  All in all, it seemed like I could pretty much do anything with my skills in Normal and still do fine.           

[Purge]

I found that the Monk and Barbs' 20% damage reduction (automatic) meant I didn't have to respec for boss fights where I couldn't count on healpot drops.

For instance, one passive Wiz skill is +20mana with each healpot. The butcher only has heal altars - so no point in using that... going with evasion instead made more sense.

[Blackjack]

This poker-faced post is pretty funny. He didn't use smilies, so you just have to read between the lines to the intended sarcasm.

Many exploits remain after 1.03
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5889888966

First, thank you for addressing so many of the important issues in this patch. After playing a couple of quests tonight, however, I've realized that the fight against exploiters will never truly be won.

DPS is still way out of control - in some cases I've even seen players kill certain monsters before they were killed themselves.

People are still taking advantage of skills with unintended effects such as increased survival, damage output, and situation control.

There are several chests that continue to drop gold when opened; there are also still other, more nefarious means of gold farming, such as killing enough monsters that you actually MAKE more gold than your repairs cost.

I personally witnessed an incident where a player found a yellow item, and when they identified it, it had stats that could be exploited to increase their combat effectiveness - for the class they were playing at the time.

Some gear seen on vendors still had stats other than Vitality that could, in the hands of an insidious agent, theoretically be employed toward the end of making combat easier (less dying, and in extreme cases, more killing).

Bosses are still able to be killed by players - I don't have screenshots to prove this, but it is happening. Hopefully your data analysis can pick it up.

Some bosses and rares are failing to properly spam stun, wall, poison, set afire, teleport into pools of acid, knockback, slow, and freeze players simultaneously while they teleport-kite the player at supersonic speed, carpeting every square inch of the zone with toxic ooze and letting their invulnerable minions with boss powers one- and two-shot us.

I personally was able to set up a bizarre configuration in the auction house search panel where I could find items with specific stats and also be able to sort them in a way that was not effectively random.

A friend of mine told me they were playing with some person earlier who - and I'm just the messenger here - seemed like they might be having fun while playing the game. I don't know how true this is, but if it's even a possibility, god help us all.

I'm just trying to do my part to ensure this kind of disgusting and cowardly behavior gets stamped out as soon as possible. If there's anything I hate in a game, it's feeling like I'm getting more powerful and that my time and efforts are culminating in some kind of... /shudder... progression.

I'm in this for the frustration and disappointment, 100%, and I stand behind you with every patch that brings us closer to those ideals.

Keep up the great work.

For my part, I've only played maybe once in the last couple weeks. Like with SWTOR, I never expected to lose interest in this game so quickly. I was counting on it keeping my interest until XCOM: Enemy Unknown releases in the fall.

I'm not one of those players who felt D2 walked on water. But I seem to remember its difficulty levels having a discernible, understandable ramping-up in difficulty (pre-patch Duriel notwithstanding).

I think if D3 wasn't so maddeningly imbalanced -- sometimes varying between boring, too hard, a bit too easy, and brutal emasculation of oneself, and everywhere in between, sometimes in the same game session -- I'd feel more enticement to play. But, who knows, maybe some time off to let some more patches go in place will let me revisit it later with an open mind.

[CeeKay]

wait, what?

A quirky addition to Diablo 3's patch 1.0.3 is the purchase of a digital copy of the game will restrict players to the Starter Edition for "the first 72 hours (sometimes less)." This means legitimate customers can only play Act 1 up to the Skeleton King, are capped at level 13 and can only interact with other Starter Edition players.

We could easily speculate why Blizzard would put such precautions in place, but it doesn't ease our concerns about hostile actions against legitimate customers. Oh, also, given the wording on the post, this is a feature, not a bug.

Take this to mean if you're looking to impulsively marathon Diablo 3 over some upcoming free time, you'll need to pick up the game from retail or overnight a boxed copy.

[CeeKay]

For my part, I've only played maybe once in the last couple weeks. Like with SWTOR, I never expected to lose interest in this game so quickly. I was counting on it keeping my interest until XCOM: Enemy Unknown releases in the fall.

get a 360 and get Dragon's Dogma.  it's third person, and trust me, you'll be thinking 'Diab-who?' when you climb up the legs of a flaming cyclops to stab it in the crotch.

[Harpua3]

wait, what?

A quirky addition to Diablo 3's patch 1.0.3 is the purchase of a digital copy of the game will restrict players to the Starter Edition for "the first 72 hours (sometimes less)." This means legitimate customers can only play Act 1 up to the Skeleton King, are capped at level 13 and can only interact with other Starter Edition players.

We could easily speculate why Blizzard would put such precautions in place, but it doesn't ease our concerns about hostile actions against legitimate customers. Oh, also, given the wording on the post, this is a feature, not a bug.

Take this to mean if you're looking to impulsively marathon Diablo 3 over some upcoming free time, you'll need to pick up the game from retail or overnight a boxed copy.

Crazyness!!!

[cheeba]

I am in shock that Blizzard is doing that. They've passed into the realm of outright hostility towards their customers. It's like they want to compete against EA for biggest dick of a gaming company for some reason.

[Jumangi]

Guilty untill proven innocent...while I've had fun with the game this is making me regret my purchase. I've really had it with companies that openley treat their customers like essentially criminals and not...well customers that are giving them their earned money.

[Misguided]

I am in shock that Blizzard is doing that. They've passed into the realm of outright hostility towards their customers. It's like they want to compete against EA for biggest dick of a gaming company for some reason.

I'm sure this has something to do with farmers and gold sellers, but it seems excessive. For one thing, I'm not sure what the point of the 72 hour hold is. If someone is exploiting the game in an organized way, they just plan three days ahead. In the meantime, customers are hurt by it. I CAN understand keeping new accounts off the RMAH, and chances are legit customers aren't going to have a burning need to sell items for cash within the first few days.

[CeeKay]

now Blizzard is changing their stance (and the blue forum post has been deleted but can still be found here) and saying there were 'unintended consequences':

However, as an unintended consequence of these security measures, players who purchase the game digitally after patch 1.0.3 are temporarily being capped at level 13 and not able to proceed beyond Act I. We are working to correct this as soon as possible and will provide another update when we have more details to share.

[The Rocketman]

So what class is everyone enjoying the most? I've levelled a barbarian, wizard and monk to nightmare, and got a witch doctor to level 20 something.

I loved the barbarian in normal, but in nightmare he has been struggling. I've got a 2handed weapon setup (because it's cool, yo) and to compensate I've got a whole lot of vitality (thanks to gems) pumped into him. But now I'm thinking I'll change those gems to add strength, so he can go back to killing stuff quickly. Right now he's pretty survivable, but boring to play. Also, a lot of the fun skills (Ancient spear!) aren't that useful anymore.

The wizard is kick-ass in the damage dealing department, but struggled the most against bosses. For example, I really had to time my potion drinking countdown with Belial because I just didn't have enough health to make a mistake. And I don't bother with any of the armors, except the diamond skin thing which is really nice.

I don't grasp the Witch doctor fully yet. So far he seems the least powerful. His zombie dogs aren't that great, and I'm really baffled anyone would use the 'sacrifice dogs' skill. You only have a few skills, so using this combo would waste a lot of slot most of the time. I think. So I don't really have a good feel for him yet.

The monk I tried last (well, haven't tried demon hunter yet), and it has blown all the other classes away. He's fast, heals himself, and kills things fast. Even in nightmare so far.

I don't use the auction house much (maybe twice so far?), but I do use the shared stash between characters a lot. So a possible reason that the monk is so strong could be because he already had a full stash of good items to use.

[Purge]

Some advice with the Wizard:

1) Use Diamond Skin with the -7 to mana use (so all spells can be cast longer). I personally love the Disintegrate+Chaos where it hits other targets automagically, though I will switch it out when fighting bosses.

2) Once you hit 48 (IIRC) -  Energy Armor gives you +65% armor AND +20 mana with Energy Tap rune... throw on Galvanizing Ward and you have longer lasting armor, AND health regen.

3) If you use Familiar, Sparkflint Rune gives you both the 20% damage on the familiar's shot PLUS +12% damage on all your damage.

I also have Frost Nova (I switch runes often - depending on circumstances) to hold up enemies so I can run away, OR Mirror Image with extn of will. I also have Astral Presence and Power hungry. I do use Archon as my oh-shit button. It's more effective when you can kill things so you can keep it going. I have the rune that reduces recharge on it.

On Nightmare, I took him down to 20% before I ran out of mana. With diamond skin on, and my armor up, I did a TON of damage to him before he could even cast the first of many ground attacks.

[CeeKay]

The monk I tried last (well, haven't tried demon hunter yet), and it has blown all the other classes away. He's fast, heals himself, and kills things fast. Even in nightmare so far.

I don't use the auction house much (maybe twice so far?), but I do use the shared stash between characters a lot. So a possible reason that the monk is so strong could be because he already had a full stash of good items to use.

I played through normal and part of nightmare with the monk on my first go at the game, and he kicks ass even without getting stuff from other characters through the stash.  I can't recall the proper names off the top of my head, but I found myself using the primary attack and rune combo he gets at level 6 all the way through-  being able to teleport to your target makes it easier to rain down ruin on it.  also, his kick with knockback is great to create breathing space, plus his heal self & allies, spirit monk companion and evasion mantra with the passive skill that extends mantras while also giving them spirit regen while a mantra is active are all great compliments. 

[Purge]

On Sunday I beat Nightmare for the first time (with my Wizard).

on defeating diablo - I saved my party not twice, but three times (while fighting shadow versions of ourselves). Four of us - Wiz x2, Barb x1, Monk x1.

Yeah. Mirror images rocked for letting me get back to bodies to issue rez.

[Roguetad]

I was struggling a little with the barbarian in nightmare until I switched passives, runes, gems, and skills from a survivability focus to just dealing pure damage as fast as I could.  I use all of the +crit chance passives, skills and runes, and swapped out +vitality for +strength gems in all my gear.  The only exception is that I have both axes gem'd with life stealing per hit.  I did upgrade both weapons with rares from the AH.  All of that together has really helped, and makes him feel like a barbarian again, and not a wuss.

My biggest frustration with D3 is the thing that I typically enjoy in games like this...the loot.  Since about level 20 the loot level has always lagged behind, normally by 10 levels.  I didn't think it was possible to overlevel in Diablo, but I'm guessing that must be the problem.  I thought the loot was starting to catch up in Nightmare when I started seeing things about 6 levels behind, but now it's back to almost 10 levels again.  In short, the loot has been mostly useless for my character since about level 20.  If I want same level gear, I need to go to the AH.  It almost feels like the loot I'm getting is intended to be stashed for alts, and not for my main character.  

Because all of the loot drops are 6-10+ levels behind, I don't have that "I'll just keep going a little further to see if I get any cool loot" feeling in D3.  In fact, I don't even bother to look at loot anymore, I just hoover up the yellows and blues and move on.  The fun for me is just the combat now...and seeing what I can buy at the AH.  I hope combat and shopping at auctions were not what they were aiming for in their core game design for D3.  It should be combat, loot, or loot, combat.          

[jersoc]

i went 300 hours not finding a single set item. last night i found 3. i found 2 of natalya's within 15 minutes of each other lol. sold the ring for a cool 27 million and the helm for 2.5.

finally farming has paid off. but why can't i find a weapon
btw to people low on cash. try to sell your unid i63 stuff. depending on what it is you can sell from anywhere between 200k-1.5 million. gave me a quick bank roll last week. people pretty much want weapons though. if you hit a rev bow or hellion you just scored 1-2 million unid. it's a gamble i would take every time because the odds of you getting a good roll is slim.

[Gratch]

I was struggling a little with the barbarian in nightmare until I switched passives, runes, gems, and skills from a survivability focus to just dealing pure damage as fast as I could.  I use all of the +crit chance passives, skills and runes, and swapped out +vitality for +strength gems in all my gear.  The only exception is that I have both axes gem'd with life stealing per hit.  I did upgrade both weapons with rares from the AH.  All of that together has really helped, and makes him feel like a barbarian again, and not a wuss.

My Barb just hit Act IV Nightmare last night, which marks the furthest I've ever gotten in a Diablo game.  I was also struggling until I made some of the same changes you did.   

In short, the loot has been mostly useless for my character since about level 20.  If I want same level gear, I need to go to the AH.  It almost feels like the loot I'm getting is intended to be stashed for alts, and not for my main character.

This has been my biggest issue as well.  I went from Act I to Act 3 (Nightmare) using the exact same equipment because I simply didn't find anything better.  Never getting any better loot totally sucked all the fun out of the game, and I damn near quit.  Finally started picking up a couple new things towards the end of Act 3, and my interest has been piqued again.  The issue is compounded for me by the fact that I have zero interest in using the AH...remember how many times Blizzard said the game would be balanced for a single player without it?  I'd like to beat the game in NM, but can't see myself going much further than that with this character.

BTW, when to Tomes of Blacksmithing/Jewelcrafting start dropping?  Can't upgrade either crafter until I get some but have yet to see one in the wild.

[leo8877]

BTW, when to Tomes of Blacksmithing/Jewelcrafting start dropping?  Can't upgrade either crafter until I get some but have yet to see one in the wild.

Inferno only

[Hrothgar]

BTW, when to Tomes of Blacksmithing/Jewelcrafting start dropping?  Can't upgrade either crafter until I get some but have yet to see one in the wild.

Inferno only

I read somewhere that they can drop in nightmare if you hit level 51.

[DonD]

I'm pretty sure I started picking them up in Act I nightmare (level was early 30s).
I'm still not up to inferno and I have something like 100 of 'em in my stash.

[CeeKay]

I'm pretty sure I started picking them up in Act I nightmare (level was early 30s).
I'm still not up to inferno and I have something like 100 of 'em in my stash.

tomes or pages?  I posted the same thing and I realized that Pages are in Nightmare, but I haven't seen any Tomes yet.

[Gratch]

I'm pretty sure I started picking them up in Act I nightmare (level was early 30s).
I'm still not up to inferno and I have something like 100 of 'em in my stash.

Those are pages...I've got plenty of those.  You hit a point where you need tomes to level up your crafters, which apparently don't show up until the 50's.

[DonD]

Oops.  Right.  Read it but in my mind, registered it as pages.

[pr0ner]

I was struggling a little with the barbarian in nightmare until I switched passives, runes, gems, and skills from a survivability focus to just dealing pure damage as fast as I could.  I use all of the +crit chance passives, skills and runes, and swapped out +vitality for +strength gems in all my gear.  The only exception is that I have both axes gem'd with life stealing per hit.  I did upgrade both weapons with rares from the AH.  All of that together has really helped, and makes him feel like a barbarian again, and not a wuss.

My Barb just hit Act IV Nightmare last night, which marks the furthest I've ever gotten in a Diablo game.  I was also struggling until I made some of the same changes you did.  

Since you're at the same place I am with your barb, mind if I ask what your stats/armor/life/DPS are?

Mine sit at (unbuffed, but taking passive skills into account), at level 49:

STR: 1021
DEX: 161
INT: 197
VIT: 765
Armor: 3662
Life: 19522
DPS: 1816.13

My skills and runes can be found here.

I'll add that I'm wearing 4 pieces of legendary gear, 3 of which I found.  I also swap between frenzy and cleave, depending on if it's boss time (frenzy) or if I'm fighting regular mobs (cleave).

[Gratch]

Just hit 50 and finished NM tonight.  Dual wield Barb, stats are:

STR: 683 (interesting that we have such a big gap here)
DEX: 161
INT: 195
VIT: 907
Armor: 2622
Life: 22,911
DPS: 2024

I'd been trying to avoid the AH, but simply was not doing enough DPS to make a dent...especially with unique monsters.  Finally caved and let a buddy of mine donate some old weapons to me tonight.  One simple change of weapons took my DPS from 804 to 2024, and my life from 18K to 23K.  Amazing the difference decent weapons make.  

I've only come across one legendary piece so far (gloves).

[pr0ner]

Ha, yeah, having good DPS stuff works wonders.  My brother and I (he's using a wizard) are almost at Diablo in Act IV nightmare, and the bosses give us NO trouble at all, yet certain magic/rare packs (especially molten and desecrators) tear us to pieces.  Somehow I've only died once in nightmare, and that was tonight to a molten rare (can't remember what his other attribute was).

Depending on what weapon I have in my stash that I use, I can get my DPS up to around 2200 unbuffed, but I rather like the extra armor having a shield provides.  It'll be interesting to see how my build works in Hell.

Also, I find the AH to be hit or miss.  Lots of people put outrageous values on mid level things (especially legendaries), but I've found some real steals in there, too (I bought my current chest armor for 4k Monday night, and my legendary helm I bought for 100k).  I'm not sure why anyone would pay hundreds of thousands to millions in gold for nightmare level gear.

[Misguided]

I've moved on to act iii hell, now one bubble from 59 on my HC barbarian. I'm hoping to make it to 60, then I think I will put the game down for a while.

[Nonnahob]

210+ hours on my Wizard yet to find a legendary or set piece. Found my first plans which go for about 5k on the ah... Blah. Lack of loot worth selling is killing me.

[CeeKay]

new hotfix today:

June 28
Items

   The drop rates for high-end items (items level 61-63) have been increased for Acts III and IV of Hell difficulty and Acts I – IV of Inferno difficulty:
   
      The new approximate drop rates are as follows:
      
         Hell – Act III and Act IV
         
            iLvl 61: 9% to 13.9%
            iLvl 62: 1.9% to 3.45%
            iLvl 63: 0% (no change)
         
         
         Inferno – Act I
         
            iLvl 61: 17.7% to 23.9%
            iLvl 62: 7.9% to 12.6%
            iLvl 63: 2.0% to 4.8%
         
         
         Inferno – Act II
         
            iLvl 61: 18.6% to 23.3%
            iLvl 62: 12.4% to 18.6%
            iLvl 63: 4.1% to 9.3%
         
         
         Inferno – Act III and Act IV
         
            iLvl 61: 24.1% to 27.1%
            iLvl 62: 16.1% to 21.7%
            iLvl 63: 8.0% to 16.3%
         
Bosses

   Bosses are now guaranteed to drop at least 1 Rare item for players with 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor and at least 2 Rare items for players with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor

 
Bug Fixes

   Fixed a bug with several items that would allow those items to block pathing when dropped on the ground
   Fixed a crash that could sometimes occur when a player was interacting with environment objects (e.g. opening chests or clicking on a lectern)
   Fixed several additional game and service crashes

[Blackjack]

It's funny -- over at Gamespy they get virtually no comments on posts there anymore (you have to login to comment now, I assume is the reason). But, since Gamespy proclaimed Diablo 3 doesn't qualify as an Action RPG, that brought all the anger management types out of the woodwork.  

Diablo 3 Isn't an Action RPG
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/diablo-iii/1225243p1.html

As much as I hate the now over-used phrase, "it is what it is," I'd describe D3 as that. I've played lots and lots of Diablo-clones that do let you assign skill points, and do have unlocking skills trees, and still were in fact, not fun. So I don't know if I'd call Diablo an action RPG; I'd just call it "Diablo," but D3 is so different in the skills system than the first two games, it seems like its own animal, so to speak.

I do feel like (I've mentioned this earlier here) since there's no difference from say, your first Barbarian and a second barbarian in terms of when they can access new skills, and what they can equip and you can just willy-nilly reassign everything on the fly, there's just no reason to create a second barb and go through the game again. imho, that sort of system is great for people with limited time to play who don't want to create a lot of alts.

otoh, it has probably removed replayability appeal aside from simply going through the difficulties. By the time I gave up on D2, I remember having a "bow" Amazon in the 60s, and a "jav" Amazon in the 50s; and different specialty barbarians and paladins. I remember I enjoyed working up those different skills trees, and it seemed to sort of take my mind off the monotony of playing through the same Acts/maps/levels over and over.

Having burned out on D3 after just playing 3 classes, I still can't really put my finger on why the urge to keep going through the game over and over isn't there as it was with D1 and D2. I'm not sure if it's a flaw in the game's design, or if I is Just Old.   I still feel I got my money's worth though.

[Dunamis]

What is this Nephalem Valor that you speak of?  Something that drops in higher difficulty levels?  I'm only in Nightmare, Act III.

[leo8877]

What is this Nephalem Valor that you speak of?  Something that drops in higher difficulty levels?  I'm only in Nightmare, Act III.

You have to be level 60 to get it.  Once you are level 60, you get 1 stack for every pack of elites you kill, up to a max of 5.  Lasts 30 mins, and time resets when you kill another pack.

[Nonnahob]

230 hours in found my first legendary. Lvl 61 staff with 600 dps or so, unfortunately 2 handed. Looks like people are selling for all kinds of stupid prices. Setting mine much lower as based on the stats I have no clue who would want such a low dps weapon.

[Misguided]

Hit 60 in hardcore yesterday. Time to put it down for a while.