Diablo III --Impressions start on page 36 --

[Dunamis]

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.

Ah, thanks. 

[TheEgoWhip]

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

Very nice.

[Roguetad]

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

Very nice.

They should immortalize your character in a hardcore hall of honor.  How nervous were you as you leveled up from 58, 59 and 60? Were you avoiding elite packs, or just business as usual?

[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.

Wherever I got that was wrong.  I hit level 51 in Nightmare, but tomes didn't start dropping until I started Hell.

[Misguided]

They should immortalize your character in a hardcore hall of honor.  How nervous were you as you leveled up from 58, 59 and 60? Were you avoiding elite packs, or just business as usual?

Nervous at points, certainly. There was one point below the fort in act III where I saw an elite pack and called it a night, but aside from that I never avoided a pack the entire way (at no time did I engage a pack then not kill it or skirt one on a map). I had two absolutely epic battles with shaman groups crossing the bridge on the way to Siegebreaker. One was shielded, jailer, arcane enchanted, and half that fight took place in one of the stairwells, which was insane. The other was an illusionist group, don't recall the other mods. The first one had to have gone on for close to 5 minutes. I didn't kite all that far, but because they were shielded, I would stay back a bit (because of the beams) and leap in to try and do damage in bursts. The problem with that was they would jail me and my whirlwind would come to a halt.

There were a couple of points in the 50s where I had 2-3 packs in a row that nearly killed me and I had to rethink my gear. Usually I could find an upgrade to get some more health somewhere, then I had a bit more security for awhile. It wasn't unusual to be at risk, but if I was a whisker away from death multiple times, I knew I had to change something.

[Purge]

gar!!! Maintenance.

[Harpua3]

Every tuesday is maintenance, right? Kinda sucks, but at least they are regularly working on things...

[Purge]

It was just annoying because I wanted to pop in for a bit - and the one time, ONE time I can do so on a weekday, the darned thing is down.

[TheEgoWhip]

They should immortalize your character in a hardcore hall of honor.  How nervous were you as you leveled up from 58, 59 and 60? Were you avoiding elite packs, or just business as usual?

Nervous at points, certainly. There was one point below the fort in act III where I saw an elite pack and called it a night, but aside from that I never avoided a pack the entire way (at no time did I engage a pack then not kill it or skirt one on a map). I had two absolutely epic battles with shaman groups crossing the bridge on the way to Siegebreaker. One was shielded, jailer, arcane enchanted, and half that fight took place in one of the stairwells, which was insane. The other was an illusionist group, don't recall the other mods. The first one had to have gone on for close to 5 minutes. I didn't kite all that far, but because they were shielded, I would stay back a bit (because of the beams) and leap in to try and do damage in bursts. The problem with that was they would jail me and my whirlwind would come to a halt.

There were a couple of points in the 50s where I had 2-3 packs in a row that nearly killed me and I had to rethink my gear. Usually I could find an upgrade to get some more health somewhere, then I had a bit more security for awhile. It wasn't unusual to be at risk, but if I was a whisker away from death multiple times, I knew I had to change something.

I have my hardcore DH up to 36, and I have had one or two elite packs get me nervous.  I do notice when my gear needs upgrading as I tend to have to work too hard for some packs.  How far did you get in your hardcore questline? I'm act2 nightmare and I'm considering staying there for a couple more levels until I can gear up a little more.

[CeeKay]

Every tuesday is maintenance, right? Kinda sucks, but at least they are regularly working on things...

why not pay for overtime and do the maintenance in the early morning hours?

[gellar]

Every tuesday is maintenance, right? Kinda sucks, but at least they are regularly working on things...

why not pay for overtime and do the maintenance in the early morning hours?

Because the developers doing maintenance aren't hourly workers.

[Misguided]

They should immortalize your character in a hardcore hall of honor.  How nervous were you as you leveled up from 58, 59 and 60? Were you avoiding elite packs, or just business as usual?

Nervous at points, certainly. There was one point below the fort in act III where I saw an elite pack and called it a night, but aside from that I never avoided a pack the entire way (at no time did I engage a pack then not kill it or skirt one on a map). I had two absolutely epic battles with shaman groups crossing the bridge on the way to Siegebreaker. One was shielded, jailer, arcane enchanted, and half that fight took place in one of the stairwells, which was insane. The other was an illusionist group, don't recall the other mods. The first one had to have gone on for close to 5 minutes. I didn't kite all that far, but because they were shielded, I would stay back a bit (because of the beams) and leap in to try and do damage in bursts. The problem with that was they would jail me and my whirlwind would come to a halt.

There were a couple of points in the 50s where I had 2-3 packs in a row that nearly killed me and I had to rethink my gear. Usually I could find an upgrade to get some more health somewhere, then I had a bit more security for awhile. It wasn't unusual to be at risk, but if I was a whisker away from death multiple times, I knew I had to change something.

I have my hardcore DH up to 36, and I have had one or two elite packs get me nervous.  I do notice when my gear needs upgrading as I tend to have to work too hard for some packs.  How far did you get in your hardcore questline? I'm act2 nightmare and I'm considering staying there for a couple more levels until I can gear up a little more.

I was nearing Asmodan's tower in Act III. I'm sure I could find a few upgrades and make it thru the end of Hell without too much trouble.

[The Rocketman]

I've been enjoying D3 a lot since it came out. I don't have a lot of gaming time, but any spare time I do have is completely spent on D3. So I've got 3 characters in nightmare in act 2 or 3, namely a barbarian, wizard and monk. Also got a Witch doctor in act 4 normal.

The way I usually play is that for about a week I spent time with one character, then I switch to another. This way, many of them are in the same level-range, and I get to use my shared stash a lot. And every time I switch, I think "wow, this character really is the most powerful!".

I switch to a barbarian, and love the simple bashing, jumping around, stunning and knocking back enemies... You move to the middle of a group, deal lots of damage, try to get some healing up, and get out again when you're losing life faster than gaining it. Great fun.

Then I switch to the wizard. Whooo, everything dies before it gets to me! Off course, it often does get to me, and kills me then. But I'm having too much fun using all these explosive spells to waste skill slots to armour skills

I switch to a monk. I feel invincible. You're dashing around, constantly moving or teleporting or reacting to threats. Very intense.

Then I go to my witch doctor. I hide behind a couple of pets and just rain acid death from afar on everything.

And they all feel strong and cool and diverse. Sure, I miss things like spending points when gaining a level, but the sheer fun of combat itself is just awesome. I do sort of wish there would be an option of joining a lower level friend, and having your power tuned down so you're not invincible. I have a friend who's also playing a lot, but often our characters aren't in the same level range for us to have any fun doing cooperative runs. But that's not really the game's fault.

[Nonnahob]

Found a great set piece last night that should sell for at least a million gold. Also sold a 1h weapons for 300k and a couple inferno crafting pieces for 200k each. Pretty good night of loot for me!

Game is definitely more fun when playing with a group, I just can't do the solo farming. It bores me to tears.

[CeeKay]

I switch to a monk. I feel invincible. You're dashing around, constantly moving or teleporting or reacting to threats. Very intense.

I found the monk teleport attack to be the best,  it's great, you get it at level 6 and by the end of normal I was still using it.

[Blackjack]

PA Arcade's The Cut pointed out this post by Blizzard's Mike Morhaime on state of the game, upcoming improvements, etc.:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6080663481#1

*He stands by the online-only requirement, so if anyone's expecting them to back off on that, might as well give up on that particular dream.

[Crusis]

18 year old dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours. Fun game but 40 hours straight?

[Harpua3]

18 year old dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours. Fun game but 40 hours straight?

This always amazes me. It really is sad, but.. How do you not take a break after 40 hrs?!? Really. I play sometimes for many hrs, but I get up and you know piss, grab a beer or water, a snack etc! Like I said sad it is, but wow.

[CeeKay]

18 year old dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours. Fun game but 40 hours straight?

This always amazes me. It really is sad, but.. How do you not take a break after 40 hrs?!? Really. I play sometimes for many hrs, but I get up and you know piss, grab a beer or water, a snack etc! Like I said sad it is, but wow.

maybe he did, all the article said was that he didn't eat.

[EddieA]

I mean no disrespect if these events actually happened, but I have a really hard time believing them.  Even people who are high as a kite on drugs remember to eat every so often.  For someone to actually die because of playing a game for too long would require a perfect storm of events and conditions.  For it to happen on a regular basis just seems impossible.

[Sparhawk]

I mean no disrespect if these events actually happened, but I have a really hard time believing them.  Even people who are high as a kite on drugs remember to eat every so often.  For someone to actually die because of playing a game for too long would require a perfect storm of events and conditions.  For it to happen on a regular basis just seems impossible.

A little research and you'd see that it happens and is very real, especially in Korea and Japan where it isn't unusual for them to play for days without getting up. It isn't just the lack of food/water that is killing them but blood clots formed in the legs from inactivity. Keep in mind that these individuals aren't exactly healthy and probably have a history of sitting in one place a lot, so they most likely have poor circulation to begin with.

Even people who are high as a kite on drugs remember to eat every so often.

Incorrect and it's why drug addicts are incredibly thin.  Also, they don't usually die from blood clots because they're not sitting in one spot for 40+ hours. 

[Harpua3]

18 year old dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours. Fun game but 40 hours straight?

This always amazes me. It really is sad, but.. How do you not take a break after 40 hrs?!? Really. I play sometimes for many hrs, but I get up and you know piss, grab a beer or water, a snack etc! Like I said sad it is, but wow.

maybe he did, all the article said was that he didn't eat.

You can go that long without food, but usually not water. That's my understanding.

[Sparhawk]

18 year old dies after playing Diablo III for 40 hours. Fun game but 40 hours straight?

This always amazes me. It really is sad, but.. How do you not take a break after 40 hrs?!? Really. I play sometimes for many hrs, but I get up and you know piss, grab a beer or water, a snack etc! Like I said sad it is, but wow.

maybe he did, all the article said was that he didn't eat.

You can go that long without food, but usually not water. That's my understanding.

the article states  that he also died upon standing up. Im going to guess that he died of a blood clot or heart attack after the blood from his torso rushed to his legs. Although, maybe he hadnt eaten or drank anything for awhile before checking into tbe room. Again, we have no real information. Just that he collapsed after standing up.



Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

[KC]

Just finished this over the weekend playing as a witch doctor.  It was fun for the first few hours and then became the same old kill, loot, return to town, repeat cycle.

[EddieA]

Blizzard has now added the ability to track and share your progress through the community site - here's my profile.

[DonD]

Here's mine.

[Blackjack]

Here's mine:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Blackjack-1751/
-fwiw, I can confirm the profiles view nicely on iPad, including pop up windows.   I do dislike that if you tap on the popup in iPad, it takes you to the item view page rather than just closing the popup panel

I quit playing months ago (you can tell from my top 3 toons' fading level numbers that I lost interest), but hopefully at some point, the itch shall return.  

[jersoc]

about 300 hours of gameplay
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jersoc-1748/

quit a while ago. used the wizard bug and beat diablo on inferno. gear check difficulty got boring after a while. was hoping for a more dark souls type hard, not wow gear check rage timers bullshit hard.

[Mystic95Z]

Here's my monk who's ~1/2 way thru inferno. Havent played much lately tho.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Nawtee-1140/hero/19803314

[Blackjack]

Upcoming mega-patch that... mods the game into the 1996 original? Morphs it into 2000's Diablo II in every way but the graphics? No. They're just going to screw with the entire game a lot more.  

Patch 1.0.4 info Coming Soon^TM
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6294649845

The Diablo III developers have been hard at work on some exciting new features and updates for the game. Many of you have asked for more details, and we're busily preparing several developer blogs filled with information on what's coming in patch 1.0.4. In the meantime, here's an overview of the information we're planning to share here on the Diablo III community site in the not-too-distant future.

Please keep in mind that this list isn't set in stone, but it should provide a useful preview of what we'll be revealing in the days ahead.

System Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng is preparing a high-level summary of some of the system changes planned for 1.0.4.

Legendary Item Improvements, by Andrew Chambers
Senior Game Designer Andrew Chambers is working on a blog detailing all the ways we’re making Legendary items stand out.

Magic Find Update, by Jay Wilson
Following up on earlier discussions, Game Director Jay Wilson will be providing an update on how Magic Find is evolving in patch 1.0.4.

Class Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Wyatt will also be providing a preview of the changes we’ll be making for each class in 1.0.4 (and the philosophy behind those changes).

Patch Notes, by Lylirra
Of course, this is all building up to the actual patch 1.0.4 release, and we’ll be releasing the full patch notes shortly before the update goes live.

We're also planning to run some interviews and developer chats surrounding patch 1.0.4, and we’ll be sharing those on the Diablo III front page. Be on the lookout, as we'd love to get you involved in any live chats we host.

If a mega-patch releases in the forest but the trees have all left, does it make a sound? Sorry, probably the metaphor needs serious re-working. A patch if you will...  

I used to argue with people who said we all paid $59.99 for a beta product. Now all these months later, I think maybe Those People^TM had it right afterall.  

[Roman]

I think that it is way too early to paint this announcement about an announcement of upcoming notes supporting a future patch as being detrimental to the game.

That being said - they don't have a really strong leg to stand on either.

I would just like to see some uber powerful weapon drops to be honest. I am tired of seeing lvl 63 and below items that are laughable at best being dropped for me. 

[wonderpug]

It would have been nice if they gave some kind of heads up that this announcement of an upcoming patch announcement was coming.     I was totally unprepared to read this.

[Harkonis]

Isn't this the same company that took about 2 years for some giant patch for DII and kept announcing 'we're making progress! It is AWESOME!' about that patch? 

patch 1.4 or 1.6 or something

[Harpua3]

This game is still super fun for me. I play casually, kind of slowly and just enjoy myself. My buddy quit after "normal" which was too easy! Im running through on nightmare with my barb. Good times. Ive spent 80plus hrs on this wonderful game...thats alot for me...

[EddieA]

My buddy quit after "normal" which was too easy! Im running through on nightmare with my barb. Good times. Ive spent 80plus hrs on this wonderful game...thats alot for me...

The ease of normal mode is one of the few problems I have with the game.  Other than that, it's one of the best games I've ever played.

[Harpua3]

My buddy quit after "normal" which was too easy! Im running through on nightmare with my barb. Good times. Ive spent 80plus hrs on this wonderful game...thats alot for me...

The ease of normal mode is one of the few problems I have with the game.  Other than that, it's one of the best games I've ever played.

That's what I told him, you liked it normal, you will love it on nightmare and up!

[Purge]

It would have been nice if they gave some kind of heads up that this announcement of an upcoming patch announcement was coming.     I was totally unprepared to read this.

Your message caught me flat-footed.

Please, post intro posts indicating you're going to be posting content. That way, I can process the meta data long before the data arrives.

[Nonnahob]

Lots of updates on the d3 site as they preview more of the 1.0.4 changes. Most of it looks great, but not sure if they are too little too late for me to continue playing.

[Blackjack]

Some interesting fallout from D1/D2 designer David Brevik sharing some candid thoughts about D3 in a Diablo IncGamers interview. Keep in mind, if you think D3 is perfect as is, you'll dismiss this as the rambling thoughts of that clown who worked on Hellgate: London; if you're disappointed with D3, you'll go "right on, bro'!"  

Interview: Diablo Creator David Brevik Discusses His Feelings on Diablo 3
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/interview-diablo-creator-david-brevik-discusses-his-feelings-on-diablo-3

David Brevik: Honestly, I think that they did a lot of the things the best they could, it was a very different game than I would have created, the team and personalities, the people, the talent and all the design philosophies of the people that worked on it in Irvine, we called them Blizzard South, those people have their own style and the their own way they like to design. It was very, very different from the Blizzard North.
...
When Blizzard North shut down they lost a ton of experience with why the Action RPG works and what about it works. That’s really difficult to recover from. They didn’t have the experience of people that knew it well. This is why you do things with random levels for example, and so when you lose that experience you are going to create a very different experience in the end than we would have created.

*Maybe it is a bit disingenous for Brevik to bring up Blizzard North closing and not mention "oh yeah, we got tired of the Blizzard ownership situation resolving so we left to form Flagship, and took most of the key Blizz North folks with us, etc." It's not like Blizzard brought development in-house because it hated Blizz North, there just wasn't really a Blizz North left to work on D3.

IncGamers:  As you created Diablo, how do you feel about it? Do you feel a little let down that the legacy has kind of been mashed up?

David Brevik: I have very mixed emotions about it (laughs). On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo [III] because it’s a love, a passion, and its obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo and they are speaking out about it because they have such love for it. That makes me feel great.

I am sad because people are outraged and, you know, some of the decision they have made are not the decisions I would make and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well. I think in that way I am a little sad.

I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that ,  when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.

Apparently the Blizz D3 dev team is all knotted in a bunch about his comments (gaming news sites are digging up Facebook comments about Brevik's interview for example), feeling he's "thrown them under the bus." I just see it as candid comments, refreshing to read. Hopefully Brevik isn't counting on any work references from Blizzard.  

I guess they would've preferred Brevik take the more tactful road of Runic's Max Schaefer (also a former D1/D2 dev) who has generally just said he enjoyed D3, might've done some things differently but hasn't otherwise criticized it.

[leo8877]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6968517/

Paragon end game system.

Here’s how it works:
After you hit level 60, any further experience you earn from killing monsters will begin to count toward Paragon levels
There are 100 Paragon levels
Every Paragon level will reward you with:
Core stats such as Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality in amounts similar to what you’d gain from a normal level
3% Magic Find and 3% Gold Find
In addition, a distinctive increasingly-impressive border will surround your character portrait in the in-game party frame to denote your Paragon progression, with a new frame earned after every ten levels. Your Paragon level will also be visible to other players wherever your normal level is shown