Diablo 3 Impressions

[Fretmute]

Holy twink pants, Batman!

That's funny because I look at that and go ugh... if only there were some vitality on those they'd be great.... So different HC and SC.

I go ugh, too. Just imagine how much Vit I could have gotten for 16 (!) reduced level requirement.

[Lorini]

It looks like the AH bots are gone as well, at least for the moment. I was actually able to buy four auctions that were way underpriced and had just gone up. Amazing!

[Smoove_B]

About the attack speed nerf: Did they actually nerf the number on items retro and future drops?

Don't know about the second part, but I can absolutely confirm that I had two equipped items providing an 8% IAS each that were dropped to 4% each.

[Crabbs]

ARGH! Servers just blinked - lost the entire dungeon clear to get the second vial of blood.

Maybe I am overleveled, but it seems to have gotten easier. I am Level 24 going for Kuhle. Also, I still am getting drops from random objects - stones, jars, corpses, etc. Was the nerf only to higher levels?

Well, worse than I had expected. I logged right back in after the server hiccup and still had the first blood, but I quit to go to bed. This morning I logged in and didn't have either. But all of the loot I got from the dungeons as well as experience remained. Very odd. Do you have to clear both dungeons on the same session to have it count? I redid the Assassin this morning and it was a breeze since I was a level higher than yesterday. Going to try and take down the other one tonight.

There must be a timer on this. Same thing happened to me. Was almost finished with the second vial of blood when the server kicked me. When I logged back on (and thank god i didn't die ) I was back at the beginning of the 2nd dungeon. I decided to log and try again this AM. When i started this AM I needed both vials again. Got one before work, logged went to work and now just got the 2nd vial (about an hour later) w/o having to get both new. Maybe as long as you get them within 1 or 2 hours of each other it doesn't reset.

Would stink if there was a timer - there's no note in the quest that there is one. Maybe I'll throw a question in the bug forum and see what people say.

And when I mean timer I guess it's more like play session rather than a ticking clock. It very well could have to do with checkpoints too, depending on where you were when you disconnected/logged, etc. The checkpoint system is my biggest beef with the game so far, sometimes hard to predict when'where you will get one.

[GreenGoo]

Essentially, they increased the item budget cost of attack speed. They lowered the amount that existing items have, and all future items of ilvl <X> will have less, because it costs more of the item's budget.

Quivers were unaffected, essentially, because they already pay 0 of their item budget for the speed, since a level 1 item already starts with 10%. I suspect that the additional attack speed bonus on higher level quivers does use some of the budget for the item, but it was probably easier just to leave them alone entirely. I'm sure they feel that 1 slot for 1 class isn't too game breaking.

That makes sense.

That makes that weapon my buddy found last night with +15% attack speed pretty valuable. I'll have to tell him not to salvage it.

I just passed along Fret's observations to my boss during our status meeting.

My boss is pissed he lost 13000 dps, from 41k to 28k with the speed nerf, but doesn't have a clue about the game mechanics.

Of course I didn't cite, stealing all the credit for myself. Bwahahahaha.

[stessier]

Can someone explain mob affixes to me? When I look at their name, what should I be looking for? And do people really have time to read names in the heat of battle?

I sure don't, but maybe I just need more practice. Right now I kind of know what to expect from each enemy based purely on experience and attack accordingly. But posts here and on BNet suggest I should be getting some inside info on what to expect from the names. Am I just misunderstanding again?

[godhugh]

Can someone explain mob affixes to me? When I look at their name, what should I be looking for? And do people really have time to read names in the heat of battle?

I sure don't, but maybe I just need more practice. Right now I kind of know what to expect from each enemy based purely on experience and attack accordingly. But posts here and on BNet suggest I should be getting some inside info on what to expect from the names. Am I just misunderstanding again?

Underneath their health bar it will say something like "Molten Jailer Waller Plagued". Those are their affixes. Each one determines what special abilities that group of mobs will have. In normal, they only have one affix. In nightmare, they have 2, etc, etc.

[KiloOhm]

I think this will be very playstlye dependent but as a Wizard (ranged) I hate molten, Vortex mobs and mortar. Mortar mobs cause me to forgoe a lot of kiting and go toe-to-toe with them where they can't hit me with their mortars.

I imagine melee characters would hate arcane (those spinning lines of death)

Vortex actually isn't that bad - except when it's coupled with "molten" or something like that.

Since I've been in hell I've been seeing "Horde" which looks like it means they get a huge group of non-blue guys around them who seem harder than normal guys to kill.

The ones I remember:
Vortex - Draws you to them once every 10s or so.
Jailer - locks you in place for a short time (as a wizard I can teleport out of it)
molten - leave a trail of damaging lava and when killed leave an exloding ball that does huge damage (run away after you kill it).
Vampiric - health steal
Extra Health - duh
mortar - mortar like fire balls that move fast and do moderate damage. They fire multiple ones at once and seem like they are pretty good at predicting your path so just moving is often not enough.
Chains - mobs have chains between them that damage you as you pass through them
arcane - leave an arcane ball that shoots a beam about 20 yards which then travels in a circle (think clock hand). The beam does a very high amount of damage. Once it travels 360 degrees it dissapears so you can reliably predict it.
Plagued (thanks Godhugh) - leave a pool of green death.
waller (thanks godhugh) - put a wall on 3 sides of you (not sure if it's always 3 sides.
Nightmare - fear you on hit (not sure %)

[LawBeefaroni]

Can someone explain mob affixes to me? When I look at their name, what should I be looking for? And do people really have time to read names in the heat of battle?

I sure don't, but maybe I just need more practice. Right now I kind of know what to expect from each enemy based purely on experience and attack accordingly. But posts here and on BNet suggest I should be getting some inside info on what to expect from the names. Am I just misunderstanding again?

There are visual cues too, obviously. Not all are immediately recognizable so sometimes it helps to read the affixes but if they're, for example, electrified, molten, and shielded, you can see that pretty clearly without having to read it.

[Jag]

Arcane can 1 shot my Monk if it spawns on top of me and I don't move right away. Plague and molten chains are very tough for melee.

As melee, vampiric can be the absolute worst if your DPS isn't sufficient.

[stessier]

Ah, thanks guys. That helps.

[GreenGoo]

Arcane can 1 shot my Monk if it spawns on top of me and I don't move right away. Plague and molten chains are very tough for melee.

As melee, vampiric can be the absolute worst if your DPS isn't sufficient.

As I passed through nightmare with woefully low dps on my monk, I would often have to dismiss my companion in order to defeat any vampiric mobs. I just couldn't beat them down while they just went back to my templar for refills. I had enough dodge and damage reduction that they weren't able to get enough health from me to outstrip my dps, but with the templar donating blood the fight could last 20 minutes without any progress.

[SlapBone]

I don't think you can really appreciate a combination of any three of those until you are hitting the respawn button.

[Fretmute]

Arcane can 1 shot my Monk if it spawns on top of me and I don't move right away. Plague and molten chains are very tough for melee.

As melee, vampiric can be the absolute worst if your DPS isn't sufficient.

I never have an issue with Plagued. The puddles seem to do about 1/10 the damage that, say, the Desecrator puddles do.

Molten and Fire Chains are the rake, though.

[YellowKing]

My views on these from a melee class standpoint:

Vortex - This one is only bad if it's in combo with a close rang attack like Molten or Arcane. Many a time I have died because I was dodging an Arcane ball and the mob pulled me back into it.

Jailer - More annoying than deadly (depending on the combo).

Molten - This one is one of my least favorites. Makes both kiting and melee hard. Just no good place to stand. I do a lot of jumping in and out with Molten mobs.

Vampiric - One of the easier attributes. He can't suck my blood faster than I can kill him.

Extra Health - Annoying because it makes battles long, but that's about it.

Mortar - Mortar sounds awful but I'm always surprised at how easy these mobs end up being. Get in close and they simply can't hit you. The only time Mortar is a problem is if it's coupled with a close range attribute. Mortar + Fire Chains or Arcane = yikes.

Fire Chains - My second most hated attribute. The mobs are intelligent enough to try to trap you in the chains, so your best bet is to focus on one so that you have fewer chains to dodge.

Arcane - I hate Arcane because it does HUGE damage, but it's easy to dodge. Worst when combined with Vortex (see above).

Plagued - These used to be my most hated, but my resists/HP are high enough now that the poison damage doesn't bother me much. I can typically just stand in a pool of it and whack away.

Waller - More annoying than anything. I just use my Leap ability to jump out of it.

Nightmare - Another one more annoying than dangerous. Most of the time I WANT to run away from the mob so I thank him for helping me.

Couple not mentioned:

Reflect Damage - These reflect damage back when you hit them, but in my experience it's not enough to make much of a difference.

Frozen - Another annoying one. Mob casts several ice spheres that explode and freeze you if you are within range. They can be dodged but a lot of times I'll just suck it up and take the hits just so I can stay close to attack range.

[LawBeefaroni]

Horde and Arcane can suck.

[Fretmute]

Couple not mentioned:

Reflect Damage - These reflect damage back when you hit them, but in my experience it's not enough to make much of a difference.

Frozen - Another annoying one. Mob casts several ice spheres that explode and freeze you if you are within range. They can be dodged but a lot of times I'll just suck it up and take the hits just so I can stay close to attack range.

Also Avenger, which doesn't seem to do much of anything.

[Smoove_B]

Also Avenger, which doesn't seem to do much of anything.

Avenger - Hell - Only champions can have this. Whenever you kill one, the others grow in size and hit harder. The last one left will hit the hardest of all.

Meh. I'd rather have one of those than the stupid Desecration and Arcane. As mentioned, they are murderous for Melee characters.

[Crabbs]

Can someone explain mob affixes to me? When I look at their name, what should I be looking for? And do people really have time to read names in the heat of battle?

I sure don't, but maybe I just need more practice. Right now I kind of know what to expect from each enemy based purely on experience and attack accordingly. But posts here and on BNet suggest I should be getting some inside info on what to expect from the names. Am I just misunderstanding again?

Underneath their health bar it will say something like "Molten Jailer Waller Plagued". Those are their affixes. Each one determines what special abilities that group of mobs will have. In normal, they only have one affix. In nightmare, they have 2, etc, etc.

What you also need to consider is that some types already come with 'built in' affixes, like the long arm tunneling plague dudes in A3. So they will do their normal nasty stuff + the affix. Those guys + Waller or Jailer in Normal are bad enough, add more affixes in higher difficulties and they can be deadly.

[GreenGoo]

has anyone mention illusionist? Produces mirror images of the mob with less hp. 1/4 hp is probably close, if not exact.

[stessier]

Another random question that I am still days, if not weeks, away from needing the answer to - once I finish Normal, should I continue with the same character through the next difficulty, or start over with a different class? I'd like to play them all eventually. And HC really intrigues me as well.

[Fretmute]

Another random question that I am still days, if not weeks, away from needing the answer to - once I finish Normal, should I continue with the same character through the next difficulty, or start over with a different class? I'd like to play them all eventually. And HC really intrigues me as well.

That depends on what you want to achieve. You're only going to be ~level 30 when you finish normal. There will still be many skills to unlock on the first character.

[stessier]

Another random question that I am still days, if not weeks, away from needing the answer to - once I finish Normal, should I continue with the same character through the next difficulty, or start over with a different class? I'd like to play them all eventually. And HC really intrigues me as well.

That depends on what you want to achieve. You're only going to be ~level 30 when you finish normal. There will still be many skills to unlock on the first character.

I guess it depends on how long it takes. I think it would be cool to get all the characters up to 60 and at least get access to Inferno. I'm not sure my play time will allow that to happen before my retirement, however. I'm already 2 weeks in and only in Act II Normal.

So then it comes down to fun. Is it more fun to unlock those skills and get to 60, or to roll new characters and see how those play? The story doesn't change at all between Difficulty Levels, right?

[noxiousdog]

has anyone mention illusionist? Produces mirror images of the mob with less hp. 1/4 hp is probably close, if not exact.

I kind of like these as there's more health globes to go around.

[LawBeefaroni]

I guess it depends on how long it takes. I think it would be cool to get all the characters up to 60 and at least get access to Inferno. I'm not sure my play time will allow that to happen before my retirement, however. I'm already 2 weeks in and only in Act II Normal.

So then it comes down to fun. Is it more fun to unlock those skills and get to 60, or to roll new characters and see how those play? The story doesn't change at all between Difficulty Levels, right?

2 weeks? How many hours? Normal is over pretty quick.

The story is the same for each difficulty level. Random events are different, obviously.

[Fretmute]

has anyone mention illusionist? Produces mirror images of the mob with less hp. 1/4 hp is probably close, if not exact.

I kind of like these as there's more health globes to go around.

Illusionists are huge for me, because Overpower procs heals based on the number of enemies it hits.

So then it comes down to fun. Is it more fun to unlock those skills and get to 60, or to roll new characters and see how those play? The story doesn't change at all between Difficulty Levels, right?

It was more fun for me to get to 60, because I was already playing the class that I knew I liked the best. YMMV.

The story does not change.

[stessier]

I guess it depends on how long it takes. I think it would be cool to get all the characters up to 60 and at least get access to Inferno. I'm not sure my play time will allow that to happen before my retirement, however. I'm already 2 weeks in and only in Act II Normal.

So then it comes down to fun. Is it more fun to unlock those skills and get to 60, or to roll new characters and see how those play? The story doesn't change at all between Difficulty Levels, right?

2 weeks? How many hours? Normal is over pretty quick.

The story is the same for each difficulty level. Random events are different, obviously.

I think I have 28 hours played, but that includes the LFG DH. I think maybe 18 on my solo DH. I am thorough and enjoy the sights. I talk to everyone and break every jar. And I haven't even opened the AH. I'm also not very good - I don't die that often, but it's also not unheard of.

[KiloOhm]

Another random question that I am still days, if not weeks, away from needing the answer to - once I finish Normal, should I continue with the same character through the next difficulty, or start over with a different class? I'd like to play them all eventually. And HC really intrigues me as well.

Personally I think the most fun is post ActII Nighmare and beyond. The game gets hard enough to continue to keep me on my toes.

Unless you don't like your class, then I'd restart.

[LawBeefaroni]

Another random question that I am still days, if not weeks, away from needing the answer to - once I finish Normal, should I continue with the same character through the next difficulty, or start over with a different class? I'd like to play them all eventually. And HC really intrigues me as well.

Personally I think the most fun is post ActII Nighmare and beyond. The game gets hard enough to continue to keep me on my toes.

Unless you don't like your class, then I'd restart.

You also have to start making some harder (but more meaningful) choices in skills and gear.

[YellowKing]

My current plan now that I've hit 60 with my Barbarian is to finish Hell and start dabbling in Inferno. Since I don't reasonably expect to finish Inferno anytime soon, my thought is that I'll start leveling up some other classes on the side. I've been hankering to roll up a Wizard (only class I haven't yet played).

I would highly recommend at least taking one character through Nightmare and Hell though, as they are a lot of fun.

[coopasonic]

I guess it depends on how long it takes. I think it would be cool to get all the characters up to 60 and at least get access to Inferno. I'm not sure my play time will allow that to happen before my retirement, however. I'm already 2 weeks in and only in Act II Normal.

So then it comes down to fun. Is it more fun to unlock those skills and get to 60, or to roll new characters and see how those play? The story doesn't change at all between Difficulty Levels, right?

2 weeks? How many hours? Normal is over pretty quick.

The story is the same for each difficulty level. Random events are different, obviously.

I think I have 28 hours played, but that includes the LFG DH. I think maybe 18 on my solo DH. I am thorough and enjoy the sights. I talk to everyone and break every jar. And I haven't even opened the AH. I'm also not very good - I don't die that often, but it's also not unheard of.

That's nuts.

Normal took my monk under 9 hours. 11 hours for my DH. You are *really* dragging it out. I guess that's cool if you are getting good value. I just can't imagine still being in act 2 after 18 hours. Unless you spend a lot of time standing around doing nothing you must be pretty over-leveled.

[stessier]

I guess it depends on how long it takes. I think it would be cool to get all the characters up to 60 and at least get access to Inferno. I'm not sure my play time will allow that to happen before my retirement, however. I'm already 2 weeks in and only in Act II Normal.

So then it comes down to fun. Is it more fun to unlock those skills and get to 60, or to roll new characters and see how those play? The story doesn't change at all between Difficulty Levels, right?

2 weeks? How many hours? Normal is over pretty quick.

The story is the same for each difficulty level. Random events are different, obviously.

I think I have 28 hours played, but that includes the LFG DH. I think maybe 18 on my solo DH. I am thorough and enjoy the sights. I talk to everyone and break every jar. And I haven't even opened the AH. I'm also not very good - I don't die that often, but it's also not unheard of.

That's nuts.

Normal took my monk under 9 hours. 11 hours for my DH. You are *really* dragging it out. I guess that's cool if you are getting good value. I just can't imagine still being in act 2 after 18 hours. Unless you spend a lot of time standing around doing nothing you must be pretty over-leveled.

I'll check again when I get home (really wish I could view my profile on Bnet like you can on SC2). The only thing I dragged out is this current Kulle run because I lost the vials I had collected. Otherwise it's been straight forward, "clear everything" play. I'm Level 25 - not sure if that is excessive or not. I know I got another level for redoing the Assassin room this morning, so at most I've got one "extra" level.

I am enjoying myself, though, so I'm not complaining, just questioning.

[Chaz]

I'm pretty sure my barb took a little over 20 hours to get all the way through Normal. I cleared out every single map and went through all the conversation options, but didn't do much dying. 18 hours through Act 2 is a bit long, but I can see it happening.

[LawBeefaroni]

I think Normal took me around 15-20 hours, but that included Whimsyshire and the associated farming.

[GreenGoo]

I'm pretty sure my barb took a little over 20 hours to get all the way through Normal. I cleared out every single map and went through all the conversation options, but didn't do much dying. 18 hours through Act 2 is a bit long, but I can see it happening.

I've got a Witch Doctor in Act II that is 10.x hours in. 15-20 hours sounds about right for how fast I do things solo.

[stessier]

I'll check again when I get home (really wish I could view my profile on Bnet like you can on SC2). The only thing I dragged out is this current Kulle run because I lost the vials I had collected. Otherwise it's been straight forward, "clear everything" play. I'm Level 25 - not sure if that is excessive or not. I know I got another level for redoing the Assassin room this morning, so at most I've got one "extra" level.

I am enjoying myself, though, so I'm not complaining, just questioning.

Just checked - I have 27:42 into the game, all in DH. Since the LFG has only had 5 session, each about 2 hours, that leaves 17:42 for my solo career. (I don't think there is anyway to see time stats for a specific character, is there?)

Edit: Ok, wow, found the individual time stat (main page ). 22:47 minutes for my solo character. 4:55 minutes for my LFG character. No wonder we aren't very far along in the group! And man, am I slow! In fairness, though, I lost 2 hours yesterday on the Kulle quest...so I should only be at 20 hours. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[Tao]

Ok I am sort of confused about something. I have not really payed much attention to the vendors, other than to sell all my crap, since a day or two after the game released. My Monk, level 54, is now in Act II Hell and on a whim I looked through some of the items the vendor was selling. out of 20 odd pieces of equipment for sale 18 of them were ilevel 44-46 and two were level 51. I don't feel over-leveled with my character and I have not redone much content or done much grinding but is Blizzard subtly saying I should have reached Act II Hell at level 45ish?? Why is the vendor selling items 8 to 10 levels below my character level, I know the drops really suck in this regard, found 2 rares playing earlier today and both were below level 48, but I figured that had to do with crappy loot tables. Shouldnt the vendor gear at least be level approrpiate even if the stats arent great???

[coopasonic]

I'll check again when I get home (really wish I could view my profile on Bnet like you can on SC2). The only thing I dragged out is this current Kulle run because I lost the vials I had collected. Otherwise it's been straight forward, "clear everything" play. I'm Level 25 - not sure if that is excessive or not. I know I got another level for redoing the Assassin room this morning, so at most I've got one "extra" level.

I am enjoying myself, though, so I'm not complaining, just questioning.

Just checked - I have 27:42 into the game, all in DH. Since the LFG has only had 5 session, each about 2 hours, that leaves 17:42 for my solo career. (I don't think there is anyway to see time stats for a specific character, is there?)

Edit: Ok, wow, found the individual time stat (main page ). 22:47 minutes for my solo character. 4:55 minutes for my LFG character. No wonder we aren't very far along in the group! And man, am I slow! In fairness, though, I lost 2 hours yesterday on the Kulle quest...so I should only be at 20 hours. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Barbarian, Level 60, Act I Inferno (meaning he completed 3 runs through the game start to finish), 45:40 played
Demon Hunter, Level 37, Act II Nightmare, 14:46 played
Monk, Level 40, Act II Nightmare, 13:21 played

My main observation is "Holy crap, I have played this game for over 70 hours."

[Fretmute]

51:31 on my Inferno Barb, and 12:14 on my level 39 DH.

[Chesspieceface]

90 hours on 60 Demon Hunter (farmer) - Inferno Act 2
28 hours on 52 Monk - Hell Act 1
25 hours on 44 Wiz - Nightmare Act 3
15 hours on 30 Barb - Normal Act 4

Plus time dinking on a WD and the Euro server during downtime. I haven't sunk time into a game like this in a long time. I think that I am beginning to approach temporary burnout.