Diablo 3 Impressions

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue May 15, 2012 9:18 pm

Installed from disk, registered serial number on my battle.net account. Authenticated on battle.net page to register game. Authenticated in game when logging in through game. Watched intro. Picked female monk, named her, watched her intro spiel. In game without a hitch. Slight lag is pissing me off more than I expected, but it's tiny and everything works as you would hope/expect.

Maybe I just got lucky.

Off I go.

Asharak · Post by **Asharak** » Tue May 15, 2012 9:30 pm

GreenGoo wrote:Maybe I just got lucky.

I've played for eight hours today, spread across three different play sessions, without a single log-in problem, disconnection, or any noticeable lag.

That's not to diminish the problems anyone else is having. They're not universal, is all I'm saying.

- Ash

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Tue May 15, 2012 9:34 pm

Asharak wrote:That's not to diminish the problems anyone else is having. They're not universal, is all I'm saying.

Yeah, I'll second this. I'm not trying to deny the problems, I'm just saying that they aren't omnipresent. Aside from the time period from 3 AM to 4 AM this morning, I've had zero problems with the game, personally.

Freddybear · Post by **Freddybear** » Tue May 15, 2012 11:11 pm

Servers were back online after dinner time this evening, so I've been playing for the last four+ hours. Finished Act 1. Lots of fun. Lots of skin-of-the-teeth moments. The skill progression system pretty much guarantees that you'll have the right stuff to defeat anything, but you still have to pick the right stuff for any given fight. Major boss fights definitely require the right choices.

Spoiler:

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Tue May 15, 2012 11:15 pm

Played from 9:30pm EST until 11:15pm EST and got booted and couldn't get back in. Guess it was Blizzard's way of telling me to go to bed.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue May 15, 2012 11:26 pm

Played for a bit then logged to get Elise to bed.

Now that I have 3 hours of uninterrupted playtime I can't login to play my single-player game.

Infuriating.

Orgull · Post by **Orgull** » Tue May 15, 2012 11:42 pm

I just got booted too. First time. Right in the middle of the cutscene after Act II

Spoiler:

Crabbs · Post by **Crabbs** » Tue May 15, 2012 11:44 pm

Orgull wrote:I just got booted too. First time. Right in the middle of the cutscene after Act II

Spoiler:
The fight against Belial was insane, much harder than Diablo himself from Diablo 2 imho. Though it would probably be easier for a melee character. His AoE attacks are instadeath to Glass Cannon type characters. I died over twenty times till I got it right.

I think the servers went KaBOOOOM! Disconnected middle of a fight.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed May 16, 2012 12:01 am

Exodor wrote:Played for a bit then logged to get Elise to bed.

Now that I have 3 hours of uninterrupted playtime I can't login to play my single-player game.

Infuriating.

I think this is the worst part. I prefer to game on my schedule, not someone else's maintenance schedule. I play when I can block off a few hours, or even 30 minutes, not when they decide to allow it.

Yeah, in a week it won't be an issue, everything will be fixed. I get it. But it still sucks and has wasted a lot of peoples' time.

As for the game, got some more time in between outages and remain happy with the feel of the gameplay, still very Diablo despite the skill stuff. Music is good. However, the graphical style is a bit off IMO. Hitting Z or during in-game cutscenes, it looks way too much like WOW.

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:02 am

For the record, the Asia and Europe servers aren't having any difficulties. They've gotten almost perfect uptime since shortly after launch. The only downside to playing there is slightly higher ping and no access to the RMAH or shared stash.

Just a possible alternative.

Moat_Man · Post by **Moat_Man** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:28 am

How do you remap the secondary skill to the #1 button? I am fooling around with the Witch Doctor on the Asian server and the primary skill (LMB) is a ranged attack. My knife was the secondary attack (RMB) until I leveled. I got to choose a secondary skill (the creepy slowing hands) and it automatically assigned it to the RMB. I now can't attack with my knife because I can't figure out how to A) assign the knife to the #1 button, or B) assign the secondary skill to #1 and put the knife back on the RMB.

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:33 am

Moat_Man wrote:How do you remap the secondary skill to the #1 button? I am fooling around with the Witch Doctor on the Asian server and the primary skill (LMB) is a ranged attack. My knife was the secondary attack (RMB) until I leveled. I got to choose a secondary skill (the creepy slowing hands) and it automatically assigned it to the RMB. I now can't attack with my knife because I can't figure out how to A) assign the knife to the #1 button, or B) assign the secondary skill to #1 and put the knife back on the RMB.

Well, in the first place, there's pretty much no reason to ever use your basic weapon attack. Skills are pretty much always better.

But aside from that, the only way I can think of is to just not assign that second ability. To clear it, just drag it off the button.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:43 am

Go into options and check mark the 'elective mode' choice.

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:46 am

Daehawk wrote:Go into options and check mark the 'elective mode' choice.

That doesn't help at level 2. The slots open up based on level, and the level 2 slot is the right mouse button. Even with elective mode, anything you put in the secondary skill slot is going to use the right mouse (or whatever you replace the right mouse click with).

Moat_Man · Post by **Moat_Man** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:52 am

I found elective mode and it tantalizing lets you drag your skills around but it won't let them stick to the action buttons. They appear to be level based which is a bit goofy. I supposed it won't take long to get to level four but it still seems a bit weird to not care at all about my weapon.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Wed May 16, 2012 1:58 am

Moat_Man wrote:I found elective mode and it tantalizing lets you drag your skills around but it won't let them stick to the action buttons. They appear to be level based which is a bit goofy. I supposed it won't take long to get to level four but it still seems a bit weird to not care at all about my weapon.

It seems weapon affects skills dmg. But yes, its very strange that basic weapon is for nothing more then a show. Since skills are always better.
I played a bit on asian server, but it plays 5-10 min and then kicks. Will have to wait for normal fix for American servers.

Zurai · Post by **Zurai** » Wed May 16, 2012 2:04 am

Moat_Man wrote:I found elective mode and it tantalizing lets you drag your skills around but it won't let them stick to the action buttons. They appear to be level based which is a bit goofy. I supposed it won't take long to get to level four but it still seems a bit weird to not care at all about my weapon.

You absolutely need to care about your weapon. Every single damage skill in the game for every class in the game bases its damage off your weapon's damage.

There's just no reason to actually use the basic no-skill-applied attack. Ever. For the record, if you run out of <insert class resource> and try to attack with a skill that costs more resource than you have, the game will substitute the basic weapon attack.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed May 16, 2012 7:47 am

So I had the Steeling with Feeling achievement yesterday. After the restart my Blacksmith was leveled up but the achievement was gone, so I just leveled it up again and didn't get it. Since the Blacksmith is tied to my account I can't reset it back to level 0 so I could level it up again. Hopefully they'll fix that as apparently a lot of people lost their achievements. I had that happen in WoW and it was never fixed so not holding my breath

Hyena · Post by **Hyena** » Wed May 16, 2012 8:17 am

Haven't looked through the thread yet, but is there a way to fight the Skeleton King again without resetting the entire quest? I guess they did that to cut down on farming bosses for items?

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Wed May 16, 2012 8:19 am

Changing routers seems to have solved the problem. So all everyone with a DLR-615 router that is causing the 3007 error needs to do is just buy a brand new router to play the game. Sounds fair. This problem did not exist in beta at all so I still think it's server-side problem. Luckily I borrowed one off a friend.

Whatever, I'm up and running now, but this definitely didn't have a positive effect on my initially neutral perspective of always online single play.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed May 16, 2012 8:26 am

I hate defending companies in general, but when I got Bioshock my video card which worked perfectly did not have the correct pixel shader and thus was completely unable to play the game.

While router is a pretty unusual requirement, it's not like minimum hardware requirements are something unheard of.

Lastly, if it's just a single router model that is causing the problem, it's probably an issue with the design of the router, despite working normally otherwise. It wouldn't be the first time a company added their own tweaks that took the hardware away from the default protocols white papers expect it to have.

I'm not happy about the situation, and I don't think it's your fault J.D. I am just struggling to get angry at Blizzard for something like that. You should probably ask DLink why their router is causing issues when every other model of router in existence seems to be working fine.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Wed May 16, 2012 9:30 am

Zurai wrote:You absolutely need to care about your weapon. Every single damage skill in the game for every class in the game bases its damage off your weapon's damage.

Absolutely. I went through most of the first part of the Skeleton King quest with the Wizard starter wand (no drops and nothing on vendor). Finally towards the end I had enough mats to craft another wand and I went from 3-4 shots per mob to 1 shotting them. Major difference. Thankfully I've gathered enough stuff that no other character will have to go so long with their starting weapon!

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed May 16, 2012 9:53 am

Managed to get all the way to levle 8 last night between the kids bed time and the servers going down. At this rate I should be done in 2015. I still haven't gotten to the skeleton king, but I am getting closer. I really hope things are smooth on Saturday when I have a 12 hour production implementation where my job is to tell people to do stuff every 45 minutes or so, in other words, to play video games for 58 minutes per hour.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:18 am

Jag wrote:
Zurai wrote:You absolutely need to care about your weapon. Every single damage skill in the game for every class in the game bases its damage off your weapon's damage.
Absolutely. I went through most of the first part of the Skeleton King quest with the Wizard starter wand (no drops and nothing on vendor). Finally towards the end I had enough mats to craft another wand and I went from 3-4 shots per mob to 1 shotting them. Major difference. Thankfully I've gathered enough stuff that no other character will have to go so long with their starting weapon!

None at all? I found white axes that were better than that starting wand. You know that it doesn't have to be a wand or staff right? Any weapon that you can equip will work

Dramatist · Post by **Dramatist** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:20 am

I got the game and have played my demon hunter to lvl 10, right past the skeleton king. I never played in in beta but I'm enjoying things so far. Only thing is the skeleton king dropped an orange bow and it's a whole lot worse than a non magical bow I picked up several levels earlier. Oh Well....

My battlenet ID is - Dramatist#1386 if anyone wants to add me.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:23 am

Honestly I've yet to see anything that makes this game significantly better than Dungeon Siege III yet. Granted, I'm only lvl 9 but outside the Artisans, there's nothing really new here. Maybe it's just too early in the game?

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:30 am

hepcat wrote:Honestly I've yet to see anything that makes this game significantly better than Dungeon Siege III yet. Granted, I'm only lvl 9 but outside the Artisans, there's nothing really new here. Maybe it's just too early in the game?

oMG. It's like I don't even know you.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:34 am

msduncan wrote:
hepcat wrote:Honestly I've yet to see anything that makes this game significantly better than Dungeon Siege III yet. Granted, I'm only lvl 9 but outside the Artisans, there's nothing really new here. Maybe it's just too early in the game?

oMG. It's like I don't even know you.

And that is the sole reason I still allow myself to keep an open mind about the existence of God.

RLMullen · Post by **RLMullen** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:35 am

J.D. wrote:Changing routers seems to have solved the problem. So all everyone with a DLR-615 router that is causing the 3007 error needs to do is just buy a brand new router to play the game. Sounds fair. This problem did not exist in beta at all so I still think it's server-side problem. Luckily I borrowed one off a friend.

Whatever, I'm up and running now, but this definitely didn't have a positive effect on my initially neutral perspective of always online single play.

I'm getting frequent 3007 errors, and I'm *not* using a DLR-615. I'm using a newer Linksys router, so if anyone is thinking of buying a new router, beware that the problem might not be exclusive to the DLR-615. I'm not sure what model I have; I'll look it up when I get home.

I notice that the DLR-615 is a "wireless N" router, as is my Linksys. I'm wondering if there is something going on with the multi-anntenna tech in the "N" spec that is wreaking havoc with the game's "sync" code.

I've got a couple of questions J.D. if you don't mind...
- What router did you use as a replacement?
- Are you connecting wirelessly?
- If you are connecting wirelessly, were you using the full capability of the 802.11-n when you were using the DLR-615? (I think this is the default when connecting to a wireless "N" router)

I might try restricting my connection to a single band and single channel -- the old 802.11-g. I'll see if that clears up my 3007 problems. I'd do some more experimenting, but since my wife now uses her computer for her business, network downtime is something to be avoided. I might have to "work" 3rd shift tonight to do some troubleshooting.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:36 am

hepcat wrote:Honestly I've yet to see anything that makes this game significantly better than Dungeon Siege III yet. Granted, I'm only lvl 9 but outside the Artisans, there's nothing really new here. Maybe it's just too early in the game?

He's gone Troll!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:38 am

If you're looking for router suggestions, Linksys makes a fantastic series. I have the E3000 that I bought at a best buy and it's never once given me trouble with any games or online services.

Jag wrote:
hepcat wrote:Honestly I've yet to see anything that makes this game significantly better than Dungeon Siege III yet. Granted, I'm only lvl 9 but outside the Artisans, there's nothing really new here. Maybe it's just too early in the game?
He's gone Troll!

I'm not hating on the game, I'm just not seeing why it's being so highly touted by everyone. Is it primarily because it follows the same game mechanics as D2 and D1 closely and it's nostalgia? I'm having fun with it, but I'm just curious if I'm missing something. Like I said, maybe it's just too early in the game for me. I really don't wanna be "that guy" that pooh poohs a game just because it's popular. God knows i've jumped on more than one bandwagon for a popular game.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:49 am

It's one of the original hamster-wheel games, now updated for 2012. Crack addicts still like crack - news at 11.

I played the Monk for a little over an hour yesterday and made it to level 7. My favorite thing was the combat animations, but I really don't like being in the action for fights, so I switched off to the Witch Doctor this morning and played for just about another hour (level 8) and also found it quite enjoyable. For reference I did play the beta but intentionally stopped playing after about 30 minutes as not to spoil the fun of actually having the full game.

Glad they give you 9 slots as I might try the Wizard next. Alt-itis is the worst.

skystride · Post by **skystride** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:49 am

Matrix wrote: It seems weapon affects skills dmg. But yes, its very strange that basic weapon is for nothing more then a show. Since skills are always better.
I played a bit on asian server, but it plays 5-10 min and then kicks. Will have to wait for normal fix for American servers.

Yes this bothers me. Kind of takes the fun out of finding a cool type of weapon since type seems mostly irrelevant. I should only care for weapon damage/stats.

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:49 am

I played all the way through DS3 and I have to say that D3 is a lot different. It has that Diablo atmosphere and feel. It doesn't have the console taint.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Wed May 16, 2012 10:52 am

Smoove_B wrote: For reference I did play the beta but intentionally stopped playing after about 30 minutes as not to spoil the fun of actually having the full game.

You! It's you, you're the reason for all the bugs!

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Wed May 16, 2012 11:00 am

I'm not hating on the game, I'm just not seeing why it's being so highly touted by everyone. Is it primarily because it follows the same game mechanics as D2 and D1 closely and it's nostalgia?

If you're not playing multiplayer, then you probably won't understand. Diablo 2 was like the king of action-RPG multiplayer, and I don't think any other clone or similar game has ever come close to it.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed May 16, 2012 11:08 am

IceBear wrote:
Jag wrote:
Zurai wrote:You absolutely need to care about your weapon. Every single damage skill in the game for every class in the game bases its damage off your weapon's damage.
Absolutely. I went through most of the first part of the Skeleton King quest with the Wizard starter wand (no drops and nothing on vendor). Finally towards the end I had enough mats to craft another wand and I went from 3-4 shots per mob to 1 shotting them. Major difference. Thankfully I've gathered enough stuff that no other character will have to go so long with their starting weapon!
None at all? I found white axes that were better than that starting wand. You know that it doesn't have to be a wand or staff right? Any weapon that you can equip will work

My level 7 monk is sporting a shield and poisonous spear. She looks damn good in them too. Of course she puts them away every time she hits something, but it's still a good look for her.

Me likey glowy effects. I almost wish I had the CE so I could sprout wings.

I'm also willing to start up a regular group thing with characters that only get played with that group, such as we did with Borderlands, if there is interest. I should probably check with my regular group first.

I found myself thinking "damn, this would be even more fun with some other people" last night. Usually I don't touch multiplayer until I've played through at my own pace at least once.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed May 16, 2012 11:13 am

RLMullen wrote:
J.D. wrote:Changing routers seems to have solved the problem. So all everyone with a DLR-615 router that is causing the 3007 error needs to do is just buy a brand new router to play the game. Sounds fair. This problem did not exist in beta at all so I still think it's server-side problem. Luckily I borrowed one off a friend.

Whatever, I'm up and running now, but this definitely didn't have a positive effect on my initially neutral perspective of always online single play.
I'm getting frequent 3007 errors, and I'm *not* using a DLR-615. I'm using a newer Linksys router

Well there goes that theory.

Hope you get it working stably soon RLM.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed May 16, 2012 11:24 am

So my monk is level 7. I got a chance to play all the classes in the open beta weekend, so I know a little bit about the classes. They are all fun and offer something for nearly everyone, in terms of playstyle.

I'm currently using the first primary power (aoe on third strike) with the first rune (teleport to target, tiny cone aoe of lightning). I'm using the first secondary power (180 degree hook kick in tae kwon do. Not sure what other arts call it). Knocks back and 200% weapon damage in a small cone aoe. I have the first rune for that too, which gives a 360 degree aoe to the kick (but knockback is still only the frontal cone aoe) with a nice burn dot. I'm also using the first defensive skill, blind.

I gotta tell you, she is just a joy to play. Teleport, aoe aoe, kick, knockback teleport, more aoe, blind aoe aoe aoe. The aoe's are tiny so the mobs need to be engaging you in hand to hand to get hit by it, but that feels right given the class's theme.

It gives me a nice sense of actively playing the character, giving me control over combos because of the 3 skills and really gives a great feeling of power in an action rpg. The best part is that I ENJOY fighting things. It's not just a dull grind to kill the mobs, get the exp, pick up the loot (well it is, that's the entire basis of the game) but the combat is more fun than I was expecting. Thank goodness.

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Wed May 16, 2012 11:30 am

Yeah, monk was by far my favorite in Beta.
They really upped the difficulty cause I had some trouble with the Skeleton King which I didn't had, even in 4 players game, in beta.