Diablo 3 Impressions

[Daehawk]

I failed at the Butcher 5 times thanks to the lag pauses.

And act 2 is much more difficult I agree. It can be done but you must go slow.

[Crabbs]

Why does this game have to lag so badly? Im playing single player and it's pausing and freezing on me ...lag. Im dying trying to kill the butcher...over and over and over because of this lag. It did it in beta too. Nothing else I play online lags. My modem and router are working. So wth?? How can I play if all it does is lag me and kill me?

EDIT: Also is there a way to see the damage a spell will do? How can I compare the spell to an item if only the item shows how much damage it does?

I know others have complained about this and numerous "workarounds" fixes have been suggested. I'd search the D3 support forums to see if there is stuff there to help. Of course updated video drivers are always the first check (I'm assuming you've done that) and then play around with settings from there:

1) Check Drivers
2) Disable Windows Indexing
3) Play around with Card Driver Render Settings

Best of luck. I've had to do some tweaking, especially for the sewers - god that water just kills my frame rate - but it's very playable and smooth everywhere else. Too bad they have so many issues with their optimization, I can't play on my M11X r2 because it locks up after about 1 hour of play, which doesn't go over well with HC characters.

Edit: Grammar

[dbt1949]

Kelsy

[pr0ner]

Why does this game have to lag so badly? Im playing single player and it's pausing and freezing on me ...lag. Im dying trying to kill the butcher...over and over and over because of this lag. It did it in beta too. Nothing else I play online lags. My modem and router are working. So wth?? How can I play if all it does is lag me and kill me?

EDIT: Also is there a way to see the damage a spell will do? How can I compare the spell to an item if only the item shows how much damage it does?

I know others have complained about this and numerous "workarounds" fixes have been suggested. I'd search the D3 support forums to see if there is stuff there to help. Of course updated video drivers are always the first check (I'm assuming you've done that) and then play around with settings from there:

1) Check Drivers
2) Disable Windows Indexing
3) Play around with Card Driver Render Settings

Best of luck. I've had to do some tweaking, especially for the sewers - god that water just kills my frame rate - but it's very playable and smooth everywhere else. Too bad they have so many issues with their optimization, I can't play on my M11X r2 because it locks up after about 1 hour of play, which doesn't go over well with HC characters.

Edit: Grammar

Yeah, lag isn't always a direct result of Blizzard's servers. If your computer can't handle the game, you will lag, and you will die, simply because your computer can't keep up, not because of Blizzard's servers. Running everything maxed out could be a direct cause of Daehawk dying so much.

[Daehawk]

Seems it's happened to about everyone since Friday. We have a 10 page complaint post now on Blizzard. Everyone has the same problem. It's something Blizz has done to it. I have a high end system i built myself.

[LawBeefaroni]

I've been getting lots of rubber banding and delayed pops (like if you open a chest, it takes a second or two for everything to pop out). That's a network/server thing, not a hardware thing.

[GreenGoo]

I will admit that lag has increased for me recently, but nothing show stopping so far. It's very noticeable considering the game has been mostly silky smooth for me since I started playing.

[Lorini]

I've had no issues at all. Over the weekend, the past week, or today or really anytime except when they take the servers down without notice.

[Crabbs]

I've been getting lots of rubber banding and delayed pops (like if you open a chest, it takes a second or two for everything to pop out). That's a network/server thing, not a hardware thing.

Yep I've seen rubberbanding too, definitely a Blizzard side thing. I interpreted that Daehawk's Lag is different from Rubber banding. The rubber banding hasn't been bad enough to get me killed -- and I'm playing HC toons.

I guess we need more info from Daehawk to know which side it's on his or theirs.

Seems it's happened to about everyone since Friday. We have a 10 page complaint post now on Blizzard. Everyone has the same problem. It's something Blizz has done to it. I have a high end system i built myself.

But you said earlier it's been happening to you since beta.... I guess I'm confused.

If you're talking about rubber banding, yeah it's happening a lot, but not to the degree of death of characters.

If you're talking about the stuttering it's on your side - probably Blizzard's poor optimization of Graphics code, but it's not a networking issue, High end system or not isn't the problem, it's how the graphics engine plays with the video drives - often not very well.

I play on 3 different machines, pretty much the same specs besides graphics cards, none of them are slouches (all self built), and it plays very differently on each on. I've had to tweak it for each machine. It's a surprisingly fussy game from machine to machine.

[msduncan]

I have officially stopped picking up the following:

1. Gems unless they are Flawless Square
2. Blues of any kind
3. Yellows under level 60


I was spending enormous amounts of time going through my inventory. Even as it is I just automatically salvage anything level 60. I take a glance at 61's, and really pay close attention to any level 62s and 63s.

[Daehawk]

I'll try to clear myself up.

In beta I was fine until near the end when I started getting disconnected.

Then in retail I was fine till this weekend.

I will be going along fine then everything on screen stops..except me. i can still run around and fire spells and stuff but the rest is frozen in time. Most times it will start back up. i'll rubberband to where I was when it froze and either die instantly because on the server side I was just standing there getting hit but on my side it was all froze but me. Or ill get really hurt and have to run away. A lot of other times though when it freezes it will then simply disconnect me after a few seconds of frozen screen other than me.

Im sure its not my side because I have changed nothing over the weekend. I did get a patch from battle.net when I loggedm in to play this weekend.

My system specs...nothing over clocked besides the factory overclocked video card.

Intel i7 2500=K @ 3.4 ghz
Asus P8P67 Deluxe mobo
G-Skill Ripjaw memory 8 gig
MSI Frozr Golden Orb II GTX 560 video card Copper Edition

[Crabbs]

Yep your right, that sounds like blizzard's problem, sorry I misunderstood. they did have a nasty crash this afternoon, maybe that fixed it.

[Daehawk]

Well I just played some Team Fortress 2...a game I never have ANY problems with...and I was getting those pauses. I didn't get booted but it did freeze me up about every 2 min or so for about 10 sec at a time.

I wonder if the FBI shutting down that DNS server has affected my ISP ? It would seem everything I do is going to be impossible to play.

[GreenGoo]

Just had a major server side hiccup. Killed me twice, back to back without a break in between. then, about 60 seconds after it started, it was done.

Oh, and I sold another item on the RMAH for a buck twentyfive for a total profit of a quarter. Go me.

[GreenGoo]

I wonder if the FBI shutting down that DNS server has affected my ISP ? It would seem everything I do is going to be impossible to play.

Not likely.

Either you have a good dns server that resolves names properly or you're configured to use a non-existent (now, after the fbi took it down) DNS, in which case you'd get no names resolved.

[Daehawk]

Oh ok. Makes sense.

After running multiple speed tests online there is clearly something up with the net. Downstream Im getting my speed or drastically lower. On upload though it is dead and sucks. I get no connection or 0.43...which is really not even working. This has happened before.

Then again there are a LOT of others with issues on D# servers. So either mine is a fluke or the new or Charter itself is having troubles and all of us use Charter,...which I doubt.

[Chesspieceface]

Then again there are a LOT of others with issues on D# servers. So either mine is a fluke or the new or Charter itself is having troubles and all of us use Charter,...which I doubt.

Or... the number of people with issues is relatively small compared to the number of people who bought the game and it seems to you like a lot of people are having issues because you go to the official place for people to report issues (and they sold 7 million copies to people with all different providers and access configuration) so that if even 1% of users are having a problem with their personal ISP but decide to blame Blizzard its still 70,000 people complaining.

That aside I personally had very few connectivity issues after the first day except when Blizz was shutting stuff down without warning. Granted I didn't play this weekend and I don't doubt that you are having internet issues. I've just seen Diablo 3 take a huge beating since release and I don't think its completely fair. There are some real issues that I don't defend, but Blizzard not knowing how to host an online game should not be one of them.

Hope it clears up quick.

[Daehawk]

Yes. Seems Diablo 3 does not handle twitchy internet well. Where other games with pause or rubberband or flicker then continue..D3 will dump a player.

[Daehawk]

My net is getting worse. Just trying to surf the web or watch a youtube vid it's pausing pausing pausing pausing. I loaded D3 and in town it paused on my 2 times walking from spawn in to the inn . It then disconnected me.

Speed tests are still showing half my down speed and 9.40 or so upload...if it registers upload at all. But the thing is it's not just me...its either my whole ISP.>Charter...or the whole internet...maybe my area.

I cannot get any troubleshooting info from Charters website. In the old days my ISP always had alerts up telling about outages or problems. If I call them all I get is Bob or Shelly in the Philippines who I cant understand who I think is trying to read from a script telling me to do stuff Ive done on my own multiple times.

Its nearly 2am and ive not gotten to play anything all day and night. IM BORED and mad.

[Daehawk]

It's my ISP. It has spread to my phone too now and it's on it's own modem. I called them and they couldn't even help me because their entire call center had crashed and they could not even get to their help tools. They said to call back today after 12pm. Not sure if they can fix it or not since they cant even fix themselves. I'll be lucky to get this reply posted...no gaming, no surfing, and no phone calling.

[stessier]

It's my ISP. It has spread to my phone too now and it's on it's own modem. I called them and they couldn't even help me because their entire call center had crashed and they could not even get to their help tools. They said to call back today after 12pm. Not sure if they can fix it or not since they cant even fix themselves. I'll be lucky to get this reply posted...no gaming, no surfing, and no phone calling.

I don't know if it gives you hope or not, but I'm on Charter in WI and we are doing fine.

Do you have Charter for your phone as well? If so, did you know you can pick it up and dial 600 to get help at any time? We had some issues in April and were told this - quite useful actually.

[Sudy Nym]

I have officially stopped picking up the following:

1. Gems unless they are Flawless Square
2. Blues of any kind
3. Yellows under level 60

I totally understand this, but it frustrates me. Feels like Blizzard really dropped the ball on itemization. And using the AH (at least for me), has been equally frustrating. I used to have a ball in WoW. The AH was its own minigame. But here, the RMAH has completely destroyed item design and the economy.

If only the world had been more random. Or at least, they enabled you to automatically skip conversations and cutscenes. Do they really expect me to be interested the 10th time through? The skill system is so brilliant, even if it's unbalanced in inferno. Limiting you to six skills is genius.

[msduncan]

I am a little concerned by the loot system now. There are pages and pages of this on the Blizzard forums that I mostly dismiss as people complaining, but there are a few good points people are making:

1. Set pieces. In D2, set pieces were rare but there was a reasonable path to collecting sets if you put enough time in. I have about 450 hours or something into the game and have found exactly 1 set piece

2. Legendary drops are absolute garbage. I have never found or seen a legendary that was even equivalent to good rolls on the same level yellow rares. they should be equal with the potential to be even better.... they have the fancy unique graphics, so they should really take their seat as (potentially) being the best items you can get if you get the right roll

3. The end game for D2 was the hunt for loot. Somehow that is broken in this game. Many many people report having spent hundreds of hours playing and not really finding any upgrades to THEIR equipment through drops. You almost have to resort to the AH after you start Inferno.

Still playing for the chance of a great drop, but I do see challenges.

[Smoove_B]

You almost have to resort to the AH after you start Inferno.

Of course you do. A single player cannot possibly garner the same results as the millions of other players all rolling against the same loot tables. I firmly believe the game was designed around the auction house and the fact that Blizzard takes a cut only serves to convince me more. I don't have a fraction of the amount of time some of you have played, but it became painfully obvious to me after my 4th alt that using the auction house was orders of magnitude more efficient in terms of getting the gear I wanted/needed at the time I needed it. "Farm" some area for hours on end or spend 30 seconds searching the auction house? It's not even a discussion (for me).

[ska5fe]

I haven't bought anything off the Auction House since I was level 50 or so, and I'm still having an absolute blast with this game. Ran through Act I inferno with 3 other friends for about an hour last night and got 3 upgrades (all given to me from others in the game). I think playing with other people is better than +magic find gear (and more fun in general). If anyone sees me online and wants to do Act I Inferno, feel free to join. I think I'm getting close to being ready for Act II, but am not sure yet. At any rate, the game is still really fun for me.

[msduncan]

You almost have to resort to the AH after you start Inferno.

Of course you do. A single player cannot possibly garner the same results as the millions of other players all rolling against the same loot tables. I firmly believe the game was designed around the auction house and the fact that Blizzard takes a cut only serves to convince me more. I don't have a fraction of the amount of time some of you have played, but it became painfully obvious to me after my 4th alt that using the auction house was orders of magnitude more efficient in terms of getting the gear I wanted/needed at the time I needed it. "Farm" some area for hours on end or spend 30 seconds searching the auction house? It's not even a discussion (for me).

I expected for the AH to take a center role in the game. What I failed to understand was the profound effect it would have on drops. They have to make the drops unbelievably rare to manage the number of items on the AH. If they bump it a tenth of a percent, you have thousands more items hit the AH due to the sheer number of players worldwide.

[noxiousdog]

FWIW, I'm finding an upgrade here and there. However, I have alt-itis so I'm playing for 5 characters, not one.

[GreenGoo]

Forgot to mention I found another unique. My 5th I think. I have about 200+ hours in the game, over 9 (yes, 9) characters. It was a sidegrade for my DH, so I equipped it. I've already seen drops that were arguably better but I've kept the unique as a matter of principle, for now.

Interestingly, I've stopped using the auction houses to buy things. I've only been selling for the last 2 weeks or so. Not sure why. Mostly because I haven't found the need to, since I only recently had 1 character reach 60, and the rest were progressing ok. I did need Fret to cheese a couple of boss battles for me, but only because I had stubbornly held onto my mf gear instead of equipping more effective upgrades I found along the way. I've since rectified that with 1 character, and will soon do so with another. The second character will have to go back an Act/difficulty level, as she is currently being 1 shotted in Hell, so will need to farm a bit or have one of her older cousins do it for her.

Anyone know if Hell Whimsyshire drops ilvl 63 items or not? I'm guessing not.

Out of the freaking blue I started playing my DH again, taking her from 34 to 51 in a few days. She was my 2nd to finish normal and has sat idle since then, but a few lucky drops and an interesting build and I'm having a blast playing her. It wouldn't surprise me to see cluster arrow/cluster bombs nerfed in the future. Once you get a handle on the mechanics, it's a crazy damaging skill. Probably only earthquake could rival it, but it's not on a cooldown, instead limited by being resource intensive. Unfortunately/fortunately the resource costs can be mitigated somewhat, meaning it's almost spammable, and certainly burst spammable for insane dps.

The barb I play in our 4 man group is in danger of becoming my highest level barb, as my single player one has been on hold for weeks now. chances are good the group barb will surpass the single player one this week. I may end up deleting the single player barb (I also have a HC barb sitting outside the butcher's room) to give me more character slots for future use. I'll probably need it for the expansion anyway.

I love the character skill mechanics in this game. They did a really good job making multiple builds viable and fun. Most classes have more than 1 build that works in inferno, and everything works in the lower difficulty levels, so that's pretty awesome.

[Lorini]

They did not design the game around the auction house, you can't/should never design around an element of the game you can't test. Their first developer Q&A said that players were far ahead of where the developers expected them to be, and that this was because of the Auction House. They've also stated that Legendaries will be improved significantly, but I don't recall if that would happen in the 1.04 patch or the PvP patch (1.1).

[LawBeefaroni]

3. The end game for D2 was the hunt for loot. Somehow that is broken in this game. Many many people report having spent hundreds of hours playing and not really finding any upgrades to THEIR equipment through drops. You almost have to resort to the AH after you start Inferno.

I'd add the carrot of leveling. It took forever, but when you did level your skills got a bump. In D3 you stop leveling at 60. And even before that, all you get are runes. Base skills never improve except as affected by gear so you have to get item upgrades to get stronger, you can't just grind out a few levels. In D2, while looking for loot, you were also gaining strength by leveling (well, up to 99 anyway if you made it that far).

[msduncan]

Are they doing maintenance today?

Are the commodities finally coming to the RMAH today? I'm at work and can't check.

[LawBeefaroni]

Are they doing maintenance today?

Are the commodities finally coming to the RMAH today? I'm at work and can't check.

We will be performing scheduled maintenance for Diablo III starting tomorrow (7/10) at 5:00 a.m. PDT in order to deploy patch 1.0.3b. We anticipate that maintenance will conclude and that all services will be available by approximately 10:00 a.m. PDT.

Important: Please note that you will not be prompted to download patch 1.0.3b until the patch is live in your home region. If you are logging in from a European or Asian client, you will need to wait for this patch to release in that region before it can be installed. Additionally, if your home region is the Americas, you will be unable to log into Europe or Asia using Global Play after patch 1.0.3b is live until those regions have also patched.

For reference, here are the scheduled maintenance times for each region:

The Americas: 5:00 a.m. PDT to 10:00 a.m. PDT
Asia: 1:00 p.m. PDT to 5:00 p.m. PDT
Europe: 8:00 p.m. PDT to 12:00 a.m. PDT

Please note that these times are estimated and subject to change. For time zone assistance,
please visit: http://everytimezone.com

Diablo III Patch 1.0.3b – v.1.0.3.10485

The latest client patch notes can be found here.
Visit our Bug Report forum for a list of known issues.
The most recent hotfixes can be found here.

Auction House

•Bug Fixes

•The "Bid" and "Buyout" buttons will now be correctly grayed-out in the confirmation window when attempting to purchase an item with insufficient gold


Bug Fixes

•General

•Fixed a bug where leaving a heavily-populated General chat channel would prevent players from rejoining any General chat channel until they logged out and logged back in
•Fixed several tooltip-related bugs that were occurring when viewing items with 2 or more sockets in the auction house and profile pages
•Fixed a rare crash with tutorials on item pickup

[msduncan]

Hmm.... I wonder if they are scared to death now that commodities on the RMAH will completely finish off the unstable in-game economy.

[Lorini]

They are performing maintenance on the Gold AH and the RMAH right now so who knows. This time last week they said the RMAH commodities would be up very soon without the gold part.

[Daehawk]

Do you have Charter for your phone as well? If so, did you know you can pick it up and dial 600 to get help at any time? We had some issues in April and were told this - quite useful actually.

Yes I have Charter phone. But if my modem is not working there is no dial tone and no way to dial 600

[Lorini]

Commodities RMAH is UP! Fill that baby please so I can spend this stupid $50 I put into blizz bucks by accident.

[msduncan]

Can you check for me what the market price is on the following:

Exquisite Essences
Tome of Secrets

and a couple others if you want....

[McBa1n]

Hmm.... I wonder if they are scared to death now that commodities on the RMAH will completely finish off the unstable in-game economy.

Bingo. Gold is stupid cheap to buy and it's going to keep moving that way as more and more bot farms get involved in the game. I thought Blizzard believed they'd actually make money with the RMAH via commodities. Joke is on them. 15% of 0 is 0. If they were smart, they'd hire a couple of economists and start banning ips of bot farms. It's not that hard to detect players that play 24/7 and do the exact same thing heh. They were able to detect bots in D2, when they wanted. It just seems like they don't care this go around.

A side point - I found a belt for a barbarian friend last night that was the FIRST upgrade that either of us could use/be viable on inferno difficulty. 1 upgrade with 2 guys farming (not as much as MSD, but a LOT) for all this time. What a shame... Booo! I'm considering alternatives and looking for ways to generate just straight cash faster... Gear has totally stagnated for me for over a month now - and weapon upgrades are stupid expensive.

[Daehawk]

BTW my net seems fixed today. haven't tried it in game yet. Can only cross my fingers. Want to get in some demon bashing today.

[Lorini]

Can you check for me what the market price is on the following:

Exquisite Essences $27 for 100 (um I gotta go sell some exquisite essences brb!!)
Tome of Secrets $27 per 100 (woah!!)