Diablo 3 Impressions

[Crabbs]

Not that this matters to many of you 60's, but NV does work on all difficulty levels. I just helped a buddy through Normal and got some nice yellows from the bosses. It's a quick and easy way to collect some decent twink gear for your lower toons.

[KiloOhm]

I've been running inferno act I for about a month and I'I've been stuck with a 850ish 2H crossbow (with my mage!!). It's worked to keep my DPS ~16K but I'm really sick of it. I need an upgrade. Slowing bringing up my MF but I've been blowing my gold on gem upgrading (I can't help it). What I really need to find is a nice MF helmet with a socket. So far no luck.

The DPS is broken right now. It's so ridiculous how 99% of weapon drops are under 300DPS and then once in a while you get one that *might* be ok. They really need to tweak the drops such that Item Level has a guarantee of a minimum DPS. Say 300 for 60, 500 for 61 and 700 for 62 and 900 for 63. That would let everyone progress and still keep the OMG UBER DPS weaponZ pretty rare.

[GreenGoo]

I think a month of farming is more than enough to have a valid opinion on any balance issues the game might have in this regard. On the positive side, it sounds like the developers are listening and trying to come up with ways to fix it.

I have very limited (as far as farming goes. It's still 10's of hours) farming experience and have not hit the lottery yet. Some incremental upgrades of alts, but nothing for the farmer. That said, my last 2 weapons have been provided by Fret, so it would nearly take a lottery winning to replace it.

[Crabbs]

Finally made it to Act 4 Hell with my WD. I really hate that first battle into hell, always makes me sweat!

I know I've got a good bit to go before I even try inferno, the elites and champs in A4 are already whacking me a good bit harder than A3. I red-screened within 5 minutes of playing to a Waller, Illusionist, Desecrator , about gave me a coronary, but at least it didn't make Spirit Vessel Proc.

I've actually found a number of good upgrades in A3 Hell with decent resist all stats (+45 on one), that hav3 helped.

Should I farm A4 Hell or go for volume NV rewards in A3?

[Fretmute]

Should I farm A4 Hell or go for volume NV rewards in A3?

I believe your odds at 61s and 62s are the same in either act, so I'd go for the one with the most efficient killing.

[GreenGoo]

Should I farm A4 Hell or go for volume NV rewards in A3?

I believe your odds at 61s and 62s are the same in either act, so I'd go for the one with the most efficient killing.

I don't believe that's true for Hell. Act III and IV of Inferno have the same probabilities, but Act III and IV of Hell are different. I'd need to go find the info again but I'm hoping someone can corroborate as I'm way too lazy and focused on another game right now to do it myself.

My suggestion about where to farm would depend on the state of my gear and efficiency of killing in either act. If my gear sucked completely, I'd do 3 a few times to get some upgrades, then I'd tackle IV for better upgrades.

[Crabbs]

Should I farm A4 Hell or go for volume NV rewards in A3?

I believe your odds at 61s and 62s are the same in either act, so I'd go for the one with the most efficient killing.

Thanks, for the info. Late Act 3 should give me a good run with 5 NV stacks. I wasn't sure if the drop rate extended to A3 or only in A4.

[Crabbs]

Should I farm A4 Hell or go for volume NV rewards in A3?

I believe your odds at 61s and 62s are the same in either act, so I'd go for the one with the most efficient killing.

I don't believe that's true for Hell. Act III and IV of Inferno have the same probabilities, but Act III and IV of Hell are different. I'd need to go find the info again but I'm hoping someone can corroborate as I'm way too lazy and focused on another game right now to do it myself.

My suggestion about where to farm would depend on the state of my gear and efficiency of killing in either act. If my gear sucked completely, I'd do 3 a few times to get some upgrades, then I'd tackle IV for better upgrades.

I was thinking along your lines GG, so I dug up the patch notes & Fret is right:

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

[stessier]

My Barbarian is about to enter the Halls of Agony Level 3 (Normal). I only died once and that was because I walked through a poison cloud left by one of the trees and didn't realize it. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I'm going along at a pretty good clip this time - 5 hours in and almost done Act 1!

[msduncan]

Yuck. Last couple of nights I've had several pitiful farming runs with junk dropping and less than the average number of lvl 63 items.

Hopefully I can make a comeback today.

[ska5fe]

I think I'm actually going to play this game again tonight after a couple weeks off (that darn Steam Sale!). Probably try my hand at Act II inferno, but if you see me on, feel free to jump in my game. ska5fe#1181

[Baroquen]

After all this time, I'm finally about to hit 60 with my monk. I'd have done it more quickly but I'm too much of an altaholic. I'm really like my wizard at the moment, and I've also leveled some of my newb alts, to clear out equipment from the bank. Only have a HC character up to 15, but I don't play him much.

And am I the only one uninterested in the armory/character pages they're plugging as coming soon to the web? Who cares? /shrug How about more focus on the game and less junk like this.

[Crabbs]

After all this time, I'm finally about to hit 60 with my monk. I'd have done it more quickly but I'm too much of an altaholic. I'm really like my wizard at the moment, and I've also leveled some of my newb alts, to clear out equipment from the bank. Only have a HC character up to 15, but I don't play him much.

And am I the only one uninterested in the armory/character pages they're plugging as coming soon to the web? Who cares? /shrug How about more focus on the game and less junk like this.

Only benefit I can see to the armory pages would be in leveling alts. Would allow me to see whats on my other characters w/o having to leave a game and lose any NV stacks. Priority - no, useful sure.

[Lorini]

Actually I'm really looking forward to the Armory, it will let us link our characters. So if I'm having trouble with a build, I can link it here and perhaps someone can help me out with what I'm doing wrong. As far as I'm concerned, they should have had it in at launch.

[ska5fe]

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to the armory. I spent a lot of time on the WoW armory when I played that game.

[Baroquen]

Ok, cool. Just me then.

[GreenGoo]

I was thinking along your lines GG, so I dug up the patch notes & Fret is right:

Damn it, I should know better than to cross the Fret.

[JSHAW]

I'd like to ask a question, so I can get some info on what's going on with the Auction House, the gold auction house, not the US dollars auction house.


I've got 3 items, all legendary 2-handed axes. All 3 have dps of over 800, we're talking well over 850, and 1 of them is close to 900.

I put all 3 up for sale on the gold auction house. Without fail all 3 don't sale.

I've seen weapons, with lower DPS's set for sale at prices that are just crazy insane prices, like 30 million gold, 50 million gold, and higher.

I set these for sale at what I consider lower prices, the first round they were not even hitting 1 million gold, like 350k buyout 700k.

This second round I've bumped up the pricing. I figure at one point I might get lucky and someone that's already sitting on a huge pile of gold
will buy them, and resale them and bump up their asking price for whatever crazy eddie prices they want.

WTF is up with the gold auction house?

It's really hard for me to believe that players don't want to buy an item that has a high DPS rating, for a reasonable price?

Looking at prices on weapons with lower DPS ratings I KNOW my asking prices are not as high as the crazy eddie insane prices I see
everyday on the gold auction house.

[KiloOhm]

Isn't 850 low for a 2H DPS? I'm using a 2H crossbow on my Wizard that has like 875dps and I'm itching to get rid of it.

[Crabbs]

Isn't 850 low for a 2H DPS? I'm using a 2H crossbow on my Wizard that has like 875dps and I'm itching to get rid of it.

I believe so. I'm using a 650 DPS one handed ceremonial knife on my WD, it's an i62 item. I'd love to squeeze another 100/150 dps onto it and still get the benefit of an offhand slot.

[ska5fe]

I think it's a couple things - 850 DPS is a little low for a 2-hander. Also, whether it's true in every case or not, the current perception of legendaries are that they are crappy and are getting improved soon, so people may just be searching for rares or blues when they do their AH searches.

[pr0ner]

Yeah, I have a 2-handed ilvl63 weapon that's 1087 DPS.

[Blackhawk]

I'm trying to decide whether to grab this or not. Something just occurred to me.

With the game being online, can you pause and walk away?

[Fretmute]

I'm trying to decide whether to grab this or not. Something just occurred to me.

With the game being online, can you pause and walk away?

If you're playing in a game by yourself, yes.

[Blackhawk]

I'm trying to decide whether to grab this or not. Something just occurred to me.

With the game being online, can you pause and walk away?

If you're playing in a game by yourself, yes.

I'm trying to read up on it (but forums for Blizzard games are a pain to get info from), and seeing contradictory info. Most places say that if you pause and walk away, you get 'disconnected' within ten minutes.

[LawBeefaroni]

I'm trying to decide whether to grab this or not. Something just occurred to me.

With the game being online, can you pause and walk away?

If you're playing in a game by yourself, yes.

You might timeout though. Not sure if it still happens but early on I'd pause it and come back 10 minutes later and I'd be disconnnected. It saves your character but not the maps.

[Blackhawk]

That's a bit of a problem for me. I'm a single dad. I can game any time I want, as long as I can walk away and come back thirty minutes later. Unpauseable games (MMOs, for instance) generally limit me to times when the kids are at school or in bed.

[LawBeefaroni]

That's a bit of a problem for me. I'm a single dad. I can game any time I want, as long as I can walk away and come back thirty minutes later. Unpauseable games (MMOs, for instance) generally limit me to times when the kids are at school or in bed.

I think the intention is to allow you to pause. So in theory you should be OK. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way, or it didn't at any rate. I haven't played in about a month so maybe it's been improved.

[Blackhawk]

It sounds like they have a Bathroom Pause. I need a Go Make Lunch, Serve Lunch, Answer Irrelevant Questions, then Clean Up Lunch Pause, followed by five minutes of play and a another pause.

[LawBeefaroni]

It sounds like they have a Bathroom Pause. I need a Go Make Lunch, Serve Lunch, Answer Irrelevant Questions, then Clean Up Lunch Pause, followed by five minutes of play and a another pause.

I hear ya. That's why my "hours played" is usually about 5 times actual hours played. Hours paused would be a nice stat to have...

[stessier]

I still play regularly, but don't know that I've ever tried to pause for more than 10 minutes. If you get disconnected, you go back to your last checkpoint. Some maps they are close together - others, quite far apart (if you are a completionist).

I probably wouldn't get it with the time restraints you mention.

[Smoove_B]

If you have a high tolerance for repeating areas you've already cleared (because you'll be kicked back to the last checkpoint), you'll be fine. But it became an issue for me and I was actually scheduling D3 time in a way that I would play until I hit a checkpoint and then quit, knowing that I couldn't say for certain that I'd have another 30 minutes of uninterrupted time where I could hopefully get to the next one.

[Blackhawk]

Oh, I'll still get it someday. It just moves it way down on my game priority list.

[Brian]

I've had longer than 30 minute pauses before and came back to the game with no issues.

[Crabbs]

I've had longer than 30 minute pauses before and came back to the game with no issues.

This.

I play at work, in between seeing patients. I will park in town and have stood there for 3+ hours w/o disconnecting. If you just hit 'esc' to pause the game, you might get disconnects earlier because there is really no data flowing between you and the server. Standing in town, you have a lot of idle movements, dialogue, etc that might be keeping the connection going. YMMV

[Baroquen]

I've had disconnects but haven't timed them. Been chasing my two year old instead. Annoys me because, oh yeah, it's a single play game. Stupid. But whatever. There are so many checkpoints, that I've mostly been able to manage this annoyance.

[Crabbs]

I've had longer than 30 minute pauses before and came back to the game with no issues.

This.

I play at work, in between seeing patients. I will park in town and have stood there for 3+ hours w/o disconnecting. If you just hit 'esc' to pause the game, you might get disconnects earlier because there is really no data flowing between you and the server. Standing in town, you have a lot of idle movements, dialogue, etc that might be keeping the connection going. YMMV

Let me revise that, I just got back into my office where I realized I had forgotten to log off D3. It's been running (in game) for 12+ hours w/o a timeout

[GreenGoo]

I've had longer than 30 minute pauses before and came back to the game with no issues.

This.

I play at work, in between seeing patients. I will park in town and have stood there for 3+ hours w/o disconnecting. If you just hit 'esc' to pause the game, you might get disconnects earlier because there is really no data flowing between you and the server. Standing in town, you have a lot of idle movements, dialogue, etc that might be keeping the connection going. YMMV

Let me revise that, I just got back into my office where I realized I had forgotten to log off D3. It's been running (in game) for 12+ hours w/o a timeout

That's....unusual.

[pengo]

WOW may have burnt me out on RPGs in general, I was looking forward to D3 but haven't bothered with this game at all.

Is this just WOW with better gfx and no monthly subscription, along with a different story? To put it bluntly, heh.

Sounds to me there is still grinding which i'm totally over.

[Baroquen]

WOW may have burnt me out on RPGs in general, I was looking forward to D3 but haven't bothered with this game at all.

Is this just WOW with better gfx and no monthly subscription, along with a different story? To put it bluntly, heh.

Sounds to me there is still grinding which i'm totally over.

Well, I don't see parallels to WoW. It's just Diablo with better graphics. Definite grinding and repetition by design. Despite that, I still enjoy it at times, and find it very easy to put it aside at other times.