Octopus Overlords

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

Wasn't sure my magic would work without the right weapon so I didn't even try it. Doesn't matter now. I found a decent starting weapon for every class and stuck in my stash!

Cylus Maxii wrote: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.

I can certainly understand that. The controls in DS3 were annoying as heck on the PC. I just tossed that out as an example of the type of gameplay.

I'll have to give MP a bit more attention. I'm sure I'm just too new to the game to get all the nuance of play yet.

Almost at the End of Act II now, level 24 barbarian played 16hours 33 mins so defintely not a quick game for me. 20 hours would be fine for a first play through.

Reemul wrote:Almost at the End of Act II now, level 24 barbarian played 16hours 33 mins so defintely not a quick game for me. 20 hours would be fine for a first play through.

hm hmmm I thought I'd be around 20 after the first Act guess not.

Though I didn't get much play time yesterday, hopefully I'll be able to finish it this weekend, on normal anyways

Well it's more of that Diablo goodness! Not particularly revolutionary or anything, just good clean monster-clicking fun. It's the Hollywood equivalent of Gaming; it's grand, it's entertaining as hell, it's expensive, but doesn't take any risks either.

Playing a Witch Doctor, just beat Leoric.

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

This is why I love the shared gold and shared stash - if I play an alt for a few hours the gold is accessible by all my characters so it's not wasted time.

I'm amazed they haven't implemented this in WoW (or maybe they have, I stopped playing awhile ago). I always hated having to manually transfer funds between all my alts.

I'm good with a shared bank, but I'd like more storage area. Even after paying for more.

Had to wait until midnight last night for the last round of server work could be completed. Once the servers were brought back up, had no problem playing for a couple of hours. Had my Witch Doctor up to Lvl 8 by the end of the evening. It's Diablo. It's fun. It looks good/feels good. One thing I was surprised by, though, was how streamlined the skill tree is in DIII. I hadn't been following the games development at all and wasn't expecting there to be be basically no decisions in terms of progressing. It's really not even a tree anymore. Not sure how I feel about that. There was something to be said for the complex skill trees, as it made for significant variations within the class. I guess its good for me, since I'm not likely to play it through very many times, but it feels a little dumbed down. I suppose there is strategy behind how you choose to slot your various skills (and maybe it will feel much more strategic at higher levels), but I'm not sure how I feel about that design choice.

Oh well. I know it's not going to stop me from clicking.

GuidoTKP wrote:Had to wait until midnight last night for the last round of server work could be completed. Once the servers were brought back up, had no problem playing for a couple of hours. Had my Witch Doctor up to Lvl 8 by the end of the evening. It's Diablo. It's fun. It looks good/feels good. One thing I was surprised by, though, was how streamlined the skill tree is in DIII. I hadn't been following the games development at all and wasn't expecting there to be be basically no decisions in terms of progressing. It's really not even a tree anymore. Not sure how I feel about that. There was something to be said for the complex skill trees, as it made for significant variations within the class. I guess its good for me, since I'm not likely to play it through very many times, but it feels a little dumbed down. I suppose there is strategy behind how you choose to slot your various skills (and maybe it will feel much more strategic at higher levels), but I'm not sure how I feel about that design choice.

Oh well. I know it's not going to stop me from clicking.

I was surprised when I saw the skill tree myself in the open beta. My conclusion was that I liked it.

And there are still decisions to be made, so it's not completely mindless. The good part is that you can make the decision at any time, and make it again and again and again. You can swap in and out different primary and second attacks, as well as pick which rune you want to use with each attack. Each rune gives a different effect to the attack, changing it in subtle and not so subtle ways.

It's a HELLUVA lot better than being too afraid to make a mistake so you don't spend any skill points for 10 levels like you might have done in D2. Leveling should be fun, not stress inducing. You should also be able to spend the points when you get them, rather than banking them for 10 levels until that skill you really want shows up.

For the record I loved Torchlight because of the skill tree variation. And I leveled 2 paladins at the same time in WoW just to explore the different trees and how they performed. My point is I'm a skill tree FIEND, but I still like what they've done with Diablo 3. I'll revisit the subject after I've leveled a few characters to higher levels.

There are over 2 million skill combinations per character class. Much much more than in D2. Check out the D3's skill tree calculator on Diablo3.com.

Yeah, I was a bit surprised at what I thought was a linear development system...and I guess to a degree it is rather linear, however even before reaching 8th level with my Wizard I found a strong preference for the Ice Laser over the floating black hole. It didn't matter that the damage output was less, it was a better fit to my play style.

Having spent about 4 hours now between three different characters (Monk, Witch Doctor, Wizard), I'm still not really sure which one I like the most.

I made lvl 9 with a Demon Hunter last night but he's not really drawing me in. I think I'll give a sorcerer and a monk a go tonight.

I'm liking the Witch Doctor (Level 10) but there are already some skills I literally never use. I don't think it's because they're not useful, but because they just don't fit my playstyle (for instance, I don't have the patience to wait for a jar of spiders to kill my prey when i can just shoot them with a poison dart). However, I'm assuming that's where the runes are going to come into play - that skill that seems useless now might be badass with a rune applied.

I have read almost nothing about the skill trees in this game, so I'm learning as I go. However, I'm finding it a lot of fun to just experiment and see what works and what doesn't. It's nice to know I'm not really being penalized for that experimentation.

I don't like the concept of a witch doctor, it just doesn't grab my imagination. That said, I think the character class is pretty damn good. I'm hard pressed to order the classes from most to least favourite, but the Witch Doctor is up there.

And give the Witch Doctor a fast weapon then start chucking spider jars. It's crazy how many spiders you can get into play at once. Add in the zombie dogs and it's pretty fun.

The point though, is that the trees offer multiple play STYLES for each class, which is brilliant in my opinion, and one of the strengths of Torchlight.

Now I have no real experience with balance. No one does yet, really. But if the builds (read: Choice of skills) remains viable into the higher levels, I'm going to be in heaven trying different play styles with different characters.

YellowKing wrote:I'm liking the Witch Doctor (Level 10) but there are already some skills I literally never use. I don't think it's because they're not useful, but because they just don't fit my playstyle (for instance, I don't have the patience to wait for a jar of spiders to kill my prey when i can just shoot them with a poison dart).

And here we have the beauty of the game -- I love the WD for the spiders Tossing jar upon jar of fire-and-forget pets... love it.

barbarian > monk > everyone else

zinckiwi wrote:

YellowKing wrote:I'm liking the Witch Doctor (Level 10) but there are already some skills I literally never use. I don't think it's because they're not useful, but because they just don't fit my playstyle (for instance, I don't have the patience to wait for a jar of spiders to kill my prey when i can just shoot them with a poison dart).

And here we have the beauty of the game -- I love the WD for the spiders Tossing jar upon jar of fire-and-forget pets... love it.

I find the jars work good when I'm supporting a party, while the dart gun works better solo.

Does the monk still insta-sheathe his wielded weapon every time he punches? I found that really annoying in beta.

coopasonic wrote:barbarian > monk > everyone else

The barbarian does rock, I'll give you that. I'm leery of playing it though since I like new and shiny and the barb is the only class that came forward from D2. I know, I know, it's not the same class, it's a completely different game, but it's a mental thing. I love the witch doctor skills. It is really fun to play. I don't like witch doctors as a concept though. So I am averse to playing the class. I'll still play it. I'm the ultimate alt-ernator.

skystride wrote:Does the monk still insta-sheathe his wielded weapon every time he punches? I found that really annoying in beta.

Yes.

GreenGoo wrote:

coopasonic wrote:barbarian > monk > everyone else

The barbarian does rock, I'll give you that. I'm leery of playing it though since I like new and shiny and the barb is the only class that came forward from D2. I know, I know, it's not the same class, it's a completely different game, but it's a mental thing. I love the witch doctor skills. It is really fun to play. I don't like witch doctors as a concept though. So I am averse to playing the class. I'll still play it. I'm the ultimate alt-ernator.

I am a barbarian through and through... well physically I'm more of a witch doctor... or maybe a merchant... possibly a pot-bellied pig.

Ok, another hour but this time with the Barbarian (again, to level 7). I am rather surprised at how much fun it was to play -- it's like the class is built for mobs because once he gets going, you're racking up multi-kill XP over and over again. As I said earlier, I'm not usually the kind of player that likes to jump into the chaos of melee when playing this type of game, but the Barbarian was oddly satisfying.

So in summary ~5 hours and four characters, all up to level 7. Still no idea who I want....which is pretty impressive.

Smoove_B wrote:Ok, another hour but this time with the Barbarian (again, to level 7). I am rather surprised at how much fun it was to play -- it's like the class is built for mobs because once he gets going, you're racking up multi-kill XP over and over again. As I said earlier, I'm not usually the kind of player that likes to jump into the chaos of melee when playing this type of game, but the Barbarian was oddly satisfying.

So in summary ~5 hours and four characters, all up to level 7. Still no idea who I want....which is pretty impressive.

It's the crunchiness sound that makes the barb so much fun.

I think the game must get pretty heavy into AoE with zillions of mobs. Everyone seems to have the ability to dish out the damage in mass quantities to multiple mobs at the same time.

I applaud this. Being a killing machine is half the fun.

naednek wrote:It's the crunchiness sound that makes the barb so much fun.

Yes, that is part of the fun. I liked the Monk because of the solid thunk you'd feel when slamming feet or fists into guys, but the Barbarian is on a whole different level. I was reading somewhere that the game really shines when you play with headphones (instead of desktop speakers). I'd imagine that would take the Barbarian smashing to an entirely new level.

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, 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.

I'm using an old Netgear router. Not connected wirelessly. Looking at the Battle.net forums a lot of linksys complaints now too but those seemed to come up only after the emergency maintenance.

I played two hours straight today with no problems using the Netgear but I'm still following the thread in the tech support forums with interest. Well over 150 pages now

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, 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.

I'm using an old Netgear router. Not connected wirelessly. Looking at the Battle.net forums a lot of linksys complaints now too but those seemed to come up only after the emergency maintenance.

I played two hours straight today with no problems using the Netgear but I'm still following the thread in the tech support forums with interest. Well over 150 pages now

Question. With essentially unlimited respecs using the new rune system, why would you need more than on of each character? Just tweak them the way you want when you log in and off you go.

J.D. wrote:Question. With essentially unlimited respecs using the new rune system, why would you need more than on of each character? Just tweak them the way you want when you log in and off you go.

You want to play them in different gender combinations (and then you have 9 slots but not 10? boo), or you have multiple really cool names for the same class, is all I can really think of.

Just finished my first game on Normal as a Wizard. Took me 17 hours 56 minutes. Finished at Level 31.

Verdict: HELLS YES! GO PLAY IT NOW.

Almost every aspect has been improved upon over Diablo 2. The most notable change is the combat. Its hella fun. You really have to pay attention and try, combat gets interesting fast. Tactics and strategy matter. The days of playing with my mouse hand and eating waffles with the other are over. Also notable is the difficulty. Normal difficulty is FAR MORE difficult to beat than vanilla Diablo 2 at launch. Felt like just the right amount of challenge. Though some of the boss fights were ridiculous until I figured out a strategy.

There's more loot, more kinds of loot, more awesome loot, crafted loot, loot, loot, loot. And loot really matters since all DPS is calculated off your weapon DPS. And the only way to alter your base stats is with armour and equipment. I really enjoyed the loot. Did I mention there's loot?

Minor issues: Gameplay gets slightly choppy during peak hours. The visuals look a lot more like WoW than Diablo. It really suffers from lack of an Act V (which I'm sure will be remedied). Acts III and IV are brutally short.

That's my review. GO PLAY IT NOW.

J.D. wrote:Question. With essentially unlimited respecs using the new rune system, why would you need more than on of each character? Just tweak them the way you want when you log in and off you go.

Certain gear is going to support certain ways of setting up runes. For example if I'm running an early monk and have a lot of regen, then I might not take Heal I might take something else. If I have no regen or ability to get extra health, then I might take Heal. Stuff like that. I suspect it gets tighter as you level up.

Some time last summer Blizzard said they were playing around with implementing direct control into the game. As in, rather than leading your character with the mouse, you'd actually walk them around with the keyboard or a controller. Is this in the game? Did any of you see an option for this in the menu?

I realize it's kind of blasphemy, but I don't care for these sorts of games otherwise. I thought for years that I just didn't like the hack and slash genre. Until I played Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance on the GBA. I loved that game. And it made me realize I don't dislike the genre, I just dislike the control method. Frantically clicking around, etc. It feels more visceral and enjoyable to me to actually be "in control" of the character.

The scoundrels idle chatter dialogue is awesome. I ditched the paladin because I was already melee focused and was surprised when he started hitting on Lea. Then when that failed he stole her ring and my monk made him give it back.

Nope, same control scheme as in D2, click to move.

I know that's default, but is there an option in the settings?

No, it's only click to move. That's it.

And down goes the server just as I have some time....

I thought the Wizard was OP but then I started a Monk. Wow. I'm dual wielding magic short swords. Clicky clicky spin kicky.
But then it started getting a lot of animation sync glitches.
I was just getting to the Skellie King I got a message about the servers going down in two minutes.

I was just about the click to end my quest when I got the server terminated error. Now i have to go back and do it all again