Diablo III Catch-All

Yes. Also the bit about soloing Inferno difficulty. As if I would ever get that good at a game.

I love that bit at the end about viable builds. I was always the guy in WoW trying to make a Shaman-tank, or a Caster-DPS paladin and generally picking the most unloved talent trees and trying to do crazy crap with them. It was fun, but I did attract a lot of ire...

Shadout wrote:
Grenn wrote:

There weren't 30 choices in D2. You had 1 or 2 active and the rest you pumped into synergies.

To be fair to Diablo 2, synergies only entered the picture very very late in Diablo 2s lifetime. Synergies were a disaster of an idea in my opinion - basically telling people where to spend their points. Not how Diablo 2 worked when it was at its best though.

Yup.
I played D2 obsessively for at least two years and I still had time to quit before synergies came out.

Blizzard representatives have been protesting for a long time, in all sorts of forums, about how incredibly difficult the game gets in the later stages. That kind of thing makes me more suspicious, not less, particularly due to their design focus on making the game accessible to as wide a variety of builds as possible.

If the game is made so anyone can complete it on any build, then someone with an "optimal" build will sail through. If the game is made so only certain builds are viable, then people with their own personal builds are going to have to spend ages grinding better equipment to progress through the game with their build.

They've also not let anyone outside Blizzard play the game at later difficulties, to my knowledge.

Michael Zenke wrote:
Jakobedlam wrote:

Then again, I haven't tried multiplayer.

You can play Diablo by yourself? Isn't that a little like [provocative solo sex act] after you get married?

Sometimes the S.O. goes away on business....

They put out synergies because people would do the first 3 acts without spending a single point in the earlier talents for some specific builds. I thought it was the most un-fun thing around. I agree they were flawed, but it was better than the alternative.

I just went through their most recent class preview videos.

After seeing snippets of some end-game combat/abilities, ooooh i m so pumped.

Totally gonna be a monk for my 'main' though. Online RPG = I play heals/support.

Anyone heard anything on Diablo labeled authenticators? Was going to pickup one but all I saw was WoW and SCII.

It's tied to your bnet account, so the label really doesn't matter...

Caddrel wrote:

If the game is made so anyone can complete it on any build, then someone with an "optimal" build will sail through. If the game is made so only certain builds are viable, then people with their own personal builds are going to have to spend ages grinding better equipment to progress through the game with their build.

They've never said that any build is doable, only that they're trying to have a large variety of viable builds. There will always be people trying to push through with strange builds ("Hey, look at my melee-only non-casting wizard!"), but as long as there isn't a tiny stable of these-are-the-only-builds-that-work I'll be happy.

Fair point on not letting non-Blizzard folks see higher difficulties, but if anything, that will probably lead to harder challenges.

"Post-normal." What a weird way to put it.

Normal is so passé.

I was normal before it was average.

NSMike wrote:

It's tied to your bnet account, so the label really doesn't matter...

Yeah, but it's kind of weird to have a Warcraft or Starcraft one if all you play is Diablo. I got the Raynor one because, as you said, doesn't really matter. It'd be nice if they had a generic Battle.net or Blizzard-branded one.

Or a Diablo one with an additional purple gem-like button that doesn't do anything (...or does it?).

Maybe it's a weird thing to get hung up on but I dislike how spell damage is tied to weapon damage. Not only does it make no sense, I also think it might remove some of the diversity in items. A single universal damage attribute seems bland.

Caddrel wrote:

If the game is made so anyone can complete it on any build, then someone with an "optimal" build will sail through. If the game is made so only certain builds are viable, then people with their own personal builds are going to have to spend ages grinding better equipment to progress through the game with their build.

It seemed like you could at least change out your build whenever you wanted to with their system of assignable spells and runes. This encourages experimentation because there's no cost to running with a bad build for a level or two.

Or did I misunderstand the system they had in the beta? I haven't read about the game at all.

Funkenpants wrote:
Caddrel wrote:

If the game is made so anyone can complete it on any build, then someone with an "optimal" build will sail through. If the game is made so only certain builds are viable, then people with their own personal builds are going to have to spend ages grinding better equipment to progress through the game with their build.

It seemed like you could at least change out your build whenever you wanted to with their system of assignable spells and runes. This encourages experimentation because there's no cost to running with a bad build for a level or two.

Or did I misunderstand the system they had in the beta? I haven't read about the game at all.

With it set up the way it is you'll definitely be able to swap out and experiment along the way without having to create new toons. Which is a big plus.

Now my biggest worry is the lack of storage. In D2 i had a pvp set, pve set, magic find set, gold find set. In beta there's only 2 additional tabls to unlock. In D2 you could just create new bnet account as a mule account. Not sure how that'll happen now.

Don't forget the Nephalem Valor buff that kicks in once you hit 60. When you kill a pack of champion/rare monsters you're granted a buff to magic and gold find. Take down a boss while the buff is active and loot drops are automatically increased. If you change a rune/skill/passive the buff is lost though.

I'm wondering if the limited stash is a security measure to prevent mass transfer of stuff.

LobsterMobster wrote:
NSMike wrote:

It's tied to your bnet account, so the label really doesn't matter...

Yeah, but it's kind of weird to have a Warcraft or Starcraft one if all you play is Diablo. I got the Raynor one because, as you said, doesn't really matter. It'd be nice if they had a generic Battle.net or Blizzard-branded one.

Or a Diablo one with an additional purple gem-like button that doesn't do anything (...or does it?).

This. I waaaaaaant a Diablo one! Quit WoW over 5 years ago and I'm not a StarCraft guy.

I'll just use the mobile phone authenticator and wait for a Diablo authenticator to come out.

Also, anyone know of a way to add people to your Bnet friends from the website? Would like to make additions to my friends list without having to do it in game.

Tamren wrote:

I'm wondering if the limited stash is a security measure to prevent mass transfer of stuff.

If so it blows because thats what i want to be able to do.

Looks like although loot drops independently MF% is shared/averaged in a group. So while you only get a loot drop if you're within some radius of a kill the magic find for your drop is also the average of everyone's mf%, I'm not sure if that averaging also has a radius limit though. On the open weekend I encountered people just sitting in town mooching quest completes and it would be kind of a bummer if they're also depleting the active players' mf% in the process.

Unrelated - out of curiosity; how many of you prefer the zoomed in view (hit z for those who have not tried it) ? I kind of like the perspective and feel of it, especially with melee characters, but limiting the field of view in Diablo games tends to be unwise.

Tamren wrote:

I'm wondering if the limited stash is a security measure to prevent mass transfer of stuff.

Really? I felt the stash was pretty roomy when I looked this weekend. Then again, I didn't see anything that took more than 2 slots.

You can add space to the stash (both space available per page, and additional tabs) by buying them with gold, if I remember right.

shoptroll wrote:
Tamren wrote:

I'm wondering if the limited stash is a security measure to prevent mass transfer of stuff.

Really? I felt the stash was pretty roomy when I looked this weekend. Then again, I didn't see anything that took more than 2 slots.

I'm already getting frustrated not being able to buy more room in the beta.

Premiering May 17th on the Discovery Channel, Hoarders: Diablo Edition.

The original authenticator was just Blizzard branded. This is the one I have:

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/tZPte.jpg)

ranalin wrote:

I'm already getting frustrated not being able to buy more room in the beta.

What on earth are you hoarding? O_o

shoptroll wrote:
ranalin wrote:

I'm already getting frustrated not being able to buy more room in the beta.

What on earth are you hoarding? O_o

Black Mushroom hoarder?

Atomicvideohead wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
ranalin wrote:

I'm already getting frustrated not being able to buy more room in the beta.

What on earth are you hoarding? O_o

Black Mushroom hoarder?

wtf are those for?

As for what i have... It's yellow pieces that i've not sold and not currently using. I've had to sell some off just to make room.

ranalin wrote:

As for what i have... It's yellow pieces that i've not sold and not currently using. I've had to sell some off just to make room.

The stash isn't shared between characters right? I only ran into 1 or 2 yellows during the open beta on a single character. Maybe I'm just not a hoarder but I fully plan on breaking down everything I can't use or tossing it in the auction house when I get to play the full game.