Diablo III - It's official

[Grall]

When I played the beta I wasn't 70 yet by the time I was inside the final zone (

Spoiler

pandemonium fortress

). Difficulty was one notch above hard, whatever the hell it's called now (why couldn't they have kept the old labels and just re-defined them? GNH!) It was fairly rough with the gear I had, so after dying to random elite pack I got mad and didn't play for a week or two, then re-started only to remember that mobs now scale according to your level and not the zone you're in so there should have been no difference... Still, it felt easier, maybe blizzard did something in a patch or whatever. At 70 I got many new items which were considerably better, making the game much easier. I made it down to the point where the beta ends without any real problems after that, on the same difficulty level.

How does the difficulty of the game affect the loot that drops? Diablo items have no visible item level like in world of warcraft for example, so it's difficult due to randomization to tell how gear improves just by eyeballing the drops I get...

 

[pcchen]

How does the difficulty of the game affect the loot that drops? Diablo items have no visible item level like in world of warcraft for example, so it's difficult due to randomization to tell how gear improves just by eyeballing the drops I get...

AFAIK the old system where level 63 items only drop in inferno is abandoned. Now the difficulty level only affects the probability of item dropped (regarding to items, there are other differences such as experience gained). The quality of item dropped does not change. Item's quality is now determined solely from the item level (e.g. usable by a level 70) and rarity (blue, yellow and legendary/set). So, if your items are not good enough, you can farm items in any difficulty level you feel comfortable. It's just going to take a bit more time. A few special items only drop in Torment though.

You can now also press ctrl when viewing an item to see the possible range of its attributes. For example, a chest armor may have +200 strength, but if you press ctrl it will show the range of possible values is, say, 150 ~ 300.

 

[Grall]

Thanks. Has blizz said how much more likely you are to get improved quality drops by higher difficulty levels? I see no description of this in-game... On hard, in 2.0 version, I've seen a bunch of legendaries drop. Not super-common perhaps, but considerably better than the previous system where they almost never ever dropped.

 

[homerdog]

Is this game fun to play? Now that the RMOH is gone and good items drop more often, I'm considering it.

Also consider that I'll be dropping down for 2 copies so I can play with my brother's broke ass. Is there a group discount?

Fuck my face I'll have to buy the regular game at $40 then the expansion for another $40?!

 

[Grall]

You don't HAVE to buy the expansion. Just check out the standard game first, see if you guys like it. After all, it takes a fair while to max out your character. ...Also, I think there's a trial version available as well, meaning you can check out the game first for a couple levels at least I assume, without paying. Just register a battle.net account, log in to it and then download the game client.

...At least that is the case for me who owns other blizzard game titles. I'm not sure if everyone qualifies.

 

[AlNom]

Also levelling is a bit too quick. My barb is already 70 and still not finished Act V, but that's probably because I play at Master.

Paragon levels.

 

[Davros]

I can haz questions
Is this game so big you still havnt finished it nearly 2 years later.
or is it that good your still playing it nearly 2 years later.

 

[AlNom]

I can haz questions
Is this game so big you still havnt finished it nearly 2 years later.
or is it that good your still playing it nearly 2 years later.

It's all about the grind/reward/loot really. There's certainly replayability in the different classes and different skillsets you can choose.

 

[homerdog]

Does the base game include the latest patches that fix loot drops etc? Does the trial version?

Downloading the trial now

So after doing a bit of research it seems most of the cool new features are available in the base game (and presumably the trial as a result). Are there any "must have" things in the expansion? I recall in Titan Quest you couldn't store and transfer items between characters unless you had the expansion...

 

[AlNom]

Are there any "must have" things in the expansion? I recall in Titan Quest you couldn't store and transfer items between characters unless you had the expansion...

Crusader class and access to the Mystic (transmogrification i.e. appearance customization, item enchantment i.e. re-roll item attributes) are the big ones I think.

 

[homerdog]

Downloading 2 clients on a 20mbps pipe takes a long time

 

[Grall]

Does the base game include the latest patches that fix loot drops etc?

Yes it does. Loots are very very much improved. Actually, you can actually find improved gear for your toon in this version of the game... Previously I often ran around with some ring or amulet or something that had a very high stat from my 30s or 40s that I simply could not get a replacement for.

Does the trial version?

Undoubtedly.

Are there any "must have" things in the expansion?

Not as such, no. You get another vendor who can reroll a stat on your gear (costs gold, increasingly, and a LOT of it if you reroll just a few times), and also transmogrify the looks of your items. Neither is a "must-have" IMO, it's more of a neat addition.

The new act itself is probably more of a must-have I'd say. It's rather dark and gloomy and the early part of the expansion set in the city of westmarch is fairly gothic in design. Probably in reaction to the criticism about the rainbows in act 1...

 

[pcchen]

Thanks. Has blizz said how much more likely you are to get improved quality drops by higher difficulty levels? I see no description of this in-game... On hard, in 2.0 version, I've seen a bunch of legendaries drop. Not super-common perhaps, but considerably better than the previous system where they almost never ever dropped.

I don't know the numbers, as in-game descriptions only says legendary drop rate increases with Torment difficulty level, but not by how much, unfortunately. Blizzard's page describes how much stronger the mobs are in higher difficulty levels, but still no info on legendary drop rate.

I finally finished Act V yesterday at Master, and tried a bit of the adventure mode at Torment I. I have to say that at level 70 the difficulty level is a notch higher than at level 60. It's possible level 60 items are a bit over tuned. Now I have to actually pay attention to fires and those pesky lasers again

 

[Malo]

Downloading 2 clients on a 20mbps pipe takes a long time

Why don't you just download 1 then copy to the other computer?

 

[liolio]

I enjoy the game a lot more now, I'm happily leveling new characters on the EU servers.

The thing I dislike the most is the fact that some classes use weapon they should not use, it is nothing but it bothers me to have a wizard casting fire balls out of a two handed axe, a monk punching while wielding a Hammer and an axe and so on. It is something really unesthetic to me.

Actually had Blizzard tied classes to a more restrictive set of weapons they may have with a couple of extra classes and less redundancy within the existing classes: for example I lack a proper rogue class which would land somehow in between the Monk and the Demon hunter. Some might disagree but I would have prefered more focused characters, with slightly less skills and more classes.

 

[John Reynolds]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Mjolnir-1981/hero/44438056

My Crusader, just created him yesterday after 5pm. He equipped that sword at level 38, turning all mobs into microwaved butter that melted before him.

 

[Grall]

So where do you obtain the recipe for Griswold's? I've seen the crafting material drop several times but never the recipe itself. Is it just really rare/random, or is it some specific mob you have to kill/be lucky to have spawn or some BS like that?

Gods know I never had even half of the crafting materials for the whimsyshire staff drop for me in all the times I played through all of the acts. I found the shrooms and the knob of bone, and that was it.

 

[John Reynolds]

It was just a drop, nothing special.

 

[RobertR1]

Thanks to DLC, got my Wizard base dmg upto 520k and 2.8m toughness.

That gets my 3.5m+ arcane orb crits and I was able to team up with randoms to beat Act V on torment. Nice to feel I'm actually contributing to team battles now!

My build is Lightning with surge to regen mana, black hole and then spam 4-5 arcane orbs.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/RobertR1-1803/hero/42276329

That's without my passives of gear stats boosts kicking in.

 

[John Reynolds]

Thanks to DLC, got my Wizard base dmg upto 520k and 2.8m toughness.

That gets my 3.5m+ arcane orb crits and I was able to team up with randoms to beat Act V on torment. Nice to feel I'm actually contributing to team battles now!

My build is Lightning with surge to regen mana, black hole and then spam 4-5 arcane orbs.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/RobertR1-1803/hero/42276329

That's without my passives of gear stats boosts kicking in.

Yeah, it's a shame that the paper dmg doesn't include gear boosts. My wiz is 67th lvl and has 350k paper dmg and around 2.2m toughness. My barb is at 600k dmg and over 10m toughness now, but he's 70th.