Diablo 3, coming May 15th. I'm torn, Kaz, will you rescue me?

[Bram Turismo]

My game is completely broken now. I'm getting either messages of corrupt files or error messages when I want to update my game. I had to empty my D3 folder of some files placed by the US client patch and re-install these files through the online game client. Now the hotfix has arrived, the game is just completely messed up and I'll probably be forced to uninstall and re-download 8GB of data...

How the hell is Blizzard getting away with this? Having EU players patch their games with US clients and thus completely messing up their data? Really Blizzard?

 

[CMvan46]

The Korean government raided Blizzard's offices in South Korea today and they are possibly being sued and fined for the way they handled the launch. Refusing to give refunds and for not preparing for the number of players who bought the game.

They really flopped big time on this launch although not much different than most of their other launches. If they delayed this long to release why not an extra bit to iron everything out a bit further?

 

[The Bman]

It means "hot pot" in Chinese.

I know I'm silly, but I couldn't help myself but to post this.

 

[Bigbazz]

I thought this one was funny!

 

[omgitsbees]

I know Inferno with a group of 3 others is pretty much not recommended, but it doesn't matter! It's hilarious playing it with friends, and seeing what sort of b.s. deaths you can get. Some of it you just have to laugh at.

Last night my Diamond Skin was on cool down, I was ready to die, this mob had his swing animation ready to finish me off. I then get vortex'ed away just in time, only to get jailed, and then magma'ed, and then crushed by an attack and died. lol

 

[Danoff]

The Korean government raided Blizzard's offices in South Korea today and they are possibly being sued and fined for the way they handled the launch. Refusing to give refunds and for not preparing for the number of players who bought the game.

They really flopped big time on this launch although not much different than most of their other launches. If they delayed this long to release why not an extra bit to iron everything out a bit further?

Refunds? For being down for a day? I thought South Korea was a little more evolved than this. People seriously need to get over it.

 

[omgitsbees]

Refunds? For being down for a day? I thought South Korea was a little more evolved than this. People seriously need to get over it.

What really gets me is that in America, Blizzard will give out refunds. There are all of these people who put in like 100+ hours on the game, and then requested refunds, and still sit around the official Blizzard forums complaining. That's a pretty douchebag thing to do. I'm surprised Blizzard even gave out refunds period, they have no obligation to do so, and that's really cool of them.

 

[Bigbazz]

I dont think "down for a day" is even close to accurate, it hasnt been working properly for 3 days, didnt work properly all of today apart from a few hours tonight only to be taken down again at 2am. Last night it was off from 11pm and up again in the morning with more issues throughout the day and evening.

The game has been terrible since launch in terms of reliability, I'm not surprised people want their money back.


I'm not one of those people, but it has been one of the worst game launches i've ever seen, up there with Test Drive Unlimited 2.

 

[Luminis]

Besides the server issues, I've been finding it harder and harder to motivate myself to sink more time into my Inferno Barbarian. It just feels as if being in melee combat is generally a freakin' bad idea once you're past a certain point.

I mean, I enjoy melee charakters. I do so in just about all RPG-ish games. But I just don't feel like sinking another 20 hours and 40 million gold into a character that'd better be replaced by one of the ranged classes.

Not that the game isn't fun anymore. It's just frustrating that the kind of character I enjoy playing the most seems to be at a sever disadvantage right now. Not exactly the best incentive to keep playing right now. Add to that that finding useful items - or even ones that sell well - is becoming more and more rare, and I hardly feel inclined to play more.

I suppose that switching over to another class entirely might change things up, a bit. Playing a Demon Hunter, for example, seems so much more rewarding... I at least feel like it's my mistakes that get me killed, which, in turn, makes playing well feel more rewarding.

 

[Azuremen]

As I pointed out before, melee classes are doing the best in terms of runs and farming, simply because they don't get one shot by everything.

Playing a Wizard myself, and spending 10 minutes kiting any champion pack, just barely avoiding death (more often not in A2) and just piecing together inferno A2 gear isn't that exciting.

And you don't need 40 Million gold to equip a Barb for higher end acts in Inferno. Just randomly check the auction house for deals. Which the game does revolve way too much around at these higher levels.

Where are you currently in Inferno, and what do your stats look like?

 

[Bigbazz]

The reason you need the auction house for Inferno is because

1. Gear drops are rare and good stats are not easy to come by

2. Inferno is ridiculously hard.


My barbarion is progressing through act 3 Inferno at the moment, I thought act 2 was incredibly hard... Well act 3 takes it up a whole notch again and the money you need to pump in to gear for it is unrealistically high.

I've only completed the first quest of act 3 inferno (light fires) and it was very difficult, I only saw 3 elite/champion packs and I skipped 2 of them. The champion packs have either been relatively easy or completely impossible, no middle ground. Dying to normal monsters is very easy and pretty much every moment of combat is a near-death experience.

The only way to actually play from act 2 onwards with any real success is full tank survival gear and talents using revenge to heal up.. So yeah it is a frustrating gaming experience at that point, so difficult that it forces one type of gameplay to avoid being instagibbed.

For what its worth, my stats are roughly, in tank spec/gear.

14000 damage
9000 armour
750-870 resists
44000 health
14% block (with a 2.8k max block ammount)
17% dodge

I do know that I could use maybe 5-6k more health, and a shield with higher block ammount and chance to block %. But my gear is already at the threshold where finding upgrades via auction house is difficult outside of the extremely expensive items that are far above the money I have. I want a Stormshield to replace my current, but a good one would set me back around 20x the money I have on my account.

 

[Luminis]

Where are you currently in Inferno, and what do your stats look like?

I'm currently at the beginning of Act II.

My stats are somewhat around 38k HP, 650 - 700 resist all, 9k armor, 13k DPS, 12% blockchance, block value around 1900 - 2400, 14% dodge. Most actual upgrades on the AH, as far as I could tell so far, are in the two to five million gold range.

Dunno, maybe I just happen to take a look at very wrong times, or the prices on the EU server are just way over the top. Can't say that I really care, at this point, though. Been playing my DH much more as of late. And while it defintely isn't what you'd call easy to play a DH, it feels much more rewarding to, you know, do some actual damage and feel like your class actually does what it is supposed to do.

 

[Danoff]

Finally made it to Act I Hell with the monk (level 54 I think). Doing fine so far, but blue and gold monsters are definitely giving me a lot of pause. I only have 8k life at this point, but my resists are pretty solid.

 

[Bigbazz]

This game for me gets harder and more frustrating by the minute. I'm now just before the Siegebreaker in act 3, having died countless times getting here, the gear needed is just not in line with being able to make good progress in good time. The start of act 3 I had finally reached a point of being doable, only for me to progress a short while to arive back at needing better gear only 2-3 quests down the road.


I do like it, but the game is frustrating, I dont like leaving things unfinished so I will have to push on.

 

[omgitsbees]

Relief is coming in 1.0.3 for Inferno players, we just have to hold out a bit longer; http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6262208

 

[Luminis]

I wouldn't call it relief... But, yeah, Inferno certainly is in need of some fine tuning right now. Increased drop rates sound sweet, if anything.

 

[Joel]

Came home today after work and the new patch was out for Diablo 3. It's the one with the Mac improvements, and my goodness is it better. The game is finally playable.

I get 25 FPS everywhere now, which is more than enough given how bad my graphics card is.

 

[Bigbazz]

Upcoming patch changes - copy/paste from the Diablofans website.

Legendaries

Drop rates have changed in 1.0.3 The highest ilvl can drop in act 1 inferno but at a lower rate than act 3 and 4. You can view the table in the post to see all the percents.
We won't be seeing the Legendaries stats change this patch however when they are done high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items.

Nephalem Valor

With 5 stacks of NV bosses will now only drop 1 "guaranteed" rare instead of 2. (They will still have a high chance to drop more just like before, just one less "guaranteed" one.
Elite packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed rare when you have full stacks of NV

Group Play

Monsters will not longer have bonus damage per additional player in coop games.

Inferno Balancing

Act 1 feels just how they want it.
Getting to Act 2 is to large of a step, if a barb and monk can clear Act 1 with an offensive build and murder everything, they should be able to switch to a defensive build and do okay in Act 2
Act 2,3 and 4 will have have monster health and damage adjusted to make them fit smoothly.

Deaths and Repair Costs

Repair costs at 60 are almost not noticable, and due to this they see a lot of people simply "graveyard zerging" enemies.
They had a few ideas on how to discourage this, ultimately they will be increases repair costs between x4 and x6 their current values.

Attack Speed

Attack speed modifier will now properly work on all items.
Players currently feel that Attack Speed is one of the "required" stats, and blizzard does not want this. They have two ideas to fix this and are looking for feedback on them. They are currently leaning toward the first idea.
Reduced how much attack speed can be found on an item
add a hidden modifier that basically adds diminishing returns on attack speed.

Gems

As stated before, both the Blacksmith and the Jeweler will become a little cheaper.
There is a table in the post below showing you the new cost for crafting the first 8 tiers of gems. (They only require two of each gem type now, along with reduced gold cost)

Class Balancing

Patch 1.0.3 will not be focused on class balancing. (there will be a small number of skill changes)
Patch 1.1 will be the patch for most class tweaks which will have focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches






Inferno being nerfed... this is both a relief and a disapointment. A relief because it is just absolutely ridiculously hard, too hard. A disapointment because I was hoping I had more time to finish it in its original form, I'm currently in act 4 Inferno, just beat the first boss but I am undergeared to really push forward. I'm still climbing that brick wall I hit when I got to act 3, someone give me 50million gold worth of gear.

 

[Danoff]

Group Play

Monsters will not longer have bonus damage per additional player in coop games.

Seems huge.

 

[Azuremen]

Seems huge.

In inferno group games, melee players were just melting unless they were heavily geared for it.

Like, melting. Literally

 

[Bigbazz]

For act 2+ I just tell my friends to not join my games, even when they ask if I wanna play with them, simply because my Barbarion cannot survive combat with extra players. Meanwhile he is running siegebreaker act 3 runs on his Witch Doctor with a Demon Hunter and 2 Wizards.


The only way to play in groups as a melee is to greatly overgear the act, and its very hard to overgear act 3 onwards.

 

[Kent]

Some of those changes seem absolutely necessary and some seem like a horrible idea. Increasing the cost of repairs is ridiculous, to think they end up with something so difficult people get stuck and then put in a death cycle that leads to a graveyard zerg (probably only because the death cycle lasted long enough for all CDs to come up), and Blizz is worried about increasing repair costs?

That basically means I'm going to be doing a lot of alt work until my barb is so geared I can afford to attempt progression work because I'm either over geared and not dying or rich enough to afford what will be 20 to 40k in repairs.

The increased repair bill means I'm going to be stuck at Act 2 since progressing any further will take tons of deaths and in the end I'm not going to be able to afford repairs for progression any further than I am now (without farm Hell Mode and Act 1 of inferno before every attempt at a progression run).

Very disappointed in that part of the news. 👎

 

[Azuremen]

The point is they want players to stop zerging to progress. And combine that with ilvl 63 items dropping in A1 Inferno means players will be able to farm relevant end game gear from that point.

Also, this blue post goes over some of the changes that being made to help Melee classes out with Inferno.

 

[Bigbazz]

Some of those changes seem absolutely necessary and some seem like a horrible idea. Increasing the cost of repairs is ridiculous, to think they end up with something so difficult people get stuck and then put in a death cycle that leads to a graveyard zerg (probably only because the death cycle lasted long enough for all CDs to come up), and Blizz is worried about increasing repair costs?

That basically means I'm going to be doing a lot of alt work until my barb is so geared I can afford to attempt progression work because I'm either over geared and not dying or rich enough to afford what will be 20 to 40k in repairs.

The increased repair bill means I'm going to be stuck at Act 2 since progressing any further will take tons of deaths and in the end I'm not going to be able to afford repairs for progression any further than I am now (without farm Hell Mode and Act 1 of inferno before every attempt at a progression run).

Very disappointed in that part of the news. 👎

If you consider they will be increasing the item drop quality from hell act 4 onwards and reducing the difficulty of inferno act 2 onwards, the increase in repair costs isnt likely to be an issue.

At current gear drop levels and difficulty, increasing the repair costs by that much would ruin a lot of players progressing, but the current difficulty is soon to be a thing of the past, and so it should be to be honest.

 

[Luminis]

There was a blue post detailing why they are planning to increase the repair cost. Essentially, death is of little consequence in softcore mode, which inevitably makes glass cannon ranged classes have one less downside, and that is potentially dying often. In hardcore, as Blizzard puts it, the disparity between melee and ranged classes is far less notable because of theconsequences of dying.

So, in order to balance things out a bit more, they're making death-zerging less effective, so that glass cannon builds will actually have to either adapt and increase their survivability or live with a proper downside.

I'd also assume that Blizzard wants to keep gold from inflating, so increasing the gold sinks seems like a good idea, anyways.

 

[Azuremen]

So, in order to balance things out a bit more, they're making death-zerging less effective, so that glass cannon builds will actually have to either adapt and increase their survivability or live with a proper downside.

And it makes sense. The number of Wizards and DH I've seen that have damn near no resistances and simply hope they don't get touched by anything is annoying. Also means my build up of resistances (840 after Prismatic Armor) is going to pay off.

 

[Luminis]

And it makes sense. The number of Wizards and DH I've seen that have damn near no resistances and simply hope they don't get touched by anything is annoying. Also means my build up of resistances (840 after Prismatic Armor) is going to pay off.

This.

In all honesty, it's always great to see a DH or Wiz with defensive stats because, frankly, I do believe that that is how the game is meant to be played, even by them. Ignoring defensive stats alltogether can't be the way to go for any class.

But I guess there's going to be a lot of QQ. Mostly those guys who've been building glass canon characters and death zerged their way through Inferno

 

[omgitsbees]

I'm liking the downside currently of my glass cannon build, with the group i'm running with in Inferno. It feels fair, and the trade off is worth it. You couldn't run a glass cannon build as a wizard solo though.

 

[Bigbazz]

I tried to Glass cannon Rakanoth Inferno on my barbarion, put together a very nice damage set, but my weapon was weak as I had sold off my decent 2hander. Anyway, the best I managed was to get the boss down to about 20% in well under 10 seconds before he sucker punched me into the floor.

Still better than I was able to manage with my tank gear and a slow kill, by a long way, haha. I think atleast on bosses with the right gear even a barbarion can go glass cannon and win.

 

[Kent]

I hear you guys on the glass cannon stuff, it's a bit ridiculous.

That said, I'm putting a stop to my barb work until they work out act 2-4 difficulty for melee. Likewise I'm leveling both a wizard and demon hunter... If you can't beat them, join them.

My barb is still more fun to play.

Btw, went over that blue post again and still feel like some of that stuff is just plain stupid.
Reducing damage from NPCs will encourage survive-ability how again?

Like the BP said, we may not agree on the methods but at least we agree there is a HUGE disrepency between Melee and Ranged in Inferno.