Beat act I the first day I played. Is there really nothing to the skills system but picking which runes to use? Is there no character customization besides equipment?
Beat act I the first day I played. Is there really nothing to the skills system but picking which runes to use? Is there no character customization besides equipment?
What customization do you feel is lacking? The only thing D3 lost by removing the old skill/stat system is the ability to fuck up your character.
The runes make some pretty big changes to your abilities.
I should clairify that I don't think D3 is the prefect game, I do think it is mechanically the best progression / lewt grind to date, for what that is worth.
I feel it's somewhat lacking any meaningful way to differentiate the character I'm playing from the character someone else is playing except by gear... which is effectively going to become "the amount of money you're willing to spend on the game" which is... in effect... quite boring.
But there has been a grey market ever for that stuff ever since Diablo 2. Besides, since it is pretty much just a time sink, is it really better to "earn" your items than it is to pay for them?
I've never been fond of the "grind for gear" thing or people buying things online... from my perspective they're only robbing themselves. It's like Rym and Scott talking about modding their characters and playing the game. I don't get that. I generally quit any game when it gets to that point. That said, in D2 there was some additional fun to be had for me by challenging myself to play through some alternative builds. Hardcore mode may still be interesting... and that also avoids the RMAH. I've already had some lag-related deaths (mostly tonight... getting crazy horrible ping and disconnected all the time)... so that's not an option yet.
As another example of why the skill thing is a little bit of an issue for me... I effectively get to play a "trap-hunter", a "bow hunter", and a... no wait, that's it all at once. Kinda lame compared to having each class in D2 be possible to play at least two or three different ways. I assume thier model is to add more classes later and such... or something... maybe...
Basically, the fun part of the game for me was always going through the full process (starting at 1, going up through all the difficulties, dealing with my equipment as it came, etc.) and expanding the character and seeing different things. Then interacting with other players playing a wide variety of different character types and seeing what they're running.
I feel like in this case... there's not much reason to do that more than once per class... you can switch spells for any particular encounter and try it all out... and never be caught with a challenge that you don't have your classes very best spell for... oy...
Unless they're going to patch in new end-game content all the time... there's not going to be anything new to do after I've cleared inferno? If I even want to get that far... you can unlock everything by the end of Hell it seems.
I feel like in this case... there's not much reason to do that more than once per class... you can switch spells for any particular encounter and try it all out... and never be caught with a challenge that you don't have your classes very best spell for... oy...
The Nephalem Valor Buff is how they offset the "respec wheneven you damn well choose" aspect of the new system. Basically, once you hit 60 this buff kicks in that increases your magic item and gold find and gets strong the more elites and named critter you kill without respecing. So, in that sense, you have to find a build that works for you and get gear that makes it work.
Also, the game doesn't really start until you get to Nightmare, which unlocks once you've finished the game once. That is apparently when shit gets officially real.
I feel it's somewhat lacking any meaningful way to differentiate the character I'm playing from the character someone else is playing except by gear... which is effectively going to become "the amount of money you're willing to spend on the game" which is... in effect... quite boring.
The reason characters can't be meaningfully differentiated is partly that this is at its core a single player game with some co-op strung along. Many people would have the same fun playing four individual single player runs while sharing a voicechat session as they would in some sort of four-player co-op.
I disagree, Rym. Four-player allows you to move much more quickly. It gives you someone to watch your back if you need to retreat. It lets a barbarian or monk tank while mages and demon hunters sit back and use cool-ass spells without worrying about taking big hits. The biggest problem with co-op is the lack of an in-game VOIP system like the one included in Borderlands.
I'd say it is, at its core, a co-op game with allowences in solo to make sure some of the classes are viable. I'm playing a wizard and I'd be having a much harder time without my Templar tank taunting the loot pinates while I nuke them from afar.
The biggest problem with co-op is the lack of an in-game VOIP system like the one included in Borderlands.
This may be the first time in history that any co-op experience has been considered lacking when compared to Borderlands...
Then again, I'm so used to just using Skype for VOIP these days that I didn't even know it wasn't in D3.
Do you know where I can finda steady stream of live chickens? Hopefully at a place thats open 24 hours. Wal Mart doesnt seem to carry any? Either that or theyre out by the time I get there.
Do you know where I can finda steady stream of live chickens? Hopefully at a place thats open 24 hours. Wal Mart doesnt seem to carry any? Either that or theyre out by the time I get there.
I think I saw this done by some dude with a green hoodie once, what you have to do is hit a chicken three times, and they come raining from the skies. They're hell-bent on killing you, but you'll be fine if you just wear a helmet.
There has not ever been a built-in real money auction house in any of the games I've played.
I feel it's somewhat lacking any meaningful way to differentiate the character I'm playing from the character someone else is playing except by gear...
I feel it's somewhat lacking any meaningful way to differentiate the character I'm playing from the character someone else is playing except by gear... which is effectively going to become "the amount of money you're willing to spend on the game" which is... in effect... quite boring.
The reason characters can't be meaningfully differentiated is partly that this is at its core a single player game with some co-op strung along. Many people would have the same fun playing four individual single player runs while sharing a voicechat session as they would in some sort of four-player co-op.
I also don't believe this to be true. Remove all the cutscenes that contain specific art of the playable character and you could easily throw in some customization. Even SWTOR (albeit an "MMO") allows you to do this. However, I am somewhat disappointed by the fact that there isn't any customization but at the same time I don't really care. It's a similar concept to the idea of "world building", people also love to "character build". But in the end, and I think Mass Effect expresses this point, all you will see is the armor in the endgame anyway.
Cleared the game last night. Died a bit much in act IV. One of the minor bosses 1-shot me repeatedly and I apparently was forgetting to reactivate one of my major abilities after I died.
The final fight was fun. I failed the first time because a certain thing also (nearly) one-shot me. Apparently my 500 dps demon hunter is quite the glass cannon.
That's why I've spent a couple of hours trading out dex+ bonuses for extra defense, vitality, health steal, and experience gain. It dropped my attack rating from 800 to 550, but now I don't have to worry quite so much in nightmare about getting mobbed.
When I was playing in a group it was alright, ideally I should have separate gear for soloing. Now that I've finished the game I can probably start running more with friends. That is, if I want to keep playing. It's not high on my priorities at the moment.
That's why I've spent a couple of hours trading out dex+ bonuses for extra defense, vitality, health steal, and experience gain. It dropped my attack rating from 800 to 550, but now I don't have to worry quite so much in nightmare about getting mobbed.
So inferno might be "un-tuned" but I'm still enjoying it. It's at least forcing me to actually learn what the different enemy types do at a higher level of detail. Things like "salamanders turn invisible for 8 seconds" are interesting to learn to deal with. It isn't necessarily the same game as Diablo, it's a weird RPG bullet-hell shooter thing where you eventually "overgear" everything and kill it all before it can do anything... but it's still fun. But also fuck some of the scaling, obviously. That characters need to be able to do hundreds of thousands of damage per attack, and a percentage of that gets reflected at their measly 20k-30k hit points is a bit obtuse. It's often an off-the-screen insta-gib on me before I know what the fuck I just did. Similarly I imagine act IV is going to consist of me moving forward one inch at a time in the hopes I avoid being off-screen charge-gibbed.
Comments
The runes make some pretty big changes to your abilities.
I should clairify that I don't think D3 is the prefect game, I do think it is mechanically the best progression / lewt grind to date, for what that is worth.
As another example of why the skill thing is a little bit of an issue for me... I effectively get to play a "trap-hunter", a "bow hunter", and a... no wait, that's it all at once. Kinda lame compared to having each class in D2 be possible to play at least two or three different ways. I assume thier model is to add more classes later and such... or something... maybe...
Basically, the fun part of the game for me was always going through the full process (starting at 1, going up through all the difficulties, dealing with my equipment as it came, etc.) and expanding the character and seeing different things. Then interacting with other players playing a wide variety of different character types and seeing what they're running.
I feel like in this case... there's not much reason to do that more than once per class... you can switch spells for any particular encounter and try it all out... and never be caught with a challenge that you don't have your classes very best spell for... oy...
Unless they're going to patch in new end-game content all the time... there's not going to be anything new to do after I've cleared inferno? If I even want to get that far... you can unlock everything by the end of Hell it seems.
Also, the game doesn't really start until you get to Nightmare, which unlocks once you've finished the game once. That is apparently when shit gets officially real.
Then again, I'm so used to just using Skype for VOIP these days that I didn't even know it wasn't in D3.
The final fight was fun. I failed the first time because a certain thing also (nearly) one-shot me. Apparently my 500 dps demon hunter is quite the glass cannon.