Diablo III

[MaximumPain]

Long anticipated but was it worth the wait?
I picked it up first thing in the morning on the 15th brought it home and it installed no problem.
First character was a Witchdoctor and was fascinating. After playing a few hours the servers went down for a good chuck of the afternoon... looks like blizzard screwed up another launch LOL. As of last night they were up but still reporting intermittent problems. I had to try a few times to log in but finally got through and was able to play a few hours.

Instead of a skill tree like the old Diablo you just get a new skill or a skill modifier called ruins each level.
You start out with one skill slot for your left mouse button and one for your right mouse button. After a few levels you end up with a choice of skills for your left and right buttons. Eventually you open up different powers keyed to the number keys... each number key 1-4 has its own set of unique abilities that you can switch out. As you level your character more slots open up until you are eventually running both mouse buttons and 4 number keys as different power slots each with a its own set of powers and adjust ments called ruins. There are also several adjustable passive slots that open up as your character levels.

There are no quick change keys to adjust these powers you actually need to click into the menu and manually change the skill and then there is a cool down before you can use it and the skill cant be currently cooling down or you cant open the menu. Also all characters of a given class will have the exact same set of available skills at any given level. At first I was pissed off by this seeing it as a "care bear" treatment to protect the so called lesser players from making bad decisions. I imagined that every character of a given class would be exactly the same. Playing last night in a multiplayer game I had the chance to run with another WitchDoctor and to my surprise we hardly ever used the same powers. By level 12 there is a choice between 3 different primary and secondary powers (each), two powers keyed to the 1 key and I think two keyed to the number 2 key. In addition several of the primary and secondary powers have ruins that can be set to modify them making their effects and strengths very different.

Tactically you need to use different powers for different foes and you may need to change them in real time in order to defeat a group of foes with a certain power or tactic that your current load out may be inadequate to deal with.

Gear so far seems nearly the same as D2 with monsters and treasure chests dropping random items some of them magic. Apparently each player has their own loot to pick up rather then it being first come first serve. At my current low level I have not had the chance to see the really good gear that's out there yet.

There is some kind of an auction house for those who wish to buy and sell the gear they find but I have not had occasion to check it out yet.

Multiplayer is pretty seamless you just join a certain part of the adventure and the game puts you with like leveled characters. Alternatively you can start a solo game and then open it up to other players. Its still up to you and them to actually cooperate but most people so far have ran with the group. Each extra character in the game makes the foes stronger and it is dynamic adjusting on the fly as people leave and join. Characters using powers in synergy is perhaps the most interesting part of the game. Some foes are very strong or have challenging powers and tactics that necessitate cooperation between the classes. Even with two characters of the same class it often helped to have different power load outs.

So far the quests have been interesting but linear as one would expect and the entire game is reported to only be 6 hours to complete but I need to verify that myself. It does have the increased difficulty levels from D2 Nightmare and hell and it also has hardcore mode where you only get one life.

At first I was disappointed but the more I play it the more see the elegance of the new skill system. Not sure if it will pull me in like the D2 did but I'm sure I will get some enjoyment out of this game.

[GamerGal]

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reason...noying-future/
Well looks like they had trouble on launch day. Not for multi player, but for single player. And for WoW and SC2. Why? Because Blizzard makes you sign on to a remote server, to play, SINGLE PLAYER. And when this doesn't work? Every game they've made goes down. Not just D3, ALL of them.

What kind of system is that? "Single player? Great! Log on to our servers. Wait, they went down, now every one on the planet with a Blizzard product has an expensive paperweight.

[MaximumPain]

I had trouble with this... it actually cost me a few hours of gaming time!!!!!! After I raged and destroyed half my house the game came online and I was able to play. Just kidding I found something constructive to do like the dishes and practicing guitar.

You are correct though this is typical of blizzard to botch a launch like this. I also hate the new DRM related trends like stream and battlenet. I should be able to run this game privately even run a little network of it in my house but fuckers are just to greedy seeing every cent they don't make on something as a loss.

Still loving the game though even with its issues so far.

[MaximumPain]

The Witch Doctor.

This character takes the role of the old Necromancer. It uses pets and a variety of ranged attacks and snares, buffs, and debuffs.

Primary attacks: These are keyed to the left mouse button.
Your basic attack seems to be some sort of blow gun poison attack and you quickly get a ruin that makes it rapid fire. This seems to be my most effective attack against single foes doing a fair amount of damage.
You also get the corpse spider attack where the witchdoctor hurls a jar of spiders at his foes. They break on impact and unleash their cargo of spiders that proceed to attack all foes in the area for a few seconds then they die off. You can launch a stream of these jars and you end up with a whole bunch of spiders running around. Its basically a seeking AOE attack and made me giggle like a little girl when I first started using it. I do find the poison dart attack to be more effective in most situations so far.
For a third attack they give the witch doctor a poison toad attack. Several green toads hop along the ground poisoning foes they come in contact with finally exploding in green goo part way across the screen.

For secondary abilities the Witch doctor gets an AOE root. Grasping dead I think its called? Its a circle on the ground that damages and slows foes caught in it. A ruin makes the root part of the power stronger. It combines nicely with the spiders and toads to keep your foes in the killing zones of those respective attacks.
A second ability is called fire bats and unleashes a cone of fire that seems pretty effective but uses up mana quickly. It has a ruin that makes the bats go further instead of being a cone.
For a third power there is haunt. That power causes damage over time to one target jumping to a new one if your current target dies in the middle of its application. Seems good for stronger foes that dont die in a few hits and bosses.

There are also powers keyed to the first 4 number keys.
#1 key has a power called Zombie Dogs that is just 3 pets that don't do much damage but do cause a lot of distraction to foes. Rabid dogs is the first enhancement ruin and just makes the dogs a bit tougher. Tougher foes do seem to just slaughter your dogs quickly and the power has a longer cool down making them ineffective against stronger foes.
There is also an AOE fear power that I have not used much as of yet.

#2 Key has an AOE buff/debuff that drains foes and increases the party's intelligence stat making spells more powerful. Also it has a power that causes your zombie dogs to explode with devastating effect. With the cool down on the zombie dogs this power is not as strong as it could be but its still my favorite so far along with the jar of spiders.

So far several passive abilities have also opened up giving the witch doctor a choice of increased damage resistance, Zombie Dogs that raise from slain foes, or extra mana.

Many more abilities remain to be unlocked.

[Stabby Joe]

Merged threads.

[MaximumPain]

Played a Hardcore Monk but he died at lvl 12 I got careless.

For those who dont know the game has a "Hardcore" setting where a character playing on that setting has one life.
I created a Monk named "Limited" and seemed to be doing quiet well. Then I ran into a monster that can create walls and I got pinned and killed. I even rmearked to myself just before dieing "This looks dangerous". Its a weird feeling when a hardcore character dies its almost like real loss. After Limited died I just sat there staring at the screen for a minute.

[DontBeAfraid]

Thats what you get!!! bitch...

[MaximumPain]

Thats what you get!!! bitch...

It adds a certain edge to the game and definitely changes how you play.

Oh there is definitely more then 6 hours of content. My witch Doctor is near the end of act 2 and has about 6 total hours play time. Hes only lvl 20 now and has so many different ability's its hard to choose a load out.

Current hardcore character is a demon hunter and shes made it to lvl 9 so far. She has an ability called "vault" that allows me to roll out of being surrounded and move quickly across the screen... Its already saved my life at least once.

[DontBeAfraid]

So its EXACTLY like blink from world of warcraft... check.

[MaximumPain]

So its EXACTLY like blink from world of warcraft... check.

Different animations... In D3 it shows the toon doing cartwheels across the ground. The wizard has a teliport power that would probably be even closer. I would say WOW copied it from previous games as well. D2 had a teliport for the sorceress

I suppose you could reduce any games powers/skills to being almost exactly like some other existing powers from a previous game?

[dwbeaufort]

I suppose you could reduce any games powers/skills to being almost exactly like some other existing powers from a previous game?

yes
There hasn't been anything new in years, I have been looking for something new and exciting but everything is a rerun.
I keep telling myself I need to quit gaming for awhile but I cancel my subs for about a month and come right back.

[DontBeAfraid]

If anything WoW copied it from warcraft 3... in which it was still called blink and did exactly the same thing...

[MaximumPain]

If anything WoW copied it from warcraft 3... in which it was still called blink and did exactly the same thing...

All blizzard titles... they copied themselves!!!!

[DontBeAfraid]

Sons of bitches!!!!

[MaximumPain]

Come to think of it all of them are copying the original D&D..... which I would rather be playing anyway.

Pen and paper role playing has so much more depth and so many more options then all the computer games combined... Its just hard to rally up a good consistent group and a good dungeon master...... NERDS!!!!!!! Of curse this nerd is 6'4" in some shape and has had some training :)

[MaximumPain]

The report that you can finish the game (on its first difficulty level) in 6 hours is false. I have about 12 hours into my witch doctor and I am still on act 2.

[DontBeAfraid]

Maybe you are just a bitch....

[MaximumPain]

Maybe you are just a bitch....

For a carton of Kools and a couple commissary slips I'll be anyone's bitch.

[MaximumPain]

Beat Belilal from the end of act 2.
My friend and I tried to team up on him but we got slaughtered. I came back the next day and beat him solo. That was a pretty tough boss compared to the two from the first act.

At level 26 my Witch doctor has more possible load outs then I can describe. Certain configurations work much better then others but there are different kinds of enemies that require certain powers and configurations. You can still win with a bad load out but the right one makes things much easier.

Act 3 is pretty intense right from the start with some huge beasts climbing up the walls to support their lesser demon spawn brothers!

[DontBeAfraid]

pfft... so what...

[MaximumPain]

pfft... so what...

Cmon man you can do better then that... or did you use up all your wit picking up 2 bit skanks?

[DontBeAfraid]

They dont take that much wit... but yes, its all gone.

[armageddon]

Diablobanco, wasn't he that Persian Iranian guy who got busted on StormFront...?

[MaximumPain]

Love that name.... "White Devil"..... Fuck stormfront and all those nazi bastards... But I still fight for their right to have that sight just like Id fight for the right for us to intellectually carve those idiots up when they slither out of their holes.

So anyone else actually playing this damn game then?? Diablo III