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[Andir]

Here's another downside of a stable internet connection, want to play Diablo 3 the day it comes out? Well to bad the servers are overflowing with people and you won't be able to get on.

It's especially compounded by the farmers looking for items to put on the market for real cash the day it comes out.  The farmers can establish the market prices early... (ie: rip people off sooner.)  I would almost guarantee that you will not be able to play on day 1 with Joe Farmer logging in his 5-10 farming accounts from his dedicated line and all the hyped up kids trying to have something to talk about the next day.

[Neonivek]

Just doing some Damage control JIC.

I was pretending to be kidnapped by Blizzard (which was UNFORTUNATELY right before I put on that act) and replaced by a Blizzard kidnapping team.

Unfortunately from what I understand I created a flamewar somehow.

[ChairmanPoo]

I knew you were. But my remark in that regard was taken the wrong way :/

[Graven]

Since the other thread is remarkably stupid, I chose to post in this one.

PC Gamer hands-on, which serves to diminish my fears for the monk. Also, has info about other classes.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-beta-hands-on/

[nenjin]

So there is now a Skill Calculator out.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian

You can see all the skills you can get for each class, a selection of runes that can be slotted in to them, your passive abilities you can buy and any additional game play mechanics like the Monk's Mantras.

Basically, other than the visual changes, prepare for a ton of "Weapon damage +75%, bleed over 3 seconds, third strike does (Y)."

It's going to take the many mechanics established by WoW, and compact them several times over into one ability. Abilities will be one half that, and one half the animation that goes into them.

On the one hand, I haven't played a Blizzard game in years now and I could probably stand for some Blizzard-style mechanics. On the other.....the design is really obvious. It's this nice, neat little bundle they've already pre-plotted to the degree they're ready to show a skill calculator. The only variation you can expect is in your gear and your rune assignment, and in the selection difference of one or two skills. Compared to what seemed like Diablo 2's much more flexible and choice driven approach....they've narrowed and iterated gameplay down to just a handful of choices. Now, there is going to be a lot of diversity within those choices....but I felt like I wasn't seeing a whole lot that was new out of Blizzard, just a further amping up of everything they've learned so far.

I'm starting to feel like what's going to be most impressive about Diablo 3 is the amount of effort that went into the Rune System and having every attack look different based on its runes. That may NOT be the case exactly, reading several of the runes, they're literally stuff like "make things bleed." "Add fire damage." Will all those get their accompanying visual effects, or will be more like gem slotting in WoW? Hard to say at this point. I'll be very surprised if each and every rune makes your attacks look visually different.

[Lmaoboat]

After looking at the runes and the passives, I think Diablo 3 has more customization than D2 ever had. The stats system in D2 did so little it might as well not have existed, and most classes just spammed the same on or two skills. With this rune system, somebody could have the same 6 skills as you, and still play very differently. Say you have two witch doctors that both have Poison Dart, Acid Cloud, Mass Confusion, Zombie Charger, Grasp of the Dead, and Spirit Barrage:
One WD could have:
- A ranged fire attack
- A close range cone AoE
- A AoE confuse that stuns the enemies that didn't get confused
- A suicide zombie dog that explodes in a fireball
- An AoE rain of corpses
- A ranged attack summon
The other could have.
- A poison multishot attack
- A ranged AoE that spawns exploding pets
- An AoE confused that causes the enemies it kills to come back as pets
- A stampede of zombie bears.
- An AoE slow that can make enemies drop health orbs
- A ranged DoT that leeches health.

[Niveras]

After looking at the runes and the passives, I think Diablo 3 has more customization than D2 ever had. The stats system in D2 did so little it might as well not have existed, and most classes just spammed the same on or two skills.

People didn't spam the same one or two skills because of a lack of selection, they spammed them because those were the "best" skills and choosing otherwise would generally intentionally gimp your character. This got a little better as D2 aged but there were still gimp choices to make. Especially noteworthy was that fact that hammerdins were the only* spec that could solo ubers.

Runes aren't generally going to avoid that, it'll just move the pitfall from skill selection to rune selection.

*I'm running my mouth a bit here, I don't have much personal experience with endgame D2. All I know is hearsay from lurking the forums for Median.

[Darkmere]

People didn't spam the same one or two skills because of a lack of selection, they spammed them because those were the "best" skills and choosing otherwise would generally intentionally gimp your character.

Isn't that effectively the same thing? Synergies forced you to put all skill points into a synergy tree, that led to the top skill because it did the most damage for that element/style. By the time you filled out that skill and the synergies, you had points for support skills and nothing else. I don't see how synergy-less, tree-less skills can be anything but an improvement over railroading of that type. Also, the rune effects look very interesting so far. Looking at the barb tree kinda makes me want to play one first. Must resist...

[echonic]

Runes aren't generally going to avoid that, it'll just move the pitfall from skill selection to rune selection.

Major difference being you can destroy runes and put a new one in their place.  Skills were pretty much a one-way street.

[nenjin]

It's official, you can purchase Diablo 3 from Battle.net starting May 15.

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/diablo-iii/1220854p1.html

[Levi]

I wish blizzard games went on sale like steam games.  I almost feel bad for buying something at full price now...

[hemmingjay]

Will they be selling us authenticators because they refuse to keep your information safe? Never been hacked in a game before or since, but my accounts were hacked twice in WoW and then banned. They refused to accept digital photos of my passport and credit card as proof of my identity and thus refused to unban my accounts. These were accounts where I purchased expansions. Pissed at their mismanagement and inability to maintain control of their data. I use 13 digit mil-spec passwords rotated on a regular basis and use a physical firewall as well as software protection. It was 100% a hack(sniffer) on their end, as most of them have been.

I am hesitant to trust their ability to protect accounts at all. That being said, my BNET account has NEVER been hacked.

[Briggsy16]

If you don't have an authenticator on your accounts I believe you deserve to be hacked.

Also buying gold is a good way of being hacked

[PrimusRibbus]

If you don't have an authenticator on your accounts I believe you deserve to be hacked.

Also buying gold is a good way of being hacked

Deserve? I've never once been hacked in a game ever. None of my friends have ever had an account hacked outside of WoW.

[Xeron]

Boycott the game !
Do not forget that the clients are the stronger persons.If we get people to not buy the game at all you CAN change Blizzard's views.Because they hunger for your money.