Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[KaelGotDwarves]

Oh man, if you think bosses in Nightmare are chaotic, I have bad news for you in Hell and beyond...
Arcane Enchanted/Jailer/Desolator/Frozen

There, I just described something harder than Diablo himself. Basically, combine bullshit purple lasers with stun, and you have a loltastic time.

So I'm up to level 57, and I deal a stupid amount of damage- 7k unbuffed. When you spec well, Hell mode has been, well, not so hellish.

I've been doing the Act 3 boss run and first boss of Act 4 for insane exp per run in Nightmare. Supposedly it has a good yield until level 60.

My team of friends are gearing up to tackle Inferno difficulty. Our barb decided he was sick of being useless and is rerolling a monk, so our team will have 3. hahaha

[Rez]

Did blizz make barbs terrible again, or did he just have a bad build?

[KaelGotDwarves]

Once you get to Hell/Inferno, you have to realise that a properly spec'd out wizard/caster will generally out DPS melee. This means that melee functions as tanks/utility. You must work as a team to absorb damage for the high-damaging glass cannons.

The barbarian has one main heal skill, the monk has... well, with one passive every skill heals him/her, and several different skills that heal teammates.

What the internet is slowly realising is that monks are doing things like soloing Inferno Butcher at low levels with perma-stun, ridiculous damage, and high survivability.

So while it isn't that barbs are terrible, it's just that monks have better utility.

[pilgrimboy]

Or is it their first time playing this genre and they didnt know what to expect ?

My 10-year-old, who hasn't played Diablo II but has played a lot of Fate, thinks this is the best game ever. Certain games get that status quickly. Terraria did for him. But that status is not easily given out. So they must be doing something right. Unless games aren't supposed to be played by ten year olds.

Diablo III has been enjoyable so far except for the random disconnect. I also must suck at playing because I have died around five times so far with my level 28 barbarian.

The frustration in the game seems to come from two places. One, people don't like what happens when they level. They don't get to choose the stats to increase. Two, they don't like the DRM.

Except for being booted a few times, the DRM hasn't impacted me. I actually enjoy getting and selling gear in the auction house. They could have even made a character in the game to be the auction house. That would have made me happier. Don't know if I will like the real money auction house though. It might add a level of stress to life that I don't want in my games because my job gives enough stress. Being against the DRM seems to be more of a I'm going to make a point and be against something out of certain personally held principles. Life has too many important issues to worry about the DRM of games, that is unless I am going to steal them.

And the stats really haven't bothered me much. I have switched to elective mode and get to use the skills I want. With the barbarian this is essential. I find myself debating on which runes and skills to use. Had to switch skills for one of the bosses and I don't automatically use the rune upgrades because another rune works better with my style of play for the barbarian. True, I don't get to level up my stats the way I want, but we probably would have all been doing it the same.

Now, the storyline frustrates me at points. I wouldn't be doing some of the things my character does. The whole second quest wouldn't have happened because I would not have let Zultun Kulle out. That story actually frustrated me a little.

I find the game fun, worth the money unlike my feeling after buying Skyrim, and wouldn't mind playing it right now except that my boy is having a go at it before his baseball game.

[KaelGotDwarves]

RE: Monks are broken.

The official battle.net forums are having a flame war because Fist of Thunder rune Quickening (+15 to spirit on critical hit) activates whenever any of your attacks crit, like through Sweeping Wind which does constant AoE damage many times per second, which pretty much guarantees a full Spirit bar with decent crit chance.

Some argue that it's a bug, others that it's working as intended. It's mainly used to spam Mantra of Healing with Boon of Protection to "cheese" invincibility.

I've been testing it out a bit and I must say it's making Hell mode seem easy.

[Rez]

So basically they did the same things to the barb they did in d2. zzzzzz

[hemmingjay]

Barb is pretty effective. Taking him into Hell tonight and the trick so far has been gearing and speccing. I know it has been said to death but Barb and Wizard are both heavily influenced by their gear, more so than other classes.

[hemmingjay]

It has been confirmed that a solo player from Denmark has beat Diablo on Inferno, beating the professionals. He did it today at around noon PST.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1211-method-has-cleared-inferno/

[Sirian]

It has been confirmed that a solo player from Denmark has beat Diablo on Inferno, beating the professionals. He did it today at around noon PST.

http://www.diablofans.com/news/1211-method-has-cleared-inferno/

Nice ! note that it's a wizard, not a monk ! Seems wizard is the most OP after all :p (apparently if you use Force armor with the rune that allows only 35% of max HP damage + hydra, you can beat stuff solo that no other class could)

[KaelGotDwarves]

It's a gimmick build similar to the 55monk from Guild Wars 1. You go low hp (no vit items), have the force shield rune that allows you to take 35% max hp damage from attacks, and have high hp regen/life per kill, all attack stat (int).

Only works on bosses that hit hard but slowly, lots of mobs would insta-gib you. Damage over time melts you. He also supposedly died hundreds of times in the attempt to kill diablo.

Note that the "gimmick" also involved skipping/teleporting/dying through mobs just to get through checkpoints. Others note he and only killed a few mobs (million something) for his high level, many of which were boss runs for exp.

But yeah, pretty interesting stuff.

EDIT: build-

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hilarious how the most broken build of early Guild Wars 1 gets duplicated in Diablo3. lol.

[Neonivek]

The Monk has other quirks too.

He is the only class that can easily kill Treasure goblins... Solo... On infurno... in a 4 person party. He is powerful for the entire game, is godly powerful for a party. Heck a 4-monk group I'd imagine doing better then almost any combination of below.

The Mage is a late bloomer relying on dealing immense damage in order to kill their enemies before they kill you. Early game, especially with other people, they will seem to lag behind especially since they will be hurt immensely. Though once you start to catch up you will see your damage potential, and survival potential, to increase dramatically. A few of their skills you will find are useless, broken, or seem to work some of the time (the Freezing blizzard for example I have only got to work on Diablo... which works surprisingly often)

Demon-hunter is probably somewhat of a mid-bloomer. Though I havn't really got one or seen one at high level play. They can be tough because a lot of their skills are made just for running away or jumping in close, both which are dangerous no matter what point of the game you are at. They definately seem like a class made for solo play since many of their abilities lose A LOT of effectiveness simply because a party isn't going to wait for you to get set up. They are definately the toughest class to use in my oppinion but that is just because of heavy use of timing.

Barbarian is broken in the negative way. Especially since Whirlwind one of their better attacks is glitched and will cause you to drop. Though early game they can seem unstoppable. They are basically fighting a losing game.

Witch-Doctor from what little I seen is a evolving class. In the early game his summons are king and can make the normal playthrough an easy stroll. After Midgame his summons can be more of a detriment (Vampiric enemies can become unbeatable if you have a minion... even indestructible ones feed them) and their usefullness seems to go down, however they can shift their game to range.

[Nistenf]

As I probably won't be able to play this for a long while until the price gets lower, how does MP work? If I play in a 4 people party, do we have to fight 4 times the mobs or it playing solo 4 times harder?

[Neonivek]

As I probably won't be able to play this for a long while until the price gets lower, how does MP work? If I play in a 4 people party, do we have to fight 4 times the mobs or it playing solo 4 times harder?

It depends

With Two players enemies have a bit more life and their damage doesn't increase too much. (Life and Damage increase)

Three players and four players you get a health and damage spike (Vast Life and Damage Increase. Four is more of an increase then three)

To the extent that the game is easier to play with exactly two players then it is with four. Especially with classes who depend on killing enemies before they can run up to them (the mage suffers the most from co-op games in terms of dying from what I can see... but I don't know about the Witchdoctor on higher then normal)

Now the amount of enemies doesn't change except for one fight at the end of the game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the fight against Diablo... He will summon shadow versions of you. This is honestly the cheapest thing about fighting him on multiplayer because not only will he summon a shadowclone for each player but those clones will also get a damage and health boost. This is one of the reasons why IMO that Shadow Diablo is actually tougher then his second form. This also depends on the players too... Mages and Witchdoctors are NASTY shadow opponents while Barbarians and Monks are kinda easy.

[Levi]

Woo, I won.  Now I don't have to be paranoid about spoilers.   

[nenjin]

Witch-Doctor from what little I seen is a evolving class. In the early game his summons are king and can make the normal playthrough an easy stroll. After Midgame his summons can be more of a detriment (Vampiric enemies can become unbeatable if you have a minion... even indestructible ones feed them) and their usefullness seems to go down, however they can shift their game to range.

Pets always become a liability in high difficulty games, it seems. Their willingness to attack stuff off screen gets you into trouble sometimes, even on normal. The Monk pet seems super aggressive even compared to the WD's zombie dogs or companions.

I played a pet-based WD on normal all the way up to the middle of Act 2, and switched when it seemed like my Zombie Dogs were dying in every single fight. So I tried a "close combat" WD build. It actually quasi-worked as a tank for my group believe it or not. But I felt like I wasn't getting anything done, so after trying several builds of ranged WD damage I came to.....

Acid Cloud. Oh Acid Cloud. With 5 stacks of Soul Harvest on, the damage skyrockets above the life total of anything you're fighting. With a Level 28's mana pool, you can drop 5 of those things before you go OOM, which is enough to liquefy ANY groups of monsters even when playing with 3 people. I went from only getting lucky massacre bonuses rarely to taking them AND all Mighty Blow bonuses from my party members every time. The downside is you go OOM very quickly but with Poison Dart and the mana recovery rune, you can get back enough to puke on some more people. Right now I have the Gargantuan following me around because I simply can't find the time to use another attack skill when there's so much AWESOME SPEWAGE that needs to happen.

So yeah. While it may just be the normal mode glass-cannon syndrome, it feels pretty broke. But I think it will remain effective in higher difficulties because it's a complete build.

1. Poison Dart + Spined Dart
2. Grasp of the Dead + Groping Eels or Rain of Corpses
3. Soul Harvest + Swallow Your Soul, Soul Siphon or Vengeful Spirit
4. Acid Cloud + Acid Rain

The rest of the skills are open for choice. I prefer Spirit Walk + Honored Guest for the mana regen. But Horrify + Phobia, or Gargantuan are both decent choices too. Like I said, other direct damage spells for the WD seem to take way too long compared to the massive aoe instant damage of Acid Cloud.

For Passives, Spiritual Attunement, Bad Medicine and Rush of Essence. With this set up, you're really only concerned about two and a half things: regenning mana and casting Acid Rain. You worry about Soul Harvest when you want that psychotic damage boost.

My usual tactic is to run up to a pack of enemies and use Soul Siphon to get 5 stacks if possible. (Which effectively doubles my Int and therefore my damage, at this level. It comes at a price though, I've died a couple times trying to run into range to get them.) Then I drop Grasp of the Dead and take 3 or 4 steps back. Then I unleash the Acid Cloud until everything is dead. Because of Bad Medicine, anything caught by the Acid Cloud is weakened, which helps both me and teammates if they're in the middle of the pack. If there's still enemies alive once I run out of mana, I stand in place and shoot Poison Dart to get it back or refresh my Soul Harvest counters if I can. Rinse and repeat.

This is probably the most efficient and easy way to play WD. Having tried a close combat build with Exploding Frogs, Vampire Bats and the like.....it works, but compared to 17 kill Mighty Blows and 51+ Massacres in a group setting....one is definitely quicker and killier. There's probably a way better set up for boss killing, but for pure AoE damage output I think this might be unbeatable.