Diablo 3 beta confirmed for September

I'm contemplating whether to use or sell my key...

Sell. My buddy's told me repeatedly that he's set aside 150 bucks to buy a beta key if he doesn't get in. I'm sure there are people that would be willing to pay higher than a benny and a half.
 
Normally I wouldn't say this, but in this case...sell the holy hell out of it. DOO EET NAOOOO. </arnie>
 
Where can I sign up and get one?

There's no way to "get one" unless you know some one working for Blizzard. You can sign up for betas which does not guarantee a spot. Log in to your battle.net and register.
 
I wouldn't even worry about getting in, it's not going to be the full game for the beta. It's roughly 13 levels, which is barely enough to even get started. There's not much content, all of the classes are available, but how much time will that really take?
 
I wouldn't even worry about getting in, it's not going to be the full game for the beta. It's roughly 13 levels, which is barely enough to even get started. There's not much content, all of the classes are available, but how much time will that really take?

Act I in full is in the beta. Obviously it's not going to be the full game. That would leak a bunch of spoilers.

Can I have your beta pass if you get in and I don't? :p
 
If the SC2 beta is any indication, I think they'll just be adding the D3 Beta to your account rather than distributing keys. They started doing that after the first few waves of SC2 keys.

But yeah, if they hand out keys, I'm selling mine. No longer interested in D3. Or any Blizzard game, for that matter.
 

Very good interview refuting a lot of the flaming about removing skill points and restricting skills to six. I would recommend everyone watch it, but, basically he says that what people believed was "customization" in D2 was really just a false choice, as everyone just amassed skill points into a few talents, and that the new system actually is more customizing, and I think he's right.
 
Very good interview refuting a lot of the flaming about removing skill points and restricting skills to six. I would recommend everyone watch it, but, basically he says that what people believed was "customization" in D2 was really just a false choice, as everyone just amassed skill points into a few talents, and that the new system actually is more customizing, and I think he's right.

I agree. Anyone that thought that hogging skill points and talent points in Diablo 2 was customization is really only naive. All the Diablo 2 system did was force you to have a txt file or pen/paper with breakpoints for what gear you planned on using at the later levels. The documents only served the purpose of reminding you not to go over X stat so you could use Y item without being over the stat requirement. After that, everything else was either dumped into health or block (I think it was block...been a while since I played D2) or a combination of both until you hit the block cap for your level.

This is called optimization. Diablo 3 just took that aspect and made it for you, leaving you free to actually customize without gimping yourself because you f-ed up on stat distribution or misclicked and invested in the wrong skill.
 
I don't understand the 6 skills per class thing. I get that you can modify them but come on... Give us some options...
 
I don't understand the 6 skills per class thing. I get that you can modify them but come on... Give us some options...

Each character class has way more than six skills, you still have to unlock them as you level up, you can only use 6 at a time. Which basically no one did, and no one really had options. You found a build on the internet that was best and did exactly that. With the different runes and OPTIONS of the skill system, almost any combination will be viable in some way.
 
Very good interview refuting a lot of the flaming about removing skill points and restricting skills to six. I would recommend everyone watch it, but, basically he says that what people believed was "customization" in D2 was really just a false choice, as everyone just amassed skill points into a few talents, and that the new system actually is more customizing, and I think he's right.

Whoa Whoa Whoa! Easy buddy! This is Hardforum, you can't be reasonable here! ;)
 
Very good interview refuting a lot of the flaming about removing skill points and restricting skills to six. I would recommend everyone watch it, but, basically he says that what people believed was "customization" in D2 was really just a false choice, as everyone just amassed skill points into a few talents, and that the new system actually is more customizing, and I think he's right.

His statements are in reference to cookie cutter build knowledge, and various other types of knowledge that was gained from digging through the MPQ's. Knowledge which was gained by the Diablo 2 community over the years of experience and playing to min-max. It wasn't necessarily the fault of the game, and nothing is stopping someone from putting 15 pts into Battle Command, except their own insecurities about being "good". Hence why some go online to find "the best build". I still question whether or not its actually true for those who played casually, say for the story or what have you. I doubt min-maxing even came into their minds.

He doesn't point it out in that particular interview, but in a previous one he makes the example of typical stat distribution in Diablo 2, ie enough str for the heaviest piece, enough dex for max block, no energy, the rest of the points into vitality. That was generally true, but again it's also from the min-max standpoint. Why would a casual player care about how to precisely distribute his stats? He wouldn't even be able to support it because he wouldn't have access to the best items that make the stat distribution relevant in the first place. This is like teaching advanced chess tactics to a beginner chess player, it's stuff you learn after you get the basics down. A casual player likes to learn the basics, follow the story, and beat the game. Maybe play through with a different character. A casual player isn't some guy with an '03 account on d2jsp, botting items, building cookie cutter pvp chars, and following a "rest of the points into vitality" build which is where Jay Wilsons points are primarily relevant.

His Diablo 2 examples he mistakenly points out as being a fault, are stuff only the most hardcore players follow, because they've played the game for years. It's a 10 year old game, I for sure HOPE that people still playing it aren't just randomly distributing stats, like he apparently thought was "intended".

With all that said, I want to close with the point that there was no "wrong" build in Diablo 2 if you played through it only a few times, which most people likely did (it only makes sense there are more casual than hardcore players). The only time a build was "wrong" was when you wanted to min-max and make the absolute best out of a character - that's where the guides came in. Pointing at these guides as if they're a fault of the game is incorrect.
 
I don't understand the 6 skills per class thing. I get that you can modify them but come on... Give us some options...

So you're telling me you used more than 6 active skills with your builds in Diablo 2?

Wait, don't even answer that because I know the answer is "no."
 
So you're telling me you used more than 3 active skills with your builds in Diablo 2?

Wait, don't even answer that because I know the answer is "no."

Fixed to be more accurate to D2 and how many skills one char would use/level up (primary skills obviously, not ones you cast once every 10 hours just for giggles).

With all that said, I want to close with the point that there was no "wrong" build in Diablo 2 if you played through it only a few times, which most people likely did (it only makes sense there are more casual than hardcore players). The only time a build was "wrong" was when you wanted to min-max and make the absolute best out of a character - that's where the guides came in. Pointing at these guides as if they're a fault of the game is incorrect.

So... are you trying to say it's a fault to try to add more diversity for 'hardcore players' (anyone who plays more than 2 chars?.. not sure how you define hardcore) or what? So people can't decide they want to have a sorc with 200 str 200 dex 100 energy 100 vitality, oh noes the casuals are getting screwed?

Don't try and act like a casual player would be on their 2nd or 3rd char and still decide "hey, maybe I shoot put 3 points in charged bolt, 4 in nova, 2 in icebolt, 3 in warmth, 2 in firebolt, 5 in lightning, and 4 in frozen orb... Yeah, that'll be awesome!".

Better yet, how many casuals do you know of who were trying to go through nightmare or hell difficulty using their level 2 icebolt or level 6 charged bolt? My guess is zero, because eventually they'd rage-quit due to being unable to do anything at all or they would pick a skill, max it out, and use it as their primary skill.
 
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Better yet, how many casuals do you know of who were trying to go through nightmare or hell difficulty using their level 2 icebolt or level 6 charged bolt? My guess is zero, because eventually they'd rage-quit due to being unable to do anything at all or they would pick a skill, max it out, and use it as their primary skill.

This made me lawl.:D
 
WHAT THE FUCK! LVL 60!!!!!? FUCKING WORLD OF WARCRAFT



Thats cool, new artwork for higher tier weapons and armor. The Auction House is going to ruin this game. Just buy your way to the top. Fucking lazy slugs.


/Rant

It's been common knowledge that the level cap was 60 for a long time already.
 
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So... are you trying to say it's a fault to try to add more diversity for 'hardcore players' (anyone who plays more than 2 chars?.. not sure how you define hardcore) or what? So people can't decide they want to have a sorc with 200 str 200 dex 100 energy 100 vitality, oh noes the casuals are getting screwed?

Re-read what I posted, it has nothing to do with "casuals are getting screwed".

Better yet, how many casuals do you know of who were trying to go through nightmare or hell difficulty using their level 2 icebolt or level 6 charged bolt? My guess is zero, because eventually they'd rage-quit due to being unable to do anything at all or they would pick a skill, max it out, and use it as their primary skill.

Jay Wilson is wrong in saying there's a design fault with Diablo 2 when he uses the "enough str for items, enough dex for block, no energy, rest vit" argument as a basis for what is wrong with Diablo 2, when you could get through Diablo 2 just fine without following any guidelines at all.

I've played with many "casual" Diablo 2 players and their first thought isn't how much str and dex and energy and vit they need, or if they should go a meteorb sorc, or what the best build is, it's "What character should I play?". It's "What are some cool runewords", and everything else flows naturally, like you would expect. Jay Wilsons argument is invalid for most players that played Diablo 2.
 
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WHAT THE FUCK! LVL 60!!!!!? FUCKING WORLD OF WARCRAFT



Thats cool, new artwork for higher tier weapons and armor. The Auction House is going to ruin this game. Just buy your way to the top. Fucking lazy slugs.


/Rant

How will the AH personally affect your gameplay? Not the D3 community, not how it will stop global warming or fix the national debt issue, your own personal gameplay experience. People skip a lot of content in a lot of games by reading a guide first playthough, hacking, cheat codes, ect, do you let that get to you? How does the AH personally affect your experience? If you join random groups online, do you just assume people with better gear than you bought it off the AH because there's no way in hell someone could already outgear you? Do you get mad if they kill enemies faster than you so you can get more loot? Do you just assume people beat you in PvP only because they bought stuff from the AH?


Jay Wilson is wrong in saying there's a design fault with Diablo 2 when he uses the "enough str for items, enough dex for block, no energy, rest vit" argument as a basis for what is wrong with Diablo 2, when you could get through Diablo 2 just fine without following any guidelines at all.

Maybe people can get through normal, and possibly nightmare, but after one of the later patches hell became really tough, and you'd be screwed if you didnt have a planned build. Many good builds required saving points early making some sections challenging. I dont know of any casual player that thinks "Mabye I should save this skill point for some better ability 2 playthoughs from now"

This is the same reason I dont mind no more open/closed bnet. You can tell people all day to do certain things and they'll still get mad they didnt get it and have to start over. Many people will make a lot of mistakes early on, and would simply have to reroll the same class to get it right. Same is online, I know a bunch of people that would create a SP char first, then think, "Why do I have to start over to play on closed bnet?!?" Creating situations where rerolling is necessary to experience endgame is a useless time sink across any genre. Why not let them simply respec so they dont have to go through the game again with the same class?
 
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I didn't think you could possibly dumb-down Diablo any further but it appears I am wrong.

I used more than 3 skills for each character I made...plus maxing out skills you didn't use contributed to skills you did use when Blizzard implemented the Synergy system.
 
WHAT THE FUCK! LVL 60!!!!!? FUCKING WORLD OF WARCRAFT



Thats cool, new artwork for higher tier weapons and armor. The Auction House is going to ruin this game. Just buy your way to the top. Fucking lazy slugs.


/Rant

Did you even watch the video you quoted? Do you think he was lying about the statement that people were already buying stuff from shady third-party websites for Diablo 2? Or did you just not play Diablo 2 and you have no idea what you're talking about?
 
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How will the AH personally affect your gameplay? Not the D3 community, not how it will stop global warming or fix the national debt issue, your own personal gameplay experience. People skip a lot of content in a lot of games by reading a guide first playthough, hacking, cheat codes, ect, do you let that get to you? How does the AH personally affect your experience? If you join random groups online, do you just assume people with better gear than you bought it off the AH because there's no way in hell someone could already outgear you? Do you get mad if they kill enemies faster than you so you can get more loot? Do you just assume people beat you in PvP only because they bought stuff from the AH?




Maybe people can get through normal, and possibly nightmare, but after one of the later patches hell became really tough, and you'd be screwed if you didnt have a planned build. Many good builds required saving points early making some sections challenging. I dont know of any casual player that thinks "Mabye I should save this skill point for some better ability 2 playthoughs from now"

This is the same reason I dont mind no more open/closed bnet. You can tell people all day to do certain things and they'll still get mad they didnt get it and have to start over. Many people will make a lot of mistakes early on, and would simply have to reroll the same class to get it right. Same is online, I know a bunch of people that would create a SP char first, then think, "Why do I have to start over to play on closed bnet?!?" Creating situations where rerolling is necessary to experience endgame is a useless time sink across any genre. Why not let them simply respec so they dont have to go through the game again with the same class?

Because it cheapens the experience of the game. Now instead of hoping for the drop you wanted, you can just trot over to the Auction House and buy it.

Where is the adventure in that? Its the whole instant gratification trend that our society breeds now.

Did you even watch the video you quoted? Do you think he was lying about the statement that people were already buying stuff from shady third-party websites for Diablo 2? Or did you just not play Diablo 2 and you have no idea what you're talking about?


Yes I saw the video. Yeah I played Diablo 1 and 2 for hundreds of hours. My problem is that they have taken all the Mystique out of the game. Now all the cards are laid before you face up. You get to pick and choose the ones you want.
 
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Because it cheapens the experience of the game. Now instead of hoping for the drop you wanted, you can just trot over to the Auction House and buy it.

What about in Diablo 2 going into a trade channel, or making a game. ISO WINDFORCE

You will still be able to go magic find. Nothing is different.
 
A built in AH just means the transactions people were already making on Ebay for D2 items are now secured by Blizzard through battle.net for D3. They wouldn't have built it if they hadn't seen all of the 3rd party activity for the past 10 years. How many support calls do you think they receive for people getting ripped off? Now it's secured, logged, and they make enough profit to maintain itself.
 
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