Diablo 3 - Beta thread

Agree that I don't ever want to feel like I need to swap skills quickly or via a macro mid-fight to succeed, however I like that we will be able to choose whichever skills we feel like playing with pretty freely. Some nights I may feel like Arcane Orbing everything while others I want to drop meteors all over the place. I don't really want to roll a whole new character a la D2 or even have to run back to town and pay a bunch of gold just to change up my playstyle for a while to keep it fun & fresh.

D2 was awesome but if I felt like changing it up for a bit and having my sorceress shoot lightning for a while instead of my usual blizzard I couldn't really do that effectively. Being pretty much screwed anytime the mobs were highly resistant/immune to your primary magic school on the tougher levels (glad immunities are gone in D3) because most of your points are in one tree also wasn't overly fun.

I'm also not really interested in PVP for this game so maybe that is where some of the concern is. However, for PVE I personally like to play with all the different skills depending on mood/phase of the moon/alignment of Venus etc, so I really appreciate that I won't be stuck casting the same 3 attack spells over and over.

Maybe it's not realistic, but those that prefer picking 6 skills and never changing still can, just a matter of self-discipline to not swap out skills.
 
big_aug said:
I do prefer that kind of thing though. Making the choice to go with this or go with that and living with it. That's just me though, and I know it won't be that way.

Here's to hoping completely wrong about everything and they make it so awesome that I love the system.
Click to expand...

There is nothing stopping you from keeping the same skills that you chose the first time. It's like complaining about fast travel in oblivion or Fallout 3: you're never forced to use that mechanic.

If you want to mirror the no-going-back mentality of D2 also, dont fill your 6 slots with the early level skills you're not going to use in the end. I remember hoarding points in D2 at early levels so I could pump more points in the later abilities down the road, at least later in D2 they introduced synergy which didnt make all the lvl 6 spells useless.
 
If rumors are true the end of this month. Blizzard at least makes sure game is highest quality before they release a game. I won't name others who don't.
 
Night_Hawk-19 said:
If rumors are true the end of this month. Blizzard at least makes sure game is highest quality before they release a game. I won't name others who don't.
Click to expand...

Yeah it sounds like closed beta will begin fairly soon. And yeah, I'm glad thats always been their formula, games are always polished on release. That and they'll support/patch it for the next decade.
 
Not that any of you probably care, but the Diablo 2 ladder is also going to reset in a week or two. It's a win-win for me. :)
 
Yeah, so I was just browsing the skills on bnet and didn't realize the change they made. It looks like League of Legends style combat with cooldowns, on-hit procs, stacks, etc. I love LoL but I wonder how it'll work in D3.
 
Kabob said:
Yeah, so I was just browsing the skills on bnet and didn't realize the change they made. It looks like League of Legends style combat with cooldowns, on-hit procs, stacks, etc. I love LoL but I wonder how it'll work in D3.
Click to expand...

Probably pretty well. Sounds decent IMO.
 
They're definitely eliminating the typical sorceress "teleport everywhere" move, I wanna say Teleport has something like a 16 second cooldown now. That's good to what, jump through a wall every once in a while?
 
Kabob said:
They're definitely eliminating the typical sorceress "teleport everywhere" move, I wanna say Teleport has something like a 16 second cooldown now. That's good to what, jump through a wall every once in a while?
Click to expand...

Probably a good way to escape imminent death, or a quick finisher/gank in PVP, but not too much else. Makes sense, no more solo MF runs to Mephisto in 25 seconds.
 
Breath_of_the_Dying said:
There is nothing stopping you from keeping the same skills that you chose the first time. It's like complaining about fast travel in oblivion or Fallout 3: you're never forced to use that mechanic.

If you want to mirror the no-going-back mentality of D2 also, dont fill your 6 slots with the early level skills you're not going to use in the end. I remember hoarding points in D2 at early levels so I could pump more points in the later abilities down the road, at least later in D2 they introduced synergy which didnt make all the lvl 6 spells useless.
Click to expand...


I haven't read exactly how respeccing and such works in Diablo 3, but I am pretty much against respeccing characters in games altogether. I follow the argument that the ability to respec destroys the concept of a character as an individual entity with some semblance of identity, and I like characters that are who they are in this manner.

yeah, it is ultimately up to me to limit my playstyle however I choose... but the entire playerbase will hate me for it if I do put arbitrary limits on myself not already imposed by the game.

I won't be a lightning sorc like in D2, I'll just be a sorc. And people are going to demand that I respec when lightning immune mobs come up, or I'll (naturally) lose all their respect and gain all of their hate. In D2, They would just accept it and no one would mind when a few players in the group were built a way that was inoptimal for a certain zone or dungeon. When the new expectation is that you can freely and easily respec, though -- you've got zero excuse not to completely rebuild your character to adapt to every situation.

You lose your identity as a "lightning sorc" -- at best, it is now just a 'preferred playstyle,' and if you refuse to adapt and respec for all optimal and appropriate moments, you're just deliberately holding your team back in every game you join.

Like, when Rift came out, people would kick you right out of a group if you didn't have 3 different roles specced out and ready to swap for use for each place/fight it would be beneficial. "If you're not going to make yourself as useful as possible, you can just leave." Even in WoW, I was respeccing my character between every other raid fight for my guild. My characters in those games had no identity. It was just level+gear+name, that was all that set me apart, and within a matter of seconds, anyone else could change to be a perfect copy of me or I could change to become a perfect copy of them. Free respecs means that everybody is a doppelganger.

In Diablo 2, though - it was perfectly acceptable to specialize, to "just be a lightning sorc." It was your identity - your permanent build - and nobody would begrudge you for it. If you can just swap things out now, though -- then that's the new baseline. You now swap things out like every character you make is a superpowered, faceless do-everything-jack-of-all-trades, or you get ostracized.
 
timestretch said:
In Diablo 2, though - it was perfectly acceptable to specialize, to "just be a lightning sorc." It was your identity - your permanent build - and nobody would begrudge you for it. If you can just swap things out now, though -- then that's the new baseline. You now swap things out like every character you make is a superpowered, faceless do-everything-jack-of-all-trades, or you get ostracized.
Click to expand...

No, in Diablo 2 is was not "acceptable" to do that--you simply had no choice in the matter. You were what you were, and if you wanted to be different, you had to start at the beginning all over again. That is what Blizzard does not want, and probably what a majority of the player base does not want. I don't want to level up 5 of the same class when I would have more fun leveling up all of the classes.

I am confident they will put in something like WoW respeccing to make you not be able to do it on the fly anywhere in the world.
 
I can say that as a WOW player when dual-speccing came about, it was an awesome change. You can still have an "identity" within a few specs, I don't think it will be an infinite continuum.
 
I don't care about any of the spec argument, I just want to know when this game is coming out for real. I've been waiting for a while, and the excitement is getting unbearable...lol
 
TwistedAegis said:
I can say that as a WOW player when dual-speccing came about, it was an awesome change. You can still have an "identity" within a few specs, I don't think it will be an infinite continuum.
Click to expand...

I identified with my guildmates based on the ones who sucked and the ones who didn't. The ones who played while watching tv and texting and the ones who paid attention. The ones who's mom made em get up and do a chore every 5 minutes and the ones who lived on their own. The ones who never shut up on vent and the ones who I actually paid attention to.

So, yeah, there's definately more ways to "identify" with other players... :p

I think it's pretty rigid to think a character would never "grow up" or change over time and get bored of doing the same thing forever.
 
Blizzard addressed the respeccing issue in a blue post.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3196390175#12

We're currently testing a few different solutions, but I don't have anything specific to report on that front just yet. We're okay with players changing their builds while they're out adventuring, but we're not comfortable with players running around with their skill pane open swapping skills during combat. We'd also rather not have a system which forces players to return to town. We’ve tried it, and it feels really bad. Of course, worse comes to worse and if our attempts to curb use in combat fail, it could very well be what we have to resort to.
Click to expand...

However, they then said this.

It's something that's been tossed around. Realistically, probably not, we're trying to release the game and feature creep is the enemy, but if we did it'd probably be something like dual-spec in World of Warcraft where we'd make you go back to town to swap to a different loadout.We don't want to create builds with hotkeys you can swap around freely, or anything like that. It'd be a convenience feature, not a gameplay mechanic. And again, very unlikely it's something we'd work to implement at this point.
Click to expand...

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/3196390293#3

This seems to suggest they will put something in if there is a way to abuse the respeccing all the time. Since people will abuse it if the option exists, I bet they change it in a patch or something if it doesn't make release.
 
hfk said:
The beta looks like crap.:(
Click to expand...

Don't list to all these WoW players, they don't have anything to base there opinions on other than world of warcraft. I agree with you.

I can tell there WoW players because they use words like "pop" "grind" "respec" "cc" and so on...
 
Krenum said:
Don't list to all these WoW players, they don't have anything to base there opinions on other than world of warcraft. I agree with you.

I can tell there WoW players because they use words like "pop" "grind" "respec" "cc" and so on...
Click to expand...

they're*

I can tell you never passed 4th grade English class, and as was mentioned, cc and grind have been around since before WoW.
 
Eh doesn't look appealing to me especially after reading the forums and seeing the typical WoW player dribble and i really don't want to deal with that especially since i quit WoW for that reason.
 
Superhuman said:
they're*

I can tell you never passed 4th grade English class, and as was mentioned, cc and grind have been around since before WoW.
Click to expand...

Personal attacks will get you nowhere dude, Maybe you should spend your time becoming an English teacher rather than posting on this forum. Or better yet you could become an online teacher for all the people that misspell words on forums, or a spell checker. So many choices man. I bet you could teach all those World of Warcraft kiddies you play a thing or two. :)


PS: Oh and just so you know, commas should never come before the word "and". You gotta learn to practice what you preach man.
 
Last edited:
Krenum said:
Don't list to all these WoW players, they don't have anything to base there opinions on other than world of warcraft. I agree with you.

I can tell there WoW players because they use words like "pop" "grind" "respec" "cc" and so on...
Click to expand...

Heh I guess we've been spoiled by the amazing artists who worked on D2. In D2 it felt like you were actually hunting satan. D3 is most likely not going to have anywhere near the same brilliant atmosphere. By my estimation this lack in design is going to be a much bigger misfortune for the game than many people assume. Hacknslash game mechanics and an auction house arent going to carry this game's success in 2011/12, at least not in the same scope as previous blizz titles. If it's a conscious decision by them to go in another direction in terms of art, rather than trying but failing to recapture what they had, then thats a terrible mistake.
 
hfk said:
Heh I guess we've been spoiled by the amazing artists who worked on D2. In D2 it felt like you were actually hunting satan. D3 is most likely not going to have anywhere near the same brilliant atmosphere. By my estimation this lack in design is going to be a much bigger misfortune for the game than many people assume. Hacknslash game mechanics and an auction house arent going to carry this game's success in 2011/12, at least not in the same scope as previous blizz titles. If it's a conscious decision by them to go in another direction in terms of art, rather than trying but failing to recapture what they had, then thats a terrible mistake.
Click to expand...

Yeah the artwork looks like "Diablo lite" , Its just does not look dark enough or it could be that everything looks so disproportionate and smudged. Frankly I wouldn't have a problem with the game if the camera was just pushed out a little more. With the camera the way it is now, I don't see any reason to own a widescreen monitor because it looks like its playing in 800x600, I can't see anything around me....
 
I'm glad this thread is constantly derailed by trolls and now grammar nazis.

As for this "D2 art work was so great, and D3 sucks" go fire up D2 and tell me that again with a straight face.
 
Katalysis said:
I'm glad this thread is constantly derailed by trolls and now grammar nazis.

As for this "D2 art work was so great, and D3 sucks" go fire up D2 and tell me that again with a straight face.
Click to expand...

Diablo 2's stylistic direction and art design are phenomenal. The technology of the game engine is what holds it back and makes it look shitty.
 
krameriffic said:
Diablo 2's stylistic direction and art design are phenomenal. The technology of the game engine is what holds it back and makes it look shitty.
Click to expand...

This is such truth, even if opinion.

I envision the following scenario:

Diablo 2 is to Star Wars Original trilogy
as
Diablo 3 is to Star Wars Prequel trilogy
 
Krenum said:
...
PS: Oh and just so you know, commas should never come before the word "and". You gotta learn to practice what you preach man.
Click to expand...

Yes you can. Commas are used in a variety of ways and can be used before and. Why is this even on here?

DIablo 3's art direction is fine as was D2 back in the day. I just wished they allowed different resolutions higher than the two they used :confused:
 
krameriffic said:
Diablo 2's stylistic direction and art design are phenomenal. The technology of the game engine is what holds it back and makes it look shitty.
Click to expand...

No way. Compare the art design of the D3 cathedral dungeon versus the monastery in Act I of D2, or the graveyard area of D3 compared to the Blood Raven quest in D2. We can quibble over what they could do based on the technical limitations of the time, but there is no way to control for that. The atmosphere is just so much better in D3.
 
Maybe we should wait for the game before we pass judgement based on screenshots and a few vids on the net.
 
Katalysis said:
I'm glad this thread is constantly derailed by trolls and now grammar nazis.

As for this "D2 art work was so great, and D3 sucks" go fire up D2 and tell me that again with a straight face.
Click to expand...

It looks great at 1920x1080, better than D3 infact.
 
Katalysis said:
No way. Compare the art design of the D3 cathedral dungeon versus the monastery in Act I of D2, or the graveyard area of D3 compared to the Blood Raven quest in D2. We can quibble over what they could do based on the technical limitations of the time, but there is no way to control for that. The atmosphere is just so much better in D3.
Click to expand...

You do understand that Diablo 2 came out over 11 years ago right?
 
Valshistixol said:
You do understand that Diablo 2 came out over 11 years ago right?
Click to expand...

I think I am th only one who does. People claiming d2 has better art 11 years ago compared to D3 are insane. Hey, there goes my pixelated smudge character. They are not comparable at all because of the technology difference, making diablo 3 objectively better looking.
 
Katalysis said:
I think I am th only one who does. People claiming d2 has better art 11 years ago compared to D3 are insane. Hey, there goes my pixelated smudge character. They are not comparable at all because of the technology difference, making diablo 3 objectively better looking.
Click to expand...

But Diablo 3 has the stink of oversaturated hues and cartoonish design all over it, hence the constant comparisons to WoW. Diablo 3 has vastly superior graphics technology (doi) but Diablo 2 better captures the oppressive, gothic feel that Diablo is supposed to evoke. When all your blacks look purple and green due to oversaturated colors, nothing can ever look scary. Yes, it is dark. Yes, it is bloody. Yes, they are trying really hard to evoke that Diablo feel with the design direction they have stubbornly chose to run with. But it will never, not ever be able to get that perfect Diablo feel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top