Diablo 3 - Happy 2nd Birthday

I consider Hardcore a massive waste of time that's all about playing like a coward, rather than a bold hero

I don't really see the fun part.

The fact that it's online-only and subject to server whimsy and some particularly unpredictable mob packs - is just icing on the turd-cake.

It's obvious that certain elite packs were never planned for or intended. That was certainly the case when I originally played Inferno - and I realise they've done a LOT of dumbing down since then.

But it's still the new Blizzard - and I'm not about to invest the kind of time, effort and ultra-cautious disposition on a game made by people who don't understand the core of the genre.

No thank you

DArtagnan said:

Full of flaws, it's still the best ARPG right now - and the core gameplay is way beyond every single current competitor.

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I agree with this. I really hated D3 when it was first released. I vowed never to make a day 1 blizzard game purchase again because of it - a vow I intend to keep.

But it's a lot better now and I feel I've gotten my money's worth. The basic game of starting a brand new hero and playing through all 5 acts (I bought RoS) is a lot of fun.

For me, the most fun aspect of the game is finding newer, better gear - something that was missing from the game originally unless you wanted to use the AH which I did not want to do.

However, now that I am playing in the Paragon stage of the game, I can see that NOT having some efficient way of trading with other players is a problem - though I don't have any great ideas of just how to go about remedying this as I would NOT want another AH style solution because side effects of that seem worse than the problem.

There are so many end-game items you can search out, but the drop rates still seem designed with player trading in mind. Right now, I've got all kinds of mats for crafting legendary items but I have next to ZERO plans. Clearly, a way to match people with missing mats or people with missing plans would be a benefit, among other reasons.

I've also got nearly one full inventory tab of legendary gear that I have no use for on my main character or my alts that I'm sure others would love to have. But there is really no good way at all to find people to trade with.

On the skills front I'm sort of on the fence. On the one hand, I like the thrill of picking skills in a skill tree that are permanent and I have to live with - and overcome poor choices. On the other hand, I have enjoyed the flexibility of aligning my skills with gear that I find. So I'm sort of agnostic on this and can go either way.

D3 is a lot of fun for an action game and I have to admit it has more lasting power than torchlight 2 - which I enjoyed quite a bit.

Looks like the 100% increase in legendary drop rate is going to made permanent. I think it still needs to be higher but at least they are moving in the right direction.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/05/22/d...-legendary-drop-rate-is-now-a-permanent-buff/

After downloading the loot 2.0 patch recently, I had another quick play around to get my ol' Barbarian to level 60. Within about half an hour, I already had three new legendary items, which is about half of what I'd previously found in over 50 hours with two characters. I also found replacement weapons and armour in no short order.

Bit ridiculous and over the top really, but not entirely unwelcome.

Level 60 items quickly become outdated with the new level cap.

After about nearly 2 whole weeks (maybe a total of 12 hours) of farming for the gibbering gemstone, it finally dropped last night. Made my staff of herding and went to the cow level. Truly, it was a 'be sure to drink your Ovaltine' moment. Sigh.

I really like the increased pace of progression vs D2. I can level a new character to 70 in one campaign playthrough if I bump up the difficulty as I get stronger. But the endgame really stalls in comparison. To play the high torment difficulties, it is a long grinding game with little to no advancement to get the super rare set items and class/power specific buffed legendaries, even using enchanting. I may shelve my wizard and try another class from scratch. At least she was easier to progress than the monk, who is pretty much hopeless past torment 2.