thedeathsheep

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The successes and failures of Diablo 3. by lolpancakeslolin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 8 points9 points ago

Speaking as a monk in inferno,

I actually like bargain hunting on the gold auction house, so it doesn't really me. In fact, when you start farming for stuff, the AH serves as a backup source to offload the good items that isn't useful for your class right now so that you could at least convert those into something useful (ie gold).

I think part of the problem with the high end drops available in the AH now was due to the broken (now hotfixed) abilities of Wizards and Demon Hunters that allowed them to easily farm Inferno and flooding the market with high end items. It isn't something Blizzard can fix immediately.

While I agree about the item variability (especially the lackluster uniques and sets), I think what Blizzard's trying to do is to streamline item stats to make build choices more tactical. Generally guides is to stack primary stat and vit, but I'm seeing more different builds (for Inferno monks at least) taking advantage of crit chance %, life/spirit spent and attack speed % because stacking stats aren't very viable or efficient in later acts. Still, I would hope they add more interesting stats, especially for level 60 items, maybe stuff to counter the special attributes of elites to add more depth to character gearing.

For skill builds, the problem is apparent in Inferno, I think Inferno has a big problem in a sense that all the melee classes are forced to play extremely defensively/kiting. As a monk I think all the builds now have BoH and Serenity as necessary; only a handful of passives are actually viable and I don't think anyone even bothers much with the secondary skill class spells like Tempest Rush. I'm not asking for every build be viable, but every spell should at least have some form of utility at level 60. I can't use spells like Cyclone strike (which pulls enemies into you), because that's suicide on Inferno. Mantra of Retribution (thorns) is useless because even some normal mobs can oneshot you. Perhaps it's an issue of insufficient gear, but considering Kripp (Barbarian player streamer) only managed to break past Act 3 with millions worth of gear farmed by his DH/Wiz friends from Act 4, even gearing is an issue here because it's doesn't make sense to have people only progressing with stuff from the later acts.

Surprisingly tho, despite the fact that builds are easily respecced, I feel that builds do have a certain playstyle attached to it, and just because you can reorder your skillbar to be the same, if you don't play right, it'll suck as well. Sometimes I would stick to certain core spells because I simply liked the feel of a it over another. I think Blizzard really succeeded it having a tactile feel to the spells/combinations.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 8 points9 points ago

Blizzard may have used mechanics that weren't native to the aRPG genre, but I honestly can't think of any mechanics in the game that I haven't seen in some other game.

I'll give you that, although I've never played GW. But introducing them to the genre is still a pretty big deal because I really can't think of any recent or upcoming aRPG even attempting to stray from the basic skilltree formula. They have variations and secondary systems (I think TL2 has some rage bar for one of the classes?), but I would argue that a totally new system like this really helps breathe in some freshness into the genre.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

I have it turned on too, but while in normal I only needed at most one heal spell for bosses, I need at least 2 for mobs in nightmare, so I'm already reducing dps for survivability, which is what I meant. Sorry if I was unclear

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 98 points99 points ago

But that doesn't change the fact that some do and that Blizzard spent a decade not innovating the genre one bit.

Is this really true tho? I mean, the new skill system is a massive change, and a completely new addition to the genre. The limits really forces you to balance between offensive and defensive skills. Also, each character's equivalent mana pool is fixed. For example, as a monk, you have a fixed 150 mana or "spirit". Without items, this doesn't regenerate. You gain spirit only by using skills that generate spirit. This adds another complication to the 6 skill limit because now you also have to balance between skill generators and spenders. And since your spirit is fixed at a certain amount, you can't have too many skills that require a lot of spirit.

And again, adding items into the mix, you must decide between having a slower 2 handed weapon, which makes skills that are dependant on weapon base damage more useful; or faster dual-wielding, which makes onhit skills or %increase in damage more useful.

All that I wrote, it's all learned through playing the game and figuring out what works myself. I didn't need to consult any guide for help because the game really encourages experimentation and that helped in understanding the mechanics better.

I'm really not sure why people like this review are saying that the game isn't being innovative, because the new system was a huge controversy when it was introduced, and I'm pretty sure it would have been less of a risk for Blizzard to just go with the skill-trees system.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 223 points224 points ago

I've soloed normal with a Monk, and while it was easy, it was also fun. Now that I'm on nightmare I'm already getting melted by arcane elites in Act I. The common criticism with this is that people shouldn't have to play through the entire game to get to a second difficulty. But normal is for people to run through different builds and experiment. See which skills work well with each other. Getting a feel of a character's techniques.

Also this point about D3

It’s the concept of Diablo, and of a decade’s Diablo clones, refined. But with absolutely nothing new.

Regardless of what you might feel about the new skill system, for better or worse, I don't think it's fair to say that it isn't new to the ARPG genre. I personally think it's great that Blizzard used their massive budget to take the risk of making a new system rather than doing skilltrees again.

And this was a huge change. Personally I love the new system. The 6 skill limit really makes you think about which skill you want to have. Do you have more offense at the expense of defence? Do you get more spenders rather than passives? And instead of having synergies in D2, you can find out what works well together organically by experimenting and playing through with a set of skills. If they don't work, just change the set. It's feels much more fun than running through skill trees and theorycrafting builds.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep -2 points-1 points ago

Not sure how is this a failing? Anyway, it's been improved for D3 in the sense that all quest specific dungeons have plenty of checkpoints, at least one per level.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep -5 points-4 points ago

The thing is, it's not really lost progress. You still keep your experience/gold/items. Checkpoints are plenty for quest-specific dungeons so the most progress you'd lose is one level. The dungeon the review was talking about was probably a random dungeon on the map.

I get that it might suck more if you were involuntarily disconnected, so if you have a lousy connection stay away from the game. That said I'm usually playing with >350-450ms, never been disconnected, and everything feels fine to me.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 21 points22 points ago

Only for quest specific dungeons. If you're just exploring a random cave (which can be quite big), there isn't a checkpoint.

How Diablo III's Solo Experience Reveals A Hollow Game by limbclockin Games

[–]thedeathsheep -3 points-2 points ago

if you lose connection you fall back to the last checkpoint, which could be a couple of hours ago in a tough/long dungeon.

Pretty sure this is the same in D2 where quitting the game would put you back in town with the map reset too.

So once you get past Server issues... how is Diablo 3? by Sladeakakevinin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 19 points20 points ago

It's fantastic fun. The new skill system makes for some really interesting play; it makes you really think how to build your character and encourages experimentation. I like how you have "builds" happen organically by playing with a set of skills.

The graphics are actually surprising good in motion. Strangely when you're standing still things don't look great, which is why I thought the screenshots of the game were crap at first, but when you're just roaming the landscape looks superb for some reason. It's a pretty subtle thing that makes a good bit of sense considering you're always on the move.

Storywise it's got a very different vibe from the previous games. Part of this is probably because in D1&2, the fight against the Prime Evils were generally a secret fight and involved very few people. Even in LoD, Baal's forces were isolated in the Arreat region away from the rest of the world. But in D3, everything feels bigger and more epic because it's not really much of secret. The cinematics are insanely good tho.

Overall I thought there was a good deal of innovation introduced to the ARPG genre with this game and it was a good buy. If you don't mind the online requirement I would definitely recommend it.

Is Peter real? Or is he a manifestation created by Olivia + Cortexifan? by fluidfoundationin fringe

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

Didn't she make it snow (or whatever those white things were) when she and Peter (as kids) were in that tulip field? The way the dialogue for that scene was written I thought it was implied that Olivia had the power to create things

Error 3006 upvote thread! by stingingleepin Diablo

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

Me too! It's so frustrating, do we restart the game or wait?!

Error 300008 Upvote Thread by nikol4sin Diablo

[–]thedeathsheep 1 point2 points ago

I got that error and now my game's stuck at the hero creation with all the buttons grayed out :(

Error 37 upvote thread! by pizzaboxin Diablo

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

Apparently copypaste works! So I'll be reciting ctrl-v tonight

Error 37 upvote thread! by pizzaboxin Diablo

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

Thanks dude!

Error 37 upvote thread! by pizzaboxin Diablo

[–]thedeathsheep 12 points13 points ago

Becoming really good at retyping my password!

At 3PM, social life as we know it comes to an end. by pandaren88in singapore

[–]thedeathsheep 4 points5 points ago

Singapore is under America region, and they only launch at 3pm local time

Tomb Raider release date shifts to 2013 by Deimorzin Games

[–]thedeathsheep 21 points22 points ago

Disappointed that it's pushed back, but it feels good that the devs are trying to do it right.

[Finale Spoiler] All's well that ends well by zpeedin fringe

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

I thought the acting in the their expressions for this scene was really fantastic. So much communication through body language alone.

Is Diablo 3 Over-hyped? by jaaajaa102in Games

[–]thedeathsheep 3 points4 points ago

Oblivion was hardly a beloved game, especially not in the league of Diablo 2 which practically defined the hack&slash genre. Oblivion was a huge game, but it definitely did not set any standards for the open-world RPG genre; in fact in terms of world exploration I don't think it's unreasonable to say that Oblivion was terrible in that area compared to it's predecessor Morrowind.

And unlike Skyrim, which had many posts about it like photos of its large billboards advertisements or TES music hit frontpage in /r/gaming, D3 has been relatively quiet. So no, I honestly don't think that Diablo 3 is overhyped when you look at the amount of posts about it and consider that it's a sequel to a game that hasn't really been toppled.

[Finale Spoiler] All's well that ends well by zpeedin fringe

[–]thedeathsheep 2 points3 points ago

it's when the relationship is used as a copout and has an unwavering wellness that it takes away from a story.

Not quite sure what you mean by this. I thought their romance was well-done and actually pretty understated. And they've also had their share of romantic angst like Altlivia's deception or Peter's nonexistence so after all that I don't think having a strong relationship is unreasonable. It's also pretty refreshing to see a portrayal of a supportive, honest romance as opposed to the usual UST-angst.

Is Diablo 3 Over-hyped? by jaaajaa102in Games

[–]thedeathsheep 5 points6 points ago

Diablo 3 is a sequel to a beloved game ten years in the making. The situation is nothing like Skyrim in any manner.

[Giveaway] Portal 2 by magdbin RandomActsOfGaming

[–]thedeathsheep 0 points1 point ago

Thanks for doing this!

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