I just hope it doesn't end up being WOW 2.0

Hijacker wrote:
So your friend has been unemployed for years now?

I'm sure he's found a new job since then. That should have said 'worked' not 'work. That was over 4 years ago anyhow.

This and StarCraft are going to be huge. And I'm sure they'll both rape my weak machine too.

Lou Guido wrote:I just hope it doesn't end up being WOW 2.0

Not likely. But honestly I'm sick of hearing this complaint. Nothing personal, but it's gotten old. Here's why:

Diablo was the first real-time action RPG EVER. Diablo II retained most of that functionality and added a few new shinies. But the fact is the Diablo formula is OLD. It is outdated. New innovations have been made since then. Why avoid them just because they weren't in the original? Many great game sequels have stood apart as masterpieces because of what they did DIFFERENTLY from their predecessors (SS2, Half Life 2, GTA3, etc.).

There are MANY MANY facets of WoW's gameplay that could really benefit DIII. Many of them can be seen in the DIII gameplay vid (one-item-per-slot inventory, stacking items, revised actionbar, etc.). All of those things are GOOD changes that will improve the gameplay flow and streamline everything without detracting anywhere.

It obviously won't play like WoW because it's designed for single-play or small parties. There are no class specializations. There's no persistent world. The character drives the story centrally just as in the previous Diablo titles. Have no fear about it being World of Diablo. It's just modernized Diablo. Yes, I still love the classic, but I look forward to the updates. Just as I love the Ferrari 250 GT/E but drool over the 599 as well.

If you haven't already, check out the Wizard gameplay video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2azMHCaO_k&fmt=18Make sure to watch it in high quality.

Looks very interesting. From what we know of the skill trees so far, it looks like the Wizard (and all characters) will be more versatile than the Sorceress was. There are a wider degree of abilities and it looks like the Wizard may even have some melee viability when built right.

Disintegrate and the chained lightning attack in the video look spectacular, and you'll see her use a neat combo of slow-time and wave of force to not just slow enemy projectiles, but actually send them back to the casters.

The slashy-looking attack you see her using a lot is Spectral Blade which hits everyone in front of her. It looks to be the mainstay attack early on in the game.

Looks like good ol' classic Diablo gameplay to me. Wading through hordes of monsters, tossing spells everywhere and just generally feeling effing awesome. Gives me a LOT of hope for the final product.

Yup...I need a new PC

the gameplay loooks awesome. I kinda miss picking up the potions and having to spam them when you're getting owned.

I thought the tree skill and there bonuses sucked to make what ever you wanted. It always ended up that each class had like 3main builds and all other build were pointless because the bonuses weren't there.

I had the sickest Poison Necro but he couldn't do Chaos in hell cuz almost everything in hell is poison resist. Yet make a spirit necro and he is ridiculous.

I just hope the character builds will be more versatile and the new game looks great.

Although the area they played in the video I watched looked kinda lame.

Will this have a service fee or will it be free like d2?

Yeah, the DII skill trees were broken. Then after synergies they were still broken, just in a different way. They're definitely looking to avoid that this time around.

This time, the skill trees will be fully open...they might be "sorted" into 3 categories, but if you put points into the top of one category it'll open up the next tier of all 3.

And with the addition of skill runes, you'll be able to make little tweaks to further customize. They're really looking to do away with the the über build syndrome you mention. There will be a lot more options. Sure there will still be "best" builds, but there will be more alternatives to those as well.

The days of the mighty windforce....i want them back. Free SoJ?

New bad a** character class: Monk - http://www.blizzard.com/diablo...k.xml

Discuss.

CRAZY, he's so bomb. That impenetrable defense looks nifty.

Things that need to be changed:

No auto stats.

Barbarian revival skill for hardcore.

Give us a REAL LAN.

Monk is alright, IMO lame name. DIII still looking disappointing to the point I am considering not buying it.

I don't see how people can complain about auto-stats. From a mechanics balance perspective, manually-assigned stats are a nightmare. It hugely complicates numerous areas of the game's mechanics. By moving to auto stats, all of that is brought under total control, allowing the devs to do more with other areas of the game. Everything from gear to abilities can be designed without that degree of variance in mind, which means it can all be more effective.The end result is tighter gameplay mechanics, better gear, more streamlined abilities, better pvp balance...all things that benefit the player.If it was a classless RPG, I could understand the frustration with autostats. But it has predefined classes anyway. Why play a Barb if you don't want to up your strength every level?

I agree about the LAN point. BUT if b.net offers decent server options and support for "open" characters I won't be too bothered. Locking into the latest patch is the biggest downside of b.net, though.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:I don't see how people can complain about auto-stats. From a mechanics balance perspective, manually-assigned stats are a nightmare. It hugely complicates numerous areas of the game's mechanics. By moving to auto stats, all of that is brought under total control, allowing the devs to do more with other areas of the game. Everything from gear to abilities can be designed without that degree of variance in mind, which means it can all be more effective.The end result is tighter gameplay mechanics, better gear, more streamlined abilities, better pvp balance...all things that benefit the player.If it was a classless RPG, I could understand the frustration with autostats. But it has predefined classes anyway. Why play a Barb if you don't want to up your strength every level?

I agree about the LAN point. BUT if b.net offers decent server options and support for "open" characters I won't be too bothered. Locking into the latest patch is the biggest downside of b.net, though.

Glad you and I can agree on LAN, but I shouldn't complain before BNET 2.0 or whatever is fully released.

If you have ever made a non-cookie cutter build or maybe a LLD, I think you may better understand my POV. Also, I don't mind screwing up a build or two before figuring out what to do and what not to do. Life frequently goes that route.

I understand where you're coming from, I just feel that the benefits of the change outweigh the downsides. There are "costs" to having it either way, and in my eyes the costs of manual stats are worse than those for auto-stats. And there are benefits to both sides, and the benefits of auto-stats are better in my eyes.

I can see the desire for more customization (something I've ranted about many times in the past as far as computer RPGs go) but only if the tradeoff is worth it.

I think the new open skill trees will go a long way toward facilitating that non-cookie-cutter build potential you're looking for. I can see where manual stats could come in handy for pvp (maybe tweaking for more health or something like that) but really now that gear doesn't have to be designed for such a variance of stats, GEAR should come into play as the customizer. So you should still be able to get some very specific builds in...pvp or pve...you just go about it in a different way.

I play World of Darkness, which is a pen and paper RPG with no classes or levels and a much more open stat system, so I can definitely appreciate the appeal of that kind of character design template. But Diablo isn't WoD, it's a story-driven RPG with a pretty linear progression as far as what you'll be facing, so really the best option in this case (at least in my eyes) is to focus on what's best for that rather than leaving things totally open. The tradeoff might be fewer options, but it also means those remaining options are that much more effective.

But I'm not a pker at all (aside from some hacked open b.net dueling years ago right around the time the 1.10 patch hit) so that's probably why it doesn't bother me that much.

I do like pvp, used to participate in D2 tourneys at the local shops, and I don't like knowing what every character 's stats are at a certain level and what equipment they would most likely be wearing now that each class will eb limited to certain items by stats. LLD'ing was one of the most fun activities and most likely there will be very little variance at the early levels to help newbies not die, ending all LLDs. For newbies, auto stats is not bad as they may or may not ruin a character without them. I'm always a fan of compromising and if they would give me 3 stat points or the right to toggle on/off auto stats I would be more than happy. Toggling would help those who are unable to see how stat allocation should go and allow for more experienced players to make their own decisions. I'm sorry I am unfamiliar with World of Darkness so I can't comment on it but it sounds alright. Plus I'm always losing papers so I would fail.

i feel like a crack addict waiting so long for diablo 3 to come out

bigbadberry3 wrote:The days of the mighty windforce....i want them back. Free SoJ?

werd windforce was the s*** so was the widowmaker, but i still say i loved my aura pally second u come out of town your body drops bring all your resistance down to -999999999 so yea getting hit with like 20k dmg from multiple auras pretty much GG

Not buying it. Too WoW now.

Since I can't really enjoy a pay to play game anymore...d3 will definitely be on the wishlist.

Barbarian’s skills must take care, I am trying everything to improve his healing and it seems pointless. I don’t know why he is weaker than earlier Diablo II.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/nlhWqmVeDno[/youtube]

bigbadberry3 wrote:Not buying it. Too WoW now.

What makes you say this? The fact that we've moved past the potion spamming and adopted cooldowns like the rest of the world has in the twelve years since Diablo II? It's not WoW, it has simply moved forward, like the rest of the RPG genre. I love Diablo I, but if I wanted to buy and play Diablo I again I'd do that. I don't want Diablo III to be Diablo I, I want it to be Diablo III. A LOT has changed in the action RPG and dungeon hackfest arena since DII and lot of refinements and improvements to the formula have been made. Diablo III is merely making use of what's been learned during that time.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:[youtube]http://youtu.be/nlhWqmVeDno[/youtube]

bigbadberry3 wrote:Not buying it. Too WoW now.

What makes you say this? The fact that we've moved past the potion spamming and adopted cooldowns like the rest of the world has in the twelve years since Diablo II? It's not WoW, it has simply moved forward, like the rest of the RPG genre. I love Diablo I, but if I wanted to buy and play Diablo I again I'd do that. I don't want Diablo III to be Diablo I, I want it to be Diablo III. A LOT has changed in the action RPG and dungeon hackfest arena since DII and lot of refinements and improvements to the formula have been made. Diablo III is merely making use of what's been learned during that time.

Reasons it's now WoW to me-

Color scheme
Witch doctor (could of at least named it animator or something)
No stat allocation (one of my biggest gripes)
Auction house....way to just make money Blizz
Lack of LAN
PVP arenas
Loot rolling system

Enough for me not to care about it at all

And because it is worth another post.....

ONLINE ONLY

New trailer again (since my embedding above got borkd)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlhWqmVe ... e=youtu.be

bigbadberry3 wrote:Reasons it's now WoW to me-

Color scheme
Witch doctor (could of at least named it animator or something)
No stat allocation (one of my biggest gripes)
Auction house....way to just make money Blizz
Lack of LAN
PVP arenas
Loot rolling system

Enough for me not to care about it at all

Well, that's a better explanation than I've heard from most. I retract my snarky reply. I'm so sick of hearing the WoW line I didn't think anyone using had a brain anymore. I was wrong.

As for the points you make...

The color scheme one is a complaint I've never understood. Diablo and DII were not exactly colorful, but they weren't exactly grey either. I don't see any problem with color in a game. In fact I get sick of the same brown and grey in everything trying so hard to be gritty these days.

I like the name Witch Doctor honestly. I think it fits well with the Diablo universe. Doesn't anyone remember Act III of DII?

I covered the stat allocation thing earlier in this thread. It's a tradeoff. Devs can either focus on optimizing other parts of the character and gear system, or they can wash it all out with user-allocated stats. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. Are you really planning to build a barb and dump a bunch of points into Accuracy? Small point difference will only have any significance in the early game anyway, after which gear will be the way to set your stats where you want, which goes back to the first point. It's all a self-supporting design decision to clean up how things work. I agree it sucks that you get less direct control, but if things are put together correctly it shouldn't really be less control, just shifting control elsewhere (to gear). I don't see making gear more important as a bad thing, especially in a loot-heavy game like Diablo.

I can see your point on the auction house topic, but I don't really agree. I think it's a very good thing. The reason for that is that it will happen either way, but this way Blizzard at least gets some control over it, which allows them to ensure that it's a positive thing for the community. The reality is we're either going to see an official auction house, or items on ebay. I'd rather see it go official so Blizzard can do their best to make sure it works FOR the community.

Lack of LAN support and online only is the one part I have trouble with. I have a problem with it for the same practical reasons I dislike Ubisoft's always-on DRM, and I also take issue with it because it means there are no private or "open" games. Some of the best fun I've had with DII was with hacked characters on open b.net. None of that was malicious or "cheating" or harmed other players' experience. These were hacked duels with other hacked characters, and everyone involved was in it for fun. With the current B.net 2.0 setup, that won't be possible. No private LAN games with hacked characters, no open B.net. It is disappointing, but it's still not a game-killer for me.

I'm just fine with PVP arenas, too. In fact I think they're going to add a lot to the game for a lot of people. Back when I used to play a whole lot of DII, many of the players I encountered did little else but duel. This just offers new options and organization for PVP. Certainly not a bad thing. The fact that it comes from WoW doesn't automatically make it bad.

And I like the loot system. It cleans up and simplifies. If it creates problems in your group, you're in a situation where the old system would have created problems, too. For me, it just means more hacking and slashing and less fiddling around with the Alt key and figuring out who wants what. Now, I just grab my s***, my friends grab their s***, and we decide who gets what as we go.

MinisterofDOOM wrote:New trailer again (since my embedding above got borkd)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlhWqmVe ... e=youtu.be

bigbadberry3 wrote:Reasons it's now WoW to me-

Color scheme
Witch doctor (could of at least named it animator or something)
No stat allocation (one of my biggest gripes)
Auction house....way to just make money Blizz
Lack of LAN
PVP arenas
Loot rolling system

Enough for me not to care about it at all

Well, that's a better explanation than I've heard from most. I retract my snarky reply. I'm so sick of hearing the WoW line I didn't think anyone using had a brain anymore. I was wrong.

As for the points you make...

The color scheme one is a complaint I've never understood. Diablo and DII were not exactly colorful, but they weren't exactly grey either. I don't see any problem with color in a game. In fact I get sick of the same brown and grey in everything trying so hard to be gritty these days.

I like the name Witch Doctor honestly. I think it fits well with the Diablo universe. Doesn't anyone remember Act III of DII?

I covered the stat allocation thing earlier in this thread. It's a tradeoff. Devs can either focus on optimizing other parts of the character and gear system, or they can wash it all out with user-allocated stats. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. Are you really planning to build a barb and dump a bunch of points into Accuracy? Small point difference will only have any significance in the early game anyway, after which gear will be the way to set your stats where you want, which goes back to the first point. It's all a self-supporting design decision to clean up how things work. I agree it sucks that you get less direct control, but if things are put together correctly it shouldn't really be less control, just shifting control elsewhere (to gear). I don't see making gear more important as a bad thing, especially in a loot-heavy game like Diablo.

I can see your point on the auction house topic, but I don't really agree. I think it's a very good thing. The reason for that is that it will happen either way, but this way Blizzard at least gets some control over it, which allows them to ensure that it's a positive thing for the community. The reality is we're either going to see an official auction house, or items on ebay. I'd rather see it go official so Blizzard can do their best to make sure it works FOR the community.

Lack of LAN support and online only is the one part I have trouble with. I have a problem with it for the same practical reasons I dislike Ubisoft's always-on DRM, and I also take issue with it because it means there are no private or "open" games. Some of the best fun I've had with DII was with hacked characters on open b.net. None of that was malicious or "cheating" or harmed other players' experience. These were hacked duels with other hacked characters, and everyone involved was in it for fun. With the current B.net 2.0 setup, that won't be possible. No private LAN games with hacked characters, no open B.net. It is disappointing, but it's still not a game-killer for me.

I'm just fine with PVP arenas, too. In fact I think they're going to add a lot to the game for a lot of people. Back when I used to play a whole lot of DII, many of the players I encountered did little else but duel. This just offers new options and organization for PVP. Certainly not a bad thing. The fact that it comes from WoW doesn't automatically make it bad.

And I like the loot system. It cleans up and simplifies. If it creates problems in your group, you're in a situation where the old system would have created problems, too. For me, it just means more hacking and slashing and less fiddling around with the Alt key and figuring out who wants what. Now, I just grab my s***, my friends grab their s***, and we decide who gets what as we go.

Well laid out, but agree to disagree

Definitely not going to be wow 2.0 diablo is the original, those wow boys stick to the 24/7 marriage to their mice.

GQP_LLC wrote:Definitely not going to be wow 2.0 diablo is the original, those wow boys stick to the 24/7 marriage to their mice.

Bots baby, bots.

Will be out on May 15th.
Awwwww yeaaaaah!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4612389/Test-3_16_2012

You hear that? That's the world's most basso squee. Coming from me.