In Which The Warlock Revisits Tristram...

If you follow this blog regularly, you're probably well aware of my fascination (read:  utter obsession) with Diablo III.  The PlatinumChick, I'm sure, has gotten sick of me watching videos of beta footage before bed, ranting about rescheduled and reschedule release dates, and agonizing over my inability to play the beta. 

While the first two might remain true...the third?  Oh, there's been a change...

Thanks to a quick trigger finger on my F5 key and the generosity of the fellows at Vox Gamers, I managed to win my very own beta key!

Now, while I'd been lucky enough to play through once, thanks to WoWSonya's husband Sean, this meant that I could really immerse myself in the full Diablo experience, rather than just rushing my way through on a computer that wasn't mine.  I could sit back, relax, and let the monster-slaying, loot-snatching carnage begin in earnest!

Firstly, though, a caveat.  My laptop is nearly 4 years old and is beginning to show its age.  I'm missing two keys, with two more super-glued on.  My dual-core processor, while hefty for its time, is quite out of date now, as Intel's "i3/5/7" series of processors were state of the art when I bought this machine.  My graphics card is still reasonably useful, though my sheer lack of processing power is a definite detriment.  When I get my car paid off--three payments to go!--I'll be looking at a serious upgrade, but until then I'm stuck.

Sith Lightning for the win!

My first play-through was using the Wizard, whom I had been eyeing up for months.  The sheer awesome-factor of "Electrocute" was simply too much to pass up--I mean, who doesn't want to shoot lightning from their fingertips?!  And, while I wasn't disappointed with the Wizard, I had to let out a complacent sigh:  with the changes made the most recent patch, Electrocute was moved to level 11, while the level cap remained at 13.  When I defeated Leoric, the Skeleton King, I had just barely managed to make it to level 10...my dreams of Sith lightning would have to wait for another playthrough.

That said, the Wizard was a blast to play.  Arcane Orb, runed shortly after getting it, produced bluish-purple explosions that sent enemies flying in pieces.  Zombies splattered apart into meaty, rotting shards with the concussive force of my arcane might.  Oh, what fun!  I tried using Shock Pulse over the old standby, Magic Missile, but found that the range on Shock Pulse was simply too short.  Enemies at the range of my screen would stand there, oblivious, as my bolts of electric power fell short of them and fizzled out.  Frost Nova, as well, was something as a let down, as it dealt no damage.  I quickly replaced it with Wave of Force, which sent enemies' corpses flying away from me in a most delightful manner.

This is, however, where my technically-lacking computer came into play.  While playing the Wizard, the numerous particle effects slowed my computer down significantly.  I'd often go through the casting animation, with the actual spell effect only taking place a second or two later, resulting in misses and several near-deaths.  However, upon the advice of ChaoticFrederick, I shut down several background processes and programs, resulting in much smoother playthroughs on the subsequent characters. 

A Demon Hunter unleashes Multishot.

I tried out the Demon Hunter next, which was a class that I'd had my reservations about.  As I started my playthrough, I found myself underwhelmed.  I had no area-of-effect skills, and my Hungering Arrow shot seemed underpowered.  That is, until level 5:  Rapid Fire.  Suddenly, it was as if someone had handed my wanna-be ranger a P90 and let her rip through the dungeon!  Retching Mothers spun as if riddled by automatic weapon fire, before slumping to the ground in a heap.  At one point, I fired up a set of stairs, shearing a zombie in half across its waist...and its upper half slowly tumbled down the stairs, arms akimbo, leading a trail of blood until it stopped, about three stairs from the bottom. 

With a combination of a runed Hungering Arrow (an increased chance to pierce through enemies really helped this one), Rapid Fire, Strafe, and Caltrops, my Demon Hunter blasted her way through the Skeleton King with near impunity.  I'd almost say that the DH is a touch overpowered--while her Hatred resource is meant to be a slow-regenerating one, I found myself mowing down enemies with Rapid Fire almost at-will. 

My latest playthrough was with the Monk--a class that I'd been looking forward to for a while, as I typically played a Paladin in Diablo II.  The spiritual successor to that class, the Monk came loaded with Mantras (echoing the Paladin's Aura skills) and numerous martial arts skills.  However, the Monk came off as very low-impact compared to the other classes.  While the Wizard was a sheer force of devastation and the Demon Hunter ripped apart enemies with incredible speed, the Monk was more methodical and much less visually impressive.  While I could attack numerous enemies at once, the effects were much less spectacular and I felt like it took much longer to kill a pack of enemies with the Monk than its long-range counterparts.

Case in point:  the Monk's resource-generation skills are all combo skills, which have varying effects if used several times in sequence.  However, when using any skills, the Monk's weapon is stowed on their back, in favor of fist strikes!  Even the Wizard manages to actually swing their sword or dagger, when casting a spell.  I don't feel like it'd be unreasonable to have the Monk actually use a staff or weapon, along with their combo skills, but such isn't the case. 

Diablo III  also brought quite a few new features to the party, which I'd been eager to try out.  The crafting mechanics, for one, were at the top of my list.  Rather than using the ubiquitous Horadric Cube to piece together rares or use the nearly-worthless gold to gamble on items (that were nearly-universally useless), DIII's crafting mechanics allow you to break down useless magic items into crafting materials, which can then be used to make whatever you like.  Even rares and (supposedly) uniques are on the table, should you level your blacksmith up enough!  Between expanding my stash, leveling up my blacksmith, and crafting new items, I always felt like there was something to purchase, even outside of the vendors (who had some fairly useful items, particularly early on!).  This is a spectacular change, as it gives a reason for gold to stay in the economy.  No more Stones of Jordan as trade-bait!

Plus, this also gives a pile of options in the Auction House.  DIII has come under a fair amount of fire for its use of a real money--that is, you pay in actual dollars, to purchase an in-game item--but also has a gold-for-items auction house as well, which allows you to find that item your Witch Doctor needs, but you haven't quite been able to find yet.  While I have no intention on blowing real cash on items that only exist on a virtual level, I definitely plan to make use of the gold-based auction house!

The only real issue that I have with the Diablo III beta right now is the skill interface system.  In previous patches, you could view every skill simultaneously, choosing from the ones available at your level.  In this new UI, you're only able to a few skills at a time, grouped together somewhat arbitrarily, based on their function.  This makes it difficult to compare skills and decide upon which suits your character best.  But really, this isn't a deal-breaker for me, and the visceral gameplay and multitude of class/skill/gear options make this one an auto-buy for me.  Can't wait for this one to come in!

As I play through with the rest of the classes, you can be sure that I'll keep you updated here!

In Which The Warlock Drools All Over the Keyboard...

This past Saturday was one of the more relaxing we've had in a while, as the holiday season has been rolling on.  The PlatinumChick and I, along with ChaoticFrederick and GeoMike, headed off to Columbus to see the WildLights exhibit at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.  Also joining us was the PlatinumChick's good friend WoWSonya, who we don't see nearly often enough.

That made for a great afternoon, but the bigger treat came for me that night.  You see, friends and neighbors, WoWSonya's husband Sean had recently received a beta key for Diablo III!  Oh, man!  The envy, it must have been streaming off of me when I first heard the news.

Luckily for me, Sean is of the generous sort, and once we returned from dinner, he logged me onto his Battle.net account and let me have at it!  I'm pretty sure that you could see my grin from orbit, as I slid into his computer chair and started my quest. So, as you might expect, here are my observations on a single playthrough of the Diablo III beta!

 I wanted to be able to jump into the action as soon as possible, without having to worry about fragility or spells, so I knew the Barbarian would be a great fit.  I typically played a Paladin in Diablo II, and tend to favor melee classes in most computer games, and I wasn't about to change here.

First up, the gameplay feels like I'm sliding back onto a comfortable couch.  The feel of the game immediately brings back memories of Diablo II, with primary skills attached to left and right mouse buttons, and other skills linked to hotkeys.  But, while the gameplay felt familiar, it simultaneously felt more...advanced?  That's not the right word, but it's close.  It was incredibly easy for me to pick up, though I did move around my hotkeys, setting my non-mouse skills and potions onto the home keys, for easy motion.

The mighty Barbarians of Mount Arreat

In Diablo II, characters typically advanced one or two skills--my Paladins typically favored an offensive aura like Holy Shock or Holy Freeze, coupled with Zeal--a low mana cost skill that delivered up to five incredibly fast melee hits with a slight damage buff on each.  In DIII, however, you have an entire range of skills at your disposal, which you can swap any time you return to town.  While I enjoyed trying out all of the offensive skills--I didn't care much about buffs or defensive skills--I quickly found a combination that worked well for me:  Cleave (a multi-hit swing that generated the Barbarian's resource:  Fury), Hammer of the Ancients (a close-range, massive-damage Fury-spender), and Weapon Throw (a long-range toss of a barbed axe, dealing tons of damage and "snaring" the target).  I did, however, trade out Hammer of the Ancients for Ground Stomp, which dealt sizable damage and stunned all enemies near my barbarous avatar.

Since none of these skills were reliant on skill points or the like, they always worked at their full capacity.  Really, there's very little number-crunching necessary in Diablo III.  Even the four primary stats are simply representatives of how much damage, critical chance, health and the like your character has.  While some have decried this as a lack of customization, it really serves to get you back into the action faster--there's no need to stop the zombie-smashing!  And, really--by the time I finished the beta, I was level 10 and had about 12 skills to choose from, which made for plenty of choices already.  And with the rune system still on deck?  Yeah, choice won't be a commodity here.

Hammer of the Ancients smashes a Cultist
in the Diablo III Beta!

One thing that struck me, however, is how beautiful this game looks.  Details are everywhere, and nearly everything can be targetted and destroyed.  I was in awe of the blood spatter as I smashed a zombie into the ground with Hammer of the Ancients, then followed up with a Cleave that sent the zombie flying back, with its head neatly severed and spinning on the ground.  After acquiring the services of the blacksmith, Haedrig, I picked up an enchanted two handed sword.  At first glance, the detail was quality, with a sharp-looking wavy blade and a squared-off hilt, but when I zoomed in, I found that not only did the hilt have a uniquely-designed pommel, but also an etching of an eye on the lower portion of the blade!  Gorgeous!

The visceral nature of combat, though, may be the best part.  Watching zombies ragdall as I Cleaved through them, hacking my way through barrels and watching the rings scatter across the floor, stomping the ground and seeing baddies stagger backwards...this is the visceral, full-bodied feel of a game that's never going to be tiresome. 

Whenever it manages to come out, Diablo III is going to be a massive blast.  Can't wait!