Diablo III

[Chen]

Oh, which reminds me: Is leveling up that blacksmith guy a good idea? Or is it a waste of gold?

At first it might be a bit expensive, but if you keep him leveled and able to make items that are approximately level-appropriate then the things he can craft for you are pretty good. I'm using three crafted items right now (level 14), since they all have 2 or 3 good stats, and nothing that's dropped for those slots has come close to making me want to replace them yet.

So, it's fairly expensive, but not really a waste of gold. Though that's only true up to as far as I am. I know to get it maxed out it will cost like 400k gold, so I have no idea if it's still going to be worth it to level later on. I assume it will be since Blizzard has said they wanted more of an emphasis on crafting compared to D2, though.

The rares you can craft tend to be just as good as found rares. And if the drop rates of the rare components is the same as beta you'll be more likely to craft rares than find them as drops.

Note too that the craftsmen are shared throughout all your chars. So while its expensive for your first char it benefits ALL your future chars too.

[Izawwlgood]

I rarely ever purchase blues from merchants, so between selling all my junk drops and melting down all my junk magicals, I found crafting a good way to gear up quickly. My guess is it continues along this path pretty well. Crafted gear is WAY cheaper than purchased gear, so, while I bet continually crafting to try and get your favorite two magical abilities on a piece of gear is a waste of time/money, I'll certainly craft a piece or two for a significant upgrade.

[Chen]

I rarely ever purchase blues from merchants, so between selling all my junk drops and melting down all my junk magicals, I found crafting a good way to gear up quickly. My guess is it continues along this path pretty well. Crafted gear is WAY cheaper than purchased gear, so, while I bet continually crafting to try and get your favorite two magical abilities on a piece of gear is a waste of time/money, I'll certainly craft a piece or two for a significant upgrade.

In the beta I found buying a blue weapon from the merchants can be useful if you have bad luck with drops. Not all classes can use the crafted ones, and some of the early crafted ones are pretty bad anyway. I do agree it seems kind of pointless to buy the other blue gear though.

[Diadem]

Level 11 now. Killed Leoric at level 9. Not quite sure how others got to 14. I explored every corner of every dungeon, and even did some content double, and only got to 9. Still it was an easy fight. The beta ended at Leoric right?

I'm betting that the stranger you find is Tyrael. I really can't imagine it being anyone else.

I levelled the merchant a bit. He's now making level 15 items. So no point in levelling further for a while. He makes some nice stuff, at least for now.

[Giallo]

Do anyone of you know if the choice of skills for the NPC's are definitive or if there is some possibility to change them?

[Avin]

Level 11 now. Killed Leoric at level 9. Not quite sure how others got to 14. I explored every corner of every dungeon, and even did some content double, and only got to 9. Still it was an easy fight. The beta ended at Leoric right?

If you're referring to me, I got to level 14 at the end of act 1, not at the end of the beta content. I was at level 6 or 7 when I killed Leoric I think.

[Kain]

Okay, I got disconnected earlier in the night after completing that quest where you kill the ghosts of the mother, father and brother of the quest giver (I think it was in the farm area north of nt), and when I ended up logging back on, I didn't have the item I had crafted from the junk I got from that dungeon. I kind of want to know whether or not the game thinks I finished that quest, but I don't know how to check the completion of side quests. I also can't find that dungeon again.

(Note that this occurred about an hour before the current downtime. Yay game freezes!)

[Diadem]

Finished Act 1, and did a little bit of act 2 already as well.

spoilered for act 1 storyline

Spoiler:

I knew the stranger was Tyrael. Though I suppose it wasn't really supposed to be a big surprise. Pretty awesome cutscene at the end of Act 1 though, I was on the edge of my seat. Tyrael is awesome. There were rumours before release that Tyrael was going to be evil in this game, I'm glad they aren't true.

I did not expect Deckard Cain to die though. That was a shock. All-in-all though the storyline so far is pretty awesome.

[jules.LT]

I'm betting that the stranger you find is XXXX. I really can't imagine it being anyone else.

You might want to spoiler that too...

I'm partway through act II and one aspect of Diablo III I'm really enjoying is how little exploring I need to find my goals. And by that I mean the unending wandering back and forth that was often necessary in D2.

Also, my main skills are still the blowgun with multi-hit and the firebats without a rune (I like how it kills groups at close range, and I'm looking forward to a rune that doesn't change that). What about you guys?

[Obby]

I'm betting that the stranger you find is XXXX. I really can't imagine it being anyone else.

You might want to spoiler that too...

I'm partway through act II and one aspect of Diablo III I'm really enjoying is how little exploring I need to find my goals. And by that I mean the unending wandering back and forth that was often necessary in D2.

You says that now. Me and a buddy spent a good hour hunting through one part of the desert oasis trying to find the required dungeon to hunt through in act 2... It was fun, but still. Not quick.

Also, my main skills are still the blowgun with multi-hit and the firebats without a rune (I like how it kills groups at close range, and I'm looking forward to a rune that doesn't change that). What about you guys?

At level 19 on my Wizard and I stick with... this build. I've been using those same skills since level 12 or 13, adding the skills and runes as I unlocked them. We'll see how much I stick with it as I level more.

[Chen]

I got to level 15 on my Wizard and I believe I'm near the end of act 1. Had a few disconnects yesterday but it seems I stopped playing RIGHT as the server went down for a longer time. The minute I hit level 15 I switched in electrocute and haven't looked back. It seems to fire much faster than any other skill I have which makes its low damage per hit somewhat irrelevant. Using arcane orb with the extra damage, frost nova with the free extra novas, wave of force with the extra pushback+stun and ice armor (no rune yet). Ice armor is fantastic at keeping you alive considering the freeze is pretty long duration. I'm still running with the templar companion since he seems to get things attention pretty well which is useful for a wizard.

The combat in the game seems far more hectic than D2 though it may just be my bad memory. I've run into areas where there are HUGE backs of mobs which inevitably path into MORE mobs. Still not really difficult but without good AOE it can get dicey. Waiting on cooldowns for Frost Nova and Wave of Force can feel pretty hectic too. I'm not sure how you're supposed to deal with a lot of monsters up in your face if they're on cooldown and you don't have arcane orb.

Was considering using Ray of Frost with the increase in damage for sustained use, but it seems like its only really useful for bosses. And right now I can't really afford the slot for it.

[Lostdreams]

Do anyone of you know if the choice of skills for the NPC's are definitive or if there is some possibility to change them?

While I have yet to employ it, if you click on the portrait in the talk menu there is an option for respeccing.

[Drumheller769]

Are the NPC's worth playing with? Like in Neverwinter Nights, if you play with them enough will you get an item or something? Because I don't really need the help, even in the Leoric fight, I didnt feel like I was in danger of dying. (I play a monk)

[Lostdreams]

In single player you get 20% of their magic find added to your total. They can also do things like taunt, heal, and slow.

[Kain]

Slightly off topic (market discussion, not gameplay): Is it just me, or do some people really not understand the 15% transaction fee? I have been messing around with flipping gems for a profit, seeing as the prices are so unsteady right now you can get away with it, and at least three times I have seen people buy out say, 5 gems, before I can, and next thing I know there are precisely 5 gems at, oh, 5% above the previous price.

Of course, I nearly made that same mistake when I went to flip a ruby, so I don't really mean to disparage their intellect...

[Chen]

Slightly off topic (market discussion, not gameplay): Is it just me, or do some people really not understand the 15% transaction fee? I have been messing around with flipping gems for a profit, seeing as the prices are so unsteady right now you can get away with it, and at least three times I have seen people buy out say, 5 gems, before I can, and next thing I know there are precisely 5 gems at, oh, 5% above the previous price.

Of course, I nearly made that same mistake when I went to flip a ruby, so I don't really mean to disparage their intellect...

Is it a 15% cut for everything on the gold AH? I haven't really been keeping up.

I suspect most people are just bad at math though. I don't even know why you'd buy out a low auction and relist at such a small markup. Aren't you limited in the number of auctions you can have running anyway? It seems bulk selling isn't going to work so well in D3.

[Kain]

Eh, the gems tend to turn around in under 5 minutes (longest I had to wait was 25 minutes, and that was because of the person who undercut at their own loss).
Gems, as well as a few other crafting materials, are always bought and sold directly, rather than in the 24 hour auction. If I had known that, I wouldn't have put 9 rares up for sale...
Also, yeah, it seems that the 15% cut is applied to everything. Maybe I am just too tired to notice otherwise, however.

[jules.LT]

Are the NPC's worth playing with? Like in Neverwinter Nights, if you play with them enough will you get an item or something? Because I don't really need the help, even in the Leoric fight, I didnt feel like I was in danger of dying. (I play a monk)

Blizzard said that Act I is the tutorial. That didn't stop me from dying a few times against the final boss *with* an NPC to take some of the heat off me (does he drop any life bulb??).

The combat in the game seems far more hectic than D2 though it may just be my bad memory.

That's my feeling too. I see my life going down and back up with life bulbs a lot, when in D2 it was much more stable and I didn't much use potions during combats in Act I Normal.

[mike-l]

On the RMAH,it's 15% of trade goods (gems, crafting mats) and $1 per item. I don't know how the gold AH works though.

Blizzard said that Act I is the tutorial. That didn't stop me from dying a few times against the final boss *with* an NPC to take some of the heat off me (does he drop any life bulb??)

He emotes most of his attacks, so you can dodge a fair bit. Of course, I play a monk so I largely tanked all but the

Spoiler:

Charge

and just used my heal.

[Kain]

15% on everything, apparently.

[jules.LT]

Following on about the Act I boss fight:

Spoiler:

At first, his charge stun tempted me in getting closer, and right after that he launches grabbing chains...
My Witch Doctor did not like meleeing this guy, and the lack of healing did the rest.
You should have seen me running around and avoiding the fire and attacks while I waited for the potion cooldown to finish...

[Diadem]

I haven't really looked at the auctionhouse yet. Too busy playing the game. Gold doesn't seem exactly rare though. I've got over 20K, despite leveling my blacksmith quite a bit.

[faranim]

I thought that there were 2 Health Fountains at the final boss? I honestly can't remember. I'm playing Witch Doctor and didn't come close to dieing until Act 2 (those green flower things hurt like hell, reminiscent of the Poison Cloud things in D2).

I'm level 16 now and in the beginning part of Act 2.

I find the Auction House very confusing. I can't see the price history for recently sold items, and apparently gems/crafting materials are sold differently than equipment. And the prices make no sense.

e.g. 1 Chipped Topaz = 45g each. 10 Chipped Topaz = 50g each. But 6 Chipped Topaz = 42g each? Makes no sense.

[Izawwlgood]

There are two fountains. I had trouble with him, but didn't die. I'm in this weird funk as the WD, where I feel my powerful abilities are too expensive (Haunt, Barrage), my dogs are too weak, and I'm too fragile. I can tweak stuff around ok, but find I have to do a lot of kiting.

[Obby]

I thought that there were 2 Health Fountains at the final boss? I honestly can't remember. I'm playing Witch Doctor and didn't come close to dieing until Act 2 (those green flower things hurt like hell, reminiscent of the Poison Cloud things in D2).

I'm level 16 now and in the beginning part of Act 2.

I find the Auction House very confusing. I can't see the price history for recently sold items, and apparently gems/crafting materials are sold differently than equipment. And the prices make no sense.

e.g. 1 Chipped Topaz = 45g each. 10 Chipped Topaz = 50g each. But 6 Chipped Topaz = 42g each? Makes no sense.

That's what happens when people set their own prices. Plus, the game is brand new, the market has not stabilized yet, and likely won't for a while yet.

[jules.LT]

There are two fountains.

Now I feel silly

[Avin]

You says that now. Me and a buddy spent a good hour hunting through one part of the desert oasis trying to find the required dungeon to hunt through in act 2... It was fun, but still. Not quick.

That oasis is by far the most annoying stage of the game for its length and the random location of the dungeon, having gone through it twice now. But otherwise the maps seem to be very easy to navigate, hardly ever requiring built-in backtracking, and I just finished Act 2 so far.

[Izawwlgood]

I came across a timed dungeon, and was under the impression you had to escape from it. So i ran in, killed some stuff, and then ran back to the entrance.... where nothing happened. because they expect you to town portal out.

That was annoying.

[Chen]

e.g. 1 Chipped Topaz = 45g each. 10 Chipped Topaz = 50g each. But 6 Chipped Topaz = 42g each? Makes no sense.

I don't think the commodity market works the same as WoW which might lead to people's confusion. If I put up 10 000 000 gold, its still sold as price per 1000 gold. Someone can buy 1000 of that gold and another person can buy the other 9 999 000. As such price per unit is the important pricing factor and not price per "stack". This is not how WoW works where it makes sense to give some sort of discount based on stack size. Of course people not doing it smartly is also a problem since even if the above case did work like WoW your examples are still silly.

[ShootTheChicken]

There are two fountains. I had trouble with him, but didn't die. I'm in this weird funk as the WD, where I feel my powerful abilities are too expensive (Haunt, Barrage), my dogs are too weak, and I'm too fragile. I can tweak stuff around ok, but find I have to do a lot of kiting.

I'm playing a WD as well - just finished Act 1 and I'm level 15 or 16 (at work, can't remember).

What's working well for me:

Spoiler:

Blow gun w/ triple shot rune
Firebats w/ the first rune, whatever it is
Dogs w/ first rune (poison bite or something?)
That spell that blows your dogs up. They do a shit ton of damage, and if you have your dogs ready to be summoned again it's crazy useful in large groups.

I also have the Templar follower and he has healing skills and I keep his gear up to date. As of the end of Act 1 I haven't used a single potion.

[faranim]

The only MMOs I've played with an Auction House are FFXI, and Runes of Magic. Both of those Auction Houses have a history function where you can see the actual purchase price for the last 10 items sold, to give you an idea of what you should expect to get for a given item.

FFXI System:
If multiple copies of the same item are being sold, the one with the cheapest price is the one that actually sells first. So if there are 10 "Swords of Truth" up for auction, and I bid 10,000 gold, as long as at least 1 of those "Swords of Truth" has a price set less than 10,000 gold, I successfully buy one of them for 10,000 and the player who listed at the cheapest price gets my 10,000 gold in the mail. It wasn't really an auction since players would simply specify a desired buyout price for the item, and then the system would either tell you "Yep, you successfully bought one for X" or "Nope, nobody has listed that item for a price of X, try bidding a higher price". I think this is how the Gems/Crafting mats AH in Diablo 3 is supposed to work, except the system actually tells you in advance what the "expected" price is based on the quantity you want to purchase.

Runes of Magic System:
Each item (or stack of items) is a totally separate entry in the AH. If I search for "Chipped Topaz" I'll get back a big list of all the Chipped Topaz stacks being sold, which player is selling them, and what the price is (both total price and the price per unit). Then I can sort the results by price per unit and buy/bid on them.

[Diadem]

I'm playing mage, and so far I'm ripping through enemies. I'm clearly a glass cannon, but stuff dies fast, which is nice. I didn't have too much trouble with the act 1 final boss either, though I had to use both health shrines.

Having said that, I did die twice. The first time was pure stupidity, I ran into a huge group of mobs and didn't pay attention to my health. The second time though I'm not sure what killed me. All enemies were dead, I was at nearly full health, and next thing I know I was dead. I had just dispatched some enemies with poison though, so I suspect I got poisoned to death. Back in D2 that never killed you, just left you at 1 hp. Guess they changed that.

My skills are Electrocute and Arcane Orb. I have to say though that Spectral Blades is also damn good. I think I prefer chain lightning because of the range. But that may change depending on what enemies I encounter.

[Izawwlgood]

I'm super curious to see what the Archon form does.

I hear for the WD, everything turns around once you get Gargantuan.

[Telchar]

Man, once I got toads and exploding zombie dogs everything turned around for me. With those you can frontload enough damage to take out elites relatively quickly, use the aoe slow on groups, and run plague zombies into bigger mobs. I did die twice, once on Leoric at level 9 and once to an elite burrower pack because I was so squishy and I didn't have toads...but now that I do, everything just dies.

[The Utilitarian]

I tell ya, I was worried in the beta about the game not being difficult enough but those concerns are GONE now. Boy howdy. This is so much fun it's silly.

[Chen]

My skills are Electrocute and Arcane Orb. I have to say though that Spectral Blades is also damn good. I think I prefer chain lightning because of the range. But that may change depending on what enemies I encounter.

I was surprised how good spectral blades actually are. Getting that close to the enemies is a real problem though especially enemies that run. Arcane Orb is too slow to always catch them so have some sort of ranged spammable attack is very useful. Electrocute really does seem like the king of the signature spells.

[philsov]

I tell ya, I was worried in the beta about the game not being difficult enough but those concerns are GONE now. Boy howdy. This is so much fun it's silly.

That's great news. Where are you, currently?

~

Been rocking the witch doctor myself (he seems popular here on the fora), current setup at level 10 or so is triple darts, extra-slow grabbing hands, zombie dogs, and soul essence. I loooooove the soul essence buff! Currently gives me 20 (?) int per enemy (max 5) so that works out to 100% damage boost? Very welcome. Pop that and I can dart things to the ground with impunity. So far I'm not a fan of the bats (either default or dire) and while the fear does have its uses an an Out, I find the passive dps and target foddering of the dogs to be too much better to fiddle with.

[ShootTheChicken]

Welp, anybody playing on the Americas server can add me if they want (BattleTag TheChicken#1947)

I'm going to be on after 9pm EST for the rest of the week.

[Izawwlgood]

I loooooove the soul essence buff!

I do too, especially with the first rune upgrade which steals mana for you, but I find the range of the harvest to be WAY to small, and the cooldown to be too long.

[BlackSails]

Ive been playing as a demon hunter. Im pretty much forced to use the templar follower, since im so squishy, but other than that, im having no problems (Act 3 atm).

I had issues with belial, because he could 1-shot me. The only other time I died is when I ran into a pack of champion hands of the plague with the jailer power, and I was all out of discipline. They rooted me and then instakilled me.