Finally Beat Diablo on Inferno

FINALLY. It's really not much of a victory. By this time pretty much everyone's beat Diablo on Inferno. I was finally able to do it only by reaching Paragon Level 12 and playing at Monster Power ZERO, plus the benefit of a few Legendary items given to me by fellow player Jonas Diego.

I gave up playing many months ago because it just became too hard. I got stuck on Act 3 and I couldn't progress and I just kept getting crap items. So I just gave up. So yeah, I guess I'm really not that good of a Diablo player. I admit that right now. It's actually quite more like RELIEF I feel at beating Diablo at this level because it was just simply too embarrassing knowing I haven't beaten Diablo until now.

At least now I can just sit back and relax and just continue to level my Paragon Levels up, this time at Monster Power 1! Yeah, I'm so hardcore.

I'm playing it again now to re-familiarize myself with the game in preparation for the Reaper of Souls expansion. I hope to gain a few more Paragon levels before that happens, you know, just to prevent further humiliation.

Inferno Level, Monster Power 8

After much farming and leveling up, I am now sufficiently strong enough to play at Inferno Level, Monster Power 8!

I tried running around at Monster Power 9 and 10 and couldn't quite hack it. While the damage I was able to dish out was just a little over sufficient, it was my Barbarian's vitality that was lacking sadly. Any good warrior knows that it's not just about being able to deal punishment but also being able to take it.

Especially if you're dealing with monsters like The Butcher, you'd better be prepared to take it.

Defeated Diablo

I finally defeated Diablo at Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 2! It was no walk in the park, lemme tell you.

In the past, backed up by overwhelming power (before Monster Power), battling the head honcho usually involved standing your ground and hacking away with the occasional gulp of a health potion when your vitality dwindled down too low for comfort.

Not this time, however.

I had to employ hit and run tactics. Even with my regenerative capabilities, I was sure to lose my head if I just stood there and dealt damage.

I am now back in Act 1, taking on demons and monsters at Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 3 and I am struggling. Looks like I'm going to need to farm, get more gold, and shop at the Auction House pretty soon again.

Starting Act 4...

Entering Act 4 in Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 2!

Going to need an Upgrade SOON!

I'm currently on Act 2 Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 2 with my Barbarian on Paragon Level 34.

I'm still managing to hold my own but the demons and monsters are getting tougher and tougher to beat. Aside from the higher vitality of these infernal creatures (not to mention the bigger DPS), the darn things are traveling in bigger packs.

With the odds stacked against me, I am forced to fight smarter AND harder.

Even that's not going to be enough after a while though. I can feel it in my bones. I'm currently merging my gems together (I've got quite a few socketed items). The improved jewels will hopefully bolster my stats so I can progress further to earn a bit of gold (merging gems are expensive) and chance upon better gear.

The last resort is the Auction House of course but things are so frikkin' expensive.

Diablo III Inferno, Monster Power 2

I just started Act 1 in Monster Power 2!

There's more of everything here, monsters and loot (especially the gold). My current stats and gear are coping well but it is just Act 1 after all. I'm probably going to need some major upgrades by Act 2 which will mean another shopping spree at the Auction House. With the gold flowing the way it is now, I'm probably going to be able to afford the more pricier items.

For now, I'm just going to continue merging gems together and ramping up my stats that way.

Defeated Diablo, Monster Power 1

Screenshots of my defeat of Diablo at Inferno Difficulty, Monster Power 1.

I Finally Conquered Act I: Inferno...

Click thumbnail to enlarge.

And was promptly killed off by the first Elite Pack I encountered in Act II.

I've been having problems the past few weeks just trying to survive Diablo III: Act I in Inferno Difficulty. I realized that I focused too much on building up my damage capabilities but neglecting my vitality. I set out to rectify the situation.

I returned to Hell Difficulty and farmed for gold and jewels and bought myself the best gear (within reason) I can find that struck a balance between strength, vitality, and life regeneration attributes. Next, I returned to Inferno level and farmed the lower levels for Tome of Secrets that will allow me to create better gems. Afterwards, I tweaked my mix of skills and runes trying to find the best combination of defensive and offensive capabilities.

Having stacked the odds in my favor, I returned to do battle and managed to finish off Act I: Inferno Difficulty and off I went to Act II.

And then I died.

I guess it's back to drawing board.

Level 60 Barbarian

I've finally reached Level 60 on my Barbarian. I think I've gone as far as I can go with Diablo 3, at least for now. No, I've not finished Inferno. I guess I'm not really that good of a player and I can admit that without a problem.

I'll just wait for future patches before I start playing D3 again. These would be patches that would make Legendaries more, well...LEGENDARY and patches that would hopefully make the game a lot more fun to play than it already is.

I've become frustrated with the game after getting hardly any items at all while farming that I can actually use.

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

I mean...why are you still getting 160DPS Level 60 rare weapons? What possible use can there be for that? And yet at the Auction House you see Level 60 weapons that are more than 1K DPS. I mean WTF is that?

I've been playing since this game came out, and I've never had an item drop that was more than 600DPS.

If you need to play a whole lot more to get these items, well, the game was probably designed for people who have lots of time on their hands. You know, people who don't have jobs, or maybe supported by their parents, and can afford to play all day and all night.

I can play only an hour or so a day...2 hours at the most. Is there anything in this game for me? Apparently not much after you reach Level 60.

As I said, I'm not giving up on Diablo 3 all together. I'll come back when it has something new to offer.

For now, it's back to Path of Exile!

Hardcore

Laying off my Level 60 monk on Inferno Act 1 for now as I gather my wits about further progressing through the game successfully.

For the meantime, I decided to start a new Barbarian character...on Hardcore setting!

This means that once my character dies, that's it. Game over. He can't be revived anymore. I lose all money and gear that this character is associated with.

I have no illusions at all that I can finish the game (at least on Normal Setting) without dying once. I would just like to see how far I can go with that kind of risk looming over my head. I would like to see how careful it would force me to play and what techniques I learn here I can use on my Monk on Inferno.

I'm currently on Level 9 and I've successfully killed The Skeleton King. So far so good!

Inferno...HOLY CRAP!

I enjoyed the game vastly right up to Hell difficulty, the third, and penultimate difficulty setting on Diablo 3.

Upon entering Inferno, it was like I hit a brick wall. I actually had an easier time of it a few weeks ago but, when Blizzard implemented Patch 1.0.3, my attack speed went down from 1.72 to around 1.10 and my Damage per Second went from around 22K to 12K. Not only that, the patch made repair costs so expensive that I end up losing more gold than making it.

Pre-patch, I was able to play right up to the Butcher. But post patch, I can barely get out of the Cathedral. I banged my head into Inferno like this until I almost became broke.

Of course, the solution to all this is to be more careful playing. Be more defensive so you will die less often. But believe me, the Elite monsters in Inferno are so powerful that you're going to die with one or two hits before you can even run away.

It has been frustrating and more than once I've logged off in anger.

Now I'm staying away from Inferno for a while. I've just been playing Acts 3 and 4 of Hell over and over just to stack up on Gold. Hopefully after a few weeks of this I'll be able to have so much gold I'll be able to buy better gear from the Auction House.

Because honestly, the drops I get from the game is just simply bad. On average, I've gotten only ONE useful gear in around two weeks of playing. In that same two weeks you amass enough gold to buy several good items of the Auction House. So what do you do? Just grind and grind or use the Auction House?

So yeah, that's what I've been doing lately. Once I get better gear, hopefully I start having fun again.

Starting Inferno

I haven't been able to post much here as I've been playing the game during my breaks from work. This game is incredibly addicting. I've fought my way through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell.

Now I'm about to take out the Skeleton King on Inferno difficulty.

Inferno is not kidding around. It's been incredibly difficult. The crazy thing is, the "Elite" creatures are actually far more difficult to beat than the big bosses. In fact, once in a while, I would actually skip Elites that I just could not kill. These are the ones with immune minions, lasers, and the ones that can yank you right in front of them and kill you with one or two blows.

It's crazy.

Since I'm already at Level 60 and that's pretty much the cap on leveling up, the only way to get stronger and build up more defense is getting better gear. That can be done through three things: farming, training your blacksmith and jeweler, or using the Auction House (which I use most of the time). I realized early on that it's such a waste using so much gold and wasted so much special items training the Blacksmith when he would give me next to useless items on the level I was on.

It's far easier to find really good items in the Auction House. Yeah, items there are crazy expensive as a lot of these sellers seem to be in it to get rich quick rather then be reasonable. I mean... 99 Million for an item? Are they INSANE? It's like they don't want their items sold at all. Who would be stupid enough to buy that?

All it takes is a little patience looking for powerful items that aren't expensive. The most expensive thing I bought was a 2 hander Daibo for my Monk that gave me 1K damage. I got it for around 200K.

Right now the Skeleton King is proving hard to beat but not impossible.

Diablo is DEAD!

Yes! I finally dispatched Diablo today with my Monk (that is, of course, on Normal Difficulty).

It wasn't extraordinarily hard though, but it was pretty challenging. One tip I can give to players is to recognize your opponent's pattern of attacks and devise your own pattern of attack accordingly.

I'm not sure if I would have been able to dispatch of Diablo as easily with a Barbarian though. I'm sure other players would find the Barbarian easier but I just really liked the Monk gameplay. It's fast, lethal, and pretty awesome looking.

Now that I've finished the game, I can say that it's pretty awesome. Definitely much more exciting than Diablo 2 and yeah, even the other games I played before (Drakensang and Path of Exile). I guess it has a lot to do with the story. There is a very precise and strong narrative that drives the story along. It's not an overly complex story (in fact, it's a pretty simple one) but it's tight enough to keep one excited, especially from Act 3 onwards.

I would describe the first two acts as just coasting along with the last two suddenly going into overdrive. I would have never have finished the game so quickly if the narrative wasn't so compelling. You know, I just HAD to know what happens next. I just HAD to see where things were going.

And before I knew it... I'm face to face with the last boss.

I could quit right here, pack up the game in the box and move on to the next one but I'm still pretty much in Tristram in my head. I want to continue playing. And the best thing is, I can play it again but this time on a more difficult setting: Nightmare. And when I finish that, there are two more further difficulty settings: Hell and Inferno.

What keeps me going now, especially now that I know what the narrative is? I guess it's like watching the Titanic movie. You know the thing is going to sink, but you can't help but still watch it. The difference here is that the added difficulty makes it a slightly different game. Since monsters are harder to kill, one has to adjust his gameplay accordingly. I can no longer just coast along, blundering headfirst into mobs and just let God sort it all out.

Now, I have to think more. I have to be much more cautious and plan my attacks. I can't take any monster for granted. The littlelest creature can kill me now (and they did, actually).

Now that I'm on Nightmare, I don't have to rush it. I could just take my time.

After all, the job awaits and I can't afford to miss deadlines because of this game today (like I did so horribly in 1999). Ha, ha, ha!