Patch 1.0.4

I've been playing Diablo on and off for the past few weeks just waiting for Patch 1.0.4. I've written quite a lot about the things I didn't like about the game but was hopeful that they could be fixed. Original Diablo creator David Brevik went online to express the same dissatisfaction with the game. Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson responded with "fuck that loser" which I found insulting, not only to David Brevik, but to everyone playing the game who felt changes were needed...including me.

Yes, I too felt personally insulted by it and I swore on Twitter that I've finally had it and I would give up this game for good. It didn't matter that Patch 1.0.4 sounded awesome.

So, even when the patch went live, I didn't play it. And almost as miraculous as a truly legendary item dropping with truly legendary stats, Jay Wilson gave a public apology days later, not only to David Brevik, but to the players as well.

Great! I revved up Diablo 3 once again and here I am playing the game post patch. Inferno is still difficult, but not ridiculously so. The "Paragon Levels" certainly gives that added incentive to continue playing. It gives the players something to play for, especially when they get drops that are disappointing.

I have noticed a change in drops that I've gotten most noticeably with the 2 hander weapons. In the few hours I've played, at least two Level 63 2-hander weapons with more than 1K DPS stat have dropped. I thought wow...but I couldn't use them as my Barbarian is a one hander.

One Legendary item has dropped for me so far...a Bracer but it had crap stats very much like a pre-1.0.4 Legendary. I put it up on the auction house and what the hell...someone bought it for 120K gold. Amazing.

Right now I'm actually on ACT 3, currently lighting fires at Bastion's Keep.

What's my gear like? What skills am I using? You can take a look at my Barbarian's profile here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Komikero-6931/hero/5717457

What about you? What's your player profile?

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.

Diablo 3 Thoughts

In spite of what I wrote in my last post, I did continue playing Diablo 3 on and off (10 minutes there, 20 minutes here). And in a couple of weeks I seemed to have farmed enough to get better gear at the Auction House to be able to play Act 1 of Inferno without much difficulty.

Used to be the wall of difficulty was Act 1 and I couldn't progress because I was getting killed all the time. But finding better gear was able to push this wall further back to Act 2.

And now I can't even step into the first area of Act 2 without the first Elite pack literally pulverizing me to submission. It's crazy. The difference between the level of difficulty between Act 1 and Act 2 of Inferno is just crazy.

So for the past couple of weeks or so all I have been doing is farming Act 1 to get better gear. A nice spear did drop for me while farming, which is quite of a rare thing. In all my months of playing, this was the first time I ever got a really nice weapon that I could actually use. Did the designers really intend on getting good items this hard or this rare? Or does the existence of the Auction house affect the quality of drops for both AH users and non AH users?

Whatever the case, it makes farming for items tedious, laborious and not fun.

And I do find myself playing the game even less than before.

This does not mean to say that the game is bad. In fact, I thought it was pretty great the first couple of months I played it as I leveled up my characters. Now I have two classes at Level 60. A Monk and a Barbarian.

It seems that as soon as I reach level 60, the fun just well....stops. From here on in, it's just all about finding GEAR. The designers thought that item hunt would be fun...but it's only fun if you do find good items every so often. I hardly get any really cool items at all. Sure a lot of rares drop, but much of it is just worthless, really. I've had a few Legendaries drop, but as I previously mentioned, there's nothing legendary about them at all. And I've yet to see a single "set" or green item drop. In all my months of playing....not a single green item.

When I get bored with the game I go to the official Blizzard forums because sometimes reading posts there is even more fun than playing the game.

But lately, even the forum is starting to bore me.