LadyCrimson

I think you have to play the actual game and get to Inferno to understand that. It's not so much because it's "nigh impossible" (it's not impossible, obviously) but more because of the way they make it so, as well as the fact the whole grinding for items thing doesn't work very well as a way to steadily progress. The hunt for loot is nothing like it was in D2. It's a catch-22 - the items that drop in other difficulties are not generally going to be anywhere near good enough to get even past Act1 of Inferno (in terms of Elites). But you can't farm Inferno because you can hardly kill Elites in Inferno. Which leaves you farming gold, either for the Blacksmith/Jeweler (the blacksmith can't learn the really cool stuff unless you find plans, or buy them in later Acts or something, either) or for the AH. And because it's early, most awesome items people keep for themselves. And what there is, you'll need 10's of millions of gold to buy a half set of gear. Have fun gold-farming. The other thing is that idiotic Enrage aspect to Inferno. What that means is that if you take too long to kill an Elite pack (4-5 minutes I think) they get a buff that essentially instantly heals them back to full and does extreme DoT to anyone within almost the entire screen radius range. Life ball drain in seconds, in other words. This makes it nearly impossible to kill them if you aren't uber-equipped somehow. And to get that equipment....back you are to gold farming and the AH. You have 50K life. The monsters in late Inferno can often one-hit you for over 100K. So you die over and over and try to chip away at them, the common tactic in this sort of game, but now if you take too long, all that time is wasted because of Enrage. I'm only in Act1 and they aren't quite at the one-hit stage for me. But I'll say this: I don't mind dying a lot, and I don't mind having to grind for gear and such...to a point. But I can tell already that Inferno is going to be more grind than it's likely worth. I can run past almost everything just to try to get to the easier Act bosses to progress in the game that way, but I can't kill 90% of the Elites in Act1 (which are the main source of farming for good items, btw). That's with 70% dmg. reduction, 265ResistAll, 30+ Dodge, life steal, nearly 40K life. Ranged classes have it a bit easier, as usual. I only have about 8000dps and I don't see much way - as a Monk - to get it a lot higher yet. I might squeeze out 9-10K dps if I gave up 15K in life etc and I might try that, but those Elites are still going to whup my arse. I think Resist All is the most important thing in Inferno, outside of being nimble enough to avoid being hit. Better plan on having 500 at least. Am I saying "It's toooo harrrrd?" No. I'm fine with having a difficulty that's insane like that. Some people want/like it, some are probably even good at it, so it should be an option. I was eager to try it. But I think .... in the end...it'll end up being too much grind for me. I'm going to try to run past to get to bosses and maybe "win the game", but in terms of farming gold/gear until I'm so uber I can run through most of Inferno without dying 20-50 times per area and/or without running past most Elites? No thanks. I'll probably move on to other games. This sums it up for me: (note: I know nothing about Dark Souls so I can't say if I'd think his assessment re:that game is ok or not...but it does sum up what I think of D3 overall, in general) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CBbeSAjVo

Well, got to Inferno. Once I hit lvl60 I pretty much rushed the end of Act3 and Act4, just to kill the bosses (run run stairs, run run stairs). All those Elites and such are a serious pain in the butt to deal with - didn't die too often in Hell but it's so darn time consuming if you kill them all - and I was tired of that grind tonight so I just ran. Diablo fell w/out me dying even once, which was nice since I wanted to be in Inferno, darnit....so now I am. I ran to the Skeleton King to check him out and....I died on the 1st try, partly because I was a bit incautious. But at least the death made me chuckle a bit. (Are we at the point now where the still shot that an embedded video shows isn't considered a spoiler? .... well, never mind, I'll put in it spoiler tags) I killed him on the 2nd try. Wanted to get there because I find his Royal Crypt spot a lazy (ie, easy/safe) place to farm moderate amounts of gold (get a lot of gold find gear and break all the stuff there). Those Artisan prices...*grumbles* But for now...had enough D3 I think. I can beat Inferno later.

Oh, is that out now? *scurries to read some reviews from her fave film reviewers*

Yes, I figured that was a part of it. After the first month or so of the season I haven't watched the RedSox much. I check the scores and the news but between the fact I still can't used to Tito being gone (cries), half the players being injured/reinjured, the bullpen/pitching being terrible, and a general feeling that the team has yet to find its groove as a team, it's hard to watch/root for them. They'll get it together eventually ... and I don't mean necessarily that they'll start winning big. I mean more the team attitude. There's something not quite right there. They're not...cohesive. Missing Varitek and Tito's ability to manage personalities, perhaps...adjustment to new manager and all of that. Middlebrooks looks to be a potential awesome addition, however. I wonder what they'll do about that, since Youk is supposed to be on 3rd base.

Yeah....that's nothing for lvl60. Drops start to improve at 60 because of that MF thing I guess....I've seen some people with 70K dps. Some even higher. Considering Inferno late Act bosses can have 7million hit points or something, I'd say that's not a reach. heh No, the drops in D3 pretty much suck until lvl 60. You'll find a good/useful item now and again but overall I often felt like things that dropped were subpar for my clvl. I mean, in Act2 Hell I was getting a lot of Rares dropping, but they were all lvl 44ish items, with somewhat weak bonuses, whereas I was ... lvl 55. Anyway....I'm lvl59 in mid-Act3 Hell. With 4100dps and 30-35K health it's actually been kind of a bore for my Monk. I blew through all those nutty mobs and Elites on the battlements without too much issue or one death. Maybe I'm supposed to be a few levels lower. I'd need 3000dps or 15K less health to make it seem that challenging solo I guess. I can even do the "Invincible" Elite now, albeit those type of Elites take a lot of running and kiting. The one creature that can kill me repeatedly is the exploding guys. I let them stick to my Templar and run away. So Inferno better be a constant death fest even if I have good gear, or else one, I'll be disappointed, and two, it'll show that Monk's are OP'd for soloing, even without that regen Mantra/Boon of Protect, which I still don't use. Either that or I'm just super awesome.

Yeah, they're doing good. What I find more interesting, however, is the Orioles. Staying on top for as long as they have, that's a change. It'd be kind of cool to see them finally do well again after so long. The AL East needs a shakeup (away from constant Boston/NY). Doesn't make me like them, tho.

The only good/entertaining (in that fun, campy way) Highlander movie was the first one - for one thing, that silly and illogical "there can be only one" thing can't stand up to sequel scrutiny and never could. I couldn't care less if they make yet another stupid sequel, regardless of who is in it. I watched the XMen Origins on HBO this morning. For an action superhero movie, it was very boring. I did like seeing the "origins" of some of the characters but yeah...the film itself is slow and dull.

Double post, but unrelated to my above post: The Escapist review of D3. Made me http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5777-Diablo-3 ...corrected: Gah, of D3, not D2. Seriously, I have holes in my brain.

Yes, that's what I meant. Someone posted a link to a Blizzard person saying pretty much the same thing a few days ago, too. Essentially, to me, this says "We knew the AH would screw up the "item economy" and thus we programed/nerfed the drop rate ratio with that in mind." You can still do it solo without the AH, mind you. But it will/would take eons of time to farm gold for the blacksmith (to level up and then to craft and craft and craft) and then (if you can) farm the Elites etc. for their drops. And farming most Elites in Hell/Inferno becomes really difficult if you have subpar gear. D2 was far better at letting the solo player still find plenty of decent gear (set pieces, Uniques, rares) that kept you in line with the solo game, even if it wasn't the "best" or most coveted gear for MP. You might have to do some farming in D2, but not days and days just to scrounge enough dps/life/stats to survive/get through it. Basically, imo, Blizzard has turned D3 into a gold-farming game. Either to use the AH or to dump into crafting. Edit: I spent hours scouring Act1 Hell for gems and salvaging, got my blacksmith to lvl 8 and the jeweler to the apparent upgrade cap...and all I could manage was about 1600dps. The amount of gold you have to sink into the blacksmith (gambling, remember) to get an item with stats you want is insane. I finally gave up and bought a few cheapish pieces on the AH to at least give me over 2200dps. Moving on to Act2 Hell now... 2nd Edit: I should say that once lvl 60 and all geared up with awesome stuff and MF, assuming you can kill all those Elite mobs by yourself, you'll probably start finding a lot more good rares and such. It's up until that point, however, that the "Diablo is about finding good loot!" has been rather lost. imo.

Hubby's sister+husband came down for the weekend to clear out their house here. They can't afford to keep house here (even rented out) and the one in OR anymore so out the old one goes. We spent a couple afternoons having lunch with them. They wanted to sit in our yard under the sun.....sadly it hasn't been all that sunny/warm this past week, but apparently still more so than in OR. heh.

I'd take a picture of my handsome neighbor's jean clad butt with my telephoto lens, but I figure no one here would be interested.

The Grey...that movie with Liam Neeson and wolves. The movie was more "serious" in tone than expected, with lots of musing on meaning/purpose of life or something, but still falls into the eyeball-rolling "ludicrous thriller" category. I love Liam, but lately I'm starting to feel like he's falling into Nicholas Cage territory. Liam's a much better actor than Nick, I just mean in terms of quality of films he chooses. I mean, he took that cameo role in Battleship, of all films, after all. Don't get me wrong, stoic faced angry-action Liam is almost as fun as over-acting/chewing scenery Nick, but.... Is Liam in massive debt now, too?

Yeah...they seem to have designed the game to actually "force" one to use the AH. eg, the drops you get are always a bit behind what you actually need, hence people go to the AH. So only people who are/have become strong enough (alone or in groups) get drops that are decent for those who may not be strong enough to do that yet....it's a bit of a catch22, where you're too weak to get items you need, and by the time you can get them, you don't need them. My lvl 53 Monk is still doing ok in Hell but I'm very tired of Molten fire trail Elites. In Act1/Act2 you can still often outrun/avoid them (not always, but sometimes) to get to the next level or something, but in Act3/Act4 that would be iffy at best. P.S. Arcane/Frozen dudes also suck big time in Hell. My resists are up at 70 now, and "Plagued" I can often deal with, but firewalk/arcane lasers are still awful, even with almost 24K life.

I don't know....my Wiz is lvl 24, just got to Act3. DH is only 15 and Barb 19. They all kick butt but that's early Normal. I think if you build the Barb right, he can seem OP'd until somewhere in Hell, like the Monk somewhat. But I don't know what that build might be. Demon Hunters do seem one of the better classes for soloing Hell, perhaps. Ranged, natural high dodge, etc. That said, one person I know who is a DH, said Act3 Hell was almost a rage-quit fest, but the Act-bosses were still weak/easy. I think all classes are going to have problems solo in Hell, unless you spend all your cash on uber gear from the AH or something. Even with the initially OP'd Monk I died several times in NM, all to Elites...that I couldn't avoid/were in the way of the story goal. Stupid arcane laser turret and molten fire trail dudes...

Does anyone know if resists go up higher than 100? I had 60ish resist all in NM and those poison tossersin Act3 would still leech all the life away in a few seconds (12-13k at the time). Anyway....most of NM wasn't that hard - there were several good Elite battles with a lot of frantic running/kiting, even with 15-16k life - but the Act bosses were all snoozefests again. I've started Hell now. I need to up my dps once more, it's only 1080. It'll work for a while but probably not too long. So far in early Hell I use my healing spell fairly frequently against even non-special normal mobs vs "almost never" before now. It's actually about the difficulty I like. Hopefully I can find/make some better dps gear, because I'm going to need it. Guess I'll have to grind farm again. Got max Stash done, blacksmith to lvl6 and jeweler to max available in NM. And no, I'm not going to "just go buy better gear on the AH." Can't stand that mentality...hated it in WoW too. I like self-sufficiency, it's more rewarding when I win. At least I'm finally in Hell...which at least by Act3 shouldn't be cake and pie. I might start to have more fun now.

Yes....the Act bosses are pretty silly compare to Elite fights. I know they want people to farm items via other means than "boss runs." So you'd want those Elites to be tough. Still, they could have just nerfed boss drops (which they did to some extent) but still make the bosses more....interesting. Belial is the worst. In mid-Act3 NM now and feeling bored. Ah well, maybe it's time for a break.

Said so long to the House series. The series in general may have become old and stale long ago, but the House/Wilson relationship was still worthwhile, so I liked the way it ended. That, to me, was always the best aspect to the series. Those two actors had a great working chemistry.

I'm already sick of people complaining about difficulty in Hell/Inferno re:classes and skills and all of that. "(insert skill or monster here) isn't fair." "It's not balanced." "(insert skill name here) doesn't give enough of a bonus, change it." I may never make it through Inferno myself, but that's why it's an optional difficulty. It wasn't meant to be rushed through cake and pie. Nightmare overall has been fairly easy for the Monk, with a lot of life, dodge, some life on hit, life regen, life steal, and of course having the extra healing spell as well as potion etc. with only the occasional random Elite mob giving a lot of trouble. Died a few times to those. Just starting Act3 now. Got behind on Monk because I've been leveling Barb, Wiz, DH thru Normal as well, now. I've been using Crippling Wave on l-button and Hundred Fists on r-button. One for mobs, one for tougher singles. Working great so far. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WUYgTh!bdV!ZbbaZa

So will the expansion bring back Baal? And yeah, I keep finding items for other chrs. that motivates me to level them up, but then I get bored doing Act1/2 yet again and I go back to my main chr. Plus, the other characters aren't the Monk. But I've reached the point now where I can't play for more than a couple hours without turning it off - not because of the game, but because I'm not 20 (or even 30) anymore. Marathon gaming wears me out, physically and mentally.

Set's are different. Legendary just seems like D3's version of "Unique" (gold) items in Diablo2. Sets are still green, apparently, and I haven't seen any. The Blacksmith can make some (eventually) but I think there's ones that drop too...Blizzard's website game guide has a list of items, but I don't know if it's 100% complete (the guide seems to still be a work in progress for some things). Edit: I've had no "lag" in the game myself in terms of latency/ping, but the game does tend to jerk on a regular basis...that is, kind of like how FNV would "stutter." You walk a short distance it's fine, suddenly it kind of jerks a tiny bit, as it draws in new stuff maybe, then it's fine, repeat. It's minor and hasn't affected combat negatively for me but it's annoying. They're not supporting the catalyst 12.4 drivers either. Game may not even work if you use them.

They drop in Normal. That's where I found my first one, and I know someone else who did as well. Seems similar to D2, where there are probably low, mid, high lvl ones. More on the supposed hacking: seems tied to being in a public game and the way the achievement announcements work, enabling theft of "session ID" via the packets as achievements broadcast to everyone else. So they can then boot you out and control your character, bypassing the login. I guess the servers were down for a while as they maybe tried to fix that? Dunno...just reading about it 2nd hand.

Found my 2nd Legendary item...more useful than the 1st I found. Some normal zombie dropped on the way to the Butcher. Sadly, my Demon Hunter is only lvl 15.

Out in the yard cleaning up cat and racoon poo, weeding, hedge trimming, and other such fun stuff. I think my arms got a little sunburnt. I have a bit of natural tan since I'm Asian, but I am not a sun creature anymore....used to be able to sit in the sun for hours and not even notice, but I burn easily now. Side effects of becoming a PC and game nerd....

Oh I agree. The crazy hack n slash is what Blizzard has always excelled at. Even in single player when I'm faced with some giant mob and trying to wipe them all out it's horribly satisfying. It's just a bit irritating that I have to deal with all that stuff in order to do it. And I'm loving the Artisans. I want him to make me those sets and legendary items, please. I don't care if there may be some better items from drops only. Gives me something to work for besides farming bosses or whatever. Also, hooray for being able to unsocket items without destroying either gem or item.

Oh come on, it's part of the charm. When your super-geared character suddenly and unexpectedly dies... I'd say it's one of the strongest experiences in any computer game. You pause and think about the fleeting nature of life. Also, party HC is great fun. I played HC in D2 quite often. I'm not unfamiliar. Just not my general thing in online gaming. Besides, I tend to play with an partial ironman mentality to begin with, even in softcore. I buy from stores but I don't trade/buy from other players to get l33t fast and I try very hard not to die, even if dying means nothing.