No way! I know it's not popular among fans of the game but I like the diversity they add to the game.
Yes, they are frustrating areas, especially for certain builds. But everything doesn't have to play like Act4.
Pygmy type enemies are the bane of my existence in plenty of games that aren't Diablo (well, they are very similar to Diablo, since I guess I'm referring to World of Warcraft and the Borderlands series) but, yeah, I can't stand the damn things.
You wouldn't know it from the earlier alpha footage, but gameplay is smooth as silk (assuming you have a somewhat recent dedicated graphics card). The caves like the Den of Evil now emit a glow from the entrance when you get near them. Gold pick-up works about exactly as you'd expect (it's not a huge radius, you still have to make an effort). Spell effects are beautiful, the little graphical additions are subtle yet noticeable for long-time players. Everything else is just Diablo 2 as you remember it.
Edit: honestly, this is just fantastic. I could cry this is so good. I never had a single problem with Warcraft III: Reforged (it's exactly what I expected and I think the whole narrative that it's one of the most shameful releases of all time is just flat-out bizarre) but this one is leagues upon leagues better. And, frankly, Blizzard very much needs something like this right now if you've been following the news.
Hello there. I'm here just to share some thoughts on the multiplayer beta.
Long story short: it is excellent, in some aspects of gameplay it is even better than the original Diablo 2.
This is due to the fact that under all that 3d engine there is actual Diablo 2 playing, with all of its nuances and quirks. Why Resurrected is better then? Because that 3d engine looks excellent and most importantly runs so smoothly. I was concerned that looking at 60+ FPS game while 25 FPS engine playing underneath would be awkward, but it really is not. There are qaulity of life changes, some optional things to turn on/off, and accessibility options. Overall, that's great.
The other thing that added a new layer of fun to me is the controller support. It does feel really good to use and while, I think, it won't be as effective as a mouse and keyboard combination I would probably still prefer a controller most of the time just because of the fun factor. There are certain things I am concerned with (for example, how would the barbarian's whirlwind work? How easy/difficult would it be for the necromancer to choose which corpse to raise etc.) and some suggestions I think about. Like for example, with horadric cube:
normally, at the endgame nearly all of your equipment is full of charms and horadric cube. If you want to pick an item of interest while you have no room in inventory, you can open your inventory, click on the item you want to pick, then you can move it over the horadric cube and put it there. On the controller, things like that are not possible, which makes me think of suggesting that in cases like this, the newly picked items would be placed in a cube automatically. I don't know if that's the optimal solution, though.
The controller play needed some time for me to adjust to those controls though.
Vast majority of visuals, I really enjoy. Not only are they splendid, in some cases they do enrich the world around you. I can actually kinda believe that Rogue's monastery is actually a monastery. I can see that some of the caves were previously used by people. I can see that Barracks actually have places for Rogues to sleep in. I can guess there's more to Jail levels than we are let to know (in this instance, I saw that instead of wall, there were bars, implying that behind them is more of this dungeon). And some monsters are really more impressive, like giant spiders - my favourite design so far.
I have encountered some bugs that I reported pretty swiftly. There are some visuals that could use some improvements - for example, in act 2 when you are on the top of the cliff, the "stairs" down the cliff are not very clear. To the point that at first I was searching for them and failing at that. And some visuals, like Amazon's nightmare-inducing face, definitely needs to change.
Blizzard listening and implementing nearly all feedback at this point. All Runewords and Uniques will be available in all game modes, and Diablo Clone and Ubers in single-player. Though the Clone is going to have to have a new trigger, because the current one would simply be impossible.
I didn't really participate in the second weekend. I essentially played Act 1 with a Sorceress a week ago simply to get a feel for how it ran from a technical perspective and to get a feel for the gameplay. Everything was absolutely the best I could have hoped for in this regard. Didn't see much point in spending hours upon hours grinding Act 2 Normal for a character that won't carry over.
Okay, this is late but then again after the open beta, I don't have that much to add to what I have already spoken. What mostly changed for me is that I managed to try out more classes than before (because I had more time, of course). I do like visuals of most of the skills I have tried (the only one I don't like is Infero, it feels pathetic) and most of the characters (Amazon still looks bad, but she's much more bearable with full helm).
What I can add is that there were some serious issues with the beta in multiplayer-related mechanics, UI, and performance. This is not something that would affect single-player, but if you want to play multi, it would probably be better to hold off buying this game until a patch or two. Good thing ladder won't be enabled right away.
What is my area of minor concern is that the beta was limited only to Act 1 and 2. So there was no way for players to find issues with the later acts. I do think the issues will be minor and I hope to be right on that.
And some screenshots, because why not.
Game world being enriched by visuals example - this one place now has some story to it:
Since it is a remake they probably want feedback on graphics behaviour and some of the new features. That is fine to test with only the first half of the game in beta.
Just went to the forums for confirmation on spawning the Diablo clone in Single-player. Apparently, the answer was revealed in a blue post about a week ago. The cost is entirely reasonable, which is one Stone of Jordan sold to spawn (which is, coincidentally, exactly how I set it up in the PlugY config). Which essentially means you are sacrificing the ring for a chance at the charm. Simple and elegant.
Now that this confirmation has been added to the ability to spawn Ubers and Ladder Runewords no longer being exclusive, players will no longer be forced to play Ladder to experience the full game. Quite glad the purist gatekeepers didn't win out in this battle.
I played a decade and it never even dropped for me. Would it work via an editor or is that a no go
Ha, nearly the same for me. I had one drop in my whole time of playing. FWIW, MF runs on nightmare Andariel are your best odds, also where I ended up finding my SoJ.
While some of them CAN roll better than others, the Annihulus Charm is not like the Hellfire Torch granting random class skills. Technically, you only ever need to find 2 SoJs to get both, though it's certainly possible for people to get better versions than others.
The reason it became the way to trigger the event originally was because so many had been duped and the SoJ had become the de-facto trading currency. It was a way to get the influx off the market as much as anything else.
I actually looked up a guide on SoJ farming. While it certainly isn't going to rain from the sky, it isn't exactly Tyrael's Might either. If you run Nightmare Andariel 1000x with 200% magic find, you have about a 26% chance of getting it to drop. Now, granted, that doesn't mean if you run it 4000x times you will get one, but doing a couple thousand runs on a single-player map that doesn't reset (so you aren't constantly having to look for the entrance to the final floor) isn't really as bad as it seems.
I actually looked up a guide on SoJ farming. While it certainly isn't going to rain from the sky, it isn't exactly Tyrael's Might either. If you run Nightmare Andariel 1000x with 200% magic find, you have about a 26% chance of getting it to drop. Now, granted, that doesn't mean if you run it 4000x times you will get one, but doing a couple thousand runs on a single-player map that doesn't reset (so you aren't constantly having to look for the entrance to the final floor) isn't really as bad as it seems.
Umm. Okay. So I'm a filthy casual. You all know it. I know it. I've never farmed for a particular item in Diablo 2 (or 3, really, in any looter game if I'm being honest). 4 thousand runs to get a particular item is considered... not bad?
How long would it take you (in hours) to do 4000 runs for that particular item?
I actually looked up a guide on SoJ farming. While it certainly isn't going to rain from the sky, it isn't exactly Tyrael's Might either. If you run Nightmare Andariel 1000x with 200% magic find, you have about a 26% chance of getting it to drop. Now, granted, that doesn't mean if you run it 4000x times you will get one, but doing a couple thousand runs on a single-player map that doesn't reset (so you aren't constantly having to look for the entrance to the final floor) isn't really as bad as it seems.
Umm. Okay. So I'm a filthy casual. You all know it. I know it. I've never farmed for a particular item in Diablo 2 (or 3, really, in any looter game if I'm being honest). 4 thousand runs to get a particular item is considered... not bad?
How long would it take you (in hours) to do 4000 runs for that particular item?
I mean, you'd do it over the course of months if you weren't crazy. 25, maybe 50 a day. If you've beaten the game in Hell, the only amount of time it would take is the time it takes to actually reach the boss. Which is why you are probably using a Sorceress with teleport to get to the spot quickly. In SP, the map doesn't reset like in MP, so the route would be the same every time. It's perfectly reasonable to expect you could do one of these every 3-5 minutes. But, I mean, this is only necessary if you are playing solo, self-found. If you're online you are trading for gear rather than farming specifc pieces. They are different mentalities entirely. But, to put it in WoW terms, some of this stuff has a drop rate lower than the Love Rocket from Love is in the Air, and far lower than something like Baron Rivendare's Charger. It's conceivable you could play this game every day for a decade and still not see Tyrael's Might, the rarest item in the game. Which is really only desirable to say you found it, since it's generally useless in regards to what it provides.
But on the flip side, items like the Stone of Jordan can drop from anything of sufficient level. Running a single monster over and over probably isn't the best option, actually - clearing large swathes of Nightmare difficulty or late Normal difficulty in a single session might well do better. Certain monster types like ghosts have elevated chances of jewelry dropping, and there's another quirk which specifically benefits long sessions here. For item types like rings with multiple uniques, a particular one of those uniques can only drop once in a session. And quality is rolled first before determining which unique you get. Found a Nagelring already? The next unique ring might be a Manald Heal or a Stone of Jordan, but it won't be another Nagelring. As the Stone is rarer than the other rings, finding multiple unique rings in a session dramatically increases your chances of drawing it.
Back in early (pre-expansion) versions of the game, it was less random and more exploitable; you could force all unique ring drops to be the Stone of Jordan by carrying the other two unique rings, and thus farm them even without a duping exploit.
A month non stop to farm one item and only really effectively in nightmare mode which people like to skip as soon as possible. Ouch, who wants to spend that much time per character.
Not to mention, some would actually like to wear it.
As I said, I think (hope) they'll change the trigger at some point. But I think it's the perfectly reasonable path for Blizzard right now to want to release the game with a few gameplay changes as possible.
A month non stop to farm one item and only really effectively in nightmare mode which people like to skip as soon as possible.
Less exclusive than that; the chance of rings dropping doesn't depend on monster level, so the only effect of higher monster levels is that more unique rings can drop. That's a factor of two or so, at worst? So you have a choice: farm on Nightmare for higher kill speeds and a somewhat higher chance of this particular item, or just hit your usual Hell farming spots and pick up all of the other good stuff too.
It's still a pretty rare item, without some exploit.
A month non stop to farm one item and only really effectively in nightmare mode which people like to skip as soon as possible.
Less exclusive than that; the chance of rings dropping doesn't depend on monster level, so the only effect of higher monster levels is that more unique rings can drop. That's a factor of two or so, at worst? So you have a choice: farm on Nightmare for higher kill speeds and a somewhat higher chance of this particular item, or just hit your usual Hell farming spots and pick up all of the other good stuff too.
It's still a pretty rare item, without some exploit.
Yep this is solid advice. If you can MF run in Hell, you should probably just do that. The only reason not to would be because you are looking exclusively for a SoJ. And even then, if you're playing online, which I think is where most serious grinders will play, you're still better off at the higher farm spot. Since you can trade gear.
The feeling is still there, but the look of the game is stunning. I've been spending hours studying all the little details about how monsters, locations, characters look. How does their new look compare with my headcanons?
The main fun feature is still the same: nothing beats a unique drop from a simple container.
Comments
Yes, they are frustrating areas, especially for certain builds. But everything doesn't have to play like Act4.
Pygmy type enemies are the bane of my existence in plenty of games that aren't Diablo (well, they are very similar to Diablo, since I guess I'm referring to World of Warcraft and the Borderlands series) but, yeah, I can't stand the damn things.
Edit: honestly, this is just fantastic. I could cry this is so good. I never had a single problem with Warcraft III: Reforged (it's exactly what I expected and I think the whole narrative that it's one of the most shameful releases of all time is just flat-out bizarre) but this one is leagues upon leagues better. And, frankly, Blizzard very much needs something like this right now if you've been following the news.
Long story short: it is excellent, in some aspects of gameplay it is even better than the original Diablo 2.
This is due to the fact that under all that 3d engine there is actual Diablo 2 playing, with all of its nuances and quirks. Why Resurrected is better then? Because that 3d engine looks excellent and most importantly runs so smoothly. I was concerned that looking at 60+ FPS game while 25 FPS engine playing underneath would be awkward, but it really is not. There are qaulity of life changes, some optional things to turn on/off, and accessibility options. Overall, that's great.
The other thing that added a new layer of fun to me is the controller support. It does feel really good to use and while, I think, it won't be as effective as a mouse and keyboard combination I would probably still prefer a controller most of the time just because of the fun factor. There are certain things I am concerned with (for example, how would the barbarian's whirlwind work? How easy/difficult would it be for the necromancer to choose which corpse to raise etc.) and some suggestions I think about. Like for example, with horadric cube:
The controller play needed some time for me to adjust to those controls though.
Vast majority of visuals, I really enjoy. Not only are they splendid, in some cases they do enrich the world around you. I can actually kinda believe that Rogue's monastery is actually a monastery. I can see that some of the caves were previously used by people. I can see that Barracks actually have places for Rogues to sleep in. I can guess there's more to Jail levels than we are let to know (in this instance, I saw that instead of wall, there were bars, implying that behind them is more of this dungeon). And some monsters are really more impressive, like giant spiders - my favourite design so far.
I have encountered some bugs that I reported pretty swiftly. There are some visuals that could use some improvements - for example, in act 2 when you are on the top of the cliff, the "stairs" down the cliff are not very clear. To the point that at first I was searching for them and failing at that. And some visuals, like Amazon's nightmare-inducing face, definitely needs to change.
Lastly, some screenshots:
What I can add is that there were some serious issues with the beta in multiplayer-related mechanics, UI, and performance. This is not something that would affect single-player, but if you want to play multi, it would probably be better to hold off buying this game until a patch or two. Good thing ladder won't be enabled right away.
What is my area of minor concern is that the beta was limited only to Act 1 and 2. So there was no way for players to find issues with the later acts. I do think the issues will be minor and I hope to be right on that.
And some screenshots, because why not.
Game world being enriched by visuals example - this one place now has some story to it:
Since it is a remake they probably want feedback on graphics behaviour and some of the new features. That is fine to test with only the first half of the game in beta.
Now that this confirmation has been added to the ability to spawn Ubers and Ladder Runewords no longer being exclusive, players will no longer be forced to play Ladder to experience the full game. Quite glad the purist gatekeepers didn't win out in this battle.
Ha, nearly the same for me. I had one drop in my whole time of playing. FWIW, MF runs on nightmare Andariel are your best odds, also where I ended up finding my SoJ.
The reason it became the way to trigger the event originally was because so many had been duped and the SoJ had become the de-facto trading currency. It was a way to get the influx off the market as much as anything else.
Umm. Okay. So I'm a filthy casual. You all know it. I know it. I've never farmed for a particular item in Diablo 2 (or 3, really, in any looter game if I'm being honest). 4 thousand runs to get a particular item is considered... not bad?
How long would it take you (in hours) to do 4000 runs for that particular item?
I mean, you'd do it over the course of months if you weren't crazy. 25, maybe 50 a day. If you've beaten the game in Hell, the only amount of time it would take is the time it takes to actually reach the boss. Which is why you are probably using a Sorceress with teleport to get to the spot quickly. In SP, the map doesn't reset like in MP, so the route would be the same every time. It's perfectly reasonable to expect you could do one of these every 3-5 minutes. But, I mean, this is only necessary if you are playing solo, self-found. If you're online you are trading for gear rather than farming specifc pieces. They are different mentalities entirely. But, to put it in WoW terms, some of this stuff has a drop rate lower than the Love Rocket from Love is in the Air, and far lower than something like Baron Rivendare's Charger. It's conceivable you could play this game every day for a decade and still not see Tyrael's Might, the rarest item in the game. Which is really only desirable to say you found it, since it's generally useless in regards to what it provides.
Back in early (pre-expansion) versions of the game, it was less random and more exploitable; you could force all unique ring drops to be the Stone of Jordan by carrying the other two unique rings, and thus farm them even without a duping exploit.
Not to mention, some would actually like to wear it.
Still, not a bad fix.
It's still a pretty rare item, without some exploit.
Yep this is solid advice. If you can MF run in Hell, you should probably just do that. The only reason not to would be because you are looking exclusively for a SoJ. And even then, if you're playing online, which I think is where most serious grinders will play, you're still better off at the higher farm spot. Since you can trade gear.
The main fun feature is still the same: nothing beats a unique drop from a simple container.