2921

I’m pretty sure that’s accurate - I usually get 90-120ms but sometimes it’s at 1,000 or even as high as 2,000ms for not reason I can figure out. I blame it being a beta.

This is also a concern, hopefully the beta will show them the numbers they need to make this a smooth day one launch, since it’s effectively an MMO as far as how you play while connected is concerned.

2922

It was perfectly playable because you had options for offline, LAN, direct TCP/IP.

2923

Don’t count on it; the game relies on server-side randomization roles to generate monsters, loot, and (if memory serves, which it usually doesn’t) even damage. AKA, virtually every time something shows up on your screen, it’s asked the server for it. Yeah, you’re going to need a damn good connection to Blizz for this game to be playable.

But hey, it’s not like any recent Blizzard releases have a consistent history of lagging out completely on massive-bandwidth pipes in use by multi-million dollar tournament organizers for high-stakes competitive games that Blizzard was actively informed of weeks or months ahead of time to ensure no flags went up when 300 accounts all signed in from the same place at once.

Nope, that’s definitely not happened.

Cough

2924

What happens when your connection drops briefly? We get that sometimes with our cable modem so I’m worried it’ll completely dump us out of the game each time.

2925

If you lose connection for more than a couple seconds you get dropped, just like a MMO.

2926

It’s been mentioned about every 12 pages or so in here. . . but what about when your connection lags for 20 seconds when you’re on Hellfire Maximus SatanHeck difficulty with a Hardcore character and are surrounded by rainbow-farting PonyDemons?

2927

All in the game yo, all in the game.

2928

Then you die. Such is the life of a Hardcore player. I’ve lost quite a few to that in Diablo 2.

2929

One thing to keep in mind about the connection is that Blizzard usually runs beta servers from California. Once the game is released, there will be servers across the US, likely in the various data centers where the WoW ones are located. Unlike WoW or Diablo 2, there won’t be a specific way to select which server you’re on, at least as listed so far. Since everything in D3 is instanced, presumably it will just create the instance for each player at the data center closest to them, for the fastest connection.

2930

I am sure it will be a smash but I am underwhelmed.

I played all 5 classes. I didnt like any of them but Demon Hunter and probably because it seems overpowered.

What irks me more than anything is how you can not play a single player game w/o it being hosted on Blizzard’s servers. Thats bullshit.

2931

I played the Witch Doctor with my first go around in the beta and I rather enjoyed the class. I see where there’s potential for mixing and matching different skills for different styles of play.

My favorite part of the game so far is how easy it is to just jump into a game of 4 people doing a Skeleton King run. It’s not like diablo II where you had all these games with names like “diablo run 11111” or “baal runnnnnnnnnnnnnn” and then by the time you joined, the game was ending and even if you got to take down the boss someone sniped all the loot that dropped.

Now you just say what quest you want to do and click join public game and you are matched up with people. And you are guaranteed loot. Great improvement.

2932

Does anyone know how modifies work vs ability damage such as a sword that does 1-4 damage + 3 poison. Does that mean an ability that does 200% weapon damage will do 2-8 damage + 6 poison (or just + 6 whatever type of damage) ? Since the game doesn’t tell you how much damage your abilities actually do I can’t find out how this works.

Also on the witch-doctor I played last night, his mana pool goes up every level, but so does his mana cost for abilities. I wonder what the point of extra mana per level is if the ability cost goes up along side of it.

2933

Or if you’re not able to re-prioritize to raise your mana pool even more by manually adjusting level-up stats. . .

. . . I know, I know, lost battle :)

2934

It uses your full weapon damage before multiplying, which in your case would be 8 to 14 damage. Straight damage affixes are thus very powerful.

If mana cost and reserves increased at the same rate, you’d have a point there. But basically I agree, I don’t understand the point of a mana resource in this type of game.

2935

That is nice and I assume dual wielding offers both weapon damages added together then? I think from a tool tip or something I gleaned that dual wielding offers some bonus to attack speed vs a slower 2h weapon. I have noticed that attack speed directly correlates to cast speed. IE: A slower weapon will cause you to cast slower.

How about special weapon modifies, such as steals x% of life. Do all ranged abilities be it a spell or arrow gain that benefit? IF so, that would be really cool.

2936

Right, dualwielding provides speed and all modifiers work with all abilities, including ranged.

2937

I played the monk this weekend and my suspicions were confirmed. The monk plays about the same as the barbarian. They even seem to share some of the same issues. For me it is the fact that the rage / spirit builders are more interesting than the spenders. Unless they change one of the classes to have a much more distinct play experience, Ill either stick with a monk OR a barbarian. I think as it stands now, the monk is slightly more interesting than the barbarian.

2938

I actually disagree - I enjoyed them both to level 11 (Monk) and 13 (Barbarian) and found them to only really share the fact they have to get close to deal damage, by and large.

The Monk spenders I found super fun - the Mantra that returns damage (especially in the first 3 seconds) and the cyclone that pulls enemies in and detonates was immensily satisfying. I actually enjoyed quite a lot of the monk abilities, where previously I was pretty uninteresed in him.

The Barbarian has some really fun abilities as well for burning fury, including the incredible Rend, Frenzy (buff), and Revenge - whiich is probably my single favorite ability in the beta so far.

They ARE both going to be similar because of the melee component though.

I actually couldn’t get into the Demon Hunter. By the end (level 10 is where I have her now) I did find some stuff I enjoyed about her, but she’s still the class I play last, I imagine.

2939

US Battle.net account management has been down most of today. EU Battle.net is being updated tonight. Sounds like maybe Battle.net Balance might be implemented soon. That is a big step toward release. All speculation at this time but it is exciting. Why do I hype myself up so much? sigh

2940

I wasn’t a fan of the demon hunter either. My favorite was (unusually for me) the wizard. You get functional AE really early, which is important in this game. Obviously all the classes get AE sooner rather than later, but with such a short limited demo that comes into play.