I’m on the PS4. My gamer tag is BrammyH.
I’m still undecided on buying Reaper and Necro on the PC, or getting Necro and a few months of PS Plus.
You need RoS. Absolutely have to have it.
Wait, do you have RoS on PS?
On PS4, it only comes as the Ultimate Evil edition, which has Reaper of Souls. It was only on PS3/360 that the base game came out. On the PS4/XB1 releases, it’s with the expansion built in.
Coolio. See, us PC players are better 'cause we get to buy more than one sku! We own more Diablo that you console people!
To briefly interrupt the roll call, I just want to report that if I’d been playing Hardcore, like I used to on the PC version, last night my Witch Doctor would have died and I would have had to start over. This was the first death with my WD, obviously. It wasn’t even to Azmodan, who was really easy to beat. But it was in that area, in the area leading up to him, in the final chamber. One of the blue champion sets took me down so fast I didn’t even realize I’d died until I got the onscreen message asking me where I wanted to respawn.
@TheWombat, I don’t know how you play this game on Hardcore. In Diablo 2, I would play no other way. It was a brilliant game on Hardcore. But in Diablo 3, having to start over and basically go through the exact same motions again, getting the exact same abilities at every level, it’s just so boring an experience on Hardcore. As an immortal character, I only have to experience that whole first phase with each character once, and that’s what this game seems to be designed around. If I were to guess, I would think that once a hardcore character dies, you probably take a long break from playing that type of character, don’t you? So if this had been your first Witch Doctor, and he had just died at the end of Act 3 at level 59, you wouldn’t have just jumped back into the game with a level 1 Witch Doctor. You would either play some other game for a while, or you would jump in as something other than a Witch Doctor.
I’m starting to come around to the idea that the only true solution is to buy them on all platforms.
I’ve only ever played hardcore in d3, but I may have to change my ways on account of an increasingly flaky internet connection. Unless I’m playing a new season day 1, I’ve never leveled a character since ROS. I’ve always just found someone to power level me. Once I’m 70 it’s usually just a few hours till I have a 5 piece set plus the rrog as long as you have another character with whom you can farm bloodshards.
I’ve actually tried to make the switch to softcore several times, but I just couldn’t do it. However, It might be nice to try more daring builds.
I’ve lost a fair number of characters to the Hall of Heroes, for sure. For a while though I had two 70s in each class, due to seasons causing me to duplicate. When I lose someone, I usually just start another one of that class, if it’s a class I like, or move on to another class if it isn’t. For instance, if a Crusader croaks, I am not going to start a new one right then and there, but I would start a new Wizard probably. Leveling is pretty quick, even without power leveling; just run rifts from level 1. If you have Paragon levels and gear already, it’s even easier.
But ultimately, the key to liking Hardcore is accepting that you will lose high level, well-equipped characters, and just take that for granted. I find D3 normal mode less interesting, because I’m not really into the whole min/maxing for ultimate high end GR runs and stuff. So I don’t play as extensively as a lot of people, but I do enjoy it when I play partly because of the risk factor.
Interesting. This stuff wasn’t there back in the day that I was losing hardcore characters. In those days you played through the game on Normal, then Elite, then Hell. And I hadn’t made it alive through Normal yet. But just going through Normal with the same character again, getting the same ability at level 1, then the same ability at level 2, then the same abilities at level 3, it was just not fun. And it was all about getting money so you could buy all the equipment you needed from the auction house.
It sounds like the adventure mode and Paragon levels and “running rifts” (whatever that is) has changed the calculus quite a bit, and playing Hardcore characters isn’t as repetitive and slow as it used to be.
Usually start a hardcore seasonal on Expert(?) or Master(?) and level it through bounties to 70 + paragon ranks, as soon as I get some nice gear I’ll go torment 1. Around 100+ Paragon I can usually level my alts on Torment 1 with some extra gear. before I go back to the monk to hit 300+.
Think Season 5 or 6 I did level 1-70 with a full group on Expert(?), was pretty quick but not very often you find a group in your level range if you start season a bit late.
I guess I should finally finish the game once so that I can unlock all this stuff and I’ll know what you guys are talking about.
I am in the same boat. Never finished the base game.
Just blitz through act 5. I did that before starting season 9. It doesn’t take that long.
Yep. That’s what I’ve been doing during the last month or so. I started a Witch Doctor and I spend any spare moment playing these days. At first it was taking way too long, and I followed the advice in this thread and changed from Expert to Hard. That made a huge difference. Suddenly I could get through a section in one hour what used to take four or five hours. And eventually I switched back to Expert, and it’s been just as fast on expert now.
I’m currently in Act IV with my Witch Doctor. It’s the farthest I’ve ever come with the expansion installed. Once I beat Act IV, I’ll finally get to see Act V for the first time. Yay!
But I’m very thankful that I wasn’t playing hardcore. Because like I said, back in the pre-expansion days, I never made it past Act 3 on Normal, and two nights ago, my Witch Doctor would have also died at the end of Act 3, and I would have had to start over. Without unlocking adventure mode, or Paragon (whatever that is) or Rifts (whatever those are).
Honestly, Diablo 2 did this better. They didn’t unlock Hardcore characters until you beat the game at least once with an immortal character first.
Aargh. Just got disconnected from an empowered GR with the end boss down to his last sliver of health.
You mean to tell me you’ve never played adventure mode? You’re in for a treat.
You could not pay me to play campaign mode at this point.
Uh, by not that long, I meant 20-30 minutes to play act v (assuming you finished act iv at launch)
Sweet. I played Act IV for about 2 hours last night. I think I’m getting close to Diablo. If Act V is only 20-30 minutes, I do wonder who the enemy is for Act V this time.
In Diablo 2, these Act-ending bosses were sometimes a pretty big challenge. Killing Duriel in Act 2 using an Amazon was really tough, especially on Normal. Killing Diablo in Act IV was always tricky with a Necromancer, especially one that relied on an undead army. It seems like this time around, the Act-ending bosses aren’t nearly as hard as just randomly rolled Elites you find.
Well, I was pretty well geared up and just charged through everything (and it could have been longer, been a while). I didn’t really “play” it properly. But by all means, if you are having fun, take your time and enjoy the scenery.
Act V is no way half an hour, especially on a first time through. Probably a couple hours? The final boss may be a bit of a wall with a minionmancer because he hits like a truck and doesn’t provide any corpses to raise more undead.