Okay so the game’s been out for a few weeks and some people have already finished it a few times over on different difficulty levels - plenty of opinions, praises and complains around the forums but here are my two cents. I’m writing this because two weeks ago I saw this status in my FB feed:

Diablo 3….is the gameplay really like that? No offence to any hell bent fans…but that looks really…really….really…really…really……..lame…and boring…and something from the 90s……..Fixed camera? WoW is like 10000x times better and I don’t even touch WoW anymore….

And prior to the release a local game journo actually wrote an article about how “Diablo should have been an FPS” - lolwut?

I understand the premise of the FB status (it was from someone I met on WoW) - Diablo 3 being over a decade in the making and given the age of the OP he would have been around 8 when Diablo 2 was released and probably just learning his first words when Diablo 1 was released at the end of 1996. I wonder what he expected from the game, having never played any of the earlier releases from the franchise.

Think about the time the original Diablo was created. It was a time before the internet. Remember what gaming was like back then? When David Brevik came up with the idea for this game he was still in high school and his idea for Diablo was a turn-based single player DOS game. (It was later redesigned as the real time Windows 95 game we know). The simple mouse-driven gameplay and random spawn dungeons were game-changing and with Diablo, Blizzard practically invented a new genre of game. 3-4 years later Diablo 2 emerged, looking even better than the original with better character customisation and at the same time maintaining the core point-and-click gameplay that had me (and everyone I knew) totally hooked on it for hours on end.

One of the many simple pleasures of the earlier Diablo was the huge amount of loot and the isometric, top-down view which for many years was perfectly acceptable but an era where everything is moving toward 3D, is now polarising players. The loot, is also thankfully unchanged :) I for one would like to applaud Blizzard for sticking to the original “top-down” look and feel of the earlier releases of the game while making it look immensely good with the help of a custom 3D engine that renders real time. It takes guts to do this - even gaming giant Bethesda sold out on the original isometric view of Fallout series with the release of Fallout 3 (which to their credit has been largely successful) because it felt too “old-school”. But you know what? I LOVE that Diablo 3 feels a little bit old school! It’s like getting reacquainted with an old friend. It’s great getting to play a game that feels new yet really familiar.

So if you wanted an FPS with lots of loot maybe try Borderlands. If you wanted an MMOPRG with a movable in-game camera (and loot - ha!) then there’s already World of Warcraft! (and why would Blizzard cannibalize a genre they already own?)

Sx

via onemorelevel.com

Thought I’d escape non-console gaming for a bit but I’ve always had a soft spot for the Diablo franchise. So when I heard that beta keys were being given out of course I had to ask for one..

So for the last couple of weeks I’ve been exploring the beta and the new classes and skills and it’s looking awesome. The in-game sounds are amazing at this early beta stage, and although you only really get to play a small part of the game up to the first boss it looks quite finished. I’m not sure if I like the way the skills are at the moment but there haven’t been any runes in the beta so far so it’s hard to tell.

The Demon Hunter is my fav class at the moment, oddly enough, the concepts with full gear set looks rather rogue-like. Will post up some stuff in a bit.

Thanks, c, for the invite!

“I mean c’mon, trolls have tits. Do they breastfeed their kids while their tusks are comin’ out? They’d gouge out their fuckin’ lungs…”

Hilarious!

This is a picture of my rogue in Deepholm - one of my all-time favourite zones! It’s such a well-designed zone and great to look at.

The rogue is now 85 :)

I haven’t done as much with the rogue as I’d have liked, but I did get some time to PvP. It used to be a joke because I am not much of a PvP’er - but since there are now only 2-3 active players in my guild I have been earning all the guild PvP achievements. My Frostwolf rep is almost exalted so I decided to put some time into farming some honor and rep in Alterac Valley.

Today I went into Molten Core and solo’ed it up to Golemagg.. didn’t die until Golemagg when I had a little brain fart and forgot that his dogs don’t die! It was all pretty easy and hard to believe it used to take 40 of us to do this! Garr was a little tricky but kill all the small guys first and you are good as gold. I used to say I could evasion tank this and no one believed me.. Haha :) And here I am vendoring all the epics I picked up! Not a bad ~300g run.. Would you believe no rogue drops.. except for QSR! :P

Anyway have an awesome 2011 - I’m off to do some real life stuff :)

Itemstats is no longer being updated so now I’m using the default Wowhead one that doesn’t colour code the items like the old plugin did. It’s messing with my OCD..

** Hyjal spoiler ahead ***

Mount Hyjal as a starting zone has been really fun. During beta I took the Vash’jir route, and only did ~20 quests in Hyjal on a Priest, so most of the content in the zone is new to me.

I’ve now completed every single quest in that zone, including all the optional ones, up to the final Hyjal quest where Ragnaros makes a reappearance in a pretty epic fight against Cenarius. It yields a pretty decent ring. I remember the 40-man fight well. This time Rag still has the more hit points (22,339,000 to his previous 1,099,230 in Molten Core) but at Level 82, ~90k crits (with debuff) he went down pretty fast. Sons of Flame still appear (but fewer than the MC fight) and to my chagrin Cenarius sends me off to help Malfurion (Stormrage) and Hamuul (Runetotem) with the Sons.

[I've been meaning to set up my mods..!]

There were a number of other quests styles that I really enjoyed, particularly The Bears up There. If you’re headed that way, there is a Bounce achievement on that trampoline that I can’t seem to make happen..

The worse quest of all was the (optional) Hatchery chain that starts with The Hatchery Must Burn. It is in a zoned area where 3 other quests from the series requires flying around on a mount that is extremely annoying to control.. but I finished it because it there is an achievement for finishing the quest chain and a companion pet (!) reward.

Overall questing is a breeze with hubs marked out really well with lots of hand-holding from Blizzard - one of the most thought out starting zones yet.. though the zone after Mount Hyjal - Deepholm - is deeply immersive.. possibly the best zone I’ve played so far. I’m already at Uldum and not far from 84.

Rogue forums on Elitist Jerks - Possibly the best rogue class forum there is. Looks like I’m going to do some reading on the weekend and try farm for some entry-level gear. Rogue Cataclysm raiding FAQ here.

Assassination
Q: What’s the recommended spec for Assassination?
A: 31/2/8. Taking the third point in Precision instead of Opportunity may be viable for some rogues, but for most gear combinations I’ve checked so far this works out to be better. The point in Deadly Brew can be moved elsewhere if you don’t need the snare, but in general I think Deadly Brew or Deadened Nerves is the best choice. Similarly, the points in Nightstalker can be moved to Improved Ambush, but in the vast majority of cases I think Nightstalker is a stronger option.

Q: What prime glyphs should I use?
A: Mutilate, Backstab, and Rupture are pretty clearly optimal in most circumstances. Vendetta only provides about half the average-case benefit, so in almost all circumstances you’ll want to use these 3.

Q: What cycle should I use?
A: Rupture if its down, Envenom otherwise. While Mutilating, use 4+ finishers. When Backstabbing, 4+ and 5 give very similar results, but the latter appears to be slightly superior for most gear sets.

Q: What speed weapons should I use?
A: Slow MH, fast OH.

Q: So, I was looking at those EP values up above, and it looks like you’re saying I shouldn’t worry about maxing expertise at all and should instead prioritize agi > spell hit > mastery > everything else?
A: That appears to be the case, yes. If cycle stability turns out to be a problem that advice may be revised, but that’s the best guess right now.

Combat
Q: What’s the recommended spec for Combat?
A: 7/31/3 appears to be the current leader. The points in Improved Sprint and Blade Twisting are pure filler and can be freely rearranged as needed.

Q: What prime glyphs should I use?
A: Sinister Strike and Adrenaline Rush are clearly the best 2 options. For a third glyph, Slice and Dice is the current leader, but both Rupture and Revealing Strike seem reasonably competitive.

Q: What’s the optimal cycle?
A: Keep SnD up, spam 5pt finishers - Rupture if its down, Eviscerate otherwise. Basically what we called “low rupture” in Wrath. However, see the next two answers for additional comments.

Q: Is it viable to drop Rupture from the rotation?
A: It appears to be about a 1% DPS loss to do so.

Q: How should RvS be used?
A: Optimal use involves using it only when at exactly 4 CP. However, the difference between that and never hitting it at all appears to be around 100 DPS, so on complex fights it may well make sense to ignore it completely so as to be able to spend more attention elsewhere.

Q: So the difference between doing the 5-button RvS/SS/SnD/Rupture/Evis cycle and the 3-button SS/SnD/Evis cycle is less than 2%?
A: That’s about the size of it, yes.

Q: Should I use KSp as soon as it comes off cooldown or wait for Bandit’s Guile to stack up?
A: It seems to be a slight increase to wait for Bandit’s Guile.

Q: What about Adrenaline Rush?
A: Good question. We don’t know for sure. I don’t think it matters very much.

Q: Should I use a dagger OH?
A: A fast OH is important. If you can find a fast nondagger OH, it’s probably worth using. None are currently known. And you definitely want to use a dagger over a slow OH.

Subtlety
Q: What’s the recommended spec for Subtlety?
A: 8/2/31 appears to be the highest DPS right now. Note that every single talent point in that is a DPS talent so you have basically zero flexibility. If there’s some filler talents you can’t live without, the weakest DPS talents are Initiative and then Elusiveness.

Q: What prime glyphs should I use?
A: Backstab and Slice and Dice are the best two; the model is insufficiently sophisticated at this point to determine whether Shadow Dance or Eviscerate is better for the third.

Q: What’s the optimal cycle?
A: Keep SnD up, put up Recuperate if its down, and spam Eviscerates to roll Rupture. Backstab is your primary combo point filler. Hemo appears to generally be a DPS loss in all cases, though additional modeling is needed. Vanish/Ambush on cooldown to put Find Weakness up. Primary combo point builder switches to Ambush during Shadow Dance.

Q: What weapons should I use?
A: A slow dagger MH, a fast weapon (type doesn’t matter) OH. Currently this means a dagger.

Q: Is Agi really that valuable?
A: Seems like.

Q: Doesn’t that mean that 22 agi to cloak and 20 agi to gloves are optimal for Sub?
A: Yep.

(More here.)