Gamers who were out all day, or on vacation, or who just didn’t try to play Diablo 3 during that time never even noticed. Some other players did…

I included the time stamps since it’s cool to note the time; 6 hours and 3 minutes between posts. Even a hater would have to admit they did a good job keeping to their “approximately 6 hours” estimate.

I suppose at some point it will become reasonable to expect 99% uptime from any online service. In my experience that time remains well in the future, as even websites are down for maintenance and repairs all the time, and most of those are stupid “serve data” systems. The more database and interactivity required, the more that can and eventually will go wrong, so I’m not surprised that B.net has some technically issues. (Other things about B.net often do surprise me, such as D3 requiring a year to finally get good social tools in v1.08, but that’s a different issue.)

Do you guys really think B.net is uniquely lacking in technical competence, in the world of online gaming services? (A bit of perspective.) Is the Blizzard / Diablo community especially bitchy? Is this Blizzard’s price to pay for making games that people want to play constantly, thus making any downtime very noticeable?

Nephalem Globes are a new drop; they come out just like Health Globes, and give a temporary buff to your movement speed and damage. Details were not shared, but that seems a very potentially interesting feature, a bit like giving every class a version of Gruesome Feast.

The video doesn’t seem to be embedable, but you can view it, funny commercials in German, and lots of buffering, here.

The obvious suggestions are to use the AH to stay ahead of the curve on Vitality, to take things slowly and carefully, to always have at least one escape skill that’s not on cooldown when you engage a boss pack, etc. (I cannot second the Blue’s advice about regen. It certainly doesn’t hurt, but 99% of death in HC comes from sudden burst damage and regen does nothing to help you with that.) All those tips are good advice always at all times (especially for Hardcore), but I’ve noticed a special danger in the game once you’re into the 50s and in early Hell difficulty.

Normal and Nightmare are very easy, once you know what you’re doing. With even moderate AH or twinked gear you can sail through the first 50 levels on MP10 or at least MP5, with your vitality enough to keep you safe and your DPS well above the curve simply by using socketed weapons with Rubies. Even just the Flawless Square Ruby adds 25 min/max damage, and that’s a huge boost when you’re using weapons with like 50-150 DPS. (And once you’ve got some money in Hardcore you can use 60 min/max damage Star Rubies which are just absurd on Norm/NM.)

A lot of things change once you get to Hell, though. The fact that Elite Affixes spawn in triples now is a big change; that greatly increases the chances of a boss having a CC + 1 type of damage and when you occasionally roll one with 2 damages and a CC that’s really dangerous. The exp gain slows down greatly as well, which can make you impatient and take risks. The real danger in the 50s comes from gear, though.

Hell monsters are much less damaging and dangerous than Inferno ones and it’s quite easy to get well above the DPS curve in Hell, moving right into the “one shot all trash range” with some cheap 800 DPS reduced level requirement item. The problem isn’t killing, it’s dying. Unless you totally splurge on -req armor (which feels like a crazy expense for just 6 or 8 levels of use), your EHP is going to suck sub level 60. Fresh into Hell you’ve generally got almost no resistance, little to no Life Steal/LoH, very little crit or crit chance or IAS, you don’t have your highest level skills for survival or to click big procs, you’re not using a shield since you never needed one in NM, etc.

All of this is true in softcore as well, but since you can get great DPS with that -req weapon (even though your FS Ruby goes from “game changer” to “is it in yet?” the minute you equip an Inferno quality weapon), Hell continues as a rush to level ups and fun killing speed in softcore. I remember doing my Monk and WD (my last 2 classes to 60) last year and blasting through Hell very quickly on a high MP level, and having fun getting them both to Paragon 6 or 8 even before I reached Inferno. Did they die repeatedly during the Hell level process? Probably. I don’t really remember, but that’s the whole point!

You can kill just that well in Hardcore Hell, but with pre-60 gear basically every class is a glass cannon in that level range, and Hardcore glass cannons create nothing but sad stories. Some weeks ago when I was leveling my 2nd HC Monk I had 2 very scary close calls in Act One Hell at around level 52, and basically chickened out at that point and got some power leveling from friends to get me to 60. That char is now P55 and I’ve never had anything in Inferno, including doing solo Ubers on MP5, that felt as close to death (and helpless in its icy grip) as I was in Hell. Admittedly, much of that is thanks to NDE (db)coming in at 58.

The knowledge of that, the fact that the game doesn’t truly start until level 60, adds weight to the pain of a death in the 50s, since you know how close you were to the finish line (which is where the race really begins in Diablo 3). I hate to recommend cheesing your way from 50 to 60 by running behind a friend and soaking up the shared exp (I might as well recommend playing a WW Barb), but it’s such a bummer to die in the 50s (I’ve lost 2 DHs there) that it might be worth compromising your principles and holding your nose at the stink of cheese for 6 or 8 levels.

The blues post this advice fairly regularly, which is how I know this bug has persisted for quite a while. They also always tack on something about “don’t die to lower your durability if you’re hardcore!”

I realize that in this day and age simply everything must be warned against lest some nub does X and then complains about the result, but honestly… if you’re playing Hardcore and you think the only way to lower the durability of your gear is to die… Hardcore isn’t for you. Go back to Softcore and spend 50k in the AH to “build” a 150k DPS WW barb. I’m sorry, but there are simply some aspects of Diablo 3 you’re simply not yet ready for.

• PC E3 Trailers that sell the game - The E3 trailers that stood out conveying the message of “play me now”. We pick the best of the bunch.
• E3 2013 Impressions: Quieter, less diverse and console-dominated - E3 veteran Deirdre Hollis took to the 2013 show floor, only to find it emptier, less varied and dominated by the console twins.
• Total War: Rome 2 preview
• Saints Row 4 preview
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 preview
• Thief preview
• IncGamers E3 Podcast Special - The IncGamers Podcast welcomes special guest Deirdre Hollis, fresh from E3 2013, for an hour of news, views and baseless speculation from the showfloor.
• Batman: Arkham Origins preview
• Sony press conference was a masterclass in misdirection
• IncGamers E3 conference podcast special - Bad jokes, dodgy presentation and a questionable amount of substance: the IncGamers Podcast discovers it shares quite a bit in common with Monday’s E3 conferences.
• A PC perspective on Xbox One vs PS4 - Peter enters a strange world where 60fps is ‘next gen,’ a fantasy MMO announcement is a novelty and everybody has to pay for multiplayer.
• UbiSoft E3 2013 conference round-up: The PC Bits - Rocksmith 2014, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, South Park: The Stick of Truth, the reveal of The Crew, and more.
• EA E3 2013 conference round-up: The PC Bits - EA showcases Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare, Battlefield 4, Star Wars: Battlefront, Titanfall, Dragon Age: Inquisition, a new Mirror’s Edge and more.
• Camelot: Unchained interview with Mark Jacobs - IncGamers asks City State Entertainment’s Mark Jacobs about the design philosophies behind thoroughly atypical MMO Camelot Unchained.

As you can see this we were rather busy this week and  there are all the trailers, shots and news stories from the show which can all be found in our special E3 section. Normal service will resume this week but we have a stack of previews still to come.

Can any of you guys with experience using these consoles shed light on any apparently problems with this plan? If so, hit it up in the comments. I have nothing to add now, but I am going to get some hands-on play with the Diablo 3 console in a couple of weeks, and I’ll be sure to let you guys know how it compares to the PC version.

Quote:

When asked if it would be done before BlizzCon 2013 he stated, “it’ll be a while, it’s certainly not before BlizzCon,” which is happening on November 8 and 9 this year. So the hopes of fans to enjoy the itemization overhaul this summer (or indeed, likely this year) will not be realized. All these item changes will arrive as one major overhaul, not split up into multiple patches. “Players should not expect to see it coming piecemeal; when it’s ready it’ll be all as one big change to the system. It’s not going to be something that little bits are doled out,” Day said.

Mosqueira agreed that the items changes are a major overhaul, that will need to be added all at once. “That’s true. We’re really taking it as a more open-faceted approach to addressing the question of loot. As Travis said, there are a lot of moving pieces; not just within individual items, but sort of overall. I think for everybody to get a real good sense of all of these changes, we’re gonna have to give you guys a whole package,” Mosqueira said.

Sadly, this doesn’t mean we’ll get that Itemization patch any time soon after Blizzcon either; 2014 seems more likely. (Travis’s Itemization blog was posted back in March. Could the patch that actually realizes his blog comments come a full year afterwards?) At least we’ll have all the news from D3X’s reveal at Blizzcon to tide us off in November and December… right?

I do hope we get something new in a patch before November, though. That’s five months from now; we need more than anticipation for future improvements to keep our fires burning this long summer, eh? Another Infernal Machine type bit of bonus content?

If you enjoy Fan art and want to contribute to this growing community, please stop by the Fan Creations Forum. Many artists visit frequently, posting works in progress looking for feedback and conversation. You don’t have to be “arty” to join in. If you have any questions, comments or have some fan art related news on the web please send me a PM and I’ll get back to you.

You see lots of living NPCs in towns, and sometimes in the dungeons, but they’re all lost guards or cowardly soldiers or fearless merchants; never do you meet any aspiring adventurers like yourself. It’s as though your Nephalem ventures forth into the world once all of the brave humans have already perished, generally after collecting just a stack or two of gold and maybe a junky blue item. (No wonder they died.)

Worse yet, none of them are found in Act Three. Try as they might, none appeared able to progress past Belial (giving them something in common with most Ironborn Hardcore characters.)

There are many other fallen non-heroes; dead villagers enough to populate a town, occasional deceased “plunderers” who usually went to their deaths foolishly gripping two-handed weapons, and other miscellaneous riffraff. But the greatest sorrow must attend the fallen Adventurers, who perished chasing their dreams.

Right now It feels like death in Hardcore has become avoidable. Does that mean no one is dying? Of course not, people are dying but not as frequently as it used to be. Why is that?

1. Items

With the reduction in Inferno difficulty we’ve seen a proliferation in items introduced into our economy. That increase has allowed more people to push their dps ranges into a comfortable farming range. it’s now 100 times easier to find a moderatly priced weapon to boost your dps into the 50-70k range and get to farming. Which then generates more people finding more items and creating a viscious cycle. This extends to non weapons as well, crafting has given us the ability to piece together a healthy gear set to provide safety and effectivness at minimal cost. You can now roll into inferno with next to nothing and with some lucky crafts and minimal Auction house hunting be farming in no time.

2. Monster power

With the introduction of the Monster Power system we were given the choice in how difficult we want things to be, and we brought the introductory level of MP0 down to a much more comfortable range. The comfortability ties into the path of least resistance. If I can farm MP0 and get the drops I want, a decent amount of xp, and have it take less time, I am going to do that. However in Mp0 I fear next to nothing. Most packs now are whiddled down quickly, sometimes before I even notice the affixes. Which then makes things safer. Now I know on the higher monster powers this isn’t the case, and challenge is apparent but not many players are choosing that option over safety and ease.

3. Monsters themselves

Think back to D2, what struck fear in your hardcore heart? Chances are you will recall Duriel and MSLE. Both would have me nervous before I encountered them. Both would provide a substantial roadblock to progress. However nothing like that seems to be found now in D3. Sure there are dangerous affix combinations(waller/frozen/desecrator/arcane) but nothing that evokes that true peril that we once saw. Monsters also used to have resistances which made you vary up how you would even go about approaching them, now the approach is all the same, tank and spank. However D3 did have some of those options before. It may not have been popular but Invulnerable monsters provided a challenge and a strategy in tackling. The original version of arcane had hydras spawning that would push you back and force you to take a new approach depending on how they spawned. Personally i’d love to see more affixes liek this come back as opposed to don’t stand here, move over there variety. They shake up our play style and weed out players every now and then.

4. Nerfs

We’ve also seen difficulty take a hit since launch. there was a time when inferno meant almost certain doom for your character, and while that may have not been the most appealing we not have the capability to neuter the difficulty at will while only sacrificing some xp and mf. This is in tandem with multiplayer games which take the difficulty down a notch by monster health only scaling 50% as opposed to the previous 100% making it easier now to kill in groups as opposed to solo.

The biggest killer of hardcore players that remains is lag, both server and client side and while that hasn’t changed much since D2 it shouldn’t be the only thing we fear. Players have now started trying to make disconnect proof characters to spurn the one thing they can’t control, while neglecting all the other things that should be out to get them.

It’s weird to make a call for more death in the game, but it is one of the things that is vital to hardcore being just that. I lost my paragon 72 monk a while ago but since then have been roaring back on my WD relatively unhindered, how? Not by luck, but a stash full of good items, playing on mp2, and a stable internet connection have kept me alive. I don’t worry much as I load in to take down the denizens of hell and that in of itself has me worried.

How has death treated you in D3?

One Life to Live covers the Hardcore play and life style in the Diablo community. It is written by Xanth and published weekly. Post your comments below, Follow me on Twitter @HCXanth or contact the author directly. For all the archived news about Diablo 3 hardcore check our Archives!

Yesterday we were over checking out Diablo 3 and took time out to snap some pics and go hands-on with the PS3 version. So what was the booth like?

There’s quite a few shots so to save cluttering the page, check them out after the break…

Don’t forget to check in on all our E3 coverage over on the main IncGamers.com site, the team are still working flat-out

Last night we recorded a special E3 podcast where we talked about some of the games including the PS3 version of Diablo 3 where DD gave her initial impressions of the console port. You can tune in to the podcast which is available now on IncGamers.com.

Lylirra started off by quoting Wyatt’s livestream ladder comments, but no need to read them all since they’re quite simple to sum up. He said there are two fun aspects of ladder wipes: 1) starting a new char and finding constant upgrades if you’re self-found and untwinked, and 2) the fun of racing to level up and see your name in lights.

Those are both valid points, but the one I think most people like best would be numbered 1.5, and it’s the theoretical experience of entering a clean, fresh, legit, balanced, even economy. You don’t have a bunch of gear and characters, and neither does anyone else. This is basically a version of the main point most people stress about what they want in an Ironborn mode. Equality. Anyone can just go self found on their own right now, but the real fun is having an economy, an ecosystem of other who are following the same rule set as you. Being self found is a lot less fun when you’re joining games with chars who have 10x your DPS thanks to the AH.

A while back IncGamers was told by an inside source that the Diablo 3 team have been planning to add a ladder system into the game but there was no timeframe as to when it would happen. The idea was to also run the ladders without the ability to utilise the auction house.