D2 is harder

[Gurby]

Well, atleast at the start. Just started in the new Hardcore ladder. Untwinked bow ama. So I was lv4 wandering in a cave solo in passed game, when suddenly a bow pack attacked me. I got frozen, slow movespeed, slow attack speed. And my stamina meter was out of juice. So I couldnt kite at all. No panic. Spam hp pots right. Then suddenly another bowpack got me amplified! I'm drinking like 8 hp pots and 6 rev. pots. Before I could crawl to the exit. Exiting with 9hp. Almost died in normal. I was wasnt even naked. I did had some superior armor even.

I played D3 beta with all classes and all builds. Killed Skeleton king like 100+. I never experienced this kind of difficulty in D3. I never even died, untill i remembered to test it. I'm sure Inferno will be harder. But I remember Jay showing a vid how easy D2 was in Bloodmore. D3 start is easier. Anyone not agreeing to that?

[BellaStrega]

D2 and D3 are about the same difficulty from Blood Moor to Blood Raven and in D3 up to Skeleton King.

I think that Coldcrow in the Cave in Cold Plains is a bit of an outlier in that regard. The combination of cold enchanted + a lot of range makes her fairly difficult compared to surroundings. If your luck is bad enough, she can be harder than Blood Raven.

[galzohar]

Are you seriously judging difficulty by playing a game for 20 minutes?

[BellaStrega]

Oops, forgot that point - obviously it's not possible to judge the entire game's difficulty from the first third of Act 1. Not sure why people keep wanting to do that.

[beingmused]

D2's difficulty curve was not smooth at all. You would encounter spikes in difficulty in the early going - that super unique quill rat in the outer cloister, A2 sewers, Duriel (which is largely due to being the stupidest design for a boss room ever)...and then long, long swathes of uber-easiness. And then once you got your suite of abilities and had something resembling real gear in early nightmare, everything suddenly became much, much easier.

[Karth]

D2's difficulty curve was not smooth at all. You would encounter spikes in difficulty in the early going - that super unique quill rat in the outer cloister, A2 sewers, Duriel (which is largely due to being the stupidest design for a boss room ever)...and then long, long swathes of uber-easiness. And then once you got your suite of abilities and had something resembling real gear in early nightmare, everything suddenly became much, much easier.

Wasn't so much a curve as a roller coaster.

[chriscowart]

Comparing an "equivalent" chunk of D2 to the D3 beta -- of course it's harder. This horse has been beaten...

D3's core design is to make non-hardcore gamers hardcore gamers. Blizzard and the gaming community wasn't mature enough at D2's development and release for Blizzard to adopt this mindset. That mindset is generating lasting mass appeal, which is derived from accessibility. The more accessible the game is, then the more someone will continue to play it. The more they continue to play it, the more likely they'll reach the end game and ultimately build interest in Blizzard games.

Blizzard promises an even more hardcore endgame than D2. I have faith in them to deliver.

Off-topic:

Duriel (which is largely due to being the stupidest design for a boss room ever)

This made me LOL. Duriel was the closest to the Butcher encounter D2 had to offer as far as surprising deadliness and speed.

[raveharu]

Comparing the D3 beta to D2's quest to blood raven, D3 is x100 harder.

[xploziv]

if you compare D2 up to Bloodraven with D3 Beta then i say D2 was much easier. The first hard thing you get in D2 IS bloodraven (of course you can meet a pack that is a bit harder but it doesn't happen that often). I compare D3 Beta with the Countess in D2. In this regard i say they are very much alike. Depends a lot on the random packs in both cases.

[chriscowart]

Hmm, I guess it depends on what chunk you compare with, but I steamrolled everything in D2 and D3 beta, only dying in D2 since I've played it way longer.