Experience and Time to Reach Level 60

[cnallard]

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Experience: 13 228 601
Time: ~20-50 hours

[Zog Varnoka]

That assumes no increase in the actual difficulty of playing the game in later acts and Nm/Hell. Which is a rather large assumption to make given that Blizzard has already stated they increased the difficulty for Normal after the open beta was over.

Not saying I didn't like the video, just your assumption is off.

[Soulless]

I also think the estimates are off. 30 mins for 1/3 of act 1 is only because we've done it quite a bit, we know what to do and where to go. For someone doing it for the first time, they'd definitely take longer. Took me about 1,5 hours or even more just for the skeleton king, and that's because I'm the kind of guy who likes to explore and basically kill most monsters to maximize gear/levels.

My estimate is that act 1 will take maybe 3-4 hours, with act 4 taking less because it's shorter than the first 3 acts (2 hours or so maybe) as will each other act, since we will be playing the whole game for the first time. So that's maybe around 11-14 hours for normal, and certainly more for nightmare, and even more for hell since they are more difficult, until we reach inferno where we will supposedly die and whine like little girls until we learn to play This estimate is under the assumption that the player will explore as much as he can, and that they will kill most monsters and do most possible quests to maximize experience and gear (obviously, power gamers will do it faster, but I'm taking average gamers into account, those who like to explore and enjoy the story etc).

Well, that's just me though.

[dragon457]

This vid makes a lot of assumptions that, unless you were part of the in-house closed beta, you can't possibly know yet.

We don't know for a fact that the open beta represented 1/3 of Act 1. For all we know, it was 1/4 or 1/5.

We don't know for a fact that all acts are the same relative length. Think of how long each act in Diablo 2 were. They weren't all evenly timed.

We don't know for a fact that the difficulty will ramp in such an almost linear fashion. I think that way too many people have based way too much of the game on the beta. Instead of treating it like a beta, they treated it like a demo, and that's just not what it was.

Then we have the different difficulty levels which may drastically change play/leveling time with ever increasing number of mobs and hit points/damage.

There are just way too many variables to make these kinds of assumptions right now. The fact is we'll only know once people actually get to 60 and beat Hell for the first time. I can't say the overall numbers are wrong (30-50 hours is pretty long, but also quite a spread), but there's no clear-cut evidence that they're correct.

[TheDestructor]

Hmm, well there have been statements from the devs that normal takes about 20 hours so...

[Mefet]

Don't forget that Act 4 might be shorter and that subsequent difficulties are going to be slightly longer.

[Flux]

This vid makes a lot of assumptions that, unless you were part of the in-house closed beta, you can't possibly know yet.

We don't know for a fact that the open beta represented 1/3 of Act 1. For all we know, it was 1/4 or 1/5.

Bliz has actually said it's half of act one on several occasions. I think 1/3 is more accurate, based on the total number of levels in act one, and the fact that they get a lot larger as you move along. I don't have the figures in front of me, but there are something like 70 named levels in act one, and like 35 of them are in the beta. And that includes some very tiny levels, like the area in front of tristram, the zombies you kill inside of the inn at level 1, etc.

The progression of area size is quite obvious as well; look how much larger the Weeping Hollow is than the earlier surface areas, and as we know from the 2 beyond the fence areas, those are both as big or larger than the Weeping Hollow, and they've got numerous sub dungeons below them. Cathedral level 4 is bigger than the earlier dungeons, and people at blizzcon 2010 played much larger dungeons from later in act one in the demo. So later areas in Act One will take much longer than earlier areas, and one presumes act 2-4 have areas of equivalent size, hence the first 1/3 of thsoe acts will take a lot longer than the beta does.

I'll also echo the comments others have made about the video's wild guess estimates... that said, at least he's making some estimates and putting down figures to start a conversation.

[cnallard]

Hmm, well there have been statements from the devs that normal takes about 20 hours so...

Link, please?

[saint_of_killers]

sounds about right. even though 30-50 (or 20-50 as your OP said) is a wide range, I assume it'll basically take a week of casual-hardcore (like 30~35 hours) to get to 60. It is a hack-n-slash, after all. I wouldn't expect it to be like an MMO grind to max level (although Titan Quest took me like 40 hours to beat one 1 difficulty, wtf... so i may be wrong).

hmm...ok, i changed my mind. I'm actually going to guess TWO weeks of casual-hardcore play - so 60~70 hours!

[cnallard]

sounds about right. even though 30-50 (or 20-50 as your OP said) is a wide range, I assume it'll basically take a week of casual-hardcore (like 30~35 hours) to get to 60. It is a hack-n-slash, after all. I wouldn't expect it to be like an MMO grind to max level (although Titan Quest took me like 40 hours to beat one 1 difficulty, wtf... so i may be wrong).

hmm...ok, i changed my mind. I'm actually going to guess TWO weeks of casual-hardcore play - so 60~70 hours!

I think a better estimate (on my behalf) would've been 40ish hours, rather than 30