Old school USEast hardcore/GAT members?

[Hakka]

Hey all!

I was wondering if there's anyone still around here who played US East hardcore back in the glory days of BtK, GAT, and, wow, that was almost a decade ago. I recognize the always dedicated ZappaFan (though I've never played with you) and LuckyDwarf - any of you other fellas still out here?

I'm going to be getting into the game pretty soon and wanted to get some feedback from people I know and respect about 1) how they feel about the game as a whole, especially Hardcore and 2) any community that may be out there for us old timers.

Hope you're all doing great. If you've read this and you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's fine, move right along

Hakkapellito

[Solwolf]

Good news and bad news: there are a few of us that play (but not many) and of those, very few that are still playing hardcore. Off the top of my head, only Zappa, me, Dutch, and Rush are playing hardcore - many tried the game and have either abandoned it all together or have switched to softcore.

[Matt]

Checking in

Hey Hakka/solwolf,
Loving the game and playing HC, though playing mostly by myself, or with a semi random group of friends (one guy I knew from D2, and then some nice folks I met playing D3). Would like to play with some Gat-era vets myself, but just haven't been in touch with many!

Shoot me a PM if either of you, or any other old timer GAT -era folks want to play!

[Hakka]

Good news and bad news: there are a few of us that play (but not many) and of those, very few that are still playing hardcore. Off the top of my head, only Zappa, me, Dutch, and Rush are playing hardcore - many tried the game and have either abandoned it all together or have switched to softcore.

Hey Solwolf!

Glad to hear from someone familiar. Also glad to hear that Dutch is still playing too - he was the one I looked up to before I started my killing sprees (and was my first ear!! hehe). Anyway, the reason that I was asking is because I've been reading quite a bit recently about the game, and it sounds like it's WoW packaged into the Diablo universe. Those issues aside, is there a reason that so few have stayed with hardcore? My understanding is that Inferno is near impossible, and with no more s/e, is it just that much more difficult to survive? Do you have to have a serious time commitment to succeed?

Just want to get the opinion of someone I know who actually played D2 (and played it well) to give me some perspective. It seems like a lot of the people who are praising this game didn't really play D2.

[Hakka]

Matt - what realm are you on? I'll message you when I pick up the game in a week or two!

[Matt]

Matt - what realm are you on? I'll message you when I pick up the game in a week or two!

North America, look for you then

[Solwolf]

Hey Solwolf!

Glad to hear from someone familiar. Also glad to hear that Dutch is still playing too - he was the one I looked up to before I started my killing sprees (and was my first ear!! hehe). Anyway, the reason that I was asking is because I've been reading quite a bit recently about the game, and it sounds like it's WoW packaged into the Diablo universe. Those issues aside, is there a reason that so few have stayed with hardcore? My understanding is that Inferno is near impossible, and with no more s/e, is it just that much more difficult to survive? Do you have to have a serious time commitment to succeed?

Just want to get the opinion of someone I know who actually played D2 (and played it well) to give me some perspective. It seems like a lot of the people who are praising this game didn't really play D2.

I think, generally, the issues the old GAT folks have with the game are two-fold: first, d3 is just not d2, and is (imo) a vastly inferior game for too many reasons to mention here. Second, and probably more importantly, we're all 10 years older, many with kids, and all with full time jobs that don't allow the massive amount of time this game requires to make your character strong enough to tackle Inferno. One lag death and you've lost 20-30 hours of play time just to get back to 60 (and unlike d2, you have to get to max level to feasibly finish Hell mode - the game really begins at 60) plus the loss of all of your equipped items. There's no easy power-acting anymore, so a level 60 death means a substantial reinvestment in time. Dutch, for instance, is one more death away from putting d3 down for good.

That all being said, there are a few of us still playing hardcore - but I don't have any burning motivation to play, instead spending the lion's share of my gaming time on League of Legends. d3 isn't a bad game, it's just not d2. Also since there are no private chat channels like "chat gat-east" - and since multiplayer is currently mostly counterproductive - the social interaction we enjoyed in d2 isn't present either. I'd bet I spent more time just chatting in d2 for the last year I played it than actually playing the game itself.

[stevethatsmyname]

excellent points Solwolf, exactly my gripes with the new Bnet.

While, like everyone else, I am 10 years older (I seriously can't believe it's been 10 years!! thanks for making me feel old!), I still find myself with the free time to run inferno (no kids just yet). So if anyone wants to add me my bt is Phreak#1903.

And seriously, where is PVP?????

[Mn_Swe2]

MagnusN from GAT-Europe reporting in...

On Europe we have a really strong HC community going with 50 members of our guild at the moment.

We have started this group for example to ease communication within our team,
http://www.diablo-guilds.com/group/gat

Personally I find most of the game to be brilliant. The gameplay and figthing is awesome, way better then D2 ever was. You really need to get your skills and tactics together in order to be successful in Inferno, no more spam-fest and crush everything like in D2.

D3 PvE is somewhat like D2 PvP in that sense.

At the moment there is a bit too much gear grind to get to late Inferno though, but Act1 and 2 are doable with work/family/other hobbies etc limiting your game time.

And when PvP patch is released, this game will make me drool.

The thing where D3 lacks is social tools (no private channels in-game etc) so you need to set up a private forum somewhere and own private voice com etc to be social with your guild mates.

The other thing that lacks in D3 is build diversity and items. Alot of theese problems will be fixed with the upcoming patch 1.0.4 though. (Huge patch coming in soon.)

They are basically boosting the non cookie-cut skills in this patch to open up for more build diversity, and also major improvements with lots of new cool idéas for legendary items (= unique items in D2).

[LuckyDwarf]

Hey Hakka!

1.04 is bringing me back, I'll be on later tonight if you want to play.

LuckyDwarf#1705