As a dedicated munchkin I'd just like to say I abhor grinding. I wouldn't mind if the game was about min/maxing builds. But this game isn't about drawing the most synergy from your skills as possible and beating a challenging game into submission. This game is almost entirely a gear check. Dungeons of dredmor is far more of a munchkin's wet dream. A near endless grind for gear has no place in a single player game. Diablo3 is a chinese gold farmers wet dream.
Auction house is there if you want to buy the best possible items for your build (even though you can change it whenever you see fit, albeit with a small cooldown), so you can min-max your skills depending on the situation and get the gear you need, if able. Sure, you need gold to buy from AH, but you can sell things you don't need, can't you? Therefore gearing is not that hard. Also Diablo 2 was as much about mindless grind as is Diablo 3, but you can go anywhere, instead of having to do Baal/Mephisto/whatever runs to get yer shiny unique items you had to get to gain the maximal possible potency from your build.
I ve never found D2 to be like that. I mean, I ve never had to grind, ever. At all. I never did ANY boss run in my playthrough and still got to Diablo in hardest difficulty with less than 15 deaths. The game was tough, but loot was way better balanced. Also, I prefer when I dont have to play an " ebay" simulator to finish my game, thanks !
Wrong. You don't like having to play a diablo themed mini-game to play the amazingly put together iAuction game.
That's the one I was thinking of. It might have been longer than a year though...maybe two? But that is what really put the game together for me. Apparently the next patch is going to fix some of the crafting and Inferno difficulty things. Should make the game a bit more bearable, but when Torchlight II comes out it is going to pale in comparison. http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Diablo-3-Patch-1-0-3-Fix-Inferno-Crafting-42980.html
Actually, that synnergies patch for Diablo 2 came about three years ago, not a year after the game's release. I think it was the 1.10 or further one.
There was a patch for D2 three years ago ? Really ? An official one ? But I guess that's why I had never heard of synergies in Diablo2 ! The changes for the patch look like its going in the right direction (though yeah, Torchlight ftw.)
So, apparently it was released in 2003, which is much earlier than I have expected. And blob, the last one is from November 2011.
Wow, makes me want to play it again and see what has changed over the years ! Sucks I've lost my original box and that they still sell it at 20$ with expansion. :l
Then only play through hell on D3? Inferno isn't something that is designed for a player who doesn't want to try for great gear (or play the auction house / use your real dollars to outfit your character), it is designed for people who want something to do AFTER they beat hell that requires an extended playtime investment and is a significant challenge. And just so you know, it is absolutely possible to play through hell without ever touching the Auction House. In fact, it makes the game 10 times more enjoyable on nightmare and hell because you aren't overpowered and will also probably help you feel that sense of wonder about what might drop for you next.
I played through NM and hell with no AH goodies, then hit a massive wall in inferno. Then I spent the 100+k gold I had stored up, and started, if not breezing, then managing AI inferno easily.
This is true when the RNG gods smile at you. When they don't, then good luck without AH or overgeared friend(s) willing to help you.
Hell's pretty easy. Friend and I walked through normal-nightmare in any XP gear we could find, regardless of what else was on it. In hell we used any loot we had kept from NM that fit our stats. I checked the AH and literally anything worth 5k max buyout would've been an upgrade, but we still walked through hell easily.
