http://www.diablo3builds.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Diablo-3-Inferno-Farming.jpg
Diablo III recently released version 1.8, so I thought I'd pop in and see what's up.

The auction houses are offline. Apparently yesterday there was a major gold duping glitch that people think will essentially ruin the economy, so that's awesome. This didn't bother me tonight, because it's been so long since I really played the game that I honestly have no clue what good gear is anymore, so I certainly wasn't about to buy any.

This patch smoothed out a lot of the problems a lot of people have with the game. I played through the last couple of quests of act 1 Inferno, which is so far as far as I've gotten. I can certainly see the progress. The trash mobs feel a lot stronger, and the elite packs have been toned down a bit. You now always have to be on guard to a point, but don't freak right the hell out when you see blue or yellow on the screen.

One of my big pet peeves, identifying rare items one by one by one by one by one has been taken care of. You can now visit Deckard Cain (or a book near where he would be) to identify all your items at once. In other streamlining fixes, you can now queue up things to craft so that you don't have to sit there clicking once every few seconds until you're satisfied with what you've done, and you can pull crafting materials from your stash so you don't have to carry those with you to the artisans.

I was amazed at how easily I fell back into the game, having gone many months without really playing it, and it still holds the same appeal. I went on into act 2 after slamming the butcher, and I was able to get through the stupid bee things much more easily than before. The difficulty curve between acts seems to have smoothed out a bit. I then got to an elite pack of vortex desecrator bee things and got handily demolished, and decided that was a good place to call it quits for the night.

Still, progress has definitely been made, and I think I'll look at revamping my gear and getting on to act 2 soon. For anyone who quit the game because of whatever gripes you may have had, it's definitely worth another look.

Just don't expect to get any good gear on the auction house for less than a few billion gold for a few weeks.

hardeyez wrote on 05/09/2013 at 07:22am

I have to agree with this.

Over the weekend I decided to give D3 a spin again after having been away (since around 1.3 or 1.4, can't remember which). And, I was having the same frustrations -- tons of lag deaths, lots of dying before I even saw the champion pack monsters, etc. So I was annoyed all over, and put it away for the next several revisions.

Today, I tried 1.8 because of this post. And, WOW, what a difference. The game feels *so* much better. I died a couple times against the champion packs, but it was from fighting (and packs that have bind and pull buffs -- I'm a ranged DH and hate getting close). It was fun again. I might actually pick it back up and finally hit level 60... Yeah, I have a fairly low tolerance for annoying gameplay so I never maxed out as I was stuck in act 1 of hell mode. I didn't want to grind for gold to buy AH items (or pay cash). I just want to play, have fun, get loot I want to use (instead of sell). So I really hate the AH and don't use it... which feels like a major disadvantage. But, if I can play again, make progress (reasonably quickly -- no grinding for hours with nothing to show for it and losing gold due to repair costs), and have fun, then that is awesome. In fact, I got about 25% of a level in a quick half to quarter hour of play which is much better than I'm used to (I'm level 53, almost 54).

So, yeah, I'd second the thought that you should try it again after this patch.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 05/13/2013 at 04:32am

I played this a bit tonight. Very fun as you said Travis but WOW the lag was incredible.

Travis   Admin   Post Author wrote on 05/13/2013 at 04:55pm

Interesting, I haven't had any lag problems in the past few days playing it. Luck of the draw I guess.

I just love the new monster density. Last night in Act 2 inferno at monster power 1 I had to walk through three screens to pick up the loot that I had left behind.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 05/13/2013 at 04:58pm

Yeah the loot drops do seem better. I mean most of it is trash compared to what I have. In fact most of it is. I get tons of loot, but none of it is better than the stuff I've had for a few levels now.

Travis   Admin   Post Author wrote on 05/13/2013 at 05:12pm

That gets better once you hit level 60, but it is a little annoying when you're leveling a character yeah.

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