Diablo III

One thing you have experienced that I have as well is how fresh the game still feels 40 hours in. Going through the same levels in Nightmare is still fun. I can skip the story or watch it and it isn't bad. Then again this is my second playthrough so that might change some in Hell or Inferno. I don't know.

BTW about your Monk and the other day we played, my WD got his ass handed to him when I started Nightmare. I checked what others were doing and did that. But you are fine, a few adjustments go pretty far.

Thats awesome your wife is joining you playing D3, you should have her create an account and write about it from her perspective :)

That said, I am wondering what my next character will be? I only have one so far and am not solidified on my next class but I am leaning to a barb

I started Nightmare last night after a level 60 friend popped into my game and made the last mini-boss and Diablo a cakewalk (I think I might go back in and solo that last stretch in a few levels, but that last mini-boss was kicking my teeth in).

I haven't had any trouble at all in Nightmare so far. I have yet to face the Skeleton King, which is where I imagine the real challenge will show itself. But overall, I have learned so much about the monk class in Act 3 and 4 that I'm applying better strategy in Nightmare, and that's where most of my success is coming from. It was interesting to see some fairly low-risk enemies using freeze spells. I can tell even though you're doing the same thing over again, it's going to feel very different.

I have problems with the online-only aspect. I don't think it's *necessarily* DRM, but it certainly functions as such. They could have made it offline and still let you stay connected to your friends with no problem. I wonder if it's in part due to the Diablo 2 character sales on ebay. Overall, it bothers me, but I see why they did it and it certainly doesn't matter enough to change my opinion about the company or the game.

As for the auction house, I like it the way it is. Exactly the way it is. When the real money AH comes out, I worry that all the good gear will be put on the real money AH and/or with gold sales sanctioned and performed by Blizzard the price of items on the gold AH will skyrocket.

But yeah, I've been upgrading my monk's gear every 7-8 levels, never paying more than 5k for any one piece of gear, and getting way better stuff than you can find in the game. Since you generally find loot that's 5-10 levels below your level, I wonder if they planned it like that, so you almost have to go to the AH for the best gear. It does take away from the excitement of getting loot, but it's fine.

The pacing is very good. Id say for me the act with the least good pacing was Act 3. Act 4 was the best followed by Act 1. IV is great because its like a bunch of mini-boss fights to the end and that was really fun.

I just started Nightmare and its much more difficult and as such I need to change my play strategy as its not working as well as it was.

32. Some people beat it in less time round level 20ish though.

Trying out Nightmare. So much harder and as such I die often. Really fun though.

I have been doing a bit more multiplayer in Nightmare. Its quite fun and now that I am back home on my Desktop I plan on playing more of that.

I think you will like it, its much harder but fun. Talked about it in my latest post. Hard to pin why, but it is.

So far so good. At some point I may do the mobile authenticator entirely but thus far I have a pretty good password.

Same RSA mechanism, different delivery.

Right. Totally go token. I wouldn't rely on that if I didn't own my smartphone either. $6 is cheap too.

I bet they are. Id tell them because if you pay for next day shipping and you dont get it you need a refund.

That makes sense.

Hope you get it soon. Is you account locked down yet or do you turn it on when it arrives?

I think the lore books as you go are a really awesome addition. They drop the sound effect volume down so you can hear it well and it really works with out losing gameplay.

I kind of wish they had more quests, but the ones they give you are interesting and fun. Still in Act 2 and I really dig the direction the story is taking.

When I played the Monk in beta he was awesome. I will for sure play that class at some point. Well I will prob play all the classes :)

I've read about some people getting the XBox 360 controller and xpadder working together to make Diablo quite easily playable with a controller. Blizzard has said they *may* add this later on, but who knows?

I played the hell out of Diablo 2, but the click-to-move is still a bit of a struggle at times.

Kind of wish you could WASD it but the mouse ain't too bad.

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ONE OF US, ONE OF US!

There is no name more apt for a Witch Doctor than SnuggyBunny.

There's no chance I'm going to play hardcore. I would just ragequit if I lost a character I'd put time into.