The only thing I could ask for...

So far I feel like Blizzard is doing a great job with Diablo 3. There has never been a game that I have more eagerly anticipated. That being said, I feel that if I should be greedy enough to ask them to do one thing, that it should be this: make the game hard.

I don't want to play something that is totally impossible, but I would not mind it at all if I died a bit more often in Diablo 3. After playing D2 through once or twice it gets to the point where there are very few times that you every actually run into a struggle. Sure, in hell difficulty you may spend some time trying to down a mob of immune monsters, but it was not really hard or challenging. It just took time.

I want a game that is going to be difficult and is going to really test my abilities as a gamer. Not to mention something that scales well on multi player. Watching the Wizard game play video, as well as brief points in the other game play videos, you can see a few scenes of multi player action, and it looks great. It doesn't look like everyone runs in a room, uses one skill, and cleans the place out. They are smashing and casting their way though their enemies, which really makes me look forward to the way it appears to be scaled so far.

I just hope that it does not get easier towards the end of the game just because you get better skills and gear. I hope it all gets harder proportionately.|||This is one of my main issues with modern-day games; ease. I'm completely with you on this one.

Merely having to hold down the "blow bad guys up" button as long as possible is lame.|||Fortunately the game looks like the combats will be a little more involved and tactical. As for difficulty, you have to think about Numbers and Skill. I believe the Numbers challenge, armor and weapons etc, should increase steadily as the game goes on. I believe the Skill challenge should actually increase rather slowly, but would jump and grow faster with each new difficulty, so Hell would be hard instead of a re-tread of the previous levels.|||I agree. I think hell difficulty or higher difficulty will be awesome. I see the Barbarian, a melee, strong character, with many skills protecting him: more life, revive skill, damage reduced when life is under 1/2, damage reduction, dodges...

If a barbarian needs those skills, it looks like a game plenty of strong monsters, and perhaps with an upgraded AI if we compare it to D2.

I hope it will be a hell of a game, with a big emphasis in hell.|||There's no chance of D3 being hard, too many people will complain that they can't complete the hardest difficulty, the days of games actually requiring skill to complete are long gone. People still complain that 1.10 made soloing hell too hard (considering the average level of play on b.net I'm not surprised by that though), despite it being fairly simple and also possible completely untwinked. As with D2 most of the challenge will either come from playing variant builds or PvP.

Personally I don't think it should be possible to finish hell difficulty without either playing skillfully or having some decent items, but there's a reason I'm not balancing the game.|||Quote:








There's no chance of D3 being hard, too many people will complain that they can't complete the hardest difficulty, the days of games actually requiring skill to complete are long gone. People still complain that 1.10 made soloing hell too hard (considering the average level of play on b.net I'm not surprised by that though), despite it being fairly simple and also possible completely untwinked. As with D2 most of the challenge will either come from playing variant builds or PvP.

Personally I don't think it should be possible to finish hell difficulty without either playing skillfully or having some decent items, but there's a reason I'm not balancing the game.




I think that people complain about the 1.10 update making hell too hard to solo in D2 mostly stems from the fact that D2 has been around for so long that at this point it is almost impossible to find anyone who doesn't simply rush their characters through the game. Sure there are some people who play it all the way thorough, but most of the time you are just going to find people who are looking to try out new builds.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to try new builds, but the problem with rushing through the game to do it is that you don't get a feel for the skills you are using if you just dump all of your points into them at one time. I think if you play the game the whole way through that you learn to play the character you're creating better, and therefore adapt your gameplay to the new challenges.

Seeing as D3 will be a fresh start for everyone I think that people are going to realize how fun it was for them when they started playing D2 to see what kind of skills they do and don't like, and adapt their characters around their personal play style. Doing so will allow for a harder game, but it will also create characters that are better understood and used by their players.|||I'm thinking that lack of potion spam alone will be a significant factor in making it more difficult. Now instead of running and mashing a couple buttons before returning to the fight, you will have to run around the thing killing you to get a globe.|||Quote:








I'm thinking that lack of potion spam alone will be a significant factor in making it more difficult. Now instead of running and mashing a couple buttons before returning to the fight, you will have to run around the thing killing you to get a globe.




I don't know that I see that as an aspect that will increase the difficulty of the game as much as it will change the strategies you use to move between swarms of monsters. Using skills like the barbarian's charge or leap attack to reach a distant health globe will probably become a common thing, and I think that is what Blizzard is looking to do with the system all together. Force players to think on their feet and switch things up quickly.|||I think D2 Hell mode is plenty hard as is. Trying to solo the game on hell, with any character class, without hitting the trade market to get ahold of the best endgame gear, still holds more than enough challenge. And besides, I think there should be a point in every RPG where you're so geared out and awesome that you can dust any mob the game throws at you with ease.|||Quote:








I think D2 Hell mode is plenty hard as is. Trying to solo the game on hell, with any character class, without hitting the trade market to get ahold of the best endgame gear, still holds more than enough challenge. And besides, I think there should be a point in every RPG where you're so geared out and awesome that you can dust any mob the game throws at you with ease.




I agree with the last part of what you said. I think it is a very empowering feeling to go around and just lay waste to anything that attempts to hold ground against you. I just don't want that point to be at 50% completion.