The bad news is that all "news" about the beta was incurred during the friends and family test phase before we were allowed even in. The good news is that I finally got the time to sit down and write about my experiences playing with the wizard casting the archetype Diablo III. Along the way, we will discuss some interesting aspects of this decade iteration of the series, to the epic battle with the Skeleton King and abilities of the powerful of the earth.
Disclaimer: If you decide to read further than this line, you accept that I reveal some information that some may see as a spoiler. Beyond this line, I will not bother to delete to hide this, because it is counterproductive for the purpose of an informative article.
The beginning is always a certain sentimental value to me as Diablo players have performed. Your character moves on the screen, wearing nothing but a minimum grade armor, a crappy weapon, and a single skill. It is only from here!
Not much has changed in this respect, except, perhaps, that now our characters have motives changed. Yes, my friends, our heroes have reasons to be where they are! In the hope of the Fallen Star, to find that landed in the ruins of Old Tristram, my male assistants went bravely on their way toward New Tristram, with nothing but Magic Missile and Frost Nova are available, ready for the hordes of the undead to take and the legions of the Burning hells. How very bold of him.
One of the cooler moves of Diablo III's predecessor, that it was not long before you're in the heat of battle. My assistant has appeared less than ten steps in front of a Risen, feasting on a festering pile of human carrion (take Diablo III NON-category-crazy enough!). Body parts were flying in majestic arcs through the night air as I slammed the unsuspecting zombie with Magic Missile, the trailing violet light indicative of elemental arcane magic. Before I entered was the actual village, was a veritable mountain of the undead before the gate mounded. Diablo magic, I'd say.
Here I would like something of interest grisly note: It is often enough to get the Risen One, as its name implies, too, again, after they are slaughtered. Front crawl with bloodthirsty intentions, they draw their bellies through the earth as their spines severed from leak vital fluids, approaches the unaware adventurer handle through the handle. Moral of the story: If you kill a zombie, make sure it is dead.
News of the Dead Rising from their graves, not every resident of Sanctuary hop out of bed in the middle of the night and in the sprint out the door with an ax attack. Entering the village of Old Tristram comes another nice innovation Diablo III to light: Brother Malachi, the healer, a pious, fire-and-sulfur-preaching faith ex-zealot of Zakarum is already damned scream to the world before I had ever the presence of mind to click on it.
Gossip in the game is manifested in two primary media: the players choose different discussion topics at the interface of an NPC, like in the older games, when passing through NPCs. Some even have conversations with each other. Although not necessarily a breakthrough in the art of storytelling (games have this sort of thing for years), it is new to the series and adds a degree of authenticity, the social atmosphere.
Reach from the city center, is a welcome design change to present: do not wander all over creation trying more to find the damn waypoint! (? Kurast docks, everyone) in scenic downtown New Tristram located, the waypoint of all the most useful features of the young village is surrounded: the blacksmith, a merchant in the upper right (not pictured), the location to rent your mercenaries entrance of the tavern (whose owner peddles potions and other little things), and finally the man himself: Deckard Cain.
The waypoint interface is also useful, if somewhat confusing. Flip-down menus are now categorized destinations, as well as recent destinations. And if for some reason you can not read your site from your mini-map in the upper right corner of the screen, but even tells you where you are! Nifty.
But not all the action is outside. In fact, one of the great new aspect of Diablo III, which is, in my opinion, a bit down-played that you actually go in several structures in the cities, with even more NPCs to interact. While this was more in Diablo II occupies minimal, in Diablo III, we see full-fledged quest points, and NPC interaction. At the moment, my assistant went to the board, the wounded gathered there immediately began to rise as the undead. Leah and I had to jump into the fray in order to smooth the situation. These are not just buildings with their roofs decay, as we saw in Diablo II, but also whole new mini-dungeon, filled with comfort and NPC goodies. New Tristram, including walk-building of the slaughtered calf Inn and Deckard Cain at home.
Almost all the NPCs in New Tristram share a characteristic that makes them an improvement over the previous games: they not only stand there all day waiting for a search for what ever the lucky adventurer wanders along the road. One can only wonder how much actually forging Griswold.
But enough of New Tristram. What about the rest of the game?
Despite all the cool things there, in order to take on a visit to the little village of New Tristram hanging-on, I was sent on the road almost as soon as I walked into the Inn slaughtered calf. Zombie syndrome seemed like a disease spreading, even among those in the village, and an impromptu fight later I was on my way from the inn and down the creepy old Tristram Road. Murders of crows flapping dramatically in the night? Check. Creaking wagon wheels move all on their own? Check. Destroyed houses with a murderous history? Check.
And some of them have such beautiful little dungeons. Oh, and Blizzard was not kidding when they said its random dungeons would be cool.
I must by ten random dungeons (sorry folks, I have other time commitments, too) have been in my play-throughs of various beta, and every time they feel new and exciting. Musty entering a cellar under the ghostly ruins of an old farm home, I see a Quill Fiend poking near the stairs. Approach it and my assistant prepares to blast it to Hell with my l33t Adventuring Oak wall of the Oracle, sinking the little critters in the dark. I ran after him, spamming all kinds of flashy stuff, ask where the rest of the monsters, until the little guy scurried under a pile of rubble in the middle of a room from a hall.
The junk exploded and poured out the whole mob of the dungeon in an instant. Quill Fiends ran everywhere, that what they are doing (shooting spikes, if not you, that some have found yet.) A frost nova and a speedy recovery later I noticed that the @ # $% he had me in tricked him to follow on a nest of famished, twitchy little rascals.
Of course there are other variations of the dungeon. Several times my assistant came in such a cellar, open asking where all the loot was. Around a corner, I saw that the Quill Fiends - the devil - had broken open my chest and looted site. However, killing their leader had the loot that would have generated in the chest. And it gave me a sense of accomplishment. Two birds with one stone.
Continue along the old Tristram Road, zombie hordes were more than annoying (but awesome as zombies are awesome) with the addition of Wretched mothers. This puketastic villains seem to put a permanent hangover, vomiting their guts out - perhaps in the literal sense. It is not only disgusting, but the vomit propagated another zombie. To be killed in the unfortunate mother, the process continues. TLDR: Kill the Wretched mother first and save yourself some time and effort.
A few dead (well, dead again) Wretched mothers later I was heading with Leah in the pursuit of their old mother's hut. Yes, Diablo I, the witch, Adria returns. Or at least not her house. And she has landed a nice little piece of real estate in this deserted no man's land, one hectare of sixteenths. But is one of the coolest things about this encounter that follows Leah, kills chats with you, you monster, and interact with game world objects. Some of the scientific way of thinking characteristic Wizard sparks here and elsewhere. It's amazing how the man is fixated on the falling star.
The journey from here is like a journey into the past.
Ah, the Cathedral, as I missed you! Kael Rills is long gone, of course, and I miss the blood red light stabbing through the darkness. But perhaps deceptive serenity around the cathedral is what they are most uncertain. Its depths are anything but serene.
The Fallen Star, finally makes its reappearance. In its wake, it is a telltale trail of the otherworldly blue flames and a crater large enough to accommodate over nine thousand McDonald's regulars stuff left over. The journey along the ancient Horadric bastion crawling with undead. Ravenous dead, stalking the halls, often in groups. Carrion Bats swarm in clouds stick, my assistant with her ??annoying little zaps (reminiscent of Diablo II Bat Demons.) And, of course, the Grotesque.
Although not particularly the most dangerous enemies, carrying the Grotesque, a few elements that prove tricky could, especially in later difficulties: a fairly large amount of health that guarantees a corpse explosion to the death, and a mobile army in his stomach. Okay, that was a handful of killer lamprey (eels) are not really that dangerous, either, but it was just freakin 'weird. Later in the game, the Grotesque was likely to sell a number of imps, when they for the most part, ran in random directions, until I snipe with Electrocute.
Eventually - inevitably - Cain appeared. Uncle Deckard had decided to go dumpster diving in the cathedral for some esoteric tradition in his never-ending battle against the forces of the Burning Hells. What harmless for any idea.
In addition to the mix of Cain brings another cool feature with Diablo III's take on storytelling: NPCs to talk to each other. Catch up on back in the city, Cain and Leah ancient times: Doomsday prophecy, demonic lore, the usual. Their interaction in the mixed occasionally arrogant attitude of the wizard. Have any other characters around the hero in the discussion, he would also add the flavor of his character in the discussion.
But Diablo III is not all talk and zombie-hitting. The highlight of the beta culminates in the battle with the Skeleton King, a point that Bornakk was given as one third of the way through the first act.
While the fight was not really serious (which is basically, "easy" mode for testing purposes), had King Leoric ghostly remains a few tricks up its sleeve.
The battle is initiated by clicking on the king. I started popping in every fight with a few potions to my resistances, attack and defense increase. The Buffs are minimal and only takes a few minutes, but every little bit helped.
Leoric has three primary modes: a whirlwind attack similar to the Barbarian crossed with a non-I-know-how-to-swing-my-gun-frenzy mode, a teleportation spell, and a simple swing attack with his massive club. From time to time he disappears from the crowd, so that a bunch of undead minions in his wake. Of particular use of the skeleton during waves was the assistant to the Wave of Force.
Wave of violence works in large mobs because of its large area of ??effect and massive recoil. The damage is not bad, either, often decimated low-level mobs in a single hit. For my purposes, blew the wave that is returned by schools and Forgotten Soldiers Depart from me, the fragile caster, and from my fellow patients. Oh, and did I mention the +50% speed barrier?
On defense, the fight with two skills are controlled: either by Ice Armor or Diamond Skin While diamond is the skin better for straight damage reduction, the relatively short (we're talking it to not only about Storm Armor, since there are no missing defensive buffs.) duration (5 seconds) makes it more of a cast-in-the-moment-of-need spell. Frozen Armor, although not a lot of damage absorber will increase the wizard's armor significantly (50%), lasts for two glorious minutes, and chills every enemy that attacks you - including the Skeleton King! This works very well in mobs so that the unwary wizard to escape with his skin intact in certain difficult situations.
From a safe distance, I could then spam them Electrocute, which works just like Diablo II, Chain Lightning, or Power Twister. (Oh, clever. Note:! Energy Twister is ideal for kiting Cast and run, baby)
And that about wraps things. If any of you were lucky enough to have played the beta, we welcome your experiences playing with the Wizard to hear - all the clever slogan tips, survival scenarios or funny lines in the wizard is so vulnerable to the mediation.
And if you do not get enough to Wizard (* cough cough * sign of addicts), we prescribe power gaming strategy Wizard excellent play through videos on YouTube. Here's one to get started:
