Blizzard gain a flash of insight?

[Roland]

I'm mostly just trying to ascertain what exactly the various complaints are. Because I'm hearing a great deal of "this is all so horribly wrong," but I'm not at all sure people agree on the reasons why.

Nevertheless, there is no such thing as gear strictly trumping skill or vice versa. The two trade off against one another at some rate. If you're saying gear matters too much, and skill too little, that makes sense. From the video, it appears that there is enough gear in the game to faceroll all the bosses at the highest level. I'm glad this is seen as atrocious, but this kind of sick stuff is just the logical development of extremely high gearing in a progress-driven RPG. I can't count the number of games I've played, including Diablo games, where, given an absurd amount of time/effort farming the infinity +1 sword and grinding levels, I couldn't wafflestomp not only the last boss, but the uberbosses.

(Oh, Athene. Always such a pleasure.)

-Jester

I agree there are plenty of people who don't agree what the problems truly are (and frankly, much of the commentary on here as to what "should" be done makes me shake my head at best, and cringe with disdain at worst). One of my big gripes is how far, and how badly, the gear vs. skill ratio is skewed. Of course, one of my biggest gripes is with the Demon Hunter class as a whole, but I know I'll have to wait until 1.1 before any hope of that being rectified. Beyond that, though, I feel as though I should be able to progress through skillful play and "adequate" gear - without resorting to cheesing via skills or exploits, and without needing top-tier gear just to advance past Act I Inferno. As it stands, that is not the case. I literally need top-tier gear in order to advance through Act II, let alone further, and no amount of skillful play will change that. I enjoy the different Elites and their abilities (despite some of them being very frustrating, and Immune Minions needing to just flat out be removed). I enjoy earning Nephalem Valor stacks and hunting through areas for items - and not just doing boss runs. I enjoy challenge, and reward for succeeding at those challenges. What I don't enjoy is artificial difficulty, and that is the entirety of D3 at the moment. The gear check is the final arbiter - it's the only thing that matters. Pass, and the game is easy. Fail, and the game is impossible. There's no middle ground, and the only thing that shifts is where that line is drawn. It's a very bold, very narrow line, with minimal room for blurring.

I enjoy much of Diablo III, but there is no denying it's a vastly different game from its predecessors - and in at least one area, it's a big step back. Much of the game, IMHO, is leaps and bounds above Diablo and Diablo II. Absolutely requiring top-tier gear, regardless of how you acquire it (and I actually think they finally nailed down the right numbers for drops with the latest hotfix - it's very much more rewarding now to play than it was before 1.0.3), just to advance beyond the very start of Inferno is not a positive.

(As for Athene, I can't stand him. Honestly. Thumbs up for charity and all, but otherwise I think he's a waste of human DNA.)