Quotes from the D3 Dev AMA

[Frag]

One that struck me as interesting:

[–]chicagorocks3 11 points 1 hour ago
Are you going to change/buff certain skills/runes that are never used?

[–]wyattcheng[S] 17 points 53 minutes ago
YES!!!
Trivia. The least used skills at level 60 are Energy Twister, Exploding Palm, Sacrifice, Ancient Spear and Strafe.

I'm wondering if they're going to be doing League of Legends/Dota2 type balancing (This is under used, give it a 5% internal boost and see if people use it), or a Diablo 2 style balancing (FOTM TIME!). I ask this because I've used Exploding Palm, Ancient Spear and Strafe and found them all decent, if not very good, and I think we've all seen the uber Sacrifice build at this point.

Edit:

[–]wyattcheng[S] 157 points 2 hours ago
One With Everything, for example, was basically never used internally because we didn't have an auction House. With the auction house, it feels like a mandatory passive.

Guess we're not crazy, Swirly! (He & I had a conversation about this not 2 hours before this AMA)

[RiotInferno]

One that struck me as interesting:

[–]chicagorocks3 11 points 1 hour ago
Are you going to change/buff certain skills/runes that are never used?

[–]wyattcheng[S] 17 points 53 minutes ago
YES!!!
Trivia. The least used skills at level 60 are Energy Twister, Exploding Palm, Sacrifice, Ancient Spear and Strafe.

I'm wondering if they're going to be doing League of Legends/Dota2 type balancing (This is under used, give it a 5% internal boost and see if people use it), or a Diablo 2 style balancing (FOTM TIME!). I ask this because I've used Exploding Palm, Ancient Spear and Strafe and found them all decent, if not very good, and I think we've all seen the uber Sacrifice build at this point.

Edit:

[–]wyattcheng[S] 157 points 2 hours ago
One With Everything, for example, was basically never used internally because we didn't have an auction House. With the auction house, it feels like a mandatory passive.

Guess we're not crazy, Swirly! (He & I had a conversation about this not 2 hours before this AMA)

Strafe is okay, and fun, but in comparison to other skills @ 60, not playable. There's no reason to spend Hatred on Strafe when Nether Tendrils, Multishot and Evasive Fire do it better.
Granted, NT is sort of silly good, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.

[Elric of Grans]

Frankly, Strafe compares poorly to Hungering Arrow I tried and tried and tried so very hard to find a niche for it, but it is just a poorly balanced skill.

I read more of this myself. I do not see why they think Shielding needs nerfing (it seemed fun to me as-is), but their `solution' to Invunerable Minions does not address the issue at all. I can see them needing a second fix in 1.0.4 :\

[Concillian]

Guess we're not crazy, Swirly! (He & I had a conversation about this not 2 hours before this AMA)

Yeah, when you can just search for items with +resist all and whichever resist you're stacking it kinda ends up a much, much better passive than if you're smithing random items.

Thing is, I don't see how they can possibly tone down this passive aside from two possible ways:

1) Make the tooltip a war and peace sized tooltip explaining it will give xx% of the value between your highest resist and lowest resist to all your resists, but no resist can exceed your highest resist.

2) make 3 other passives so overwhelmingly powerful that you can safely ignore this passive.

'm wondering if they're going to be doing League of Legends/Dota2 type balancing (This is under used, give it a 5% internal boost and see if people use it), or a Diablo 2 style balancing (FOTM TIME!)

I think they'll do it FOTM style.
Exploding palm is a good example, I think. The issue at high difficulties with Exploding Palm is that it:
- is primarily a single target DOT ability, but with some AoE?
The only time it's not a single target ability are when you're killing something before the full damage is applied (easy stuff that can be handled with any other AoE ability). This means it's DESIGNED to not do it's full damage? You either don't do the full DOT damage or you don't get the explosion? WAT? You don't get the full DOT if you get the explosion, and you don't get the explosion if you get the full DOT? This aspect of the skill gives people a headache when they try to figure out how to best use it... Is it a single target DOT or an AoE ability? Does anyone even know? Regardless, there are better AoE abilities that don't require something be dead to release the AoE.

Single target damage abilities in Hell and inferno better have secondary utility to be worthy of taking up a skill slot... and exploding fist has neither of these. The name of the game at that point is AoE, utility and defense, and exploding palm has none of that.
Buffing damage can make it worthwhile vs. other spirit spenders, but then you still have the issue that it has little utility outside the single target 80% slow rune. Crippling wave (tsunami rune) is MUCH easier to apply an AoE slow that is 60% instead of 80%. It costs no spirit (spirit builder) and you don't even need to be in melee range, the slow application has a much larger range.

The other runes have similar issues...
+12% damage to that one target for 3 seconds? Deadly reach rne gives 18% for 30 seconds to EVERYTHING for no spirit cost... Breath of heaven rune gives 15% to everything for 45 seconds for a lower spirit cost...
my favorite is the rune that makes it do the exact same damage, but take double the time to apply that damage. Wat? I mean I get that it gives you longer to make the exploding portion, but really?

They're gonna have to re-design the runes of this skill for it to be worthwhile. The 6 skill limitation coupled with the difficulty of inferno means that you're looking for skills that can serve multiple purposes. You usually can't afford a spirit spender that is pure DPS... and if you can, you're likely killing things fast enough that a DOT with a 30% weapon damage explosion is not even on your radar.

Buffing 5% damage here or there isn't gonna get people to use the skill. You have to make a rune that serves a defensive build well (apply a lasting debuff to multiple enemies when it explodes) or an offensive build well (significantly increase the explosion weapon % or make chaining the AoE easier since an offensive build is not going to be looking at DOTs as viable.)

Alternately they could let the DOT component trigger life on hit, as this would give it significant utility. Ironically, this would actually make the rune that extends the time, but does the same damage actually decent. You essentially spend spirit for a periodic trigger of life on hit that happens to do some damage... this is utility with some damage. That kind of thing will get used. Damage increases, unless extreme, will not.

The kinds of things needed to make this skill something people would use are things that will make the buffing they do FOTM type of buffs.

-----
Let's look at the others:
Ancient Spear -- A victim of other skills being good at multiple things while it's good at only one. For example Threatening Shout + taunt does a reasonable job of getting something to you that you're chasing, but also serves another purpose for other mob types (decreasing damage taken in a wide area). Also leap and Furious charge serve similar purposes while having AWESOME runes like HUGE self-healing, HUGE armor buff, etc... How do you make ancient spear a choice without making it completely OP compared to leap and such? I'm not sure you can.

Sacrifice -- A victim of summons being poor and requiring multiple other skills to be even usable. This has potential to be okay with just a damage buff, but the main issue is your dogs need to be attacking the target you want when you sacrifice them. No amount of buffing will help your minions with attacking the target you want them to attack.

Energy Twister --
Essentially a purely offensive DOT spell with easily avoidable pathing. I was totally amused when I fought Diablo and in the realm of Terror my self-image stood stationary 30 yards away and shot energy twisters that meandered 10-15 yards in my general direction while I obliterated her from range.

Purely offensive DOT spells will always have a hard time in the Diablo universe. Spells with an uncontrollable direction will also. Where do you even start with this one? Other skills are easier to apply the damage (Hydra, among others) or offer additional utility (Blizzard, applies a slow, can be runed for much larger area effect)

I actually haven't tested this with life on hit to see if it applies like meteor does (the DOT ticks of meteor proc life on hit). If it does, then the "twist in one place" twister does have potential with a spectral blades wizard build like I'd like to do with my softcore wiz. That would potentially give it some use.

Strafe -- I think this is about the only skill that a slight damage buff might get more people using it.

All but strafe have severely limiting mechanics issues that prevent their use as much as any damage issues. To get Energy twister or Ancient spear to be used regularly would take HUGE damage buffs for people to not choose competing skills that do a similar job with additional utility. You're going to have to make D2 style changes that fix the mechanics issues to get them used more.

[Ruvanal]

I'm wondering if they're going to be doing League of Legends/Dota2 type balancing (This is under used, give it a 5% internal boost and see if people use it), or a Diablo 2 style balancing (FOTM TIME!).

Frag this is Blizzard. Of course it is going to be FOTM TIME!. I have seen too many times that their developers are working on the basis of 'do not do little piddly 5-10% changes to adjust things since it can take too long to get to good level, do x2 and x4 adjustments to really see the effect of what they have done. Then followed by a number of patches doing a cycle of super buffing and heavy nerfing, they will start to get to balanced point. Then its time for a super patch or expansion to change a bunch of the game mechanics so it all has to start over again.

[MongoJerry]

Frag this is Blizzard. Of course it is going to be FOTM TIME!. I have seen too many times that their developers are working on the basis of 'do not do little piddly 5-10% changes to adjust things since it can take too long to get to good level, do x2 and x4 adjustments to really see the effect of what they have done. Then followed by a number of patches doing a cycle of super buffing and heavy nerfing, they will start to get to balanced point. Then its time for a super patch or expansion to change a bunch of the game mechanics so it all has to start over again.

At least this time we don't have to reroll our characters -- just farm gear to support the skill if we need it.

---

I thought this quote was very interesting:

The auction house has absolutely no effect on drop rates. There are conspiracy theories and misunderstandings but I do want to re-iterate, the is NO interaction whatsoever. Bashiok mentioned earlier that we took the AH into account, so let me expand a little bit on that.

The drop rates were tuned for a player who would never use the Auction House. For the majority of internal development we didn't have an Auction House, we all played using our own drops only. I've personally leveled multiple characters from 1 to 60 internally before the game came out using only drops that I found - we all did.

When we say we "took the AH into account" that means it's one of many factors. ie. some players will choose to play without trading, some players would play in a group of 4 where they share drops among each other, and some (as it turns out, many) players would use the AH.

Three weeks after launch player's gear is much higher than what we were expecting. When I killed the Butcher on Inferno for the first time I was using a weapon with 492 DPS. There are also certain passives which are much more powerful than they were during internal development. One With Everything, for example, was basically never used internally because we didn't have an auction House. With the auction house, it feels like a mandatory passive. In retrospect we should have seen it coming. In the game's current state though, it's a powerful Monk ability that gives Monks a big survivability boost and has some interesting (some would argue fun, others would argue negative) effects on gearing.

I consider playing without the Auction House to be a very fun way to play the game. I'm personally planning on rolling some new characters that I'll set aside to be "no-AH/no-twink" characters. Much like in D2 when I would make a new character with a friend and we'd agree with each other not to twink our characters out.

This matches well with my experience and what I've seen other people be able to do. When I was at a lower level, I could believe all the conspiracies about drops being tuned based on the AH and making "using the AH" a requirement. But as I get to a higher and higher level and I see what people are able to do in hardcore without using the AH, I realize that no, people who insist that "using the AH is a requirement" simply don't have patience to play the end game content as it was designed -- with slow and steady grinds until you are able to get the gear that will allow you to play in the next act.

[Ashock]

Frag this is Blizzard. Of course it is going to be FOTM TIME!. I have seen too many times that their developers are working on the basis of 'do not do little piddly 5-10% changes to adjust things since it can take too long to get to good level, do x2 and x4 adjustments to really see the effect of what they have done. Then followed by a number of patches doing a cycle of super buffing and heavy nerfing, they will start to get to balanced point. Then its time for a super patch or expansion to change a bunch of the game mechanics so it all has to start over again.

At least this time we don't have to reroll our characters -- just farm gear to support the skill if we need it.

---

I thought this quote was very interesting:

The auction house has absolutely no effect on drop rates. There are conspiracy theories and misunderstandings but I do want to re-iterate, the is NO interaction whatsoever. Bashiok mentioned earlier that we took the AH into account, so let me expand a little bit on that.

The drop rates were tuned for a player who would never use the Auction House. For the majority of internal development we didn't have an Auction House, we all played using our own drops only. I've personally leveled multiple characters from 1 to 60 internally before the game came out using only drops that I found - we all did.

When we say we "took the AH into account" that means it's one of many factors. ie. some players will choose to play without trading, some players would play in a group of 4 where they share drops among each other, and some (as it turns out, many) players would use the AH.

Three weeks after launch player's gear is much higher than what we were expecting. When I killed the Butcher on Inferno for the first time I was using a weapon with 492 DPS. There are also certain passives which are much more powerful than they were during internal development. One With Everything, for example, was basically never used internally because we didn't have an auction House. With the auction house, it feels like a mandatory passive. In retrospect we should have seen it coming. In the game's current state though, it's a powerful Monk ability that gives Monks a big survivability boost and has some interesting (some would argue fun, others would argue negative) effects on gearing.

I consider playing without the Auction House to be a very fun way to play the game. I'm personally planning on rolling some new characters that I'll set aside to be "no-AH/no-twink" characters. Much like in D2 when I would make a new character with a friend and we'd agree with each other not to twink our characters out.

This matches well with my experience and what I've seen other people be able to do. When I was at a lower level, I could believe all the conspiracies about drops being tuned based on the AH and making "using the AH" a requirement. But as I get to a higher and higher level and I see what people are able to do in hardcore without using the AH, I realize that no, people who insist that "using the AH is a requirement" simply don't have patience to play the end game content as it was designed -- with slow and steady grinds until you are able to get the gear that will allow you to play in the next act.

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

[Concillian]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

How are hardcore people playing in Act 2 then? Yeah, they're using the AH, but they aren't using the AH like softcore people are (buying items from people in Act III/IV to prepare themselves for Act II).

How many people are even in hardcore Act I? There can't be a whole lot of items out there.

And yet, the people progressing furthest, fastest in hardcore are melee...

Hardcore continues to exhibit that the arguments about softcore issues are largely fallacies. Melee is more reliable when death has any real penalty, and you don't NEED items from further acts to progress into Act II and III. It demonstrates that people arguing that the AH is a necessity are merely impatient. It was months of me playing D2 (with way more playtime per day than I can play D3 now) before I got any truly good items, but people are complianing that great items aren't raining from the sky in D3, that you MUST use the AH to get anything decent. Whatever. Selective memory of D2, or used to the post synergy patch era of dupes and stupidly OP player classes.

[MongoJerry]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

If push comes to shove, you can always farm goblins.

---

This quote from Wyatt was also excellent:

Alright so I'm going to take a stab at this question.

As mentioned in a different thread, the drop rates were carefully tuned for a single player playing through from 1 to 60 without ever using the AH.

All of our items are randomly generated, and so follow a distribution curve in power. Let's say for the sake of argument that you were to somehow distill an item down to it's "power level" and created a distribution graph of drop rate vs. power level. This graph would probably be normally distributed with outliers at high power levels dropping at a lower rate.

Looking at this graph, an average item drops every 5 minutes, a higher power item drops every 15 minutes, even higher power drops every hour. etc. As you move up the curve to ever more powerful items, the amount of time it takes to find such an item increases. This is what makes certain items more desirable, this is how things worked in D2.

What happens for a standard player who is playing solo when they first hit level 60 is they see an item upgrade every 30 minutes or so. Pretty quickly it becomes every hour, then every 2 hours. The higher the power level of your gear, the longer it takes to find your next upgrade, that's just the underlying math of this distribution. It's not really anything we set either. If we magically made all drops rates 10x higher, all it would do is shift the power curve left or right, it would not change the fundamental property that the higher up in power you go, the longer (statistically) it is going to take until you find your next drop.

So then let's say you visit the Auction House and get infusion of power that hurls you forward on that power curve. So whereas at one point your gear may be at a point that you are statistically speaking probably going to get an upgrade every 2 hours. After visiting the Auction House you hurl yourself forward on the power curve so far that now you are statistically going to get a drop every 8 hours.

To further illustrate the point, let's talk about the coming changes in 1.0.3. In 1.0.3 we're going to start dropping level 63 items in Act I of Inferno. We're also reducing incoming damage. What do I expect to happen? I expect that there will be a rapid increase in power across the entire community as all of these items become more widely accessible. It's like we took the distribution curve of items and made everything drop more. That item that used to take 10 hours to find is now a 2 hour item. An item that used to be a 2 day item is now an 8 hour item. After the initial frenzy of power increase, things are just going to settle again. People who think drop rates are too low now will probably still think drop rates are too low a week later when they move to the new point on the curve. I've spent a long time on this question so I'm going to move on but hopefully somebody who gets what I'm saying will be able to expand on it more, maybe draw some graphs to better illustrate the point.

tl;dr we could make drops 100x what they are now and it would just cause everybody to settle at a new equilibrium point. Anything you can farm in a few hours you'll already have, anything that takes longer you'll wish you could get faster.

[Quark]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

Why do you keep bringing this up as if it's a point about the AH? It's a point about Inferno difficulty passed Act 1, which they've already said they're nerfing.

The horse is dead. Stop it.

[Concillian]

Something they didn't answer during the AMA, but are going to add to the transcript because they wanted to answer it more completely than they had time for during the AMA

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5590647017#8

[LochnarITB]

If push comes to shove, you can always farm goblins.

Just a quick aside that I've been wondering about. When moving from normal to nightmare, did they make treasure goblins disproportionately harder to kill. I don't think I've been able to kill a single one since starting nightmare. Once he decides to pop his portal, nothing I do can dissuade him from jumping through. If I can't pump out enough damage, *giggle* *poof*. The best I can do is turn him around once, maybe twice, before he makes a portal but he inevitably poofs without giving daddy his yumyums.

[Concillian]

If push comes to shove, you can always farm goblins.

Just a quick aside that I've been wondering about. When moving from normal to nightmare, did they make treasure goblins disproportionately harder to kill. I don't think I've been able to kill a single one since starting nightmare. Once he decides to pop his portal, nothing I do can dissuade him from jumping through. If I can't pump out enough damage, *giggle* *poof*. The best I can do is turn him around once, maybe twice, before he makes a portal but he inevitably poofs without giving daddy his yumyums.

You appear to have to do enough damage in a single hit to trigger a 'hit recovery' recoil animation. Doing any kind of CC will also do it (blind, freeze, confuse, etc...). In normal, they have low enough life that just about anything you do will trigger a 'hit recovery' recoil animation, which is perhaps the difference you're seeing as mob life increases faster than the damage you're doing.

[Roland]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

If push comes to shove, you can always farm goblins.

---

This quote from Wyatt was also excellent:

Alright so I'm going to take a stab at this question.

As mentioned in a different thread, the drop rates were carefully tuned for a single player playing through from 1 to 60 without ever using the AH.

All of our items are randomly generated, and so follow a distribution curve in power. Let's say for the sake of argument that you were to somehow distill an item down to it's "power level" and created a distribution graph of drop rate vs. power level. This graph would probably be normally distributed with outliers at high power levels dropping at a lower rate.

Looking at this graph, an average item drops every 5 minutes, a higher power item drops every 15 minutes, even higher power drops every hour. etc. As you move up the curve to ever more powerful items, the amount of time it takes to find such an item increases. This is what makes certain items more desirable, this is how things worked in D2.

What happens for a standard player who is playing solo when they first hit level 60 is they see an item upgrade every 30 minutes or so. Pretty quickly it becomes every hour, then every 2 hours. The higher the power level of your gear, the longer it takes to find your next upgrade, that's just the underlying math of this distribution. It's not really anything we set either. If we magically made all drops rates 10x higher, all it would do is shift the power curve left or right, it would not change the fundamental property that the higher up in power you go, the longer (statistically) it is going to take until you find your next drop.

So then let's say you visit the Auction House and get infusion of power that hurls you forward on that power curve. So whereas at one point your gear may be at a point that you are statistically speaking probably going to get an upgrade every 2 hours. After visiting the Auction House you hurl yourself forward on the power curve so far that now you are statistically going to get a drop every 8 hours.

To further illustrate the point, let's talk about the coming changes in 1.0.3. In 1.0.3 we're going to start dropping level 63 items in Act I of Inferno. We're also reducing incoming damage. What do I expect to happen? I expect that there will be a rapid increase in power across the entire community as all of these items become more widely accessible. It's like we took the distribution curve of items and made everything drop more. That item that used to take 10 hours to find is now a 2 hour item. An item that used to be a 2 day item is now an 8 hour item. After the initial frenzy of power increase, things are just going to settle again. People who think drop rates are too low now will probably still think drop rates are too low a week later when they move to the new point on the curve. I've spent a long time on this question so I'm going to move on but hopefully somebody who gets what I'm saying will be able to expand on it more, maybe draw some graphs to better illustrate the point.

tl;dr we could make drops 100x what they are now and it would just cause everybody to settle at a new equilibrium point. Anything you can farm in a few hours you'll already have, anything that takes longer you'll wish you could get faster.

I wish they would just start with the damage / health changes in Inferno and go from there, rather than exponentially increase the item drops in the first Act. I can farm enough gold to buy better gear in less time than it takes to find it in Act I, and although it would be nice if ALL gear in Act I was level 59-60 (instead of the 50-60 spread we have now), then 60-61 in Act II, 60-62 in Act II, and 60-63 in Act IV I'd be very happy. As it stands there's just too much useless junk in Act I Inferno, but I don't think sliding that scale all the way to the other end is the right answer. Give us slightly better drops, so our chances of finding that more worthwhile gear is improved, and gives us a bit more crafting material to work with so we can utilize the Blacksmith more. As it stands it takes days of farming to get enough gold & materials to make even 10 items. I'm not opposed to that entirely, but I'd happily trade the loss in gold from vendoring for slightly more crafting materials (which would bring gold income down, and increase the rate of gold sinks via crafting).

As others have said, Blizzard seems to only be capable of balancing with a sledgehammer. I really wish they'd take smaller steps in their changes. Already I can see the damage and health nerfs in Inferno will make my defensive gearing of my DH better, and maybe even allow me to take my first steps into Act II (whereas right now Act I is easy farm mode, and Act II is all but impossible). I guess some things never change, no matter how much personnel has.

Ah well. I'll enjoy 1.0.3 when it comes out. I just hope they don't muck things up too much. Some of us don't mind actually working for our rewards.

[MongoJerry]

Give us slightly better drops, so our chances of finding that more worthwhile gear is improved, and gives us a bit more crafting material to work with so we can utilize the Blacksmith more. As it stands it takes days of farming to get enough gold & materials to make even 10 items. I'm not opposed to that entirely, but I'd happily trade the loss in gold from vendoring for slightly more crafting materials (which would bring gold income down, and increase the rate of gold sinks via crafting).

They also said they're reducing blacksmithing costs, too. I don't know in what way or by how much. I'm hoping they reduce some of the tomes costs for some items.

And speaking of which, have they said when 1.0.3 is likely to be released? I'm wondering, because I've been thinking about doing a lot of farming this weekend, and if it's going to be released on Tuesday, then I can save up the materials and possibly use them after the blacksmithing costs have been reduced.

[Elric of Grans]

1.0.3 is coming `this month'. Probably not as early as Tuesday, is my guess. I believe they commented somewhere that Tome costs would be reduced on high-end Blacksmith crafts.

[Ashock]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

How are hardcore people playing in Act 2 then? Yeah, they're using the AH, but they aren't using the AH like softcore people are (buying items from people in Act III/IV to prepare themselves for Act II).

They are playing there by not being melee. Besides, if you finish Act1 and enter act2, you are playing Act2. That does not mean you are progressing in Act2.
The first time I went through Act1, I died once in the whole act. In the same session, after killing Butch, I went to Act2 and immediately had several near deaths as soon as I left town in Act2 from just the dragonfly things right outside of town. I then proceeded to die twice to the first champ pack I met, and 5 times to the next.

Obviously, if I played HC, I'd been more careful, but this is just to illustrate the difference between acts 1 and 2 in inferno.

[Kevin]

They are playing there by not being melee.

Considering the first HC Inferno Belial kill was by a barbarian this is wrong right from the start. I also see quotes in the chat that seem to say that there are as many melee as ranged on the top end of the HC progression as well and since that currently is Act II and one or two people in Act III that would tell me that there are ranged and melee progressing in Act II Inferno on Hardcore.

So again, how are hardcore people playing in Act 2 then?

[MongoJerry]

Considering the first HC Inferno Belial kill was by a barbarian this is wrong right from the start. I also see quotes in the chat that seem to say that there are as many melee as ranged on the top end of the HC progression as well and since that currently is Act II and one or two people in Act III that would tell me that there are ranged and melee progressing in Act II Inferno on Hardcore.

So again, how are hardcore people playing in Act 2 then?

Correct. From the comments of some of the top hardcore players, it's actually the melee who are having the easier go of it in Act 2, after they gear up in Act 1.

[ViralSpiral]

How's your progress been, MJ? Don't think I've seen any updates from you in awhile.