Hellgate:London

[Kevin]

Oh ho ho...the Diablo 2 launch was horrifying. Don't remember how it would take sometimes up to a minute or more to pick up an item? The lag was game-breaking at launch. I was in college at the time and I remember playing at 3:00 AM because that was the only time the servers weren't lagged to hell and back, pun intended.

After a month or so, things got ironed out generally, but Blizzard was totally overwhelmed by the network traffic and lag conditions at launch. They later claimed it was a "good learning experience" they could take forward into WoW. Oops.

-Bolty

Ah, OK I don't remember that because I didn't really play on Battle.net much early on with D2. I did a lot of LAN games. But now that you mention it I do remember that I played LAN instead of B.net because of how bad the servers were. I actually recall playing on "servers" of folks that had static IPs and would just leave a LAN game running then restart the game every now and then.

But yeah since I didn't care that much about B.net and I didn't play the game with people I didn't already knew it was easy for me to forget that B.net was messed up because I wasn't playing it on B.net. Most of the multiplayer I wanted to play was with my wife and our friends and that was generally with all 3 or 4 of us in my house. :)

[Thecla]

I suspect that this is the main reason for its release at this time. Consider that this is effectively a start up company and that they have been bleeding and hemoraging red on the finacial side with effectively almost nothing (possibly some advertising revenue) on their income side of thing for the last 2 years.

Yup, I suspect so too --- but I'm still a bit surprised. I'd guess FSS was better funded than most startups, even if they didn't have the deep pockets of a Blizzard, and I'd guess that the impact on their reputation (whether or not one buys into the Blizzard mythology of putting out games only when they're done) will cost them more in the long run than a further delay of a few months. But who knows what was really going on behind the scenes...

[VinnieJones]

Yup, I suspect so too --- but I'm still a bit surprised. I'd guess FSS was better funded than most startups, even if they didn't have the deep pockets of a Blizzard, and I'd guess that the impact on their reputation (whether or not one buys into the Blizzard mythology of putting out games only when they're done) will cost them more in the long run than a further delay of a few months. But who knows what was really going on behind the scenes...

EA was going on behind the scenes imo. They are very poor at qa, and rather pushy it would seem.

[Warlock]

Seems from their boards that may of the problems only show up in multiplayer, which would explain why they haven't bothered me (I have done some MP, which worked fine with two but wasn't worth the effort the following week with three).

Still impressed with the core design of the game. I haven't subscribed - I'm waiting to see how well they resolve the multiplayer and other bugs and to hear what the extended content is like - but I have enjoyed the single player game. In particular the Evoker is the best caster class in a game of this type that I've played since specialising in a spell doesn't make all the others useless by comparison.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

I haven't subscribed [...] but I have enjoyed the single player game.

Ah, someone having not subscribed and playing single player! Great.:)Could you tell me which modes (elite and/or hardcore) are available in the single player, non-subscriber version? I'm thinking about buying the game, and have found only conflicting info about that on the web.

Thanks in advance,

-Kylearan

[Warlock]

Hi,
Ah, someone having not subscribed and playing single player! Great.:)Could you tell me which modes (elite and/or hardcore) are available in the single player, non-subscriber version? I'm thinking about buying the game, and have found only conflicting info about that on the web.

Thanks in advance,

-Kylearan

Right now there is just normal mode (and nightmare, which I wouldn't bother with yet).

I expect Elite mode to be patched in shortly; it's been made available to non-subscribers online, so will probably make the next single player patch. I don't think there has been anything offical said and given the parlous state of MP I'd expect them to focus on getting that fixed.

The later levels of Normal provided me with a decent challenge. It is stupidly easy at first and takes a while to ramp up but does get there.

[oldmandennis]

They gave elite to everybody? I think I've only logged in once since they put a date on WoW 2.3.

Meh, I'm getting close to uninstalling it. Is anything in act 4-5 different then 3?

[Lissa]

I decided to pick up the game last Thursday after passing my first MCP for getting my MCSE upgraded to Windows Server 2003 and since my next test isn't till next Wednesday, I spent from that Thursday night through to Monday relaxing and playing it and then finishing up normal Tuesday night and last night in study breaks.

In my opinion, the game should have been held back and tested further as there are a ton of issues with the game as it stands right now. I decided to play a Blademaster as my first class and this class is really an exercise in frustration in a number of areas during the game. The bane for this class is the dry river areas where you have large open areas with some cover here and there, but when you have the level filled with ranged mobs, expect to die...a lot...even with charge and the aura that destroys incoming ranged attacks (because you're only going to be level 15 to 19 in this time period and may have a max of 2/4 in the aura for a total possible of destroying incoming shots of 30% max and mobs are typically firing 2 to 3 shots each with each shot doing around 30 to 40 damage per shot).

Another major issue for the Blademaster (and this may carry over to the Guardian as well) is that Stun defense is probably the most important defence skill you can get as typically when you are stunned in melee combat, you're likely to die if you're not near full health or the mobs are close to death themselves (and even then you can still die). The other sad thing about the Blademaster is it is mostly a one hit wonder since you will be dealing with a lot of packs, you will depends more on skills like Sword of Justice and Sweeping strikes and trying to get things like Sword of Authority for single mobs like bosses means you have to gimp yourself a lot for dealing with packs of mobs (which is what you will see a lot of, it's difficult, if not impossible, to split off single mobs most of the time and deal with them singly). The Surges are also a waste of points grabbing them. While you could potentially do some big damage as the various Surge powers do stack, trying to keep them up will be problematic (you have to get the killing blow on the mob with the surge attack to get the surge to stack up and/or refresh as they last 12 seconds after the last killing blow with the surge attack).

If you do not buy Aura of Power to high level and Matched Blades to high level, you're going to be in for a world of hurt later in the game as you will be losing you power too frequently from skill usage and you will need a huge amount of will to use two weapons along with the various relics, fuels, and batteries to boost those weapons further. In essence, by the time you get to 50, you will most likely have spent 18 talent points into those two skills (10 to Aura of Power and 8 to Matched Blades) leaving you with 31 talent points to spend on other skills (another reason why trying to go heavy surge will not work and why trying to spread your points out will ultimately doom your character even though FSS has said you should be able to spread out your points more unlike D2 to make your character viable, but it won't work as you can see this occuring in late Act 4 and Act 5 of normal where it really gets painful if you haven't specialized).

Terrain bugs are also a major issue in the game where it is not uncommon to get stuck in the terrain in outdoor areas and a few indoor areas (indoor area it's much less likely to happen, but in the dry river bed areas it is a near constant issue and you typically have to use the terrain to get close to mob packs there, so getting stuck is a very real issue to the Templar character classes). Another aspect of terrain issues, not sure if it's a bug, but unlike the indoor areas, outdoor areas (again, mainly the dry river bed areas) you will end up with a large number of mobs near your gate and this too can get you killed as a melee character (although melee characters may have this a little more easy in that they may be able to take out several mobs before going down themselves :blink:). Another terrain bug is that mobs that are on a level above or below you, and sometimes attack you in melee where you cannot attack them back. Another bug that hurts melee classes as well is that some normal sized mobs, like zombies, can attack you in melee while you cannot attack them which can be frustrating as well.

As to the story, there was only one minor plot twist, and I kinda saw it coming anyway, was pretty weak. It was basically D1's story rewritten with instead of the character shoving a crystal in their forehead at the end, it was one of the NPCs. The story lines behind some of the off quests where actually more engrossing than the main story arc (Lucius and 314 was hillarious and a well needed comic relief throughout the game). You see all the characters from D1 in the game as well with Murmur playing the part of Cain (sagely advice), Aphrun also played the role of Cain to an extent as well (putting the pieces of the puzzle together and pushing you onward), the various merchant taking Griswold's part, Healers doing the role of Pepin, the builder NPCs acting in the stead of Wirt on unusual items, and various NPCs in the stations giving out quests like the other NPCs did in D1.

Overall, from looking at the game so far, it feels like what FSS was doing was making a new take on Diablo while throwing in a few D2 affects, pulling some things from WoW (there is a triage mini-game in the game setup exactly like the WoW quest to become an Artisan in first aid skill), and trying to make it more of a FPS/TPS. My advice to anyone looking at the game right now, wait a few patches for them to get things worked out more as right now the game has a lot of bugs and there are some definite balance issues for melee classes (they may be there for the caster and ranged classes as well, but they're quite glaring for melee) right now that need to be worked out.

[LochnarITB]

(there is a triage mini-game in the game setup exactly like the WoW quest to become an Artisan in first aid skill)

I could not believe how blatant a ripoff that was.

I haven't played a blademaster yet, and now I am concerned about doing so. I can see the problems you mentioned just from playing an evoker and a marksman. One of the problems that really bugs me is swarms. You can have multiple portals pop near you each popping multiple mobs that descend on you. Sometimes they are little tiny guys that run right up to your feet and it becomes very difficult to target them. Because they also block your movement, it becomes almost a given that you are going to die. Like I said earlier, hardcore would seem almost pointless. Your toon will die in ways that no amount of skill can prevent. The game can be good fun, but you have to go into it knowing there will be large doses of frustration. Don't get into the game at a time when you aren't in a mood to handle more frustration (like if you have already had a bad day and imagine your boss's face on each of the zombies coming at you).

[Lissa]

I could not believe how blatant a ripoff that was.

I haven't played a blademaster yet, and now I am concerned about doing so. I can see the problems you mentioned just from playing an evoker and a marksman. One of the problems that really bugs me is swarms. You can have multiple portals pop near you each popping multiple mobs that descend on you. Sometimes they are little tiny guys that run right up to your feet and it becomes very difficult to target them. Because they also block your movement, it becomes almost a given that you are going to die. Like I said earlier, hardcore would seem almost pointless. Your toon will die in ways that no amount of skill can prevent. The game can be good fun, but you have to go into it knowing there will be large doses of frustration. Don't get into the game at a time when you aren't in a mood to handle more frustration (like if you have already had a bad day and imagine your boss's face on each of the zombies coming at you).

Actually, this is one of the few instances where a Blademaster shines. The mini-felbores are quite easy to deal with as a Blademaster if you have Sweeping Strikes as a single use of this skill in normal will kill most, if not all, of the mini-felbores. The real trouble that Blademasters run into is mobs that are ranged attackers like the Frenzies, Imp Snipers, and lizard dog things that shoot fire. In the dry river bed zones, these ranged attackers tend to group up and when you charge, they all spread out (making charge useless until the cooldown ends) and bombard you with ranged attacks. In this case, charge and the auras that affect ranged attacks (either destroying the incoming missiles or reflecting) do not do enough to allow you to survive if you're of the approriate level and gear.

[Thecla]

I decided to play a Blademaster as my first class and this class is really an exercise in frustration in a number of areas during the game.

I actually think that all the classes are powerful and fun to play, and the melee classes aren't inferior to the ranged ones. They were definitely worse early in the alpha, but they got buffed very significantly, to the point where the guardian is arguably the strongest class in the game. I also think there's quite a bit "under the hood". It's not so easy to figure out, say, how to distribute skills or match up items, and maybe there's quite a bit of flexibility there. I've been playing since the alpha and I still don't feel like I have a real handle on the game yet (but maybe I'm just slow;)).

The bane for this class is the dry river areas where you have large open areas with some cover here and there, but when you have the level filled with ranged mobs, expect to die...a lot...even with charge and the aura that destroys incoming ranged attacks (because you're only going to be level 15 to 19 in this time period and may have a max of 2/4 in the aura for a total possible of destroying incoming shots of 30% max and mobs are typically firing 2 to 3 shots each with each shot doing around 30 to 40 damage per shot).

In situations where you're facing large mobs of ranged attackers, you can use a grappler (on a wepaon switch) to pull them in one by one and destroy them with a sword equipped in the other hand. I didn't like this much in the beta, but have found it to work pretty well. Mostly you need it for the orbile types, which tend to float around out of melee range, but it can be useful against other rnaged attackers too. I haven't found the sword throwing or "heavens arc" skills to attack flying demons to be much use though, I must say.

Another major issue for the Blademaster (and this may carry over to the Guardian as well) is that Stun defense is probably the most important defence skill you can get as typically when you are stunned in melee combat, you're likely to die if you're not near full health or the mobs are close to death themselves (and even then you can still die).

Yup --- high stun defense is a must for Templars, as is good ignite defense, but that's just a matter of equipping yourself properly, which is not hard to do. (One way they buffed templars was to increase resistances to special effects on all templar armors; the first blademaster I played in the alpha spent almost the entire time getting stunned and ignited, and spent all the money he collected on health injectors and other potions). Also, you can keep gyro-stabalizers and fire retardents on your belt to remove those effects if you happen to get hit by them.

Using different types of damage -- with corresponding sfx's -- to attack to best advantage, and defending yourself against those sfx's procing (and especially stacking) is IMO an interesting and vital part of the combat system. (Quick summary for anyone who hasn't tried the game: physical=stun; fire=ignite and lose 5% health/sec: nasty if it happens to you and good if you ignite a boss with lots of life; poison=no heal: so you have to pay attention and take an antivenom before a health injector if you're also being beat on by high da demons when you're poisoned; lightning=shock: can't use skills, which also cuts both ways).

The other sad thing about the Blademaster is it is mostly a one hit wonder since you will be dealing with a lot of packs, you will depends more on skills like Sword of Justice and Sweeping strikes and trying to get things like Sword of Authority for single mobs like bosses means you have to gimp yourself a lot for dealing with packs of mobs (which is what you will see a lot of, it's difficult, if not impossible, to split off single mobs most of the time and deal with them singly).

I found skills work pretty well even with not so many skill points invested, and they automatically improve with your character lvl, so you don't need to keep adding points to maintain their effectiveness. Also, dual-wielding splash damage swords gives blademasters a pretty powerful melee-aoe attack that works well against packs.

The Surges are also a waste of points grabbing them. While you could potentially do some big damage as the various Surge powers do stack, trying to keep them up will be problematic (you have to get the killing blow on the mob with the surge attack to get the surge to stack up and/or refresh as they last 12 seconds after the last killing blow with the surge attack).

I didn't like the surges either, and the health one especially seemed fairly ineffective. But I may be biased --- I don't like that kind of skill anyway: it reminds me of the "charge-up-and-release" type of attack that is too much micro-managing for my tastes.

If you do not buy Aura of Power to high level and Matched Blades to high level, you're going to be in for a world of hurt later in the game as you will be losing you power too frequently from skill usage and you will need a huge amount of will to use two weapons along with the various relics, fuels, and batteries to boost those weapons further. In essence, by the time you get to 50, you will most likely have spent 18 talent points into those two skills (10 to Aura of Power and 8 to Matched Blades) leaving you with 31 talent points to spend on other skills (another reason why trying to go heavy surge will not work and why trying to spread your points out will ultimately doom your character even though FSS has said you should be able to spread out your points more unlike D2 to make your character viable, but it won't work as you can see this occuring in late Act 4 and Act 5 of normal where it really gets painful if you haven't specialized).

I've no idea what any of the character builds will look like by the time you get to 50, but I really doubt that it will work that way, unless it's by choice. Just my experience, but I've never really encountered problems running out of power (in part, for templars, because the normal attacks work very well on their own, which I sort of like, so you don't have to use your skills non-stop. Some points in matched blades is essential, but it may just mean you have to decide eventually how yo balance your stat point distribution into willpower and your skill point distribution into matched blades. It is a different thing that your stat point distribution is basically determined by the stat-cost of the items you want to equip, but I actually sort of like that too. So far, I've found adding stat points for my items (strating around lvl 10, which is when the stat-costs of your items start to exceed your beginning stats) and skill points here and there according to their appeal has worked fine. Maybe I'll discover that I'm thouroughly gimped at lvl 50, but I'd be surpried.

Terrain bugs are also a major issue in the game

That is for sure, and it's not a good thing (even if they put a stopgap "/stuck" command into the game to work around this).

My advice to anyone looking at the game right now, wait a few patches for them to get things worked out more as right now the game has a lot of bugs and there are some definite balance issues for melee classes (they may be there for the caster and ranged classes as well, but they're quite glaring for melee) right now that need to be worked out.

The game was definitely released with way too many bugs and annoyances, but I'm not so sure about the balance issues.
I really like the caster classes. They're strong but I don't think they're unbalanced, or that the blademaster is worse off. A blademaster with good swords can end up doing more damagae than a similar lvl evoker, and a marksman can do a ton of damage from range but is really fragile when compared with a guardian.

Anyway, these comments aren't intended to be argumentative, just some thoughts about the game in response to what you found.:)

[Lissa]

In situations where you're facing large mobs of ranged attackers, you can use a grappler (on a wepaon switch) to pull them in one by one and destroy them with a sword equipped in the other hand. I didn't like this much in the beta, but have found it to work pretty well. Mostly you need it for the orbile types, which tend to float around out of melee range, but it can be useful against other rnaged attackers too. I haven't found the sword throwing or "heavens arc" skills to attack flying demons to be much use though, I must say.

Well, the problem is most glaring in the dry river bed areas in Act 3. The problems that occur is if you get an unlucky grouping of two out of three mobs for that area as ranged, you're going to be in for a world of hurt using a grappler or charging as the AI tends to clump up these mobs together. And like I noted, the auras that help you with ranged attacks will be of little good here as there will typically be too many incoming ranged attacks to make the auras really effective.

As to Heaven's Arc, I found that it is useful in most situations where it was only not useful in a couple places (dealing with an Orbile boss in Act 5 prior to get to St. Pauls and the Orbile in the hellgate itself). Outside of those two instances, Heaven's Arc was plenty useful with only a single point placed in it. As to throwing your sword, that's pretty much a useless skill. Too long a cooldown for too little damage, even if you go all the way to the bottom of the tree.

Yup --- high stun defense is a must for Templars, as is good ignite defense, but that's just a matter of equipping yourself properly, which is not hard to do. (One way they buffed templars was to increase resistances to special effects on all templar armors; the first blademaster I played in the alpha spent almost the entire time getting stunned and ignited, and spent all the money he collected on health injectors and other potions). Also, you can keep gyro-stabalizers and fire retardents on your belt to remove those effects if you happen to get hit by them.

True, but you already have a limited enough inventory and most of the time you can get through the ignites without much issue. I've found that stun and poison were the two biggest defenses you needed with stun being the top one in need.

Using different types of damage -- with corresponding sfx's -- to attack to best advantage, and defending yourself against those sfx's procing (and especially stacking) is IMO an interesting and vital part of the combat system. (Quick summary for anyone who hasn't tried the game: physical=stun; fire=ignite and lose 5% health/sec: nasty if it happens to you and good if you ignite a boss with lots of life; poison=no heal: so you have to pay attention and take an antivenom before a health injector if you're also being beat on by high da demons when you're poisoned; lightning=shock: can't use skills, which also cuts both ways).
I found skills work pretty well even with not so many skill points invested, and they automatically improve with your character lvl, so you don't need to keep adding points to maintain their effectiveness. Also, dual-wielding splash damage swords gives blademasters a pretty powerful melee-aoe attack that works well against packs.

Yep, I was lucky and found several very good splash damage weapons as I was going through the game, but that still was no substitute for using Sweeping Strikes and Sword of Justice for packs. Combining splash damage without those AoE attacks just made situations more quick to deal with.

I didn't like the surges either, and the health one especially seemed fairly ineffective. But I may be biased --- I don't like that kind of skill anyway: it reminds me of the "charge-up-and-release" type of attack that is too much micro-managing for my tastes.

Surges are just plain bad.

I've no idea what any of the character builds will look like by the time you get to 50, but I really doubt that it will work that way, unless it's by choice. Just my experience, but I've never really encountered problems running out of power (in part, for templars, because the normal attacks work very well on their own, which I sort of like, so you don't have to use your skills non-stop. Some points in matched blades is essential, but it may just mean you have to decide eventually how yo balance your stat point distribution into willpower and your skill point distribution into matched blades. It is a different thing that your stat point distribution is basically determined by the stat-cost of the items you want to equip, but I actually sort of like that too. So far, I've found adding stat points for my items (strating around lvl 10, which is when the stat-costs of your items start to exceed your beginning stats) and skill points here and there according to their appeal has worked fine. Maybe I'll discover that I'm thouroughly gimped at lvl 50, but I'd be surpried.
That is for sure, and it's not a good thing (even if they put a stopgap "/stuck" command into the game to work around this).

From what I've been able to determine on builds with the Blademaster, you either go down the Sword of Authority track or you got down the Multi-strikes track.

The game was definitely released with way too many bugs and annoyances, but I'm not so sure about the balance issues.
I really like the caster classes. They're strong but I don't think they're unbalanced, or that the blademaster is worse off. A blademaster with good swords can end up doing more damagae than a similar lvl evoker, and a marksman can do a ton of damage from range but is really fragile when compared with a guardian.

Anyway, these comments aren't intended to be argumentative, just some thoughts about the game in response to what you found.:)

I wouldn't call it imbalanced between the characters, it's more imbalanced between the mobs and how they work against the various classes in the various terrains. There are some mobs and some terrains that are just horrible for the Templar to deal with while there are some mobs with some terrain that is just horrible for the Cabalists to deal with and likewise the Hunters, but it seems that the Templar have the biggest problems due to a combination of mobs with terrain and bugs with the terrain itself (getting stuck) that really causes the issues.

[Roland]

Maybe you should learn to play dodgeball.;)

[Lissa]

Maybe you should learn to play dodgeball.;)

With the way the game plays loose on ranged attacks, you're still going to take hits cause you can't move that far away from your target if you still want to hit it in melee. You have to stay within 2 meters and most groups of ranged attackers put a spread of missles that is typically 3 to 4 meters to either side of where you're fighting. What you're asking is to dodge rain drops in a down pour.

[Pantalaimon]

Did anybody else get confused because they both have the exact same avatar? I thought Lissa was having a nice long conversation with herself! :whistling:

[Roland]

With the way the game plays loose on ranged attacks, you're still going to take hits cause you can't move that far away from your target if you still want to hit it in melee. You have to stay within 2 meters and most groups of ranged attackers put a spread of missles that is typically 3 to 4 meters to either side of where you're fighting. What you're asking is to dodge rain drops in a down pour.

Use guns.;)

Yes, I know how hard it is to dodge. It is impossible to dodge every projectile coming your way, although you can do it more than 50% in open areas (while closing in; once you're in melee, I don't think you can really avoid any projectiles reliably. except for hit and run tactics). However, there are other methods to use. Templars can use guns, they can draw mobs to them (with the Grappler), they can use AoE attacks (and with their high damage, they should have little trouble ripping through packs, ranged or otherwise), etc. This game will force you to think outside the box just a little bit, so learn to do that and you'll be much better off.

Experiment a little. See what works where.

[Warlock]

Those stair trap style entrances can be pretty harsh on evokers too. Getting shot at from all sides when your armour was designed by Kleenex is a challenge even in the two ply stuff.

[Rhydderch Hael]

...What you're asking is to dodge rain drops in a down pour.

"...dance between raindrops."

Concise, more poetic, and ripped unashamedly from The A-Team.

[the Langolier]

Blademaster swings both swords at once, but I don't really notice much of an improvement in damage between only one sword and two. I've also noticing when using one cricket bat and one normal sword that the sweep damage from the bat only has affect on half the swings. Exactly how does dual wielding work?

Weapons have damage types, but does that apply to the type of damage they inflict, or merely the special effect that it may potentially inflict? What does the number represent that is next to the symbol indicating the type of damage? How do I tell what the range of total damage my character does?

I keep hearing to keep upgrading my weapon, but not only do you have to disassemble 120 items per upgrade or so, it seems like every time I put my best weapon in the nano forge it tells me my experience is too low. Are mods going to get better? I've had some mods that were like +2% increase in skill duration or some such... alright! 2% of 10 seconds is... 10 seconds!

What is the point of enemy level scaling with character level? As I "progress" through the game, I feel like it's the same thing over and over. It feels like 90% of what I face are imp trooper/snipers (or the other variants) and zombies, and when I level up, they level up with me. For example on the fattest zombies, it is nearly clockwork that my first swing takes them to 60% life, my second to 20%, and the third kills them.

No blocking with a shield?

How useful do auras get? I was excited when I got the armor aura to see how high I could boost my AC. It went from 75% damage reduction to 84% when completely surrounded. I stuck with the healing aura - it's only ~1 hp per second, but combined with the heal prayer there has only been one or two situations where I've had to through in health injectors just to escape death.

I was skeptical at first about how they were going to combine a FPS and RPG, but I think they pulled it off well. Scatter between shots, inherit ranges on weapons, and skills granting improved accuracy and scoping, it works pretty well. They need to half the cursor movement rate when zoomed in though, it's way too quick (it feels like they have your character turn at the same rate, but since you are zoomed in your view moves twice as fast).

The quests are WAY too linear and predictable. It's like right after you talk to the guy in charge of the station, everyone suddenly wants to give you something menial to do, like collect X number of items from X enemy in X location. They are always the same, for every character, and always given. Then, as soon as you complete a quest for someone, they immediately want to give you a new one. I get tired of seeing all these yellow exclamation points over townsmans' heads, but I am already bored with their quests. And even if I do talk to them, half them want me to go collect items from an area I just cleared, ugh! It's also a shame that you can't talk to anyone for random babble that was fun in the Diablos. All the voices sound the same.

How the hell do you talk to people in multiplayer? I'm assuming /town is a good bet, but I NEVER get a response from anyone. Being instanced, you can only group up in town, but I find it pretty difficult to find someone I want to play with. How do you determine where a party member is if they leave you in town? All that happens is my com goes to static and I have to ask them - to which I never get a response. Seems to me like chat channels are are much more effective way to find people you want to play with. Even if you want to steer clear of channels, this town system doesn't seem to be working.

Overall, I think it has been OK. I was never really excited about in the first place. I've been having fun getting a few characters to Act 3 thus far, but I don't think it is anything special. Of course, I don't know what I thought about the original Diablo in the first place, but it turned out to be the best thing ever, so maybe I'll get into it more.

[roguebanshee]

How useful do auras get? I was excited when I got the armor aura to see how high I could boost my AC. It went from 75% damage reduction to 84% when completely surrounded.

You went from 25% damage taken to 16% damage taken ie. 1/3 less damage.

To chat use /town, /chat or /newbie.