What if Inferno didn't exist?

[FireIceTalon]

I dont mind that Inferno difficulty exists, what I take issue with is the cheesy mechanics in it. Most of the elite traits are cheap as hell (regardless of difficulty), but things such as enrage timers only exasperate it even more.

I think, that with some slight modifications, 1-60, Normal-Hell, would work just fine. I think the biggest problem that people have, outside of the arse-kicking that is Inferno, is the loot system is just weird. ( I'll expound on this in a different thread, because I don't want to hijack yours )

On my first character, I hit 60 about midway through A3/Hell. So that left another Act and a half where I wasn't really progressing, and that was frustrating. Also, there seems to be that random XP wall around lvl 55ish that just feels super out of place. If the leveling was changed so it took maybe an extra clear of A4 to hit 60, but the progression felt more linear, then I think you could easily say Inferno isn't necessary.

60 midway through Act 3? Wow, that's pretty early. My Barb hit 60 last night, during the middle of Act 4.

One thing I noticed is that the difficulty increase from Act 4 Hell to Inferno Act 1 is insane. My Barb is pretty over geared for Hell, even at Act 4, but he almost feels under geared for Inferno Act 1. My defense numbers I think are pretty decent for that area, I'm working with about 44k hp, 150 ish resists, and dmg reduction is around 66%. DPS is about 8-9K, armor just under 6K. But the elites are MUCH harder than in Act 4 Hell. I realize it's Inferno, but the scaling is pretty huge. Like in D1 for example, Hell was substantially harder than Nightmare for each given area, but Nightmare Hell was probably still a little tougher than Hell Caves for example. The difficulty spike here just increases at a ridiculous rate.

But as someone else before said, you have to be careful for what you wish for. You had years of idiots complaining that D2 was too easy - and maybe it was, but nevertheless many people still had alot of fun with it. Now, they got what they wanted, and they are kicking themselves. I didnt play much D2, but I liked the difficulty aspect of D1 - it was challenging, but not cheezy. Of course, once you got the best gear in the game, even Hell/Hell kind of became a joke, though you still had to be careful even with a fully geared level 50 char (especially with Lava Maws and Storms).

If they took out the cheesy monster affixes, which would be most of them, cut back some of the dmg monsters deal out, I think this would make the game on Inferno much more fun. A lot of people would be mad I suppose, because overall, I would say opinion on the current state of Inferno is pretty equally divided - you either like it the way it is for the most part, or you really do not and it seems to be divided 50/50 among those who have played it. So who do you cater to in such an issue? You cannot please everyone, someone is bound to be disappointed by any changes. I really think Blizz can take out the cheesiness while still keeping those who like the game insanely difficulty happy, though. But if you eliminate Inferno altogether, you would probably have to make the 3 main difficulties a bit tougher than they are, cause my Barb ABSOLUTELY DEMOLISHED hell difficulty, and my Wiz, while not quite as dominant, isn't doing too bad either, and she is currently in Act 3 of Hell clvl 57.

I really liked the mechanics of D1's combat. Armor, to hit, and resists were so important in that game, yet in D3, while they certainly play a role, they work very differently. In D1, if you had a very high armor class, you didn't get hit nearly as often. In D3, no matter how high your armor rating is, it seems like monsters always have auto hit on you. A higher armor rating reduces incoming damage, yes, but this is very different thing from being hit period. Chance To hit is not an issue at all, be it for the monsters or us. Resists are about the only thing that works the same, although the numbers are just far larger in D3. Also, blocking itself seems pretty useless or even non-existent in D3, whereas in D1 is was very key for melee chars to have a good block rate by means of having enough Dexterity at your particular clvl. And of course, you could dodge melee in D1 which was a really nice combat dynamic IMO. In D3, all melee monsters have auto-hit on you even if they are 10 yards away, which is just stupid.

I had huge fun with my Barb in hell mode. It was a tad easy, as I pretty much obliterated almost everything in my path (even the packs that killed me, I came back with a Vengeance, literally ). Sometimes being dominant and just watching demon guts and body parts flying all over the screen is just as fun as being challenged, though I don't want the game to be too easy either. There has to be some sort of happy medium.