Diablo 3 is fundamentally broken

[Bolty]

Now, I understand you're playing a barbarian, and I completely agree they have that overgeared god or undergeared whipping boy problem. But I wonder, is inferno really broken? Or is it really the melee/ranged discrepancy and skill/class balance that is broken?

Of course, you can make a case they're interrelated, but I feel like if they worked on skill/class balance and improved some of the more trash skills, it'd have a better effect than just the across the board nerfing they're planning. As it stands, their proposed changes don't sound like they will change anything but make the gear standard a little more relaxed. The core inferno game play experience sounds like it'll remain the same.

Hmm, well, obviously I didn't go through the AH method you did. I just don't find the AH enjoyable as a way to spend my gaming time. I don't recall what date I entered Inferno difficulty was, but a lot of time was wasted trying to play in groups before Blizzard hotfixed mob damage while grouped - before that change, playing in groups larger than 2 was effectively impossible for me.

The fundamental issue between ranged (especially DH) and melee is that for you, any mob can 1 or 2 shot you. The difference in gearing up is that you do more damage, increasing the odds of killing something before it 1 or 2 shots you. For a melee class, the gear is necessary simply to be able to apply any offense whatsoever; if I'm not geared enough to survive toe-to-toe with an opponent, there isn't much point to bothering.

So when I defeat Belial in a group and they all (ranged) want to jump into Act III, they're all excited for it and I bow out quickly. To them, there's no difference between Act II and Act III; the mobs will 2-shot them in both places. For me, the difference is enormous; the damage the monsters hit me with ramps up significantly to the point where I cannot function.

In group games that I play in, the ranged players enjoy having me as a meat shield to absorb a lot of the incoming damage. In effect, I act as a buffer to accommodate for their sometimes-undergeared characters, making up for their lack of damage by buying additional time. But that's all I can do - buy time. I can't tank champs or rares indefinitely except for a few cases of all melee-friendly abilities and low-damage mob types. It's not a matter of skill, it's a matter of gear and numbers.

So when you evaluate that the patch changes will relax the gear curve, understand that it has a profound impact to melee classes, one that won't be so noticeable to a class that (currently) is built entirely on not ever getting hit. A Demon Hunter and a Barbarian are essentially polar opposites in that respect, and especially in my approach (pure defense) vs the approach all Demon Hunters are forced to take (pure offense). There isn't any viable way Demon Hunters can gear and spec to have any significant impact on their survivability against mobs that hit for 35k baseline. Not so for Barbs, since they must take those hits to do anything.


Oh, and to Tal: what you are describing is the average Inferno boss pack encounter. They are brutal. They are tough. I think one of the largest adjustments when you get to late game is that your mindset for champs and rares changes from "oh this is a speedbump" to:

1) Is this pack doable (i.e. does it have some totally BS combination of abilities that are impossible to handle)
2) How will I kill this - usually meaning, how can I break the pack up and isolate one or two of them
3) How will I manage my long cooldowns - many fights can take 10+ minutes
4) How long will it take to kill - will I risk having my Valor stack drop off fighting them

As you gear up, the goalpost of "speedbump" vs "oh here we go" shifts. Boss packs in Act 1 Inferno are almost all speedbump variety for me now, and Act II packs require the evaluation.

Oh, and try another level or two - I know I dinged 60 in Act III Hell. 58 is a tad low there. The levels the mobs are compared to you makes a big difference in survivability (which is why Inferno is so hard, everything's above you in level).