Newbie Q&A

OK, so I am not playing WoW, I a not playing any multibox games, just some League of Legends, and I am bored with that.

I want to box again, and not WoW right now. I saw there is a starter game for Diablo now you can play (not sure the restrictions).. so I had some questions related to boxing and Diablo 3. Maybe some of you know me, and can help.

1. How easy is it to box in D3? On a frustration scale of 1-10 (1 being WoW, so easy it hurts, and 10 being .. impossible) And I am interested in details;
- how is looting
- how is using the mouse all the time on 4 windows?
- etc

2. How fast is the level and gearing process?
- how easy is it to get started, and what is required?
- do you need to be over gearing content?
- is buying gear off the AH necessary from lvl 1-60 to level efficiently at all?
- do you find it really hard with groups until you are over geared?

3. Is anyone making any money, at least recouping the cost of the games?

4. Is D3 a resource-intensive game, that my computer will bog down on unless I have all the latest hardware? (i can 5 box wow easily, and 10 box wow with some difficulty, 4 box SWTOR easily etc)

5. Can you group with friends who are higher level than you? Is it worth it or like wow where it's a waste of time unless boosting. can you boost?

6. DO YOU LOVE PHAT LEWTS!?

:D

i love you all

I have 3 3-man teams I play with friends; 3x DH, 3x WD and 1BB+2Monks. The ranged classes are by far the easiest, with the WD's being the easiest to keep alive in sustained AoE fights. My melee team is only up to about 20 but it's far and away the most frustrating team dealing with knockbacks/fears. It's like playing WoW without follow and with a fixed camera angle. No assist means individual looting all...the...time. Spoken plainly, you'd be nuts to pay a monthly sub to box Diablo.

That said, it's not terribly difficult to make money, it's easy to get started, you don't need to overgear content until very late in the game and buying superb gear for leveling is fairly cheap on the AH.

I haven't tried the RMAH; I'm just not ready to open myself up to that sort of risk.

D3 is MUCH more hardware-dependent than WoW. 3 clients at super-low settings with the 2nd two set to maxfps of 30 still bogs badly in any area with lots of smoke or water. WoW was liquid smooth even with 5 clients at medium and one at max. My PC would also 5 box Rift at good settings, so this is entirely an engine issue.

Yes, you can group with friends. It makes it a bit of a waste of time for them if they're higher (they one-shot everything and get shit for XP) but you still level fast. It's basically what everyone wishes PLing was like in WoW for us boxers.

Loot...meh. I'm doing it because it's harder to manage than WoW (challenge) but it's grinding me down, to be honest. Just so many little things that distract from actually playing the game; mostly pathing...wierdness/oddities for lack of a better description. And of course, having to login to play and lagging like hell on Sunday is always such a treat.

My 1.5 cents, anyway...

would it be better to level one toon to 60 first, and then boost the rest? or just go for it and get all 4 to 60 together. I can try until i guess lvl 13 with the starter version. I'll probably do that for now, but I am curious what people are thinking about boxing.

What I need is a distraction. Some game to chill out, log on for a couple hours a day, play and then log out. LoL was great for that, since you can play a full game within an hour, and log off no problems. I also LOVE getting drops, and waiting for that gambling addiction of purples dropping haha. gotta love it.

i would say level one to 60 before you buy all 4 accounts(in case you don't like it) but you can just try out all 5 classes to 13 i guess you will know if you like it by then.
Its a great time sink and with the new paragon levels your slowly achieving something

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Originally Posted by Mokoi

What I need is a distraction. Some game to chill out, log on for a couple hours a day, play and then log out. LoL was great for that, since you can play a full game within an hour, and log off no problems. I also LOVE getting drops, and waiting for that gambling addiction of purples dropping haha. gotta love it.

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Diablo certainly provides distraction. The best thing about it, IMO, is that you can forget about it for a few weeks if work gets busy (/grumble /grumble) or you decide you're temporarily bored with it as there's no subscription fee you're wasting by not playing. ;) And if you like random loot, the Diablo games will definitely keep you occupied.

If you can figure out the quirks and manage to kill stuff, it really can be pretty damned fun. :D

Well, I used the starter edition to get some WD to 9, and they were pretty fkn smooth, a lot better than i imagined. And then I found out you can hold shift to not move while attacking. That changed everything. That would make everything so much easier... I am now doing 1 barb and 3 monks just because Ellay says its sexi, so who am i to argue :) I want to get both those teams to 13 and see if I can kill skeleton king with them (is that possible) I got to the S.King once on my WD, and at lvl 8 he just wrecked me and my dogs. it was pretty bad.not sure the trick. I have some blue armor I picked up, nothing special i dont think. What do I want on toons in D3? it seems like there is the same kind of stats as other games, but does attack damage go on a WD? or magic or something? I haven't looked very hard, and honestly with my screens so small (2x2 setup) im not able to read much about the armor other than the big numbers, I have been just replacing bigger numbers hhahaha.

But so far, fun. Might be worth it. But, since I want to buy 10x MoP in a month.. im not sure if it's worth it.

-Dan

The only problem is to get all the 4 chars stay together. It is much easy to play with 2 chars.

I am having problem with one of my chars (monk) that keep straying away. I realise the mouse on this chars are not syn with the rest every now and then. My 4 barb do not have such problem.

Other than that, you can take your time to play and don't worry about subscription.

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Originally Posted by Mokoi

What do I want on toons in D3?

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The easiest thing I've found to help with leveling and such is to save your money and put them towards +life on hit gems (purple) for your weapon. Get good gems (which you can trade between toons on your account as needed) and you regen so much life that it's hard to die. ;) Obviously doesn't scale that well at end-game but it certainly takes some of the pain out of leveling.

Over the bank holiday weekend I levelled up 3 x Monk and 1 Warrior to Inferno, Paragon level 2 - from creation :) - pretty much a difficult each day, I still did things like went to the Zoo so wasn't solidly playing.

I had 25% increased experience gems in my helms so that helped.

I guess as you've started now, you're able to answer your own questions :)

I play 4 x client at max settings and I get slowdown in the sewers, and occasionally when this new melee team have hundreds of spells firing off on a busy screen! Never was like that with the witch doctors.

I've now ticked the 'low particle' box I think it's helped.

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Originally Posted by Mokoi

I want to get both those teams to 13 and see if I can kill skeleton king with them (is that possible) I got to the S.King once on my WD, and at lvl 8 he just wrecked me and my dogs. it was pretty bad.not sure the trick.

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I played the free trial (up to the skel king) with a monk level 8-9, and died first attempt on the king (only death in the trial). He does an emote before giving a big crashing hit, just run out a bit when you hear the emote. It'll come back every now and again in the fight. killed second attempt, and that was the end of the free trial

Btw, I hope I didn't add too much hype to my classes. They are fun for me and it feels like melee scales so much better with more gear. It's a much smoother experience, there isn't a lot of kiting involved unless it's a bad affix and you need to dodge bit. You just run in and pew pew pew similar to DK's or Paladins in WoW.
The Skeleton King in the beginning just has a ton of hp, also if you have an issue initially with him - dodge his main swing attack or just level up a bit more.

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Originally Posted by Ellay

Btw, I hope I didn't add too much hype to my classes.

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I believe any hype is justified :) i'm really enjoying the setup.

Well, I am not as convinced yet.

I have been playing both the 1xbarb / 3xmonk and the 4x witch doctors.

I am enjoying the witch doctors a lot more than the monk barbs. Maybe it's just becase they are still low level, but I feel like it's a pain in the ass running around after mobs in areas. With the WD I can just stand and shoot from the middle of the room and just kill everything.

I started them at about the same pace, I finished Act I the same day (twice because of the stupid re-start after starter edition). And then started playing my WD more because I found them more fun.

Now my WDs just killed Diablo at level 30, and my monks are sitting at level 19. I do like them, and maybe they will pick up later, but I actually find that the damage of the WD is gone crazy compared to what the monmks are at the same level as the WDs.. AND i can afford now to pimp the melee team with the best rares that i can buy on the AH and what I pickd up from the ah, and they still have issues sticking to mobs, etc. Maybe i just suck haha.

I'll keep playing them both, but it's a fun game and my first week was very fun. Diablo was a good fight, I died twice on the clone shades when they just blew me up with AOE lol....

-Dan

Check my video in the other thread. You get cyclone strike at lvl 14, then an improved version of it at lvl 25. It makes it so you don't have to chase after monsters if pulls them right to you.
Witch Doctors are amazing though if you stack CC. It's all about fun factor.

I have a question about the monk / barb team that I could use some advice on.

Should I (remembering that I am still going through normal mode on my barb/monk team) be using a shield on my barb or on all of them to increase survivability? or should I be using a 2H on all of them? just the monks? just the barb?

how do you guys choose your gear for leveling? I guess the off-hand weapon or shield if you use one only adds stas that are not on hit or damage, since that affects only that weapon which doesnt hit? or something? They made the weapon itimization really confusing IMO

Someone know what's best for pre-60?