Poll of the Day > Attention: Mead

(+) Yeah! (+)

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I can field this one: yes

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Why isn't Path of Exile an option?

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Judgmenl posted...

Why isn't Path of Exile an option?

Because some people dont want to pay $60 for a simple cosmetic.

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Having just played (all yesterday) alot of D2 again........i can say without a doubt (not that there was a doubt) that D2 is STILL better than D3 even with all the upgrades etc.

In fact, i played D3 just a few weeks ago. Now that I knew about not playing through the story, I was able to get chars to max level VERY fast, and just run endgame. This was more fun then playing through the horrid campaign again (unlike D2 where I used to enjoy playing through it with new chars all the time), but I still got bored fairly fast.

Meanwhile I currently have a few builds for each class in D2 I can't wait to play through and build up. I wanna do a Summon Druid of course (always a favorite of mine), but I want a Cold Aura/Zeal Pally with maxed holy shield as well (super defensive, high damage and fun), I love my hybrid Assassins, can't wait to do them (they basically spend a few points in martial skills and max out traps, it's an awesome build), and I have a build for each other class I wanna run through eventually.

Can easily see myself enjoying the game for a few hundred more hours.

Got bored with D3 last time in maybe 20-30.

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after playing the beta last night

no, it's not better

it's very, very archaic

nostalgia is what make people think it's better, but jfc it's really not.

now, there are some things it does do better, of course. but as a whole, d3 is far and above the superior game.

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Thats a big question.

The answer is yes. But that is only because the ROOT experience of Diablo 2, the story, the visuals(even dated) and soundtrack, and of course the loot mechanics are so finely and perfectly tuned and satisfying.

Now Diablo 3 has a lot of things that improved on 2. Theres at face value a ton of quality of life improvements that I think honestly get overlooked by players until they go back to the old game and get water splashed on their face.

And after the growing pains of release and the moronic auction house they implemented, the game has received a fairly slow but consistent stream of updates that have honestly restyled in a pretty cool co-op roguelite type experience in the form of just Bounties and Rifts and some special events during seasons.

This has kept the game refreshing and fairly sustained it as a relevant part of gaming which is awesome. And in my opinion it is probably the single funnest roguelite experience that can be played co-op right now.

But all of that pulls you away from the awful campaign that is just transparently a bunch of World of Warcfraft writers and designers trying their best to hastenly slap together a Diablo game.

And then theres the loot and gameplay. The gameplay is honestly, and it took me a long time to admit this, just more fun moment to moment. Something exciting is always happening to get you on your toes or make you feel ridiculously powerful. Kinda reminds me of the moment to moment gameplay of the recent Doom titles actually in that regard.

And finally the loot. The loot system is bad. It used to be worse. Now its just regular bad. Rather than have a bunch of very rare uniques, theres the set items and uniques that EVERYBODY is gonna find, countless times. The same is true to a lesser extent for Diablo 2 but just in comparison if someone wanted to 100% Diablo 2 just by collecting all the runes, theyd likely play a very long time before ever seeing a Zod rune drop from an enemy. They could get lucky, but probably not for a good while, if at all.

So yeah because of a few key things that I think make Diablo 2 such a notable classic I think 2 is still better, but Diablo 3 is now a fantastic game in its own right.

And final thing is that the cinematic sequences in both games is incredible like so many other Blizzard games, Blizzard should make movies like that and it only stinks that the plot for 3 is so dumb. Hopefully 4 is an improvement and the head of Blizzard has been fired by that point for not protecting his workers because Ill feel like a real asshole if I decide I want to try to play a game without paying for it.


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Ok, maybe I should be more specific why I don't like D3 as much.

First, D2 actually was FUN to level up new characters, try new builds, get good equipment over time that mattered etc. In D3, you can max out a character in a day, without trying hard. There are no builds (other then based on equipment you get) because you can switch skills around at will. Make a class and spend the hours needed to get to level 70 and your done. You have paragon levels which add a bit, so at least some reason to get exp, but your done building a character and just struck on farming for equipment only.

D2 on the other hand you can play each class for many many days just trying 1 build. You keep getting awesome items meanwhile, that can help all your chars (and now there is a shared stash so moving items over is cake).

For D2 you keep getting rares/runes etc that are useful while playing as each new character (though mostly past nightmare ACT II for +1 skill charms for trade etc).
This gives you incentive to play, as while you are making a new build/char, your also boosting the power and strength of all of them (getting an enigma etc).

For D3 my main problem is that I just don't feel it after maxing a characters level. Running for loot in D3 just isn't enough, and paragon levels are just meh.

Also, I don't know what it is exactly, but even the combat in D3....it's better in a way, but in a bad way for me, it's MINDLESS, and repetative (extremely).

Now I'll admit I didn't LOVE doing Baal runs etc over and over end game in D2, but even those were more enjoyable than the end game system in D3.

For me, even after playing THOUSANDS of hours of D2, I was able to pick the game up yesterday and just run with it, having a blast the whole time. The whole running thing is annoying (really wish they would change that at least a bit, maybe increase base stamina regen etc, or make you use stamina potions automatically or something) but honestly even for my druid (no vigor), I got used to it fast and it's not really a problem anymore.

Honestly what I'd REALLY like them to do is change the ACT II defensive mercenary from Defiance to Vigor lol. Then EVERY char could have vigor, you just would sacrifice a different mercenary aura for it.

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Honestly just innately give all player characters and mercs vigor, remove the visual animation and replace the paladin skill with something similar like an aura that reduces the effect and duration of movement impairing effects or remove it entirely

and I think youd solve the most annoying part of normal difficulty for most players

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Yeah, I was honestly pretty close to stopping at first due to the stamina mechanic, I don't have patience for that anymore.

Pally helps with that alot, and I played him before the druid. Also luckily my druid setup only really requires points into dex for bow usage, a tiny bit of str for armor (and second tier very fast bow) and everything else in vitality.

That helps alot with stamina drain (really didn't notice problems on him).

Pally just sucked because he needed most of the stats AND didn't get vigor for quite awhile.

I 100% agree on just removing the mechanic at this point.

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