Diablo III Open Beta This Weekend

[bokou]

http://journeyofbokou.com/2012/04/20/di ... open-beta/

So if you’re not excited enough about the possibility of playing the Guild Wars 2 Beta next weekend, get ready to reserve this weekend as well. Anyone with a valid Battle.net ID is eligible to play the Diablo III Open Beta this weekend. It starts at noon Pacific time so that gives you approximately 4 hours to stock up on energy drinks, pizza and bugles chips.

All you need to do is:

* Log in or create a Battle.net account at http://www.battle.net
* Create your BattleTag™, which is required to play Diablo III
* Download the game client, install, and play between 12:01 p.m. PDT April 20 and 10:00 a.m. PDT April 23

You won’t have access to the Blizzard beta forums but we’ll be setting up a new Diablo III section in our forums today for discussion about the beta and upcoming D3 news. If you have any issues, post them in our forums or check the known issues list.

Here are some more tips:

Some tips for the beta:

* Turn on Elective Mode in the Gameplay options. This lets you personalize your equipped skills more
* Turn on Advanced tooltips for your skills under Gameplay options.
* Rings only drop from the skeletons before you fight the beta-boss. There’s a vendor in the second area of New Tristram that has a tab for rings.
* There are no amulets in the beta
* Crafting is good but make sure you pay attention to the level requirements of the item. You are able to craft gear in the beta that you can never equip due to the level cap.

We’re about a month away from the actual release so if you don’t feel like downloading and installing the beta and would rather save your time for the full game release, check out MrCarrier’s Twitch.tv channel as he’s likely to be streaming it.

[Odinson]

Are you guys gonna participate in the beta this weekend? On the one hand, it'll be awesome! On the other hand, will it spoil the surprise a little? I mean D3 isn't an MMO. Do you do yourself more of a disservice playing it early?

Thoughts?

[mts]

i don't think you'll get to see much of the content. when the d2 stress test came out a lot of elders were running around as barbarians in act1. some even leveled their character up pretty high just killing the raven over and over again. (the raven was like only the first tiny fraction into act 1.)

so if you like doing betas, i don't see a reason to skip this one.

(i personally don't like doing betas though.)

[carrier]

i probably wont be streaming D3... but who knows, i might. i plan to advertise me streaming GW2 for next weekend

[carrier]

next to nothing will be spoiled. the "beta" is more like a demo. you get to play up to lvl 13 and up to the first main quest of the first act. you can run through it in about 1-2 hours.

[Shaun]

I have beat it as well and wasn't eager to do all characters.

Figured what was the point if everything just got reset anyway.

So it isn't like you can knock out all achievements or something.

Anyway it was damn fun. I have already ordered it and downloaded the client from Blizzard.

Just need to wait till the 5 to install it.

[bokou]

hehe just pluggin your channel when I can, buddy

[bokou]

split and merged some stuff so that we don't have one thread in the new section with all the discussion in it and put the posts about the upcoming beta into the thread about the upcoming beta

[Trick]

I gave it a shot this weekend. Played a Monk up to cap, but I just couldn't get into the groove with any other classes.

Monk does seem interesting. At first blush, it appears to be the only healer, and even though some of the Passive skills referenced direct heals I couldn't find any powers listed at any level which were direct heals. There was one PBAOE heal on a reasonable cool down though.

To compare to D2, it felt like someone ran a Paladin and an Assassin through a grinder and poured the mix into a new mold.

The class also has lots of buff and debuff options for party play. A pretty cool one available early causes all attacks to reduce the target's damage by 25% for 3 seconds. I have no idea if it would work on bosses, but I imagine it would because it would be key to solo Monk play.

I also noticed that there is a staff-like weapon class available only to Monks. I was able to craft one, but it required level 15 to use and the beta stopped at level 13

Not sure that I will get the game, but if I do you can expect to see me throwing fast, damaging jabs while blinking behind enemy lines to kill casters and calling down shafts of Holy light to heal friends and burn foes

[carrier]

i too really enjoyed the monk trick. i also like the barbarian. the other classes feel weak starting out but once you reach lvl 5-6 things pick up and you feel a bit more powerful.

to me this game will be a fun dungeon crawler where i can turn off my mind and just cruise. oh, and i really like the diablo lore

[Odinson]

I played the Barb and Wizard through to the end, and a little Demon Hunter and Monk. I found the barb to be pretty straightforward (duh!) but certainly fun. The Wizard I thought was underpowered, until I realized you can channel ray of frost. Then it got alot easier. I had the most trouble with the demon hunter. I felt like I was doing alot more backing up and snaring type stuff with less overall dps. The rapid fire talent did some damage, but didn't seem on par with the ray of frost. The monk was actually a pleasant surprise. It seemed once you got a long weapon (sword vs knuckles), your reach was longer and could hit more things while standing in place. Plus, you could hold down your main attack, spamming it, for no spirit cost. This was great for bosses. On par with ray of frost, but you didnt have to run around waiting for the recharge (but you did stay in melee range).

In the end, I think my melee class will be Monk and ranged Wizard. At least to start.

Did anyone play the witch doctor?