Surviving Caldeum at Nighmare Level with the Wizard (part 1).

It's all Fun and Games until you hit Nightmare Level

It isn't easy being green.  Or Arcane.  Or Frost, for that matter.   The first thing I found out that was once I hit the Nightmare level, Azumi folded like a cheap suit everytime ANYTHING came close to him.  I got through the first few quests with only a death or two, but after I hit the Cathedral, things changed.  I adjusted my build a bit more, and downed Magda.  I was feeling really confident when, as level 38, I set out for Caldeum.  I was confident with my play, confident in my gear, and ... just confident.

And once more, Azumi fell over dead within the first few mobs as soon as we hit Stinging Sands.  After some tries (and a lot of repair bills), I came up with a reasonable strategy.

Diablo 3: It's all Fun and Games until you hit Nightmare Level

The title pretty much says it all.  I've been leveling one of each type of character (yes, I'm an altaholic) but given the limited amount of space in the stash, I'm now only leveling two characters.  The others are acting as extra storage space at the moment -- because you often find a piece of gear that would be Just Perfect for another class when you get around to that.  Right now, my Barbarian's level 44 and my Wizard is level 37 and both are in the Stinging Winds area.

I think my Wizard is plotting to have me eaten by a grue.

With equipment donated by his good friend (my Barbarian, who is level 45 and stuffs all the mage-y junk in the Stash chest), my mage blasted through the Normal levels and splatted Diablo to bits as he hit level 30.  The build I chose was effective but not perhaps the best, using Frost Nova (ice snap), hydra (Arcane), ice armor (Chiling Aura), Mirror Image (simulacrum), Magic Missle (charged blast), Ray of Frost (snow blast) on my casting bar.  Evocation, Astral Blast, and Blur for the passive skills.  It wasn't a very high-powered build.  My armor was 1088 and the official stats say my damage was 586.17 -- so not very high, actually.  Since I'd killed him once (after many tries) on my Barbarian, the experience I had on how to manage the fight actually made it possible to solo Diablo at a much lower level on the Wizard.

Well, that and the gold and knowing how to use the Auction House.

Diablo 3 - Normal Barbarians (part 2)

(These notes are for NORMAL, not HARDCORE mode.  Not yet.  And on Normal difficulty.)

Okay -- you've gotten your character up to level 4 or so, you've picked your first skills, and you've even got some gear.  You're on your way to defeating the Big Bad Boss at the end of the game -- and unlocking the increasingly harder Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties.

Now -- let me add a note up front, here -- this is YOUR game.  I have some tactics that I use, but this should not be considered "set in stone."  I use "whirlwind" a lot, but you might prefer to have Seismic Slam or Hammer of the Ancients (both of which cost less energy) on your right mouse button.  I prefer to play with a shield but you might like the two-handed weapon best.

It's your game.  Set the game up however you like it.  Experiment with things -- that's what makes games fun!  If you have a group that you play with, then talk to them and ask them how they'd like you geared (the strategy may be for you to run in and take lots of damage while everyone stands at the edges and picks the little guys off and someone heals you, for instance.)  But if you're playing it solo, like I do, just make characters and have fun!

So... Barbarians...

Diablo 3, starting a Barbarian (part 1)

This is a series of notes about Diablo3, written from the perspective of "I never played this game before but I think I'll try it out."  This isn't a deep statistical analysis.

So... you're new to the game and you've picked a Barbarian because it's one of the easier classes to play. There's some specialty gear that drops for each class (Barbarians get a lot of belts -- don't ask me why) and this particular class gets extra bonuses just for standing around and wearing armor.  Sounds good right?

A note on character designs -- the male Witch Doctor appears to have a bad case of Parkinson's disease and although I love the idea of having Black characters in the game, the constant twitching is a bit much.  Nor do I like the prancy-girly female Demon Hunter in her high heels with twin crossbows is a real visual turn-off. 

When you log in, you begin Act 1 -- to find the "fallen star" and kill a lot of monsters.  You have two attacks (right and left mouse buttons -- the right mouse button costs more energy than the left mouse button attack) and two large globes at the bottom of your screen.  The red one is your health.  If it goes away, so do you.  The right globe is your energy (rage) and you need certain amounts of it to do certain attacks that cause more damage.  As you level, you will get options (the sword icon at the bottom (next to the person icon (your inventory)) will blink and you'll be able to choose from a number of confusing looking options.

Never fear, grasshopper.  You'll get it sorted out after a bit.  Time to go adventuring.  Run down the hill and kill whatever gets in your way.  At the bottom of the hill is Captain Rumsford.  You'll talk with him and the fun will begin.

Once you've got all the zombies sorted out (and dead), the gate opens and you can enter New Tristam.  Quest givers have glowing exclamation marks, people who want to yak at you have blue-white asterisks, and if you get lost, the icon (bottom of your screen) that looks like a wine cup has your journal with tabs about what you just read (or should have) from manuscripts you picked up and what quest you're on. 

Notable NPC's:

Getting started in Diablo 3 (no, not an Android game this time)

I admit I was sort of "meh" about getting a copy of Diablo 3 with my year's subscription to Warcraft.  Warcraft does suit all my needs, and I'm not looking for other games.  But friends were playing it and so I decided to eventually try it out because it's a solo game and sometimes I want to fiddle with something while I'm writing something else.

But once I got into the game a little bit, I discovered that a) most of the info out there was the result of rewrites of the pre-release game (and two years old) and b) contained in threads in a discussion forum.  So you have to slog through page after page after page (after page) of comments just to find out what stats you should put on the Rogue who's following you around.

So -- I haven't played it up to the highest level, but here's the basics (this is just MY opinion.  Your mileage may vary):