Reaper Of Souls Status Report

Level 70, check.  Finished story, check.  Ready for more?  Check!  I’ve got about $60 invested in Diablo 3 so far.  I’m not ready to say it’s worth the price yet, but i’m still enjoying it, and not ready to call my experience complete.  The Crusader plays a lot like a paladin in World of Warcraft, which I loved.  My build is melee by choice, and that can be challenging at times during more complicated fights.  Still, I have no plans to change it.

Likes And Dislikes

My biggest complaints so far are the lack of variety in endgame, and how close the NPCs are to each other.  You can’t click on menus without accidentally clicking on something else.  The variety in endgame could be fixed with future updates.  I’m not familiar with how content patches work in Diablo, so this may or may not be in the cards.  The NPC placement is already being addressed, at least in part.  It’s also a pretty minor complaint, but it is annoying.

There are a few big likes, but one of my biggest likes is probably unusual to go rambling on about.  Now I usually find mobs in MMOs to be very forgettable.  Nothing interesting, special, or challenging about them.  Line ’em up, and kill a dozen at once.  In Diablo 3, I found a mob that stood out to me as particularly challenging.  The Bogan Hunter.  The screenshot here isn’t a great example of what it looks like, but if you’ve ever seen the move ‘The Village’, it reminds of the creatures in the red robes.  As for what it does, well, it pretty much pisses me off.  But in a good way.

So what does this mob do that’s so annoying?  Well if you played World of Warcraft back in the golden age of Classic/Burning Crusade, think back to Hunters.  Remember how the good ones dropped traps -right- in front of you, then flew back and lit you up with their bow/rifles?  All while you struggled at turtle speed to catch back up with them?  Yeah, that’s pretty much what this little guy does.  And he does it very well.  It was the most impressive display of mob AI that I can even remember.  The trap placement was just as good as any player i’ve ever fought against.  While these are just standard mobs, it was still impressive.  They were only in one part of the game, but they certainly left their mark on me.

My biggest like is still the story.  It’s what i’ve come to expect from a Blizzard game, minus the whole Cataclysm expansion for World of Warcraft.  The dragon that died is undead and back?  Again?  So that you can kill…making him re-dead?  A low point from my perspective, but nobody’s perfect.  It obviously didn’t stop me from shelling out $60 for another game from Blizzard.

Next Up In Diablo 3

I’m still learning what’s what in Diablo.  I plan to stick solely with my Crusader.  Learning which stats are best, and what build to use, are my next priority.  I want to get a build out there, but i’ve got some learning to do still.  My level 70 legendary armor collection started with an awesome looking shield that’s bugged.

At least it’s awesome looking.