Diablo 3 Diary: 10 tips to prepare for Nightmare

The normal Diablo III experience is now a memory. How should you prepare for Nightmare? The monk offers 10 tips for making the experience just a bit easier.

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Darkartiste has slain the beast. It only took 27 hours, but I've completed the four-act epic of Diablo 3 with my monk and am wiser for the experience. Already eight hours into the Nightmare level, I'm finding the difficulty level lives up to its name. How can you survive? Here are 10 tips to help you succeed alone. 1) Destroy every barrel, search every body and explore every inch of the map. I said there is no shortage of gold, but the more you explore, the more monsters you kill. Every dead body rifled and every barrel, vase or bookshelf toppled means more gold or items to sell. Utilize your town portal to get back to town quickly to empty your bags so you can get back to the action. 2) Stick and move when fighting the yellow or blue mobs. Elite monsters (named individuals ringed in yellow) or Champion monsters (groups of three or four ringed in blue) are tougher to take down and often have special abilities that can wall you off or freeze you in place. Especially as melee, standing in one place is usually a bad idea as flames, poison or ferocious blows can drop your health to zero in a few seconds. Constantly move, grab health globes, and pick your spots to use your special attacks. Certain mobs will drop health globes as they drop in health. Use only what you need and save others for later in longer fights. 3) Get extra experience by reading lore or fighting well. The journals found in satchels or bookcases will give you some good back story as well as limited XP. Also, having a big killing spree where you massacre a large number of monsters will yield extra XP. As an extra tip, listen to the lore (or read it later) when it is offered as it can give you tips on a new monster and how it attacks. 4) Use your shift key for certain battles. Movement in the game has your character following the mouse cursor. Targeting can be a bit troublesome on monsters that move quickly and you could literally find your character running in circles. Holding the shift key down will allows you to stand in place and let the mobs come to you. This strategy is not as good for the elite and champion mobs as mentioned above, but for large groups, or that last one or two mobs eluding you, it helps quite a bit. Also, holding a mouse button down automatically repeats an attack. You don't need to keep clicking for each attack.

Covetous Shen gains more patterns with Jeweler pages and gold

5) Use your gold to max out your jeweler and blacksmith crafting skills. Once they are maxed out, you will only be able to increase them through gathering blacksmith pages (five pages plus 15,000 gold for each Grand Master skill up) or jeweler pages (10 pages and 10,000 gold for each skill up in Master). There is no shortage of gold in the game, and crafting rare items (and even some exceptional magic items) will make adventuring and killing easier. 6) Don't sell your magic items, just break them down. This goes hand-in-hand with number 1. The randomness of the crafting magic means that I created plenty of items with stats that were of little use to me. My monk didn't need strength or intelligence. So I had to craft several of the same item before I got one with stats that were useful. The more crafting materials you have, the better. 7) Make sure all of your followers are properly equipped. They have slots for two weapons (one if two handed), a necklace, two rings and a focus. Although the damage they do is considerably less what I did, the little pokes and stabs they do means less damage you have to do. Giving them gear that increases their damage or healing could be the difference in a kill or a long walk back. Your followers also never die, they just rest and won't fight for a time before rejoining your side. 8) Watch for visual cues in boss fights or when exploring. As in World of Warcraft, certain fights will offer visual cues before special attacks. Later in the game, environmental obstacles that can damage you will do the same thing. An area of the floor will glow or swirl, an item will drop on the ground that appear innocuous at first but will explode a second or two later. If you played WoW, you may recognize a few boss fights in Diablo 3. That is not a bad thing for survivability. 9) Utilize checkpoints as often as possible. There is no save in the game. The game is saved on Blizzard servers at checkpoints, when entering a new level or using a way point. An unexpected disconnect could lose your progress and force a regeneration of the random map or dungeon. 10) Don't assume Nightmare difficulty is just Normal mode with harder hitting mobs that have more hit points. My entry into Nightmare has shown Elite and Champion mobs with new attacks and AoE, forcing me to move more or run around a bit to wait for an ability on cool down. These fights can be tougher than the boss fights. Also, I find that I am utilizing the environment to put obstacles in between myself and certain types of mobs. Nightmare has its name for a reason, so be warned. I am just beyond the Skeleton King and working toward the Act I conclusion. That last boss will be a true test of just how ramped up Nightmare level is. Hopefully, these tips will help you get there so we try some co-op together.
Shacknews' ongoing Diablo 3 Diaries follow Managing Editor John Keefer's journey through Blizzard's latest RPG.
Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 21, 2012 11:30 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Diablo 3 diary: 10 tips to prepare for Nightmare.

    The normal Diablo III experience is now a memory. How should you prepare for Nightmare? The monk offers 10 tips for making the experience just a bit easier.

    • reply
      May 21, 2012 11:35 AM

      Wish my monks damage was better, or at least, that fist weapons would drop more of be worthwhile to craft. Using swords on mine as well bc they give the best mods. You can't beat 100dex 50 vit 20 str and good damage...wtb monk weapons which don't blow :p

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        May 21, 2012 11:37 AM

        Yeah I've noticed on the AH that for my level, none of the wizard-specific weapons come vaguely close to what a good 2-handed mace can do. It's a weird design decision.

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          May 21, 2012 11:58 AM

          Are you factoring in the existence of the wizard source off-hand?

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            May 21, 2012 3:04 PM

            When the best two-handed maces do almost double the damage of the best wands I find on the AH, it doesn't matter what the off hand item is bringing to the table. Maybe wands are priced much higher, but then the mace is still a better deal. Same deal with staves.

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              May 21, 2012 3:41 PM

              Sadly when it comes to 2h vs 1h + offhand, you cant just look at the tooltip comparison for the actual DPS change. You have to actually equip the items to see the real change in DPS. I very rarely find 2h is more effective than 1h+offhand on my barbarian.

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      May 21, 2012 11:46 AM

      Seems to be pretty well agreed upon that spending money upgrading the artisans is a waste. You're better off saving gold and spending it at the auction house.

      Me, personally, I'm using my first run through to upgrade them fully. I'll have plenty more time to go the AH route or whatever. Gold is unlimited :)

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        May 21, 2012 11:53 AM

        Enjoy it while it lasts. It's only a matter of time before gold is useless like it was in D2.

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          May 21, 2012 1:14 PM

          Never going to happen. Even if we suppose that the gold economy completely implodes, killing the auction house, crafting will always be way better than gambling.

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        May 21, 2012 11:53 AM

        Eh, the AH setup makes it incredibly cumbersome and time consuming to find exactly what I need. Right now I'm going the crafting route

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          May 21, 2012 12:00 PM

          I crafted 6 yellow bastard swords last night. None of them gave me +str (which was key for me to pick it over my current sword). I could have easily searched the AH for swords that give +str with a minimum value of, say, 60. Yeah, I still did the crafting thing because I feel like that's more "playing the game" than going to the AH, but I doubt I'll stick with that mentality for long.

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            May 21, 2012 12:09 PM

            Yeah, there is that. The AH though is not in-game, so I tend to agree with you about playing the game. I wish the enchants weren't so random. But hey, I still think the crafting offers a better chance now than the AH. I wasted a good few hours in there and still couldn't find what I wanted, and even if I did want it, there is no guarantee that I could afford some of those prices ATM.

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              May 21, 2012 12:27 PM

              Try searching with a sensible max buyout and a min level a few lower than you. There's just way too much crap on the AH with bad prices, but if you filter those out it's much better. Blizzard appears to return a limited set of results so once you chop off the unreasonable ones it's amazing how cheap you can get good gear.

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            May 21, 2012 1:41 PM

            [deleted]

        • spl legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          May 21, 2012 12:18 PM

          You put in 3 stats or less you want, put in how much you want to spend. Then you click search and it gives you exactly what you want. It gives you a list and you can hover over it to compare it with your current equipment.

          It's not cumbersome or time consuming. In fact it's SO easy and fast it trivializes many aspects of the game. I don't even bother with magic find yet, I just get my main stat and gold find on gear so I can buy what I need on the AH because the odds of me ever getting lucky enough in game are so slim that I'd have to play all day and night to get anywhere near as geared.

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        May 21, 2012 12:09 PM

        This is 100% correct. I'm in Inferno right now and I still haven't completely upgraded my artisans. They why is simple: Right now you can get everything you need through the AH or drops. Eventually money will mean nothing and then it will be time to upgrade. But spending 10k per item and not knowing what you get is useless. The AH is filled to the brim with great items.

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          May 21, 2012 12:14 PM

          But finding those items on the AH is a pain in the ass. The AH is a work in progress and not an ideal way to do it. If you are on Inferno, then you are hardcore. I'm not sure the non-hardcore would have the patience for the AH the way it is now. I wasted hours in there and still could find what I wanted at a reasonable price.

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            May 21, 2012 12:21 PM

            Wait, how exactly is finding good AH items a pain? Put in your char, put in what equipment slot you want, max buyout price of 3k-7k, and (if necessary) preferred of your primary stat. Takes less than 5 minutes to get amazing bargain equips.

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            May 21, 2012 1:09 PM

            You obviously haven't used it enough.

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              May 21, 2012 5:48 PM

              Or he doesn't know what he's looking for.

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        May 21, 2012 1:18 PM

        The artisans are 100% a waste of money compared to the AH, but likewise I'm upgrading them anyway because I know Blizzard will probably fix it sooner or later and I want to be able to learn any endgame recipes I find. I think their design goal is that you always want to salvage subpar magic/rares, and you always want to craft with the materials you have.

        Even if they don't lower the crafting prices, the auction house bubble is going to pop in the near future I think as the supply of 1-60 gear starts to dwindle and people start realizing how badly they're undercutting the actual value of gear.

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        May 21, 2012 1:40 PM

        I say go full AH since the economy is total chaos right now. There are items that have 50+ in various stats selling for less and 5000g. I quadrupled my damage output and only spent around 10k gold. Thats only around 5 minutes of farming.

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        May 22, 2012 4:38 PM

        [deleted]

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      May 21, 2012 12:05 PM

      Number 6 is completely wrong.

      You don't need to melt everything down. In fact it's BETTER if you sell everything as money doesn't come as easy as the author believes. The only way I've found to upgrade my BS/JC is by selling those blues and yellows and using that cash to upgrade. At the end of an Act I still had tons of crafting materials but was starved for $$$.

      Plus if you are really hurting, skip the crafting go straight to the AH, plug in your stats and get some better gear. Be specific as there is only a 40ish page limit and everything cheaper just falls off the end.

      The AH needs a ton of work and feels like a half assed implimintation. I wish I could run Auctioneer in Diablo, there's so much potential for profit it's unholy.

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        May 21, 2012 12:12 PM

        The current AH is why I recommended crafting. The setup is time consuming and cumbersome and it takes way too much time to find what you need. And for the non-hardcore player, crafting is going to be a bit more fun than the AH gamble. Just my 2 cents.

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          May 21, 2012 12:22 PM

          Actually, I believe you can sell items and then go to the AH and buy crafting materials for cheaper. Unless prices have gone up on those.

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          May 21, 2012 12:26 PM

          No, sorry. 6 is completely wrong. Here's why:

          Blue item sells to NPC vendor for: 50 - 300 gold
          Blue item breaks down into: 1 dust, possibly 1 fang
          1 dust on AH: 14 gold
          1 fang on AH: 21 gold
          Effective worth from breaking down blue item: 14-35 gold

          Net profit from selling blue item to vendor and then buying 1 dust and 1 fang on the auction house to replace the breaking down: 15-265 gold extra vs breaking down.

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          May 21, 2012 12:33 PM

          [deleted]

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            May 21, 2012 12:43 PM

            Fair enough. I'll give it a try, I was having fun crafting. ;)

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              May 21, 2012 12:44 PM

              I'm guessing that we'll either see a skyrocket in AH prices or smithing will be patched cheaper by blizz - the current status quo really undermines the value of smithing, and it's unfortunate.

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                May 21, 2012 1:32 PM

                What they really need is some way to make the crafted items special. Right now I guess it's that you can basically reroll the item until you find what you need, but I don't think that's quite enough in most cases.

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                  May 21, 2012 1:58 PM

                  If they had a class tab added where there was variation but always sensible options for the class, we could still get better or worse gear but none of this +24 strength Wizard only BS.

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                    May 21, 2012 2:02 PM

                    It'd be nice to have a way to specify what stats you want. I get that it's supposed to be similar to gambling from D2, but currently it's just way too much of a risk. There must be some sort of compromise... I'm confident that Blizz will fix it - they are always pretty solid at balancing issues.

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          May 21, 2012 1:03 PM

          I think you're completely wrong. The AH has all of the tools you need to easily find gear you want very quickly. You can filter by individual properties AND exactly how much you want from each of them

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        May 21, 2012 12:16 PM

        When you say "sell everything" do you putting them on AH? Or do you mean sell to in-game vendors?

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          May 21, 2012 12:51 PM

          I vendor everything and put the replaced rare stuff that's been good enough to use on my character on the AH, as well as other items that look decent that folks in my game didn't want.

          Last two items (I believe a level 20 ring and 44 gloves) sold for 20k each.

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          May 21, 2012 1:30 PM

          I just vendor it because I don't want to be leaving and entering the damn game all the time and it's faster to just right-click it all.

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      May 21, 2012 12:17 PM

      I guess I should have added a caveat that everyone's experience is different and this is what is working for me. They are just tips, not gospel. Mileage may vary, etc.

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        May 21, 2012 12:54 PM

        right now the broken AH economy really means the crafting is broken in the game though :( I wish it wasn't because I thought the crafting was really well done.

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          May 21, 2012 12:56 PM

          yep. AH supply is off the charts since crafting is so bad. and nothing is soulbound, thereby adding even MORE items.

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      May 21, 2012 12:55 PM

      This reads to me as a really general "How to Diablo III" guide. Preparation tips for Nightmare like equipment levels / DPS, important stats to max etc. would be beneficial.

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      May 21, 2012 1:00 PM

      Huge tip: don't use the jewel crafter early on to upgrade gems, it's way too expensive. It's usually 10x cheaper to just buy the upgraded gem on the AH. I don't know if this holds up in hell or inferno, but it does so far in nightmare.

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        May 21, 2012 1:13 PM

        Even though this is true and I completely understand it, I can't stop myself from combining up my gems. It's like an OCD thing. It's so.... satisfying.

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      May 21, 2012 1:03 PM

      5 and 6 are TERRIBLE advice until blizz changes something

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        May 21, 2012 1:28 PM

        Agreed, 5 and 6 are bad advice.

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        May 21, 2012 2:01 PM

        Well, if you're running multiple characters through a difficulty you can make an argument that it's worthwhile. I think it's fun, and I don't really enjoy the AH in it's current state.

    • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      May 21, 2012 1:36 PM

      Everyone needs Int.
      Int is resists.

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        May 21, 2012 1:45 PM

        Really?? I wish I knew that earlier!

        • Ebu legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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          May 21, 2012 1:49 PM

          Tooltip for Int.

          1 int is 0.1% to all resists.

          And Dex is dodge.

          And Strength is armor.

          And Vitality is HP.

          Everyone needs everything.

          • reply
            May 21, 2012 1:51 PM

            You're better off getting +resist gear than +int gear for the non-int classes.

          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            May 21, 2012 1:58 PM

            That's very misleading, Str/Dex/Int aren't going to have amazing returns on those stats because they also are primary damage stats. I think those bonuses are intended more as perks for the classes that are meant to stack those stats.

            Also, according to the tooltip, Armor reduces all forms of damage, including magic. And Resists include physical resist. I don't really know how that works or what the actual distinction is.

          • spl legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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            May 21, 2012 2:10 PM

            Careful with that. Your resistance numbers are not equal to the percentage of resistance.

            That number is a base, the percentage is calculated based on level of mobs.

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            May 21, 2012 5:54 PM

            i hope you make a character with every stat. it will be awful.

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        May 21, 2012 2:04 PM

        Ehh... everyone needs their class stat and vitality. Resist will come from items I think. The best items are going to be the ones where 3 primary attributes are given a huge boost... I've seen some (only at lvl 34) with +40-50 for Str, Vit, and Dex.

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        May 21, 2012 4:06 PM

        And Str is Armor and Dex is Evade even for classes that don't have those as their primary.

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        May 22, 2012 1:21 AM

        I was sad to see individual elemental resistance is back in the game. I'd hoped they'd just go for 'elemenal resistance'. Instead, we're expected to farm up individual types for more obnoxious packs of chain-AOEing mobs.

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      May 21, 2012 1:58 PM

      It's not a memory for me yet :(

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      May 21, 2012 3:43 PM

      Question, when I upgrade my Blacksmith, Jeweler and Stash is it for all my characters or just that one? Haven't had a chance to check yet since I've only made one character.

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        May 21, 2012 3:45 PM

        Yes, all character share those three, with one distinction: hardcore characters have a separate Blacksmith, Jeweler, and Stash shared among them.

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          May 21, 2012 4:05 PM

          sweet, thx

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          May 21, 2012 6:19 PM

          So all hardcore characters still share those three though? I was wondering if each hardcore character was on his own or not.

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            May 21, 2012 6:54 PM

            I think hardcore has a separate smith/jc from softcore, shared between all your HC chars

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              May 21, 2012 6:55 PM

              Right, that's what I meant and that's what it sounds like. I was wondering if each hardcore character had his own smith/jc but it sounds like not.

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        May 21, 2012 3:52 PM

        its for all your characters in your account

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      May 21, 2012 3:51 PM

      So far jeweler seems more or less useless to me...it's more expensive to craft stuff than just buy it at auction.

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        May 21, 2012 4:45 PM

        Jewels through Flawless Square drop in abundance. Higher level jewels don't drop so there should be some value there. Leveling up the jeweler is fairly cheap so you might as well do that. Upgrading the gems through Square is definitely useless.

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          May 21, 2012 5:50 PM

          I agree with this sentiment. Square gems can be had for a fucking pittance and are affordable even at like level 20.

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        May 21, 2012 5:49 PM

        Damage gems in socketable equipment can make the lower levels fly by, especially if you have a highlevel character willing to farm some decent equipment. My Demon Hunter has been blasting entire groups down with one Multishot thanks to some Radiant Rubies in equipment.

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      May 21, 2012 4:45 PM

      Does anyone actually pick up all of the non-magical weapons and sell them (via multiple trips to the vendor)? They're so worthless (2-8g) that I just skip them altogether.

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        May 21, 2012 4:49 PM

        No, avoid all grey/white.

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        May 21, 2012 6:17 PM

        yep. Only pick up blue and above

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        May 21, 2012 6:20 PM

        I did for most of my game but now I'm saying "fuck it" and only grabbing blues or above.

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        May 21, 2012 11:40 PM

        im starting to question whats the points of gray/white items

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          May 22, 2012 12:05 AM

          No point at all except in the early levels. I'm torn on this because as much as I love selling loot, it eliminates the need to town portal all the damn time like I did in the previous games.

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          May 22, 2012 12:56 AM

          Because it's better atmosphere than "none at all" in some cases.

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          May 22, 2012 1:32 AM

          You might not believe this, but the abundance of grays/whites simultaneously makes the blues and above seem less common while also keeping the world from feeling devoid of items entirely.

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        May 22, 2012 1:32 AM

        Generally no, except between level 1 -9 to fill out slots, afterwards only blue / yellow / orange.

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      May 21, 2012 6:21 PM

      can someone explain the difficulties? so there are 4 acts and how many difficulties? the Acts are the same on each difficulty right? What is Hell? another act or just difficulty? What extra content is available in these difficulties that are only playable after beating the previous? And one more, Hardcore mode, is it all the same Acts as the normal game - just that you lose everything if you die? I didn't play any D2, played the heck out of D1 though.

      trying to get a hang of this... thanks

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        May 21, 2012 6:53 PM

        There are 4 acts to the story and 4 difficulties

        The acts are just 1-4
        The difficulties are
        Normal
        Nightmare
        Hell
        Inferno

        The game is set up so that when you finish one difficulty, you start over on the next one with that character until you get through them all.

        Hardcore mode means everything else is the same but when your character dies, he doesn't come back.

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          May 21, 2012 9:23 PM

          ok, I got it now, I appreciate it

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        May 21, 2012 9:27 PM

        There are some random events / quests throughout the game that you won't see all of the first time. Otherwise the quest and structure is the same. Basically Nightmare is new game+, Hell is new game++, and Inferno is new game+++

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      May 21, 2012 9:20 PM

      Sorry , but much of this advice is not very good. 1 is especially wrong. The faster you progress through areas, the faster you level up. Being a random-level completionist is a complete waste of time. Also crafting is overrated in this article.

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        May 21, 2012 9:25 PM

        Also lvl 35 in 34 hours is a bit slow and reflects the "search every barrel" waste of time approac. I'm up to lvl 50 in 40 hours (which is also slower than it could be) by just focusing on primary objectives.

        The normal/vanilla/magic gear you find at a higher level is much better than wasting time killing barrels.

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          May 22, 2012 12:32 AM

          You're writing as if rushing through the content is somehow improving your game experience ?

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            May 22, 2012 10:27 PM

            And you're writing as if playing slowly trough the content is somehow improving your game experience?

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      May 21, 2012 10:26 PM

      I would not recommend money on anything but the auction house. Gems and items are much cheaper than building them yourself.

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      May 21, 2012 11:47 PM

      how do I survive hell? 51 barbarian, just started act1, I was doing ok until the tombs and now every non trash monster makes me its bitch :( how much damage should i be doing at this point(currently 2500)_?

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        May 22, 2012 12:45 AM

        Your skills or vitality is the likely problem

        You need at least 25k health as barb in hell. I also know you have to have revenge with the 30% rune on to survive

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          May 22, 2012 12:56 AM

          i just switched it up a little, adding revenge and the juggernaut skill, made a world of difference. shame, i was really liking the previous build I had going as well :(

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            May 22, 2012 1:22 AM

            Yeah, in nightmare and hell, all the fun offensive moves have to be replaced by defensive ones. It makes it pretty boring outside of a co-op game.

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              May 22, 2012 1:23 AM

              Oh, and put on a shield. Makes a world of difference. You simply cannoy dual wield on your own.

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