Diablo III – A journey through Act III

You’ve been running around with your hero for some time now. You’ve seen the fallen star in Act I, and you have purpose and forward momentum which took you through the deserts and sewers of Act II. The game has finally finished taking shape, and you are ready for all out war. If you’ve been playing since the first game, following the story line, you’ve become emotionally invested in what is arguably the best part of Diablo III. You’ve made it to Act III and you’re finally ready to take on the greatest war strategist Hell has to offer.

Time to use everything you have learned so far 

Diablo III, so far, has done a great job with the dungeon crawl-style gameplay. You run forward a bit, kill the baddies, and run forward a bit more. This style gives you just enough variation to learn various attack and defense combinations in stride, and keeps a forward momentum to the story. For the first two acts, it is really unlikely that you’ll get stuck at any one point for very long. Act III still includes a couple of the dungeon crawling areas, but the overall focus of this act is a battlefield. If you’re not careful, or if you are unable to regroup fast enough, it is very easy to get overwhelmed on your first pass into the Arreat Crater. The forces of Hell have brought war machines and giant enemies to the surface of the world, and it is up to you to send them right back down.

Once you pass level 20, your character has had some time to develop a variety of attack and defense combinations. The Barbarian, for example, has combinations that are perfect for one-on-one combat, as well as a five-on-one combat. Remembering which combinations work when can often be the difference between a victory and a defeat. You must pick the combination of attacks that best suit your situation, and change it up whenever appropriate. The Demon Hunter especially has developed a number of different attacks that are situation-specific.

Your equipment really matters now 

Act III is a really great time to focus on your equipment. Chances are, the armor you are picking up in your drops is still better than what is offered by the merchants, but it is still not as good as what you could have. Take the pile of gold you have been growing and head to the Auction House outside of the game. You can search by Hero type for weapons and armor, and you will quickly see that what others have found outpaces what you are wearing my a lot. You can bid on an item in a 48 hour auction, or you can buy the item outright. There will be no shortage of items for your level of Hero — last time I looked there were 64 pages of the exact same helmet for the Wizard class. There are a ton of users trying to benefit in both directions from the Auction house, so be sure to give it a shot.

Gem crafting is another really great way to get an edge in Act III. By now you’ve stumbled across more than a couple gems. Keep a hold of them and craft them into better gems for your items. The difference between a chipped emerald and an emerald is pretty big, and even more so when you can craft flawless gems. If you haven’t bought them in the auction house, you’ll be stumbling across items that have two sockets in them for an even greater boost in power.

Group combat makes things so much more fun 

If you’re going to be constantly connected to the Blizzard servers, you might as well find a few other people to play the game with. Diablo III declares that the game gets more difficult when your friends join your game, but I have found that in many cases the opposite is true. Your character has some pretty glaring weaknesses that can’t be overcome in every situation. The Barbarian is still difficult to play against a swarm of ranged fighters, and the Wizard is still wearing toilet paper for armor. There’s only so much you can do about this on your own, in a group, however, you can play the strengths and weaknesses against each other really well. If you put a Barbarian, a Monk, a Wizard, and a Demon Hunter together, for example, the game becomes much easier and still enjoyable.

Additionally, the more bodies you have on the battlefield, the more likely you are to accidentally stumble across a health globe that will restore the health of the entire party. If you are fighting by your self, you usually have to cut your way through the baddies to get to the health globes, and that doesn’t always work out the way it is supposed to. If you don’t have three other friends of similar level to play with you, hop into a Public game and give it a try, you might find the differences to be really exciting.

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