Last Thursday (24 May) - The Diablo Auction House

Last Thursday (24 May) - The Diablo Auction House

At the end of Act IV we get to battle Diablo himself, after proving ourselves against a number of lesser elites. At level 32 and with the best gear BW could scrounge up from drops off of kills, Barbedwire tested himself against the great One. Diablo cheated. BW didn't just fight Diablo, but several other elites that would step in and take Diablo's place whenever BW seemed to be getting the upper hand. BW had the power to bring down both Diablo and his minions, but not the health. Despite using all his tricks to stay alive, BW was eventually beaten down and defeated. He tried twice.

BW could have continued to take more shots at Diablo, and probably would have eventually managed to take him out, mostly by getting lucky with health pot drops. BW wanted something more decisive than that. BW went back to farming gear and experience. He eventually raised his level to 33, but did little to improve his gear. After the first clear of an area, the game gets very stingy with additional loot. I think that is a failure in the game, myself, as I was prepared to spend the extra time working to improve the gear.

It was suggested that I try the Auction House. One look at what was being sold caused BW's jaw to drop in shock. Before the AH, BW thought he'd made an awesome weapon improvement when he jumped from a 2-hand 39 DPS weapon to a one-hand 44 DPS weapon. BW's first buy off the AH was a new one-hand. He spent 5,000 gold (BW has over 100,000 gold) for a dagger that does 70 DPS, nearly double what BW was currently using. OMFG. There were a couple more buys for other gear slots, specifically to get a stat called Life Steal. That stat is a barbarian's best friend, BW would soon learn, because every bit of damage done to the bad guys gives health back to BW. Suddenly, BW had a crushing weapon to wield and his health issues nearly evaporated with all of the life stealing.

I sent BW back to the beginning of Act IV and had him run the whole Act all over a second time. It was awesome! Nothing could stand in his way. BW earned level 34.

And soon enough, it was time to face Diablo once again. This time, it was Diablo who was quaking. It was a great battle, but the outcome was never in any serious doubt. Diablo fell.

With that came the words: Congratulations, you have completed Diablo 3! More challenges still await you.

Those "more challenges' is an invitation to play the exact same game again, from beginning to end, only against a higher level of competition against tougher foes. BW completed D3 in Normal difficulty. The next level is called Nightmare. And there are two more higher levels after that.

In addition to the new difficulty level, I still have level 13 demon hunter, Ratatatat. There haven't been many opportunities to run as a group, which is what Rat was created for, but hopefully our team will get together again soon.