The difficulty of inferno

[Annex]

This is coming from a demon hunter. I have gear that is extremely nice, which leaves me at around 34k hp and about 75k average dps. There is a lot of whining about the difficulty of inferno lately and I somewhat agree to an extent, but I figure I will explain why its not as easy to remedy as some people think.

The main issue with difficult is that if you are melee with top end gear 3 hits and you die at best. If you are ranged you will get 1 shot by 90% of the creatures and if you get enough defensive gear you will get 2 shot but do such irrelevant DPS that its not worth it either. The main problem with this compared to other difficult games is that melee swings for most creatures are either unavoidable once the animation starts or require a retarded amount of distance that it makes it nearly impossible to get there. Combining this 1 shot kills all, if you get mobbed into a corner it makes the game extremely frustrating. If they allowed you to dodge 90% of the melee swings it would make the game still as difficult but a lot less frustrating.

Another issue that is exclusive to range is that any time you are moving south in a small dungeon you cannot see very far in front of you and if there are caster minions that 1 shot you, they will cast at you before you know they are and then you have literally .2 seconds to react before you die. This is again a frustrating "cheap" difficulty that doesn't make the game harder, just acts as a gold dump and an annoyance.

Lastly certain types of enemies or even certain combination of affixes make rares completely unable to be killed. For example Vortex+molten+Jailer+fire chains is probably the bane of all melee. Certain affixes are stupid on their own, invulnerable minions is a stupid uncreative affix that literally means you skip that elite unless its a succubus because the DPS output is too high and the other invulnerable mobs just block the DPS onto the the main elite. For range the biggest annoyance is getting Jailer + Mortar as the Mortar 1 shots you and often you will see the mortar go off then get jailed to only die instantly.

If you have every had to fight a fast soul ripper on any ranged character you know you simply must skip it because they will just destroy you in 2 seconds no matter how fast you move or how much you can slow.

TL;DR it seems like D3 is a lot of cheap difficulty where the death is essentially unavoidable for most classes, Nerfing HP doesn't solve this it just makes it so that with Less DPS you trivialize the game.

 

[FleshAndBones]

For me, personally I absolutely loved inferno difficulty pre-nerf. I solo'd all of inferno on my DH (~112k dps). Yes, I would get one shot if I made a mistake, and yes, I had to kite and skip a few nasty champion packs (Mostly soul rippers, or anything with overly retarded affixes, i.e. invul minions, fast/jailer, etc.)

But that was part of the fun. Using smoke screen (Post-nerf), prep, stuns, tumble, to virtually not take a single hit, while killing everything. It was a long, frustrating journey, but in the end it was extremely worth it. Playing through the game while doing everything in my power not to take a single hit, has essentially made going back and doing quests over a breeze.

At the moment, I'm progressing through inferno solo on my barb (since the inferno nerf doesn't really effect solo play). I'm at ~900 all res, 55k hp, and 10k armor, ~800 life on hit, as well as some damage reduction, and so far, A2 is extremely easy. I expect the difficulty to go up in later acts, but there are stil
lsome gear replacements that need to be done, so I know it's doable.

Yes it has some fatal flaws, and yes the damage increase for party members was over the top. But I disagree with their overall nerf to remove it completely. It should have been toned down, not removed. As a player who loves a challenge, and thoroughly enjoys taking weeks to get through a game, it's mildy saddening they are taking the challenge away.

This is primarily due to the fact there is no PVP element (yet), or anything to do other than farm after you do infact beat diablo on inferno mode, with the exception of rolling a new class. so yes it's tough, frutrating, even annoying at times, but the overall satisfaction of killing inferno D for the first time was amazing. At the moment, softcore offers little to no emotion after soloing it once. So after my barb kills the big man, I think it's time to roll hardcore, to bring back the element of challenge.

TL;DR Not in full agreeance with the inferno nerf (should of toned down the damage addition, not removed it completely), and I absolutely loved how hard it was. Looks like hardcore is the last challenge left.

edit: also The main issue with difficult is that if you are melee with top end gear 3 hits and you die at best. is not true.

also, inferno diablo was killed within the first week by a party of 4 (who used clever mechanics, such as purposefully dying before the clones spawned) and has been solo'd by everyclass by now. So it's not as impossible as some claim, but yes, it is very gear dependant.

second edit: This is from the perspective of a person who rolled a Demon Hunter at the midniight launch, and played through inferno diablo, and is currently soloing inferno on a decently geared barb.

 

[x339]

I also hate how some champion buff combinations are legitimately impossible to kill. For example, molten-vampiric-jailer-(any other thing here) is literally impossible to kill as a melee character. You just get jailed consistently and when the enemy gets near you the molten desecrates you and gives them as much health as they need.

Blizzard really didn't think those through. They were meant to force you to try different tactics for each fight, but by the time its 4 buffs per pack it becomes impossible to kill 90% of them.

 

[n4n0]

Patch 1.0.3 addresses difficulty of inferno.


Blizzard has also openly admitted that they DID NOT test the Inferno difficulty prior to release. Poor planning on their part. They essentially made us the beta testers for Inferno.

 

[Shmack]

It's far too difficult, I've spent over 25m on gear and still struggle in Act 3.

 

[burny]

The barbarian isn't worth much outside the role of tank; which inferno renders completely useless. That's why strength equips are dirt cheap.

 

[Niico1993]

n4n0 and I don't seem to be having any issues honestly. I don't know if it was hotpatched or something. But n4no and I killed Diablo on Inferno with ease. For the record I'm a Demon Hunter, and n4n0 is a Monk. Granted we are both geared out of our asses

 

[Lewis. â„¢]

The barbarian isn't worth much outside the role of tank; which inferno renders completely useless. That's why strength equips are dirt cheap.

As much as this is true, i like to hope 2hander'barbarians will be viable for inferno in 1.0.3,

Theres' been a few barbarians which have currently got to act4 using a 2hander.. not sure if theres a barb thats done act4 with a 2h if i'm not mistaken?

The fact that i, and most barbarians enter a game and they expect us to tank that shit is fucking annoying, i like to do some acts with a 2h, hell, my gears that good i could probably get diablo inferno down with a 2h after that 1.0.3 shit comes out, maybe even before.. it's just annoying.

If barbarians we're just required to tank all the time i would'nt of really gone for it, it just ruins it. "Hurr you get anal'd using 2h so get a sword and shield" fuuu-


~Lewis