Demon Hunter is 60

Last night I hit 60 on my Demon Hunter. I stopped playing him a few weeks ago and left him languishing at 55. My spec sucked, my DPS was mediocre and leveling was a drag. Then, a couple of nights ago I decided to make the final push to 60 so I could equip my DH with level 60 items inherited from the Monk, not to mention a bow or two that I had set aside for him.

One of the tricks that you can take advantage of when you're close to 60 and things seem to slow down is to search the Auction House for a weapon with Reduced Level Requirement. You'll be surprised what you can find. In many cases you'll be able to grab a level 60 weapon (with the associated massive damage) for your level 55-56 character.

After buying a 758 DPS bow (which had more than double the DPS of my existing crossbow), my damage spiked from 13K to a massive 32K. In truth, these numbers are with the passive Sharpshooter. It's all good though. I love that passive.

At the same time I decided to change my spec. I adopted this guy's spec. It's awesome, I can tell you that. From that point onward, I was pulverizing everything in my path. That is, until I decided to group up in order to kill Belial. The group wiped 4 times before we decided to split. Afterwards I killed Belial on my first solo try. BTW, I still think this is one of the worst encounters in the game.

In Act 3 I joined another group and found myself in a party of 4 Demon Hunters. It was the first time that happened and it was fun. Unfortunately my DPS was disproportionate to what the others were dealing.

About halfway into Act 3 I hit 60 without too much fuss. I equipped a 1H crossbow that I was saving, along with 2-3 other upgrades and my DPS jumped again to... drumroll...

Yup, 47K DPS. I also have +145% Critical Hit Damage and 2.16 attacks per second. That's pretty damn awesome. Mobs die like flies. Champions don't stand much of a chance either. I just love being overpowered. Unfortunately I am rather weak. 2-3 well-placed blows will kill me. I'm also sure that 47K DPS in Inferno for a DH without too many defenses won't quite cut it.

The best thing, however, is that now I can go back to farming Inferno with the Monk so I can equip the Demon Hunter and the Barbarian who are both 60 now.

D3 Marathon - Day 5

Demon Hunter
Well folks, I'm in a bit of an impasse. You see, I have run out of steam with my Demon Hunter. He finally made it to level 40 after long struggles. He's in Nightmare Act 2 right now but he's having a very hard time with the monsters.

There are very frequent packs of champions and rares now which the DH can barely survive on his own. In one instance I kited a pack of champions across the whole map, all the way back into town, with barely a sliver of my life remaining. In the end I killed them at the town entrance where they couldn't pass.

His DPS is 698 at this point, with 4786 hit points.

Grouping up with people didn't help a lot. I hate the fact that the game, more often than not, teams you up with just one more person, instead of 2-3. And very often, this other person is also a ranged class, another DH or a Wizard. Two ranged classes in Nightmare are a recipe for disaster, with the sort of mobs that spawn.

Some of my "favorite" champion/rare modifiers are Jailer/Mortar. Then there's Vortex, of course, which is the bane of any ranged character, and Fast, which pretty much ignores all your slowing attempts with Caltrops or whatnot.

No, at this point I am giving up on the Demon Hunter. It has stopped being fun and now it's downright frustrating. I don't want to spend 5 minutes running away each time I encounter a pack of champions.

Monk
I have decided, almost a week too late, that perhaps the Monk would have been a better first class choice. I spent most of day 5 leveling my Monk who is now level 21.

I find the Monk's gameplay incredible, so far. His moves are out of this world. Here's my level 21 build. Crippling Wave and Exploding Palm are my favorite skills.

I am hoping, over the next couple of days, to get close to level 40 with the Monk and then compare his survivability with that of the Demon Hunter.

Once, I ran in a group with my Demon Hunter, a Monk and another class, on Nightmare. The Monk was so badass, she could handle entire groups of monsters on her own, without our assistance. Her equipment didn't seem out of the ordinary so I'm thinking that Monks are probably better at holding their own.

At any rate, I'm hoping that a melee class won't need to run away from monsters like the Demon Hunter is forced to.

Banners
About a week ago I was being dismissive about banners. Well, maybe they're not so bad after all. I also spent a few minutes playing with my banner and you might have noticed that I changed it a bit. I just wish there were additional ways in which to customize characters cosmetically.

I'm keeping it short for today because I want to put in some leveling time with my Monk. Catch y'all tomorrow!

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D3 Marathon - Day 4

On day 4, because my Demon Hunter was having some difficulties in Act 4, I decided to trade some Dexterity for Vitality. It was very risky going with only 1600 HP. Even though my DPS dropped, my survivability improved.

Performance metrics
At the end of day 4 my Demon Hunter was level 38. On this day, I had only played 6 hours on the DH, for a total of 26 hours 15 minutes. On the other hand, I did put in some time on my Monk, that I leveled to 15, as well as the Witch Doctor (10) and Wizard (9).

My Demon Hunter's DPS went from 406 to 690.

My gold is now 465K, and that's after buying the remaining space in my first shared stash tab for 20K.


Inventory management
My inventory was becoming a big problem. The shared stash was full and I had to make frequent trips to town on my Demon Hunter to sell stuff. Eventually I took the time to create 4 more mule characters (for a total of 5) and successfully transferred all the crap that was taking up space in the shared stash. I will probably do a post on this aspect of inventory management alone, because I think it is a fairly organized way to do it.

Beat Normal
I finally finished Act 4 and the act's boss. OK, at this point it shouldn't be much of a spoiler if I tell you that the boss is Diablo. After all, the game is called Diablo, right? When you're solo, your follower is disabled before the last battle. He gets trapped in a bone cage. Not fair!

The fight has 3 phases and I died on the second phase. I realized that, due to the nature of the fight, I would have a very hard time completing this on my own. So, once again, I decided to join a group. A Barbarian and I managed to kill Diablo but we both came close to dying. It was the first time for both of us. I have to say, it's a tough fight. I wouldn't have stood a chance if I hadn't donned that Vitality gear, I can tell you that.

In the end, I finished Normal difficulty on my Demon Hunter at level 33 with 21 hours and 50 minutes on this character.

SPOILER

Diablo seems to be a girl. Well, (s)he should be, considering. But it was hard to tell in the heat of battle. Problem is, the voice is male.

Zones and monsters
After I beat Normal, I couldn't wait to start Nightmare. Man, Nightmare is a lot harder than Normal, I can tell you that! Even at level 33 (which, I believe, is ahead of the curve) it was tough for me. Starting in Nightmare, I grouped up every time. The mobs are vicious, they have tons of HP and there are packs upon packs of rare bosses and champions, now with 2 modifiers. They kick ass so hard that I died a dozen times in the first half of Act 1. I wasn't alone in my predicament. Many of my group mates also died about the same number of times even though they seemed to be better equipped.

I was glad to be back in Act 1. After going through it again with the Demon Hunter and also my lower level characters, especially the Monk, I realized how much I like the design of this act. The zones are very varied and change often. The only repetitive zones are the Cathedral levels but that's ok. I seriously believe that Act 1 is the best act in Diablo 3. It feels leagues ahead of Acts 3 and 4 in terms of diversity and art.

Items and Gold Auction House
In Act 1 Nightmare flawless gems have started to drop. Also, there's been an abundance of Jewelcrafting and Blacksmithing pages of training. Guess what? I sold all of those (a few dozen of them) on the GAH. There's no point in using them right now because the prices are relatively high. I'm gonna sell them now and, if I need to, buy them later for much less. Besides, they sell almost instantly.

When I sell pages of training I look at how much 100 of them cost, not 1, not even 10. Whenever you look at the price of 1 unit (for commodities), you might be fooled into pricing your own items too low. That's why it makes sense to search for 100 pieces or even more.

One final thing about items is that the Skeleton King had some really crappy drops in Nightmare. Just 2 blue items! I guess that was the luck of the draw.

Oh, here's a funny item I found. Department of Redundancy Department? Yep.

Monk
I have started to level my Monk in groups and I am very impressed so far. I'm afraid he might steal the crown from my Demon Hunter. I just love the gameplay. Granted, he inherited a lot of good stuff from the DH, including some kick-ass weapons for his level. In 3-4 man groups he can kick ass on his own, and kick it real hard. But then again, at these low levels, on Normal, monsters aren't very challenging.

Excuse that piss-bucket my Monk is wearing on his head. It makes him look goofy but I'm sure it will be replaced soon. The claws, on the other hand, are wicked.

That's about it for day 4. I'm relieved I finished Normal so that I can now focus on leveling the Demon Hunter exclusively in groups. The monsters are much harder but the loot is also better, not to mention the gold which drops in higher quantities (200 gold stacks anyone?).

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D3 Marathon - Day 3

It seems that I'm slowing down with each day. If on the previous day I managed 8 hours, on my 3rd day I only pulled 7 hours on my Demon Hunter. In my defense, I spent some time leveling a Monk and Barbarian to 11-12. I had to do that because their inventories were overflowing with items passed down from the DH.

Performance metrics
I have, so far, played my Demon Hunter for 20 hours 40 minutes. He's level 32 in Act 4. I don't know exactly where, but it must be past the middle of the act.

My DPS has increased from 228 to 406 but it's still quite low. Protip: buy the highest quality Ruby you can afford from the AH and socket it in your weapon(s), if they have slots. To give an example, at one point, with a Chipped Ruby which gives +2-4 damage, my DPS was 228. Switching to a Radiant Ruby (for which I paid about 12K on the GAH), which gives +12-24 damage, my DPS jumped to 277. That's a pretty big increase.

At the end of the day I had 265K gold, after buying another 10K worth of shared stash space.

Items and Gold Auction House
Rares are dropping quite often now. In fact, my stashes are overflowing with hand-me-down rares for my other characters. Many of them are useless and I simply vendor them off.

I had the chance to flip some items on the GAH, namely gems. For example, I found some Chipped Rubies posted for 50G, bought them immediately and sold them back for 800G. I also sold all the chipped and flawed gems I had found. It's much better this way because higher quality gems are much cheaper to buy on the GAH than to craft yourself so there's no point in hanging on to low level gems.

I also managed to sell a bunch of weapons/armor on the AH, many of them rare. To keep myself from being frustrated I decided to sell them for very low prices. So if you find decent level 10-20 rares at < 2000 gold, or even < 1000 gold, that might be me. Otherwise they just won't sell. Yeah, call me crazy but it's hard to sell stuff on the AH when everyone and their grandma is doing the same.

In Act 3 flawed gems start dropping and toward the middle/end of this act you will start seeing normal gems.

Story and followers
In Act 4 I decided to switch to the Templar. Survival became a lot harder and the Templar actually managed to save my life a few times with one of his skills which heals you instantly when you are close to dying.

When I was still running with the Scoundrel, I took these screenshots of some of his dialogue. This guy is so hilarious, I can't even describe it.

The story takes a nasty turn with a vicious plot twist, around the end of Act 3. Suffice to say, without spoiling it further, that...

Hmm, that's a mighty fiery Portal to Heaven.

Build and skills
My build at level 32 is almost the same as the day before, with the addition of the Bandolier rune for Spike Trap. This is a very cool rune because you can litter the place with traps, as long as you have sufficient Hatred.

Monsters and bosses
Here are some interesting sights you will encounter in Act 4.

I managed to kill the Act 3 boss (won't tell you who he is though you probably know by now) at level 31, 18 hours and 20 minutes into the game. The fight was one of the most entertaining so far. I didn't die on it but it was challenging. It kept me on my toes, constantly moving and avoiding whatever he threw at me. Actually, Act 3 has a couple more bosses that were very fun to kill.

In comparison, Act 4 is very annoying. I've started to become seriously frustrated with some of the monsters' mechanics. I don't mind enemies with interesting abilities but in Act 4 it seems that Blizzard's favorite monster mechanic is to have them materialize right on top of you and then hit you for 50% of your health, without the least warning. If you get "lucky" and get two of them instead of one, it's instant death.

If you ask me, this is poor design. I don't mind it if monsters are very quick or even if they teleport to you, as long as I can see them coming. But when they can pop up out of nowhere right on top of you and take a massive chunk of your health in an instant, that's not funny. And this is Normal difficulty! Do I really have to start stacking Vitality this early in the game?

Apart from this annoying mechanic, there was one boss that I couldn't tackle on my own. I won't say his name but he's very cool looking. You might have seen him in one of Blizzard's art showcases. He has a shark head and twin blades for arms. Anyway, this was a very frustrating fight. On my first attempt he killed me in 2 hits. This wouldn't be so bad if his main attack wasn't a charge with a hit at the end. So he charges and hits you in a fraction of a second. Traps or slowing debuffs don't work and, as a Demon Hunter, there was no defense against his charge. I did a pathetic attempt at kiting him but he charged me while I was running away and killed me.

On subsequent attempts I got killed in the same way. I decided to join a group for this boss. The first group I joined had already killed him so I just grabbed the quest credit. Later, I joined another group and found myself with a Monk, on the same boss. We managed to kill him together but even then, I came close to dying. So, I don't know, this seemed like another failed encounter design. Note to Blizzard: it isn't funny being 2-shotted without any possibility to defend against it, as a ranged character, on Normal.

Zones
I'm sorry to say this but I am starting to become disappointed in the zones as I progress through the game.

In Diablo 2 the acts got better as you advanced. In my opinion, Act 5 > Act 4 > Act 2 > Act 3 > Act 1.

In Diablo3, Act 1 > Act 2 > Act 3 > Act 4. I am actually finding that I am enjoying Act 1 more than all the other acts! Isn't that weird?

Seriously, Act 3 is very bland. Most of the time is spent around that fortress, on the ramparts or inside endless corridors. The little time spent outdoors is very boring. The scenery is drab and uninspiring. There's nothing to see there and the quests aren't even enticing. It's clear to me that Act 3 was designed to mimic Act 5 from D2, but in D2 Act 5 was really cool to be in. Here, I couldn't wait to finish the act. To be honest, the part inside the volcano wasn't bad, but a lot of it was repetitive.

Unfortunately, Act 4 feels even worse. Endless walkways and marble columns and halls. Granted, I haven't yet finished Act 4 and I have hopes that the scenery will improve, yet I feel a bit let down that the zones, instead of improving as you advance, become more boring.

On day 4 my goal is simply to finish the game on Normal. From there on I can finally start grouping up and perhaps some of the frustrations with certain monsters will end.

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D3 Marathon - Day 2

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

(potentially)

This post contains potential spoilers if you haven't yet finished Act 2. I will have a special spoilers section at the bottom of the post. Be warned!

For my second day of playing Diablo 3 (and my first full day), I was a little disappointed to find out that my total play time was only 13 hours 40 minutes. This means that on my first full day I only managed 8 hours. I was hoping for at least 10. It's really weird because I thought I played more than just 8 hours. I guess real life managed to intrude on my play time more than I intended. But that's all right. I feel rested and ready to start the battle anew.

Performance metrics
At the end of these 13 hours 40 minutes, my Demon Hunter is in Act 3, right after the first quest. He's level 26. While yesterday I finished the game with 30K gold, I now have 108K gold.

It's not a huge amount by any stretch of the imagination but most of it is from drops. I didn't do much on the Gold Auction House. I did spend a few thousand on a couple of additional vendor rings and amulets which had some nice stats on them. These are a decent investment because I can pass them on to my other characters. I also grudgingly spent my first 10K enlarging my shared stash because it was a pain in the ass to switch between characters a dozen times to transfer items.

While at the end of the first day my DPS was 70, after the second day it reached 228.64 with Steady Aim, or 190.53 without.

As you can see, I even changed my banner. I regret not taking a screenshot when I was in Act 2 because I liked the background more.

Items
Once you get to Act 2 you will start seeing a lot more rares. I found so many rares that at one point I was just vendoring the crappy ones because they had bad stats on them and putting them on the GAH would have wasted a precious slot. I did save a bunch of them which I'm now wearing (including some sweet Demon Hunter 1H crossbows) and sent many of them to my other characters. Check out this sweet puppy below.

And here's another nice rare pair of gloves. It kinda mixes Strength with Dexterity but it's still pretty good for my Demon Hunter.

Yes, rares are a lot more abundant from Act 2 onward and I've had several occasions where 2-3 of them dropped in close succession from random monsters.

Apart from rares, you can also look forward to socketed items and gems. I already have a nice collection of chipped gems. Protip: don't waste gold combining gems with your Jewelcrafter. Just buy them from the GAH. Much cheaper that way. In fact, check the gem prices for the various qualities and you might find that you can turn a profit by simply selling chipped gems and then buying the desired quality from the AH.

Characters and followers
I won't spoil it for you at this point but there's an old NPC friend that you will meet again in Act 2. Apart from that, I now have access to all the followers, the third being the Enchantress, also encountered in Act 2. I am still enjoying the Scoundrel. He's barrels of laughs. His dialogue is priceless. Check out this little tidbit below.

It might not seem much but the deadpan way in which my Demon Hunter delivered that "No" had me falling off my chair laughing. Suffice to say that the Scoundrel is a womanizer and he hits on every female companion you happen to have in your party (yes, including Leah). I just love the banter between him and my character. For that reason, I don't really want to try the other followers. Oh and he also has a Multishot bow skill that seems to work well.

Sound
I would like to mention the game's sound, which is simply incredible. I'm not a sound man. I normally turn the music off in games so I can concentrate on the action. But this is the first game in which I'm listening to the music intentionally. And the score is amazing! No wonder - Blizzard employed a full orchestra in its creation. I love how it changes from zone to zone, or along with the action. Simply beautiful.

Monsters and gameplay
Maybe I'm growing old but I don't remember Diablo 2 being so hard on Normal. I died on the final boss in Act 1 and also a bunch of times in Act 2 from random groups of mobs. To those who were afraid that the game would be too easy, rest assured that it isn't. Gear does make a lot of difference but luckily the next upgrade is right around the corner. Yet, skill is very important here and if you concentrate solely on offensive skills you will end up hurting.

The monsters after the Skeleton King and especially in Act 2 are tougher and they use new skills and tactics. There are some very nasty ones which jump right on top of you or burrow under the earth to pop up beneath you or are very quick moving. I've encountered boss groups with some nasty attributes such as Waller or Jailer which can hurt you badly if you are not careful. Luckily, the Demon Hunter has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Build and skills
This is my level 26 Demon Hunter build as of right now. I'm pretty comfortable with this setup. Here's a breakdown of the skills.

Active Skills

Bola Shot runed with Volatile Explosives - I switched back to Bola Shot and I like it a lot. With twin 1H crossbows it fires very quickly. I've noticed that you can hit a monster with this several times in succession and each hit will explode individually, not just the first one that lands. Fired rapidly into a group of monsters will decimate them in a couple of seconds. The rune increases the explosion's radius. Bola Shot is also decent for kiting.

Elemental Arrow runed with Ball Lightning - This is my main Hatred dump. The rune makes this skill very interesting. It shoots a blue ball of lightning that moves slowly in the firing direction and zaps each monster it passes. It's another great skill for kiting, or lobbing into a group of monsters because you don't need to aim it specifically at a monster. Just fire it in the general direction and let it do its thing.

Caltrops runed with Hooked Spines - Caltrops is invaluable for survival, especially with some of the fast monsters encountered later in the game. The rune is vital because it slows them down even more. I don't think I'd be able to play without this skill.

Vault runed with Rattling Roll - Vault is another skill which I find invaluable for the Demon Hunter. It has saved my skin a billion times already and I don't know what I'd do without it. It has also almost got me killed a few times and that's because occasionally I press the wrong key and find myself Vaulting inside a group of monsters instead of placing a trap in their midst. For that reason I have chosen this particular rune which stuns and knocks back the monsters at my destination. Now, when I have another of these oops moments, I won't be pummeled to death. The rune gives me just enough time to correct my mistake and Vault back out of danger.

Spike Trap - Spike Trap has rapidly become one my my favorite skills. It's simply amazing. The damage it does is very high and very often it annihilates entire groups of monsters. I like to place it inside groups of monsters at the edges of the screen, before I am detected, for example. One of my favorite tactics in Act 2 is to place 2-3 of these traps right under me. There are some nasty monsters that teleport right on top of you and hit you hard which is very painful if you are a ranged class. But now I can stand on top of a couple of traps and when these assholes teleport, they teleport right on top of my traps and are instantly killed. Apart from this, Spike Trap is obviously very useful for kiting.

Multishot runed with Fire at Will - Multishot is a very nice multi-target nuke. Very often it will clear a screen-full of monsters in one shot, or perhaps 2 if they have a lot of health. The only downside is that it uses a lot of Hatred so you have to use it sparingly. However, the rune halves its cost, which makes it twice as good.

Passive Skills

Tactical Advantage - For me this passive makes a lot of sense. I Vault a lot so the increased speed is a great advantage, both for moving quickly and for escaping a dire situation.

Steady Aim - 20% increased damage when there are no monsters within 10 yards? Bring it on! For a ranged character this passive makes a lot of sense. Most of the time this condition will be met so you can count on the 20% extra damage buff to be up more often than not. I just wish there was a sort of buff icon that indicated when the skill was active.

SPOILER SECTION

Don't read beyond this point if you don't like spoilers.

I mentioned that I died on the Act 1 boss. As expected, the boss was The Butcher. Look at his ugly mug.

This is a fight which keeps you on your toes. You need to be constantly on the move, first to escape the burning sections of floor, and second, as a ranged character, to stay out of range of his grappling hook. Luckily there are the two healing wells that you can use to heal yourself if needed. In the end, this isn't such a tough fight. I hadn't read any tactics beforehand so I didn't know what to expect.

Now, if you listen to Cain's dialogue (I believe from one of the books you find around that section of the game) you will realize that this is not the same Butcher from Diablo 1. Instead, the Butchers are a class of demon. So there are potentially lots of them running around.

The other thing that was revealed was... drumroll...

Tyrael is a black guy! That was certainly unexpected, but very cool nonetheless. OK, did anyone suspect this before? He reminds me strongly of Laurence Fishburne for some reason.

BTW, I really like his story so far. Fallen angel and all, very cool.

The final thing, the Act 2 boss, Belial (as if you didn't know!) was a bit of a letdown. I tackled him at level 25. The fight itself was challenging but I killed him without dying myself. What I disliked was fighting in that cramped setting. For a ranged character who needs to be mobile, it was very frustrating. I couldn't use Vault to best effect and there wasn't a lot of space to escape to. Belial himself is practically stationary. I don't know, but I am sure they could have designed this encounter better. In the end he dropped 3 rares and a couple of gems.

So that's it for the second day folks. I hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned for day 3!

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D3 Marathon - Day 1

As promised, here's day 1 of my 2-week D3 Marathon.

I've noticed that many people are complaining about Diablo 3's launch and how much of a disaster it was. I don't know folks, but it wasn't at all terrible for me. Granted, I managed to log in about 1.5 hours after the servers went live but afterwards there were no more issues and I managed a solid 3 hours of play before real life took over.

I started a Demon Hunter called Prometheus as my first character.

I reached level 7 in 1 hour and had 5000 gold.

2 hours in, I killed the Skeleton King at level 9, with 13,800 gold.

I spent some of that gold buying a couple of 18.5 DPS 1H crossbows from the fence vendor because I figured they'd give me a much-needed DPS boost. I wasn't wrong, except that a little while later I came across 20 and 22 DPS 1H crossbows that put my vendor-bought ones to shame.

I also bought an amulet with 2-4 damage and 4% increased attack speed. So yeah, the fence now carries amulets in addition to rings, which wasn't the case in the beta. This amulet alone increased my DPS from 33 to 43. Great investment.

The Auction House seems to be a mess. Items are dirt cheap and mats are at rock bottom. I will no longer salvage and attempt to sell mats on the GAH because I will get more money by vendoring them and I won't be needing those low level mats anyway. Even Nightmare mats have tanked. Today they're 1/3 what they were yesterday.

One thing's certain: your first character through the game will be a pioneer and a pathfinder. Keep all the best items you find for other classes and transfer them to your lower level characters. When you start leveling them, they will have a big head start. Here's an example of all the crap my level 2 Monk had in his inventory, courtesy of his big brother, the DH.

The cool thing is that when you move past the Skeleton King you start finding some really powerful weapons. I already have a collection of 22+ DPS 1H weapons that only require level 10. All of them went to my Monk, Barbarian, Witch Doctor and Wizard, which, by the way, are acting as my extended stash because I haven't spent any money expanding the shared stash yet.

At the end of the first day I had played my Demon Hunter for almost 5.5 hours and he's level 15, with 30K gold. He's still in Act I. This is the build I'm using at level 15. Interestingly, I prefer Hungering Arrow runed with Puncturing Arrow to Bola Shot because the latter has that short delay and monsters tend not to wait for it to explode before charging me. My DPS at the end of the first day is 70.39.

Speaking of gameplay, I find the actual game harder than the beta. Maybe it's because of the lack of gear with my first character but I've had a few close shaves and I even died once, stupidly, I will add. I found myself surrounded by a rare boss and his minions and either I was stun-locked or I was out of Discipline because I couldn't escape them with Vault, so I died.

I found Vault and Caltrops to be indispensable. Combined, these two will save your life countless times. The Demon Hunter is turning out to be more challenging than I expected but it also requires more skill and finesse and I pride myself that so far I have found the class very engaging and satisfying.

A final word about followers. As soon as I encountered the Scoundrel, I dismissed the Templar and never looked back. While the Scoundrel doesn't seem to be a good match for the Demon Hunter because it also uses ranged weapons, I just love his personality. He's always cracking jokes and making funny comments, not to mention hitting on female companions (including Leah) all the time. He's a hoot, I highly recommend him.

Now I'm off to start my first full day of gaming. Stay tuned and see you tomorrow!

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Character names

Today, in world premiere, I'm going to reveal the names that I will give each class when Diablo 3 is released. I talked before about class and gender choices and I can safely say, after playing each gender for each class in the beta, that I have made a final decision.

Demon Hunter - Male - Prometheus
I picked the name for two reasons. First, there's Prometheus in Greek mythology whose story I find extremely fascinating. I mean, stealing from the gods, defying them to the very last, that takes balls man! Besides, the male Demon Hunter can very well be Greek, with his darkish looks. The second reason is that my most anticipated movie this year is, you guessed it, Prometheus.

Wizard - Female - Andromeda
The Wizard fires galaxies and Andromeda is one of my favorite galaxies, so there you go. Besides, I think the name sounds really cool.

Barbarian - Male - Orion
I have always liked the name Orion, as it applies to the constellation and the mythical character. OK, I admit that Orion The Hunter might be better suited for the Demon Hunter but in my mind it feels like this is a very good name for the Barbarian.

Monk - Male - Rasputin
In a departure from Greek mythology, I am naming my male Monk Rasputin. Why? Well, it should be obvious. Diablo 3's Monk evidently hails from Russia, and that beard is a dead giveaway. Not that I admire the real Rasputin or anything, but I think the association (and coincidence) is funny.

Witch Doctor - Female - Arachne
I struggled with this one for a long time. Finally I turned back to Greek mythology and settled upon the name Arachne. Why? Because the Witch Doctor plays with spiders, among other things.

So these are my choices. I'd be interested to hear some opinions/criticisms. I would also enjoy it if you shared your own characters' names in the comments. Come on, don't be shy!

Class genders revisited

A looong time ago before I was even dreaming of getting into the beta, I made a tentative decision about which genders I would choose for each class in the full game. Now, after gaining some experience with all the 5 classes, I thought I could make a more informed decision. I was wrong. I hadn't yet seen these class armor set videos. Make sure to watch them, they are definitely worth it.

Here are my impressions after watching these videos.

Barbarian
I like the sets a lot. The look very barbaric, especially the early ones. Later ones are really awesome. These make me want to play a Barbarian.

Demon Hunter
I mentioned repeatedly that I would be playing the Demon Hunter as my first class. The sets are okay-ish but some of the helms are ridiculous.

Monk
The Monk's sets are the ugliest of the bunch. It makes both genders look like clowns.

Wizard
The clothes themselves are very good but many of the shoulders and helms but are ridiculous.

Witch Doctor
I like the Witch Doctor's sets a lot. The hats, especially, are awesome. I can only imagine how cool they look when actually playing the game.

And now for some revised impressions of each class gender.

Barbarian Male
The Barbarian male is the actual Barbarian from Diablo 2, only aged about 20 years. I like the dude. He looks powerful and experienced and he won't take shit from anyone.
Barbarian Female
I was planning to play a Barb female because I like how she looks. She has nice curves, she looks powerful and muscular. But I dislike her voice and she reminds me too much of Fiona, the ogre from Shrek. Besides, she could easily be the male Barb's daughter, much less experienced and a lot more naive.
Verdict
I choose the male Barbarian.

Demon Hunter Male
This dude looks like a jerk. I hate his hunched-over posture and how he holds his arms at his side. Also, he's too thin.
Demon Hunter Female
Her posture makes her look like a stuck-up bitch.
Verdict
It's hard to make a decision here. I think I'm gonna go with the female, as she seems to be the lesser of two evils.

Monk Male
I like the male Monk. He reminds me a lot of Rasputin, with his beard and accent. He looks suitably powerful and I liked how items in the beta looked on him.
Monk Female
I don't know what to make of her. She doesn't seem to be related to the male in any way, not even by race. Are they both Russian? They could be, but something about her doesn't click.
Verdict
I choose the male Monk.

Wizard Male
The male Wizard looks like a wimpy 16-17 year old. He could be the female Wizards younger brother.
Wizard Female
She is smoking hot, especially without armor. I'm in looove with her.
Verdict
Female Wizard all the way!

Witch Doctor Male
What the hell is wrong with this guy? Not only is he shaking like he's got Parkinson's (at his age the chances of that disease are high) but he's got a damn potbelly! Oh and I don't like his voice. Not the accent, just the voice.
Witch Doctor Female
She's much better than the male, and hot looking to boot. And she doesn't shake.
Verdict
Female Witch Doctor all the way!

The class set videos have definitely helped me in my decision-making but unfortunately the Demon Hunter suffers from both lackluster sets and annoying character design. But that's purely my opinion so feel free to disagree with me in the comments.

The beta Demon Hunter

I've mentioned this plenty of times before but I will say it again: I tend to favor ranged classes in RPGs. My favorite class in Diablo 2 was the Amazon and it was only fitting that the Demon Hunter would be the first class I would try in the beta.

The Demon Hunter isn't so much as Diablo 3's Amazon but rather a combination ranger/tinkerer/rogue because apart from boring ol' arrows and bolts she also uses various devices like traps, turrets and even rockets and grenades. Diablo 3's Demon Hunter is essentially a demon assassin. Take a D2 Amazon, mix in some Assassin and this is what you get.

I chose a female for my DH, perhaps in keeping with D2's female Amazon, although the two are nothing alike.

The first thing that would make anyone hesitate to pick a Demon Hunter is the dual-resource system. At first this seemed very confusing to me. Which skills use which resource? How does each replenish? Which is more important? All these questions were hard to answer and the system itself was hard to visualize, until I got some hands-on time with the Demon Hunter.

The DH uses two resources, which is (so far) unique to this class in Diablo 3. On the left you have Hatred, and you start with 150 of that stuff. Hatred is rusty-colored. The dark blue stuff on the right is Discipline and you only get 30 of it.

Hatred regenerates quickly on its own and you use it to power some of your most potent offensive abilities.

Discipline regenerates more slowly and is used mainly for tactical abilities.

Both resources can be replenished by certain skills. Hatred, especially, can be generated by primary offensive skills, which is always a good thing. In this aspect, Hatred is similar, for example, to the Monk's Spirit. The Monk also has primary offensive skills which generate Spirit.

Read my quick primer on how skill slots work in Diablo 3, if you don't know that already.

Next, I will do a review of the skills and runes available in the beta, broken down by skill slot. Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions and tastes. YMMV.

Primary (left mouse - slot unlocked at level 1)
Lv 1 - Hungering Arrow - Hatred generator
Hungering Arrow is one of my favorite primary skills and it remained so even at level 13. It works with bows and crossbows and even though it doesn't do a lot of damage (only 115% weapon damage), it's main attraction is that it can penetrate enemies 1/3 of the time. When it penetrates, it's quite cool. If there's a single enemy, the arrow turns back and hits that enemy again, with yet another 1/3 chance to penetrate. For multiple enemies, it strikes another enemy after it passes through the first.
    Lv 6 - Rune - Puncturing Arrow
At level 6, a good skill (Hungering Arrow) becomes even better. This first rune increases the chance of the arrow to penetrate to 50%. Now you can watch in amusement how every second arrow you fire hits enemies multiple times.
Lv 3 - Entangling Shot - Hatred generator
Level 3 gives you this skill which, I will admit, I didn't use a lot. The skill itself is pretty decent because it ties 2 enemies together and slows both by 60%, also dealing 75% damage to them. It's a great crowd-control skill. At these low levels and especially in the beta, you are too powerful anyway and there's not much point in slowing enemies down, because the damage is much better with other skills. I'm sure this skill will be much more useful at higher difficulty levels.
    Lv 9 - Rune - Chain Gang
This rune simply entangles up to 4 enemies instead of 2. Again, this will be great at higher difficulties when you can fire a quick succession of Entangling Shots into groups of enemies to chain-slow them.
Lv 11 - Bola Shot - Hatred generator
This is the skill which took over from Hungering Arrow, albeit with reluctance. Bola Shot is a lot of fun to use, though it might annoy you a bit if you don't like waiting. After you hit an enemy with the "bola" there's a short 1 second delay after which the bola explodes for 130% weapon damage to the enemy. In addition, it also deals 110% damage to enemies in close proximity (7 yards). I use this skill a lot because it's barrels of fun to shoot several of these at different monsters and see them explode after 1 second. If you fire it in quick succession at monsters that are bunched together you will see them all go up in successive blasts. Unfortunately the beta is too short to give us a rune for this great skill.

Secondary (right mouse - slot unlocked at level 2)
Lv 2 - Impale - Hatred consumer
At level 2 your second skill slot will be unlocked and the only skill that can be used is Impale. If you read the description carefully you'll realize that this skill is weapon independent, meaning that you can use it with melee weapons if you so choose. I've read that someone finished the beta with a melee Demon Hunter. Whatever, if that's your poison, go for it. Impale is pretty straightforward. It consumes Hatred and does a massive 250% weapon damage to a single target.
    Lv 7 - Rune - Impact
This rune gives Impale a 65% chance to knock back the target and stun them for 1.5 seconds. I'm thinking that this could be useful for stronger monsters like rares/champions/bosses but at higher difficulty levels there are diminishing returns to stun duration. On the other hand this rune would be invaluable for a melee DH.
Lv 5 - Rapid Fire - Hatred consumer
Ah, finally a really cool skill. Rapid Fire transforms your puny bow into a veritable machine gun. You hold down the mouse button and start spraying bullets bolts at the enemy for 228% weapon damage. Even the sound it makes is pretty machine-gunny. The only downside is that is uses quite a lot of Hatred so you will run out of your main resource quickly. However...
    Lv 11 - Rune - Withering Fire
At level 11 you can rune Rapid Fire with this rune for a big improvement. Now, instead of using 20 Hatred when initially firing the skill, it only uses 5 Hatred. It also converts all damage to fire damage. This rune completely transforms the Rapid Fire. Now it is viable to use this skill most of the time, with only short periods of using something else (like Bola Shot) to recharge Hatred. But wait, there's more! Later on there's a passive skill that makes this even better! Read on to find out.
Lv 12 - Chakram - Hatred consumer
I will admit that I was stumped by Chakram. I honestly don't see a use for it as a ranged class. It might work if you go all crazy-melee-hunter but for a true ranged DH it feels very awkward. It fires a "chakram" which starts swirling in a spiral away from you, hitting monsters along its path for 150% weapon damage. The problem is that you can't aim it, making it extremely imprecise and impossible to control. It works better if there are lots of enemies surrounding you but what hunter worth her salt would allow that? I just don't know... if you can give me a good use for this skill (maybe at higher levels??), drop me a comment.

Defensive ("1" key - slot unlocked at level 4)
Lv 4 - Caltrops - Discipline consumer
Caltrops can easily become a signature skill for any Demon Hunter, especially if you like solo-ing stuff. It sets a trap underneath you. When a monster sets it off, it slows down all enemies for 60% in a 12 yard circle for 6 seconds. I use this all the time on my DH. It allows you to keep monsters at range and to hit them with all you've got while they're slowed. You can even set multiple caltrops if you want, as long as you don't run out of Discipline (about 3-4 of them).
    Lv 12 - Rune - Hooked Spines
This rune simple increases the slowing effect of Caltrops to 80%. This makes a good skill even better. Nothing else to say here.
Lv 8 - Smoke Screen - Discipline consumer
Once again, here's a skill which is pretty much useless in the beta. I can see how it can come in handy in certain situations, like when you are close to dying, for example. Just use this and you get 3 precious seconds to make your getaway. The beta hasn't presented any situations like this so the skill was useless for me. In Inferno it might come in handy if you are constantly in danger of dying. The problem is that this is a very situational skill and Demon Hunters are meant to stay away from enemies anyway so I would rather use other skills, like for example Caltrops. Oh ok, I admit that it might be quite useful for PvP. But enough of this.

Hunting ("2" key - slot unlocked at level 9)
Lv 9 - Vault - Discipline consumer
The Hunting category has been the most boring and under-used for Demon Hunters in the beta. The only mildly useful skill is Vault, which causes you to "tumble acrobatically" for 35 yards, in the direction of your mouse pointer. I use this skill sometimes, mostly to move quickly. I have yet to use it to escape a difficult encounter, though I can see that it can be very useful for those kinds of situations.
Lv 13 - Preparation - long cooldown, no resources used
Here's another useless skill (for the beta). This one has a 45 second cooldown and restores all your Discipline when used. Can't see it being useful unless you like to spam, say, Caltrops.

Passive Skills (1st slot unlocked at level 10)
At level 10 we finally get our passive skills. Luckily, you can choose between 2 of them at this level.
Lv 10 - Tactical Advantage
This one can work well with boring skills such as Vault, Smoke Screen or Evasive Fire (not available in the beta), in that it gives you 60% increased movement speed for 2 seconds after using that particular skill. I'm betting that it will be popular in some PvP builds but in the beta it's completely pointless. Luckily there's a better passive to pick at this level...
Lv 10 - Thrill of the Hunt
Now here's an interesting passive skill. The description says: "Every 10 seconds, your next bow attack will immobilize your target for 3 seconds." It seems like a very cool effect, though, to be honest, I haven't really noticed it in action. I guess that's because monsters die so quickly that it's hard to tell when they become immobilized. I also wonder if this works with attacks which hit multiple monsters. In any case, this passive is better than the alternative.
Lv 13 - Vengeance
Vengeance makes the beta Demon Hunter complete. The reason why I love it so much is that health globes now also restore some of your Hatred and Discipline in addition to health. This makes you really awesome because you can use Rapid Fire (runed) almost constantly, while also throwing down Caltrops for example. Killing lots of monsters will give you lots of health globes which replenish your resources, allowing you to kill yet more monsters.

Here ends my analysis of all the skills and runes available for the Demon Hunter in the Diablo 3 beta. Next, I will explain how my own progression from level 1 to 13 went.

Level Progression

Level 1
Really no choice here - There's Hungering Arrow and 1 skill slot.

Level 2
You get your second skill slot, as well as your second skill, Impale. Use Impale until you run out of Hatred, then switch to Hungering Arrow to replenish.

Level 3
You get Entangling Shot. You can switch to this or continue using Hungering Arrow. Either way, pick the one that feels the most fun. Entangling Shot will slow down monsters if you find they are too quick for you.

Level 4
You get your third skill slot, as well as Caltrops. Now you can finally use your Discipline resource. Place Caltrops before attacking a large group of monsters. Move to keep Caltrops between you and the monsters. Also place it behind you if you are trying to escape. There are many tactical uses for this skill and remember, you can place multiple Caltrops until you run out of discipline. Thanks to the dual-resource system you won't run out of resource for your damage dealing abilities.

Level 5
You can now replace Impale with Rapid Fire. Impale might still be a better single target skill but Rapid Fire is good for mowing down multiple enemies, especially if they are bunched together.

Level 6
The excitement starts at level 6. The first skill rune is unlocked. Hungering Arrow gets the Puncturing Arrow rune. If you switched to Entangling Shot, I suggest you switch back to runed Hungering Arrow. I find it a lot more fun.

Level 7
Nothing exciting here. Impale gets its first rune (Impact) but you won't care if you switched to Rapid Fire. If you like to play a melee DH, then this rune is mandatory.

Level 8
Smoke Screen becomes available. Yawn. I would ignore it because Caltrops is so much more useful.

Level 9
Your 4th skill slot is unlocked, along with Vault. Use Vault whenever you feel like moving quickly in one direction and you have enough Discipline, or when you are trying to escape certain death.

Level 10
Passive skills are now available. I suggest picking Thrill of the Hunt, although you may not notice the effect in action.

Level 11
Bola Shot becomes available as a primary skill. I would highly recommend trying it, if not replacing Hungering Arrow with it. Also, Rapid Fire gets its first rune, Withering Fire, which makes it way better than the basic skill.

Level 12
Chakram is unlocked. Yawn. More importantly, Caltrops gets the Hooked Spines rune which makes it more effective. No reason not to use it.

Level 13
The most useful passive for the beta becomes available, Vengeance. Use it. Also, Preparation becomes available for your Hunting Skills. I don't see any reason to use it in the beta.

In summary, here's my level 13 beta Demon Hunter build. It works really well for me and it's a lot of fun. Of course, there are tons more skills and runes until level 60 so a final build is likely to be different, also depending on your goals and style of play. I find the Demon Hunter lots of fun to play and as of now I'm 99.99% convinced that it will be my main character when the game is released.

Also read:
The beta Witch Doctor
The beta Monk
The beta Wizard
The beta Barbarian