5 Best Features of Diablo III

Written by Kevin Chow Wednesday, 27 June 2012 14:00

Diablo III has been out for a little over a month and it has gotten many mixed reviews. Some love it and feel it’s a lot better than Diablo II. Some hate it and feel like it’s Blizzard’s worst game. Since release, there have been several patches and hotfixes that have caused quite a stir, mostly the ones involving item nerfs and gold farming. Regardless of how people feel about the game, here are five of the features that I think are best in Diablo III.

Loot System – The loot system in Diablo III is way better than it was in Diablo II because every player sees their own loot drops. It’s not like Diablo II where everyone rushes to loot and the first person there gets it. In Diablo III, mobs drop separate loot for each player there. So ranged classes don’t have to worry about melee classes always being able to click on the loot first. This makes it more desirable to play as a group rather than solo. The only problem is how much harder it gets with more players, especially in Inferno difficulty even after patch 1.0.3.

Achievements – This makes the game a lot more fun for me because it feels like there are more goals than just beating the game on Inferno and replaying to farm. With achievements, I feel compelled to complete them as I progress through the different acts of the game. In addition to achievement points, some have other rewards such as banner patterns and sigils. This doesn’t seem to mean much right now, but when the PvP patch comes out, people will want to show off their banners.

Account-Wide Functionality – This is something people have been asking for in World of Warcraft and I’m glad they did it for Diablo III. The achievements, gold, and artisans are shared between all characters of the same account. The items can be shared too between characters by putting them in the stash (bank). The gold you picked up with one character will be available for another character on the same account. The artisans will retain their recipes and level when you switch characters. I’m not sure if hardcore characters work the same way with other hardcore characters on the same account, but from what I can tell, they are separate from non-hardcore characters.

Skill Runes – This one can be either good or bad depending on how you look at it, but I’m leaning more towards good because of how easy it is to switch them out. In Diablo II, these were actual items that had to be found from mobs and would have been a pain if it was like that for the Diablo III skill system. However, since they aren’t actual items anymore, it kind of takes away some of the fun and a part of the economy. It was fun finding runestones and combining them to create different effects.

Auction House – This one can also go both ways. I find the auction house to be a good thing because it creates an in-game economy and allows me to buy and sell stuff easily. If it weren’t for the auction house, I wouldn’t have a lot of the gear that I have now, as well as the amount of gold I have. Playing the auction house in itself can also be fun. Buy undervalued items for a low price and resell them for higher. In addition to the normal gold auction house, there is also a real-money auction house (RMAH). I have mixed feelings about the RMAH.  On one hand, I think it’s bad because people can just buy good gear without ever needing to farm gold. They can just get a character to lvl 60 and buy all of the best in slot (BiS) items and be able to farm Inferno difficulty easily. This could also be a problem for PvP because whoever spends the most money on the RMAH will likely win. On the other hand, the RMAH adds some incentive to play because if I find good items, I might be able to make some real money off them, legally.