Diablo 3 World First Contest Heats Up

As mentioned last week, Athene has his eyes set on achieving the world first Inferno clear and world first 60 hardcore character but the competition is beginning to heat up. Celebrated hardcore WoW player Kripparrian has similar ideas and Athene and himself discussed their plans for the May 15th launch date in a 1hr 20minute conversation.

The video is a good watch but if you don’t have the time to view it given it’s length, below you will find a list of cliffnotes of what I feel were the most interesting aspects of the conversation.

 

Kripparrian’s comments include:

• His team have developed tools that allow them to test specific builds.

• Their primary goal is to attain the world first Inferno clear, not first 60.

• They don’t have inside sources or inside access, just months of research

• They have a group of 4 players with 1 additional person playing a Monk incase someone has stablity or connection issues.

• Believes there is no real way to know how long it will take to hit 60 but estimates 10-15 hours (Athene disagrees and believes 40-50 hours).

• Recommends the Demon Hunter for speed leveling to 60 although this doesn’t apply if the goal is an Inferno clear.

• DPS and damage reduction stackability in the game are primarily multiplicative in nature.

• Believes it’s a tough choice deciding between boosting damage or damage taken reduction.

• Has a team with an extensive track record in WoW and DAOC.

• Thinks Athene has a good shot at the world first 60 hardcore.

• Thinks Athene is overestimating his ability to get the world first Inferno clear

• The ability to play and understand the game mechanics outweigh any advantage players will have by purchasing items from the RMAH.

• Equates the Skeleton King to Blood Raven from Diablo 2.

• Game mechanics can already be overcome with no gear.

• Considers it a bad idea not to use the Demon Hunter as they’re capable of moving faster throughout the map, allowing them to use Town Portal to give others access in which case the entire party benefits.

• Thinks Champions in Nightmare mode likely to have stun duration reduction of 25% possibly increasing up to 90% in Inferno.

• Demon Hunter good for leveling but might suffer come Inferno.

• Solo players have a kiting and burst DPS advantage but 4 players move much faster through the game but the downside is it requires much more player coordination to maximize DPS.

• Feels it will be difficult to get a very solid 4 man group as public games are full of bad players and soloing might have the advantage if that is your only choice for grouping.

• Thinks Blizzard will make necessary changes in cases where class stacking provides an unfair advantage in terms of damage bonuses.

• Inferno will take 2 weeks to complete.

• The 5 classes are extremely well balanced in comparison to just a few months ago.

• Kripparrian is willing to share their builds for Diablo 3 but not the concepts behind them.

Athene’s comments include:

• Thinks Blizzard might nerf his tactics early on.

• When he goes for world firsts, he does it in an outside the box, mathematical method with solutions others don’t consider which is why people claim he is abusing game mechanics.

• Is worried that Kripparrian streaming their play will result in sabotage but Kripparrian figures anyone watching the stream won’t be a competitor as real pros design their own strats.

• Thinks Diablo 3 is more single player orientated and that the game mechanics in Inferno can’t be that difficult otherwise solo players wouldn’t have a chance.

• Thinks Inferno just won’t be that difficult to complete if you play with top players and that Blizzard wouldn’t have designed mobs that can instagib you before you can even get 1 hit in.

• Clarified that he is going for the world first Hardcore level 60 and his strategy will be to grind mobs to 60.

• Killing spree bonus bugs might be exploited yet still probably ineffective as higher level mobs provide more experience.

• Has calculated it will take 6-10 hours to complete the game on Normal, 15-20 hours on Nightmare and then 20-30 hours for Hell for a total of 40-50 hours prior to Inferno.

• Based the majority of his builds and strategies from information taken from the website and not in-game.

• Athene wants Kripparrian to reveal his strategy in return for promoting his Youtube channel but Kripparrian is unsure as they want to keep things under wraps until they’ve achieved the world first.

 

• Both have concerns that the first 60′s will exploit something that the vast majority of people will miss.

• Both agree that the longer it takes to complete the game, the better their odds are of actually achieving the world firsts.

Throughout the discussion, Kripparrian sounded like he had a very specific plan while Athene came across as unprepared and not having the knowledge he claims to have about the game.

Who will achieve the world firsts? Only time will tell.