PSA: Diablo III Open Beta WeekendFollow

So, Kavekk, are you getting this game?

I don't really want to reward their DRM, but I may.

I haven't bought it either. Still waiting for it to drop in price.

I'll be adding people here when I get on next.

I just hit Act 1 Inferno, and it's like trying to punch through a brick wall with my current gear. Even the basic zombies from the beginning of the game are a real threat in groups. Soloing just isn't viable with my current gear. I've got some friends who can tank and dps, and I'm trying to be useful as a support. All elite fights are kiting for us.

Edited, May 23rd 2012 11:27pm by Allegory

Finished Normal, now onto Nightmare. Sad that even my drops from Diablo him(Her?)self can't touch the cheap stuff I can find on the AH.

I ran the last fight on Nightmare for an achievement, and afterwards it takes you to the next difficulty. Well, I thought it'd take me to Hell but since I cleared Hell, it took me to Inferno. I didn't notice until I went to explore a cellar and there was an Elite that just wrecked me. Fast arcane vortex walling.

You'll still probably see many of the good rares on the gold AH. The RMAH will probably host all the uniques and sets, though.

Cleared the Skeleton King on Inferno. It amazes me how poorly some people play. A1 Inferno is harder than A4 Hell, don't get me wrong, but I don't know how you get through A4 Hell playing this terribly. Powerleveling and carries, maybe. And I'm not just talking about the gearcheck. Things like activating an event fight before clearing trash so you have room to kite or when teh whole group is spread across the map, chasing/kiting into uncleared territory, and other general situational awareness issues that you wouldn't think you'd be able to clear Hell while doing.

Edited, May 24th 2012 2:23pm by Spoonless

I am such a wimp... been tooling around on easy mode all week. I like it though...

Sent ya a friend invite. Playing through Act I currently as a Wizard.

That's the main reason why I haven't posted mine. I would rather wait for the hacking issue to die down for a while before I start jumping into groups. Better safe than sorry and all that.

On a side note, beginning of act 3 is easier than middle of act 2. I can safely say that I hate those serpent men.

I found the beginning of Act 3 to the very first challenge, which made me go get AH rares. There was one of those large brutish ogre looking things, yellow, with minions. Bashed me and I died in one hit. I had about 1200 hp. After I bought my AH items I had nearly 5k.

I suppose I should have specified. I find the beginning of act 3 on hell easier than the middle of act 2 on hell. Although it was in act 3 normal when I started dying. Stuff starts to do damage that can't really be ignored like previous trash. I am looking at you boney arm pestilence d-bags.

You better. She is your girlfriend after all.

SpoilerItem #4 on that list.

Damn... I think someone logged into my account somehow. Stash and inventory has been stripped clean. Only thing left was my AH items and the Black Mushroom.
I never joined a public game. Played a little bit in the morning, just enough to see the AH was down and logged out.

Not sure how they got it. I've only ever used my Battle.net account for D3. Really bummed out, scanned my computer for anything just in case, not that I expected to find anything since I have up to date anti virus and anti spy/malware. Never visited any D3 websites beyond Zam and Battle.net.

Edited, May 25th 2012 9:46pm by TirithRR

I question your use of Battle Scars for Prep (since pretty much anything in Inferno that poses a threat will 1-shot you anyway), but otherwise I'm running an almost identical build (switched to reduced cost on SS to try it out, but idk that it's doing enough good for me to care).

I'm presuming you found Development Hell? There is another area, I think under a well or something, where they have the names of the QA team members or something. I don't remember what that one is called. (For those who don't know, Development Hell is an area that has mobs named after the developers of DIII.)

Development Hell is one of the crypts in that area. Normally there are only 3 open that you can search through, but there's a chance the fourth one is open and when you step inside it's called "Development Hell." I think I vaguely recall running into a Dataminer special mob elsewhere at one point, so you may not have found the secret crypt.

The black mushroom needs to be used with a number of other items to get to Whimsyshire, including Wirt's bell which is bought in Act II. I haven't done it yet, but it looks like fun.

I'll be getting a rollback (sometime today hopefully) I'll be losing 2 levels and a bit of progress, but it's better than starting clean.

I guess I'll also be buying an Authenticator...

I'm curious what I did wrong to let someone get my account info. All scans came up clean (I expected as much) the only thing that came up was a false positive "root kit" that my anti-virus found that was just the drivers used by my firewall software. While my Bnet account was old, I had never used it beyond the initial creation and now for D3 (I think I created it in anticipation for Starcraft II but never got it). This is only the second account that was ever compromised, first being my Xbox Live account, which again sat idle for a good year until one day I noticed a charge. The password probably wasn't as strong as it should have been (still a good one, but not great) but it was unique to this account. I'm wondering if they just didn't brute force there way in?

No smart phone, ordered a blizzard authenticator, they are only 6.50, and free shipping, so it's not that bad.

Probably going to play Torchlight til I get the Authenticator.

Spybot S&D and Malwarebytes Anti Malware for checking and cleaning on occasion. AVG for active anti virus. CCleaner to clean up temporary files on occasion. Firefox up to date with no script and adblock plus.

While the reviews of AVG have gone down hill for the last many updates, I don't believe it is 'bad' by any means.

I scanned with MSE just to be sure, didn't pick up anything bad.

Updated Malwarebyte's picked up one "threat" but it was a part of Alcohol 120 (the CD/DVD Drive Emulator). Not exactly a threat (and definitely not infected). They always have a habit of picking those types of programs, probably because of how they work relative to actual threats. Similar to AVG flagging my firewall software (but only at the latest update).

I'll switch over to MSE for a while and see how I like it. I've been looking to replace AVG for some time because the "free" version has become a bit bloated and ad filled. Scan times have gotten progressively longer and scans more CPU intensive as the program's been updated over the last couple years.

They recommend it because Norton has gotten much much better than it used to be. It's actually a good suite now. McAfee still sucks.

The truth however though is that millions of iterations of malware are rehashed every day and definitions cannot keep up. Even heuristic detection can only do so much. Sometimes you need to use a boot disk scanner as well because root kits can hide from Windows API, be sure to turn off restore points first so they don't hop right back out of it. Looking at your processes can also help with process explorer or something similar. Or if your really hardcore you can look at network traffic leaving your machine and see if your PC is communicating with command and control servers for known botnets.

We catch them like that at work every week when traditional AV misses them. Once we see the malicious traffic at the network gateway we can run a gammit of tools to find out where the infection is on the machine. But the truth is you can lock down your machine, no admin privs, firefox, noscript, adblock and the like and that helps but you can never be 100% protected.

And they keep getting my info from games I played like Rift and Champions Online when their servers get penetrated. And their is sh*t all I can do about that except to use unique passwords and watch my credit and whatnot to make sure no one is taking out loans in my name. blah

Seems you guys actually started posting here while I was engrossed in the game. I'm a level 60 barb, been farming inferno act 1 for the past day or so. Found a nice legendary today, hopefully I didn't overprice it and it sells.

Have any of you guys been using teamspeak/skype/vent or stuff for talking? Me and my friends have been using skype but it's a pretty lackluster way to go about it imo. Although that's solely because only one of my friends is my level right now lol. Wish you could be in a party to talk with people without being forced to join the game.

I use all three voice chat programs. Though I'm typically on TS3 with friends, this is only because of one small problem with skype. With skype, you have a host and so if the host must leave for any reason you must restart the call. Additionally, people must be invited to the call which makes joining and leaving frequently an issue.

Other than that though, I think skype is a rather outstanding program, if resource intensive. The call quality is superb.

You can host your own TS3 server if you have a decent enough rig, and TS3 is both superior and leaner to Ventrilo atm.

I've heard of the problems with clean removal and other issues, but I have never experienced them, which leads me to believe a lot of the issues are not purely on Norton's end and may be conflicts with other programs. Many of the other issues were associated with resource management because Norton essentially took over your system during a scan, which really shouldn't be an issue since you shouldn't be using your system during a full scan anyway. But as far as detection and removal, Norton has been one of the best for a long time.

As far as kernel access, their are other programs that need it. But yea, it is a bit of a double edged sword. Although if you remove it completely, it would make a kernel 0Day the end-all of viruses.

Client-side compromises due to viruses or phishing, or even brute force, do make up a good portion of compromised accounts, but I wouldn't say most. How many keyloggers have actually been found on systems used with a compromised account? Of those found, how many of those are just abandoned keyloggers simply floating around out there? I would say phishing compromises are more likely than keyloggers.

Remember a company is not required to disclose a breach unless sensitive customer information is accessed, and your name, address, and email do not count as sensitive information. Now imagine the backlash if Blizzard admitted to a breach, regardless of how small or insignificant. The media would rip them to shreds and almost every customer who ever had a compromised account would be demanding compensation.