Blizzard released a little teaser video the other day with 3 of the development team’s artists featured explaining in no uncertain terms: “You will die in inferno difficulty!” One of them emphasizes that beta players have played a tiny portion of the easiest difficulty, which he refers to as ‘Farming Level’. It’s been awhile since Blizzard released a genuinely difficulty encounter, and I know heroic difficulty in World of Warcraft should count but frankly… it doesn’t because few people care if you can find a raid group that can overcome the same raid content with more challenge. There isn’t the same sense of completion associated with WoW as we all think there will be with Inferno. I mean, if you haven’t beat Diablo 3 on Inferno… you haven’t beat Diablo 3, right?
That got me thinking, maybe Blizzard intends to make Inferno difficulty scale the way heroic difficulty does in World of Warcraft. Why not? Imagine if after the first month of play only a few players overcame the challenges of Inferno. Imagine if you actually had to complete Hell encounters over and over and over again, searching for obscure gear with the right combinations of stats before you can continue on. Imagine if you had to find just the right partners to beat the early encounters in Inferno only to be devastated by the Act I bosses… Blizzard could certainly do right by making Inferno difficult enough that players begin to say, ‘meh, who cares if you can beat it on Inferno.. I’m level 60.” Not only would that give the game a lot of dimension, but imagine what it would do for profiteers like ourselves.
The Gold Rush
In World of Warcraft you defeat Deathwing on Heroic difficulty for glory, fame and maybe a title. You don’t walk away with a lot of stuff you can sell, instead you end up with equipment that aids personal progression for content that hasn’t been released yet. In Diablo 3, you get gear that will 1) help you get more gear 2) sell for a shitload of gold on the gold based auction house.
This completely changes the progression into something that can really make a lot of money for the first waves of people who can complete Inferno. With thousands if not millions of players at the heels of the leaders, begging for their scraps. It will never be more important and more possible for players to become part of the elusive 1% in Diablo 3.
Check out the video yourself and let me know what you think in the comments below:
Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.
I’m really worried about gold. It seems it’s really scarce and to be honest I don’t know if I’ll sell everything I got in the first week. Maybe we will need to items and the gold the be able to play in Inferno mode. Oh my god, I just can’t wait for this freaking game!!!