I’ve been playing with some new players lately and I wanted to throw some basic questions out there and answer them in case someone has similar questions and find same through a search engine. These are real questions I’ve had people ask me in the game.

If you’re a new player and have more questions like these please share them in the comments and I’ll answer them.

How do I make sure I get loot before the rest of my party?

Everything that drops from a mob in the game is only visible to you unless you pick it up and drop it back on the ground. Does this mean that you get half as much loot if you’re playing with a friend? No! Regardless of how many people are in the game the loot that you see on the ground is the same in relationship to the number of things that you kill and objects you loot.

Is Diablo 3 going to be popular?

Psh! Hell yeah it is. Everyone and their mom is gearing up to play Diablo 3. All those people who got sick of World of Warcraft years ago are coming back to Blizzard to see what they’ve cooked up. I would guess that over half the players who are currently playing World of Warcraft are going to load up Diablo 3 in the first week. This game is going to break records and with it’s Real-Money Auction House it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Can I really make real money in Diablo 3?

Yes! This is real. You can make real money in Diablo 3. I wrote a lengthy post on this question yesterday which you can read more here: Can you really make money in Diablo 3?

Are there talent trees?

No, there’s no talent trees. Any character can respec themselves at just about anytime throughout the game. Once you change your abilities or skill runes the effective spell is no longer usable for about 30 seconds. Instead of talent trees, there are 6 Skill Runes for each ability. This creates thousands of combinations for your character. Each combination leads to a completely unique play style. It’s fricken awesome. You can sit around and customize builds all day long with Blizzard’s Skill Calculator.

Is there DPS in Diablo 3?

Yes, and Blizzard calculates it for you. It’s right inside your character screen above your inventory and it’s labeled “Damage.” They recently changed the label from DPS to Damage so that it would make sense to new players. It’s still your damage per second though. It reflects your stats and weapon damage but not your abilities. It’s your ‘base’ damage.

What stats should I look for?

In the beta things are pretty easy. You look for anything with +Damage, +Attack Speed, +Gold Find, +Magic Find and a few others. In the live version there are dozens of modifiers that can show up on weapons and armor. The primary stat, though, is the DPS listed on your weapon. This takes into account extra damage added by modifiers on your weapon. You can also equip and unequip stuff to see how it adjusts your Damage (mentioned above). That’s a good way to get started. Once you get to it, you’ll notice that Diablo 3′s skill and itemization are some of the most involved of any game of its kind!

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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.