What are some of the things from Closed Beta that you remember?

I was having a pang of nostalgia about the game, and realized that it's changed drastically over time. I was trying to think of aspects of the game that had changed that people remember from closed beta.

Here are a few of mine:

1. Unique artwork for skill gems
Skill gems used to all look alike. The only difference was the color (R/G/B). It used to be a pain trying to find a gem that you were looking for, but thinking about it, I feel that it looked gracefully clean. The new appearance just looks awkward, in my opinion.

2. The Vaal Oversoul was the final boss
It felt weird the first time I stepped into The City of Sarn after I killed Vaal Oversoul. It used to take me to the Twilight Strand.

3. Ruthless Difficulty
For people that complain about having to play through the same content thrice, you had it easy. Originally, there was a fourth difficulty level between Cruel and Merciless, called "Ruthless".

4. Descriptive monster affixes
This is a huge pet peeve for me. To give an example, think of the monster "Steadfast Ruined Titan". The white text below the monster used to say "Cannot be stunned" earlier. Now, it's been changed to "Unwavering". This is extremely unhelpful to anyone playing the game. I'd rather have it the old way, but I guess GGG have better things to worry about.

5. Huge graphics for auras and charges
If you had Anger and Wrath up (which everyone did at the time), you would have 6 spheres of alternating red and blue rotating around your character. Add in 5 endurance charges and you'd be hard pressed to find your character in there :)

6. Flat aura reservation costs
Speaking on auras, this is something I miss as well. Auras had flat reservation. IIRC, Anger and Wrath had 60 mana reservation (not 60%). People ran about 7 auras on a normal build (without this low life crap). Only a select few auras had a percentage based allocation; off the top of my head, I can think of Discipline, Vitality and Haste.

7. The Eternal Laboratory was not connected to the Solaris Temple
It was just a waypoint that you had once you completed Merciless Vaal Oversoul.

8. Several of the areas had different names.
Who remembers the "Terraces", "The Cave", "The Rocky Climb" (not just "The Climb"), "The Forest" (instead of The Southern Forest), "The Dark Forest" (not The Blackwood), "Pools and Streams" (instead of The Wetlands).

The Riverways used to be called something different, I can't remember what it was. I think it was "River Crossing" or something like that. If anyone remembers, do mention it :)

9. Chaos Inoculation keystone gave 50% more Energy Shield
There was no cluster after CI, and the keystone gave 50% MORE ES. Needless to say, it was hit by the hammer.

10. Cast When Damage Taken did not exist, so people actually paid attention to what they were doing
I must say CwDT is the one thing that has made the game incredibly easier, as well as very fair. Before CwDT, reflect monsters would kill characters with no reasonable way to mitigate the damage. You had to play through maps more carefully lest you take a stray projectile which could kill you. CwDT + Immortal Call has made the game much easier, in my opinion.

There's my list of 10 :) Feel free to post yours.
CI freeze pulse, Marohi ground slam and Invalesco's dagger crit build used to be some of the most popular ones back then. Oh, and the Vaal smash spawned way more QQ than it does now. But most of all I remember the five exalts that dropped for me over the course of CB. They were worth far less back then ofc. I spent one on a 5link and another on dream fragments lol
I got crazy lucky and found a 66 map, got offered 10c for it. I ran it anyway and posted in global, asking if anyone wanted any of the sweet level 66 drops from it. I had to take out 3 or 4 inventories of white items for people haha.
P̯̹̙̥̉̏ͦͯA̠̝̰̣̯͕͚̲̭͈̥̠͑̓̿ͦ̾ͯ̍ͅͅȚ̜̦͕̞̞̠̮͎͔͙͔̺̺͉̟̿̿̏ͬ͛͋̍ͮ̌̚H̹͕͚̟͍̘̤̱̻̬͓̬̮̫̦͖̳̹ͮͨ̒̉ͮ̿̈ͪ̇̿͆ͭ̃ͭ̃ͭ̚ ̲̫̞̤͓̳͑ͬ̾͌ͯ͐͂̿͗ͨ͋͑̍͐͗̾̄O͕̮̻͔̳̠͉͖̳͖͈̻͇͈̣̙̪͈ͨ͐̒̽ͣ̋ͅF̣͎̞̞̯̝ͦ͌̆ͥ̈͐̾ͣ̔ͮ̐̀̏ͪ̚ ̟̩͙̙̩̮̻̼ͬ͑ͥͦ͗̿E̼̭̩̜͕̱̤̭̞͖̳͍̝̤̼͓̗ͩͫ̌ͬ̊̋̄͑͗̽X͕̰̪̱̲̩̙̦͓͓̯̠̤̝̝̯̣̥̀̋̌̍̚Ȉ̖̟͔̩̝̊̿ͪͅL̺͓̻̰̀͋̅ͮͧE͔̼͚͕̮̻̟̩̪̖̫̪̦͙̎̑͆̏ͨͅ
Cool history lesson - thanks for that. I didnt come over here until D3 cancelled trade/AH.
Git R Dun!
No quicksilver flasks, but we had Phase Run!
"
EraA wrote:
No quicksilver flasks, but we had Phase Run!


Ah I forgot about that one.. Phase run was awesome :D
I remember ci giving 80% more and there beeing no boss at the end of vaal pyramid. :)
CliveHowlitzer wrote:

I am now too addicted to that feeling of being kicked in the nuts when you die.
"
Alros wrote:
I remember ci giving 80% more and there beeing no boss at the end of vaal pyramid. :)


Whoa.. I wasn't around at that point.. 80% more? :O
Zombie minion pathing was spectacularly bad
Sockets and Links had different artwork
End game was the Maelstrom of Chaos
No partying system
Ruthless difficulty
There were around 400 players online total
Last edited by terrorist on Sep 28, 2014, 4:41:15 AM
Hi there,

well things changed with time. There was good change and bad change, as always....

The only big difference for me today is that I did not use orb the same way as before.

In the Beta, I was used to use my chaos, divine and exalt on my item as their price where not so high. The risk was okay for me as I told me : "ok I have to kill some more monster if I do not reach the result I want". Today, a chaos orb, a divine or an exalt are so expansive that when I find one, I keep it to buy something later from an other player. In this league I did not use 1 chaos, divine or exalt on my item.

I find this sad actually. Orb are designed to be used on item firstly and not as currency in my opinion.
At this point you can just add gold in the game for trading between people...

I hope we will not reach this point as I find the orb a prety cool idea actually.

Oh, and I could reach top 100 in race too, today, it is a miracle when I Top 500 ^^ I remember a a place 3 in duelist ranking in blamt Party with a lvl 2 duelist ^^
Last edited by spacecroquette on Sep 27, 2014, 6:15:37 AM

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info