This blog is part of my series about my experience in the Diablo III: Reaper of Souls beta. The beta has been over and done with for quite some time. I’m not quite ready to start blogging about the expansion, and I have plenty of screenshots from the beta that haven’t yet made it into a blog. I still have things that I want to say about my impressions of the game in its beta form.
When I left off, my female Crusader, Joan, had just hit Level 21. This blog gives the details of her adventures from Level 21 to Level 22. I’m certain that I didn’t make it to Level 30 before the beta abruptly ended, so there will only be a few more blogs in this series. The screenshots you see in this blog were taken on January 11, 2014.
When I left off, Joan the Crusader was at Level 21, and was running around the Cursed Hold. She managed to kill The Warden, Head Jailor of King Leoric, in under a minute. This may have something to do with the fact that I was playing on Normal Difficulty.
After killing The Warden, I run as fast as I can through to the end of the Cursed Hold. This is because I strongly dislike the “cut-scene” (for lack of a better term) that involves the Mad King Leoric killing his wife, Queen Asylla. As far as I can tell, you have to activate that awful scene, and let it play out, before you can exit into The Halls of Agony Level 3. So, I activate it, and run away towards the stairs, so I don’t have to see it or hear it. Once was enough!
Shortly after entering The Halls of Agony, Level 3, Joan the Crusader ran into Bloatgut the Shamed. I’ve no idea what he has been eating, but is obviously didn’t agree with him. Just like many of us, he now feels ashamed of the choices he made (to eat too much of something that was obviously bad for him). Being bloated is uncomfortable, even for demons, it seems!
You may have noticed that I was switching off on what Follower I brought with me. I did this randomly while playing the beta. I was hoping to see if there was any significant difference between what the Followers were like in the original Diablo III game, and what they would be like in the Reaper of Souls (RoS) expansion. I don’t recall noticing anything that seemed like a big difference or huge change with any of the Followers.
Here is a screenshot of what I think of as the “Waypoint Map”. It is the same area that I posted in the previous blog where Joan the Crusader was going from Level 21 to Level 22. However, this time there is one noteworthy difference. The arrow still shows where my character is at. It still shows a small image of her next to the location she is currently in. The little red icon next to the waypoint is one that indicates that this is where to find the next “boss”. In this case, that boss is The Butcher. So, if you are going through Story Mode, and cannot remember where to find a particular boss, the map will help you. I like that.
Joan the Crusader entered the room where she would be fighting with The Butcher. By doing so, she earned the Achievement called “There Will Definitely Be Blood”.
There Will Definitely Be Blood: Explore the following areas of the Halls of Agony.
Halls of Agony Level 1, Halls of Agony Level 2, Halls of Agony Level 3, Highlands Passage, The Cursed Hold, Chamber of Suffering
The fight with The Butcher didn’t take very long. Even so, it was a fun fight. I like that you have to run around a bit in order to avoid the areas of the floor that are on fire.
Kill the Butcher, and you complete a quest called “Kill the Butcher”. You also earn the “Butchered!” Achievement. Seems fitting.
Butchered!: Kill the Butcher on Normal difficulty.
In the next screenshot, you can see The Butcher after he fell to the ground. Odd that the Achievement for killing him pops up while he is still standing. Immediately after killing The Butcher, Joan the Crusader earned another Achievement. This one was called “Beastmaster of Tristram”.
Beastmaster of Tristram: Read the following Bestiary lore books in Act I:
Treasure Goblin, Wretched Mother, Unburied, Grotesque, Risen Dead, Carrion Bat, Carrion Nest, Quill Fiend, Scavenger, Skeleton, Imp, Ghost, Beast, Wood Wraith, Ghoul, Hellion, Spiderling, Spider, The Spider Queen, Withermoth, Dark Cultist, Khazra Shaman, Dark Vessel, Dark Berserker, Butcher
OMG, look, look LOOK! The Butcher dropped a Legendary! It is pretty obvious from the bright orange beam of light that is coming from those Shoulders. This was the very first Legendary that Joan the Crusader found. She had to go from Level 1 all the way to Level 21 before she found one Legendary item.
At the time, I thought that was a bit ridiculous. I’d heard that Loot 2.0 was going to make it a whole lot easier to find Legendary items. So, why did it take so long before I found one? I decided that this must be a “bug” (of sorts) in the beta. Perhaps they hadn’t quite worked out all the fine points of Loot 2.0 yet? I would have to wait and see how it played out after the expansion was released.
Naturally, after having to wait so long before finding my first Legendary item in the beta, I wasted no time in taking a look at it. I knew it was Shoulders. At first glance, it appears to be better than the Shoulders that Joan the Crusader was currently using. Hers were Rare, and had Armor 45. The Legendary had Armor 54. Then, I completely forgot that player characters can identify Legendary items all by themselves (without help from Deckard Cain or his book). Oops!
Instead, I just went ahead and found Tyrael. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I figured I would just have the Legendary Shoulders identified after returning to town. Which, of course, is entirely possible. (More details about the Legendary Shoulders in an upcoming blog about the Diablo III: RoS beta). Right before Joan the Crusader could have a conversation with Tyrael, she hit Level 22.
The next blog in this series will be about Joan the Crusader’s adventure as she went from Level 22 to Level 23. My hope was that there would be a lot more Legendary items in her immediate future. I was not entirely disappointed by how that turned out. I also managed to find a rather amusing “bug” to report about.