My Inferno Belial Kill (DH Solo Guide)

Yes, I did it yesterday (30.5.2012). After 3 hours of wiping I killed Belial Inferno Solo  with my Demon Hunter and got several achievements. After the kill I killed him again with Macr0s, who already leveled a Monk to lev 60 and geared him for Inferno. We only need 5 more tries for him and it was much more easier then solo. For our team kill I used the same skills and items as I used for my solo kill.

This solo kill was an amazing adventure for me and through this practice I learned really much about my class and improves my playing skills. Of course I must commit that the Demon Hunter is the class which can do this in inferno with really cheap gear compared to other classes.

Inferno Belial Demon Hunter Solo Guide

I won't go into the deep in this guide. I explain how I did it and why. There are of course other and better way to do it and with other gear requirements, but as long the lead to the same success it doesn't matter.


Skills

Inferno Belial Build

Hungering Arrow - Devouring Arrow
hatred generator if needed

Elemental Arrow - Nether Tentacles
best damage skill for aoe and single target (can hit a single target more then once)

Smoke Screen - Lingering Fog
invulnerable

Preparation - Backup Plan
Discipline for Smoke Screen

Marked for Death - Mortal Enemy
increase damage and hatred generation in phase 2 and phase 3

Companion - Bat Companion
more damage and hatred generation

Tactical Advantage
movement speed increase for faster positioning

Archery
more damage

Sharpshooter
more burst damage,  very good with low crit% and high crit damage


Gear

I have very cheap gear compared to other classes and what is in the auction house available. My weapon is a magic crossbow with 955,9 dps and critical hit damage increased by 52%.

I concentrate on high dex, high crit damage and ias (increased attack speed) on my gear. (not for Belial but as a general Inferno gear.) If you want spend more money then also consider crit chance and buy pieces like Andariel's Visage with dex, ias and crit. chance. I have following stats.

My quiver has +5 max discipline. This isn't much and if you find a good quiver or chest with other good stats in the ah then buy it for this fight. More discipline helps a lot.


Follower - Templar

The follower is your backup in phase 1 and phase 2. During my tries I bought some cheap equipment for him, because I didn't spent any money for him before and he died to fast.

Two Rings and a amulet with high vitality, maybe a socket.
A shield with high vitality, armor and strength.
A weapon with high vitality, strength and cold damage. The damage itself isn't important.
A Relic with high vitality and strength.

My templar was doing his work with following stats, but sometimes died in the end of phase 2, but this isn't tragic, because you don't really need him in p3 and he will respawn very soon.

67.217 life
2468 Armor
984 Strength
1699 Vitality
Templar Skills


Fight against Belial

The fight against Belial has 3 phases. Don't skip the cutscene between the phases. You can skip it at the start of the fight. During the cutscene you regenerate hatred, discipline and stack crit chance with sharpshooter.

If you take any hit you will die. Don't be afraid from dieing and if your resurrection timer is 30 seconds, make a short break like 3-5 minutes after you live again, to reset it. Use Smoke Screen as often as you are in danger. I died to often, because I want to safe some discipline.


Phase 1

Your templar starts to attack the monsters, use Smoke Screen and stand behind him on the left or right side. Then clear the first group very fast with Elemental Arrow. Then spam Hungering Arrow as long as the next group spawns. Then kill the nearest monsters with Elemental Arrow and use Smoke Screen if they come to close to you or to many monsters spawn on your side. Don't stand on an spawn point and spam Elemental Arrow all the time. You must learn where the monsters can spawn and how to handle this situation. In the beginning it's better to use Smoke Screen as often as you are in danger, because it's important to reach phase 2 to learn it.


Phase 2

After a short cutscene Belial joins the fight. Don't skip this cutscene. First use Marked for Death on him. Belial will charge you and use his cleave attack, use immediatly your smoke screen and go on range on him. Shoot Elemental Arrow on him. If he charges you again run away from him to dodge his cleave attack or to be safety use smoke screeen. Try to do as most damage as possible with Elemental Arrow.

After like 3 charges he shoots 3 green projectile at you. If you stand behind the templar and he eat the projectile focus on damage, if he doesn't eat a projectile dodge them. If you have him already at 50-60% use smoke screen and focus on damage to get him to 20-25% to start phase 3. Shortly after he shoots green projectiles, he summon monsters, which must be killed. Use Smoke Screen to get on range to them and kill them. Sometimes you can ignore the summoned monsters and focus on Belial if he is low enough.


Phase 3

Again a short cuscene, which you shouldn't skip. Now Belial is a stationary boss. At the start of the fight use Marked for Death on him and shoot Elemental Arrow. Green circles indicate where he attacks. If it's close to you use smoke screen and get some range. Continue to dodge his attack if the green  circle is near you, but try to stay on the right side. If he starts using his breath go right edge of your screen so you don't get killed by his breath, if you aren't fast enough use Smoke Screen. Focus on damage by spamming Elemental Arrow. Depending on your damage and crit luck he will be very low before he uses his green meteor strike. Don't use Smoke Screen in this situation. IF you use it during the meteor strikes he will cast it randomly all over the place. Dodge it by moving and finish him off.


Achievements

I got following achievements with my Solo Inferno kill.

Why'd It Have to be Snakes
beat 10 Veiled Sentinels in 30 seconds while fighting Belial on Nightmare or higher

Good Eye
beat Belial without being hit by his projectile or meteor strike

Bad Breath
beat Belial on Inferno without being hit by his breath attack

Fist Missed
beat Belial without being hit by his fist attack

Out of the Shadows
finish the Belial achievements Why'd It Have to Be Snakes, Good Eye Fist Missed. Bad Breath.

The Lord of Lies (Inferno)


Have fun with Belial! Next step for me Inferno Act III.

My todo list

Just to inform you about my next steps in Diablo III.
Too less time to do all what I want :)

- finish my Demon Hunter Gold Find Guide
- improve my gf gear
- build up a mf gear for hell / inferno switchting
- doing gold find runs for more money and get a new recor
- killing belial inferno
- trying to farm act 3 inferno for items
- make more gold in the normal auction house
- farming ingredients to craft Staff of Herding, which is needed for reaching the secret level Wimsyshire
- leveling a barbarian
- leveling a monk with exploring the hole story and lore
- starting my first hardcore charakter
...

New Demon Hunter build for nightmare farming (lev60)

After some more hours of gold farming in nightmare this is my updated Demon Hunter build (lev 60) for my
DH gold find guide.

Hungering Arrow - Devouring Arrow
for bosses

Chakram - Shuriken Cloud
for objects and also useful against last remaining enemys in melee range

Multishot - Fire at Will
for every group of monsters

Vault - Tumble
low costs for faster traveling

Preperation - Back up Plan
more Discipline for more traveling

Companion - Ferret
10% gf


Passive

Tactical Advantage
Faster Traveling

Vengeance
Hatred and Diszipline regeneration

Archery
more damage


Skill Calculator

Old Post - DH Gold Find Guide Part I - Skills
Next Part II - Equipment
DH Gold Find Guide - Introduction

A good skill to break barrels

A good skill for the Demon Hunter to break objects like barrels or weak wooden doors is  
Chakram - Shuriken Cloud.

You must run very close along the barrels to break them. If you Vault it doesn't work. This is a very good skill for gold or magic find runs in weaker areas, because you are not dependent on all your skills slots.

DH Gold Find Guide Part III - Follower

We have the desicion between 3 Followers.
The main purpose for our follower is the gf.
You get 20% of your follower's mf and gf.

Templar
+ 4-5% more gf because he can wear a shield with gf
+ heal and steady hp regeneration
+ help in emergency or hatred regeneration

Scoundrel+ 3% crit

Enchantress+ 3% attack speed

I prefer the Templar, because of the gf and he is the best help in emergency situations.
3% crit or 3% attack speed isn't enough for me to take another follower for gf runs.

Follower Equipment
Amulet 18% gf
Ring1 12% gf
Ring2 12% gf
Shield 18% gf
=> 60% gf => 12% gf for you!

My templar has 71% gf, this makes 14% gf for me.
(Not really worth to buy expensive equipment for your follower!)

Weapon (One hand Axes, Daggers, Maces, Spears and Swords)
dps doesn't matter
give him any weapon you can find

Templar Relics
No gf or mf is available on this item slot, so equip anything you find on your way.

Follower Skills
Choose the skills you like. Under following link you find my preferences.

Follower Skill Calculator

Next Part IV - Farming Area
DH Gold Find Guide - Introduction

DH Gold Find Guide Part II - Equipment

We search for a very cheap gf gear for nightmare, hell is another topic.
For nightmare it's very easy, only gf matters on the items.

In higher difficulty, damage and life is more important to kill as fast as possible and not to die.
I must do myself some more testing in hell to have more detailed data.

stats:
gold find (gf) values are minimum requirements, which can be bought very cheap in the ah
increase gold and health globe pick up radius some more yards are useful, even if we have our ferrets

Weapon
The most important item in our gf gear is the item without gf, our weapon.
only dps matter
bow or crossbow prefered, due to higher burst damage
for 30.000 gold you will get a bow with 600 - 700 dps (Server Europe, 24.5.2012)

Helm
10% gf
1 Socket
(difficult to find the right item in the ah, because also helms without gf and an emerald will show up)
We put an Flawless Square Emerald into the helm. This gives us 19% gf.
You must pay ~70.000 for a Perfect Square Emerald, which is only 2% more gf then the Flawless Square Emerald.

Boots
12% gf
Boots should also have movement speed. 12% preferred
(If you search in the ah don't put in a value for movement speed, it don't work or I'm doing it wrong.)

Helm	10%
Shoulder	13%
Chest	14%
Gloves	12%
Belt	13%
Wrists	12%
Pants	14%
Boots	12%
Amulet	18%
Ring1	12%
Ring2	12%
Quiver	14%
Flawless Square Emerald	19%
total	175%

I have 216% gf now from my gear, my next investment will be a better helm and better gem.


How does gf work?
If you would collect 50.000 gold with 0% gf,
you would collect 100.000 gold with 100% gf or
137.500 gold with 175% gf.

Formula
base gold amount x (1 + gf / 100)

Example
50.000 x (1 + 100 / 100) =
50.000 x (1+ 1) =
50.000 x 2 = 100.00


How much is an increase of 1% gf worth if I have already 175% gf?
It depends how often and how long you farm.
The better question is how long must I farm to get an investmen for 1% more gf back?

This question is difficult to answer, because I don't have exact data.
We need the base gold amount for 1 hour farming with 0% gf, (also no nephalem valor buff).
I didn't have the time to test this, but my mathematical calculation leads to 50.000 - 70.000 base gold amount for 1 hour farming in nightmare. The highter the base gold amount, the better for us.

Example I
base gold amount: 50.000
investment 100.000
+ 1% gf

=> + 500 g / hour
=> 200 hours farming to get investment back

Example II (Radiant Square Emerald)
base gold amount: 50.000
investment 190.000 (if you craft it yourself)
+ 4% gf

=> + 2.000 g / hour
=> 95 hours farming to get investment back

Example III (realistic for starters)
base gold amount 50.000
investment 50.000
+ 5 gf

=>+ 2.500 g / hour
=> 20 hours farming to get investment back



Next Part III - Follower
DH Gold Find Guide - Introduction

Smokescreen nerfed

Bad news for demon hunters, who farm elite packs solo inferno with max dexterity gear.

Smokecreen (changes in red)
Vanish behind a wall of smoke, becoming momentarily invisible for (2) 1 seconds.
Rune Lingering Fog
Increase the duration of the effect to (3) 2 seconds.
Cooldown 3 seconds.

Edit: Further it seems, that monsters are following you if you are invisible, but don't attack.

This timeframe of 1 seconds will be enough for fast moving monsters to kill the Demon Hunter. We will see, if the Demon Hunter can find a work around for this problem or need better gear to farm elite packs in inferno solo.

This means for me, if I don't play in group I go back to gold farming.

DH Gold Find Guide Part I - Skills

Updated build.

In our skill selection we focus on aoe damage, mobility and hatred generation.
This following skill selection is for an easy area like nightmare act 3, 4 or hell act 1, 2.
For later difficulties like hell act 3,4 we need better gear and more damage and fight controling skills.

1 Hungering Arrow 

Only for hatred regeneration

If we only use Multishot as hatred spender, then we choose Puncturing Arrow (pierce 50%) for most single target damage against bosses.
Otherwise you should take Shatter Shot (split into 3 arrows) or Spray of Teeth (crit aoe explode)

2 Multishot

Our main skill. I use it against every group, also against elite packs.

Rune choice depends on your damage. If you can oneshot most groups, then take Fire at Will (reduce cost) otherwise Full Broadside (increase damage). A further option is to take Suppression Fire (hit grants 1 discipline), but then you can't use a second hatred spender and use Preparation instead.

3 Impale or Preparation

Now we have an option between an strong single target hatred spender or more hatred generation.

Impale with Impact (Stun) is very useful against elite packs or bosses if you are too weak like in hell act 3 or 4.  If you farm in nightmare Impale with Grievous Wounds (100% crit damage) is the better choice.

If you won't use a second hatred spender, because Multishot for normal monsters and elite packs and Hungering Arrow against bosses is enough you should take Preparation with Punishment (restore all hatred for 25 discipline).

4 Vault

Vault is very important to travel fast and on higher difficulty to kite. Tumble for lower costs or Rattling Roll (knockback and stun) as defensive ability.

5 Caltrops

In nightmare you don't need Caltrops for slowing and kiting, but with the rune Bait the Trap (10% crit) it's a very good damage increase against bosses. In hell you need Caltrops for kiting with Hooked Spines (80% movement speed) or Torturous Ground (immobilized 2 sec).

6 Companion

Last but not least our Ferret Companion (10% gf). Free and easy gf. Must have.


Passive Skills

For Nightmare I suggest following Passive Skills.
Tactical Advantage  faster traveling
Vengeance Hatred and Discipline regeneration
Archery more damage

In Hell I would change Vengeance against Sharpshooter for more burst damage. Tactical Advantage is important for kiting now and Archery increases damage.

Skill Calculator - Nightmare build with Impale
Skill Calculator - Nightmare build with Preparation
Skill Calculator - Hell build


Next Part II - Equipment
DH Gold Find Guide - Introduction

DH Gold Find Guide - Introduction

This Gold Find (gf) Guide is concerned with solo farming  in lower level areas like nightmare act 3 or easy spots in hell or inferno with a lev 60 Demon Hunter. The areas must be tested intensely to give a good comparison.

The goal is to get a very constant gold per hour ratio with gold find. This can be done as soon as you reach lev 60 with a very cheap item set. Sure you can also farm in hell, but for a fast and safe run you need much better items. If killing many monsters easily and farming for a longer period of time are fun for you, gold find runs are the right activity for you. I like it.

The strategy is to wear as much gold find as possible, find very fast 5 elite packs to stack the Nephalem Valor Buff to 75% gf and mf, and then kill many monsters for gold, elite packs and bosses for rare or better items. These items are not as valuable if you would do the same in hell or inferno, but in these areas you can wear more and cheaper gold find gear. Sometimes you will also find worthwile items for the auction house. All other items can be sold or salvaged.

One exception is an easy spot in inferno, there you don't stack any nephalem valor buff before. You will find it under part V of my guide.

In the following days I'm writing more parts of the guide.

DH Gold Find Guide Part I - Skills
DH Gold Find Guide Part I - Skills updated 
DH Gold Find Guide Part II - Equipment
DH Gold Find Guide Part III - Follower
DH Gold Find Guide Part IV - Farming Area
DH Gold Find Guide Part V - Farming Area II
DH Gold Find Guide Part VI - My GF Demon Hunter

Nephalem Valor Buff

With lev 60 after defeating a champions group or a rare monster you get the Nephalem Valor Buff.

The buff increase your magic find and gold find for 15%.
The buff stacks 5 times, this means 75% magic find and 75% gold find.
The buff lasts 30 minutes.
The duration resets to 30 minutes with each kill of an elite pack.
The buff ends if you change skills.
You get the buff in all difficulties, also normal and nightmare.
With this buff you get additional item drops if you kill a boss like skeleton king. (This is not 100% confirmed now!) 

There are many possibilities with this buff, which must be discovered now.

Lev 60

Finally I reached lev 60 with my Demon Hunter today (Saturday, 19.5.2012, 11:17).
I was on the last quest in act 3 hell.

Now the game start again. There are so many things what I want to do, but I don't have this much time.
Ingame I'm working on act4 hell and a gold farming strategy.

In the next days I will write a short summary about the last part (which is missing) of my leveling adventure with my leveling group.

Nightmare Act I - My first legendary drop

Ernesto and Macr0 started with lev 31 and I were lev 30.

I found my first legendary item. Fjord Cutter

Through the first part of Act I we rushed very fast, but then we were too lazy and died to often.

My Demon Hunter looks like this and have a very good weapon.

I use following skills.

For Act I Nightmare we needed 3 hours.

After Act I we decided to do a longer break, because of problems with the login and opening a new game.

Normal

With 1 hour delay we started our adventure.

Already in act 1 we wiped at a big tree with a rare.

After 2 hours and 50 minutes we killed the last post in act 1. (lev 14)

Boss Act 1

2nd act - 3 hours and 50 minutes (we had some problems at the end boss) (lev 23)

3rd act -  3 hours 15 minutes (lev 29 / 30)

4th act - 1 hour 30 minutes (I had some Internet problems, delay for 10 minutes) (lev 30 / 31)

I played 11 Hours 24 Minutes and my Demon Hunter is lev 30 now.



Because of my internet problems I don't have more time to write a longer coverage. Sorry.

Live Coverage - Main Post

This is the main post of the live coverage from my leveling group EMT.
Here you will find all links to all coverage articels.

Normal

Nightmare Act I

Tips for leveling adventure

Some useful help for tonights leveling adventure.

Charakter progression

Following sites can help you during your level process. They offers a very quick overview which skills, runes or passives are activated on which level.

Barbarian progression
Demon Hunter progression
Monk progression
Witch Doctor progression
Wizard progression

I will have opened the dh site on my notebook right to me.

Overview weapons

Keybindings

pdf for printing

Follower

Followers are only in solo play available.
Follower basics

Making Gold

Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Guide
Free Gold Guide Blog

Analysis Demon Hunter skills in a leveling group

Today's topic contains Demon Hunter skills and considerations for leveling in a group with one or more melees. I have the luxury, that I have a Barbarian and a Monk in my leveling team.

If you play together with a Barbarian or/and Monk most time you must not kite the enemies, because they are attacking the melee. This means for us we don't need a slow (entangling shot or caltrops) for the normal leveling process. (If there is any big situation (event) with to much monsters, we can swap our skill for this situation, if necessary.)

The Demon Hunter should stand in the back and should focus on aoe damage.

Hatred Generator (Left Mouse)
We have only tree options Hungering Arrow, Bola Shot or Grenades.

Hungering Arrow is stronger against few and strong monsters (like bosses, champion, rares or small group of monsters)

Bola Shot is stronger for big clustered group of monsters.
The Barbarian have a skill Ground Stomp with Rune Wrenching Smash (lev 18), which pulls all monster in 24y range to him and stun them for 4 seconds. These 2 skills could be a good combination.

Grenades is useful for a faster hatred regeneration with Rune Tinkerer. In comparison to the 2 other options I don't like it.

Conclusion for myself: Using Hungering Arrow until lev 14, then Bola Shot with Rune Volatile Explosives (increase explosion radius to 14y).
If this won't work as I intended, then Hungering Arrow is another good option for me.
Later with lev 37 I will give  Bola Shot with Rune Acid Strike a chance.
The bola no longer explode, but therefore you shoot 3 bola with 130% weapon damage.


Hatred Spender (Right Mouse)
Rapid Fire with Withering Fire is a very good Hatred Spender, because you can stand still in the back and unload all your hatred. It's strong against single target and also against smaller groups.

It's the best option for me, because there are good synergies with other skills possible.
Like Preparation with rune Punishment (for 25 discipline you restore all hatred) and passive Vengeance (increase max hatred by 25, and you gain 20 hatred and 2 discipline whenever you are healed by a health globe)

I'm dreaming from following situation:
My team partners a monk and a barbarian fighting in the front. I'm standing in the back with full hatred. Unload all hatred with Rapid Fire. Use Preparation. Unload hatred with Rapid Fire again.
In the meanwhile my team picked up some health globes. I unload the rest of my hatred and use my hatred generator until I have full hatred or enough discipline to use Preparation again. If I have enough discipline I use all my hatred with Rapid Fire and then use Preparation.


Hatred Spender #2 (1)
My 2nd hatred spender should be more aoe oriented, there are 3 options for me:
Fan of Knives with Rune Hail of Knives (20y radius). The big disadvantage is the cooldown of 10 seconds and therefore only useful with a slow weapon like a crossbow.
Cluster Arrow  - The description seems strong, but it's unclear how much aoe damage there is possible. Furthermore there is no strong rune until lev49.
Multishot - This skill seems to be the efficients attack for bigger groups.


Group Supporting Skill (2)
Marked of Death - The marked enemy will take 12% additional damage.
Rune Contagion or Valley of Death are good for big groups.
Marked of Death is the only Skill for group supporting before lev52.
If you don't have this skill all the time, then switch this skill in before every boss.


2 Skills left (3 and 4)
Vault for faster traveling and an escape possibility in dangerous situations.
Preparation as I mentioned above with rune Punishment.
Rain of Vengeance cost nothing and has a 30 seconds cooldown. It's a good fight opener but only useful with a with a slow weapon like a crossbow.
Companion - rune Boar Companion (lev41) or Wolf Companion (lev59) for damage or rune Bat Companion (lev 29) for additional hatred generation.
Sentry is later a good group supporting skill with rune Aid Station (lev52) heals for 1% max life per second or rune Guardian Turret (lev60) reduce damage taken by 15%.

Conclusion:
Preparation rune Punishment is a must have for me.
For the last skill I will test around, what fits best.


Passive
Vengeance (lev 13) - In Combination with Prepariation or with a Barbarian with the passive Bound of Flesh for more health globes.
Steady Aim (lev16) - With a melee in front of you, there shouldn't be often monsters very close to you.
Cull the Weak (lev20) - If you have a team partner who slows all mobs, like a Monk with Crippling Wave.
Archery (lev30) - Very good damage passive.

Big Problem we can only take 3 passive. I will decide between Vengeance and Steady Aim.
In comparison Steady Aim increase damage by 20% and Cull the Weak increase damage by 15%, but I prefer the freedom to move close to monsters without loosing a damage buff.


Demon Hunter lev 30

Bola Shot - Volatile Explosives
Rapid Fire - Withering Fire
Multishot - Fire at Will
Marked for Death - Contagion
Vault - Action Shot
Preparation - Punishment

Vengeance
Cull the Weak
Archery

Skill Calculator

Demon Hunter - Resource System (Hatred and Discipline)

Interview with Macr0s

My second interview partner is Macr0s. He plays the barbarian in my leveling team EMT.



Tell us something about yourself and your gaming experience?Hi my name is Thomas aka Macr0s.
I'm a professional Online Pokerplayer and Coach.
Macr0s Poker blog

My gaming experience is essentially limit to Diablo 2, after Diablo 2 i basicly quit gaming. But in Diablo 2 i was an avid gamer, i lived and breathed D2 for almost 3 years. From the beginning of D2 i was into PVP and as a result of that i founded the biggest German PVP Community and League AoW-PvP with a bunch of friends.

You decided to level in group for the first two days with less sleep. You don't even know the other two players. Why do you prefer this group over soloplay?
The reasons are basicly 5-fold.
1. It's a motivational factor, it's easier to not get distracted when you're needed in a group.
2. I presume its a lot more fun in a group.
3. My estimate is, in a group of good gamers it's a lot faster to level.
4. Its safer in a group and as a result of that we gain more gold than soloplayers.
5. D3 was designed as a multiplayer game.

Why you choose the Barbarian as your first class?
I enjoy being in the middle of the action. And i always had an affinity for the Barbarian, my favorite D2 PvP Chars was my Double Throw Allround Barb. One of the few Barbs able to kill basicly every other class.

Which skill you like most on the Barbarian?
If you hold a gun to my head and made me choose i would say Call of the Ancients. I was always a fan of the 3 Ancients.

Your group consider a Monk, a Demon Hunter and your Barbarian.
Which skills/runes/passive you will use to support the group?
The Barbarian is somewhat of a egoistical bastard, the only passive that benefits anyone in a group environment is Pound of Flesh for an increased Health Globe Rate. From a skill standpoint, crowd control in form of slow, if slow is not enough there are some more options like pull and stun. And obviously the BO substitute in D3 Invigorate plus if necessary one of the dam reducers.

Whats your estimation.
How many hours do your group need for normal?
Which level can you reach during your 39 hours leveling process?
At which point will your group wipe the first time?
I would guesstimate 5 hours for normal.
Level 55-60 over the 39 hours.
I hope never at least the whole group, the first rip from one of us i would guess will be around act 3 nm.

After your first leveling adventure, when will you finish to lev 60,
if you don't reach lev 60 during 39 hours?
I guess Sunday. The days after our long session are full with very important poker tournaments.

What are you next plans in diablo 3 after lev 60?
Making lots of money on the auction house and farming inferno.
Your group planned 5x 1 hour breaks for sleep and eating.

You have experience with powernaps. Can you tell us something about it?
What are the advantages? Isn't there a risk you don't wake up again?
Good question, i tried the uperman sleep schedule for a month. As long as you don't have any social engagement that interfere with your schedule ist quite easy to maintain. But if you miss out on one of your naps you're going to suffer hugely. Regarding problems to wake up, within the 30mins you don't get into the deep sleep phase so you will definatly wake up when your alarm rings. If you get up when you turned off the alarm, that's another question.

You want tell us more?
No, you covered everything interesting and noteworthy.

Interview with Ernesto

My first interview partner is Ernesto. He plays the monk in my leveling team EMT.

Tell us something about yourself and your gaming experience?
Hi. I'm 27, live in Salzburg, Austria and work as a mathematician for the local government. Good payment, safe job, flexible working hours, what you want more as a gamer? The first game series I played extensively were Age of Empires and Diablo. My online gaming career started with WoW, playing from 2005 until last year. And that's it. I didn't play many different games. But these games I played many, many hours.
I'll play the monk in our group.

You decided to level in group for the first two days with less sleep.
You don't even know the other two players. Why do you prefer this group over soloplay?
I don't prefer group play over solo play. Actually, I'm more the solo player. But I like the challenge. And group play is definitely much more challanging than playing solo. And I know everthing about the other two players that I need to know. Many friends of mine who will play Diablo 3 have other goals than me... or no goals. But I know that we are three players with the same goals. And that rises the excitement massively.

What are the advantages of groupplay over soloplay?
Let's start with the great disadvantages: dependence and the need for communication. I don't like to be dependent to other players when it's not needed (unlike in WoW). But we arranged that. We set us goals, we clarified everything that can be clarified in advance.
Now to the advantages. Every class was made to finish the content solo. But I think, the strength of each class can be shown in group play. Like in our group. The barb is of course the punching bag, while the dh blows waves of aoe damage over the legions of the burning hells. I'll take the supporting part. Slowing, healing, striking. And we can motivate each other. Get more items we can share to push each other.

You decided to play a Monk. What do you like?
I always prefered melee combat in these type of games. Not the brutal version, but rather supported by magical and healing skills. I was a shaman in WoW from the beginning to the end. So I fell in love with the monk as soon as I heard of this class. I like the way he fights, that he tries to avoid damage rather than just eat it.

Your group consider a Barbarian, a Demon Hunter and your Monk.
Which skills/runes/passive you will use to support the group?
 To support the group as mentioned, I'll use
- Crippling wave - Concussion as Spirit Gen - slowing enemies and reducing their damage
- Breath of Heaven - Circle of Life, the strongest heal skill ingame
- Inner Sanctuary - Safe Haven, a protecting and healing circle, for the exciting moments
- Mantra of Conviction - Overawe, for more BUMMMM.
- Passives: Resolve - to reduce enemies damage
The use of other skills depends on the content and the difficulty.

Whats your estimation.
How many hours do your group need for normal?
Which level can you reach during your 39 hours leveling process?
At which point will your group wipe the first time?
Puh, very hard to say. When official announcement told 15-20 hours with moderate speed for Normal, than I expect maybe around 12-14 hours for finishing Normal. On that assumption, I think we'll reach lvl 45-50.
To be honest, I think our first wipe will be very early, maybe even on Skeleton King, if they tuned him after Beta. Simply because in the first levels, we're not used to each other's style of game play.

After your first leveling adventure, when will you finish to lev 60, if you don't reach lev 60?
As soon as possible. I hope, before Bayern Munich wins the Champions League final. 

What are you next plans in diablo 3 after Monk lev 60?
Have success playing the auction houses. And Inferno, of course.
My second char will be a witch doctor, as I was thrilled by the play style.

You want tell us more?
Although my goals are leveling as fast as possible and therefore getting an advantage in making some gold and money, my primary goal is having fun. That's why a play at least. And without having fun, all other goals will become worthless. That should be everybody's main focus.
Cheers, Ernesto.

Leveling team EMT

With the help of the diablo3goldsecrets forum I could find two other german speaking players, who were interested to level together. We formed a leveling group for the first two realease days.

I call our group EMT. Ernesto, Macr0s, Tazeon

Team EMT

Macr0s is playing a Barbarian, Ernesto is playing a Monk and I'm playing a Demon Hunter.

We are all mature and are interested to level fast, straight forward and skipping lore and videos. It seemed that I found two great players, which are informed about d3 gameplay and their class and have the same goal and same enthusiasm for diablo 3 as myself. Our goal is to level fast and efficient.

We will play together from Tuesday 15. Mai 00:00 until Wednesday 16. Mai 20:00.
These are 44 hours and we have 5 x 1 hour breaks for powernaps and eating, furthermore we will make short breaks for leaving the computer and longer town breaks for individual concern like auction house, leveling artisans or crafting.

Interviews with my team mates are coming before release and I will make a short live coverage about our progress.

Interview with Ernesto
Interview with Macr0
Coverage

My open beta experience

Sadly, I didn't have much time on the open beta weekend, but it was enough to test my computer how smooth d3 is running and killing the Skeleton King with my Demon Hunter.

Because I played enough Diablo 2 the game play and handling was familiar. Shift + left Mouse Button is very common for the Demon Hunter, but maybe I will switch the Keybind to stand still too space.

Testing the skills from the Demon Hunter was an amazing experience for me, after this long time of waiting. Kiting with Clatrops and killing monsters was real funny.

After finding this shiny hand crossbow the monsters died too fast. This weapon is nothing special, but powerful enough to slash the monsters with hungering arrow and rapid fire.

With lev 8 I reached the Skeleton King. Theses boss fights are so different to diablo2, but I like them.
These are real fights.

Conclusion:
The demon hunter is the right choice for my first class and the game feels great.

Back from break

One Week before Diablo 3 Release, I'm back from a break, but this time I try to find more time for writing. A short coverage about my leveling process is planned.

In the next days I will write about my open beta experience, my leveling group for the release and about the demon hunter.

Thomas from www.diablofreaks.com published a pdf - Diablo 3 Key Bindings for printing.
It's fantastic if you don't have beta experience and all key bindings in your head, I like it.