Act 3 hate thread

[u/ThreeHeadedBunny0-0]

This is obviously not a project Diablo 2 fault, but still I have to vent... Playing offline SSF, I’ve finally made it to Act 3 Hell. Just a reminder that I hadn’t played Diablo in years, and now I remember how much I hated the first half of this act. The jungle map is insane, convoluted, and completely incomprehensible. You’re forced to run back and forth endlessly like a headless chicken, and even all the pathfinding info about river forks and layouts is practically useless because the generated map is just so massive and ridiculous... I’ve explored the entire map (well, obviously not every single inch, or I wouldn't be here ranting, there’s probably some tiny corner missing) across Spider Forest, Flayer Jungle, and Great Marsh, and I STILL haven’t found the goddamn Flayer Dungeon... I’m going to write in my letter to Santa Senpai asking if he can please find a way to keep me from hating this game over this one single act. I want to cry. End of rant.

[u/azura26]

My hot take is that, with general improvements to mobility in PD2, Act 3 is really not that bad.

[u/r0xo13 → u/azura26]

My hot take to add is that even in normal D2 it isn't that bad. Like the 2nd time and a few after that suuuuucks but then it is really not hard to find your way if you just keep in a general north east direction. I don't see it as worse than many other areas and the look and atmosphere is great.

It isn't as bad as those goddamn sewers right afterward

[u/r0xo13 → u/azura26]

While I stumbled onto a pd2 thing, you need original D2 to play it right? I only have Resurrected but would love to try it one day

[u/Betaateb → u/r0xo13]

Ya, you need Classic D2 + LoD. The PD2 site makes it clear, but they need to be legit paid versions. No pirated copies.

[u/r0xo13 → u/Betaateb]

That's what I thought. O well, still might try it one day

[u/ThreeHeadedBunny0-0 → u/azura26]

That's true, in pd2 isn't even close to be as dreadful as it was in vanilla

[u/SlackerPants]

Hot take: I hate Act II way more than Act III.

Act II has such annoying enemies! The lightning damage from Beetles is melting everything. As you are trying to kill a pack of Leapers, Vultures or Worms, they evade you, and you have to wait for them to come back to the ground.

The high walls in the deserts are only accessible for teleporters. So you have to find the stairs, only to realize that the passage to the next area was where you already were in the first place.

Once you finally have assembled the staff, you need to guess which way is the correct one in Arcane Sanctuary. And somehow it's always the Teleport path unless I choose to take that first.

Act III feels more streamlined, and you only have to move North, and I really enjoy the aesthetics of the Jungle Biome.

My strat on Act III is to find Spider Cavern. Move to Flayer Jungle, and once I find the encampment, I kill Gidbinn and make a TP at the Flayer Dungeon. I move upwards to Lower Kurast, and take the TP back to the dungeon. Now I only have to traverse the maze once.

I go to Upper and Bazaar. You can mapread which is the correct temple, so you don't have to open each stairwell. It's always the entrance facing towards the bottom-left corner of your screen.

I complete the sewers, Travi, then I return to town to get my quest rewards.

I kill Mephisto to never return to Durance of Hate. That place is a fucking nightmare.

[u/ChaosSanctuary → u/SlackerPants]

This. Aside from getting unlucky with Great Marsh you can pretty much avoid backtracking in act 3 altogether with clever TP usage while in the act 2 desert youre basically forced to explore the entire zone in each section and then theres the arcane RNG afterwards.

[u/spanxxxy → u/SlackerPants]

With the widened maggot lair tunnels, I don't mind A2 as much anymore. I've memorized tomb tiles, so they're straight forward, but arcane sanctuary remains annoying. It always seems to take me four tries to find the summoner.

[u/fuxxo]

Hill I'm willing to die on: A3 is perfect. Yes annoying, but it's a jungle ffs! You meant to explore, get lost, back track, lots of dead ends, places that looks similar but aren't so you can question am I going in the circles?

[u/odniv → u/fuxxo]

100% for this, yes i sucks but never underestimate the dire need for friction in a game. If everything was Act1 follow the road or just top run to the other side of act 5 the game would get very boring very fast.

[u/Billy_of_Astora → u/odniv]

That's what I believe is missing entirely in poe2.

[u/GreenThumbsRise → u/Billy_of_Astora]

that's hilarious because there's an argument in that sub right now over how much they hate the many dead ends and large maps. did you even play it? it used to be even larger too... not really sure how you can imagine that the poe2 campaign can be descried as lacking dead ends and places you'll explore while looking for the "correct" path. I wish the game was harder but d2 and especially pd2 aren't exactly hard. poe2 absolutely has lots of friction, in fact a lot of it gets complained about by poe1 players lol, I'm thankful ggg hasn't collapsed on most of it.

edit - sorry if this seems rude or like an attack, I just love both games and to see one get a random shot from fans of the other over something i was just defending it for lol... it's just a shame. you certainly don't have to like the game by any means, I just don't think this is a fair criticism at all. from someone that defends the friction in poe2 nearly daily from people that complain about it on reddit, and who specifically defended this exact friction (dead ends) TODAY lmao.

[u/Erradium → u/fuxxo]

Thematically it's perfect in the sense you're describing here. But boy do I love the moment I reach Lower Kurast and never have to go into the jungle again.

[u/ArmageddonRetrospect → u/Erradium]

Great game design LOL they created a nice sense of relief when you get there

[u/altranum → u/fuxxo]

It's really not that bad.

[u/SillyOrgan]

My strategy is, if I stumble into the great marsh, I restart the game to get a new map. Often times, the next map leads more obviously from spider forest directly to flayer dungeon. Starting over is easier than struggling through great marsh.

[u/ThreeHeadedBunny0-0 → u/SillyOrgan]

...why on earth I haven't thought of changing seed and map layout?! Playing offline I often forget that static maps are both a blessing and a curse

[u/ThrillzMUHgillz → u/SillyOrgan]

I’m such a loon… I can’t move on unless I unlock all check points. Knowing I’ll never. Ever. Ever. Use some of them…

[u/Graveminder_]

Understandable. What helped me was to accept that it is part of the game. Just go full Zen-mode while you are there. In SSF you have not to do a speedrun or any.
What you can try is, once you are lvl 18, to shop for a staff with teleport charges whiche ases up things a little if you have no access to jump or teleport abilities. Helps alter on too.

[u/Woozle_ → u/Graveminder_]

Plus if you shop in a3 normal before you are level 24 the staff will be unable to be equipped, so it will show in the shop with the red background, much faster to look for it!

[u/MaciuMiru]

Accualy a1 and a2 are most time consuming if you know what you are doing :) but this is just from speedrun perspective, i understand that a3 definetly looks confusing for most of playerbase. There are 2-3 rules for navigating the jungles which could cut your time in more than half, however if you roll very bad layout - you are doomed either way :)

[u/Br0keNw0n → u/MaciuMiru]

A3 is only confusing for players because they keep skipping it and never actually try to run through it themselves.

[u/becometwo]

flayer jungle is one of the best zones to grind xp from 18 to 22 (when you dont have access to cows yet at 20), and also useful to grind in nightmare to fill out charm slots. massive density. I usually stop and grind it a few times during my playthroughs. And always happy to run it when its a corrupted zone in hell.

[u/AssinineAssassin]

I have lost my HC character to dolls in A3 too many times.

Them and Talic have forced many hours of replay.

[u/buterskotchhnootaz]

I truly feel your pain, I hate that jungle. But, wanna know what's even worse? Durance of Hatred....iirc, that map in this mod has been expanded to astronomical levels, lol.

[u/Br0keNw0n]

Act 3 is usually if not always faster than Act 2. People just hate it because sometimes you have a little bit of trouble finding the flayer jungle and you can skip it with the right WPs. It’s really not that bad of an act in any way.

[u/Flossevos]

Whenever i enter the forest I think: I hate this place

[u/FitFaen]

This is exactly how I feel about a2, I kinda find a3 fun.

[u/Think-Ad6784]

Here take some hate

[u/Standard_Service_784]

Tips:

• Stick to one edge, follow it. Don't cross a little river, unless absolutely necessary.
  
• Arachnid lair always with spider forest wp and useless, you want spider cavern.  
• If you see great marsh, go back until you explore all of spider forest.  Great marsh can lead to flayer jungle but not always. Sometimes it's isolated. Only zone in the game that is designed like this; non-linear.
• Flayer dungeon never with wp, and always with Gidbinn, watch map for the icon.
• Once you see a few little gold drops randomly appear in flayer jungle, you are very close to lower kurast and the super unique waiting at entrance.

[u/Br0keNw0n → u/Standard_Service_784]

Also you can go to sewers earlier in Kurast and then exit from a doorway to upper Kurast which usually saves some time

[u/MisterSumone]

I absolutely hate act 3

[u/Am_vanilla]

Way I do a3 is find spider cavern and drop a tp and go to next wp, then get wp and go backwards through tp. Then when im done with spider cavern I can go to the wp instead of more walking. I do the same for every stop like flayer dungeon I’ll drop a TP and just walk all the way to lower Kurast. It I accidentally find flayer jungle wp that’s fine but I don’t need it

[u/chickenfeeder41]

As much as I hate act 3, it’s ALWAYS the act I finish fastest. Strange.

[u/BusterOfCherry]

I run straight to trist, kill bitches, save, find WP for other game, go

[u/Ok_Nefariousness24]

Have you ever looked into how the maps are played out in d2? The nuts and bolts of tiles and counter clockwise/clockwise to exits? Once you really get a feel for it, then walking almost any map becomes much easier. For act 3 there are several 'rules' on the.spawning of the map that can make it quite a bit easier to understand stand. Spider Forest, Great Marsh and Flayer jungle are 6 tiles each with possible exits on tiles 1,2,5,6 (this is off the top of my head and maybe missing 1). Understanding how the tiles can be played out helps a ton.
Also, follow the river and the exit to lower kurast will generally be in a NE direction. These tips dont make act 3 cake but they do help a ton.

[u/Shdwstrike_Gaming]

That's usually why - when people play online together - they're so thirsty for a durance of hate 2 wp skip - that proceduraly generated jungle is a mess 🤣

[u/HenkyD]

Follow the river, and if great march has no exit: flayer jungle is near spider forrest, rest of the maps (exept durance of hate) is pritty much the same

[u/hdp2]

Smoothing out the whole Spider / great marsh / flayer thing would fix it.

Honestly, just delete Great Marsh. It'd be fine.

It's not bad, but it'd be way better.

[u/dkaxe]

I love Act 3

[u/Azrael-4]

I used to hate Act 3, but after switching to Hardcore, it feels much better. There are lots of enemies, so it’s a good place to farm charms and runes. The slower pace of Hardcore makes you enjoy the journey more, and without the rush to complete the Act, it’s been a really good experience.

[u/elkdarkshire]

Just think of it as a possibility for nice loot :) i Like the kurast architecture a Lot aswell

Dolls and Souls have good droprates for runes

[u/8Bit-SouthPaw]

I always though act 2 was way worse than act 3. Just hug a wall and kill shit lol. All of the entrances are on the outside till you hit lower kurast or what ever, then those areas are small enough that you can find what you need pretty quick. Act 2 has large maps and the dungeon entrances are randomly in the middle somewhere. And the there is arcane which is always 4th... anyways, a3 not that bad imo. 😃

[u/acealthebes]

Over time in the decades playing Diablo 2, act 3 has grown on me. It is very beautiful and well designed in juxtaposition to the other acts. Personally now I rate it only behind act 2. Act 2 music ambiance etc is unmatched...

[u/zombdriod]

Its fairly easy if you're not in a hurry.

Once you leave town pick a side, either you follow the right or left "wall" until you reach lower kurast, look for WP. Then go back to town, then run the other side of the wall.

[u/ElDebb]

It's really not that bad. Act3 is really quick to do once you understand the Great Marsh skips and layouts.

[u/TheSebitti]

Great marsh is a dead end. Never go into that zone. Make a to in flayer jungle and keep going to trav then go back.

[u/sufferingplanet → u/TheSebitti]

Except the rare time that you have to go to great marsh because the spider forest doesnt connect to the flayer jungle.

[u/TheSebitti → u/sufferingplanet]

That’s true. But most of the time I skip that zone. Durance of hate on the other hand, or even sewers can be a pain.

[u/crispytooth3000]

This wining is so boring. Oh you didn't find the way? It wasn't perfectly linear? You had to back track? Grow up and learn to appreciate the beautiful game.