Line #5 YMMV/DiabloIII


1	%%There are passionate arguments for and against the online-only nature of the game and many of its other features. Many of the points on both sides are plausible and valid. However, this is not the place to discuss this issue. When adding something to this section, please avoid Complaining About Features You Don't Like.
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3	* {{Adorkable}}:
4	** Tyrael has his moments as a human. In ''Diablo III's'' Adventure Mode, he has yet to get used to certain basic things mortals have to do that angels don't, such as eating - one [[WelcomeToCorneria awfully common conversation]] he has with Lorath Nahr involves getting a stomachache from eating his entire daily ration in a single meal. Since Adventure Mode takes place after [[spoiler:defeating Malthael]], Tyrael's struggles become [[{{Irony}} ironic]] as Tyrael [[spoiler:is the Archangel of '''Wisdom''']], yet makes that mistake.
5	** While Kormac's usually a confident, [[LargeHam hammy]] BloodKnight KnightTemplar, he gets rather awkward and embarrassed with regards to the opposite sex. He (poorly) denies his attraction to Eirena, [[spoiler:requires the PC's pushing him forward the entire way to try to ask Eirina to stay with him (and then words it instead as just adventuring with him which might have caused Eirena [[ObliviousToLove to not get the entire implication of his question in spite of responding yes]])]], and random dialogue in Act II can have to PC ask if there are any women in the Templar Order which he admits there isn't, causing Leah to rhetorically question "Shouldn't the Templars accept anyone willing to fight evil"? aggressively, with Kormac responding meekly that's a grand idea which he should mentions to the Order's higher-ups.
6	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
7	** Do Witch Doctors really commune with the spirits or are they just HearingVoices that describe their intuitions? At no point do the "spirits" tell them anything they couldn't have guessed on their own.
8	** Is Inarius truly a bad [[FallenHero Fallen Angel]] who deserves all his punishment by Mephisto for not sticking with his brethren, or is he the OnlySaneMan who thinks that the whole [[ForeverWar 'Eternal Conflict']] is tiringly stupid and should be put to rest forever?
9	** Diablo is an AntiClimaxBoss, but it isn't that he's weak so much as he just seems nerfed to show how powerful the Nephalem really are.
10	* AnimationAgeGhetto: A point of contention was the stylized graphics, which some people dismissed as being "kiddy" and complained about the game not being "dark" enough. This is for a game where the trailer featured a barbarian being ripped in half, large portions of Act I take place in an enormous gory torture chamber, and the game in general is full of massacres, genocides, and the stuff of nightmares. The game's tone overall is a {{reconstruction}} of the HeroicFantasy; just because the game's colors have a little saturation and waterfalls have rainbows over them doesn't mean the game is for kids.
11	* AntiClimaxBoss:
12	** Leoric the Skeleton King makes it easy to tell what he will do pattern-wise. Ranged characters in particular can cheese the fight without trouble. While this was likely done to make him a WarmUpBoss as he is the first major boss battle, Leoric still goes down very easily for all the build-up that he gets.
13	** Zoltun Kulle makes no secret of the fact that he's going to betray you the first chance he gets in Act II. And indeed he does, but he's a total chump by the time you fight him. His arena is relatively small, Kulle's guardians can be taken out relatively easily, Kulle's melee attacks are telegraphed far in advance, and Kulle's area-of-effect sand tornadoes are easy to dodge. The end result is the end of ArcFatigue related to Zoltun Kulle that doesn't feel very satisfying after spending more than half of Act II getting ready to fight him.
14	** The eponymous Diablo's damage output is pretty low, especially in his first phase. In Phase 2, the clones of your heroes he summons are more deadly than his shadow. His most dangerous attack is a giant laser that can drain your health very fast, but it's so slow that it can be dodged fairly easily. He also never seems to shut up about how much you're going to lose, which ends up [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration being a little hard to believe when you can whip the tar out of him without much trouble]].
15	* ArcFatigue: The Zoltun Kulle part of Act II is obnoxiously long. You have to find Kulle's head, go through a dungeon to find a crucible for your new jeweler, go through two more dungeons to find Kulle's blood, find his archives, go through three more dungeons to get your hands on every part of his body, and finally get to fight him for the Black Soulstone. And Kulle isn't even that hard when you finally do get to fight him, making the whole battle feel like an AntiClimaxBoss.
16	* AwesomeEgo: The Wizard is a narcissistic InsufferableGenius who's nevertheless sufficiently heroic and badass to back up every one of their boasts.
17	* BetterOffSold: White items don't have any stat-boosting enchantments or abilities, and gray items are "low-quality" versions of the same. Since crafted recipes require "Reusable Parts" components that come from salvaged normal items and inferior items, they're still worth picking up. It's just that a player would do so almost exclusively to for the crafting material rather than their intended use.
18	* BrokenBase: The game's atmosphere might be a bit brighter and the playable character storywise is so incredibly strong that they can kick copious amounts of asses and retain their own spirit. This makes the game to be the most controversial entry to the series, with equal number of detractors and supporters alike:
19	** For the detractors, since they associate ''Diablo'' with dark atmosphere-induced horror, and the brighter atmosphere and more powerful hero betray that image, making the game look more like an action hero game (which might fit other settings, but for the detractors, it didn't fit with the ''Diablo'' series). With the release of ''VideoGame/DiabloIV'', the detractors of ''III'' practically rejoiced, thinking that ''Diablo'' is back on track and they can leave behind this game that they considered to be straying so far from the image cultivated by the franchise.
20	** For the supporters, the game is liked because it gave out a lot of SugarWiki/AwesomeMoment of humans advancing enough to be able to punch out supernatural beings and stomping down those who threaten them, and seeing that humanity is basically a WoobieSpecies in this setting, they see it as a sorely needed breath of fresh air after many many bleak atmosphere of the preceding games. They also point out that the complaints about the hero's power level fall flat when you were a one man army in the previous titles despite the darker, bleaker tone of the games. While they also equally rejoiced for ''VideoGame/DiabloIV'', they leave behind ''III'' in a lighter note, considering it as an acceptable temporary change of pace.
21	* CatharsisFactor:
22	** After all of the pain and suffering that Diablo has caused (again), taking him down to zero HP lets your character wail on Diablo while he's in his death throes. This plan, which took so much time and effort to create, is now undone by the nephalem, and just beating the tar out of him feels good.
23	** When it became clear that Adria was a killable story boss in ''Reaper of Souls'', there was much rejoicing by players who couldn't wait to sock their fists into her face. Don't worry, ''the heroes agree''. If doing it once in story is not enough, there's always Adventure Mode to repeat that ad nauseam, and sometimes you get rewarded for it too. The achievement for killing Adria in co-op mode is even called "Group Therapy". Adria can also show up as a random Cursed Chest boss, giving players an impromptu chance to blast her into dust again.
24	* ComplacentGamingSyndrome:
25	** Most players will look for items with Critical Hit chance and damage and attack speed (before 2.0) / elemental damage (after 2.0) (items that have all three attributes have even been given a specific name, "trifecta"). Anything that don't have those characteristics is treated as trash.
26	** Look for a guide giving you a possible build for your character. Chances are that said guide lists Convention of Elements in the ring slot. Said ring cycles through all elements available to your character, giving up to a 200% damage boost to the selected element. If you time your attacks with the right section of the cycle, the damage boost is impressive -- but it forces a playstyle that revolves around waiting for the right element to come up before unleashing your strongest attack. If you want a more fluid, active playstyle, then you're out of luck. A common opinion about the subject is that the ring itself is fine; it's the lack of options that's the problem. You may not like said playstyle, but there's not much else you can put into your ring slot that's any better.
27	** Another common component of many builds is the Endless Walk set, consisting of the Compass Rose ring and the Traveler's Pledge amulet. With both items equipped, you build up one of two buffs depending on your current state -- up to 100% extra damage while standing still, and up to 50% damage reduction while moving. Since the Traveler's Pledge is also guaranteed to roll a critical hit damage bonus, it's not hard to see why the set is so popular.
28	** Ring of Royal Grandeur is another common Ring in builds. It reduces the number of set equipment needed to trigger {{Set Bonus}}es by 1, down to a minimum of 2 pieces. This helps open up the way for a variety of mixed-set builds.
29	*** Speaking of mixed-set builds, among the sets you can craft at the blacksmith, expect to see two pieces of the Captain Crimson's Trimmings set combined with a cubed or equipped Ring of Royal Grandeur mentioned in practically every build guide you can see. The reason is simple. '''20%''' cooldown and resource cost reduction with some life regeneration thrown in as a cherry on top for two pieces equipped while the full three-set bonus ''increases your damage dealt and reduces damage received based on your cooldown and resource cost reduction percentages respectively''. Combine this with your pre-existing cooldown and resource cost reduction skills and stats, assembling your build with them on ensures that you go through the toughest fights and dungeons like wet paper.
30	** Gems don't see much diversity either. Your chest armor, pants, and off-hand item will always have a gem matching your character's main stat (rubies for the Strength-focused Barbarians and Crusaders, emeralds for the Dexterity-focused Demon Hunters and Monks, and topazes for the Intelligence-focused Necromancers, Witch Doctors, and Wizards), while your weapon always wants an emerald for extra critical hit damage. Helmets vary a little more depending on your build; diamonds help with cooldown reduction, while topazes reduce resource costs for skills, and amethysts can add extra life if survivability is a concern. Jewelry will always get legendary gems, and almost all builds will end up using at least one of the three Bane gems -- Bane of the Powerful[[labelnote:]]Grants a damage bonus for a short time after killing elites, plus a flat damage bonus and damage reduction at rank 25[[/labelnote]], Bane of the Stricken[[labelnote:]]Increases the damage you do to an enemy each time you hit it with an attack, plus a flat damage bonus against bosses at rank 25[[/labelnote]], and Bane of the Trapped[[labelnote:*]]Grants a damage bonus against enemies under control-impairing effects, plus an aura that slows nearby enemies at rank 25[[/labelnote]].
31	** Followers can get one of three perks with a legendary Follower Token: cut all of their cooldowns in half, gain access to all their skills instead of MutuallyExclusivePowerups, or make them invincible. Pretty much all guides on Followers will tell you to equip the last one, as having a Follower who can always contribute is a BoringButPractical way to make use of them. Even with buffs to Followers that gave them full armor sets, their survivability is fairly low, meaning it's all but required on higher levels of Torment mode. What's more, giving the Follower the Unity ring (which shares all received damage evenly among all wearers of the ring) as well, and equipping another Unity yourself, is equivalent to your main character having double Toughness.
32	* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/{{Diablo}} here]].
33	* ContestedSequel: There's been complaints that it's "dumbing down for casuals" because of more refined skill selection as opposed to skill trees, and that the graphics being more colorful is a bad thing. And that's not even getting into the always-online requirements.
34	* CrazyIsCool:
35	** The Witch Doctor. Since he uses voodoo and such, most of his spells can be understood, but some of the spell upgrades may push him into this territory. Example: He has a spell called Plague of Toads, which summons toads, you can upgrade to turn them into [[IncendiaryExponent Flaming Toads]] or a giant toad that devours enemies. Oh that's not all; he can also allegedly [[BearsAreBadNews summon undead bears]]. Even at the most basic level, the Witch Doctor seems to have been designed to embody Crazy Awesome. One of the rune upgrades to his very first attack (Poison Dart) is called ''Snake to the Face''. The most logical step after acquiring that, of course, is to spit a FUCKING SNAKE at your enemies. All of them. Whether they be men, serpent, demons, undead, wild animals, cursed entities, giant spiders, beast races, machines, ghosts... Diablo. Go on. Spit a goddamn snake at Diablo. You know you want to, and by god you can.
36	** The "Bottomless Potion of..." (aside from Kulle-Aid) line of items all provide a portion of the story of an eccentric leading royal apothecary named Jentulf who [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Potion_of_the_Leech assured while not being certain if one of his potions worked]] that [[AwesomeEgo "...it’s safe to say that I am the finest apothecary of our age"]], [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Potion_of_Mutilation murdered someone to test out his potion providing Life per Kill]] while believing his murder trial was due to jealousy rather than the authority taking issue with committing murder, [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Potion_of_Rejuvenation pleaded for release by proposing a potion to energize the drinker]], fit for an individual in a losing fight, [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Potion_of_Fear was inspired from his imprisonment to make a potion causing fear around the drinker]], [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Potion_of_Amplification publicly mocked assertions of him losing his touch after his imprisonment with the creation of a potion of healing amplification]], [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and once]] made a presentation of [[http://diablo.wikia.com/wiki/Bottomless_Potion_of_the_Diamond a potion giving Resist All]] while using the trope SlicesDicesAndMakesJulienneFries.
37	* CriticalBacklash: Despite that it was bombed to lower than ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing'' (mostly by irate fans or haters), the reviewers loved it. And for that matter, judging by how many people consistently log on and play, seems that Blizzard did ''something'' right.
38	* CriticalDissonance: The game received universal acclaim from professional critics, with favorable reviews from a big majority of them (it has an average critic review of 87%). The playerbase, however, was divided by what could be the biggest schism caused by any game in Blizzard's history (the playerbase ranks it as 35%). Most of the driving force for this schism seemed to be the bad launching day, the length of the game and features that ticked the fans off. The argument was not as dramatic as what happened with ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', but it was still very noticeable. This was largely due to the requirement of being online at all times, the subsequent server problems from overloading (the "Error 37" message even earned MemeticMutation status), the controversial Auction House and severe lag spikes as well as many GameBreaking and server-crashing bugs that came with launch. Luckily most of these bugs were fixed in the first few weeks, but it was too little, too late in the eyes of many gamers.
39	* CrossesTheLineTwice: The fact that it ''sucks'' to live in [[CrapsackWorld Sanctuary]] is sometimes used to generate some good laughs every now and then. The [[HurricaneOfPuns "Forlorn Farm"]] event from Act I is a good example.
40	* DemonicSpiders:
41	** The game continues the tradition with the various elite packs you will encounter on higher difficulties. Many of the [[http://www.blizzardguides.com/diablo3/elite-monster-attributes.html monster traits]] these elites come with aren't too bad on their own, but in the higher difficulties, elites and their minions can have one to four (depending on your level) of these traits at once, and they will use them to their fullest extent to ruin your day, at times being even tougher to kill than ''end-of-act bosses'' if they get a particularly nasty combination of powers. To name just a few:
42	*** Arcane Enchanted enemies lay down these purple laser spikes which rotate in slow circles. These cause quite a bit of damage all by themselves, but they're often set up so they overlap. If you're a melee-focused character, you're in a lot of trouble if enemies hang by these things.
43	*** Jailers temporarily stop you from moving. This could be lethal when combined with any attack that does high damage, like a Desecration pool or a Blazing Guardian's fireball. There's a few abilities that let you instantly escape, but if you don't have those, you're stuck.
44	*** Shielding enemies temporarily become invincible. These are just a royal pain in the ass in general, but when combined with other screw-you-worthy powers, they can really ruin your day when you can't deal with the source of the problem.
45	*** Molten enemies leave damaging pools of lava in their wake, and explode upon death. Getting caught inside even one of these explosions generally means instant death because of how much Fire damage they cause.
46	*** Fire Chains are only found on blue elites. The enemies are connected by a fire chain that does nasty damage if you're caught between them. If you focus on melee, you've basically got no choice but to tank the damage or apply hit-and-run tactics to get around it.
47	*** Health Link blue elites are particularly annoying to deal with, as they share a single life bar between them. This makes the elites very hard to bring down, since you have to deal with the entire group instead of one at a time.
48	*** Vortex elites can yank you right into melee range, which can be aggravating if you're trying to keep away from them. Even if you're not, it launches you into the air and sucks you away, making it hard to build up offensive momentum.
49	*** If an enemy mob has the Reflects Damage ability, you are not going to like being in melee with it, as it pushes some of the damage you deal right back onto you.
50	*** Frozen enemies periodically create random bursts of ice that freeze anything unlucky enough to get caught in the area of effect solid. The bursts are telegraphed, but the visual effects are relatively subtle, making them easy to miss in the heat of battle. This one's especially nasty if the enemy has another power that makes it harder to avoid the freezing or one that'll do a lot of damage to you while you're frozen and vulnerable.
51	*** Horde yellow elites spawn with more minions than normal. If their minions pick up other obnoxious abilities, it could be a very tough battle. You thought three Arcane Enchanted, Shielded, and Molten enemies were bad? Try dealing with eight of them all at once.
52	** Apart from elite packs, there's also the Desert Wasps from Act II. At a point where most enemies will be doing single digit damage, their ranged attacks will be doing several times that damage, and can hit multiple times since they fire multiple shots at once. Plus they are quick, retreat, [[AirborneMook fly over terrain]], and fire at you. And never attack alone. If there's any consolation, their BeeBeeGun attack is rather slow and easy to sidestep.
53	** The Enraged Phantoms from Act V (at least when they were first introduced). While Wraith creatures from the other acts hit you once with their Soul Siphon attack, Enraged Phantoms hit you 5 times per single Soul Siphon. Apparently someone at Blizzard just coded in its damage without taking into account that it hits 6 times per attack. In other words, Enraged Phantasms did 5 times the damage they are supposed to. Not to mention their attacks can't be dodged, and they are fast and can travel through walls. They were able to one-shot characters who didn't have problems with all other enemies in the same area, and players usually found ''white'' monsters of that type are more scary in terms of lethality than most ''elite'' packs. Strangely, when Blizzard reported they were considering some balancing, [[StopHavingFunGuys some players]] complained about it and called the ones who pointed the problem [[http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/12248064780?page=3#46 cry babies]] and [[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/reaper-of-souls-hardcore-is-doomed-according-to-enraged-phantasms carebears]] and told them to "get some better gear".
54	* DesignatedVillain: Zoltun Kulle never does anything evil to you, keeps his word, and gives sound advice. This is in spite of most of your allies treating Kulle like a CompleteMonster. According to his journals, Kulle's main goal was to elevate humanity to a status that would free them from the influence of demons and angels, which is more or less what the nephalem are doing (although Kulle says that he would have ruled over all creation if he could). The only "evil" act mentioned in the game is his creation of the Black Soulstone, which the protagonists themselves seek and use with no qualms. The worst thing Kulle does is act like an InsufferableGenius when he comes back in Adventure Mode, insulting your intelligence every time you use Kanai's Cube. But that's hardly enough to qualify Kulle as the monster which the game treats him as. Supplemental material claims that he used his wife's soul to create the Black Soulstone, but this never comes up within the game itself, leaving Kulle as a character that the player is told to hate without giving a reason as to why they should hate him.
55	* DisappointingLastLevel: Act IV's Heaven level suffers from most of the same problems regarding ''Diablo II'' 's Hell finale, using only one type of environment and following a largely linear path. Heaven however has no town, so Bastion's Keep from the act beforehand is reused. Rectified in ''Reaper of Souls''; Act V uses a new hub and has a decent variety of environments, and a genuinely satisfying ending.
56	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Lyndon the Scoundrel has met with near-unanimous approval from players due to his cool outfit, charming personality, and mustache. Plus, the voice of Creator/TroyBaker.
57	* EvilIsCool:
58	** Though not exactly a villain at the moment (but perhaps will be a antagonist an X-Pack), the KnightTemplar Angel Imperius seems to be heading in this direction given his badass armor design and [[spoiler: the short but badass fight between him and Diablo at the beginning of Act IV]].
59	** Malthael thanks to his introduction, cool design, dark cloak, and dual-wielding scythes. His dominion over death and incredible power didn't hurt his cool factor either.
60	** Zoltun Kulle, whose MagnumOpus is the Black Soulstone, a Soulstone he created himself with the intention of elevating humanity back to the status they had when they were nephalem, and is notoriously hard to kill; the first time, his body, blood, and head all had to be separated to keep him down, the second time, [[DeathIsCheap he just comes back as a spirit and mocks the player for being so sloppy in their kill]]. Having an [[LargeHam impressive performance]] by Creator/SteveBlum and a lot of snarky lines helps. So... Evil Is [[{{Pun}} Kulle]]?
61	* FandomRivalry:
62	** ''VideoGame/TorchlightII'' and ''Diablo III'' fans were at each other's throats since the moment both games started entering the final steps of development. Runic Games remained, for the most part, silent, but every new Blizzard announcement almost invariably lead to someone mentioning [=TL2=] and triggering a massive FlameWar. Now that both games have been out in the wild for a while, most people on either side will acknowledge the merits of the other, but the two games are just similar yet [[DamnYouMuscleMemory just different]] enough that it's tough to be a fan of both.
63	** Some animosity developed between ''D3'' fans and ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' fans around summer of 2017, when ''Diablo III'' got the ''Rise of the Necromancer'' expansion that added only one new class and a few other things for $15, while ''[=PoE=]'' got the ''Fall of Oriath'' expansion that added '''six''' new acts and a bunch of other content, ''for free''.
64	* FanNickname:
65	** [[spoiler:Leablo]]: [[spoiler:The Diablo-possessed Leah at the start of Act IV]].
66	** [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Azula]]: The female Wizard, due to being voiced by Creator/GreyDeLisle, Azula's VA, and having very similar personalities. Blizzard may have noticed this, as "Azulae" is one of the standard names for the female Wizard.
67	* FriendlyFandoms: Despite the FandomRivalry, there are also many who play both ''D3'' and ''Path of Exile'', acknowledging both games' merits; ''D3'' is seen as having more fluid combat, while ''[=PoE=]'' is appreciated for having deeper ways of building your character.
68	* GameBreaker:
69	** The Auction House. Killing monsters and collecting loot is what ''Diablo'' as a whole is built upon. But why do that when you could just buy more powerful gear by either farming gold or buying it [[BribingYourWayToVictory with real money]]? It didn't help that drop rates for loot were artificially low when the game started -- you didn't get much loot, and ''almost none'' of what you got was for your character type. It was trivially easy to go to the auction house, look for an item, then sort by "lowest price" to find some generous soul selling something they didn't need for a pittance of in-game currency. Blizzard decided to close the Auction House for this very reason in March 2014, eventually creating a "Smart Loot 2.0" system that made drop rates more manageable.
70	** Equip [[https://us.diablo3.blizzard.com/en-us/item/spaulders-of-zakara-Unique_Shoulder_102_x1 an item]] on you or your Follower that causes all your other items to become indestructible. Enter a situation where normally your items' durability would be a limiting factor on how many tries you get. Laugh (or cry--unlimited lives and ThatOneBoss who randomly spawned are not fun) because you now have as many attempts as you want on that dungeon.
71	** The Witch Doctor is generally derided as being both extremely damaging and very safe. They only fall short of being completely game breaking because they tend to be a little slower overall then the other classes. Essentially, trading clear speed for Juggernaut status. Most players still feel they're quite over powered due to their ease of use compared to other classes.
72	** The Pylons, from the Rifts and Greater Rifts. Essentially more powerful versions of shrines, finding one is enough to turn the tide of any Rift. They include the Power Pylon (QuadDamage), Shield Pylon (invulnerability), Speed Pylon (attack and move much faster, as well as [[FoeTossingCharge knock enemies out of your way]]), Channeling Pylon (free spell casting and very quick cooldowns), and Conduit Pylon ([[ShockAndAwe constant high-powered electric damage]] to nearby enemies). They only last a few seconds each, but it's usually enough to clear out at least a few groups of Elites with ease.
73	** There are several legendary items and set effects that have the perk "[Ability X] gains the effect of every rune." This is generally enough to start focusing an entire character build around, since the ability will invariably gain increased attack power and some sort of debuffs to the enemy.
74	** The Necromancer is the most versatile class in the game by a wide margin. This, consequently, makes him [[MasterOfAll able to handle every situation with ease.]] While nominally specializing in [=AoE=] damage and pets, the Necromancer can easily switch out his build to favor tankiness, burst damage, lifesteal, or any combination of major archetypes to form several different viable builds. Where other classes mostly specialize in their archetypes, such as the Demon Hunter being various forms of FragileSpeedster, the Necromancer can basically build to whatever he wants and remain effective. Due to fluctuating Season gear changes he's never permanently on top, but using him in the story is a sure fire way to demolish anything incredibly difficult by midgame.
75	** Kanai's Cube, which can be found in Adventurer Mode and is thereafter permanently available to all your characters, has a variety of useful abilities, including allowing you to promote level 70 rare items into legendary items, but by far its greatest ability is to extract the inherent effects of legendary items (at the cost of destroying that item) and use them as skills. You can hold up to three skills at a time each from weapon category (which includes shields and other off-hand items), armor and jewelry, but you can extract as many as you like and switch them out at any time as long as you can return to town.
76	** Patch 2.7.0 introduced the Emanate trait in certain legendries as part of a revamp of the Followers system, in where the Follower assisting you can equip certain legendries while they also ''buff you with their traits'', which is the equivalent of Kanai's cube suddenly gaining several more slots. The only downside is that multiplayer games prevent you from using this system.
77	* GoddamnedBats: Plenty.
78	** The Fallen Prophet enemy types. They do little to no damage on their own, as their attacks are weak, slow, and easy to avoid. But they can resurrect the Fallen-type enemies, which makes it a chore to clear out any sections where both Fallen and the Prophets appear. It leads to [[ShootTheMedicFirst always going for this enemy type first]] just to make it less of a headache.
79	** Leapers, {{sand worm}}s, and dune threshers burrow under the ground and pop up randomly to say hello.
80	** Various bird like enemies [[AirborneMook fly above your head]], invulnerable, and divebomb you only when you engage the next enemy pack.
81	** Shadow vermin come in [[ZergRush tidal waves]] and will block you, allowing more powerful enemies to close in. And they're hard to see in the darker zones unless you turn on enemy health bars.
82	** Lacuni Huntresses [[FragileSpeedster may not have much health]], but they love to ambush you, come in packs, move '''fast''', will easily close the distance between you with one leap, and attack very quickly. Sometimes they will stay far to throw a fire bomb that hurts a lot.
83	** [[EliteMook Enemy champions]] spawn with various randomized abilities, which sometimes negate the weaknesses of their type. For example, a slow and lumbering monster able to perform an OneHitKill which you're supposed to outrun may occasionally have a champion variant capable of teleporting.
84	* GrowingTheBeard: The game had a ''very'' rocky launch, thanks to its always-online connection making the game outright broken for the first few days due to servers being overloaded. Even after those problems were cleared up, it still had troubles later on. Loot was deemed lackluster due to the presence of the [[BribingYourWayToVictory Auction House]], and [[SchizophrenicDifficulty the difficulty levels were fairly imbalanced]]; Normal was thought of as way too easy, while Inferno was so hard that it was nearly unplayable. Blizzard started rolling out patches to counter it by introducing Paragon levels and Monster levels, as well as making enemy levels now scale with the player. But the game ''really'' hit its stride once "Smart Loot 2.0" hit, which amped up loot strength and made the drops much more sensible; people who hadn't received a Legendary item in thirty hours were now swimming in them after thirty minutes. It was further amped once ''Reaper of Souls'' was released, which introduced new modes coupled with complete removal of the Auction House. In addition, it ended a lot of jokes about Blizzard's servers, since ''Reaper of Souls'' had a launch that went very smoothly.
85	* HarsherInHindsight:
86	** An in-game (and fully intended) example: During Act 3, Leah's journal mentions how the spirits she's trying to keep trapped within the black soulstone are starting to wear on her, but comforts herself by remembering that once [[spoiler:Azmodan is dead and captured, and]] the Black Soulstone is destroyed, she'll be herself again. At the end of the act, before the Soulstone can be destroyed, [[spoiler:Diablo's spirit is freed from the stone and placed into Leah's body, turning her into the Prime Evil and the end boss of the game, whom the player must then destroy to save the day.]]
87	** Another one: During Act 3, a runner from Westmarch reports that the king will send no reinforcements to fight imaginary demons. Tyrael harshly replies, "Perhaps he'll believe when his kingdom burns to ashes around him!" Guess what happens in ''Reaper of Souls''...
88	* HighTierScrappy: Witch Doctors are being loathed for being far tankier than both Wizards and Demon Hunters while somehow still dealing the most DPS out of the six classes, to the point where some players are calling the game ''Reaper of Witch Doctors''. The fact that they are also the easiest class to learn does not help. Crusaders aren't much further behind after their buffs received in 2.0.5, though nowhere as game-breaking.
89	* HilariousInHindsight:
90	** The Whimsyshire Secret Level contains several {{Shout Out}}s to Franchise/MyLittlePony. Creator/AthenaKarkanis, the voice of the female barbarian, now has a major part in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyMakeYourMark'' as Opaline, the first main ''villain''.
91	** One of the demons in Act IV (meaning [[spoiler:he works under Diablo himself]]) is called Dale Hawthorne, which is this trope for ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' fans, as [[spoiler:''Ace Attorney'' has a villainess named Dahlia Hawthorne, who is the closest being to a demon in the series, both in terms of evil and becoming an evil spirit.]]
92	* IKnewIt: In February 2018, Blizzard [[https://twitter.com/Blizzard_Ent/status/968727468675809280 posted]] a video of a nightlight in the shape of the eponymous villain being ''switch''ed on and off, and many fans took it to mean that they were working on a Platform/NintendoSwitch port. Blizzard denied that a port was in the works and that the video was just a "conversation piece", but it didn't stop people from speculating. Sure enough, a Switch port would later be announced for real. Once again, Blizzard staff asserted that the "lightswitch" video was just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the port, though some remain skeptical about that claim.
93	* ItsPopularNowItSucks: So many people were online at once - therefore it sucks because millions of people flood the servers!
94	* ItsShortSoItSucks:
95	** The campaign is fairly short, even if you explore every single bit of map and increase the difficulty as you play. It took the relatively late addition of Adventure Mode to add real longevity... but since all Adventure Mode consists of is [[FakeLongevity endlessly repeating areas and enemies from Campaign]], it can lead to ItsTheSameNowItSucks.
96	** ''Rise of the Necromancer'' received flak due to costing $15 yet not even having any new areas, Acts, or modes to go with the price tag; only a new class, extra stash tabs, and cosmetic options.[[note]]There are Challenge Rifts and a few new Adventure areas, but they are part of the 2.6.0 patch that is applied to everyone who has the game whether they have ''Necromancer'' or not.[[/note]]
97	*** It doesn't help that about a couple months later, [[DuelingWorks competing]] game ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' got an expansion pack of its own, ''The Fall of Oriath'', that added a slew of new content (most notably, ''six'' new Acts bringing the game up to ten Acts) ''free of charge'', making Blizzard look even worse and stoking the FandomRivalry between the two games' playerbases further.
98	* ItWasHisSled:
99	** The nature of the "Fallen Star" in New Tristram is technically a mystery. But since it's revealed so early on, and so many hints are dropped during Act I as to what the fallen star was, few people still treat it as a spoiler.
100	** Even though he was killed in the previous game, [[ForegoneConclusion you fight Diablo at some point]]. Players might still spend much of the game wondering exactly ''how'' this comes about, but it's not exactly a stretch to say that Diablo's in here somewhere.
101	** Even outside the ''Diablo'' fanbase, most know about [[spoiler:Adria's betrayal, and Leah being Diablo's daughter]].
102	* LootDrama: Loot drops are exclusive to each player, and you cannot even see what other players get unless they pick it up and then drop it, which makes it visible to everyone. This doesn't ''completely'' eliminate Loot Drama, but it does mean that if you do get some coveted item, the rest of the party won't know about it unless you rub it in their faces. However, this is played straight in the console versions' same-screen couch co-op[[note]]Vanilla ''Diablo III'' only; the console version of ''Reaper of Souls'' adds in the PC version's player-specific drops, though it's still all on the same screen, so everyone can see who got what, and some items such as crafting materials are still able to be picked up by anybody.[[/note]], due to the loot spawning on said screen for all players to pick up. It's especially bad if one or more of you are playing classes that either use the same weapons as others, or require the same stat boosts as others, or one of your party keeps getting all the best gear, etc.
103	* MemeticLoser: Fans ''love'' to mock Azmodan's [[GeneralFailure spectacular failure to back up]] [[InformedAbility his reputation as an uncanny tactician]]. [[http://orig12.deviantart.net/764f/f/2012/155/7/6/azmodan__s_tragedy_by_karbo-d52anno.jpg This fanart]] illustrates this pretty well.
104	* MemeticMutation:
105	** Error 37. "[=Error37=].com" was created within an hour of the game going live. Twitter was flooded with messages about it (#error37), and the "Diablo III Midnight Launch" Facebook event's page was wall-to-wall Error 37 Memes. [[labelnote:Explanation]]On the launch of the game, everybody had been receiving a error called Error 37 which basically prevented you from logging into the game... thus preventing you from playing the game. Again for emphasis, this occurred on launch day. Cue a coordinated counterattack where tons of gamers went to Metacritic in order to give reviews with scores of 0s due to the GameBreakingBug.[[/labelnote]]
106	** "''Diablo III'' is not a single player game"[[labelnote:Explanation]]When Diablo III's Always-On DRM was revealed, a massive fan outcry occurred, with the big majority of the complaints being that it was detrimental to their single player experience. Blizzard responded by saying that Diablo III was designed from the ground up to be a game you play with other people, in multiplayer, NOT in single player. This, of course, only fueled the flames even more, making the fans argue that they were being intentionally excluded. Their protests were proven to hold actual weight even after years since the game's release, as statistics show that most players only play solo and never bother with multiplayer.[[/labelnote]]
107	** "[[LargeHam GLORIOUS!]]"[[labelnote:Explanation]] Kormac, the Templar companion for single players, can say this after killing an Elite enemy. He's also very [[LargeHam hammy]] and very quotable, so this line popped up a lot in player discussions.[[/labelnote]]
108	** "Aren't you Thankful?" The video-game company Blizzard.[[labelnote:Explanation]]The way the company began treating their fans over the two years past this game's release has been... terrible, at best; especially in regards to their initial release and questionable patching of ''Diablo III''. On the Battle.Net forums, one such Blizzard employee wrote in their post, "Aren't you thankful?" in an attempt to calm the Internet backlash that had been ravaging their ''Diablo 3'' forums. It has now since become a traditional fanbase trolling answer between fans who disagree on the forums.[[/labelnote]]
109	** "5$" [[labelnote:Explanation]]Tied to the "Aren't you Thankful" meme, a fairly persistent rumor started going around the fanbase that Blizzard would actually pay their fans ''FIVE dollars'' to write something good about Blizzard in their ''Diablo 3'' forums. Simply writing "5$" as a reply to any thread that defends Blizzard on their forums, even if it was a genuine defend-post, became a growing joke towards those that attempt to defend Blizzard, as it implies that the defender just earned their five dollar bribe from Blizzard.[[/labelnote]]
110	** I promised Marko I'd protect him, and now he's dead.[[labelnote:Explanation]]In Act I, one of the unnamed guards speaks of someone named Marko, presumed to be a comrade or friend of his, lamenting his death. Because this line is triggered a lot by players walking past the guard on their way to quests, it ended up becoming a meme among players. There's even a unique Undead boss named Marko who has the [[BossSubtitles subtitle]] "AND NOW HE'S DEAD".[[/labelnote]]
111	* MoralEventHorizon:
112	** Adria is revealed to have crossed this long ago when [[spoiler:it is revealed that she created Leah to be a host for Diablo and the other six Evils long ago by letting the human-bound Diablo impregnate her! To take it even further, due to how disoriented his host was this is implied to not be entirely consensual. In other words, Adria date-raped Satan's host body, with some help from Satan himself. The utter cruelty of the betrayal in question is also seriously damning for Adria, especially since it results in the death of one of the most sympathetic characters in the game and makes the entire fourth act of the game possible. This is also regarded an in-universe reaction: During the actual confrontation of Adria in the next act in the expansion, the heroes made it clear that by this act, [[PrepareToDie Adria revoked her rights to live or call herself human and she doesn't have any places in the future that humanity will shape]]]].
113	** You know Maghda and [[ReligionOfEvil the Coven]] are bad news from the get-go, but they really seal the deal when [[spoiler: they capture Cain while the hero is searching for the broken shards of Tyrael's sword, then ''torture and kill him right in front of Leah'']]. And that was after [[spoiler: their destruction of the town of Wortham]].
114	** The Order's Inquisitors are revealed to have crossed this with [[spoiler:their fabrication of the sins that Kormac was said to have committed. Kormac really didn't commit any crimes, much less anything worth the ColdBloodedTorture they inflicted upon him to make him forget it all. And judging from Jondar's loss of loyalty to the Order soon after reading the "key words" that restored his own memory, Kormac isn't the first Templar initiate that they've done this to]].
115	*** In ''Reaper of Souls'', you and Kormac face down the Grand Maester during his sidequest, ''The Templar Reckoning'', who crosses this in his proclamation by [[spoiler:announcing his intent to start recruiting and "cleansing" people on a grander scale, putting ''every citizen of Westmarch and beyond'' through the horrible torture and brainwashing that Kormac and Jondar were put through in order to make them Templars]]. Not for nothing does Kormac call the proclamation in question "damning".
116	* SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound:
117	** The distinct chime of a Legendary item being dropped.
118	** The signature cackle of a nearby Treasure Goblin isn't half bad either, ''especially'' if it happens ''en masse''.
119	* NeverLiveItDown:
120	** The game will always have to live with the history of its day-1 DemandOverload and the infamous Error 37, even though it's been years since the game's launch and server load has decreased dramatically since.
121	** The Auction Houses left a long-lasting bitter aftertaste in many players due to the blatant [[BribingYourWayToVictory pay-to-win]] nature of them, even over three years after they were shut down and drop rates boosted to compensate for their absence.
122	** [[MemeticLoser Azmodan]] will always be remembered as that [[GeneralFailure idiotic commander]] who [[BondVillainStupidity always reveals his next move]], especially in the face of an all-destroying nephalem (or four) who [[OneManArmy single-handedly grinds his foot soldiers into a fine dust]] in every fight. He even acknowledges how much of an idiot he was in this game in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'', where one of his lines has him commenting that [[SelfDeprecation he hasn't "felt this overconfident since Bastion's Keep."]]
123	* NightmareRetardant: Azmodan's projection messages would be pretty intimidating, but most of the time he does them, he also [[BondVillainStupidity reveals his plans in the process]], making him sound less like an intimidating general and more like he's literally asking to lose. There's also his BossBanter, where he'll keep interrupting his own otherwise-intimidating lines to start new ones.
124	* OlderThanTheyThink: A console port that tweaks and streamlines gameplay mechanics for the controller format? This was held as a big deal for ''Diablo III'', but in reality the classic Platform/PlayStation port of ''VideoGame/Diablo1997'' actually did this very same thing over a decade prior, and even turned the game into more of a straight-up action title as a result despite being the same core game at heart. It's entirely likely that Blizzard drew inspiration from such an unusual port for this very reason.
125	* PlayerPunch:
126	** She isn't even the boss of Act I, but come Act II, killing Magdha takes even higher priority than stopping Belial. Why? [[spoiler:Because she kills Deckard Cain.]]
127	** The game ups the ante. Not only is [[spoiler:longtime fan-favorite Deckard Cain KilledOffForReal by the evil Maghda and her Dark Coven, but Leah, probably the most sympathetic character in the entire saga, who you have spent the entire game getting to know and love, is used by her own mother Adria as a vessel for Diablo himself to be reborn as the Prime Evil in the finale of Act III. Made even worse for players who only have the vanilla version of ''Diablo III'', since [[TheUnfought Adria runs off after Diablo appears and isn't fought unless you get the expansion]]. Much like Maghda, the moment Adria's location is found out in ''Reaper of Souls'', killing her is treated as a higher priority over Malthael's plot]].
128	** [[spoiler:Leah's death is bad enough, but as you're closing in on Diablo during the final act, her ghost is the very first one that Diablo uses to taunt you. And that's only the beginning -- he uses the ghosts of other characters, most of them sympathetic, as you're closing in, including Captain Rumford, Marius from the second game, Mira from way back in the first act, and even Deckard frigging Cain himself. Dick move, D-man. ''[[KickTheDog Dick move]]'']].
129	** Finding [[spoiler:Warriv's corpse is bad enough to Diablo veterans, but then you read his journal, and realize his life had been absolute ''hell'' ever since the events of ''II'', and he had come to New Tristram to ''get help'' in finding the cause of his horrible luck, but instead found only death. What really makes this a punch is that Warriv was actually one of the most ''optimistic and idealistic'' characters in ''II''.]]
130	* PlayTheGameSkipTheStory: The Barbarian even says "Get on with it" early on, causing Deckard Cain to say, "Nobody ever listens." [[spoiler: And considering Deckard Cain's [[KilledOffForReal fate]], they wished they did listen.]]
131	* PolishedPort:
132	** The console ports are regarded as superior to the PC version, due to not having the always-online requirement, as well as having a UI redesigned to better fit console gameplay and local same-screen multiplayer.
133	** The Switch port in particular stands out due to being the only portable version of the game and allowing for local wireless multiplayer. Pretty impressive given that the last time Blizzard made a game for a Nintendo system, it was a [[PortingDisaster poorly-received]] [=N64=] port of ''VideoGame/StarCraftI''. While it does have to make concessions in screen resolution, running at [=960p=] instead of 1080 in TV mode, it still runs at a smooth 60 frames per second 99% of the time. The only real problem is that the online multiplayer is a lot laggier and forces a loading screen if the player hosting the game quits out, and even then the game is perfectly playable in single-player.
134	* TheScrappy: One criticism a lot of fans tend to agree on is that [[WickedWitch Maghda]] made for a really lackluster StarterVillain. Most of her dialogue comes off like it was taken straight out of a Saturday Morning Cartoon, her character design having butterfly-like wings makes her look extremely non-threatening to the point that players call her the "[[FanNickname Butterfly Lady]]," and almost everyone hates the fact that such a minor villain of the overall story of Sanctuary got to be the one to [[spoiler:kill off a character as iconic as Deckard Cain]].
135	* ScrappyMechanic:
136	** Blizzard's announcement that the game was online-only, even for single player, did not go over well. The "always online" nature of the game especially since this meant that the game would be over for good once Blizzard decided to no longer support the ''Diablo III'' servers (at least one country can't play ''Diablo III'' because of Blizzard disabling their servers there). Exacerbated when the PC version of the game was updated to match the new features introduced in the console versions... ''except'' for the offline mode.
137	** If you try to play the game in an internet cafe when the Internet at home is down, your Blizzard account will sometimes be locked due to the different login sequence. You will have to answer the safety question or enter the serial number to unlock your account. This is made for safety reasons, but most other players find it extremely frustrating.
138	** Prior to their removal in patch 1.0.4, [[TimeLimitBoss Enrage timers]] were near-universally loathed by the fanbase. Ostensibly put in to discourage farming of elite mobs and bosses in higher difficulties, it made killing said mobs and bosses impossible for under-equipped players playing solo, as once the said timer activated, it was almost a guaranteed death. Fortunately, the timers for the elites was removed in a patch.
139	** Prior to patch 1.0.8, the GuideDangIt nature of the Auction House: since only adjustments to base stats were listed, you needed either pencil & paper or a third-party site to figure out whether the item you were considering would actually be an improvement over your current gear. You didn't do the math, you'd be likely to end up short some money for something inferior to what you already had.
140	** Many people disliked the fact that only ten auctions per account were allowed on the gold Auction House -- if you had alts or played AT ALL you would quickly exceed that limit, and combined with the limited character and joint character inventory it could be a pain. As a result, most gear you found was BetterOffSold because it would take up too much space. That gear sold for so little, and giving it to the blacksmith to turn into items for him was pointless as most blacksmith items were terrible.
141	** The announcement that the game would include various Auction Houses, including an Auction House that used real money caused quite a controversy in the fandom. The mere existence of the Auction Houses ticked off more than a few players, who felt that it took away the thrill of finding a really good item from a monster drop and replaced it with tedious gold farming or just buying items with real money. The [[BribingYourWayToVictory real-money Auction House]] also got a lot of grief, since it let players substitute real-world money for competence at actually playing the game. You could just refuse to use the Auction House, of course, but players complained that the RandomDrops were balanced so as to push players toward using it, especially at higher difficulties. While Blizzard fervently denied this at the time, the fact that they accompanied the Auction House closure with a patch that greatly improved the quality of dropped gear lends credence to such suspicions. When Blizzard announced that both the gold and real money Auction Houses would be removed from the game in March of 2014, many fans were quite happy with the news.
142	** The Nemesis system for console players. Ever been killed by a monster in the game? Have any of your PSN friends ever been killed by a monster in the game? If they or you have been killed, there's a decent chance that your death will spawn a Nemesis, a powerful monster that stalks you/them until either you/they kill it, or it kills you. Neither of which prevents another Nemesis spawning at some later date. Particularly vexing in higher difficulties where it can kill you in a split second regardless of how super-special-awesome your gear is. And there's ''no way to disable it''.
143	** The game does not allow you to change your skill loadout if you're in the middle of combat. Fair enough. But the trouble is just being in a boss room counts as being in combat until the boss is dead. This includes rooms for Cydaea, Urzael, and Diablo having long hallways which take around fifteen seconds to walk through before actually reaching the boss, during which time you can't change your skill loadout.
144	** In a multiplayer lobby, if someone attempts to enter a boss room or start a Greater Rift, all players will receive a dialogue box asking if they want to leave wherever they are and jump to the boss fight or Rift. Unfortunately, said dialogue box is in the middle of the screen and takes up a significant chunk of the screen, meaning that a player may accidentally click on "Accept" or "Cancel" (as they'd likely be fighting something at the time) and players might even get killed by whatever they're fighting due to the center of the screen being obscured. Also, each player has only 60 seconds to decide, which can be a problem if they want to change their skill loadout (which can't be changed in a boss room or a Greater Rift) or equipment (since they have to go back to town and go through their Armories or Stashes to do that).
145	** In the Switch version, because of the way online multiplayer works on Nintendo platforms, if the game host quits, you have to sit through a ~10-second loading screen as the game switches hosts.
146	* StrawmanHasAPoint: [[spoiler:Lord Wyndon actually ''is'' the rightful heir to Westmarch. It's only when the Nephalem realize that he's a megalomaniac and a tyrant who is making an already horrific situation ''even worse'' that they decide to put him down.]]
147	* ThatOneAchievement: Seasons have objectives called Conquests, ultra-hard quests which require a lot of time to clear. Some of them aren't too bad, like clearing Greater Rift 75 Solo (the equivalent of Torment XVI) and clearing Greater Rift 45 Solo (Torment X) with no set items equipped. But some of the Conquests are damn near impossible. If you want the Guardian rank for any season, you've got to do three of these Conquests; only ten show up with every season, five for normal players along with their respective counterparts for Hardcore players. Which three Conquests you're going to do boils down to which three that won't make you pull your hair out or take dozens of hours to clear.
148	** Curses!/Stars Align: Kill 350 enemies during a single Cursed Chest event on Torment X or higher. There's only one Cursed Chest where you even have a prayer of getting this one, and it might not show up on the map when you want it to. Even if it does, it requires very powerful builds designed to deal with mobs in order to get that many at any one time.
149	** Sprinter/Speed Racer: Complete Story Mode in under an hour. Basically, you've got to SpeedRun the main game, and it's much harder than it sounds. Doing it solo is all but impossible, and even a four-player squad can struggle with it. The nature of the randomly-generated dungeons means that you can't even build up a strategy for how to complete the game that fast; even with some things always appearing in the same place, it's going to be by the skin of your teeth if you do this at all. The only saving grace is that you can do it on the lowest difficulty to make combat a cakewalk.
150	** Speed Demon/Need for Speed: Clear a Nephalem Rift on Torment X or higher in under two minutes. Even if you can create a build that can wipe out Torment XVI with no trouble, this one's still a headache. The randomized nature of what you find in a Rift means that you've got no way to plan a strategy here; it's almost a LuckBasedMission. Rolling the right rooms, such as the desert plains or the prison, gives you a lot more room to work with because of the huge open areas where you can aggro multiple mobs at once. If you're unlucky enough to get something with a tight corridor or have to waste precious seconds backtracking, you may as well quit and start over.
151	** Avarice/Avaratita: Complete a 50,000,000 gold streak while outside of The Vault and The Inner Sanctum. Finding fifty million gold to pick up in the first place is all but impossible. You might be able to do this in Not The Cow Level if you get beyond lucky; otherwise, your only option is getting a boatload of Act Caches and opening them all at the same time, which is going to take several hours even if you know exactly what you're doing.
152	** Boss Mode/Worlds Apart: Kill every boss within twenty minutes of starting Adventure Mode on Torment X or higher. This is a headache for a similar reason as Sprinter/Speed Racer -- randomly-generated dungeons make a few of these bosses much harder to find. Several major bosses will always be in the same place with the same layouts for their dungeons, but it's small comfort.
153	** Several challenges fall into this.
154	*** Two Minute Warning in the Adventure Mode section, which is Speed Demon without the difficulty requirement. Clearing a Nephalem Rift in two minutes extremely difficult even if you're strong to turn every enemy in the game into swiss cheese on any setting.
155	*** More for how incredibly long it takes than for its inherent difficulty, the Come to Heal class challenge requires the Monk to heal other players for 2,000,000,000 (two ''billion'') points with their skills. Since it requires another player, meaning you can't complete it solo, it's best to get a friend to help and clear your schedule because it can potentially take hours.
156	*** Any of the Campaign challenges can become this for the unlucky thanks to the randomized nature of 90% of the game's maps meaning you're not guaranteed to get the event / lore piece in any given game.
157	* ThatOneAttack:
158	** Belial can stick his hands into the ground after he TurnsRed, flooding the entire arena with explosions that are inevitably going to overlap each other. If you're caught in them, kiss a massive pool of your health goodbye.
159	** Arcane Sentries. Huge rotating spikes of arcane damage are bad enough, but the fact that they can overlap that it makes it really hard to get away from them. Enemies with Waller or Vortex forcing you to move into them makes it even worse. The fact that the sentries last a few seconds after the enemies are killed is just icing on the cake of misery.
160	** Molten explosions. When killed, enemies with the Molten modifier will charge up a fiery explosion; if you're caught in the blast, you take so much Fire damage that it's practically a OneHitKill. Even players who can solo Torment XVI and beyond flee in terror at the sight of these blasts.
161	* ThatOneBoss: Thanks to the game's wide range of difficulty levels and the fact that you can change difficulty level any time before loading yourself back into the game, it's possible to simply sidestep this trope by going down a difficulty level or two, but for those who don't want to do that:
162	** Izual has gone from a textbook DamageSpongeBoss to a legitimate challenge. [[spoiler:Sure, he does place visible ice bombs around the area which you can easily avoid... for naught, as he ''also'' has a move that freezes the entire area anyways. And since he's a FlunkyBoss, both Izual and his goons will be beating down on you while you're still frozen.]]
163	** In the harder difficulty modes, some of the randomly generated minibosses can be harder to fight than the actual bosses, especially if they get a nasty combo of abilities.
164	** The game continues the tradition of murderous Act 2 bosses with [[spoiler:Belial]]. Up until his fight most players really get around with just punching stuff until it falls over, and for the first half of the fight, it seems to be applicable. It's a perfectly reasonable standard boss fight with mooks, like every other boss fight to that point... But then [[spoiler:Belial goes OneWingedAngel and becomes the first real enemy where that doesn't really work, turns into the equivalent of a ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' raid boss, complete with phases where he [=AoE=] spams the entire narrow platform where you fight him, and you are required to keep moving to avoid being instagibbed by his meteor spam]]. This comes without a warning and with absolutely no hint on how to counter it. Most people who steamrolled the game up to this point experience their first group wipeout exactly at this point. Even on Normal difficulty it's bad, especially for the squishier classes like the Wizard. Even ''after'' knowing what's coming it's a pain in the ass, because [[TimeLimitBoss his Enrage]] is ''brutal'', as it involves [[spoiler: Belial using a more powerful, faster, [[BuffySpeak spammier]] version of the meteor spam]] until the fight ends.
165	** The Siegebreaker Assault Beast from Act 3 was this in previous versions, due to having a reflect damage effect that, at higher difficulties, will eat through your health faster than you can damage it.
166	** ''Reaper of Souls'' has [[spoiler:Adria]], the second major boss of Act V, whose sweeping melee attacks hurt like Hell, who teleports all over the place, and who constantly spams blood-worms that explode into blood pools that do high damage when the player is in them.
167	** Malthael may be the FinalBoss in the main story, but in Adventure Mode, he's just a repeatable bounty, and when you do... yeah, unless you're strong, good luck with dealing with those constantly spawning mists of death that drains your life FAST if you stay in place, him going SpinAttack for constant DPS, the highly damaging Skull Spiral, summoning many enemies that likes to teleport and blast you off for high damage... If you're up to some extra achievements that requires you to kill him quick, he can get annoying.
168	* ThatOneLevel:
169	** Patch 2.4 introduced Set Dungeons, four dungeons for each character class that can only be accessed if the player has six different pieces of the relevant armour set. Beating the dungeons requires completing one of two objectives (at least one of which will be specifically targeted use the abilities boosted by the armour set) and killing a minimum number of enemies without taking fatal damage. Mastering a Set Dungeon requires killing all the enemies and completing both objectives in the time limit. However, there's a few Set Dungeons that even hardened players find irritating.
170	*** For the Barbarian, the Wrath of the Wastes dungeon is the most detested, as one of the objectives is ''not taking physical damage for the entire dungeon''. The other objective is casting Rend on ten or more enemies at once five times, so repeatedly getting into melee range of multiple enemies is a necessity. Add in swinging pendulum traps and enemies that run away when attacked and you have a recipe for pure pain.
171	*** The Crusader has the Roland's Legacy dungeon. Although the two objectives are easy enough to achieve, killing every enemy on the map is not, as the dungeon is enormous and most of the enemies are Imps that run away when you attack nearby enemies. ''Diablo'' discussion boards are littered with gamers venting their spleen about repeatedly having a single enemy left to kill as the timer expires and no idea where it is.
172	*** By and large, the Demon Hunter is viewed as having the easiest set dungeons; however, the Unhallowed Essence dungeon has a bad reputation owing to the need for kindness on the part of the enemy placement gods in order to hit 20 or more enemies with a single Multishot six times. Their slow speed means that low density cannot be countered by kiting as it can be in other dungeons where it is a problem. The Embodiment of the Marauder dungeon runs a close second not for difficulty - the map is reasonably sized and the objectives are quite easy - but for the frustration factor of getting hit by Rockworms and thus failing the objective to prevent enemies from getting into melee range. Even after the dungeon was tweaked so that the Rockworms appeared in fixed areas of the map, it's still easy to get tagged by one after standing still for a second too long.
173	*** The Uliana's Strategem dungeon is the most reviled of the Monk dungeons. Though Patch 2.5.0 softened one objective from detonating Exploding Palm on 21 enemies three times to 15 enemies four times, it still has a huge map in which it is easy to lose stray enemies. The objective of taking no fire damage for the entire dungeon is mind-bendingly difficult, seeing as how there's Fire-breathing enemies and Fire-spewing traps everywhere. The Star of Azkaranth amulet makes this easy since it prevents all Fire damage (basically completing this objective for you), but it's still a dungeon that can only be cleared by the skin of your teeth even with the right amulet.
174	*** Among the Witch Doctor set dungeons, the crown for most rage-inducing goes to the Helltooth Harness dungeon, which has both a very large map in which it is easy to lose stray enemies and enemy density that is often too low to set up the objective of killing 20 or more enemies with one Wall of Death four times without extensive kiting (which can be fatal without high Toughness).
175	*** At least a few Set Dungeons have a troublesome aspect where the enemies are too weak for even decently-leveled players. If you need to crowd multiple enemies together, you need to find a build that won't kill the enemies too quickly, intentionally handicapping yourself just to master this one Set Dungeon.
176	** Several dungeons lost their ThatOneLevel status, or at least had it diminished, in Patch 2.4.1.
177	*** The Might of the Earth dungeon for the Barbarian was once loathed for the tendency of two or more of the seven elites to spawn too close together to make it possible to complete the objective of casting Leap, Ground Stomp, and Earthquake in that order on each of the seven. In Patch 2.4.1, Blizzard re-designed the dungeon to make the elites spawn in fixed locations, making planning significantly easier.
178	*** Time was the mention of the Raiment of the Jade Harvester dungeon would make Witch Doctor players froth at the mouth with rage, as the dungeon was full of Writhing Deceiver enemies which would turn invisible for five or more seconds at a time, making it far too common to get to the end of the map with seconds left on the clock and half a dozen or more enemies left to kill that the player didn't even know were there. Patch 2.4.1 disabled the Deceivers' invisibility, so that now the map size and the clock are the main sources of frustration.
179	*** In Patch 2.4.0, the Wizard was widely viewed as having the game's most difficult collection of Set Dungeons. Raising the time limit from 4:30 to 5 minutes and making all enemies visible on the mini-map from the very start in Patch 2.6.0 made it easier to cover the very large maps and keep track of the many enemies in the Delsere's Magnum Opus and Vyr's Amazing Arcana dungeons, and the former also had the objective of casting Slow Time on 30 or more enemies three times to 20 or more enemies four times in Patch 2.5.0, reducing the enemy density threshold. Meanwhile, the Firebird's Finery dungeon initially required players to ignite 20 enemies in 3 seconds six times. Too little damage per second and the dungeon could not be finished in time; too much and the enemies would die before the required three fire skills could be cast on them to ignite them. Patch 2.4.1 changed this objective to igniting ''or killing'' 20 enemies in 3 seconds, so that now high damage is an asset instead of a liability.
180	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: The game gets complaints that it's [[LighterAndSofter too colorful.]] The game's art style got a lot of flak for [[RealIsBrown being too colorful]] and resembling Creator/BlizzardEntertainment's other title ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. They've even started a petition wanting to replace the entirety of ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' with act 3 of ''Diablo II''. Numerous counter-petitions have already been launched, and Blizzard has pointed out why DarkerAndEdgier graphics would be implausible or unplayable.
181	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Some fans argue that Leah died way too early to truly get invested in her character, and that the game didn't develop her enough regarding her [[spoiler:origins as the daughter of Adria and Aidan/Diablo]].
182	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
183	** [[spoiler:Deckard Cain's death]] could have been a real tearjerker given how he's been the longest lasted NPC throughout the Diablo games. However, his poorly executed final scene left a lot to be desired.
184	** Minor, but when you start facing Azmodan's forces, you first face a Lord of Gluttony boss. Then you have to deal with a Maiden of Lust. The Enchantress confirms that, as the Lord of Sin, Azmodan commands demons for each of the SevenDeadlySins, but Greed, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride are no-shows, and Envy only shows up in post-game Adventure Mode.
185	* VindicatedByHistory: Big time - even '''before''' ''Reaper of Souls'', the overhauled loot system and the console versions seem to have done this. Even more so when the initial positive reception of ''VideoGame/DiabloIV'' hit rock bottom within ''months'' of its release as in response to the many hated aspects like FakeLongevity, many ''Diablo'' players went back to playing ''III'' thinking that they were too harsh on it as it was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sDgZ4ewIYM actually a more complete game]].
186	* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Blizzard is well known for their excellent cinematic work, but ''Diablo III'' sets a high water mark not just for video games but for motion picture animation as well!
187	* WinBackTheCrowd: The ''Reaper of Souls'' expansion appears to be answering some of the fan complaints regarding the vanilla title, including an overhauled loot system, [[DarkerAndEdgier a darker art tone]], randomized maps in the form of "Loot Runs", the removal of the auction house, and being able to [[spoiler: [[PayEvilUntoEvil kill]] [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty Adria]]]].
188	* TheWoobie:
189	** Haedrig Eamon. He witnessed the murder of his father in front of his very eyes. Afterwards, he meets and marries his wife and moves to New Tristram, where she gets infected by the zombie plague and he's forced to [[ShootTheDog put her down]]. Now his only reason for existence is to make sure he can provide the heroes with some decent weapons and armor.
190	** Leah. What the poor girl goes through even before [[spoiler:being made the vessel of Diablo himself by her ''own mother'']] is enough to make you want to hold her and tell her everything will be all right.
191	** King Leoric, at least before he was the Skeleton King. The last of his journal entries before becoming the Skeleton King reveals that his corruption was not one he did willingly. Rather, he confides in the journal that dark thoughts invade his mind but most significantly, he often finds that he can't control his own body and actions. Only a select handful of people know this; to the outside world, King Leoric is a monster.
192	* UglyCute: Many of the pets are these, such as the Living Gauntlet who serves as the cutest and friendliest [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Floormaster]] ever, Buddy the hound whose favorite pastime is "Fetch the Skull", and even a "baby' version of the Butcher! All of which are non-combatants who simply follow you and collect gold for you.
193	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Lysa]] in ''Reaper of Souls''. [[spoiler:She was always jealous of Eirena and how everyone would fawn over her despite her own magical skills being exemplary, and when it seems like she's finally going to get recognition and love from the Prophet, he orders her to essentially kill herself to give more power to the woman she's always been in the shadow of. When you fight her, she's less like a demon worshipping traitor like Adria was, and more like a terrified, desperate girl whose desperate desire not to die and actually be ''noticed'' drove her to the demons' side. Even Eirena sympathizes with her.]]
194	* WoobieSpecies: Humanity/the Nephalem. Offspring of renegade angels and demons, the fear of nephalem growing too powerful in the Eternal Conflict led to a call for their extinction. When the demon Lilith came to their aid, Inarius took his former lover and banished her to the void. Then he attuned the Worldstone to drain the nephalem into mortal humans over time. When Lilith finally made it back, she tricked a human by framing him for the murder of two emissaries working for the Cathedral of Light and the Triune, encouraging him to gather an army of Nephalem to fight the injustice of their oppression. When the ruse is revealed, she sends her human pawn near the {{Despair Event Horizon}}, and tries to use the nephalem army to crush all opposition. When the angels discovered Nephalem and their world, they made a vote on whether or not to eliminate all mankind. Tyrael's vote saved them from extinction, but the shared hatred of humanity in both Heaven and Hell never really went away. This leaves most of humanity not able to do much against the forces that want them dead; it's only by a stroke of luck that the nephalem manage to produce champions powerful enough to turn the tide.

Context YMMV / DiabloIII