My son is on Hell level with 2 of his characters I think…a wizard and a barbarian, and he’s been grinding those guys for a while now, every day for about 8 hours I think…but me…I have a job, two younger kiddos, a sick FIL, and a wife that needs some private time…I’m still in Normal, Act 3…
But, my son did give some ass-kicking rares for my DH. 
Yes, and it is.
Inferno is a place to go die, hilariously, over and over.
Die die die die die die ooooh shiny loot! die die die die die die …
Normal items, like almost everything you find in normal difficulty, will give you Subtle Essence and possibly Fallen Tooth. Magical (blue) items will usually just give you the essence, but will occasionally also give you a tooth. Rare (yellow) items will always give you one of each.
Exceptional items (which mostly start showing up in Nightmare, though you’ll see a handful late in Normal) work the same way, except they give you Shimmering Essence and Lizard Eye. Elite items (mostly in Hell difficulty) have their own materials they give you, though I can’t remember what those are.
Items of the lower tiers continue to drop at higher difficulties, so you’ll always have those Subtles and Teeth if you need them. But since those can also be made from things found by newbs in A1 Normal, the commodity price is pretty low for them. I’m told that for high-level but normal-tier items, it’s more cost-effective to sell them to the vendors and then just buy the low materials from the auction house.
And it’ll be a while before I reach Inferno. What’s the Nephelem Valor system?
According to this wiki, once you hit 60, killing elites refreshes a 30 minute buff, stacking up to 5 times which gives you magic/gold find and more end-boss drops. It resets if you change skills/runes/passives or leave the game.
That’s pretty much it, you get 15% Magic Find per buff. The general idea is to encourage players to farm Acts/areas rather than just do boss runs. With 5 stacks I get one(or more) Rare item from almost every elite kill.
Oh, that doesn’t kick in until level 60? I’d heard about that, and thought it was throughout the game, and therefore have been reluctant to change skills. I also didn’t know it ended if you left the game, or that it only stacked up to 5.
As an ATVI investor, let me assure you that Activizzard’s money is, for better or worse, most decidedly not lining investor pockets.
You get an icon on your UI when the buff is active (and however many levels of it you have).
One question I have about the valor, does it only work in inferno? Or once I hit 60 can I use it to farm hell?
I works in Hell too.
I’m really not sure what to make of Inferno. I find the trash in Act 1 to be pathetically easy and the champs/elites difficult (but fun). Act 2 is like another difficulty level entirely and I’m certainly not ready for it. I’ve been getting my 5 NV stacks and farming Act 1 but it’s incredibly boring and time consuming for little reward. I’m not sure if I should spend the money I have on a decent-but-nothing-special weapon on the AH to make farming a little faster or save up for something better.
I just beat the game on Normal Mode! Act II was definitely the most difficult for my character, along with parts of Act III. Act II had the toughest boss. Diablo himself was kind of anti-climactic. I’m hoping they ramp him up in Nightmare Mode.
I now have a level 32 Barbarian and must grapple with the Great Dilemma. Do I go onto Nightmare mode with my Barbarian or start a new class? I’m leaning toward carrying on with my Barbarian. This game has significantly improved the overall quality of my life.
The hell?
Am I the only one who hasn’t beaten the game yet? I just started Act III. Had some close calls, but fairing well so far.
Everyone else seems to be doing nightmare runs!
By the way, how do the other difficulty levels work?
Is it game +? Do you need to use your current character for nightmare? Or can you now start a new character in nightmare so long as you beat normal wiht any other character?
I haven’t beaten the game yet either - I simply lack the time to play it more than an hour or so each night. I’m still in Act ll!
I’m really liking the monk character.
I’ve seen Torus pwn with the monk so I think that’s going to be my next character.
Maybe even in hardcore mode…
dum dum DUM!
I have been messing with multiple characters. I really feel like Monk and Barbarian are the ‘easier’ choices for everything between mid Act II normal (when you finally have a well rounded selection of abilities to both do damage and survive) and the end of Hell (after which, in Inferno, you apparently can’t take hits even with near-max mitigation). It’s just so much easier to be able to tank stuff than it is to dodge every single attack with the 300ms+ pings that everyone has if you’re playing on or near peak evening times.
What I really like is loading up with gear that gives my monk plus-life per hit and per kill. He can then wade into a crowd of baddies and wack away happily - he goes through them like a buzz-saw. 
I’m behind you. Got to level 10 in softcore and rolled a new hardcore monk. Up to level 8 so far early in Act I. Haven’t even gotten to Act II yet with any characters. I’m liking the monk so far.
But since it’s a holiday weekend, I’m hoping to have enough time to finish up a Normal campaign.
You want to use your current character (or whatever character you finish Normal with) in Nightmare. There’s absolutely no way a Level 1 character would survive for a minute in Nightmare. The folks on my regular team of players suggests getting to around level 30 before taking on Nightmare. The developers apparently tried to make the difficulty level buffs/debuffs less cheesy in D3 compared to D2.
The game has definitely gotten better in nightmare, which sucks because you’re basically playing the tutorial/training playthrough the first time, but it’s not as if you beat it once and you’re done - you’ll have to beat it with every single character you want to create before the real game begins.
My original plan was to have several different characters going, so that I could play with friends at various levels of progress throughout the game, but I don’t really want to go back and play through normal again, so I may end up just sticking with my barb.
Beef, if you want to add some challenge, group up briefly with someone a few levels ahead of you in normal and you’ll be able to continue from where they left off; I have a level 13 monk starting act 2 and that ramps the difficulty a bit.
That’s a good idea, I’ll try that, thanks.