Inferno difficulty will not solve the issue of running the same thing over and over, due to the fact that you have to be level 60. Yes, for item hunters @ level 60, it solves the problem. But for players who are trying to get to level 60, (lets say a lvl 55 player) they will run the last area in hell over and over to get the most XP until 60.

On a side note, I wonder how they Inferno difficulty will be altered once the level cap increases in the expansion.

Our intent is to create a fairly smooth leveling curve between difficulties. When you finish Normal you should be around 30, and you'll be ready for Nightmare, you should be around 50 when you finish Nightmare, and you'll be ready for Hell, and when you finish Hell you should be around 60, and ready for Inferno.

We don't expect that people are going to play start to finish, Normal to Inferno, in one sitting. Because of that it implies replays of specific areas (as enemies/bosses respawn when you leave and start a new game) which adds in some guess work on XP gains. It may be that you need to stick around in Hell difficulty for a bit longer because you beat the game at level 58 or something, but it shouldn't be a long drawn out XP farming situation just so you can advance - if we do it right.

Again, personal play habits will influence leveling curves but we'll do our best to make it smooth.

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Q u o t e:
Do random events/quests reward experience, and if so, is there some kind of way to tell how to get to them when you start a fresh game? Questing to the cap sounds good to me, but if it isn't implemented in a way where you'll know where to go to find them, then I forsee a lot of aimless wandering hoping to find them.

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They do, but you're not going to be required to seek them out just to advance. They're intended to be bonuses when they happen, because they do appear randomly, and not primary leveling devices. If they encourage someone to explore the entire map or dungeon to see if they can find one, then cool, we hope they enjoyed their choice to do that. But we're not forcing anyone to.

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Q u o t e:
30?? you previously said 20 normal 40 nightmare and around 60 at the end of hell

now we will finish normal at 30? so the first 30 will be faster than before

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I believe we've always stated we intend for players to finish Normal at 30. But I've been wrong before. ;)

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Q u o t e:
What kind of predictions do you have for someone who DOES sit and play straight through in a single game?

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They might be under-leveled and have to run a few more dungeons to be where they should. But again it's really dependent on playstyle as well as randomization. Also running around getting more chances at awesome loot isn't exactly terrible, that's sort of the whole game.

We could both sit and play straight through but I have 100 more champions that spawned in my character's play time and thus I'm out leveling you. Or you're a completionist and exploring everything and I'm just hitting main quests so you've out leveled me. It's tough to really gauge, which is why we're going to do our best to test these scenarios as much as possible and just set a leveling curve based on expectations for how most people will play.

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Q u o t e:
* More aggressive monster behavior with modified AI

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True!

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Q u o t e:
new skills and abilities.

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We may hold some specific champion affixes for Inferno, but it's not set in stone just yet. What we're definitely doing is making more difficult affixes and affix combos more likely to roll up.

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Q u o t e:


Ah, gotcha. I'll edit it.

I just now got to see the actual presentation. Jay seemed bored. : /

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Video link?

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Q u o t e:
I don't know if this has been answered yet, but is Inferno going to be available at release?

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That's the plan Stan.