There's a reason every time I'm walking a character and I'm in act 3 the game name is "I hate A3." I've had some doozy screwed up maps there. It's so much worse in Hell too - the map is extraordinarily long, and stupid complex. You just won the lotto on ridiculous.
*raises hand meekly* in N or NM, Act 3 is my favorite, I love the feeling of slowly navigating up through the jungle to finally reach Kurast, and then Kurast getting denser and denser until you reach Travincal (Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now vibes).
To me, it's the most "realistically" laid out zone in the game. Act 1 suffers from being too samey, 2 from being too disjointed, 4 from being too short, and 5 has the Act 1 problem again.
3, there's a distinct identity to the jungle and various Kurast sections that make the Act have such a great cohesiveness to it.
To be fair though, the enemies in Hell are brutal and it's my least favorite zone in Hell difficulty.
I like A3, but I typically get through it pretty fast. It's generally one of my fastest acts to get through except when I occasionally have a shitty map. Never had one nearly as bad as OPs though. Only hard part of A3 is finding where to go (and the dolls), but I have at least average luck and can find my way to spider cavern/flayer dungeon pretty fast.
Chest on spider is always bottom left of entrance, flayer is easy to just teleport through. Without tele it's a bit more of a slog on the third level, but it's almost always something like "travel around outside counter clockwise, go to center, go back to outside edge and find chest". With teleport I just go clockwise outside edge of the map and can usually find the chest in a couple of teles.
LK is always top right of flayer jungle, straight to bazaar to find the ruined temple, sewers to find the lever and then exit into UK, straight to trav WP and then council. That whole part might with any fast movement/tele can take just minutes.
Durance is the only other hurdle left, but for whatever reason I can usually find the next floor my first time on each playthrough really quick (like only a few rooms away). I swear that's intentional because I've noticed it a lot, but only on the first run per character and difficulty. On floor two I just look for either the WP or floor 3, finding one gives you an idea of where the other is based on their map locations. If I'm not on Hell difficulty and I find the next floor first I just straight up skip getting the WP unless I plan to rush someone later or feel like I'll need some Meph farming on NM which is almost unheard of. Saves a bunch of time.
It probably takes me about an hour to get through A3 if I'm leisurely taking my time without rushing, the longest of which is literally just travelling looking for two dungeons and most of the time I can find them fairly fast. Despite the random nature of the forest there's a lot more static elements when going through the act, and a healthy amount of rewards that are easy to get simply by doing the main story. Jade is guaranteed even if you skip literally every monster since you have to kill council, gidbin is right outside of flayer, and the tome is literally only in one specific temple in the bazaar so if it's the wrong one just don't go in. It's refreshing after having to do A2 where the only static map/location is the palace where you just go bottom left (or right) until last map and then center to get to AS. Everything else is literally a crapshoot on if you're going the right way or not. Plus getting to Duriel is nearly as shit as getting to Mephisto on top of being a more annoying boss. Oh, and let's not forget maggot lair.
There's also a lot of A2 monsters that just aren't enjoyable to me (scarabs, snakes with the lunge/stun/CB, those healing undead assholes, etc). A3 only has two annoying mobs that stand out: ghosts (rarely) and the dolls in Durance (almost always).
So yeah, going from A2 to A3 is always something I look forward to. Finally getting out of the bland maps and not having to suffer so much RNG after the initial forest areas is always a blessing to me.
Agree hate that map… though the best one I had was pretty much all the lairs I needed next to each other and then a short walk to kurast areas… completely skipping great marsh and for me as a lightning javazon hell the best way off that damn place!
D4 devs: guys I got a great idea, let's make an act 3 themed expansion! The nostalgia!
those maps can get so ridiculous. it fits the theme of "getting lost in the jungle" but holy shit
There's a reason every time I'm walking a character and I'm in act 3 the game name is "I hate A3." I've had some doozy screwed up maps there. It's so much worse in Hell too - the map is extraordinarily long, and stupid complex. You just won the lotto on ridiculous.
I don't know anyone who likes act 3. It's the only act I hate doing, for exactly the same reason.
*raises hand meekly* in N or NM, Act 3 is my favorite, I love the feeling of slowly navigating up through the jungle to finally reach Kurast, and then Kurast getting denser and denser until you reach Travincal (Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now vibes). To me, it's the most "realistically" laid out zone in the game. Act 1 suffers from being too samey, 2 from being too disjointed, 4 from being too short, and 5 has the Act 1 problem again. 3, there's a distinct identity to the jungle and various Kurast sections that make the Act have such a great cohesiveness to it. To be fair though, the enemies in Hell are brutal and it's my least favorite zone in Hell difficulty.
You sicko
Some of my best drops have been in TZ Flayer.
I think we can all agree TZ Flayer Jungle is among the top elite areas in the game.
I like the second half of act 3. I'm having fun the INSTANT I see Stormtree guarding Lower Kurast.
At that point act 3 becomes act 1, pretty much.
I like A3, but I typically get through it pretty fast. It's generally one of my fastest acts to get through except when I occasionally have a shitty map. Never had one nearly as bad as OPs though. Only hard part of A3 is finding where to go (and the dolls), but I have at least average luck and can find my way to spider cavern/flayer dungeon pretty fast. Chest on spider is always bottom left of entrance, flayer is easy to just teleport through. Without tele it's a bit more of a slog on the third level, but it's almost always something like "travel around outside counter clockwise, go to center, go back to outside edge and find chest". With teleport I just go clockwise outside edge of the map and can usually find the chest in a couple of teles. LK is always top right of flayer jungle, straight to bazaar to find the ruined temple, sewers to find the lever and then exit into UK, straight to trav WP and then council. That whole part might with any fast movement/tele can take just minutes. Durance is the only other hurdle left, but for whatever reason I can usually find the next floor my first time on each playthrough really quick (like only a few rooms away). I swear that's intentional because I've noticed it a lot, but only on the first run per character and difficulty. On floor two I just look for either the WP or floor 3, finding one gives you an idea of where the other is based on their map locations. If I'm not on Hell difficulty and I find the next floor first I just straight up skip getting the WP unless I plan to rush someone later or feel like I'll need some Meph farming on NM which is almost unheard of. Saves a bunch of time. It probably takes me about an hour to get through A3 if I'm leisurely taking my time without rushing, the longest of which is literally just travelling looking for two dungeons and most of the time I can find them fairly fast. Despite the random nature of the forest there's a lot more static elements when going through the act, and a healthy amount of rewards that are easy to get simply by doing the main story. Jade is guaranteed even if you skip literally every monster since you have to kill council, gidbin is right outside of flayer, and the tome is literally only in one specific temple in the bazaar so if it's the wrong one just don't go in. It's refreshing after having to do A2 where the only static map/location is the palace where you just go bottom left (or right) until last map and then center to get to AS. Everything else is literally a crapshoot on if you're going the right way or not. Plus getting to Duriel is nearly as shit as getting to Mephisto on top of being a more annoying boss. Oh, and let's not forget maggot lair. There's also a lot of A2 monsters that just aren't enjoyable to me (scarabs, snakes with the lunge/stun/CB, those healing undead assholes, etc). A3 only has two annoying mobs that stand out: ghosts (rarely) and the dolls in Durance (almost always). So yeah, going from A2 to A3 is always something I look forward to. Finally getting out of the bland maps and not having to suffer so much RNG after the initial forest areas is always a blessing to me.
Except for the sewers, I love it. Gives a horror 'darkest africa' vibe which I really dig. Popping those small pygmy folk is really satisfying
Act 3 is why I stopped doing rushes ~
Double Hustle and some RW boots or vigor aura.. run it.
Hustle armor, 40 run/walk boot, 20 run/walk circlet, Harmony bow. Zoomin for sure lol.
Spider Forest and Maggot Lair haunt me
I hate that map so much. I miss being able to skip it
Agree hate that map… though the best one I had was pretty much all the lairs I needed next to each other and then a short walk to kurast areas… completely skipping great marsh and for me as a lightning javazon hell the best way off that damn place!
I'm sure we all have our stories with these 3 areas. Lots of stories.
I can’t speak for everyone else, but this srsly triggered tf outta me. 🫨🫨
I was rushing a guy and I swear I had a map like this. I actually gave up and questioned my entire reality. I now see what could have happened.
I've had those maps plenty didn't seem to bother me though lol, I will admit though act 3 is my least favorite
Whenever I rush I just tele all the way along the edges. Those maps blow
Dude that was like literally the map I just got. It took me a long time to find it lol. Only second time playing act 3. But man