In a lot of MMOs or games that have co-op there's an annoying problem where playing solo results in leveling over friends, creating a level gap between you. This means when they get on to play you aren't at the same point anymore and if you try to play with them things are really unbalanced or you are at different points in the game. Does this seem to be the case with D3? I'm wondering because if I get it I'll want to play with all my friends who have already purchased it, but I know there will be times where I'll want to play it on my own. Would I just have to create alt characters for different groups of friends/playing solo or would I be able to play with lower level friends in the same game without much trouble?

you can replay any quest at any time so even if you join your buddy who is farther along, you can then go back into your own game and replay/finish the quest(s) you skipped from your own playthrough while everything (items, XP, etc) carries over.

if you've watched the Diablo TNT on Thursday, Brad was around lvl 20 or something and the other guys started out level 2-ish and they obviously had trouble with later areas but leveled faster than usual.

Personally, I suggest playing through it once solo for story (if you care) and when you wanna play with friends just hop in at random.

@DeF said:

if you've watched the Diablo TNT on Thursday, Brad was around lvl 20 or something and the other guys started out level 2-ish and they obviously had trouble with later areas but leveled faster than usual.

If my understanding is correct with leveling, lower level players don't get any more xp regardless of how much higher level friends are in co-op. Am I correct in assuming higher level players would blow through things (damage-wise) compared to their lower level friends? That would be what I'm talking about when I asked. That would kind of ruin playing with lower level players.

@Sanryd said:

@DeF said:

if you've watched the Diablo TNT on Thursday, Brad was around lvl 20 or something and the other guys started out level 2-ish and they obviously had trouble with later areas but leveled faster than usual.

If my understanding is correct with leveling, lower level players don't get any more xp regardless of how much higher level friends are in co-op. Am I correct in assuming higher level players would blow through things (damage-wise) compared to their lower level friends? That would be what I'm talking about when I asked. That would kind of ruin playing with lower level players.

If your higher level friend(s) join you in your lower (I almost wrote "lover" hahah) level quest area then yes, they'd just blow through enemies since their levels don't scale to the player fighting them, they just get stronger (more HP) depending on how many human players are in the game. If you join a higher level friend as a low level character, you should still level up more quickly though since you'd need less XP to level up than your high level friend and the later area enemies should give out a little more XP than starting quest enemies.

Ultimately, you're gonna be fine. If your friends are THAT far away from you, leveling should be the least of your concern. Just ask them to start a new character with you so you can play together. They can still switch back to their original character whenever they want.

i have 2 characters

a wizard i am playing solo, up to level 22 going great as i play SP more often than coop and a barbarian i use to play with a freind coop that is level 11 right now.

this means i can play the story by myself and get to try another character.