Is the root of this discussion not immersion? Illicit behavior stems from ones ability to break the user agreement they accepted in order to skip the part of the game they are disinterested in. They skip the apathetic portion of the game in order to jump directly into the part where they can experience immersion.
The leaderboards are a way for some players to feel that sense of accomplishment within the game they enjoy. When legitimate players think about illicit players skipping certain menial portions of the work required it causes justifiable frustration. A bot certainly can not efficiently accomplish the other menial portion of the work which is endless paragon grinding. Paragon deserves it's own discussion.
This can be a rather complex discussion considering the way the game is designed. If you want to make it to the top of any of the leaderboards you are encouraged to take every step your competition is willing to take in order to be able to compete. This is common in any competitive activity, certainly not exclusive to online gaming.
It comes down to a very simple solution. Blizzard should start enforcing their own fair gaming policies. It is their burden of responsibility to discourage illicit activity. They are a company that speaks loudly about creating games their users can become totally immersed within. The reality on the other hand is they are doing the very thing that causes players to lose interest by not taking the proper actions to enforce their own policies. Unfortunately third party programs will always exist as long as users are willing to risk the consequences even if Blizzard started taking frequent action. The risk involved should feel like an actual risk. Right now it simply does not.
The point I'm making is this: there is not one single player in D3 who hasn't benefited by botting either directly or indirectly.
There is zero evidence that you could possibly bring to this conversation which would make your so called point even remotely factual or based within reality.
Thinking that somehow every player ranked or unranked has come in contact with another player using a third party program is basically claiming legitimate, exclusively solo players do not exist. You also discredit legitimate small group play of close friends who only play with each other. You also discredit every ranked player who not only plays legitimately themselves but also with their legitimate peers.
The point you attempted to make offers nothing to this conversation other than misconceived, unwarranted, and unfounded notions. Claiming everyone benefits directly or indirectly from third party programs is nothing short of propaganda. A bit of pragmatism would go a long way within ones thought process on this matter.
I solo farm GR74s for exp on my LoN Bomb Crus. When I come across ancient Hexing pants I will likely move up to GR76s. I get consistent results time wise and never have to skip any mob type. In a 6 hour farm session yesterday I only skipped one elite and not because I couldn't kill it but simply because of it's unique combination and location made it worth skipping.
LoN Bomb is far superior to Invoker for solo farming experience. Your Crus needs work before you consider GR70. It is just plain missing 6 stat allocations. You have 2 crit rolls, 2 rcr rolls, and dex on a weapon missing Ramaladni's Gift. A Pig Sticker should have str, vit, AS, AD, CDR, and socket to be perfectly itemized. Also your Chip should be ranked as high or higher than your other gems considering everything from gear, gems, and skill choices all multiply by that stat value. Maximizing thorns without sacrificing other necessary stat allocations will determine your characters potential.
The easiest conquest by far is the 50 million gold streak. Most people get this "by accident" at some point - when doing a T10 rift and killing a Gilded Baron, especially while having Boon of the Hoarder equipped.
This is very good info. I get around 45-48 Mil per Gilded with my LoN Bomb Cruz.
List of gold find on my set:
81% Kymbo's Gold - neck
35% Litany of the Undaunted - ring
33% Homing Pads - shoulders
Just a Kymbo's Gold and Goldskin should be more than enough with a Boon of the Hoarder. Also take advantage of Gold Find in paragon for this conquest.
We have a philosophy of launching patches between Season transitions, and not while a Season is currently active. This leaves a window of possible patch dates; sometime between Season 4 ending and Season 5 beginning. We also, typically, deploy patches on Tuesdays (for North America). However, deployment dates can suddenly shift, including down to the last minute. Technology can be a fickle mistress, and unforeseen circumstances can arise.
This is why we don't provide firm patch release dates. However, we know a lot of players want to plan their time around new content or the start of the new Season. Announcing a more firm Season date is a way to meet in the middle.
I'm seeing the word "earn" appear more frequently as this drags on. So, with the spirit of "earn" imbued in my mind I offer this hypothetical. A non-seasonal journey that runs the same time period as the season.
As long as the non-seasonal journey requires the same amount of effort as the seasonal version of the journey I would see no problem with this at all. It would require the following stipulations.
1. Start from scratch with no character progression, gold, materials, etc
2. Have the same completion requirements
3. Players should have access to fellow non-seasonal players to group with who are also part of this hypothetical play mode
4. All work and accruement must remain separate from ones era account until a designated time of coalescing equal to the seasonal time frame
Unfortunately at this point it is a seasonal game mode. As a seasonal player yourself I'm sure we can agree that a large potion of the effort required to earn the completion of the seasonal journey is the accruement process itself. The folks here that want to bypass that process by using their previously accrued era materials, gold, characters, etc want their tabs immediately rather than putting in the effort required of the current implementation.
I agree that forcing it behind HC for SC players would be asking them to play in a mode foreign to them. I made a previous post earlier in the thread that mentioned forcing PvE players into a PvP environment would be justifiable cause for concern. It comes back to reward being disproportionate to the amount of effort required for some folks here.
I see that a lot player think that the daily playtime is enough of a reason to ban player for botting.
Playtime alone isn't a great indicator. Now if you add an absurdly high kill count + 18hr average across a full season? Bot.
The content of your original post is a ludicrous attempt to muddy the waters of this ever growing epidemic of automation taking over the game.
2
Is the root of this discussion not immersion? Illicit behavior stems from ones ability to break the user agreement they accepted in order to skip the part of the game they are disinterested in. They skip the apathetic portion of the game in order to jump directly into the part where they can experience immersion.
The leaderboards are a way for some players to feel that sense of accomplishment within the game they enjoy. When legitimate players think about illicit players skipping certain menial portions of the work required it causes justifiable frustration. A bot certainly can not efficiently accomplish the other menial portion of the work which is endless paragon grinding. Paragon deserves it's own discussion.
This can be a rather complex discussion considering the way the game is designed. If you want to make it to the top of any of the leaderboards you are encouraged to take every step your competition is willing to take in order to be able to compete. This is common in any competitive activity, certainly not exclusive to online gaming.
It comes down to a very simple solution. Blizzard should start enforcing their own fair gaming policies. It is their burden of responsibility to discourage illicit activity. They are a company that speaks loudly about creating games their users can become totally immersed within. The reality on the other hand is they are doing the very thing that causes players to lose interest by not taking the proper actions to enforce their own policies. Unfortunately third party programs will always exist as long as users are willing to risk the consequences even if Blizzard started taking frequent action. The risk involved should feel like an actual risk. Right now it simply does not.
2
Thinking that somehow every player ranked or unranked has come in contact with another player using a third party program is basically claiming legitimate, exclusively solo players do not exist. You also discredit legitimate small group play of close friends who only play with each other. You also discredit every ranked player who not only plays legitimately themselves but also with their legitimate peers.
The point you attempted to make offers nothing to this conversation other than misconceived, unwarranted, and unfounded notions. Claiming everyone benefits directly or indirectly from third party programs is nothing short of propaganda. A bit of pragmatism would go a long way within ones thought process on this matter.
1
I solo farm GR74s for exp on my LoN Bomb Crus. When I come across ancient Hexing pants I will likely move up to GR76s. I get consistent results time wise and never have to skip any mob type. In a 6 hour farm session yesterday I only skipped one elite and not because I couldn't kill it but simply because of it's unique combination and location made it worth skipping.
LoN Bomb is far superior to Invoker for solo farming experience. Your Crus needs work before you consider GR70. It is just plain missing 6 stat allocations. You have 2 crit rolls, 2 rcr rolls, and dex on a weapon missing Ramaladni's Gift. A Pig Sticker should have str, vit, AS, AD, CDR, and socket to be perfectly itemized. Also your Chip should be ranked as high or higher than your other gems considering everything from gear, gems, and skill choices all multiply by that stat value. Maximizing thorns without sacrificing other necessary stat allocations will determine your characters potential.
1
List of gold find on my set:
81% Kymbo's Gold - neck
35% Litany of the Undaunted - ring
33% Homing Pads - shoulders
Just a Kymbo's Gold and Goldskin should be more than enough with a Boon of the Hoarder. Also take advantage of Gold Find in paragon for this conquest.
1
http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/topic/61153-too-silent-on-patch-notice
1
1. Start from scratch with no character progression, gold, materials, etc
2. Have the same completion requirements
3. Players should have access to fellow non-seasonal players to group with who are also part of this hypothetical play mode
4. All work and accruement must remain separate from ones era account until a designated time of coalescing equal to the seasonal time frame
Unfortunately at this point it is a seasonal game mode. As a seasonal player yourself I'm sure we can agree that a large potion of the effort required to earn the completion of the seasonal journey is the accruement process itself. The folks here that want to bypass that process by using their previously accrued era materials, gold, characters, etc want their tabs immediately rather than putting in the effort required of the current implementation.
I agree that forcing it behind HC for SC players would be asking them to play in a mode foreign to them. I made a previous post earlier in the thread that mentioned forcing PvE players into a PvP environment would be justifiable cause for concern. It comes back to reward being disproportionate to the amount of effort required for some folks here.
1
The content of your original post is a ludicrous attempt to muddy the waters of this ever growing epidemic of automation taking over the game.
1
I can 100% confirm that I have had a very similar experience.
10 level rift
Repeat pylons
1 gob pack
Single gobs on what seemed like every single level
The RG was the same guardian in the cube cow level
THERE IS NO COW LEVEL, but there is a cow rift.....