DiabloFans

Quote from HeyseusKristos

I know I am gonna sound like a nostalgist, but in D2 farmers were encouraged to join games with other because there would be more loot drops. Even if they were not in your group, sometimes they would join up to help you overcome a mob that overpowered you. (of course this was before bots were running 24/7) It feels to me, now that farming is being encouraged to either group with people with close to the same mf or go it solo. I don't want to play an online game and be encouraged to be antisocial. That is also a bad idea.

As far as I know, we are not yet aware of how the loot tables are affected by the numbers of players in a game in Diablo 3. In your quote that doesn't seem to be factored in, when mentioning the D3 aspect of farming. If loot does get more plentiful within a full populated game versus a single player game (still online, I know), then I don't see the big issue in sharing MF to a group. On the other hand, if it doesn't, then, as you say HeyseusKristos, the players are prompted to play alone, when their MF is so high that they always are the MF contributer to a group.

I think the suggestion of a fair share of the loot according to the effort in killing a mob is very neat, and would be the optimal solution, but I also think it is too difficult to factor in all the different aspects of how you could contribute to the succes of a group (E.g. the value of kiting a mob is hard to grade). It would require means to grade everything on numerical scale, which can be turned into a degree of contribution that in the end decides the MF given to each character based on the MF they each brought themselves to the group. If this was the mechanic of MF, I would definitely make my MF character so that it does the most valued thing, be it damage, healing or whatever - and most other would probably too. When all people are choosing the most beneficial playstyle, the group must be lacking in other terms. Again, this is not because I don't like the base idea, I just don't think it could be implemented to the full extent. It's like communism being the most fair social order in principle, but in reality it doesn't work out as the ideal. I'll admit that I do not have a better solution myself, other than the quick and rather cheap one I've mentioned earlier:
Make an option when creating a new game to choose whether or not you want the game to force a sharing of MF/GF/EXP.

I agree there sould be some form of incentive to play with other people, but then again, some enjoy playing alone more, and why should they be forced to group in order to obtain better gear on the same rate as people already in groups? The incentive given doesn't have to be better loot, but rather tougher challenges. I know there are some other interests here as well. I figure the longevity of a game is composed of many different things, one of which is the social side of the game, so if Blizzard want the game to last, they must (also) give the players the incentive to form groups and be social, to an extend of course.

@GloretheWiz
Nice with the music, gives a good Diablo feel, but I don't think all around me enjoys as well, like when I'm using public transportation like bus or train. But is it me or do I have to turn of the music every time I open the app? You might want to add a way for the settings to be saved or stored - preferably done so you wont have to actively save the changes yourself. (If I turn of the music, the app remembers that setting until I turn it back on again)

Cheers

Just read most of this thread through - some read - why not take it down a notch, no?

If it is such a big deal whether or not you are to share your MF/GF to the group, a simple trick would be to add an option to create games with or without sharing of certain stats such as MF/GF/EXP etc. Then people can choose for themselves what suits them best.

In the power versus MF discussion I have gathered that:
-It seems in the mentioning of DPS/DEF that the more is considered better (which is absolutely true!), but not even that, it seems that more is also always needed in order to even make it in the later difficulties. So for obvious reasons, one cannot stack a stat like MF without not being viable in end game.
-It would also seem that those wanting to stack MF, do not (necessarily) want to share the MF with others, while still believing being capable of killing mobs at a sufficient rate to generate loot enough to yield that special item the MF you've stacked would contribute to, but not for the non-MF guy.

I would like to chime in as well..

To survive and kill mobs with a decent pace only takes as much. When you've reached that limit, you will be able to contribute to a group or solo, regardless of any other increase in power. This is not saying that you cannot grow even stronger, and kill mobs with at an even faster rate, but you are viable as far a power goes. Once that limit is reached, one can choose either getting stronger, or not. Instead of getting stronger - in terms of killing power that is - you could choose MF or any other or the sort. The tricky part is to find that spot where you generate enough loots (by killing things fast) with a high enough MF for that loots to yield a special item with the lowest possible interval. Some people choose the playstyle of a higher DPS rather than MF, some the other way round.

PS. I know some of you would argue that you are already saying this. And true, you are.. in a way. I just tried to spell it out even more

Here's my entry. Thanks for sharing

My PvE barbarian
The main skill is Wrath of the berserker, and keeping it active by generating tons of fury.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bZedUP!XWS!ZYbcYc

With the cooldown reduced to 90 seconds and runed with the Thrive on chaos, wrath of the berserker should be able to stay active for some 20-40 seconds, giving the barb a fairly boost in speed (both attack and movement) as well as dodge and crit. The crit a being taken advantage of with the runed version of battle rage - giving you a chance to generate 15 fury for a crit landed - and with hammer of the ancient, the crit chance is even higher (and you get to spend all the fury generated). Overpower benefits from having a high crit chance as well. Leap is always useful, and I intend to play a barb with my friends, so being able to boast in and help the squichier classes out of harms way is a must have.

My build

Most likely I will play the monk first. This is not because the monk is my fav. type of character, but he seems fun and when playing with a group, I accepted that the others wanted to play WD, wiz and barb. I chose monk over DH because I have played the ranged physical class in all the other games i have played recently, and I didn't want to go there again from the start - I probably will eventually.

You could just ask the other players to share their drops. If they don't want to, they probably didn't want to trade/give you the item anyway, regardless of you being able to obtain info on their drops or not. I think that if drops are reported to the chatbox, you could end up in feeling obligated to pass loot on to your group members, even if you actually didn't want to.

If they are like that, it's your choice not to play with them again. In the end I guess most people will find their own little circle of trusted friends to play with and share drops. Because that, sharing drops, greatly increases the chance for members of the group to find the items they are really looking for.

You probably want your garden to look nice and without any weeds in it, and every time it does show, you'll 'kill' it. Yet, it returns.. often stronger and seemingly more eager to take over your garden. Then you kill it again, but what's the real point? It keeps getting back!

Consider Diablo (and all the other demons) as the weeds in your garden.

Just updated it this morning and noticed the change. The interface works and feels much better now. Thanks. Yeah, sure I'll rate it!

Quote from Enkeria

Since the new design went online to public, Dfans news have had "surprise" poll results, but where do you find these?

Was wondering the same thing, Enkeria!

Quote from Bubbletrance

Wave of Force isn't meant to be an impressive, kill it all spammable spell. It's utility.
The last rune that adds further knockback and smaller damaging waves seems like the best.
The stun may come in handy as well, but if it's highly reduced in higher difficulties, it won't be very good.
If you want the damage-kill version, just put in that gem. Looking here, it's almost 300% bonus damage. But honestly, I think the Wizard will have other options for kill spells.

Wave of force is still listed as an offensive spell, not utility, eventhough I would agree that it is a really useful spell for other purposes than dealing damage. Depending on how the time of stun effects translate into PvP (be it 1:1, 1:2, etc), I really think the WoF with 5 sec stun will have its uses.

Yeah.. and curse that curse girl....