I generally like d3 better, and could never sustain interest in d1 and d2 more than a few weeks at a time (though I suspect it had more to do with dial up connections than the actual quality of the game; back in the nineties, dial up IRC chatting and gaming would run up my parents phone bills).Having to reroll and/or save stat points was boring. I much prefer being able to respecc, though perhaps not for free like in d3.
But there are some points on which d2 is clearly better. Music and atmosphere, first and foremost. Itemization too. I sometimes put on the d2 music while playing d3, and it helps. But the gritty feeling is gone. Re: itemization, I think the AH is part of the problem; the accessability of good gear increases people's standards to the point that drop rates can't compete. I would expect this to have been fixed one year after launch.
I could be wrong, though, and I urge everyone who thinks my hypothesis is wrong to put it to the test.
Well written and, in my opinion, good arguments. But if we take a step back, I think it's obvious that Blizzard should cater to both the casual and "hardcore" tastes. They have compromised this on the altar of streamlined UIs, and we are left with unrealized potential for those of us who would like the time sink to go on for years. D3 has an endgame, and I think it's quite good as evidenced by my total playtime (well over a 1000 hours). But it's not brilliant.
I think rerolling characters, much like paragon 100 race and minmaxing stats for diabloprogress rankings, is superficial ways of handling infinity endgame. The itemization patch seems like a better idea, in so far as you can farm for items to create fun builds in stead of simply playing through the game again. Of course, that presupposes a form of BoA, so that BiS (or best for build) is not possible to get on AH. Additionally, I would like endless dungeon system where you have to activate it similar to uberbosses (so that it won't simply replace normal farming). PvP could also work, though personally I'd prefer moba games.
This would greatly improve the end-game, but alas, it seems to be dreams for the distant future.
First I must disclaim that I'm neither raging nor ragequitting after this news. I haven't played much since november, when I did the paragon thing, and a bout after the crafting patch to keep up to date with the changes. Other games can entertain me in my free hours while I wait.
But I do find it slightly disappointing. I've been playing computer games for thirty years, and I've followed quite a few developers as they release patches and content (without the games being subscription-based). It seems to me that Blizzard are being slow, as opposed to just thorough. Perhaps it really takes this long to come up with good ideas and implement them. If so, they should put more people on it. Other games making less $ seem to produce more in less time.
I finally got some decent crafts after nearly two weeks of VotA (off and on, did some a1 occationally and often included oasis), I'm guessing around 2k essences. Finally even managed to craft a dex + cold res + trifecta glove, but low crit made me choose the one I'm currently wearing.
I think the odds vs effort is good in the crafting as it currently is. You can get really lucky (I've been previously, on my barb I got trifecta amulet in 4 tries), and your efforts won't be in vain if you keep at it (much unlike drops). I still would like double resistance on my pieces, but I am happy with high vit rolls.
Items in signature.
Edit: I did craft double res shoulders after 150 tries, but prefer the ones I'm currently using due to the mouthwateringly beautiful stat of "chance to chill on hit".
I'm sorry Brake Failure, but that is clearly suboptimal. You should get another apoc source, more APS and switch to WW. It'll improve your survivability and killtime significantly. The only reason not to get apoc and aps, is if you dislike the spamming mechanic or if you want higher heroscore on diabloprogress (both are valid reasons btw, imo, but then you should also tweak your build to better suit the high sheet dps archon varieties).
These days, anything works if you want to farm, given the accessability of mid-tier gear. It's great, you can do what you want. But that doesn't mean it's "competitive" if min/maxing the farming is your thing.
I support this petition, as I'm struggling with the same thing now that I play melee. Force move and shift aren't solutions, in my opinion; having to use them to begin with is precisely the problem. Currently I'm holding shift whenever I fight, since the teleport on my spirit generator allows this. High APS and thunderclap with shift solve the problem, but whenever I use groupbuilds with quickening I end up with 20 blue items in my inventory. This, for me, is supremely annoying.
But finding the demonic essence behind the line of 5 blue items, three Aegis and a two-hander is equally frustrating. There should also be a toggle for "show blue items".
Edit: I'm also using combostrike, and have to put the other generator on "1" to avoid what the OP is talking about. Took a while to get used to counter-intuitive setups. Shouldn't be necessary.
Nice video, Kongor. Not news, but nice to have impressions confirmed. I would certainly include leorics manor for the two elite packs and hundred cultists in like 30 secs. But then I'm into crafting.
Speaking of which, anyone have any idea what the best demonic essence farm would be? I assume it's still Vault, but looking for an alternative.
Slow time seems to cause alot of death on magna, get 2-3 buttleflies clumped together...ouch. freezing her and leting the king come to them seems to work the best.
The usual method is to do both. Slow time with 20% dmg for party is mandatory in my opinion. Use slow time once to get next to her without hitting swarms, and then just stand there and freeze her. If the APS on your wizard(s) is good enough, she will not make more swarms when stunned and inside the bubble. Leoric will teleport there and do his walk, but it won't matter if the EHP, APS and LOH is as stated. But ofc, it's a gear-check way of doing it.
My main idea is to help my group of buddies move past mp 8 ubers into the mp9/10 range, only problem seems to be magna tearing our CMWW wizards up. Those butterflies are nasty. Less damage that gets done to us the better.
Slow time will clump the swarms up so they are easier to avoid. (It will make it harder, however, for a WW barb, since he will hit the stacks of swarms instead). If you want them to just stand there and take it on mp10, and not kite/maneuver, they need about 500k ehp (assuming they have 2.7 aps and 600+ loh). From my experience. You can have them check their ehp with and without the buffs on one of the ehp/dps calc sites. Edit: I am assuming of course the tanky version of diamond skin and 99% uptime)
Mathematics and I are not good friends, but I have to assume that with the significant buff to exp gain at higher mp levels, farming at mp6 or higher, even though it adds some time to the overall run, would be far better than TR through mp1 or 2.
As far as I can tell, from the numbers, your assumption is incorrect. Monster HP increases much more than bonus xp, so there is little doubt TR mp1 is your best bet - and by a good margin too. However, you can now combine keys, plans, essences, and a bit more general magic find with less loss to xp than what you had before the patch.
Still, tempest rush would be the obvious choice for xp, due to it's speed, and probably for legendaries per hour too, since number of monsters killed in X time matter more than the quality of each (magic find when killing each). Logically.
Regardless, I would very much like a specific run down of the build you are using for high mp (all skills), since I'm selling off some alts to buy a monk (not tempest rush, but something tanky & durable, mp10 capable).
I like you project and your style. So far, piggies & chimera were the most striking, but you have a talent for making small, casual pictures seem very intense. Get a wacom cintiq when you can afford it.
0
But there are some points on which d2 is clearly better. Music and atmosphere, first and foremost. Itemization too. I sometimes put on the d2 music while playing d3, and it helps. But the gritty feeling is gone. Re: itemization, I think the AH is part of the problem; the accessability of good gear increases people's standards to the point that drop rates can't compete. I would expect this to have been fixed one year after launch.
0
Well written and, in my opinion, good arguments. But if we take a step back, I think it's obvious that Blizzard should cater to both the casual and "hardcore" tastes. They have compromised this on the altar of streamlined UIs, and we are left with unrealized potential for those of us who would like the time sink to go on for years. D3 has an endgame, and I think it's quite good as evidenced by my total playtime (well over a 1000 hours). But it's not brilliant.
I think rerolling characters, much like paragon 100 race and minmaxing stats for diabloprogress rankings, is superficial ways of handling infinity endgame. The itemization patch seems like a better idea, in so far as you can farm for items to create fun builds in stead of simply playing through the game again. Of course, that presupposes a form of BoA, so that BiS (or best for build) is not possible to get on AH. Additionally, I would like endless dungeon system where you have to activate it similar to uberbosses (so that it won't simply replace normal farming). PvP could also work, though personally I'd prefer moba games.
This would greatly improve the end-game, but alas, it seems to be dreams for the distant future.
0
But I do find it slightly disappointing. I've been playing computer games for thirty years, and I've followed quite a few developers as they release patches and content (without the games being subscription-based). It seems to me that Blizzard are being slow, as opposed to just thorough. Perhaps it really takes this long to come up with good ideas and implement them. If so, they should put more people on it. Other games making less $ seem to produce more in less time.
0
I think the odds vs effort is good in the crafting as it currently is. You can get really lucky (I've been previously, on my barb I got trifecta amulet in 4 tries), and your efforts won't be in vain if you keep at it (much unlike drops). I still would like double resistance on my pieces, but I am happy with high vit rolls.
Items in signature.
Edit: I did craft double res shoulders after 150 tries, but prefer the ones I'm currently using due to the mouthwateringly beautiful stat of "chance to chill on hit".
0
These days, anything works if you want to farm, given the accessability of mid-tier gear. It's great, you can do what you want. But that doesn't mean it's "competitive" if min/maxing the farming is your thing.
2
But finding the demonic essence behind the line of 5 blue items, three Aegis and a two-hander is equally frustrating. There should also be a toggle for "show blue items".
Edit: I'm also using combostrike, and have to put the other generator on "1" to avoid what the OP is talking about. Took a while to get used to counter-intuitive setups. Shouldn't be necessary.
0
Speaking of which, anyone have any idea what the best demonic essence farm would be? I assume it's still Vault, but looking for an alternative.
0
The usual method is to do both. Slow time with 20% dmg for party is mandatory in my opinion. Use slow time once to get next to her without hitting swarms, and then just stand there and freeze her. If the APS on your wizard(s) is good enough, she will not make more swarms when stunned and inside the bubble. Leoric will teleport there and do his walk, but it won't matter if the EHP, APS and LOH is as stated. But ofc, it's a gear-check way of doing it.
0
Slow time will clump the swarms up so they are easier to avoid. (It will make it harder, however, for a WW barb, since he will hit the stacks of swarms instead). If you want them to just stand there and take it on mp10, and not kite/maneuver, they need about 500k ehp (assuming they have 2.7 aps and 600+ loh). From my experience. You can have them check their ehp with and without the buffs on one of the ehp/dps calc sites. Edit: I am assuming of course the tanky version of diamond skin and 99% uptime)
0
As far as I can tell, from the numbers, your assumption is incorrect. Monster HP increases much more than bonus xp, so there is little doubt TR mp1 is your best bet - and by a good margin too. However, you can now combine keys, plans, essences, and a bit more general magic find with less loss to xp than what you had before the patch.
Still, tempest rush would be the obvious choice for xp, due to it's speed, and probably for legendaries per hour too, since number of monsters killed in X time matter more than the quality of each (magic find when killing each). Logically.
Regardless, I would very much like a specific run down of the build you are using for high mp (all skills), since I'm selling off some alts to buy a monk (not tempest rush, but something tanky & durable, mp10 capable).
0