LadyCrimson

I'm probably one of the few who doesn't mind the home-video cam or shaky cam in movies that much. Only time it bothers me is if it bobs and spins so much that it looks like a 5 year old on a merry go round is holding the camera for 90 minutes. Yeah, it doesn't always make story-sense that someone is holding a camera the whole time of the film, but then again, it's not sensical that we should be able to see the events going on in a film, anyway (that godly narrative perspective) so I guess I don't care. heh Anyway, last night we watched John Carter. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater. It wasn't terrible or anything, and I'm sure the effects looked cooler on the big screen, but it was pretty silly and overwrought. The best thing in the film was the "dog." I loved that "dog." I want one. The actors, btw, were not the problem. They seemed mostly fine for what the movie called for, even the guy playing John Carter.

I don't know what it is, but in Diablo games I've always sucked with bow characters. I've died several more times to Elites in Act3 NM with her than I ever did with the Monk, or the Barb, or the Wizard. Something about having to hit the shift, aim, fire, run, repeat. Micro lag (which I don't notice in melee, oddly) often has her firing behind her when I'm supposed to be running to the next retreat point, instead. And the Wiz doesn't really have to aim. I know the DH has the chakram and I use it, but then I feel like I may as well play the mage. Anyway....I'm hitting a play-entertainment wall. Keep trying to level up my alts but fall asleep after half an hour and do something else. MF'ing Inferno Act1 has been largely unproductive with my Monk so far (lots of Rares but nothing very good). Think I'll see what Act2 Inferno is like...assume I won't get very far....then I'll probably stop until they patch the game. I'll be interested when Torchlight2 comes out, how that compares to this game in terms of replayability.

The jeweler is way useful on the journey to lvl60, imo. Sure what he can craft will just get dropped later in the game, but if you're having trouble even getting to that later part of the game, it's well worth crafting those gems up...to a point. My gear has all kinds of gems in it. It's one of the better options for taking lesser gear and still being able to use it to get through the game. In my mid40's, I used a blue armor that had +104VIT and three sockets (green, green, purple)for a long time, and it was a while before I saw anything on the AH for my clvl that would beat it stat-wise (well, in the 10-20K price range anyway). And of course, Rares with sockets are very fun. However, I'm not convinced gems past the Flawless Square or Perfect Square (looks like a diamond shape) are worthwhile, except for lvl60 perfectionists. Or after an expansion, maybe. Not to mention, upgrading them becomes way expensive. I think that the Blacksmith, given plans, could be useful. His rares will start to have a lot more attributes (5, 6). But still the problem of random and cost. It seems designed largely to give endgame lvl60's something to do with all their gold and useless magic items. That developer discussion I mentioned earlier, they were mulling over the possibility of being able to use gems with the blacksmith to force a stat on a crafted item. Which could make him better, but I bet it'd be mega expensive in gold and gems required.

I've seen some shows about that, renting your apt. to convention people and whatnot. Like a temp. hotel service. Assuming your apt. is a place such folk would want to stay in. But...yeah...I don't think I'd like strangers parading through my house. I'd have to have a separate rental unit or something. Today I woke up early, caught up on chores, have yet more chores/errands, then I'll probably take a nap (because I'm old, or something).

Y'know, I was never a huge fan of his books. It's not about what's in them/the stories, it was his writing style. I tended to like his short stories more than novel-lengths. But he was a huge creative and other influence and will be sorely missed/mourned. At least he had a good long life.

Saw "Chronicle." Considering the good things I'd heard about it, I was prepared to be disappointed. But I liked it a lot. Not perfect, nothing ever is (eg, it was fairly predictable)....but for the type of film, it was pretty cool. I liked the understated aspect to most of the film, relative to big Hollywood flash in most pictures these days. I even felt a bit bad for the older cousin guy at the end. Anyway....thumbs up. Also, I'd love to be able to fly.

1.0.3 isn't out yet. But yeah...even tho I'm pretty sure you could make it (slowly) through Hell, at least, not using the AH - at least solo - all you'd be doing is spending all that money on the random blacksmith instead, or spending a lot of time farming with MF gear on (a lot more than you'd have to farm in D2, I mean). And thus, most people are going to say "screw the blacksmith, I'm spending my gold on the AH". Protip I discovered/learned recently: once your dps gets high enough, green gems in weapons gives you a bigger boost to dps than the red ones. It's a math thing...which I don't pretend to understand....but crit. damage is its own stat and as stats/damage increase, green is generally better. So...low lvls/low dps, red gems. Higher lvl/higher dps, green gems. Heh, yeah, I use Fleet Footed + fast run boots in order to deal with Elites. It helps (me) a lot to be able to run fast while kiting and running around those mobs, or when desperate, to run away in general. Faster I am, the more time I have to melee hit before having to start running away to recoup skill timers or escape wallers/fast runners etc. It also helps you run out of the Butcher's fire grating with less dmg. taken. But I could have changed it to something else for the Butcher. I like the Resolve one, I think it is. Where they do less dmg. to you for a few seconds when you hit them. News: According a recent developer public chat, or something, (AMAA?), in a future patch (not 1.0.3) will make it so first-kill on bosses will drop rares in all difficulties, not just Normal. They mentioned a lot of things that will likely be in future patches, mostly GUI/AH stuff, too. Other changes that will be in 1.0.3 that were not listed on that blog writeup: Confirms / 1.0.3 Additional Information:

Yay! I killed Inferno Butcher. 3 minutes, not too shabby. Not moving to Act2 yet tho...that difficulty spike they're patching sounds truly mean. Going to farm Act1 w/Neph Valor for a while instead, now that Elites don't pose too much trouble. I upgraded one more piece of gear for cheap for a bit more dex and a fair amount more of life-on-hit, but my dps was around 12500 98% of the time...nothing huge/uber. Mostly it's finding the right combo of skills/passives that work with what you have/your playstyle. Video (shows skill/stats at end): And that's why I don't want Inferno "nerfed" toooo much. Because when you beat something with less than the "top" gear, it does feel really awesome. Being able to beat the Elites is even better, tho.

Yet more tweaking and now have 400+resist all and my dps can be 11300 for consistent time, and 17500 for 2 sec. Blinding Flash bursts. At least I can farm Elites in the whole first half of Act1/Inferno now, with only a few to several deaths here and there instead of dozens. So I did. And... ...omg? 1st Set item I've seen. Now I have to decide whether to horde it or sell it for a ridiculous sum. I have a Wiz, but unlikely I'll play him long enough to have a whole Set?

Having played PoE, I can say with certainty that D3 has a lot more distinct levels than that. In Act1 for example, you have the outdoors, plenty of little caves, green brick dungeons, firey-brick dungeons etc., that all look fairly distinct. However .... I think that a lot of the D3 areas are rather bland. Not in the same way as PoE, but rather bland nonetheless. The "outdoor" areas in Act1 and Act2 especially. If I never see yellow/orange desert lands in a Diablo game again, I won't cry. Also, they feel kind of small, dungeons in particular. A lot of the little "caves" and things you may find and enter, consist largely of a few rooms, or one big room/cave. Some are larger and have a couple levels to them, but of those, most feel rather the same in design, with just slightly different pathing. However, you can't see them all in one game, so as you play through each difficulty, if you explore, you'll encounter a basement or an "event" that you didn't before, which is/was nice. One time, that door to a building is closed. Another time, it's an entrance to a set piece. I don't find the designs of the maps to actually be very random. Maybe a little, occasionally in some areas. Some areas are always exactly the same/set pieces - the jailer before the Butcher say. In dungeons, I think the game starts you at a different entrance location, ala Mephisto's levels in D2. Like having a maze square, and one time your chr. starts at the NE corner with the exit in the SW corner, another time you start in the SW corner and and the exit is in the NE corner, so to speak. So it seems different because you're approaching/moving from a different direction, and they place the objects and/or set pieces, if any, in slightly different places, to make it feel even a bit more different, but the map itself isn't changed much.

They've been doing patch notes like that with WoW for years. It goes up and down. Sometimes they'll do stuff with hardly a word, sometimes it's a long love letter. eg, they know how to time things to appease potential angry fanbases. Heheh.

Yeah....it's not even just about whether you can get Rares/Legendaries to drop, it's that when they do drop, the stats on them feel lower than what you're already wearing, considering the area/difficulty you're currently in. It's like being in a clvl30-35 area but feeling as if only ilvl25 items drop. It does get better at clvl60 with the NephValor, but with Inferno being Inferno...that means, for many, a lot of Hell MF'ing instead, which are not going to be the vaunted ilvl60 items most people want.

Interesting. More nerfing, in a way, of difficulty. So far it's minimal, imo, and decreasing the bizarre difficulty spike between Act1 Inferno and Act2 Inferno is a good thing (I have friends who have remarked on that) but I hope they don't do a whole lot more. I may complain about not being able to do Inferno yet, but I know why that is (my low dps, among other things) but at the same time, I think it should be left as something that's very very difficult for the "masses" to do. It should remain super-hardcore. There are some changes, of course, that could make it better for even the non-super-hardcore, or more engaging to continue trying, at least. For example, increasing that Enrage timer to 10 minutes. Also, one issue I have with Inferno is that, when you start Inferno (and possibly long long after that), because it seems to be all dps (and resists, possibly, for melee classes), is that you end up feeling like you MUST use certain skills. I *MUST* use Conviction Mantra. I *MUST* use Breath of Healing with the dps-boosting Rune. eg, it kills build diversity. What I'd like to see in D3 are these things: --Time before Enrage starts increased to 10 minutes. It's silly to assume everyone's going to be geared up via the AH to be able to kill all Elite packs etc. in that time frame. I can often kill things with terrible gear, but it will take me a long while. Enrage takes away the fun/satisfaction of beating stuff despite your low-tier gear. --change it so Elites/mobs in general cannot ever spawn right on top of or anywhere very close to checkpoints/entrances (at least in Inferno). They shouldn't spawn within initial visual screen radius, in other words. --Put a limit on how much you can sell stuff for on the goldAH (say, a million) but increase number of items you can put on AH at once to 20 --less randomization to crafted items. For instance, Rare items could have at least one or two static stats (always put on) with 2 random stats. And with plans, increase that to three static and three random, or whatever. --better combat options (skill wise or item-attribute wise) that allow for more diverse builds in Inferno so it doesn't become all about using only the dps-boosting skills to get the highest dps evah just to even survive.

HeeHeeHee. http://crimsonkeep.com/wallpapers/data/media/128/Diablo3-000090.jpg ...Enchantress for her attack speed bonus is much better. Makes normals like butter again. Still have to outrun/trick-lose a lot of Elites tho - geared up for 22% faster run without losing too much dmg. Was doing pretty well against the Butcher in terms of timing but alas, once he starts turning the entire room into fire, I couldn't quite make it...even a 3nd try with Conviction didn't work. Also, there are often a couple of Elites right on top or very near his Checkpoint and the game ended up putting me back in town (instead of at the checkpoint) one time for some reason. HeeHeeHee.

For my personal tastes, my gripe is that Hell is still too easy, while Inferno just gets retarded. Normal mobs, cake and pie even when in large numbers. http://crimsonkeep.c...lo3-000088a.jpg Elites/Cahmps, you just die. And die. And die. And die. If you're lucky you don't trigger Enrage and might get them after 10 deaths but otherwise, you're toast. Even with 365ResistAll now. http://crimsonkeep.c...lo3-000089a.jpg Still don't get how people get 30K+dps with no buffs on. That 15K I do is only for 2 seconds after I trigger Blinding Flash, and then it goes down to 10K or so (and 8500dps when healing spell buff goes off). I'm only 200Dex lower than a DH I know who has 29Kdps. I don't have a 1000dps weapon, however. Only a 525dps one. And I paid 100Kgold for that 525dps sword. And the shield I'm using. I've probably spent 1.5 million on gear + the stupid gemcrafting. Hehe. Yup.

If they didn't want people running past monsters, they wouldn't give fast run attributes to items and skills and they wouldn't have made the Act bosses 100% easier to defeat in Inferno (which is why running to them works). I wouldn't call that an exploit, it's just "cowardly." Heh. Or sneaky, like being a thief type. The real issue is that it's not actually impossible. You just need to have 50000dps, and even then you're going to die a lot. The problem is that to reach 50000dps you have to gold farm forever and then sit in the AH screen forever, pushing refresh, hoping the items that you want/need will be available and that you'll be able to hit "buy" before someone else does. That's horrendously boring (shopping the AH like that), and is just as much an "exploit" as running past everything, if you want to call the latter an exploit, because it's cowardly and lazy. eg, you didn't earn it yourself. Yeah...the melee classes in Inferno have it tougher because we have to actually stand in all that arcane laser/fire stuff to do damage. Ranged classes can get away with less resistances and all of that. I'm a pretty good "kiter" but it just gets ridiculous in Inferno, unless you have crazy amounts of dps.

I think you have to play the actual game and get to Inferno to understand that. It's not so much because it's "nigh impossible" (it's not impossible, obviously) but more because of the way they make it so, as well as the fact the whole grinding for items thing doesn't work very well as a way to steadily progress. The hunt for loot is nothing like it was in D2. It's a catch-22 - the items that drop in other difficulties are not generally going to be anywhere near good enough to get even past Act1 of Inferno (in terms of Elites). But you can't farm Inferno because you can hardly kill Elites in Inferno. Which leaves you farming gold, either for the Blacksmith/Jeweler (the blacksmith can't learn the really cool stuff unless you find plans, or buy them in later Acts or something, either) or for the AH. And because it's early, most awesome items people keep for themselves. And what there is, you'll need 10's of millions of gold to buy a half set of gear. Have fun gold-farming. The other thing is that idiotic Enrage aspect to Inferno. What that means is that if you take too long to kill an Elite pack (4-5 minutes I think) they get a buff that essentially instantly heals them back to full and does extreme DoT to anyone within almost the entire screen radius range. Life ball drain in seconds, in other words. This makes it nearly impossible to kill them if you aren't uber-equipped somehow. And to get that equipment....back you are to gold farming and the AH. You have 50K life. The monsters in late Inferno can often one-hit you for over 100K. So you die over and over and try to chip away at them, the common tactic in this sort of game, but now if you take too long, all that time is wasted because of Enrage. I'm only in Act1 and they aren't quite at the one-hit stage for me. But I'll say this: I don't mind dying a lot, and I don't mind having to grind for gear and such...to a point. But I can tell already that Inferno is going to be more grind than it's likely worth. I can run past almost everything just to try to get to the easier Act bosses to progress in the game that way, but I can't kill 90% of the Elites in Act1 (which are the main source of farming for good items, btw). That's with 70% dmg. reduction, 265ResistAll, 30+ Dodge, life steal, nearly 40K life. Ranged classes have it a bit easier, as usual. I only have about 8000dps and I don't see much way - as a Monk - to get it a lot higher yet. I might squeeze out 9-10K dps if I gave up 15K in life etc and I might try that, but those Elites are still going to whup my arse. I think Resist All is the most important thing in Inferno, outside of being nimble enough to avoid being hit. Better plan on having 500 at least. Am I saying "It's toooo harrrrd?" No. I'm fine with having a difficulty that's insane like that. Some people want/like it, some are probably even good at it, so it should be an option. I was eager to try it. But I think .... in the end...it'll end up being too much grind for me. I'm going to try to run past to get to bosses and maybe "win the game", but in terms of farming gold/gear until I'm so uber I can run through most of Inferno without dying 20-50 times per area and/or without running past most Elites? No thanks. I'll probably move on to other games. This sums it up for me: (note: I know nothing about Dark Souls so I can't say if I'd think his assessment re:that game is ok or not...but it does sum up what I think of D3 overall, in general) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CBbeSAjVo

Well, got to Inferno. Once I hit lvl60 I pretty much rushed the end of Act3 and Act4, just to kill the bosses (run run stairs, run run stairs). All those Elites and such are a serious pain in the butt to deal with - didn't die too often in Hell but it's so darn time consuming if you kill them all - and I was tired of that grind tonight so I just ran. Diablo fell w/out me dying even once, which was nice since I wanted to be in Inferno, darnit....so now I am. I ran to the Skeleton King to check him out and....I died on the 1st try, partly because I was a bit incautious. But at least the death made me chuckle a bit. (Are we at the point now where the still shot that an embedded video shows isn't considered a spoiler? .... well, never mind, I'll put in it spoiler tags) I killed him on the 2nd try. Wanted to get there because I find his Royal Crypt spot a lazy (ie, easy/safe) place to farm moderate amounts of gold (get a lot of gold find gear and break all the stuff there). Those Artisan prices...*grumbles* But for now...had enough D3 I think. I can beat Inferno later.

Oh, is that out now? *scurries to read some reviews from her fave film reviewers*

Yes, I figured that was a part of it. After the first month or so of the season I haven't watched the RedSox much. I check the scores and the news but between the fact I still can't used to Tito being gone (cries), half the players being injured/reinjured, the bullpen/pitching being terrible, and a general feeling that the team has yet to find its groove as a team, it's hard to watch/root for them. They'll get it together eventually ... and I don't mean necessarily that they'll start winning big. I mean more the team attitude. There's something not quite right there. They're not...cohesive. Missing Varitek and Tito's ability to manage personalities, perhaps...adjustment to new manager and all of that. Middlebrooks looks to be a potential awesome addition, however. I wonder what they'll do about that, since Youk is supposed to be on 3rd base.

Yeah....that's nothing for lvl60. Drops start to improve at 60 because of that MF thing I guess....I've seen some people with 70K dps. Some even higher. Considering Inferno late Act bosses can have 7million hit points or something, I'd say that's not a reach. heh No, the drops in D3 pretty much suck until lvl 60. You'll find a good/useful item now and again but overall I often felt like things that dropped were subpar for my clvl. I mean, in Act2 Hell I was getting a lot of Rares dropping, but they were all lvl 44ish items, with somewhat weak bonuses, whereas I was ... lvl 55. Anyway....I'm lvl59 in mid-Act3 Hell. With 4100dps and 30-35K health it's actually been kind of a bore for my Monk. I blew through all those nutty mobs and Elites on the battlements without too much issue or one death. Maybe I'm supposed to be a few levels lower. I'd need 3000dps or 15K less health to make it seem that challenging solo I guess. I can even do the "Invincible" Elite now, albeit those type of Elites take a lot of running and kiting. The one creature that can kill me repeatedly is the exploding guys. I let them stick to my Templar and run away. So Inferno better be a constant death fest even if I have good gear, or else one, I'll be disappointed, and two, it'll show that Monk's are OP'd for soloing, even without that regen Mantra/Boon of Protect, which I still don't use. Either that or I'm just super awesome.

Yeah, they're doing good. What I find more interesting, however, is the Orioles. Staying on top for as long as they have, that's a change. It'd be kind of cool to see them finally do well again after so long. The AL East needs a shakeup (away from constant Boston/NY). Doesn't make me like them, tho.

The only good/entertaining (in that fun, campy way) Highlander movie was the first one - for one thing, that silly and illogical "there can be only one" thing can't stand up to sequel scrutiny and never could. I couldn't care less if they make yet another stupid sequel, regardless of who is in it. I watched the XMen Origins on HBO this morning. For an action superhero movie, it was very boring. I did like seeing the "origins" of some of the characters but yeah...the film itself is slow and dull.

Double post, but unrelated to my above post: The Escapist review of D3. Made me http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5777-Diablo-3 ...corrected: Gah, of D3, not D2. Seriously, I have holes in my brain.

Yes, that's what I meant. Someone posted a link to a Blizzard person saying pretty much the same thing a few days ago, too. Essentially, to me, this says "We knew the AH would screw up the "item economy" and thus we programed/nerfed the drop rate ratio with that in mind." You can still do it solo without the AH, mind you. But it will/would take eons of time to farm gold for the blacksmith (to level up and then to craft and craft and craft) and then (if you can) farm the Elites etc. for their drops. And farming most Elites in Hell/Inferno becomes really difficult if you have subpar gear. D2 was far better at letting the solo player still find plenty of decent gear (set pieces, Uniques, rares) that kept you in line with the solo game, even if it wasn't the "best" or most coveted gear for MP. You might have to do some farming in D2, but not days and days just to scrounge enough dps/life/stats to survive/get through it. Basically, imo, Blizzard has turned D3 into a gold-farming game. Either to use the AH or to dump into crafting. Edit: I spent hours scouring Act1 Hell for gems and salvaging, got my blacksmith to lvl 8 and the jeweler to the apparent upgrade cap...and all I could manage was about 1600dps. The amount of gold you have to sink into the blacksmith (gambling, remember) to get an item with stats you want is insane. I finally gave up and bought a few cheapish pieces on the AH to at least give me over 2200dps. Moving on to Act2 Hell now... 2nd Edit: I should say that once lvl 60 and all geared up with awesome stuff and MF, assuming you can kill all those Elite mobs by yourself, you'll probably start finding a lot more good rares and such. It's up until that point, however, that the "Diablo is about finding good loot!" has been rather lost. imo.