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[Blarghagh]

On a private profile of a personal friend and colleague, there was every reason to think he thought it wasn't public. It's not like he went out and issued a statement that Breivek sucks. He commented on a colleague's Facebook status. That is, in intent, pretty much entirely the same as a leaked e-mail. It was obviously not meant to be public, otherwise it wouldn't have been swiftly deleted.

 

Even if that weren't true, it still doesn't matter one bit.

[WorstUsernameEver]

It's not a private profile, that's the point. Social networks are used to advertise your work and make contact in the industry as much as any other thing, and that profile was public. He didn't realize that the comment would have had this kind of resonance? Of course, he probably didn't. Doesn't mean it's not relevant.

 

Ultimately, I guess you'll just never agree on that, but personally I find that it's newsworthy.

[Monte Carlo]

Facebook hand-bags aside, the fact of the matter is that the guy was right and that there were some massive design issues with D3 that were a retrograde step from D2 (getting rid of the Horadric Cube and nerfing unique items for starters).

 

However, OTOH, the design team are addressing them. I'm pretty excited about the patch although one hundred Paragon levels (cue Doctor Evil voice: One Hunnndddreeeedd Levels!) is just cruel crack-grinding torture for some of the fans.

 

And they reference my pet hate --- that a lot of my Inferno-level adventuring is revenue-negative (yesterday I spent 12000 gp on repairs and earnt about 5000. That's just dull).

[Cantousent]

I don't give a rat's ass about a bit of grief on facebook. I. just. don't. care. However, with that in mind, I think it puts them in a bad light because their real beef isn't with Brevik in the first place. Their real problem is that Brevik gave voice to so much of what others were already saying.

 

To me, D3 and WoW show the good and bad sides of Blizzard, which is ironic since it seems to me that the design team went out of the way to bring some of the social aspects of WoW to the Diablo franchise.

 

I don't play WoW anymore, but I didn't stop because it's a bad game. I stopped because I'd played it out and there wasn't enough there to keep me interested. WoW is a great idea and a great game. D3 is the third game in one of my favorite franchises where I've bought each title and expansion. I stopped playing D3 because it just wasn't that great of a game. I've finished normal and played a little nightmare, so I'm not going to rail against the game. I had a bit of fun, but it just had too flaws from my perspective, starting with the fact that it forced me to play online and ending with the fact that the mobs and gear were just a bit too ho-hum. I don't mind other folks having fun. I'm not a D3 hater. It was just a letdown.

 

On the other hand, I will give the patch a fair shake to see if it breathes new life into the game.

[Monte Carlo]

^ I think I enjoy it more than you, I hope that the patch +XP make this the game and can and should be.

[greylord]

Truthfully the only real problem I had with the actual D3 game was the always online, the RMT and the AH. Pretty integral parts, but if you could ignore those it actually isn't that bad. It's pretty good in many ways as well. I truthfully could have cared less about Brevik's statments, but Wilson's statemegnt showed arrogance that's been with him and blizzard since the release of the game. The hack they said they just discovered...been in existence a while...many even tried to point it out, but Blizzard ignored them and sold authenticators and other items instead. They've been treating their customers like for granted dorritos...

 

So Wilson trying to do the same to one (not the only) founders of what Wilson made a game off of...is very telling just how big an ego he has. No wonder he ignored a lot of the feedback from the beta testers. He could care less about the gamers, the customers, and just about anyone who doesn't offer to polish his rear end with their lips.

 

It's Wilson's arrogance that is the news and caught my eye to tell the truth. Not really interested in Brevik, he did good with the Diablo creation during his time...but it's Wilson's attitude that made me do a double take.

[greylord]

I wanted to put it in a different post. What is truly sad about Wilson's comment is that it detracted from what is a pretty notable news worthy item in relation to D3. They have introduced 100 new levels above level 60 for people to gain. Each level you continue to advance in your core stats. In addition, you gain 3% magic find per level over 60. These new levels are called Paragon and you can go from level 1 to level 100 paragon. They ONLY are unlocked to be advanced in after you hit level 60.

 

So, there's a new reason for some to play D3.

[Tigranes]

1.04 looks interesting, interesting enough for me to fire up D3 again once I'm back in the States next week and the patch actually comes out.

 

Certainly fixing legendaries alone makes a huge difference, though have they said anything about drop rates and AH dependency? Probably not...

[greylord]

1.04 looks interesting, interesting enough for me to fire up D3 again once I'm back in the States next week and the patch actually comes out.

 

Certainly fixing legendaries alone makes a huge difference, though have they said anything about drop rates and AH dependency? Probably not...

 

Not tons, the following is in supposedly

• Nephalem Valor now grants +15% Bonus Experience per stack, as well as +15% to Magic Find and Gold Find
  
• Magic Find will now cap at 300% (Nephalem Valor bonuses will still stack beyond this cap)
  
• Magic Find is no longer averaged among all players in a multiplayer game
  

A repair tab has been added to the Blacksmith

• Repair costs have been reduced by up to 25% for item levels between 53 and 63
  
• Weapon racks have had their weapon drop rate restored to 100%, though weapons are more likely be of Common quality (white or grey items)
  
• Destructible objects now have a chance to drop items again
  
• The text color of gems, potions, crafting pages and tomes dropped on the ground has been changed from white to light blue
  
• The maximum stack size of gems has been increased from 30 to 100
  
• The gem drop sound effect is now more noticeable
  

• Monsters across the game have had a pass to make their experience and loot rewards more proportional to the effort required to kill them
  

• For example, Imps and Tormented Stingers grant less XP and drop less items, but Lacuni Warriors grant increased XP and drop more items
  

• Experience awarded by level 61-63 monsters has been increased by approximately 60%
  
• Normal monsters should now drop Magic (blue) items and Rare (yellow) items approximately 4 times more than before
  
• Bonus health granted to monsters in co-op games has been reduced to 75% per additional player for all difficulties:
  
  • Normal: (no change)
    
  • Nightmare: 85% ? 75%
    
  • Hell: 95% ? 75%
    
  • Inferno: 105% ? 75%
    

• Monster damage and health and drop rates has been adjusted for Inferno as follows:
  
  • Normal monsters now have a greatly increased chance to drop Magic (blue) and Rare (yellow) items
    
  • Act I
    
    • Elite monster health reduced by 11%
      

    [*]Act II

    • Normal monster health increased by 4%
      
    • Elite monster health reduced by 8%
      
    • Overall damage done by all monsters reduced by 8%
      

    [*]Act III and Act IV

    • Normal monster health increased by 10%
      
    • Elite monster health reduced by 2.5%
      
    • Overall damage done by all monsters reduced by 15%
      

 

A lot more stuff but I think that pertains to the magic find and the monster information could be interesting to those who found the monsters at higher levels annoying.

[Tigranes]

Normal monsters should now drop Magic (blue) items and Rare (yellow) items approximately 4 times more than before

 

That's pretty crazy, but speaks to just how low it was previously, I guess. Yeah, I think I generally agree with these improvements and am pretty excited to see the game improve.

[LadyCrimson]

Wilson's statemegnt showed arrogance that's been with him and blizzard since the release of the game.

I think that's what so many are really annoyed with. Jay's attitude overall/the pattern...this isn't the first time he's massed the ire of the fanbase and each time it gets worse (the reaction).

 

The maximum stack size of gems has been increased from 30 to 100

Well, that's better than nothing. I wish they'd put it up to 1000 tho. If tomes can go that high, I see no rational reason to not have gems do the same.

I'm waiting for them to make MF apply to chests again. I still that was the dumbest thing ever. Walk up to a huge, glowy gold chest and not have your MF apply to it, where all that pops out is a few blues and a gem or two (95% of the time), just like any other lesser chest is just .... bah.

 

The rest....should help with magic finding and other things (I like the AH search changes too) and it's a great list for sure, and if those things are the main things that annoyed you it'll be great. For me it's not enough I think. The area/levels, the dungeons, the game design (boring to repeat 100's of times, short, no reason/desire to replay/make new chrs etc)... it doesn't fix that.

[Humanoid]

The comments about Wilson sound so like the comments about Casey Hudson that I could easily mistake myself for being in the ME3 thread.

[Monte Carlo]

Just played for half an hour. Whisper it *very* quietly but Inferno is a _bit_ easier.

 

Pre-v1.04 I normally get my arse kicked every five minutes and incur literally 25K in repair fees to earn 5K in cash. My level 60 Barbarian is basically the Greek economy.

 

Just did a quick Inferno run, the start 'til level 1 Cathedral / rescue Deckard Cain. I died once and earned more than I spent in repairs. The drops were a _bit_ more generous but not stoopid.

 

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

[Cantousent]

I had to reread "[m]y level 60 Barbarian is basically the Greek economy." Then I laughed so loud my wife asked what I was reading. lol I'm going to hop on it now that I have a couple of minutes.

[Gfted1]

I like that they buffed the DH so now I do even more boom. Can fairly consistantly get 300k crits now. I loves me some +crit damage stacking. The gem stack increase is also helpful since that was eating up almost one whole page of my stash.

[LadyCrimson]

I played it for about 4 hours, doing 1 run of Act1/Inferno and 1 run of some Act2 areas. On that very limited reference, feels like blue/yellows drop a bit more noticeably from non-Elites but not much more noticeably from Elites. I did, however, have one Legendary drop in Act2 (BulKathos wedding band, sucks). Still get plenty of ilvl58 and below items in Inferno. Still get a lot of low dps items.

 

Difficulty wise, since I don't do massive dps with the Monk, I'd say it feels a tad less difficult overall but it's still a major kiting game for melee.

Not sure I like the boosted spell effect graphics, it makes it harder to see/visually distracting. Gems and tomes having a slightly lighter color blue text is actually more annoying for me to differentiate between blue magic items and ones I may not be interested in (gems/tomes)...I'd have preferred they made it a different color altogether, like a pale purple or something.

 

Bottom line: slightly easier difficulty and a lot of pleasant non-combat game interface changes, but items still largely suck and it won't make a huge difference in how many "good" items you'll see. At least if you aren't going to play enough to get anywhere near the max Paragon level. I think I gained 1.6 Paragon levels in that 4 hours.

Edited August 22, 2012 by LadyCrimson

[Monte Carlo]

A lot of people were complaining that the D3 system didn't allow for gimped / unusual builds. Although I am a fan of a more locked skill tree system, I've just spent two hours farming with a level 60 (1) Demon Hunter with... a melee build. Dude was armed with spear and shield and was totally badass.

 

So I suppose it can be done.

[Blarghagh]

Hell, I've played as a Ranged Barbarian.

[Cantousent]

hehe The ranged barbarian and the melee demon hunter. Comedy. I'm going into nightmare with my monk caster. I want to get at least to level 60 to see if maybe the harder hitting monsters and loot are more interesting.

[LadyCrimson]

I don't think such builds are impossible, at least thru Act2/Inferno. They have some skills for stuff like that I think. Just depends on the gear check, which is the main problem (hard to find/buy that level of gear sometimes, especially certain classes). Act1/Inferno is so cake and pie now, if you have decent gear.

 

Changed my mind a little. If you can farm Act3/4, the decent rare item ratio is a fair bit better. Not saying they're uber items, but if did a couple "runs" of something you might walk away with something sellable at least. But Act3, while a bit easier than before, is still too slow going for my Monk for MF'ing. So, MF'ing in later Inferno Acts feels better post-patch (Act1 still sucks item-wise most of the time and Act2 is somewhere in the middle).

 

I haven't noticed much "rubber-banding" at all since the patch. I used to get it pretty frequently. Nice to have it be gone.

[entrerix]

what skills does a melee demon hunter use?

[Gfted1]

I see a lot of melee Wizards and they seem really effective, can pretty much tank. Dont know the build but it involves lots of tornados ant the ability to freeze mooks for long periods.

[LadyCrimson]

Am I the only one who thinks "melee wizards" aren't real melee? I mean, they're using this magical spell with weird claw mark visual effects (that has a bit of a bigger distance range than most actual swords/daggers/claws too) as well as supplemental things like hydra and freezing or whatever. Semantics, I know, but ... At any rate, it's the same as other melee's - high armor, highish dps, LoH, etc. There's several skillset varieties, the "tornadoes" aren't a must.

Edited August 25, 2012 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

From the What are you playing thread:

 

He's got a great build going on there, I think I might try it. My Monk is level 53 on Hell difficulty and solo-ing is tough. I'm doing something wrong, might try to reconfigure skills to something like this.

 

Sweeping Wind has become the Frozen Orb for Monks. I've tried/used it for long periods, and it does help if your dps is still low (or enemies are weak), but a troublesome Inferno Elite mob is still going to feel like a troublesome mob. It just increases your overall dps, in a manner of speaking, so mobs die a little bit faster. I tend to prefer more panic button skills than overall blanket dps skills, at least in solo/Inferno. Playstyle.

 

Keep in mind that a Monk doesn't require major dps numbers. What they do need is LoH, resists, and if you can get enough of it, dodge and life regen. Critical Hit Damage/Chance is, of course, nice for any chr, but for Monks, it's not nearly as huge a factor to their tanking survivability (especially solo).

 

My overall build didn't change much...it looks like this now. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bUTXgQ!XUd!ZbYbac You can use Fist of Thunder instead of 100Fists, a lot of people prefer that one, but I'm still partial to 100Fists. Heh. I use Guardian Path passive since I dual wield (more/easier LoH that way) and the Dodge boost + speed boost from dual-wielding helps a lot. Shields are not "necessary"...again, playstyle.

 

With the recent patch, 7-strike improved enough I used it over Blinding Flash, although to me it's kind of a toss up. 7-Strike does have the invulnerable aspect, but BF can be used more frequently. Oh...if you use a companion, mobs will all beeline for them when you 7-Strike, like you're suddenly invisible, so that can help get you unstuck too ... although this means sometimes the 7-strikes don't fully hit walking-away enemies, which can be annoying.

Edited August 28, 2012 by LadyCrimson

[MrBrown]

Patch 105 contents: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7155880/