Diablo 3 new patch

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

 

Hordes of Crusaders will dominate MP for the foreseeable future. The lolocopter magic-warhorse move is groovy.

Haha, for some reason, this comment made me think of this:

 

 

 

]http://youtu.be/r-UA7sv4QbU?t=28s

 

How's that for lolocopter oatmeal-moped with a shiny knight straddled on top?

Edited March 13, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[IndiraLightfoot]

Finally lvl 60 now with my hardcore monk! Phew!

I restarted at Hard difficulty story mode, and all went well, until I reached about level 56. Then the monsters were getting harder and harder, especially the elites. At level 57 I entered one of the tombs in the woods beyond the drowned temple, and I almost died. It had affixes from hell, and I had no ND passive yet. A quick swig saved me as I stumbled down the stairs to heal up by beating lots of skellies to death, and then I went up and finished that huge yellow skellie conjurer off once and for all.

Last time around, the scariest parts were in no particular order: Belial, the hard-hitting ogre by the bridge before Magda's hideout, the exploding fire maniacs in one of those storm halls, and those waves of poisonous self-detonating pixies in the keep in Act 3. That freeze-lock demon that once was the arch-angel's lieutenant was also a nervous thing to deal with, along with those hard-hitting quadrupeds in Act 4.

[Azure79]

Is there a reason all legendaries are account bound now? I understand taking the auction house down, but being unable to trade or give legendaries to fellow players or friends in-game seems too restrictive. 

 

I recently found a new leg. belt and thought I'd pass my blackthorne belt to a friend of mine who had the trousers, but I could not. It was a little annoying.

[MrBrown]

Is there a reason all legendaries are account bound now? I understand taking the auction house down, but being unable to trade or give legendaries to fellow players or friends in-game seems too restrictive. 

 

I recently found a new leg. belt and thought I'd pass my blackthorne belt to a friend of mine who had the trousers, but I could not. It was a little annoying.

They probably just don't want a 3rd party market.

 

You can trade legs for 4 hours (of actual play time) after you got them, but only to people who were in the game with you when they dropped.

[MrBrown]

Finally lvl 60 now with my hardcore monk! Phew!

Last time around, the scariest parts were in no particular order: Belial, the hard-hitting ogre by the bridge before Magda's hideout, the exploding fire maniacs in one of those storm halls, and those waves of poisonous self-detonating pixies in the keep in Act 3. That freeze-lock demon that once was the arch-angel's lieutenant was also a nervous thing to deal with, along with those hard-hitting quadrupeds in Act 4.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I've hit over 5000 achievement points. What looks like the hardest but was actually one of the easiest was the Monk Heal other players 2 billion achievement. Just get into a Monk game with three other monks and heal spam for hours while you're sleeping, off to work, watching TV, etc. Yeah, probably not what Blizzard had in mind.

 

Only need a few HC speed boss kills, a few challenges and the General 1000 healing wells. The others (like Campaign, Crafting, Co-op, Classes) are all finished for now. Starting to run out of achievements. Although the kill 25,000 trees is a bit ridiculous and haven't really bothered with it for now.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Finally lvl 60 now with my hardcore monk! Phew!

I restarted at Hard difficulty story mode, and all went well, until I reached about level 56. Then the monsters were getting harder and harder, especially the elites. At level 57 I entered one of the tombs in the woods beyond the drowned temple, and I almost died. It had affixes from hell, and I had no ND passive yet. A quick swig saved me as I stumbled down the stairs to heal up by beating lots of skellies to death, and then I went up and finished that huge yellow skellie conjurer off once and for all.

Last time around, the scariest parts were in no particular order: Belial, the hard-hitting ogre by the bridge before Magda's hideout, the exploding fire maniacs in one of those storm halls, and those waves of poisonous self-detonating pixies in the keep in Act 3. That freeze-lock demon that once was the arch-angel's lieutenant was also a nervous thing to deal with, along with those hard-hitting quadrupeds in Act 4.

 

It's a bit of an adrenaline rush when you have those near death escapes. It's a totally new game when you know you cannot stuff up at all. It's also heartbreaking when you do lose a character and all the items they were carrying. I recommend moving stuff from your inventory to your stash on a regular basis. Nothing worse than having hundreds of Exquisite essences, gems, iridescent tears, etc in your inventory only to lose it all. Also a good idea to keep a spare level 60 set of items just in case you do die.

 

I power levelled a friends Wizard in less than 20 mins yesterday. He lost his Wizard and asked if he could be power levelled. Found it easier to have a level 1 create a T6 Torment game and have the level 60 character get invited to the game and power through the mobs. He went from level 1 to 20+ or so just from one run to Captain Daltyn in Adria's Hut. It was funny seeing him level up so fast. I just kept seeing him glowing all the time when I was ploughing through everything.

 

It's essentially a level 1 game (on Torment 6) and the level 60 character just has to touch the enemies for them to die. Plus they get all the quest xp as well. And he was getting 1600% xp bonus including quests. In a couple of minutes, the level 1 will be level 30+. I was using a Monk with Tempest Rush running through and killing everything as soon as I hit them.

 

When the player gets around level 40-50, then you drop down the T level as I couldn't get through them as fast. By that stage, the level 60 player opens up a normal level 60 game and three level 60s can get through the game while the other player can tag along and soak up the xp. In less than 20 minutes, the player has a new level 60 character.

Edited March 17, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Hiro Protagonist II]

The AH closes in a couple of hours. As someone who never bought anything on it, I won't miss it. I did sell a tonne of stuff over the last 2 weeks though. Made millions in gold mostly from gems. Seriously, I feel like Scrooge McDuck swimming in a sea of gold.

 

Sold all my gems two weeks ago when the prices were still high on both SC and HC Auction Houses, considering all gems that people have now will be pointless in the expansion. Also sold a lot of crafting materials and still made millions from it. Damn it feels good going into RoS when I was so poor and had no gold. Probably people who aren't buying RoS are buying up stuff. Who knows.

[LadyCrimson]

Is there a reason all legendaries are account bound now? I understand taking the auction house down, but being unable to trade or give legendaries to fellow players or friends in-game seems too restrictive.

That does sound rather restrictive for a Diablo game ... where trading with other players is/was an aspect that many enjoyed a lot. Account-bound sounds like ... MMO.

 

Is it only Legendaries that get account bound?

[MrBrown]

 

Is there a reason all legendaries are account bound now? I understand taking the auction house down, but being unable to trade or give legendaries to fellow players or friends in-game seems too restrictive.

That does sound rather restrictive for a Diablo game ... where trading with other players is/was an aspect that many enjoyed a lot. Account-bound sounds like ... MMO.

 

Is it only Legendaries that get account bound?

 

 

Legs, everything you craft, and everything you enchant. Dunno about commodities (plans, gems, etc).

 

But, like I said, you can trade a leg for a couple of hours after you've found it with people you were playing with when you did.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Just sharing two pics:

This is the trembling minute before my very first hardcore character will take on Diablo! Ah, the sweet memories.

And here you can see the new spectral hound for those fools like me who have bought the RoS Collector's Ed. The new orange wings were rad too, but not as rad as the original CE wings IMHO.

[Monte Carlo]

Ha ha a strange pair of wings arrived in my Diablo 3 inbox this morning for pre-ordering RoS. But not the CE. I have to make do with golden ones.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I've got a couple of screen shots with Zoltun Kulle being turned into a chicken. I love the Enchantress.

 

Die little chicken!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Monk Build Indira. This is mine in Hard Core. A lot of healing and resistance. I have three heals by pressing 1, 3 and Q.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mouse 1: Deadly Reach / Keen Eye (Every Third Hit increases my Armour)

Mouse 2: Wave of Light / Wall of Light (Increased Damage)

1. Breath of Heaven / Circle of Life (Healing)

2. Mystic Ally / Earth Ally (Increase Vitality)

3. Serenity / Peaceful Repose (Immune to Attacks and Heal)

4. Mantra of Healing / Heavenly Body (Increase Vitality) or Time of Need (Increase resistance to all damage types)

 

I sometimes change the Mantra's rune depending on the situation but mostly keep it on Heavenly Body.

 

Passives:

1. Seize the Initiative (Increase Armour)

2. One With Everything (Resistance to elements)

3. Near Death Experience (Receive 35% life and spirit from fatal damage. Absolute must and life saver in HC)

 

Paragon:

Core - Dexterity

Offense - Critical Hit Chance

Defense - Resist All (then Armor after Resist All is finished)

Utility - Life on Hit

[IndiraLightfoot]

Thanks, Hiro!

 

It was my safety build early on, when my equipment was a pretty bad mixed bag of what I had.

Here's Bliss now, and she has adapted to a few decent items she picked up, where lightning damage is the key, and since that stacks (sic!), I had turned her into an electric fury.

 

 

I love Wave of Light, but I've succumbed to the allures of the electric and stunning lashing tail kick so much that I sacrifice the knockback for fast dps in a jam.

Speaking of jam; If I get caught by some jailer or waller, I've switched my blinding for Inner Sanctuary - Intervene - which actually is a teleport with a healing shield for the monk. I'm all into the monk atm in D3, since it's very fun to play and very balanced.

Edited March 21, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[LadyCrimson]

I miss my stuffy Templar sidekick. He made me giggle.

[IndiraLightfoot]

^{Yesterday I managed to get my second hardcore monk to lvl 60. I really wanted a back-up toon if something goes wrong, since I'm really fond of the monk atm. Soon, the expansion will be upon us, and then we'll have new skills and new everythings to try out. Can't wait!}

[marelooke]

Thanks to the entusiasm of you guys I finally bought this game I'm a pretty awesome lvl2 wizard already! ( yeah, my time for games has been rather limited lately )

Edited March 23, 2014 by marelooke

[Monte Carlo]

The Crusader is already my favourite character class in D3.

 

A proper toe-to-toe melee class in a way the Barbarian isn't.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

Damn this is an awesome game now. Blizzard have redeemed themselves. To think 6 months ago I was dreading to come back to this for the expansion and now it's full of awesome. 

[IndiraLightfoot]

Act V alone is better than the rest of the acts all together!

This expansion bathes in awesome sauce!!!

I've played all day, mostly on Torment I, and managed to get my Wizard to level 70. I played very thoroughly and listened to all dialogues. In the end, I only needed to do two extra runs in two Westmarsh areas to reach lvl 70. Then I killed Mathael on my fourth attempt. I was far too eager for my own good, but I got an elite-killing lvl 70 amulet from heaven, though!

This means I have adventure mode open and an extra passive slot, and I must say that adv mode so far looks absolutely fantastic!

 

What a redeem of Blizzard this is!

[CoM_Solaufein]

Is this as good as Diablo 2? I'm tempted to get this after looking at some of the information on it.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Diablo 2 will be an eternal ARPG classic, the benchmark if you will, so perhaps the short answer is no. However, with this expansion, I dare say that you'll get a much more streamlined and "clever" game, and the entertainment value borders on pure genius at times, at least as far as this genre goes. Act V makes the game much less Torchlight and more grim and dreary D2. Still, you can't hardly trade anymore and there's lot of stuff that's bound to account. If that matters very much to you, it could deter you, I guess from what makes this RoS-version of D3 a gem: the endless killing of demons in the ever-quest of finding new and better loot. I reckon you should give it a try, despite no offline mode.

 

Also, all the new monsters in D3 RoS are great. However, there is one bunch that I adore so much that I could have an entire game based on their "culture":

 

Bogans, and especially Bogan Trappers! Cool traps, they shoot darts, they have treehouse towers...

 

 

I also like how they have made the boss fights less segmented. I hate episode-like Boss encounters, thus I don't really like the ones of Belial and Diablo in D3. My favourite boss fight now is

Urzael in the burning attic with falling beams in that tower in Westmarsh Heights and a huge flame thrower. Just wow!

 

 

Also, Act V is generally sprinkled with cool events and weird twists and turns. My favourite dungeon so far is

in Bloodmarsh, the dungeon of Belray or something like that, where king Leoric's men that failed him and lost over in Westmarsh shrivelled up and died. It's such a melancholic and weird dungeon that it really suited me, hehe.

 

[Monte Carlo]

Is this as good as Diablo 2? I'm tempted to get this after looking at some of the information on it.

 

I'm inclined to agree with Indira in that D2 is difficult to beat.

 

However, D3 is now at the point where it's a worthy successor, even if it doesn't quite fill daddy's boots yet. But the new class, The Crusader, is better than the D2 Paladin and the game features that keep popping up are genuinely entertaining. For example, the random adventure mode that unleashes every monster and environment and just shakes them up so you can battle through them, is inspired. If ladders and PvP are your bag, though, D3 doesn't have them (yet).

 

This game for me, as an ARPG fan, is a solid 8.5/10. It finally does what it set out to achieve in 2012.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Alright some more info/reflections on D3:

 

I must say, as a recent hardcore player, that Act V seems very lethal at almost any difficulty level, so I will steer clear from that for quite some time. A lot of critters dog-pile you via some jump-mechanic that also locks you in place, which means instant death. Add to that quite a few high-damage ghosts and certain trapping monsters, and death is even more certain.

 

In fact, those ghosts are so deadly that Blizzard will nerf them a bit with the next patch:

Enraged Phantasm Damage

"The Enraged Phantasm spirits in Act V are causing issues for a lot of players, doing a massive amount of damage with their abilities, especially Soul Siphon. This will be tuned down in an upcoming patch, probably the next little one like patch 2.0.4. In the meantime, hardcore players will likely want to have some incapacitating skills to use on those spirits, to keep them from draining so much health. We do plan on making a balance pass on these enemies in the near future, though this change will require a patch. Their damage is a wee bit more bursty than we intended, so some of their abilities (specifically their Soul Siphon) will be tuned down to be more in line with other abilities."

 

Another blatant bug is the distribution of items after level 61:

Bug With Level 62+ Rare Items

"If you have been leveling a character from 60 to 70, and not finding many item upgrades along the way, here's a reason why. Rare items are only dropping at certain "breakpoint" levels, instead of at each level along the way, as they should. It appears that Rare items above level 60 are only dropping at required levels of 61, 66, 69, and finally at level 70. So for a large part of the 60s, players will only be getting Rare drops that are level 61, even when their character has reached 64 or 65. Fortunately this does not affect Legendary items, which will still appropriately drop at the character's level. A blue response to the bug with Rare items stated that it is being looked into. This is being looked into."

Something that is very sought after right now is Death's Breaths:

"It drops from level 61+ elites and bosses, and can be a bit hard to come by. Death's Breath drops at the same drop rate as Demonic Essence, based on the game difficulty chosen. Just as an FYI, the scaling drop rates for Death's Breath are the same as Demonic Essence (i.e. they scale the same way as you progress in difficulty). Currently, those drop rates are:

Normal - 15%
Hard - 18%
Expert - 21%
Master - 25%
Torment 1 - 31%
Torment 2 - 37%
Torment 3 - 44%
Torment 4 - 53%
Torment 5 - 64%
Torment 6 - 77%

We have no plans right now to change the rates, given that we're only one day into the expansion (we'd like to give things a bit more time to settle before we start pulling levers and adjusting knobs)."

Oh, and I had almost forgotten about Kadala, the mystery merchant. When adventure mode is unlocked, she appears. After my first Nephalem Rift, I went there, and tried her out. I bought a pair of pants, as I reckon I had a bad set of trousers. Well, I was surprised when I got the same legendary set item that I already wore, but a lot better back. Wow!

 

I was confused, so I had to look her abilities up a bit:
 

"The Blood Shards that are obtained in Adventure Mode can be used to purchase items of a specific slot, from the merchant Kadala. The items purchased normally end up being Rare quality, but occasionally they will be a Legendary. They are not able to roll as a class Set item, however. As changed in a recent hotfix, those class Set items are only available from Torment difficulty."

Edited March 26, 2014 by IndiraLightfoot

[Gfted1]

Created a Crusader last night and joined a game. Hilariously, everyone else was also a Crusader. Im a little torn on the class. I only made it to level 16-17 but it kind of plays like a Monk to me.