Diablo III - Page 7

 

We work well together mainly because our guys compliment each other so well.  The monk basically acts as tank allowing me to DPS without much problem.  In message boards that I have read it seems we have to get used to the idea of avoiding certain packs altogether...which is going to be tough for us since we like exploring every bit of the map, and killing every champion because they dropz the lootz.

What we need, A-Pathetic, is a warrior to join our little group to help take some of the tanking burden off of you.  I honestly don't know how you survive some of the encounters that we have because you literally disappear at times in the middle of all that chaos.  So if anybody wants to join us, please send me your resume with a cover letter and 3 references. 

 

Monk damage mitigation is actually pretty impressive.  I have 2 friends playing Barbarians complaining about how much damage they take.  According to the tooltip hint last night that I saw I take 30% less damage off the top.  Every passive skill I use involves either additional dodge or additional armor.  I opt to take the dodge mantra over any of the damage mantras and I use a really early rune because it gives both of us more armor with the extra dodge.

 

On top of that I stack heal on hit whenever possible while wielding 2 fist weapons which refills me fairly quickly.  Even with all that though, I've been burning my healing spell and drinking a potion and praying for the cooldowns for any semi-large encounters we do in A2.

Ill be on tonight, FYI.  Leaving work now to get my 12-pack.  Expect Belial to kill me much.  Better to be drunk.

I just had a great run through Act 1 Nightmare with my (non-HC) monk and 2 randoms : Barb and DH.

Heaps more entertaining than Normal. Arcane Vortex Champions along with a swarm of regular mobs in a tight corridor can be quite tricky!

I opted to run with the damage mantra, but had the blinding flash, heal and shield to support the others and keep me alive. Th Barb had better gear than me and could properly tank. I just sprinted around the edges harassing the mobs and taking down anything that got near the DH.

I'm kinda looking forward to this sweet spot in Nightmare and Hell where it's manageable, but not the wall of death that is Inferno.

 

I have a lvl 43 barbarian in Act 3 nightmare but you can't have me. 'Cause I don't think you can handle me. And because I'm doomed to play alone in Europe.

 

Speaking of which I had my first multiplayer game with a Korean today. Boy, did he strike a blow against racial stereotypes. Running around doing nothing but getting killed and making the mobs stronger. In fucking normal mode. How the hell do you repeatedly die in fucking normal mode? My DH basically had to carry his ass through half of Act 2. He was lucky a server restart was coming up and I was in a hurry to get to Maghda.

Just finished Normal with a level 31 Wizard. I died exactly once, but that was only because I had to scratch my nose while Nega-Diablo was eating my legs. I'm sure the Hell or Nightmare difficulties are brutal, but I wish the Normal difficulty would've felt a little more like D2, or even D1. I liked that the bosses in those games just came the fuck at you rather than being typical action game monsters with telegraphed pattern attacks.

 

That said, the last two acts were fun. I'm actually looking forward to giving Witch Doctor a spin.

Hit 60 last night in A3 Hell.  Will probably take down Diablo in the next couple days.  What's sad is that this is probably as far as I go, at least with my DH.  I can't imagine having a ton of fun in Inferno with my laggy computer.  Plus, Im just not good enough to not take damage.  I'm going to get hit, especially vs most packs of elites.  And if a DH gets one-shot by almost any enemy, I don't see how I get very far.  I found these vids on YouTube illustrating alot of the frustrations with D3.  He makes good points about the difficulty, the AH, and the weapon scaling.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4peeO3yzY&feature=relmfu

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4peeO3yzY

 

Yeah, Normal is way too easy.  Honestly, most of Nightmare isn't much of a step up for most gamers either.  It's definitely more challenging, and you can't faceroll all of the bosses (although you can still faceroll some of them), but most of Nightmare seems to still fall on the "too easy" side of the ledger.  Hell to me is quite a bit of fun with the game going back and forth between sending a LOL worthy humongous group at you or dropping insane Champion packs on you.  It's amusing, it's challenging, it sometimes feels like the mobs are cheating (because sometimes they essentially are) but the difficulty level feels correct to me.  Bob Loblaw and I are on the verge of finishing A3 now and both of us are level 60.

 

So I bought up a bunch of level 60 gear excited to finish Hell and see what Inferno had waiting for me.  I have over 50k health now (my entire build is essentially AOE tanking and trying to keep things off the DH), a bunch of armor and 2 decent but not great level 60 weapons which put my damage at something like 9k.  Then I started to finally look at what people need to play Monk in inferno.  The general consensus is that most monks who finish Inferno have about 24k health.  Less than half of mine.  They say health is pointless, that you have to put everything into Dex, Life on Hit, Attack Speed and Resistances.  Pieces that have those stats for monks?  10 million or so on the AH.

 

So, yeah.  I'll try Inferno but I get the feeling Hell level Diablo is the end of my run.  That doesn't sound fun to me.

I played a Monk on Inferno before I quit. I'd agree that health is useless beyond a buffer to allow you to react. Basically, you take the skill that makes all resistances match your highest one, then pick a single resistance and take it as high as you can. Along with armor, that lets you stay alive without spending much money.

 

Beyond that, I didn't go life-on-hit so much as "Life on Spirit Spent". Maxxing that out makes every power you use a heal. That allowed me to use a damage mantra as my main heal, which kept my low dps from ruining me. Add in spirit regen, and I became self-sustaining against all but the nastiest elites.

 

The main thing to spend money on is a huge weapon.

 

But this is all advice from someone who realized that the AH is the real final level of the game and quit, so take it with a grain of salt. 

Whimsyshire has the cutest mini-map graphics of all time. What started as accidentally finding the black mushrooms on Saturday became this weekends quest for me and the wife. Trying to get the colored water drop in the Oasis was a pain, because it was the only one with a chance of triggering that guy appearing; but man grinding the fuck out of that battlefield Bridge to get to the frost cave was fun. Just slaughter and gibs and more slaughter. So lucrative running that repeatedly.

So I'm taking a break from my Barbarian. What's a good/fun second class to start on this game?

 

I found the black mushroom on accident a few weeks back.  Then I found some charred bone on accident a few days later.  I found a page to a book (Bob Loblaw found a different page to the same book) that I don't think are related to the 2 objects (they are listed as bound to account, the page isn't sellable but isn't bound from what I can tell).  I've gone out of my way to not look anything up on the items so far, although I may do that once I clear Hell difficulty.  I was kind of hoping that this would end up one of those quests that I stumbled on and eventually made sense rather than a "collect the random items even though you don't know what they're for or where to find them" that it seems to be.

 

So far I love my Monk and I enjoy my Demon Hunter.  I can't recommend Witch Doctor which supposedly gets fun later but is the exact opposite of fun for the first 20 levels or so.  I haven't given Wizard or Barbarian enough of a spin yet.  Considering you just left a melee class I'd say give Demon Hunter a chance.

I can't find that fucking mushroom no matter how hard I search. The plans, I know they are hard to get, but to have everything else and not have the thing that's supposedly the easiest to find is stupid.

Hell Diablo is going down tonight.

Just got into Hell with my barb at lvl 51. Still going at a decent clip. Would have been even faster if pub games didn't suck ass. Too many people, at least in Nightmare, think that the facile "Hurr, durr, just click staff until they die" description of Diablo is valid at any difficulty other than normal. I mean, I know we killed the mob but YOU'RE STILL FUCKING STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS DESECRATION FUCKING AROUND WITH YOUR INVENTORY. And now you're dead. What a surprise! Monks won't use any auras, barbs won't use any shouts, DHs won't snare or trap mobs, wizards use their big damage spells of a couple of shitty mobs while you're in the middle of some 20+ strong gang bang, it's fucking silly.

 

I miss my Diablo II crew.

I want to play with you dudes.  My Witch Doctor will tear it up.
 

What you wanna trade for that mushroom stelios

Are you on Europe?

 

No wait, aren't these account bound?

First Impressions of Inferno:

 

So A-Pathetic and I took out Hell Diablo last night.  We immediately jumped into Inferno and absolutely OWNED those zombies on the road going into town.  I was all like THIS SHIT IS EASY, WHATS THA BIG FUCKIN DEAL, INFERNO IS MY BITCH.  In all seriousness, we logged out after making it to town.  I then logged back on later to see how far I can get without pulling out my hair.  I got as far as rescuing Cain.  Basically the trick as a DH is not getting hit (duh).  I'm sort of a glass cannon at this point.  I used to have over 50k in health, but I scaled back vitality in favor of dex and other stats (mostly gold find and magic find, since I am going to be mostly farming with this guy). 

 

As a DH, I can take two, maybe three hits from a normal mob.  If I get surrounded, I'm toast.  If I get lagged, I'm toast.  If I run into a fast moving elite, I'm toast.  I killed one pack of elites on my way to Cain.  Lots of traps, lots of firing Hungering Arrow at enemies offscreen.  I can see playing this way till I'm done with A1.  I don't see this working in A2, when the combat is much more wide open and coming at you from all angles.  If I had a lag free computer and was able dodge ranged attacks more smoothly, maybe I could slowly progress towards A3 and A4.  So my normal battle goes something like this, laying traps, retreating, then firing a barrage of hungering arrows...with the occasional smokescreen if I am being chased. 

 

I think A-Pat and I will try and find a nice cozy farming spot in A1, maybe the cemetary crypts because the gold drops are ridiculous, alot more than even Hell A4. 

 

Yes, it is.  I finally played my Barbarian last night, only up to level 6.  Stumbled onto the mushroom on accident again, picked it again, went to put it in my stash and found out they don't stack.  I was not pleased.  I'm not sure if there's a reason to have more than 1 or not.

 

I did get a pattern to drop last night in Heaven that uses the shinbone and mushroom, needs a bell (I saw on a vendor earlier) and 2 other items.  So at least I know I'm heading in the right direction!

A brief summary of the changes in the upcoming patch:

 

 

My bad stelios, didn't know its soulbound. Just bang around in the Cathedral, usually off in a square room by itself with only one entrance I think.

Who is MechaStatham? We've had some good times steamrolling demons. Witch Doctor with a samurai sword is highly entertaining.

So far Inferno has been fairly rough, but doable.  Then again I quit after the Skeleton King last night.  He hit like a freaking truck, btw.  I was trying to get my mystic ally to engage him so that I could sneak up behind and try to get back health by pounding on him.  One cleave from him was about 45k damage.

 

Some Bosses and Champions seem to have luck involved (jailer/desecrate can ruin your day without many options) and some seem to be just hell on melee or hell on ranged (as melee I can guarantee that I'll die to Chains mobs or Arcane mobs with that damn beam).  There's not a huge feeling of accomplishment in taking down mobs through attrition.

My misadventures with pub games continue. This time some idiot wizard left me to deal with three elite packs plus common mobs. Just TP'd and spent the next 15 minutes in town. Granted, I didn't die and got a nice rare for the templar but come on. If you're gonna leave in the middle of the fight at least have the common decency to leave the game too.

 

Seriously guys. Is no one here playing on Europe?

Fuck this noise. Even in Hell people refuse to play as a group. I'm going solo as far as I can.

 

Why can't those silly Europeans just get along?

Who the fuck knows? Is it the language barrier? 

 

This is the scenario. Two barbs, a wiz and a DH. In a cellar in Old Tristam an invulnerable, teleporting, desecrator pack spawns. The first time we go all together. I watch the other barb waste his earthquake on the minions. I try to kite them to open up the champion for the ranged guys but they too start attacking the minions that were chasing me. They pull them off me and since we're in a small cellar they die. Then we barbs die. I rez and wait outside the cellar saying "Wait, don't go in" over and over again as they go in one at a time and die.

 

"Fuck it" I say "they probably want to just death zerg them" and since the checkpoint was literally next to the entrance we wouldn't waste that much time. But they keep going for the minions. And after about 5 or 6 deaths two of them get bored and proceed to leave the area. I proceed to leave the game and give up on pub games until I find people I can communicate with.

 

My sympathies.  I don't think Bob and I had any serious Hell issues like that, but we also have never played with 4 people and just rely on the fact that each of us is semi-competent and we seem to do a good job of covering each other's weaknesses.  Even in pub games I usually only have 1 or 2 people in a game with me, and so far I haven't had anybody who was just atrocious.  Honestly I'd say every player I've been randomly matched up with has been above average.

Found my first relatively big-ticket AH item last night in Inferno A1.  A rare ring:

 

67 Int

56 Vit

15% Increased Attack Speed

+200ish Armor

1 Open Socket (I put a perfect square Topaz in it, which brought the Int up to 105).

 

Before I put it up for auction I went looking for comps.  Other INT + IAS + VIT rings were going for anywhere from 3 mil - 10mil.  And most of the IAS was in the 9-12 range, not 15.  Of course, most of those rings had been in the AH for almost the entire 36 hours so they weren't exactly selling either.  I put my ring up for 2.25 million before I went to bed last night.  Was unable to check if it sold this morning because the AH was down. 

 

The item that has netted me the highest return so far were some Dex + Magic Find + Increased Movement speed boots also found yesterday in Inferno A1 for 300k.  They sold about 10 minutes after I posted them which means I probably didn't ask enough for them. 

+Dex and + movement seems to me ideal stats for a glass cannon DH. Yeah, you could probably get double  for that.

I've found that if an item doesn't sell within the first 2 hours it typically doesn't sell.  At this point I try to underprice just about anything I sell just because I'd prefer to not be juggling so many auctions and having 10 items go the full 36 hours sucks.

 

Seller's remorse.  I knew the moment they sold I had asked too little.  But I am trying to save up for a big bow upgrade so that I may fully embrace my glass canonness.  I made an effort yesterday to farm without spending it all.  Made a pretty penny in A1 Inferno.  Probably close to a million gold plus a number of sellable items, including the ring listed above. 

 

I can't imagine progressing in Inferno without having at least one other person to partner up with.  Maybe if you had elite gear, but all the gear in the world isn't going to prevent me from dying to a super-fast mortar spouting elite.  But I know that A-Pat's monk handles those easily so it takes the burden off me.  Conversly I know that the chained-arcane elites give A-Pat some trouble, but really dont pose a problem for me with my traps and range.   It is nice to have at least one other person to run with.

Something I've seen lately in Public Games is 60s turning up blitzing the content. Kinda ok for progression, but also kinda destroys any challenge. This is in Nightmare, which for a while was challenging me, but I've quickly got the gear to make it trivial.

I know they are trying to patch the game for Inferno balance and longevity, but it would be nice if they tweaked the lower levels. As I understand the AH has blown out all their internal planning as now the average item level when levelling up is far above what was intended.

What I'm finding amusing is that nightmare has been noticeably easier than normal was.  I'm guessing it's a factor of having decent equipment and access to the skills/runes that work the best for me.  Boss fights were way more difficult and I typically had to change my load out from normal adventuring, but in nightmare I haven't had to change anything.  During the first run through, it typically went, "Hey, I'm at full health.  OK, now I'm dead."  In nightmare my health normally doesn't drop near as quickly and I have time to react (ie. Wait for Revenge to proc.  Playing a Barb).  Admittedly, I'm only towards the end of Act 2, but fights like the Butcher were a snooze this time.  Belial will probably be the real test, I'll see if I can melee him too or if I'll need to switch back to the "ranged Barb".

 

 

 

Yeah, some good games there mate. Our Monk/WD combo was laying waste a couple of days ago. Pity my DH wasn't keeping up, but he's still a work in progress I suppose. Will have to do it again soon. It was VERY nice handing Diablo his arse in one go seeing as it took me something like 20 tries to solo him a few days before.

 

If you and Zhukov can hurry and get to Inferno you can join A-Pathetic and me for some hot 4-way action.  Just don't tell Stelios.

They don't even need to hurry based on how slowly we're taking things.  With that being said I'm betting we can get through Act 2 now.  From there...we'll see.  Figuring out the proper skills and gear that works for your build is enormously important in Inferno.  Yesterday was the first time I felt like I'd put together a reasonable amount of survivability and I only encountered a single group that I just refused to bother with (vortex/jailer/desecration/shield).  I even took down multiple chains groups and arcane groups without dying which is a massive accomplishment.

 

 

Act 2 is going to be the toughest for me I think because the combat is so wide open with enemies jumping at you from all directions.  I'm really sort of dreading it.  I would like to upgrade my weapon one more time before moving into act 2.  I've got about 2 mil in the bank, but looking last night in the AH it seems as if I'm going to need 4+ million if I want to buy a significant upgrade from what I've got now, unless I get lucky.

 

Just about all my gear has Magic Find on it at this point.  I think I am up around 200 MF.  What I am really looking for are the high end crafting plans that you can give to the blacksmith.  Apparently there are plans for rare champion bows and xbows that will give 5+ attributes.  I think we should try and farm the Skeleton King a few rounds and see what drops.

Noted - me and my Monk have some work to do.

Invulnerable minions/mortar/desecrator groups are so much fun to fight in tight caves. Being piled on in a corner watching your hp go down by the thousands without being able to do a single point of damage. The only thing more fun is fighting invulnerable minions/plagued/nightmarish immediately afterwards. Getting sent on trip through half a dozen plague spots whenever you manage to hit the champion once. And then molten/teleporting/mortar. Just a constant stream of incoming damage. IN A FUCKING ROW, IN THE SAME CAVE.

 

I died so much...

 

To tell the truth I'm kind of impressed with myself and my equipment for only dying four or five times during this whole ordeal.

Oh, I forgot to add.

 

Finally found the mushroom. Now I'm just missing the shinbone and the plans before I can start murdering ponies.

 

Yea!

Real money auction house is reportedly starting today. But then there's word around the internets merely setting your pc's clock setting back hours/days was being used to exploit the auction system hard. More details here...there's a guy who showed his account holding 4 billion in gold.

I've been playing the wizard lately. That class is kinda overwhelming in the amount of destructive options available. In close damage, far away damage, chain damage, turrets, pets, reflective, aoe, delayed and completely random damage (I'm looking at you weird untargetable Arcane Torrent rune). Even the defensive options kinda help do a lot of damage. Ie . freezing big groups with frost nova so 1-2 meteors will definitely hit their target.

 

The monk had lots of movement and damage mitigation/avoidance/recovery skills, but the wizard is mostly kill kill kill!

 

Nope. Thoroughly debunked.

 

Just another one in the long line of false scares like getting getting hacked even while having an authenticator and getting session hacked on public games. I have no idea why this game brings all this craziness out.

I like crazy. Also congrats on finding that elusive mushroom. Just a god damned shame you can't party up with north american peeps, we are having so much fun on this side of the pond it would be a lot cooler if you could roll with us - maybe you should move out of greece, buy some cheap land in Oregon, found New Greece with your auction house profits. I'd be seriously miffed if that rumor was true and my first only legitimate legendary drop (level 38-ish boots of awesome) got lost in a rollback.

Don't tease me about teaming up. I'd kill for some competent ranged players to give me a hand with these elites the game is trolling me with. Trying to kite with seismic slam being the only ranged damage is fucking tough. It's almost better for me now if there's a bunch of regular mobs around to provide some globes, fury and revenge procs.

 

Haha.  I have the mushroom, the shinbone, and I got the plans in Heaven at Hell difficulty.  I don't have anything else, but I also didn't look up where to find anything.

 

I know where the bell is at least.  The other 2 items...not so much.

The gibbering gemstone is supposedly the biggest bitch to find but I got it on the first playthrough. Once I get the shinbone I'll start farming Izual with my barb.

What was the thing I read in the patch notes area the other day about them enabling Global Play?  I had clicked past it before my brain realized what it had said, and I haven't seen it pop up again since.