Diablo III - New patch 2.1 Coming Aug 26

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

That said, removal of the AH and the ability to trade loot is not nibbling around the edges. It's a fundamental change in the structure of the game that is to the detriment of anyone who spent real money or wanted to play at advanced levels quickly instead of putzing around forever trying to find very good / great gear.

I hope you've learned a lesson about blowing money in video games.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

**sigh**

To my knowledge there is no other game that operated with a real money auction house.

Eve could be considered one.

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

It was / is a realistic expectation that this feature would be a permanent fixture of the game for those that chose to use it.

Sure was. But that wouldn't make the gear you bought on it and continued to buy on it any less obsolete when the next carrot was attached to the stick.

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

It's no sweat off your ass if you choose not to use it. Blizzard gladly took a piece of every real money auction and have at least some obligation on that basis alone.

Obligation to what? Not make expansions have better gear? Make grinding and questing meaningless cause you spent money? They don't have any such obligation. If you have ever played even just one game in the Diablo series, you should have known that using real money to buy gear was a fool's venture. You paid money for something that someone else assigned value to. Someone who had no control over what came out next. Like any real world auction house, the people running it took their cut. Blizzard at no point said "This #### that you buy from this guy will always be epic." And at no point was Blizzard the one selling you these items. You might have a gripe if that were the case, but it isn't. Some guy sold some gear and you bought it. Blizzard just took their finder's fee for connecting you two.

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

The idea that the AH was nixed to enhance the game play for those that mostly did not use it is actually pretty amazing and something they should have considered at the time they built the game.

Blizzard wanted to try something new. It failed. They nixed it. Rectifying errors is something Blizzard has always been exceptional at.

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

I understand that expansions change the dynamics and that game play, toon strength, gear attributes, etc. will be adjusted with patches and so on.

Then how can you possibly be upset that this has happened? All they've done is taken the ability for you to waste money on the game. You should be happy.

Originally Posted by Free Ben Hur!

That said, removal of the AH and the ability to trade loot is not nibbling around the edges. It's a fundamental change in the structure of the game that is to the detriment of anyone who spent real money or wanted to play at advanced levels quickly instead of putzing around forever trying to find very good / great gear.

How? It levels the playing field in a game where they want to have competitive PvP as well as balance. No one will participate if they find out it requires real money to get there. Can you imagine how fast WoW would have died if Arenas were based off who spent more real money? LoL requiring money to unlock certain items being available in the store?

And from a questing point of view, if you just did it to get good quick then why are you playing Diablo? The point of the game is the grind. The Mephisto runs in D2 are some of my favorite memories in gaming. It's the point of the game. To grind more, get good gear to grind more. It's a stupid, mind-numbingly enjoyable circle.

[dammage79]

So the Butcher was mega easy with the Barb build I described earlier. I think I just needed to get my Paragon Levels up to par.
Didn't even need to use a healing well! Thats never happened before.

[secol]

alot has to do with items too. i found a manald heal ring and it's been great because of the life regen. even if i get frozen i survive fairly well so i've been stacking life regen instead of life steal or even life on hit

[jammies]

I never understood the point of spending real money to buy items in a game the point of which is mostly to find items. It's like buying your own replica Stanley Cup and then declaring yourself Wayne Gretzky.

[Shawnski]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

The point of the game is the grind. The Mephisto runs in D2 are some of my favorite memories in gaming. It's the point of the game. To grind more, get good gear to grind more. It's a stupid, mind-numbingly enjoyable circle.

I completely concur with this. What I have a problem with is that the game has changed to the point where there really isn't a grind anymore. Playing an hour a day for a couple months or so then quitting isn't grinding. Expecting to get great drops in that time isn't realistic.

I found tons of upgrades by grinding. I also found gear for all my other characters. And lastly, I found other stuff that I could trade (via the auction house) for things I needed. Never spent a dime on it, and in fact pulled out quite a bid of cash.

Having played the new Loot 2.0 for a while now, it appears that they have compressed the grinding time down significantly, meaning you can get good gear far too easily... and less delta to the highest end gear.

IMHO, it will attract back some casuals for sure, but they likely will get bored just as quick.

For me, D3 missed the mark on a number of issues. The auction house wasn't a big one for me. Yes, they could have separated it onto a different server, ala Hardcore. With another server for ladder/Pvp and Loot 2.0 style drops. That COULD have addressed both groups, in theory.

I miss jewels. Gems alone are boring. I miss charms too. They could have had a "charm box" where you had a set amount of space for them, instead of in your characters personal inventory.

I liked finding and using MF gear. It didn't need to be nerfed to death. If you are using it, you aren't killing as fast, but then again, some people LIKED to be slow and methodical. It was just another avenue for gameplay.

The initial Inferno brick wall was easy to avoid IF Blizzard had used a little forethought. Dungeons historically had tougher characters and better drops. If they incorporated that into D3, you could have farmed Hell dungeons for a while THEN tackled Inferno. Would have been truer to the history.

They did finally fix one thing that pissed me right off. I LOVED frozen orb in D2 and was ticked that it wasn't in D3. "Didn't want everyone using it" was their mantra. Yet WW Barbs got BUFFED in D3 versus D2 (you could steer them, etc.) At least with RoS, they brought back Frozen Orb, but I am sure they will nerf it again.

Anyhoo... time to game! it IS cool meeting and playing with you folks.

[PsYcNeT]

Damn casuals, ruining our deep immersive game of clicking while occasionally pressing a hotkey.

[Thor]

So I decided to level up my wizard, its been so much fun very fast past leveling and I'm getting drops like crazy, epics galore, even a few legendary blacksmith plans.

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Alrighty. So I've spent a couple of days with my Barbarian and a few things.

I either really need to get my damage up for him or whirlwind is so dwarfed that it isn't even feasible to play Barbarian anymore.

Even Earthquake is gimped hard. I'm not sure what else to do . I do not really want to go into another build as I have the most fun with and Earthquake/Whirlwind build.

So my build is this:

Primary: Frenzy w/Maniac
Secondary: Whirlwind w/Wind Shear
Tactics: Warcry w/Invigorate
Defensive: Ignore Pain w/Ignorance is Bliss
Rage: Path of the Berserker w/Thrive on Chaos
Rage: Earthquake w/Molten Fury

Passive skills: Boon of Bul-Kathos , Weapons Master and Tough as Nails

That build you will not die....Ever......as long as you are in scores of mobs. Not the best build for single bosses like the Butcher though.

But I've found in this patch, there's piles of monsters to plow through and keep going.

Now this is where my issues with the Whirlwind dwarfing come in. I can sit there, full health and full fury (seriously, its never ending in this build) and take five to ten minutes on a pile of monsters. Really sucks and slows the progress down.

I have some really solid weapons and gear but my damage is at 81,361 but it feels like I'm in MP10 with MP3 damage. Really disappointing. I kind of feel they unbalanced Barbarian too much.

I'm having fun with a boulder barb.

Weapon Throw - Throwing Hammer
Furious Charge - Stamina
Leap - Call of Arreat
Ground Stomp - Wrenching Smash (or War Cry)
Battle Rage - Into the Fray
Ancient Spear - Boulder Toss
Weapons Master-Brawler-Unforgiving

I've been swapping in and out of skills and trying different runes but I like the current set up since I have a a plus physical skill bracers. With 20% cool down that I have thanks to my items and my paragon it's pretty easy to get max fury. Just use Leap or Ground Stomp to round up a bunch of monsters in a small location and then use Ancient Spear - Boulder Toss to kill them all. With the ability to get over 150 fury now using Boulder Toss can do over 3000% weapon damage. With The Three Hundredth Spear and some Ancient Spear boots I found I have an additional 60%+ to Ancient Spear damage.

Maybe not the most efficient because it doesn't have any additional speed built into and if the monsters aren't grouped it's not that effective it's still really fun right now.

[BloodFetish]

Finally I have installed the D3 copy my wife game me over a year ago, and joined the CP community. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing yet, or how to meet up with you guys.

My first character is a monk named Kiprusoff, and he's a zombie ass-kicker. I think I might just hang around New Tristram and kick zombie asses.

Time for bed now, but will be around tomorrow evening. If anyone else is noobish and starting a new character it would be fun to join a game together. So many zombies, so many asses to kick.

[dammage79]

Any area known where the recipe for Griswolds Masterpiece drops frequently?

Also, I've always wondered if there were areas where certain items dropped more frequently than others.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by BloodFetish

Finally I have installed the D3 copy my wife game me over a year ago, and joined the CP community. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing yet, or how to meet up with you guys.

My first character is a monk named Kiprusoff, and he's a zombie ass-kicker. I think I might just hang around New Tristram and kick zombie asses.

Time for bed now, but will be around tomorrow evening. If anyone else is noobish and starting a new character it would be fun to join a game together. So many zombies, so many asses to kick.

Well, the first run through is totally awesome. And with the EXP kick going on now you stand a good chance at hitting lvl 60 if you casually dedicated a couple of hours a day!

Man I wish I could do my first run over again. Had a ton of fun.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by dammage79

Any area known where the recipe for Griswolds Masterpiece drops frequently?

Also, I've always wondered if there were areas where certain items dropped more frequently than others.

I've got 2 pages for that recipe, and 6 Adventurers Journals, but of course no actual recipes. I've gone 3 days without getting a gear upgrade for my monk because of how many duplicate legendary items I get

[Oling_Roachinen]

After having no luck at all to coming close to a legendary that resembled usable I got about 3 in 15 minutes that were nice. A Stone of Jordan, which would have been awesome if it was physical instead of cold, a Leoric's Signet with decent enough stats that it's not a huge hindrance and a high strength Pox Fauld, although that's mostly for the novelty.

And Hemi-Cuda, I could be completely wrong, but I don't think any of the recipes for RoS are dropping. Just some of the materials they require. I think you've got pages for Griswold's Perfection which is a level 71 RoS item. Griswold's Masterpiece is a level 60 old weapon that now can roll really good but doesn't require anything fancy to create (just brimstone).

Anyways I plan on being on quite a bit tonight before the game, I should be in the Calgarypuck channel if anyone wants to play.

[photon]

I've got a level 15 amulet that I still haven't replaced at level 38 and might not ever, it has a special effect:

"Hitting an enemy within 15 yards has a chance to ward you with shards of arcane energy that explode when enemies get close, dealing 316% weapon damage as arcane to enemies within 15 yards."

And it will generate up to 4 shards, so that's 1200% weapon damage that triggers when enemies get close. It's crazy effective, I rarely feel like I have to worry about close up enemies despite being a wizard.

[Shawnski]

Photon, I have a CRAZY one hand crossbow for your DH. Touch base next time we are both on...

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen

Pox Fauld, although that's mostly for the novelty.

Actually changing my mind. My Pox Fauld's are pretty amazing. The defense stuff on them could be better but I get nearly 400 strength and it does 300% weapon damage every second whenever I jump into a big group of monsters. Since my current build is jumping into big group of monsters it works super well.


I'll be on today, I'm down for anything if anyone wants to play.

[ericschand]

nvm. No message

[photon]

So if there's an item that says "Lightning skills deal 15% more damage", is that accounted for when you hover over an item and it compares it to the item you are wearing?

I would think not but am not sure.

Just trying to figure out if I have an item that has lower +Int (for example) than another so that when compared it says -4% Damage but I can expect +15% damage when most of my skills are lightning based that I'm making the right choice.

[Shawnski]

Originally Posted by photon

So if there's an item that says "Lightning skills deal 15% more damage", is that accounted for when you hover over an item and it compares it to the item you are wearing?

I would think not but am not sure.

Just trying to figure out if I have an item that has lower +Int (for example) than another so that when compared it says -4% Damage but I can expect +15% damage when most of my skills are lightning based that I'm making the right choice.

I don't think it calculates it Photon. Just like I don't think a +% vs Elites would be considered.