Well good to know I'm screwed next season as a solo player without a lot of time. Gems won't be too bad, but GR 75 is out of reach this season and likely will be next season unless they power jump us again. All the others require groups or a shit ton of time grinding P levels and gear.
Bring back the strategical ones like The Thrill and the GR 55 with 6 class sets!
GR 75 solo will be beaten in first weekend by many players, its very easy now and will be below what many speedrun solo in s6.
All of these can achieved within first 20 hours tbh.
GR 75 solo will be beaten in first weekend by many players, its very easy now and will be below what many speedrun solo in s6.
All of these can achieved within first 20 hours tbh.
Easy, easy, I have to say it fast, because I can't go further than 62.. I have a really bad luck on drops..
Sorta off-topic, but... you could go much further with only a few enchantments on your gear. Re-roll vitality to damage% and gift the weapon for an emerald (or re-roll to socket if you don't have a gift). Re-roll vitality on your amulet to critical hit damage. Most importantly, get the six piece bonus of Helltooth set (especially equip pants, right now your Royal Grandeur Ring is wasted). Re-roll life on hit on bracers/gloves to vitality. Re-roll armor on helmet to vitality (or even better, get a new helmet like Helltooth or Mask of Jeram). Re-roll armor/vitality on rings to CHD/CHC, respectively. (Besides that - you've got a relatively odd combination of weapon, not-completed set, and items; I'm not a WD expert but I'd switch to something different here as well - Sacred Harvester is a decent go-to weapon in case you have one).
I'm not sure it's good to say "GR62 is easy", as that's not true for everyone. But for you it's just around the corner if you
make a few adjustments to build and gear. Good luck!
@Topic: Not everyone will get GR75. I for one probably won't even go for it because I find solo play utterly boring, and if I don't need to I won't do it. But most of my friends who *are* interested in solo play didn't actually get there. For example, cracking GR75 on DH or monk isn't that easy at all...
GR 75 solo will be beaten in first weekend by many players, its very easy now and will be below what many speedrun solo in s6.
All of these can achieved within first 20 hours tbh.
Easy, easy, I have to say it fast, because I can't go further than 62.. I have a really bad luck on drops..
Its probably not the drops tbh (if you have played like 30h+).
Looking at season4 (when we last had conquest for "high" solo gr).
Ppl beat gr60 (which was the conquest) on the 2nd day.
GR 75 solo will be beaten in first weekend by many players, its very easy now and will be below what many speedrun solo in s6.
All of these can achieved within first 20 hours tbh.
Easy, easy, I have to say it fast, because I can't go further than 62.. I have a really bad luck on drops..
I'm not sure it's good to say "GR62 is easy", as that's not true for everyone. But for you it's just around the corner if you
make a few adjustments to build and gear. Good luck!
@Topic: Not everyone will get GR75. I for one probably won't even go for it because I find solo play utterly boring, and if I don't need to I won't do it. But most of my friends who *are* interested in solo play didn't actually get there. For example, cracking GR75 on DH or monk isn't that easy at all...
Im no super fan of solo (for pushing/fishing) either, but the t10 wizard builds can do gr 65 in <5min consistent.
On current PTR iv seen ppl take exactly same build and run gr80 in 5min~ with moderate paragon and enchants.
Stupid crusaders are speedfarming gr80 solo already.
Id say that 75 next patch for many will be done just for bloodshard cap in first days and by week two its below speedrunning level.
Currently on EU GR 75 might (13min~) give you top1000 on monk, but no other class. And ppl are doing it at paragon 750~. With the powercreep and nerf to dmg for next patch it should be very easy.
But dont compare gr75 now vs gr75 next season.
I'm a bit disappointed by those conquests. You need 3 for the season journey and 2 of them are done just by playing the game normally. Conquests should be special achievements where you have to do something you wouldn't do normally, like a story speedrun or this boss rush. Even this cursed chest one is a good idea, because it has a high difficulty (seemingly).
But those 2 conquests that you get "for free" should be changed. I'd rather have the same conquests like the "reach GRift level XY without sets" from last season, than something dull like this.
I agree with you here entirely. The "level 3 gems to 65" conquest is the most dull and boring thing ever, it's similar to the "reach level 70" conquest in Season 1 which they said they would never repeat again. I think all conquests should be something that you *can* get along the way, but they require a little bit of special effort. GR75 solo... again, something you will pick up along the way, and a solo GR is already part of the season journey anyways. Might still be okay to have one of those, but I'd rather have it at least one more condition (like in The Thrill).
The 350 kills on Cursed Chest is a little bit better as it's not something you'll pick up "accidentally", at least I think I've never come close to 350 on any Cursed Chest ever (though I've never tried hard either). Similarly, the TX in 2 minutes usually requires no (or less) picking up stuff and a dedicated porter; I don't think more than a few hundred players will get this without actually trying because usually you lose a few seconds on looting and porting and stuff.
The Boss Mode conquest is the only real conquest this season. You have to focus to get it, and you can do it in a group (it's actually much easier in a group). You can also relatively easy "help" someone to get it - if one or two people already have the Conquest they can just be runners and set up the bosses (and decline the boss fights) which make this fairly easy. At the same time, this Conquest is ridiculously easy once you're well-geared; a full group of paragon 800+ players with two DPS and two runners should one-shot this. In S4, we did Boss Mode in 2 player HC (monk+WD) at around paragon 300 or 400 on first try (it was 30 minutes back then, think it took us 24 minutes or so).
As AtACarnivorus said, I'd love to have a Conquest with "wear only rare items". If you feel it's too hard you can just get more paragon and gem levels, simplifying it a lot.
I'm torn: On the one hand, many of the conquests are unimaginative and uninspired. On the other hand they're quite easy, so I'll try to finish at least four on the Season opening weekend. Will probably go non-season after that, since it's summer and I don't want to grind hundreds or paragon and gem levels and shit. I'd rather have BBQ while watching the EURO in the sun ;-)
a "use only rare items" conquest would be cool. But what grift is doable that way? 20? 30?
And legendary gems wouldn't be allowed as well in such a conquest, so you have only Plvls to make it easier.
Wudijo cleared a GR40 with "blue" items (they were yellow, but had blue values). Not sure what gem levels he had and how many paragon points he used (not all, that's for sure, maybe 800 max or none). So there's that... ;-)
a "use only rare items" conquest would be cool. But what grift is doable that way? 20? 30?
And legendary gems wouldn't be allowed as well in such a conquest, so you have only Plvls to make it easier.
Wudijo cleared a GR40 with "blue" items (they were yellow, but had blue values). Not sure what gem levels he had and how many paragon points he used (not all, that's for sure, maybe 800 max or none). So there's that... ;-)
i agree with the Conquests being kinda dull. Tbh, i wouldn't be "pushing" GR if it wasn't for them.
Strangely enough i like the 3 gems to 65, but not solo GR75 - maybe becuse i like running GR for a purpose but after that i lose every interest and leveling gems looks funnier than simply climbing the GR levels.
I'm "speedfarming" 65 right now just because i have like 90 keys to burn and i wanted to clean my inventory befor eseason ends (shard everything but sets and complementary gear, etc).
I would like more conquests like the Thrill and clear GR with different sets. Imho they push you towards item hunting, which is more fun to me.
EDIT: i liked also the "cube 100 things" and i'd really like to see stuff like "find all crusader shields/1hand xbows".
EDIT2: stuff like "kill all RG with X and Y items equipped"
I just noticed that someone on PTR solo'd the Boss Mode conquest. Paragon 271 WD. Here's a snapshot of his current gear (obviously not sure if that's the same he used for the conquest, but should be close enough). I assume swapping to Manajuma's Weapon for running to the bosses. Gems are super low (1/6/21), gear is not too bad for that level but also not awesome (see stats to the right). So yeah, that conquest isn't going to be a solo stopper. It's actually the only conquest anyone has completed (highest group GR is 55).
I just noticed that someone on PTR solo'd the Boss Mode conquest. Paragon 271 WD. Here's a snapshot of his current gear (obviously not sure if that's the same he used for the conquest, but should be close enough). I assume swapping to Manajuma's Weapon for running to the bosses. Gems are super low (1/6/21), gear is not too bad for that level but also not awesome (see stats to the right). So yeah, that conquest isn't going to be a solo stopper. It's actually the only conquest anyone has completed (highest group GR is 55).
I know boss mode can be soloed but the the hard part is getting to the bosses in the 1st place that's why it's hard to do solo!
I'm sick and tired of the requirements for the cool things being either heavy grind requirements or group requirements. Say what you want about high level grifting being "easy", I guess I'm from the old world of not just looking up a cookie cutter build for everything on day 1. We need more strategy, less grinding. More "play how you enjoy" and less "twisters or GTFO". And less "join a guild/play with friends or your fucked".
Obviously I'm not talking about high-end competition, as that will always scour for every P level and stat point, but season journey.
Honestly, I wouldn't even care if they didn't put the stash tab behind this wall. I'm perfectly fine ignoring leaderboards or achievements I don't want to do, but the stash space is important.
I'm sick and tired of the requirements for the cool things being either heavy grind requirements or group requirements. Say what you want about high level grifting being "easy", I guess I'm from the old world of not just looking up a cookie cutter build for everything on day 1. We need more strategy, less grinding. More "play how you enjoy" and less "twisters or GTFO". And less "join a guild/play with friends or your fucked".
Obviously I'm not talking about high-end competition, as that will always scour for every P level and stat point, but season journey.
Honestly, I wouldn't even care if they didn't put the stash tab behind this wall. I'm perfectly fine ignoring leaderboards or achievements I don't want to do, but the stash space is important.
A few things in reply, to clarify, but also justify:
We don't know the stash tab requirements yet, so it's too rant about this in my opinion.
The first season journey (in S4) was orders of magnitude more "grindy" and "group required" than in S5. They removed the "cube a million items" part which was the most grindiest thing ever.
You say you want "more strategy" but also more "play how you enjoy". Well, establishing a meta - something we've seen every season so far in D3 - is by definition also figuring out a strategy. It just so happens that the strategy is very narrow, but the main reason is because there's only very few people figuring out a strategy and 99.9% of people follow that. Public groups aren't willing to sacrifice 5-10 GR levels by deviating from the meta. We'll see if S6 will bring a bit more balance, but at the end of the day there will always be a "meta", and there will always be "cookie cutter" builds. That's what Blizzard already acknowledged as well, by the way.
The other part in your post refers to the eternal solo vs group debate. From all we've seen - and Wudijo had a nice thread with math about that - the gap between XP gain will be narrowed by a lot between groups and solo play. But most importantly, if you're a pure solo player and you want to get one, two, or all of the conquests in a season done, rest assured: across the board, the S6 conquests will be easier (far easier) than the S5 conquests. In fact, the most difficult conquest in season 6 will be the only solo conquest (solo a GR75) - even for solo players.
I re-emphasize: we don't know the stash tab requirements yet, so ranting about that is a bit too early. But none of the stash tab requirements in S5 was overly "grindy", and none of them were behind a "group wall". Yes, the conquests in S6 allow for more group play, but they're still easier than all the "solo only" conquests in S5, so that's a bit of an unjustified complaint. (The conquests are boring though, but not boring in a "grindy" kind of sense" - just boring in a "no strategy" way, since "The Thrill" got removed.)
I agree with you on the fact that they are more group oriented this go around. Killing the bosses with in 20 mins will also be super easy. as for the 350+ mobs most I have ever killed in the allowed time was around 225 so that one seems like its going to be hard. but should be doable with a group I would think all high dps since its only on TX which just means its all about the speed of the kill for that conquest.
Best way to try this is whit 4x multishot dh whit cinder and cubed Pride's Fall i assume.
4 SWK Firebell monks should be able to handle it as well. I've hit over 250 on Cursed chest events a few times this season solo with Firebell monk and in the next patch SWK is getting doubled!
It is true that we don't yet know what the stash will be guarded by yet in S6, but I'd rather argue about where it shouldn't be before it gets put there than try to get them to change it later. I did not play in S4, aside from hitting 70 for the transmog, so can't speak to comparisons there.
You say you want "more strategy" but also more "play how you enjoy". Well, establishing a meta - something we've seen every season so far in D3 - is by definition also figuring out a strategy. It just so happens that the strategy is very narrow, but the main reason is because there's only very few people figuring out a strategy and 99.9% of people follow that. Public groups aren't willing to sacrifice 5-10 GR levels by deviating from the meta. We'll see if S6 will bring a bit more balance, but at the end of the day there will always be a "meta", and there will always be "cookie cutter" builds. That's what Blizzard already acknowledged as well, by the way.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I know there will always be cookie cutter best builds, but I don't give 1 shit what the meta is. I don't give 1 shit what public groups do. I create my own builds in complete isolation from community theorycrafting. The problem is when the cookie cutter build is substantially more than the next best build. "But there will always be a best build!" is no excuse for not keeping the best in check and nerfing when it's far better than next best. Build crafting is the most fun part of the game, and is why I LOVED The Thrill and am working on Years of War. But I don't have the time to grind out the gems, P levels, and perfectly itemized gear to handle GR>68 or so. I am able to play on average 2-3 hours a week, which is barely enough to do a round of bounties, grind a couple GR keys, and use them.
I was super excited about the change to enemy damage, until I heard it doesn't even take effect til above my highest clear. There are too many hard and fast requirements in the game for damage reduction, like Orb of Infinite Depth and double Unity. But I think that's just an artifact of the stupid level of powercreep since S1. Now days if it doesn't have a massive multiplicative bonus, then it's essentially useless... With the power creep, diversity (below the competitive level, that is) has gone way down. IMO in large part because there are so few ways to keep your DR high enough to survive the rifts that class sets give the DPS to clear. I also think this is a large part of why conquests are pretty bland now - the power levels are so ridiculous, and favor so few builds, that ideas for challenges are more limited to "do it higher" or "do it faster". (Speed runs can kiss my ass too. It's a gameplay style i have less than no interest in, as it's too dependent on good RNG, but that's a different rant and is only of concern because the stash tab required it last time.)
I'd love nothing more than to go back to S1 power levels, but with today's design strategies for balancing team vs. solo play for XP and such. Hell, I made the leaderboards in both HC Malthael T6 kill and HC solo wiz GR tier that season and barely played 100 hours, even with my self-imposed penalty of not farming XP and gold in groups and using my own builds. Now, I'm quickly reaching the point where there's no reason to play, because I can't really accomplish anything without massively upping play time. I don't want that to happen - it's a great game at it's core.
"Seriously, I can't understand people sometimes. The one group complains that the game becomes boring after hundreds and thousands of hours and is unable to simply move on to another game. And on the other side there are players who barely put any time in this game and complain that they don't get to experience everything."
At no point in time did I complain that I can't experience everything. In fact, I said I'm perfectly happy to not experience a number of things. The issue is when something that everyone wants is guarded behind walls that require styles of play they hate (speed rifting, group play) or require time they just don't have. Namely the stash tab.
As to "using my time efficiently", it is more efficient for me to play to have fun than to spend the time I have playing in ways I hate. I'm not claiming that I want the game to be dumbed down or easier on the whole just so I can get all my stuff with no dedication. The power level scaling has killed diversity beyond "well, you can use a different class set...". In S1 I used a lightning torrent + blackthorne's build which was practically unheard of on the leaderboards, did it without playing a ton, and enjoyed the &*^% out of it. The same level of time investment today gets me to not even within 25GR of the leaderboards, a build that requires a full main class set and all it's pre-defined "helpers" and thus massively reduced my ability to have fun with the build, and made all the things that were fun to conquer before, like T6 (even the TX version) Soul of Evil, a cakewalk.
I'm not demanding I get everything for free (that's the crappiest kind of game anyway). Far from it. You know why I don't jump on the community meta build and immediately form a 4 player group with the best group meta? Because it makes it too damned easy. At that point, it's nothing but execution and grinding. All the fun has been drained from it. I love the more unusual conquests (when they don't involve doing something stupidly fast) because they make me think in interesting ways. It drives me nuts when game development is done with the assumption that all people want to do is mimic the top 10 players.
And finally, I don't spend a ton of time jumping around between wildly different builds. I start with an idea, usually determined by the first pieces of well-rolled gear I find, then keep building on it. Usually I'll have an idea from patch notes that I push it towards. I push very specifically towards this goal each time I log in. My comment about working on the other class sets was *after* I had finished everything for S5's stash tab except TX in 4 min. And that's the crux of the issue. Speedrifting is a gameplay style I can't stand, and requires either a lot of dedication to grinding or building to make work, or "cheating" and finding a group that's willing to get it for me. So, it pisses me off when I'm forced to do that for the stash tab. Pets, banners, borders, achievements, leaderboards, all these things I'm willing to shrug and move on without, but in a game that's supposed to be about the fun of builds, the stash tab is a near requirement.
While all these things would still bug me, if they don't hide the stash tab behind such things, I'll be content. It's not selfishness, it's calling out a bad design.
I guess they hate us solo players cause the'res only 2 conquests that are solo!
Theres currently, what, 8 builds that can regulary do TX rifts with just ok density in 2 minutes? This will be a significantly easiser piece of cake then ever before.
Guess ima have to roll DH, AGAIN. Although looks like I can do monk as well.
I guess they hate us solo players cause the'res only 2 conquests that are solo!
Theres currently, what, 8 builds that can regulary do TX rifts with just ok density in 2 minutes? This will be a significantly easiser piece of cake then ever before.
Guess ima have to roll DH, AGAIN. Although looks like I can do monk as well.
I would really like to know what these builds are then ... lol And what P-level and gem levels are we talking about here as well? 2 minutes is really not a lot of time especially with just ok density. I am not being smart. I really want to know. It probably would not be so bad if you did not have to chase down those darn orbs after killing an elite pack. They get lost in all the mobs and the clutter of all the skill effects. Not to mention the precious seconds you lose waiting to zone into the rift and the then putting on the homing pads and porting out (no dedicated porter doing solo like in groups that can start zoning before the RG is dead) then then the few seconds you lose waiting to zone into town and then the couple of seconds to get the the NPC to turn in.
I was face-melting TX using Quin's Flash Fire build but still took a really good density with a lot of elite packs and with the right pylons ti get it done under 3-minutes. The again I play solo so I am no where near the P-2000, level 100 gems that many people have. For the "average" player (whatever that may be) sub 2-minute TX will be impossible solo.
Still, I would like to know the builds so I can prepare.
I always found TX in 2 minutes pretty hard to solo - casual player, low para, etc etc.
Anyway with just another friend with me we did it very easily - most of the time in solo is lost due to the port to town -> click to the spirit thing. In two you just melt stuff and as soon the guardian pops, the one who's far from it ports and closes while the other guy kills the guardian.
Really, it doesn't take much more than this.
While i can see the points of pure solo players about a lot of things, i don't think that spending a little time with another player who's wanting to do the same conquest will ruin your game experience at a so fundamental level.
As a mostly solo player, i'm happy that the XP disparity is being dealt and every season the difference is smaller.
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All of these can achieved within first 20 hours tbh.
Sorta off-topic, but... you could go much further with only a few enchantments on your gear. Re-roll vitality to damage% and gift the weapon for an emerald (or re-roll to socket if you don't have a gift). Re-roll vitality on your amulet to critical hit damage. Most importantly, get the six piece bonus of Helltooth set (especially equip pants, right now your Royal Grandeur Ring is wasted). Re-roll life on hit on bracers/gloves to vitality. Re-roll armor on helmet to vitality (or even better, get a new helmet like Helltooth or Mask of Jeram). Re-roll armor/vitality on rings to CHD/CHC, respectively. (Besides that - you've got a relatively odd combination of weapon, not-completed set, and items; I'm not a WD expert but I'd switch to something different here as well - Sacred Harvester is a decent go-to weapon in case you have one).
I'm not sure it's good to say "GR62 is easy", as that's not true for everyone. But for you it's just around the corner if you
make a few adjustments to build and gear. Good luck!
@Topic: Not everyone will get GR75. I for one probably won't even go for it because I find solo play utterly boring, and if I don't need to I won't do it. But most of my friends who *are* interested in solo play didn't actually get there. For example, cracking GR75 on DH or monk isn't that easy at all...
Looking at season4 (when we last had conquest for "high" solo gr).
Ppl beat gr60 (which was the conquest) on the 2nd day.
Im no super fan of solo (for pushing/fishing) either, but the t10 wizard builds can do gr 65 in <5min consistent.
On current PTR iv seen ppl take exactly same build and run gr80 in 5min~ with moderate paragon and enchants.
Stupid crusaders are speedfarming gr80 solo already.
Id say that 75 next patch for many will be done just for bloodshard cap in first days and by week two its below speedrunning level.
Currently on EU GR 75 might (13min~) give you top1000 on monk, but no other class. And ppl are doing it at paragon 750~. With the powercreep and nerf to dmg for next patch it should be very easy.
But dont compare gr75 now vs gr75 next season.
The 350 kills on Cursed Chest is a little bit better as it's not something you'll pick up "accidentally", at least I think I've never come close to 350 on any Cursed Chest ever (though I've never tried hard either). Similarly, the TX in 2 minutes usually requires no (or less) picking up stuff and a dedicated porter; I don't think more than a few hundred players will get this without actually trying because usually you lose a few seconds on looting and porting and stuff.
The Boss Mode conquest is the only real conquest this season. You have to focus to get it, and you can do it in a group (it's actually much easier in a group). You can also relatively easy "help" someone to get it - if one or two people already have the Conquest they can just be runners and set up the bosses (and decline the boss fights) which make this fairly easy. At the same time, this Conquest is ridiculously easy once you're well-geared; a full group of paragon 800+ players with two DPS and two runners should one-shot this. In S4, we did Boss Mode in 2 player HC (monk+WD) at around paragon 300 or 400 on first try (it was 30 minutes back then, think it took us 24 minutes or so).
As AtACarnivorus said, I'd love to have a Conquest with "wear only rare items". If you feel it's too hard you can just get more paragon and gem levels, simplifying it a lot.
I'm torn: On the one hand, many of the conquests are unimaginative and uninspired. On the other hand they're quite easy, so I'll try to finish at least four on the Season opening weekend. Will probably go non-season after that, since it's summer and I don't want to grind hundreds or paragon and gem levels and shit. I'd rather have BBQ while watching the EURO in the sun ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5eKV7P3ib0
Ill just leave this here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdMX67ltx9o
Make it kinda rofl that some can't beat the thrill with ancient legendary items.
No legendary gems would make it harder, but Id not be surprised to see gr55~ in yellows =D
i agree with the Conquests being kinda dull. Tbh, i wouldn't be "pushing" GR if it wasn't for them.
Strangely enough i like the 3 gems to 65, but not solo GR75 - maybe becuse i like running GR for a purpose but after that i lose every interest and leveling gems looks funnier than simply climbing the GR levels.
I'm "speedfarming" 65 right now just because i have like 90 keys to burn and i wanted to clean my inventory befor eseason ends (shard everything but sets and complementary gear, etc).
I would like more conquests like the Thrill and clear GR with different sets. Imho they push you towards item hunting, which is more fun to me.
EDIT: i liked also the "cube 100 things" and i'd really like to see stuff like "find all crusader shields/1hand xbows".
EDIT2: stuff like "kill all RG with X and Y items equipped"
I just noticed that someone on PTR solo'd the Boss Mode conquest. Paragon 271 WD. Here's a snapshot of his current gear (obviously not sure if that's the same he used for the conquest, but should be close enough). I assume swapping to Manajuma's Weapon for running to the bosses. Gems are super low (1/6/21), gear is not too bad for that level but also not awesome (see stats to the right). So yeah, that conquest isn't going to be a solo stopper. It's actually the only conquest anyone has completed (highest group GR is 55).
I'm sick and tired of the requirements for the cool things being either heavy grind requirements or group requirements. Say what you want about high level grifting being "easy", I guess I'm from the old world of not just looking up a cookie cutter build for everything on day 1. We need more strategy, less grinding. More "play how you enjoy" and less "twisters or GTFO". And less "join a guild/play with friends or your fucked".
Obviously I'm not talking about high-end competition, as that will always scour for every P level and stat point, but season journey.
Honestly, I wouldn't even care if they didn't put the stash tab behind this wall. I'm perfectly fine ignoring leaderboards or achievements I don't want to do, but the stash space is important.
I re-emphasize: we don't know the stash tab requirements yet, so ranting about that is a bit too early. But none of the stash tab requirements in S5 was overly "grindy", and none of them were behind a "group wall". Yes, the conquests in S6 allow for more group play, but they're still easier than all the "solo only" conquests in S5, so that's a bit of an unjustified complaint. (The conquests are boring though, but not boring in a "grindy" kind of sense" - just boring in a "no strategy" way, since "The Thrill" got removed.)
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I know there will always be cookie cutter best builds, but I don't give 1 shit what the meta is. I don't give 1 shit what public groups do. I create my own builds in complete isolation from community theorycrafting. The problem is when the cookie cutter build is substantially more than the next best build. "But there will always be a best build!" is no excuse for not keeping the best in check and nerfing when it's far better than next best. Build crafting is the most fun part of the game, and is why I LOVED The Thrill and am working on Years of War. But I don't have the time to grind out the gems, P levels, and perfectly itemized gear to handle GR>68 or so. I am able to play on average 2-3 hours a week, which is barely enough to do a round of bounties, grind a couple GR keys, and use them.
I was super excited about the change to enemy damage, until I heard it doesn't even take effect til above my highest clear. There are too many hard and fast requirements in the game for damage reduction, like Orb of Infinite Depth and double Unity. But I think that's just an artifact of the stupid level of powercreep since S1. Now days if it doesn't have a massive multiplicative bonus, then it's essentially useless... With the power creep, diversity (below the competitive level, that is) has gone way down. IMO in large part because there are so few ways to keep your DR high enough to survive the rifts that class sets give the DPS to clear. I also think this is a large part of why conquests are pretty bland now - the power levels are so ridiculous, and favor so few builds, that ideas for challenges are more limited to "do it higher" or "do it faster". (Speed runs can kiss my ass too. It's a gameplay style i have less than no interest in, as it's too dependent on good RNG, but that's a different rant and is only of concern because the stash tab required it last time.)
I'd love nothing more than to go back to S1 power levels, but with today's design strategies for balancing team vs. solo play for XP and such. Hell, I made the leaderboards in both HC Malthael T6 kill and HC solo wiz GR tier that season and barely played 100 hours, even with my self-imposed penalty of not farming XP and gold in groups and using my own builds. Now, I'm quickly reaching the point where there's no reason to play, because I can't really accomplish anything without massively upping play time. I don't want that to happen - it's a great game at it's core.
Confirmation is already out for patch 2.4.1 likely meaning season 6 start date is Apr 29th as many of us assumed:
"These items are now granted automatically, and will be available on April 26. The items affected, and their availability, are as follows:"
"Please note that these changes will only be active after a player has updated their game to patch 2.4.1"
"This is their info for console, but console and pc patches have and always will come out on the same week."
"Seriously, I can't understand people sometimes. The one group complains that the game becomes boring after hundreds and thousands of hours and is unable to simply move on to another game. And on the other side there are players who barely put any time in this game and complain that they don't get to experience everything."
At no point in time did I complain that I can't experience everything. In fact, I said I'm perfectly happy to not experience a number of things. The issue is when something that everyone wants is guarded behind walls that require styles of play they hate (speed rifting, group play) or require time they just don't have. Namely the stash tab.
As to "using my time efficiently", it is more efficient for me to play to have fun than to spend the time I have playing in ways I hate. I'm not claiming that I want the game to be dumbed down or easier on the whole just so I can get all my stuff with no dedication. The power level scaling has killed diversity beyond "well, you can use a different class set...". In S1 I used a lightning torrent + blackthorne's build which was practically unheard of on the leaderboards, did it without playing a ton, and enjoyed the &*^% out of it. The same level of time investment today gets me to not even within 25GR of the leaderboards, a build that requires a full main class set and all it's pre-defined "helpers" and thus massively reduced my ability to have fun with the build, and made all the things that were fun to conquer before, like T6 (even the TX version) Soul of Evil, a cakewalk.
I'm not demanding I get everything for free (that's the crappiest kind of game anyway). Far from it. You know why I don't jump on the community meta build and immediately form a 4 player group with the best group meta? Because it makes it too damned easy. At that point, it's nothing but execution and grinding. All the fun has been drained from it. I love the more unusual conquests (when they don't involve doing something stupidly fast) because they make me think in interesting ways. It drives me nuts when game development is done with the assumption that all people want to do is mimic the top 10 players.
And finally, I don't spend a ton of time jumping around between wildly different builds. I start with an idea, usually determined by the first pieces of well-rolled gear I find, then keep building on it. Usually I'll have an idea from patch notes that I push it towards. I push very specifically towards this goal each time I log in. My comment about working on the other class sets was *after* I had finished everything for S5's stash tab except TX in 4 min. And that's the crux of the issue. Speedrifting is a gameplay style I can't stand, and requires either a lot of dedication to grinding or building to make work, or "cheating" and finding a group that's willing to get it for me. So, it pisses me off when I'm forced to do that for the stash tab. Pets, banners, borders, achievements, leaderboards, all these things I'm willing to shrug and move on without, but in a game that's supposed to be about the fun of builds, the stash tab is a near requirement.
While all these things would still bug me, if they don't hide the stash tab behind such things, I'll be content. It's not selfishness, it's calling out a bad design.
Guess ima have to roll DH, AGAIN. Although looks like I can do monk as well.
I don't really care if the conquests are interesting. I just want my stash :).
I was face-melting TX using Quin's Flash Fire build but still took a really good density with a lot of elite packs and with the right pylons ti get it done under 3-minutes. The again I play solo so I am no where near the P-2000, level 100 gems that many people have. For the "average" player (whatever that may be) sub 2-minute TX will be impossible solo.
Still, I would like to know the builds so I can prepare.
I always found TX in 2 minutes pretty hard to solo - casual player, low para, etc etc.
Anyway with just another friend with me we did it very easily - most of the time in solo is lost due to the port to town -> click to the spirit thing. In two you just melt stuff and as soon the guardian pops, the one who's far from it ports and closes while the other guy kills the guardian.
Really, it doesn't take much more than this.
While i can see the points of pure solo players about a lot of things, i don't think that spending a little time with another player who's wanting to do the same conquest will ruin your game experience at a so fundamental level.
As a mostly solo player, i'm happy that the XP disparity is being dealt and every season the difference is smaller.