I got sick of the game mechanics and forum bickering a long time ago and decided to step away. Not long after, I had a medical situation and was away longer than I meant to be. I'm pleasantly surprised to step back in and see:
1. No more bickering being the main forum threads.
2. Massively less "cookie-cutter" talk.
I've checked the FAQ thread. Any others you would recommend for someone trying it out to see if I want to buy the expansion?
i'd recommend just watching streams, it's the best way to see what the "endgame" is and what there is to do.
Oh, I'd be careful with that. I mean, for some people streams might definitely be useful, but OP was talking about "less cookie cutter talk" and if you watch streams, the huge majority is actually running cookie cutter builds. Plus, streamers often cherish a particular playstyle that is very much about efficiency, and that's not everyone's cup of tea. To me, OP doesn't sound like that at all (otherwise he'd probably be asking for cookie cutter builds).
@OP: If you ask for advice whether or not to play the game, I'd be most interested in your playstyle. The most drastic change in D3, in my opinion, is that it changed from "P2win" in D3V to "self-found" - and that is a change that not everyone likes. It means that you either have to invest a lot of time, and I mean A LOT if you want to have a perfectly geared character, or you just take what you get and create a build based around your loot. You'll see some guides and threads popping up with an introduction like "for this build to work, you need 4 pieces of set X" or "weapon Y is required for this build"; the thing with RoS is that you might play forever and never find that set or weapon. If you can live with that, RoS is great because it has the chance to change your mindset in two ways: 1) No one will look at your character and say "wow, this is really bad, you should really get/buy weapon XY". Your character is just as good as the items you find, but it's also (somewhat) unique. There's a high chance other people playing the same class will not have the same items, the same build, and the same playstyle as you do. 2) If you eventually find one of those elusive rare items or even get a 4 piece or 6 piece set bonus, you feel really really lucky about it. It's something to look forward to.
The style you describe is how my friends and I played Diablo and D2. We ran around together on a LAN game and just played with builds that seemed fun. If it worked, we'd keep it a while. If it didn't, we'd try to figure out if certain stats might fix it (but we weren't really theorycrafters ourselves) and make a mental note if we wanted to try it again later...or just move on to the next build. D2, of course, made swapping builds harder, until we learned hex editing. We played LAN only and only reset our builds, but that was all we wanted. Traded gear among the three of us and if it didn't drop, who cared. Lacking that gear didn't stop us from having fun, it would have just made us more efficient if we did get it some day. We liked doing it "right", but if it had to be "right enough" due to luck, it was ok, as long as it still felt rewarding and fun. I do tend to be competitive, but never cared about ladders, for instance. I was more interested in understanding the mechanics and "why" to do things a certain way.
The type of info I was hoping for is maybe more generic, e.g.:
Barb + x gear works well with fire, get y number of defensive skills, focus z paragon
Just general guidelines for synergies. I like to play all classes, bit of an altoholic. I tooled around a bit in game and on the site before posting. There are clearly a LOT of changes. My barb, for safety's sake, I used a lot of self heal talents + the LOH gear he had from way back. Most times that seemed it was too cautious and hp didn't move, but other times it ping-ponged a lot. Hard to judge.
The type of info I was hoping for is maybe more generic, e.g.:
Barb + x gear works well with fire, get y number of defensive skills, focus z paragon
Just general guidelines for synergies. I like to play all classes, bit of an altoholic. I tooled around a bit in game and on the site before posting. There are clearly a LOT of changes. My barb, for safety's sake, I used a lot of self heal talents + the LOH gear he had from way back. Most times that seemed it was too cautious and hp didn't move, but other times it ping-ponged a lot. Hard to judge.
There are some things in here:
1) Being an altoholic in D3 ties into the discussion we have over here. If you only play in "mirror class groups", i.e., all your friends play the same class, and you're only getting "smart loot" (85% of your loot is particularly suited towards your class) you'll have a hard time gearing up your twinks unless you play them. If you switch between all classes and don't intend to gear up all 6 classes by only playing your barb, and/or if you play with well-equipped friends who give their gear (duplicate legendaries) to you, gearing up twinks is actually really easy. But obviously, it will take a much longer time to reach Torment 6 quality (if ever). Some people get to Torment 6 with playing 100 hours; I've played my wizard for 250 or 300 hours since launch and I still struggle on Torment 5 (but I'm also not lucky in terms of class-specific RNG). On the other hand, all my twinks are ready for Torment, my WD even Torment 4.
TL;DR here: unless you play solo, one class only, and are not satisfied unless you can farm T6, RoS isn't too bad for altoholics.
2) Unlike in D3V, it is kind of hard to mess up a build. I'll describe this from a wizard point of view: in D3V there were two wizard builds that were viable in endgame (CMWW and Archon) with only very little variation. There were a couple of builds (like Sleet Storm or Disintegrate) that worked to a certain extent; they weren't really viable for higher MP levels, but if you didn't mind being "inefficient" they were an alternative to the two-spec-boredom. And then there was a million ways to completely mess up your class by choosing skills/specs that totally don't work. In RoS, the situation looks different: you have a handful of builds that work really well - but what enables you to tackle higher difficulties is less your build and more your gear. Build and gear have to match in order to get to Torment 6. And since combinations of awesome gear are still rare, there's still potential for a new, undiscovered (or not commonly known) endgame build to be discovered by you. Then, there are many builds that work no matter the gear. Unless you run multiple signature spells or too many spenders (or no signature/spenders), it's hard to completely mess up a build. And even there are exceptions; with certain legendaries you can turn your signature spells into main DD and get rid of spenders (Mirrorball), and with certain gear combinations you might be able to forego signature spells completely (Arcane Torrent with high resource cost reduction, APoC, and low attack speed). In the end, there's lot of crazy stuff that "works". For example, I played a Witch Doctor build with all six spells being cooldown spells on Saturday night - and it actually worked, wrecked things on Torment 3! Not very efficient, but who cares. It was fun.
TL;DR: Still not exactly sure what the generic answer you're looking for, but usually you look at which gear you get (type of elemental damage, legendary affixes that change spells/runes) and from there you pick your spec. Paragon works nice to fill gaps in gearing, so does the Mystic ("oh, I need some cooldown reduction, let me enchant these items here").
For example, I found this amulet the other day, so there's no question about which kind of spells my Demon Hunter will be using. I don't care if fire spells are better or used by most Demon Hunters right now; this amulet defines which spells/runes I pick. No cookie cutter "fire" build will be better than my physical damage build unless I find a similar amulet with fire damage.
For example, I found this amulet the other day, so there's no question about which kind of spells my Demon Hunter will be using. I don't care if fire spells are better or used by most Demon Hunters right now; this amulet defines which spells/runes I pick. No cookie cutter "fire" build will be better than my physical damage build unless I find a similar amulet with fire damage.
First, gratz on that almost perfect amulet!
But please allow me to nitpick a little:
I think that this is not a good example for someone who hasn't played RoS so far, because it is only good and not build-defining imo. Sure, you're one BiS-piece closer to a perfect physical setup than to any other, but the real build-changers are items like Kridershot, Wand of Woh or Mirrorball, just to name a few. These items alter the functionality of skills, thus contributing so much more to a different style of gameplay than any statstick like this amulet, however perfect it might be.
And btw, I think, the amulet slot is really lacking. Maybe they should move the Hellfire quest to this slot (with a meaningful bonus stat) and away from the crowded ring slot.
That amulet is one step towards a pet build. Add the 3 wolf chest and it's a great step. Go crazy and go for a Marauders setand get it all, or forever be looking for it...:P
Items like that amulet are much easier to obtain than a Kridershot, a Mirrorball, or a Wand of Woh - actually, you might never get them unless you play a lot. That's why I decided to add this example; notice that I brought up Mirrorball earlier. You might play a 100 hours before you find a really build-defining rare legendary, and until then those less rarer items (some elemental type bracers) define your current build.
It's difficult to give an unbiased and honest review about RoS. A week ago I was very close of quitting because I made no progress for many weeks; a few drops on Friday turned this around for me. It's actually exactly how it was in D2 for me as a "non-trader": If I didn't get any good drops I just stopped playing, because I never did any public trading, but I knew that a couple of month later I'd be back. Unless they bring back trading, I know it'll be the same for me in RoS. When they bring back trading such that it makes the drop rates go down again (as they did for the AH), it'll kill the fun for me. My accumulated playtime since 2.0.1 is higher than my entire playtime of the previous 20 months of D3. No matter what happens with RoS in the future, I think that's telling enough that RoS, in its current form, was already a success for me, a better game than D3V by far, and really close to my experience as a D2/D1 non-trading player (except for trading with friends).
If OP would've started with a brief history of him being an avid D2JSP trader, my review would've been completely different, by the way. I think most people who did extensive trading in D2 (or PvPing) are not the target audience of Diablo 3 right now (maybe never, maybe with the next expansion, who knows).
It definitely sounds like you understand my preferred playstyle.
I just had to wing it on my barb, wiz, and a new crusader. Since they were stuck in old D3V gear, there wasn't much help there. Thankfully, drops are much more rewarding now. A few simple +cold dmg or +holy dmg pieces that are meh, but fun have dropped. Once I have two pieces that complement each other, I pick builds. Sounds like my instincts are putting me similar to what you describe, Bagstone.
Crusader is mid 20's with a holy ranged build justice/blessed shield. Feels fun and unique to be a tanky ranged and works in easy leveling at least.
Wizard is cold. Not any great drops for him but +cold amulet, and it's fun to not be constantly kiting. The old wizard "stop and die" got old fast. Probably more a function of the ease of content than build at this point, but we'll see.
Barb is running fire for pure damage still looking for defining rares/legendaries. Some cleave/revenge pieces so running a build on that.
The rest really hasn't been touched since my return. sifu#1756. Feedback welcomed!
Well after the enthusiastic comments from Bagstone, here is the other side of the coin...
No more trading. You only play with the loot you get. If that legendary you have an eye on does not drop, or if your drop luck is bad, your friends will be running T3 while you are still struggling in master. And they cant even help you. The only thing around this is time. Lots and lots of time. And then more time. Doing nothing but mindles grinding.
And then all the promises about the loot improvements. Legendaries with affixes that "change your entire game"? Bollocks. I have found 100+ legendaries since RoS and they are all glorified rares with slightly more stats. I KNOW that there are others out there with cool effects, but guess what, they dont drop for me and I cant trade for them. Rares are exactly where they were before RoS, you salvage 99% of them without looking twice.
And the promises about getting rid of trifectas. Yeah, now we have quintfectas but only 4 stat slots per item, so you have the great "pleasure" of "choosing" which one of the 5 you dont take per slot. Yupijeah. Apart from that you still want the same stats as before RoS, %damage vs elites is still the most important damage stat by far, everybody is still putting emeralds into their weapon sockets. Oh and yeah, weapons without sockets are still salvage fodder right away, no matter how good they are.
Yes, you will get drops that are upgrades till you are at lvl 70 and all your gear are ok-ish rares. But then it stops just as suddenly as before loot 2.0.
See that all these comments rotate around gear and how often you get upgrades? Yeah, that is right, there is still absolutely no endgame in D3. No pvp, no ladders, nothing. All you can do is get gear to grind more difficult monsters to grind more gear. It's even the same gameplay all the time cause you always play on a difficulty that is gear appropriate. So except that the numbers get slightly higher, you notice almost no difference when ramping up "difficulty".
tl:dr : its a cute little bash em up game, but if you are interested in any competitive aspect or if you enjoy planning your char ahead, you better look for another game.
Well, just to prove my point, after two weeks of rifting and spending every last blood shard on helmets with my witch doctor. I was hoping for that mask with % pet damage. I finally get it from Kamala, but the bitch gives me the set version, not the legendary version. I could punch holes in my screen right now.
This game is fucking rng shit for people who can play all day. If you cant spend at least 10 hours a day on this game, say bye bye to planning anything ahead or getting items you actually want. This is casual rng shit in extreme. The only way to beat the rng is by throwing more time at it than at a full time job.
I have been playing online games for 15 years and never cheated in a single one of them. D3 makes me wanna install a bot cause i just cant stand that fucking mindless grinding any more. And then, after dozends of hours, you get "rewarded" with a fucking useles shit item.
i'm with you on this, ever since i switch back to my barb after decently gearing all 6 characters i have been farming for that elusive MotE set for over two weeks now, grinding almost 35-40 hours per week. it came to a point last Thursday i almost decided to take a break from the grind because of 2 shoulders set items that drop for me, guess what it was that useless "invokers", 2 IK helm and nothing of the EQ set.
RnG appease me, i was able to complete the Raekor set as a consolation that i mess playing around during the course of the day and luckily i got to loot the MotE shoulders playing the "Charge" build that i have to respecc into a fire build to make it more effecient.
To the OP, what we are saying is you need to have to have lots of time and patience to farm for gears or any specific legendaries you're after. My barb started with mix/match gears, went to BK set(WW), lightning(TF/Odyn/Tvigors), Raekor and hopefully EQ/IK combi set.
What you two describe is the typical phenomenon of "I've invested X hours, so I deserve to get item Y". Unless you did trading in D2 (which most people didn't), this was never true in Diablo games. You two seem to be different than OP and me. I know from my experience in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 (no public trading) that you can play forever and never get item X. In fact, even now RoS is better than that because you can join communities/groups to specifically farm an item (if other players have it already they give it to you when it drops for them again), or gamble at Kadala (which is so much more promising than gambling in D2 ever was).
Again, please don't derail your thread. It's your opinion and it's fine to have an opinion, but the OP of this thread has a completely different mindset and so your reviews of the game are more or less irrelevant for his decision. You are not entitled to get any specific item in Diablo. RNG has always been a part of the game, and if you can't deal with it, it's not your game. But it's certainly a game for OP as far as I can tell.
I don't play to have a specific item. Even if I did, I want that to be hard so that I don't have all the items I want in the first 30-60 days and then there's no point in playing.
Having said that, I have mentioned "rewarding" several times. However, to say I've played x hours, I deserve specific Z reward defeats my idea of what Diablo as a franchise is. I do believe when you've played for X hours, you should be rewarded. That was a failing with D3V, IMO. In D3V, your only real reward for x hours was a trip to the AH which felt like hex editing the gear onto your toon. It ruined it for me.
If they don't keep the current Anniversary Drop rate in Rifts -- I would say avoid the game. The only time this game has really been enjoyable for me and my clan has been since last Thursday when it began. Many are already saying they won't play past the end date.
Going back to a legend drop system that feels like your are searching for a needle in a haystack just to get the same 2-handed ax over and over isn't appealing once you've actually seen legends drop at a rate that the piece you really want doesn't seem so darn impossible to find.
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1. No more bickering being the main forum threads.
2. Massively less "cookie-cutter" talk.
I've checked the FAQ thread. Any others you would recommend for someone trying it out to see if I want to buy the expansion?
Oh, I'd be careful with that. I mean, for some people streams might definitely be useful, but OP was talking about "less cookie cutter talk" and if you watch streams, the huge majority is actually running cookie cutter builds. Plus, streamers often cherish a particular playstyle that is very much about efficiency, and that's not everyone's cup of tea. To me, OP doesn't sound like that at all (otherwise he'd probably be asking for cookie cutter builds).
@OP: If you ask for advice whether or not to play the game, I'd be most interested in your playstyle. The most drastic change in D3, in my opinion, is that it changed from "P2win" in D3V to "self-found" - and that is a change that not everyone likes. It means that you either have to invest a lot of time, and I mean A LOT if you want to have a perfectly geared character, or you just take what you get and create a build based around your loot. You'll see some guides and threads popping up with an introduction like "for this build to work, you need 4 pieces of set X" or "weapon Y is required for this build"; the thing with RoS is that you might play forever and never find that set or weapon. If you can live with that, RoS is great because it has the chance to change your mindset in two ways: 1) No one will look at your character and say "wow, this is really bad, you should really get/buy weapon XY". Your character is just as good as the items you find, but it's also (somewhat) unique. There's a high chance other people playing the same class will not have the same items, the same build, and the same playstyle as you do. 2) If you eventually find one of those elusive rare items or even get a 4 piece or 6 piece set bonus, you feel really really lucky about it. It's something to look forward to.
The style you describe is how my friends and I played Diablo and D2. We ran around together on a LAN game and just played with builds that seemed fun. If it worked, we'd keep it a while. If it didn't, we'd try to figure out if certain stats might fix it (but we weren't really theorycrafters ourselves) and make a mental note if we wanted to try it again later...or just move on to the next build. D2, of course, made swapping builds harder, until we learned hex editing. We played LAN only and only reset our builds, but that was all we wanted. Traded gear among the three of us and if it didn't drop, who cared. Lacking that gear didn't stop us from having fun, it would have just made us more efficient if we did get it some day. We liked doing it "right", but if it had to be "right enough" due to luck, it was ok, as long as it still felt rewarding and fun. I do tend to be competitive, but never cared about ladders, for instance. I was more interested in understanding the mechanics and "why" to do things a certain way.
The type of info I was hoping for is maybe more generic, e.g.:
Barb + x gear works well with fire, get y number of defensive skills, focus z paragon
Just general guidelines for synergies. I like to play all classes, bit of an altoholic. I tooled around a bit in game and on the site before posting. There are clearly a LOT of changes. My barb, for safety's sake, I used a lot of self heal talents + the LOH gear he had from way back. Most times that seemed it was too cautious and hp didn't move, but other times it ping-ponged a lot. Hard to judge.
Thanks for all the input so far.
1) Being an altoholic in D3 ties into the discussion we have over here. If you only play in "mirror class groups", i.e., all your friends play the same class, and you're only getting "smart loot" (85% of your loot is particularly suited towards your class) you'll have a hard time gearing up your twinks unless you play them. If you switch between all classes and don't intend to gear up all 6 classes by only playing your barb, and/or if you play with well-equipped friends who give their gear (duplicate legendaries) to you, gearing up twinks is actually really easy. But obviously, it will take a much longer time to reach Torment 6 quality (if ever). Some people get to Torment 6 with playing 100 hours; I've played my wizard for 250 or 300 hours since launch and I still struggle on Torment 5 (but I'm also not lucky in terms of class-specific RNG). On the other hand, all my twinks are ready for Torment, my WD even Torment 4.
TL;DR here: unless you play solo, one class only, and are not satisfied unless you can farm T6, RoS isn't too bad for altoholics.
2) Unlike in D3V, it is kind of hard to mess up a build. I'll describe this from a wizard point of view: in D3V there were two wizard builds that were viable in endgame (CMWW and Archon) with only very little variation. There were a couple of builds (like Sleet Storm or Disintegrate) that worked to a certain extent; they weren't really viable for higher MP levels, but if you didn't mind being "inefficient" they were an alternative to the two-spec-boredom. And then there was a million ways to completely mess up your class by choosing skills/specs that totally don't work. In RoS, the situation looks different: you have a handful of builds that work really well - but what enables you to tackle higher difficulties is less your build and more your gear. Build and gear have to match in order to get to Torment 6. And since combinations of awesome gear are still rare, there's still potential for a new, undiscovered (or not commonly known) endgame build to be discovered by you. Then, there are many builds that work no matter the gear. Unless you run multiple signature spells or too many spenders (or no signature/spenders), it's hard to completely mess up a build. And even there are exceptions; with certain legendaries you can turn your signature spells into main DD and get rid of spenders (Mirrorball), and with certain gear combinations you might be able to forego signature spells completely (Arcane Torrent with high resource cost reduction, APoC, and low attack speed). In the end, there's lot of crazy stuff that "works". For example, I played a Witch Doctor build with all six spells being cooldown spells on Saturday night - and it actually worked, wrecked things on Torment 3! Not very efficient, but who cares. It was fun.
TL;DR: Still not exactly sure what the generic answer you're looking for, but usually you look at which gear you get (type of elemental damage, legendary affixes that change spells/runes) and from there you pick your spec. Paragon works nice to fill gaps in gearing, so does the Mystic ("oh, I need some cooldown reduction, let me enchant these items here").
For example, I found this amulet the other day, so there's no question about which kind of spells my Demon Hunter will be using. I don't care if fire spells are better or used by most Demon Hunters right now; this amulet defines which spells/runes I pick. No cookie cutter "fire" build will be better than my physical damage build unless I find a similar amulet with fire damage.
But please allow me to nitpick a little:
I think that this is not a good example for someone who hasn't played RoS so far, because it is only good and not build-defining imo. Sure, you're one BiS-piece closer to a perfect physical setup than to any other, but the real build-changers are items like Kridershot, Wand of Woh or Mirrorball, just to name a few. These items alter the functionality of skills, thus contributing so much more to a different style of gameplay than any statstick like this amulet, however perfect it might be.
And btw, I think, the amulet slot is really lacking. Maybe they should move the Hellfire quest to this slot (with a meaningful bonus stat) and away from the crowded ring slot.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Sol77-2972/hero/66110450
WD Season 8 https://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/finiar-1655/Kildare/84509816
Monk season 7 http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/finiar-1655/MojoJoJo/42225505
DH season 6 http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/finiar-1655/DeadShot/75655606
Angry Chicken http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/finiar-1655/WhoDoVooDoo/68187610
What? Me worry?
Items like that amulet are much easier to obtain than a Kridershot, a Mirrorball, or a Wand of Woh - actually, you might never get them unless you play a lot. That's why I decided to add this example; notice that I brought up Mirrorball earlier. You might play a 100 hours before you find a really build-defining rare legendary, and until then those less rarer items (some elemental type bracers) define your current build.
It's difficult to give an unbiased and honest review about RoS. A week ago I was very close of quitting because I made no progress for many weeks; a few drops on Friday turned this around for me. It's actually exactly how it was in D2 for me as a "non-trader": If I didn't get any good drops I just stopped playing, because I never did any public trading, but I knew that a couple of month later I'd be back. Unless they bring back trading, I know it'll be the same for me in RoS. When they bring back trading such that it makes the drop rates go down again (as they did for the AH), it'll kill the fun for me. My accumulated playtime since 2.0.1 is higher than my entire playtime of the previous 20 months of D3. No matter what happens with RoS in the future, I think that's telling enough that RoS, in its current form, was already a success for me, a better game than D3V by far, and really close to my experience as a D2/D1 non-trading player (except for trading with friends).
If OP would've started with a brief history of him being an avid D2JSP trader, my review would've been completely different, by the way. I think most people who did extensive trading in D2 (or PvPing) are not the target audience of Diablo 3 right now (maybe never, maybe with the next expansion, who knows).
It definitely sounds like you understand my preferred playstyle.
I just had to wing it on my barb, wiz, and a new crusader. Since they were stuck in old D3V gear, there wasn't much help there. Thankfully, drops are much more rewarding now. A few simple +cold dmg or +holy dmg pieces that are meh, but fun have dropped. Once I have two pieces that complement each other, I pick builds. Sounds like my instincts are putting me similar to what you describe, Bagstone.
Crusader is mid 20's with a holy ranged build justice/blessed shield. Feels fun and unique to be a tanky ranged and works in easy leveling at least.
Wizard is cold. Not any great drops for him but +cold amulet, and it's fun to not be constantly kiting. The old wizard "stop and die" got old fast. Probably more a function of the ease of content than build at this point, but we'll see.
Barb is running fire for pure damage still looking for defining rares/legendaries. Some cleave/revenge pieces so running a build on that.
The rest really hasn't been touched since my return. sifu#1756. Feedback welcomed!
No more trading. You only play with the loot you get. If that legendary you have an eye on does not drop, or if your drop luck is bad, your friends will be running T3 while you are still struggling in master. And they cant even help you. The only thing around this is time. Lots and lots of time. And then more time. Doing nothing but mindles grinding.
And then all the promises about the loot improvements. Legendaries with affixes that "change your entire game"? Bollocks. I have found 100+ legendaries since RoS and they are all glorified rares with slightly more stats. I KNOW that there are others out there with cool effects, but guess what, they dont drop for me and I cant trade for them. Rares are exactly where they were before RoS, you salvage 99% of them without looking twice.
And the promises about getting rid of trifectas. Yeah, now we have quintfectas but only 4 stat slots per item, so you have the great "pleasure" of "choosing" which one of the 5 you dont take per slot. Yupijeah. Apart from that you still want the same stats as before RoS, %damage vs elites is still the most important damage stat by far, everybody is still putting emeralds into their weapon sockets. Oh and yeah, weapons without sockets are still salvage fodder right away, no matter how good they are.
Yes, you will get drops that are upgrades till you are at lvl 70 and all your gear are ok-ish rares. But then it stops just as suddenly as before loot 2.0.
See that all these comments rotate around gear and how often you get upgrades? Yeah, that is right, there is still absolutely no endgame in D3. No pvp, no ladders, nothing. All you can do is get gear to grind more difficult monsters to grind more gear. It's even the same gameplay all the time cause you always play on a difficulty that is gear appropriate. So except that the numbers get slightly higher, you notice almost no difference when ramping up "difficulty".
tl:dr : its a cute little bash em up game, but if you are interested in any competitive aspect or if you enjoy planning your char ahead, you better look for another game.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Twoflower-2131/hero/47336841
This game is fucking rng shit for people who can play all day. If you cant spend at least 10 hours a day on this game, say bye bye to planning anything ahead or getting items you actually want. This is casual rng shit in extreme. The only way to beat the rng is by throwing more time at it than at a full time job.
I have been playing online games for 15 years and never cheated in a single one of them. D3 makes me wanna install a bot cause i just cant stand that fucking mindless grinding any more. And then, after dozends of hours, you get "rewarded" with a fucking useles shit item.
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Twoflower-2131/hero/47336841
i'm with you on this, ever since i switch back to my barb after decently gearing all 6 characters i have been farming for that elusive MotE set for over two weeks now, grinding almost 35-40 hours per week. it came to a point last Thursday i almost decided to take a break from the grind because of 2 shoulders set items that drop for me, guess what it was that useless "invokers", 2 IK helm and nothing of the EQ set.
RnG appease me, i was able to complete the Raekor set as a consolation that i mess playing around during the course of the day and luckily i got to loot the MotE shoulders playing the "Charge" build that i have to respecc into a fire build to make it more effecient.
To the OP, what we are saying is you need to have to have lots of time and patience to farm for gears or any specific legendaries you're after. My barb started with mix/match gears, went to BK set(WW), lightning(TF/Odyn/Tvigors), Raekor and hopefully EQ/IK combi set.
What you two describe is the typical phenomenon of "I've invested X hours, so I deserve to get item Y". Unless you did trading in D2 (which most people didn't), this was never true in Diablo games. You two seem to be different than OP and me. I know from my experience in Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 (no public trading) that you can play forever and never get item X. In fact, even now RoS is better than that because you can join communities/groups to specifically farm an item (if other players have it already they give it to you when it drops for them again), or gamble at Kadala (which is so much more promising than gambling in D2 ever was).
Again, please don't derail your thread. It's your opinion and it's fine to have an opinion, but the OP of this thread has a completely different mindset and so your reviews of the game are more or less irrelevant for his decision. You are not entitled to get any specific item in Diablo. RNG has always been a part of the game, and if you can't deal with it, it's not your game. But it's certainly a game for OP as far as I can tell.
I don't play to have a specific item. Even if I did, I want that to be hard so that I don't have all the items I want in the first 30-60 days and then there's no point in playing.
Having said that, I have mentioned "rewarding" several times. However, to say I've played x hours, I deserve specific Z reward defeats my idea of what Diablo as a franchise is. I do believe when you've played for X hours, you should be rewarded. That was a failing with D3V, IMO. In D3V, your only real reward for x hours was a trip to the AH which felt like hex editing the gear onto your toon. It ruined it for me.
Going back to a legend drop system that feels like your are searching for a needle in a haystack just to get the same 2-handed ax over and over isn't appealing once you've actually seen legends drop at a rate that the piece you really want doesn't seem so darn impossible to find.