I think his point was more that for each kill there could be four item drops. Player 1 sees item A, player 2 item B, 3 item C and 4 item D. Now, ideally, if you're in a group of friends and player 1's item A is ideally suited to player 3 then they can swap, trade, barter or whatever.
Ofc, there is no need to do this. You don't have to share loot, or even loot link in PuGs BUT if you play with dedicated friends then I'm sure the best thing for the group is to loot share.
There's nothing to stop you from sharing loot with friends even if you all play solo. Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'd stil encourage people to play in groups, for two reasons: It's more efficient, and it's more fun.
However the benefit of a group is that each monster essentially has a drop for each player. Which means the more people in the game, the more loot to drop.
That's not it exactly: Those players could just as well all be playing solo in their individual games, killing just as many monsters in the same time as in a group... Except that the health of monsters increases only by 75% per player instead of doubling (or something like that if I remember correctly), so having a good group is in fact more efficient than playing alone, but not because "there is more loot". The amount of loot per player remains the same in a group as it is when soloing.
MF is also divided equally among all players in a group, so MF is just as good when soloing as it is when grouping.
Overall its just that LTK with Transcendence heals you more steady vs a spikey heal from WoL. Because its from a "per Spirit spend" basis both heal the same amount in the long run... just in diffrent ways.
If I spend let's say 5 seconds generating 100 spirit (might not be a realistic example but it doesn't matter), and then I spend the spirit in 0.6 seconds with one WoL (another estimate for attack speed), I get healed for 100 spirit worth of life in 5.6 seconds with Transcendence. If I spend the 100 spirit in 1.0 seconds with three and one third of LTKs, I get healed for 100 spirit worth of life in 6 seconds, which is slower than 5.6 seconds. It's not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless.
I agree that WoL is pretty bad. I'm merely pointing out things that make it slightly better than what's assumed.
Spinning Flame Kick (Lashing Tail Kick rune) is ranged... it does 240%dmg and it only costs 30 Spirit. Even with runes WoL is worse. So I dont see the point. If you rune WoL it will still only do its 150% at range... you can only increase the first part that is a melee range AoE.
So I guess you can cast 2-3 LTKs in the time you need to finish one WoL Oo
I wasn't aware of how Spinning Flame Kick worked, but now that I've seen it, it definitely seems better for doing ranged damage to a single target. However, WoL wave seems much wider than the tornado of Spinning Flame Kick, making it better in situations where a lot of enemies are spread out along the target line... and even more so if you also have targets in melee range when casting WoL.
Trying the skills in-game, it seems that WoL indeed has a bit slower cast time than Lashing Tail Kick, but it's nowhere near three times as much as the cast time of LTK, maybe 50-100% higher or so. So it in fact does spend spirit faster than LTK, making it heal you more with Transcendence over long periods of time, because you'd be spending more time generating spirit in comparison to spending spirit. It's just another pro for the skill in certain situations, not something to always go for.
Now I'm wondering why doesn't Blizzard include cast times in skill tooltips... It'd seem like somewhat vital information. >.>
I'm not saying the skill is perfectly balanced, but no one had yet mentioned these points that make it less bad than what was assumed earlier in the thread. I also don't like the effect of the skill at all, so I wouldn't care if it was horribly underbalanced unless they fix the graphics.
Wave of Light is (partially) a ranged AoE skill, unlike Lashing Tail Kick. There aren't many other ranged attacks for the Monk, and none of them are as powerful as Wave of Light.
Also, don't forget about Transcendence. Wave of Light spends spirit faster than any other skill, therefore healing you much faster with it.
What does powergaming mean in practice? Are you not playing the game unless you're absolutely sure that the way you're playing is most effective, making you spend bulk of your time theoretizing about possibilities. If it's just simple like changing items for better ones as you pick them up, aren't we all doing that? Does powergaming imply unhealthy and antisocial playing habits, like repetitively grinding some boss or area, or playing in long streaks without breaks?
In practice, powergaming doesn't mean you analyse every item you pick up or calculate which skill would be the best for a particular situation, because if you can't do the analysis fast enough, you end up losing time rather than gaining it, which is against the principle of powergaming. Analysing in itself is not powergaming; it's theorycrafting. Powergaming just applies the knowledge it provides into practice.
Powergaming and socializing are not exclusive. In fact, I'm socializing while powergaming by powergaming with my friends. It requires everyone to be working towards the same goal and to do it well. Good teamwork is a requirement for co-operative powergaming.
Powergaming doesn't necessarily mean playing as much as possible, although it's one of the aspects to it. I voted "All the way!" myself, too, but it's not really all the way. I still do other things than gaming as well. I also agree it's game specific. In singleplayer games, the goal is not to beat the game as fast as possible, but to enjoy playing it, so powergaming doesn't really apply there. There needs to be some kind of a competitive environment for it. In Diablo III, we're competing who has the best characters and who makes the most profit on the AH. And for some (not me), PvP later on.
It always feels good to get the most out of a game as you can, but then again, friendship and community and stuff tie in sometimes which is also another big part of my gaming scene.
Nothing better than to do powergaming with friends, then. ^^
The only true way to play games, for me, and in my opinion, is to play them as efficiently as possible. Efficiency is measured by how well a player reaches the ultimate goal of the game. In Diablo III, there are two different goals I can think of: having as good a character as possible, and making as much profit from the (RM)AH as possible.
Gear and selected skills are not the only indication of a good character, but also how well a player plays that character. Because of this, the player must master the mechanics of the game and use them to his advantage. Things come down to gaining play experience by simply playing a lot, and to theorycrafting, or at the very least using the results that other players have discovered by it.
Having a good character in Diablo III can only be measured in one way: How fast the character can gather quality loot. This is the product of his killing speed, movement speed, magic find, gold find, etc., each with a certain weight factor, which I unfortunately can't give you just yet.
If I didn't make any sense, Wikipedia has a good definition for powergaming.
I play games for fun, just like everyone else — but powergaming is fun for me. Are you a powergamer?
There's nothing to stop you from sharing loot with friends even if you all play solo. Anyway, don't get me wrong, I'd stil encourage people to play in groups, for two reasons: It's more efficient, and it's more fun.
That's not it exactly: Those players could just as well all be playing solo in their individual games, killing just as many monsters in the same time as in a group... Except that the health of monsters increases only by 75% per player instead of doubling (or something like that if I remember correctly), so having a good group is in fact more efficient than playing alone, but not because "there is more loot". The amount of loot per player remains the same in a group as it is when soloing.
MF is also divided equally among all players in a group, so MF is just as good when soloing as it is when grouping.
If I spend let's say 5 seconds generating 100 spirit (might not be a realistic example but it doesn't matter), and then I spend the spirit in 0.6 seconds with one WoL (another estimate for attack speed), I get healed for 100 spirit worth of life in 5.6 seconds with Transcendence. If I spend the 100 spirit in 1.0 seconds with three and one third of LTKs, I get healed for 100 spirit worth of life in 6 seconds, which is slower than 5.6 seconds. It's not a big difference, but a difference nonetheless.
I agree that WoL is pretty bad. I'm merely pointing out things that make it slightly better than what's assumed.
This is Vulture Claw Kick:
---
-o-
---
This is Spinning Flame Kick:
o---------
This is Wave of Light:
----------
o---------
----------
Which area can contain the most enemies within it?
They all have their uses, depending on the situation. It's just a matter of which of those situations occur most often.
I wasn't aware of how Spinning Flame Kick worked, but now that I've seen it, it definitely seems better for doing ranged damage to a single target. However, WoL wave seems much wider than the tornado of Spinning Flame Kick, making it better in situations where a lot of enemies are spread out along the target line... and even more so if you also have targets in melee range when casting WoL.
Trying the skills in-game, it seems that WoL indeed has a bit slower cast time than Lashing Tail Kick, but it's nowhere near three times as much as the cast time of LTK, maybe 50-100% higher or so. So it in fact does spend spirit faster than LTK, making it heal you more with Transcendence over long periods of time, because you'd be spending more time generating spirit in comparison to spending spirit. It's just another pro for the skill in certain situations, not something to always go for.
Now I'm wondering why doesn't Blizzard include cast times in skill tooltips... It'd seem like somewhat vital information. >.>
I'm not saying the skill is perfectly balanced, but no one had yet mentioned these points that make it less bad than what was assumed earlier in the thread. I also don't like the effect of the skill at all, so I wouldn't care if it was horribly underbalanced unless they fix the graphics.
Also, don't forget about Transcendence. Wave of Light spends spirit faster than any other skill, therefore healing you much faster with it.
In practice, powergaming doesn't mean you analyse every item you pick up or calculate which skill would be the best for a particular situation, because if you can't do the analysis fast enough, you end up losing time rather than gaining it, which is against the principle of powergaming. Analysing in itself is not powergaming; it's theorycrafting. Powergaming just applies the knowledge it provides into practice.
Powergaming and socializing are not exclusive. In fact, I'm socializing while powergaming by powergaming with my friends. It requires everyone to be working towards the same goal and to do it well. Good teamwork is a requirement for co-operative powergaming.
Powergaming doesn't necessarily mean playing as much as possible, although it's one of the aspects to it. I voted "All the way!" myself, too, but it's not really all the way. I still do other things than gaming as well. I also agree it's game specific. In singleplayer games, the goal is not to beat the game as fast as possible, but to enjoy playing it, so powergaming doesn't really apply there. There needs to be some kind of a competitive environment for it. In Diablo III, we're competing who has the best characters and who makes the most profit on the AH. And for some (not me), PvP later on.
Gear and selected skills are not the only indication of a good character, but also how well a player plays that character. Because of this, the player must master the mechanics of the game and use them to his advantage. Things come down to gaining play experience by simply playing a lot, and to theorycrafting, or at the very least using the results that other players have discovered by it.
Having a good character in Diablo III can only be measured in one way: How fast the character can gather quality loot. This is the product of his killing speed, movement speed, magic find, gold find, etc., each with a certain weight factor, which I unfortunately can't give you just yet.
If I didn't make any sense, Wikipedia has a good definition for powergaming.
I play games for fun, just like everyone else — but powergaming is fun for me. Are you a powergamer?