I saw a small damage increase with a 3400 dps Maximus vs. Burning Axe + Firebird off-hand. At the same time, I went from +119% fire damage to +99%. I rerolled 6% damage for a socket, so I lost some there, but if I can get a legendary socket token, then I'll reroll the socket to %dmg again.
Overall, it maybe was a loss, but I've been using Maximus with Disintegrate - Convergence (fire dmg) and Blizzard - Apocalypse (also fire dmg), Templar follower, Storm Armor - Power of the Storm, and Astral Presence passive. I can *almost* indefinitely channel Disintegrate. If I had some APoC on one of my items, I could spam more Blizzard. I also use Black Hole (Blazar or Spellsteal), Familiar - Sparkflint, and Energy Armor - Pinpoint Barrier. Other passives are Conflagrate, Elemental Exposure, and Unwavering Will.
Another old build variation is using Mirror Image - Duplicates and Slow Time - Point of No Return with the Illusionist Passive for lots of bubble stuns.
I run T3/T4 with my gear... still trying to get more Firebird pieces and other items, but it's fun being able to have a staff with low attack speed so I can use channeling spells and no AP generator.
I tried this build a couple days ago and it's pretty fun. I didn't really know what was best, but I just picked all skills/runes/passives that had anything to with fire. I think I was using Diamond Skin and Frost Nova as the opener, then Explosive Blast followed by 1-2 Meteor casts with Flame Blade filler. Stuff seemed to die really fast and my gear isn't the best, either. Good stuff.
I'm really enjoying the (apparent) increased flexibility we have. You can spec pretty much any way you want and get half decent performance without taking time to really optimize. If you follow up with optimization, it just gets better.
Skill is the difference between someone like Kripparian, who cleared Infeno with a Barbarian geared with ~400k worth of gear, and the people who still can't clear it with millions invested into their Barbarian.
That's basically the simplest explanation. Skilled people can do with less what others can't do with more.
This is good. I watch videos of people explaining how to kite various types of elite packs and how to handle various affix combos. It looks easy, but when I try some of these myself, I find them difficult. Others are easier. Some comes with experience because once you learn how to handle certain situations, they will seem easy after a while.
Stuff like Kripparrian does is nuts. Starting Inferno Belial *after* he enrages? That took a lot of skill and luck with the placement of the poison stuff on the ground. I would have died quickly.
Has anyone written an in depth article exploring exactly what Blizzard has missed in DIII that made DII so much more fun?
Good luck finding an article you can get people to agree on. I.E. play both and decide for yourself.
Best advise here.
I'm not so sure that's the best advice. I think both are good in tandem. Sure, one can play D2 and D3 and form their own opinion, but there's always something to be gained from hearing/reading opinions from other players. For me, the better ones tend to be without major bias toward one or the other. There will always be some bias, but I discount those that just bash a game and say it's bad all around just because they're not happy with a few (or several) things about it. Other people might easily look past those points -- not that they aren't worth mentioning in a constructive way.
I need to try again tonight. I should know better than to play D3 while I'm sleepy. Had bad luck with server lag and disconnects. When I was connected, I swear that all elite packs were as described in the OP's sig. Usually, they had fast + reflect + molten/plague + vortex/teleport). I just couldn't keep my distance. I really love elites with fast base movement + the fast affix. omfg...
A very vague announcement. As I stated before, it could have been nerfed multiple ways. They chose the drastic one.
...but an announcement nonetheless. You seem to have known that some type of nerf was going to happen, took a gamble regarding which way the nerf would go, and then lost. Live and learn. Try not to make the same judgment error in the future.
I finally hit L60 last night and made it to Diablo (Hell). Made a few attempts, but I was too freakin tired. I should be able to get the kill tonight.
In other news, weapon upgrades are ridiculous. Going from a ~340 dps weapon to a ~790 dps weapon netted me a hair over 15,000 additional damage on my character sheet. I can imagine what stats from real gear are like.
I also got lucky with some weapon drops and boosted my dps by a 3-4k, which was immediately noticeable on certain packs. I'm doing a much better job at kiting lately.
I'm in late Act 3 Hell and about 2/3 of the way to L60. Moving right along... I'll by dying in Inferno with everyone else before too long!
Its from wormhole... If you hold down the teleport button, the 1 second window for the 2nd teleport can be used for a 3rd and 4th teleport. I'm not sure about this, but attack speed may also affect it since all attack speed really does is lower attack animation time. I will check that out when I get home.
I'm aware attack speed does other things as well, but for simplicity's sake, it lowers animation time.
Interesting. After watching some videos, I've been wondering how it appears some people can teleport more than twice, quickly in succession.
The only place I've found mirror images really effective is on Diablo to remove debuffs. In other areas, teleport + wormhole is usually all I need elsewhere.
I just learned this. I watched a vid on Youtube of someone using Familiar/Sparkflint in place of Mirror images. He used Teleport/Wormhole/Illusionist to get out of trouble very effectively. I plan to try the same.
I'm currently using Mirror Image and Teleport in combination with the more traditional kiting Blizzard/Venom Hydra with great success in Act 3 Inferno. Here is my full build:
I was previously using Diamond Skin and Force Weapon in place of the decoy skills, however Diamond Skin simply begins to become almost worthless in the later Inferno acts. Since it doesn't scale, the 21k damage absorption seemed almost insignificant, especially once I got to act 3.
Even though I had to give up some dps with force weapon, I am finding it is much easier to contend with Act 3 mobs including all champion/elite types I have run across. The beauty of using the decoy skills is that not only do they act to diffuse incoming damage when monsters have become too close, they also give me a few seconds to turn and blast some good dps when kiting the champions/elites.
I'm about halfway through act 3 now and the only champion set that I was forced to kite to a corner and pass up was a set of those annoying rippers with an illusionist affix. When they multiplied, there were simply too many of them and they were too fast and did too much damage at once to kite. Other than that, I have found all the other types which used to give me difficulty (combos of waller, jailer, vortex, fast) I can now kite fairly easily. I don't even have the greatest gear (only 24k dps and 37k health), but I am more or less coasting through act 3 and loving these skills.
I'm only in Act III Hell, but this is the best time to learn kiting, and it has been working very well. Even though I like builds with Arcane Orb, the increased damage isn't worth it when there are a ton of mobs coming from multiple directions. I quickly learned that kiting isn't as effective with Arcane Orb + Temporal Flux because it's not as spammable as Blizzard + Snowbound. The AoE slow of Blizzard + Snowbound makes kiting a snap. The slow effect lasts long enough that Mirror Images and/or Teleport are usually available when needed.
I imagine I'll ditch Magic Weapon for Shock Pulse / Piercing Orb or some variation of Magic Missile when I raise my damage number significantly, like your build that I quoted above. At the moment, I have about 8800-9000+ damage, depending on whether I use Glass Cannon in place of Blur. For now, though, Blizzard + Venom Hydra gets the job done slow and steady with the champ packs. I also have a decent 750-ish dps wand waiting for me as soon as I hit L60. I'm currently nearing L59 with a ~350 dps axe.
I did the annual pass thing, so I'll be playing WoW for another expansion. I still enjoy the game after 7 years, though I admit that it's starting to wear on me (finally). I'm in a guild with a bunch of great people, which is probably the primary reason I still play it.
I've died a handful of times just because I wasn't paying attention. I see a group and run right into the middle and start wailing away. That's a good way to get killed, but I still do it because it's fun.
I'm sure I'll have to change my approach when I move on to the more difficult modes. It's going to take me a while, though, since I play maybe 2 hours at a time. I'm progressing slowly -- at L24-25 currently.
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Overall, it maybe was a loss, but I've been using Maximus with Disintegrate - Convergence (fire dmg) and Blizzard - Apocalypse (also fire dmg), Templar follower, Storm Armor - Power of the Storm, and Astral Presence passive. I can *almost* indefinitely channel Disintegrate. If I had some APoC on one of my items, I could spam more Blizzard. I also use Black Hole (Blazar or Spellsteal), Familiar - Sparkflint, and Energy Armor - Pinpoint Barrier. Other passives are Conflagrate, Elemental Exposure, and Unwavering Will.
Another old build variation is using Mirror Image - Duplicates and Slow Time - Point of No Return with the Illusionist Passive for lots of bubble stuns.
I run T3/T4 with my gear... still trying to get more Firebird pieces and other items, but it's fun being able to have a staff with low attack speed so I can use channeling spells and no AP generator.
I'm really enjoying the (apparent) increased flexibility we have. You can spec pretty much any way you want and get half decent performance without taking time to really optimize. If you follow up with optimization, it just gets better.
This is good. I watch videos of people explaining how to kite various types of elite packs and how to handle various affix combos. It looks easy, but when I try some of these myself, I find them difficult. Others are easier. Some comes with experience because once you learn how to handle certain situations, they will seem easy after a while.
Stuff like Kripparrian does is nuts. Starting Inferno Belial *after* he enrages? That took a lot of skill and luck with the placement of the poison stuff on the ground. I would have died quickly.
I'm not so sure that's the best advice. I think both are good in tandem. Sure, one can play D2 and D3 and form their own opinion, but there's always something to be gained from hearing/reading opinions from other players. For me, the better ones tend to be without major bias toward one or the other. There will always be some bias, but I discount those that just bash a game and say it's bad all around just because they're not happy with a few (or several) things about it. Other people might easily look past those points -- not that they aren't worth mentioning in a constructive way.
I could vendor it for more than it would sell on either AH.
...but an announcement nonetheless. You seem to have known that some type of nerf was going to happen, took a gamble regarding which way the nerf would go, and then lost. Live and learn. Try not to make the same judgment error in the future.
I finally hit L60 last night and made it to Diablo (Hell). Made a few attempts, but I was too freakin tired. I should be able to get the kill tonight.
In other news, weapon upgrades are ridiculous. Going from a ~340 dps weapon to a ~790 dps weapon netted me a hair over 15,000 additional damage on my character sheet. I can imagine what stats from real gear are like.
http://us.battle.net...jQOS!YXd!bbaZYZ
I also got lucky with some weapon drops and boosted my dps by a 3-4k, which was immediately noticeable on certain packs. I'm doing a much better job at kiting lately.
I'm in late Act 3 Hell and about 2/3 of the way to L60. Moving right along... I'll by dying in Inferno with everyone else before too long!
Interesting. After watching some videos, I've been wondering how it appears some people can teleport more than twice, quickly in succession.
I just learned this. I watched a vid on Youtube of someone using Familiar/Sparkflint in place of Mirror images. He used Teleport/Wormhole/Illusionist to get out of trouble very effectively. I plan to try the same.
I'm also having more success with a similar build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#lRPQOS!aXd!bbZYYZ
I'm only in Act III Hell, but this is the best time to learn kiting, and it has been working very well. Even though I like builds with Arcane Orb, the increased damage isn't worth it when there are a ton of mobs coming from multiple directions. I quickly learned that kiting isn't as effective with Arcane Orb + Temporal Flux because it's not as spammable as Blizzard + Snowbound. The AoE slow of Blizzard + Snowbound makes kiting a snap. The slow effect lasts long enough that Mirror Images and/or Teleport are usually available when needed.
I imagine I'll ditch Magic Weapon for Shock Pulse / Piercing Orb or some variation of Magic Missile when I raise my damage number significantly, like your build that I quoted above. At the moment, I have about 8800-9000+ damage, depending on whether I use Glass Cannon in place of Blur. For now, though, Blizzard + Venom Hydra gets the job done slow and steady with the champ packs. I also have a decent 750-ish dps wand waiting for me as soon as I hit L60. I'm currently nearing L59 with a ~350 dps axe.
I'm sure I'll have to change my approach when I move on to the more difficult modes. It's going to take me a while, though, since I play maybe 2 hours at a time. I'm progressing slowly -- at L24-25 currently.