I'm also flabbergasted by the greed shown by so many in this thread. They are complaining about loss of value of the items or deflation that ruins their well-oiled gold making machine. "Bad for you!" I say, good for the rest of us that want to find upgrades for our own use.
You do realize that a big portion of "the rest of you" will be complaining a week after the patch goes live that your new found legendary items not for your class is worth so little right?
as we might finally get a chance to find a good legendary and/or set, and we can actually afford some of those well-rolled legendaries from AH which are atm hugely overpriced/ impossible to reach without getting good drops and selling them.
But your drops will be worth less and the top items will just be harder to reach, the only thing helped by increased drops in a AH economy is mid level gear, higher drop rate just moves the bar what's a good item and the almost good items gets more saturated.
This conversation, if anything, highlights the divide in the player-base's mindset that Blizzard is struggling with. There are those who think the AH is a natural extension of the game and thus the game must entice its use, and there are those who think the game has to be good even if the AH never existed and that using the AH will only spoil the experience. I'm starting to believe that making a Diablo game that compromises for both sides is impossible...
Oh, and if you're curious, I'm in the non-AH camp. So yeah, I like the change.
What data? there are hardly any changes to legendary items on PTR if any, there is no reason for this change testing wise...
...other than testing the impact such a change would have? Remember, this is the PTR. What happens in the PTR, stays in the PTR. This is the only way they can tinker with legendary drop rates and see what the possible consequences would be. Should it fail miserably, they can just set the rates back to pre-PTR and it never happened. We are the guinea pigs of the Diabloverse
And yes, A LOT of people have been asking to increase drop rates on legendaries for a long time now.
I'll have to wait and see to gauge my current power within the context of the new Health and damage changes, and how exactly Monster Power alters mobs. But my guess is one higher than standard on act 3 (yeah, I'm still climbing the mountain; it's because I don't use the AH).
My experience is that for any given resistance value there is a sweet-spot of Life to go for. For me at around 70% Resist All and 68% Armor that sweet-spot is 40k Life. Any less and I can't survive enough punches. Any more and I'm wasting affixes. The lower your resistances and Armor goes, the more Life you need to compensate. It also depends on your build, how many defensive skills you use. Glass cannon builds will obviously favor Life over resistances, since you aren't aiming to survive more than a few hits anyway.
Best single-target DPS provided you use the right rune and passives.
Easy to keep on a single target because the game "snaps" it to the mob closest to the cursor, meaning you can easily maintain the beam on moving targets.
Cons:
Lack of pierce means you often run into the problem of "living meat-shields" where a less significant mob obstructs your ability to quickly bring down more important targets (like Fallen Shamans).
As it stands, the slow is virtually negligible on Inferno elites (the only thing that a single-target snare is useful for). This will remain the case until Blizzard addresses snare skills the same way they are addressing CC's in patch 1.05.
Disintigrate
Pros:
Pierce makes the skill an excellent AoE. With every additional enemy in the same line you are dealing more net damage.
Pierce also lets you bypass the "living meat-shield" problem by both hitting the juicy mob and all the lesser drab in front of it.
The popular Chaos Nexus rune scales with the number of enemies in close proximity. The more targets there are to hit, the more beams will erupt from you. This is very useful with procs and the Temporal Flux passive (should it ever be buffed to be useful, that is)
Cons:
Low base damage when compared to Ray of Frost and other competitors like Arcane Orb and Arcane Torrent. You feel the deficit when you use it on a single target.
Unlike Ray of Frost, the beam from Disintegrate does not lock on a single target, meaning keeping it on a moving target is tricky.
Both
Pros:
Instantaneous - there is zero delay between the beginning of the animation and the damage being delivered to your intended target.
Non-projectile. Some enemies (like Dune Dervishes and Elites with the Missle Damping affix) make projectile spells hard to use. Beam spells are non-projectile and therefore bypass their special tricks.
Flexibility - you can stand still and maintain the same beam, or you can fire it in short bursts. This lets you adapt to the type of enemy you're facing.
Both spells benefit tremendously from the Prism rune on Diamond Skin.
Cons:
They force you to stand still. What more need I say?
Increased Attack Speed is not a benefit, it's a detriment, because it increases AP cost. Only way to compensate this is APoC with a high crit. chance.
Limited Range - most projectile spells keep going even when they're off the screen, meaning you can even hit targets that you can't see. Not the case for beams. You need to be at a certain proximity to be able to use them.
The followers thing would be a nice little addition, but IMO the best way is to make legendaries shine with an unmistakable bright glow whilst they are on the ground.
Honestly a few seconds of stun can make a huge difference when played well. It helps your surviability more than your killing power, but it is something that affects how you play your class based on what build you use.
I've been using Frost Nova for a long time even before knowing about the CC changes for exactly that reason. Even a 1s full stop on a group of enemies gives you a lot of breathing room to reposition and recover. It's especially effective in public games to keep other players alive. The trick is you have to supplement it with other skills and gear to be effective.
Also I agree on the notion that the "illusionary nerf" will pertain to the CC change.
In short, many ideas on forums may be overlooked due to messy forum post layouts.
What you've described is just the most basic structure of an essay, which teachers try to drill into peoples' heads in high school. Yep, kids, things you learned in school are useful.
I'd also like to add that long posts that lack clear structure or arguments are surefire troll-bait. Do not feed the trolls!
The way I understand it, it should theoretically be possible to roll two 350 stats on weapons:
E. g. 200 Str., 200 Vit (different single stat can be rolled multiple times) and a 2 stat affix with 150 Str., 150 Vit. Theoretically you should be able to get 350 Str, 350 Vit, 200 Dex, 200 Int.
Quite frankly you must decide if you want to stay a glass cannon or not.
In case you don't, you need a lot more Resist All and Vitality to be able to survive Act 2 and Act 3 damage. And even then you must use Energy Armor with Prismatic.
If you prefer the run-and-gun style, you should definitely switch out Magic Weapon for some survivability spell. Diamond Skin and Frost Nova are good options for you. If you choose Frost Nova, I also recommend switching out one of your passives (either Glass Cannon or Illusionist) for Evocation. It makes all the difference, trust me.
You may also want to consider Wormhole over Fracture on Teleport. The thing about mirror images is they aren't guaranteed to distract the opponent.
Hey guys I was wondering something. Is it possible for items to have any stat combination possible? Or are there certain limitations? For example, the maximum value for primary stats on a 1-hander is 350. So if it possible for a sword to roll stats with 350 to int, dex, str and vit on the same item itself? Or are there limits to the maximum number of primary stats that can appear on any item.
Um, no. It doesn't quite work that way. Only the very first stat can roll up to the maximum. The ones that follow are capped. This applies only to ordinary blues and yellows. Legendaries have their own roll mechanics.
This conversation, if anything, highlights the divide in the player-base's mindset that Blizzard is struggling with. There are those who think the AH is a natural extension of the game and thus the game must entice its use, and there are those who think the game has to be good even if the AH never existed and that using the AH will only spoil the experience. I'm starting to believe that making a Diablo game that compromises for both sides is impossible...
Oh, and if you're curious, I'm in the non-AH camp. So yeah, I like the change.
And yes, A LOT of people have been asking to increase drop rates on legendaries for a long time now.
Quite the number of good changes. Will be jumping on the PTR to test out skills and builds.
Ray of Frost
Pros:
- Best single-target DPS provided you use the right rune and passives.
- Easy to keep on a single target because the game "snaps" it to the mob closest to the cursor, meaning you can easily maintain the beam on moving targets.
Cons:Disintigrate
Pros:
- Pierce makes the skill an excellent AoE. With every additional enemy in the same line you are dealing more net damage.
- Pierce also lets you bypass the "living meat-shield" problem by both hitting the juicy mob and all the lesser drab in front of it.
- The popular Chaos Nexus rune scales with the number of enemies in close proximity. The more targets there are to hit, the more beams will erupt from you. This is very useful with procs and the Temporal Flux passive (should it ever be buffed to be useful, that is)
Cons:Both
Pros:
- Instantaneous - there is zero delay between the beginning of the animation and the damage being delivered to your intended target.
- Non-projectile. Some enemies (like Dune Dervishes and Elites with the Missle Damping affix) make projectile spells hard to use. Beam spells are non-projectile and therefore bypass their special tricks.
- Flexibility - you can stand still and maintain the same beam, or you can fire it in short bursts. This lets you adapt to the type of enemy you're facing.
- Both spells benefit tremendously from the Prism rune on Diamond Skin.
Cons:Also I agree on the notion that the "illusionary nerf" will pertain to the CC change.
I'd also like to add that long posts that lack clear structure or arguments are surefire troll-bait. Do not feed the trolls!
In case you don't, you need a lot more Resist All and Vitality to be able to survive Act 2 and Act 3 damage. And even then you must use Energy Armor with Prismatic.
If you prefer the run-and-gun style, you should definitely switch out Magic Weapon for some survivability spell. Diamond Skin and Frost Nova are good options for you. If you choose Frost Nova, I also recommend switching out one of your passives (either Glass Cannon or Illusionist) for Evocation. It makes all the difference, trust me.
You may also want to consider Wormhole over Fracture on Teleport. The thing about mirror images is they aren't guaranteed to distract the opponent.
I guess Blizzard did their job then. Now the wait for 1.1 PvP begins...