Add mounts. Remove numbers. Remove monsters. Remove gear. Ride around empty Sanctuary on your BoA Purple Unicorn!
But seriously, this game has no "runs" and is therefore dead except to those who bought it in the last 6 months. There is no incentive to upgrade aside from self esteem as there is no challenge and no requirement to work as a team. Remember those Baal runs? Remember gathering a team to take down the Ancients? Remember having a game list so you had the freedom to decide what you wanted out a particular game session? Well, too bad. Blizzard said F you, go upgrade and try to farm some self esteem. *bing* Ah there we go, now I feel good about myself again, I found my umpteenth Legendary this game! Hey do you want to use it? AW too bad you weren't here when it dropped. Commas? Wha,t is a comma and whe,re do it are be for the use, of?,
Sucks. Sorry for the mini-rage but hell, this game is dead so why not? All my chars have been donated to other people so they too can draw the conclusion that its not the finding gear that's the problem, its the whole damn PoS game. Have fun!
i just dediced to start playing again this game. since new patch is on its way, anyone got some suggestions on what gear should i buy from ah? when it still is available. really lack resistance can't even kill some of elites in mp4. or should i try some other build instead of Archon?
here my current gear: http://d3up.com/b/1224307
Your amulet, rare ring The Seal, and your gloves should be the first place to start I'd suggest. If you're going to use Strongarm Bracer's (which are nice) you can find a pair with All Res for not that much on the AH as well. I'd say possibly some Ice Climbers if you're going to keep the Unity ring. Life + Socket + Mainstat + High All Res. It's good to maintain an All Res of a minimum of ~500 from my experience. Any lower and the reverse effect of diminishing returns hits ya.
I ran a barb on MP10 for a while that had 329 all res, didn't die 99% of the time. Had a sweet HOTA/Threatening Shout build with Leap too, and ooo say anywhere from 108-125k life depending on the gear I swapped around. Even still if I didn't avoid death sitting in some pools of Plagued or too much fire would eat that down like you won't believe.
Too bad I didn't read this earlier today, I just had a ragequit and dumped my entire Wiz and Barb to a friend or I could have helped ya out a bit more.
I did some more testing in trying to really rubberband predictably. In general, Tempest Rush does not interfere with Cyclone Strike. I'm currently using a SAS Monk (slow attack speed) as it makes the Cyclone Strikes actually slower (longer animation) and after about 30 minutes of trying to rubberband it would seem that its fairly uncommon unless you are being attacked from a group larger than 10 or something with Knockback or Vortex.
Having a higher attack speed should reduce the chance of skill interruption in theory but its a bit moot as you don't want a high attack speed for Tempest Rush so it doesn't eat up all your spirit. The slower your attack speed the less "casts" it does per second and therefore reduces the spirit consumption. I currently permaTR and its pretty fun
As we know there isn't FHR like in D2 (faster hit recovery) where your character does a "flinch" animation when struck. I tried casting CS and immediately casting TR and it was nearly impossible to rubberband without being in a battle of some sort. I haven't tried any other skills* but I'm assuming that they will yield the same results.
This should be even less of a problem in RoS potentially with the new buff of being able to run through monsters (like WW, TR, Spirit Walk). I forget what its called but I see it helping a lot here. Something good to look forward to
*Going to this morning, will post results if anything special happens.
One thing I've noticed that will notoriously and reliable cause a Rubberband is when you go to use Tempest Rush while another skill animation is still going. For example, when I spam my Cyclone Strike and try to TR out real quick while the last CS is still going, it will show me running out and rubberband me back shortly after. I'm pretty sure this is also pretty reliable for other animations such as being Knockbacked and Vortexed.
Its possible to have a 2nd kind of rubberbanding which can happen from having large mobs on screen and running through them to the point where the game essentially craps out, can't handle any more information, and has to "catch up", while in the meantime the game on your side is attempting to respond to your actions. That's more of when you see all of the monsters on screen "idle" for a few seconds and then you rubberband + everything moves suddenly.
I haven't noticed the 3rd kind as much as I did with my Barb and WW where it seemed like attempting to WW with insufficient Fury or having just enough then spending it, appears to cause a similar issue to the second kind where what is shown is inaccurate to the server. When I don't have enough Spirit for TR even right after casting it stops properly more often than not. This rubberbanding is not so much lag (latency or FPS) as what could be compared to data loss. I consider Lag (latency) to be exclusive to my character (monsters won't lag), I consider FPS loss the same thing (I can't control my char as its not responding during "skipped" frames that are lost), and rubberbanding to be different from both of these in certain cases as you may have no Lag and no FPS loss. It is more of a disconnect/coding issue.
Hopefully this all makes sense and helps you out a bit. Basically, for TR monk make sure that you aren't in the middle of another skill animation or being CC'd and for the most part your rubberbanding should cut down a ton. If its from large packs, well, until D3 gets a performance upgrade there isn't much any of us can do here.
Well if they would bring back /filtermsg that would help a lot with the annoying spam. Botting I've always maintained is about detection on the side of Blizzard rather than imposing on the entire playerbase different systems that *hope* to *deter* botters.
As I said before, trading causes the entire community as a whole to gain stat boosts because legendaries flood the market (which wouldn't exist without mass trading) and cause oversaturation of easily exchangeable items. This overarching boost in power effects everyone who trades by a significant margin. It's not on a case by case basis, it's a systemic problem of a global bartering system. Everyone gets stronger collectively as item irrelevancy becomes prominent amongst the lower echelon of items quicker. Any new player that starts playing Diablo 3 very quickly becomes as strong as whatever quality of legendaries has floundered their way to the bottom of the bargain bin, instead of slowly building their way up by finding their own stuff. That bar keeps lowering as time progresses because there's just this huge pool of excess legendaries in the global market that there aren't enough players to create enough demand for (which bots also contribute greatly to). It is a system that gauges how strong a player is not based on how long they have been slaying monsters, but by how long the global economy has actively been in effect.
And this is why I'm shocked Diablo 3 still does not have Ladder. Ladder is a primary factor in why people still to this day, myself included, play Diablo 2. Some players like to maintain their gear and strive for complete perfection, others like me like the freshness and challenge of Ladder. If they would hurry up and do this the whole saturation argument dies in one fell swoop
Against BoA because for me this game is about more than upgrades. Always has been, always will be. I see the items as vital to what I set out to achieve when I log in. My goal isn't to find X item with Y stats, its to make X build work. My monk is extremely dynamic with the 2 sets of gear I have, one with attack speed, one with dex/res/-resource cost. I don't play specifically to find a better Fist of Az, a Mempo with crit, etc. I log in and say "How do I want to Monk-ey around today? I bet I could make Hand of Ytar build work!" If I can do that I'm happy. Adding BoA into the game will remove much of the interaction I rely on to attain specific gear, not just "GG" gear. It will remove a large aspect of what I consider fun and useful gameplay. Its not all about killing monsters, its not all about finding items. Its about the exploration of builds and items and the testing and mastering of each skill and item affix I come across.
The whole "for 2 hours IF another player was in game when it dropped" about legendary and set items kills me. First of all I play solo a lot. Many people can't tank well enough to run along with me and end up spreading out the mobs which is a build breaker for my CSM (Cyclone Strike Monk). Secondly, who's to say in that time frame that another person will also find an item, one that I want so we can actually trade. The proposed system will be more like "2 hours to gift" as it most likely won't be a "fair trade". Think of all the RNG and imagine that in a 20-45 minute game 2 players will find exactly what the other person was looking for so they can swap in terms of Legendary and Set items. That doesn't seem realistic to me.
I also don't feel like a "self found" player should be able to compete in terms of gear or levels with a player who chooses to interact and barter and trade. Isn't the point of playing with others to have fun and share? I find the equivalent gear of what I'm looking for, but for another class more often than not, which will put me in a "bind" (lol). Now its like all the time I spent finding those sought after items is wasted as I can't do anything with them unless under the most improbable of scenarios as I just laid out. So instead of being able to accumulate and liquidate what I've come across, which in turn helps out whoever does trade for what I found (since they want what I found ^_^) I will be more or less at the mercy of the RNG gods.
Basically, BoA detracts from a lot of the fun, options, and accessibility that I've always enjoyed with in Diablo. I've been a D2 LoD ladder player since 2005 and never had a problem where I felt binding anything was a good idea. Never. I continue with that feeling in Diablo 3 and would like to see all Bound mechanics removed.
Yeah, I think BoA is an item sink. Personally, I think it's something they needed from the get go, even if BoA isn't the best.
Now that they're dropping the AH (which is a pity, IMO, as other trading method is...terrible), I don't think they really need a BoA or something to denote self found. Even if you do trade for it, that probably means you found something of near equal value.
You just said it yourself, other means of trading are terrible. And I think it's already been established that the AH was also terrible in its own way. That's why they added BoA - to kill trading entirely and focus the game around the most fun way to find loot, which is self-found. If they didn't, some third party site would build something comparable to the AH and we would eventually be right back in the same position, with self-found players being second class citizens compared to those who traded for exactly what they wanted. We had that in D2 and it was awful.
The AH is not terrible. A lack of competitive currency is terrible. The AH is extremely useful and convenient. I see a core issue here..."most fun way to find loot"...yea what? huh? Quick question: Do you enjoy finding items or using items? Personally, I like using items. I don't diminish their value myself by saying "well I didn't FIND this item so I remain displeased, regardless of how much fun I will have now with its power."
One other question. Do you think that a self-found player should be able to compete with a socially active player in a similar time frame? As in, should 2 players, one who trades and one who plays self-found, have roughly the same gear and levels? Why or why not?
But seriously, this game has no "runs" and is therefore dead except to those who bought it in the last 6 months. There is no incentive to upgrade aside from self esteem as there is no challenge and no requirement to work as a team. Remember those Baal runs? Remember gathering a team to take down the Ancients? Remember having a game list so you had the freedom to decide what you wanted out a particular game session? Well, too bad. Blizzard said F you, go upgrade and try to farm some self esteem. *bing* Ah there we go, now I feel good about myself again, I found my umpteenth Legendary this game! Hey do you want to use it? AW too bad you weren't here when it dropped. Commas? Wha,t is a comma and whe,re do it are be for the use, of?,
Sucks. Sorry for the mini-rage but hell, this game is dead so why not? All my chars have been donated to other people so they too can draw the conclusion that its not the finding gear that's the problem, its the whole damn PoS game. Have fun!
Your amulet, rare ring The Seal, and your gloves should be the first place to start I'd suggest. If you're going to use Strongarm Bracer's (which are nice) you can find a pair with All Res for not that much on the AH as well. I'd say possibly some Ice Climbers if you're going to keep the Unity ring. Life + Socket + Mainstat + High All Res. It's good to maintain an All Res of a minimum of ~500 from my experience. Any lower and the reverse effect of diminishing returns hits ya.
I ran a barb on MP10 for a while that had 329 all res, didn't die 99% of the time. Had a sweet HOTA/Threatening Shout build with Leap too, and ooo say anywhere from 108-125k life depending on the gear I swapped around. Even still if I didn't avoid death sitting in some pools of Plagued or too much fire would eat that down like you won't believe.
Too bad I didn't read this earlier today, I just had a ragequit and dumped my entire Wiz and Barb to a friend or I could have helped ya out a bit more.
Hope that helps!
I did some more testing in trying to really rubberband predictably. In general, Tempest Rush does not interfere with Cyclone Strike. I'm currently using a SAS Monk (slow attack speed) as it makes the Cyclone Strikes actually slower (longer animation) and after about 30 minutes of trying to rubberband it would seem that its fairly uncommon unless you are being attacked from a group larger than 10 or something with Knockback or Vortex.
Having a higher attack speed should reduce the chance of skill interruption in theory but its a bit moot as you don't want a high attack speed for Tempest Rush so it doesn't eat up all your spirit. The slower your attack speed the less "casts" it does per second and therefore reduces the spirit consumption. I currently permaTR and its pretty fun
As we know there isn't FHR like in D2 (faster hit recovery) where your character does a "flinch" animation when struck. I tried casting CS and immediately casting TR and it was nearly impossible to rubberband without being in a battle of some sort. I haven't tried any other skills* but I'm assuming that they will yield the same results.
This should be even less of a problem in RoS potentially with the new buff of being able to run through monsters (like WW, TR, Spirit Walk). I forget what its called but I see it helping a lot here. Something good to look forward to
*Going to this morning, will post results if anything special happens.
Wow. Tsk tsk OP. Tsk tsk.
Its possible to have a 2nd kind of rubberbanding which can happen from having large mobs on screen and running through them to the point where the game essentially craps out, can't handle any more information, and has to "catch up", while in the meantime the game on your side is attempting to respond to your actions. That's more of when you see all of the monsters on screen "idle" for a few seconds and then you rubberband + everything moves suddenly.
I haven't noticed the 3rd kind as much as I did with my Barb and WW where it seemed like attempting to WW with insufficient Fury or having just enough then spending it, appears to cause a similar issue to the second kind where what is shown is inaccurate to the server. When I don't have enough Spirit for TR even right after casting it stops properly more often than not. This rubberbanding is not so much lag (latency or FPS) as what could be compared to data loss. I consider Lag (latency) to be exclusive to my character (monsters won't lag), I consider FPS loss the same thing (I can't control my char as its not responding during "skipped" frames that are lost), and rubberbanding to be different from both of these in certain cases as you may have no Lag and no FPS loss. It is more of a disconnect/coding issue.
Hopefully this all makes sense and helps you out a bit. Basically, for TR monk make sure that you aren't in the middle of another skill animation or being CC'd and for the most part your rubberbanding should cut down a ton. If its from large packs, well, until D3 gets a performance upgrade there isn't much any of us can do here.
And this is why I'm shocked Diablo 3 still does not have Ladder. Ladder is a primary factor in why people still to this day, myself included, play Diablo 2. Some players like to maintain their gear and strive for complete perfection, others like me like the freshness and challenge of Ladder. If they would hurry up and do this the whole saturation argument dies in one fell swoop
The whole "for 2 hours IF another player was in game when it dropped" about legendary and set items kills me. First of all I play solo a lot. Many people can't tank well enough to run along with me and end up spreading out the mobs which is a build breaker for my CSM (Cyclone Strike Monk). Secondly, who's to say in that time frame that another person will also find an item, one that I want so we can actually trade. The proposed system will be more like "2 hours to gift" as it most likely won't be a "fair trade". Think of all the RNG and imagine that in a 20-45 minute game 2 players will find exactly what the other person was looking for so they can swap in terms of Legendary and Set items. That doesn't seem realistic to me.
I also don't feel like a "self found" player should be able to compete in terms of gear or levels with a player who chooses to interact and barter and trade. Isn't the point of playing with others to have fun and share? I find the equivalent gear of what I'm looking for, but for another class more often than not, which will put me in a "bind" (lol). Now its like all the time I spent finding those sought after items is wasted as I can't do anything with them unless under the most improbable of scenarios as I just laid out. So instead of being able to accumulate and liquidate what I've come across, which in turn helps out whoever does trade for what I found (since they want what I found ^_^) I will be more or less at the mercy of the RNG gods.
Basically, BoA detracts from a lot of the fun, options, and accessibility that I've always enjoyed with in Diablo. I've been a D2 LoD ladder player since 2005 and never had a problem where I felt binding anything was a good idea. Never. I continue with that feeling in Diablo 3 and would like to see all Bound mechanics removed.
The AH is not terrible. A lack of competitive currency is terrible. The AH is extremely useful and convenient. I see a core issue here..."most fun way to find loot"...yea what? huh? Quick question: Do you enjoy finding items or using items? Personally, I like using items. I don't diminish their value myself by saying "well I didn't FIND this item so I remain displeased, regardless of how much fun I will have now with its power."
One other question. Do you think that a self-found player should be able to compete with a socially active player in a similar time frame? As in, should 2 players, one who trades and one who plays self-found, have roughly the same gear and levels? Why or why not?
Cons: More narrow linear maps (hallways n such), more Bound Gear, no word on screenshake or legendary dyes, no chat lobby, no /filtermsg, no /nopickup