The lower level requirement thing, in case you aren't aware (I'm not going to assume either way), is a known bug. I want to say I read something to that effect, it was kind of a buried blue post. I believe they're looking to fix it in the next patch...
Anyway, overall, I'm having an insane amount of fun on the PTR. It's not Reaper of Souls, but it's still really awesome working with the updated skills. I originally started D3 with a Wizard but since moved to a Monk as kind of my main character. Seriously...I'm having a hard time finding builds that don't work. Even with gear that isn't super synergized.
The new passives show tons of promise. Love all the elemental additions to some of the skills, like...making a Cold Monk. Not even feasible in the live game, but definitely a build style in the expansion. Another thing I love is the increased shield that Mantra of Healing grants. Combined with Chant of Resonance, that now reduces the Spirit cost of Mantra Active effects, and enough Life Regen, I can use Mantra of Healing as a slow type of life restoration method. Also, I can combine Mantra of Healing's shield with Guiding Light when low on life for a pretty sweet damage buff that I'm pretty sure spreads to allies. And that's not even mentioning how they changed Dashing Strike to be really effective as a fantastic escape skill, but also has one or two really decent damage runes. Oh, and Hand of Ytar getting a major buff was fantastic as well. I've been dying to make a build around that, and I'm glad it's finally doable in the expansion. Looking to put together a long distance build using that, maybe Explosive Light and a few others. Definitely excited.
As for legendaries, I agree, I haven't been rained on, but a little bit more has helped, certainly. I found a Dovu Energy Trap amulet that increases Stun Durations. I found the Barter Town Pads shoulders that supposedly make casting Town Portal uninterruptible, but when I tried it, it didn't work. Maybe they deactivated it (temporarily)? My Monk's also wearing a Band of Hollow Whispers that randomly Haunts enemies. Proc is pretty strong, too. Oh, and my Demon Hunter got a high level Balefire Caster that was more powerful than my live game Windforce...as well as a Bombadier's Rucksack quiver that allows me to summon 2 additional Sentires. Put together with Custom Engineering and Ballistics? SWEET!
Not to mention the Nemesis Bracers, that summon an elite pack when activating shrines. Very fun to keep the battles nonstop.
Density...a lot of people have complained about it since the PTR started, but my thought is...even when not calculating in elites I summon with the Nemesis Bracers, I feel like I've been tripping over elite packs. Which honestly, I'd rather have that than denser groups of white mobs...but I did read that they "adjusted" Act 1 density...could just be an illusion but I do feel it's been upped slightly and that's nice.
QoL wise...even without Adventure Mode, jumping around using the region map, and not being required to hit a Waypoint to travel is SOOOOO nice. Especially in bigger towns like New Tristram. When I'm done with whatever, all I need to do is teleport to the Waypoint instead of walking all the way to the New Tristram Waypoint. Paragon Points are also really fun to play with. It should probably have some kind of cost to respec it, but they'll have to think about how to do that right...too little, respecing becomes trivial...too much, and it becomes too heavy a chore. I do think it should cost gold, though. I find I'm mostly salvaging loot so I can craft more, and not vending as many items, and since gold isn't as easy to come by, it's the best thing to use, in my opinion.
I think the only thing I can complain about is how Smart Drops effect legendaries. I really like Smart Drops, and think it's a healthy change to make boring affixes like mainstat and vitality easy to get...items are then made special based on the other stats they have, not to mention it reduces guilt enchanting those stats off of gear knowing they'll just pop up again easily. But here's an example of what I mean...
This is what the Storm Crow looks like on the live game. Lightning Damage, +90-100 to all attributes, Life on Hit, Arcane Power on Crit, +damage to elites, a fireball proc and one random property...this combo of things made the Storm Crow special, desirable. However, this one time, someone linked a Storm Crow they found on the PTR and all it had on it was Intelligence, Vitality, and maybe a couple other standard things. It looked pretty generic. I'm not saying this as an argument against Smart Drops, but I try to imagine if that Storm Crow had the same affixes as the live game, but with expansion quality numbers. That'd be a pretty impressive Wizard Hat. I suppose the other side of the coin could be that by removing the ability for the Storm Crow to have all those specific things, maybe it's preventing the item from being BiS? I can't test the Mystic, but maybe it's possible that that Storm Crow can have the original Storm Crow's affixes from the live game enchanted onto it? It'd add an extra step to making it a great item, but at least it'd be something.
All in all, though, love how the game's turning out and changing, and like the direction it's going in.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
The lower level requirement thing, in case you aren't aware (I'm not going to assume either way), is a known bug. I want to say I read something to that effect, it was kind of a buried blue post. I believe they're looking to fix it in the next patch...
Anyway, overall, I'm having an insane amount of fun on the PTR. It's not Reaper of Souls, but it's still really awesome working with the updated skills. I originally started D3 with a Wizard but since moved to a Monk as kind of my main character. Seriously...I'm having a hard time finding builds that don't work. Even with gear that isn't super synergized.
The new passives show tons of promise. Love all the elemental additions to some of the skills, like...making a Cold Monk. Not even feasible in the live game, but definitely a build style in the expansion. Another thing I love is the increased shield that Mantra of Healing grants. Combined with Chant of Resonance, that now reduces the Spirit cost of Mantra Active effects, and enough Life Regen, I can use Mantra of Healing as a slow type of life restoration method. Also, I can combine Mantra of Healing's shield with Guiding Light when low on life for a pretty sweet damage buff that I'm pretty sure spreads to allies. And that's not even mentioning how they changed Dashing Strike to be really effective as a fantastic escape skill, but also has one or two really decent damage runes. Oh, and Hand of Ytar getting a major buff was fantastic as well. I've been dying to make a build around that, and I'm glad it's finally doable in the expansion. Looking to put together a long distance build using that, maybe Explosive Light and a few others. Definitely excited.
As for legendaries, I agree, I haven't been rained on, but a little bit more has helped, certainly. I found a Dovu Energy Trap amulet that increases Stun Durations. I found the Barter Town Pads shoulders that supposedly make casting Town Portal uninterruptible, but when I tried it, it didn't work. Maybe they deactivated it (temporarily)? My Monk's also wearing a Band of Hollow Whispers that randomly Haunts enemies. Proc is pretty strong, too. Oh, and my Demon Hunter got a high level Balefire Caster that was more powerful than my live game Windforce...as well as a Bombadier's Rucksack quiver that allows me to summon 2 additional Sentires. Put together with Custom Engineering and Ballistics? SWEET!
Not to mention the Nemesis Bracers, that summon an elite pack when activating shrines. Very fun to keep the battles nonstop.
Density...a lot of people have complained about it since the PTR started, but my thought is...even when not calculating in elites I summon with the Nemesis Bracers, I feel like I've been tripping over elite packs. Which honestly, I'd rather have that than denser groups of white mobs...but I did read that they "adjusted" Act 1 density...could just be an illusion but I do feel it's been upped slightly and that's nice.
QoL wise...even without Adventure Mode, jumping around using the region map, and not being required to hit a Waypoint to travel is SOOOOO nice. Especially in bigger towns like New Tristram. When I'm done with whatever, all I need to do is teleport to the Waypoint instead of walking all the way to the New Tristram Waypoint. Paragon Points are also really fun to play with. It should probably have some kind of cost to respec it, but they'll have to think about how to do that right...too little, respecing becomes trivial...too much, and it becomes too heavy a chore. I do think it should cost gold, though. I find I'm mostly salvaging loot so I can craft more, and not vending as many items, and since gold isn't as easy to come by, it's the best thing to use, in my opinion.
I think the only thing I can complain about is how Smart Drops effect legendaries. I really like Smart Drops, and think it's a healthy change to make boring affixes like mainstat and vitality easy to get...items are then made special based on the other stats they have, not to mention it reduces guilt enchanting those stats off of gear knowing they'll just pop up again easily. But here's an example of what I mean...
This is what the Storm Crow looks like on the live game. Lightning Damage, +90-100 to all attributes, Life on Hit, Arcane Power on Crit, +damage to elites, a fireball proc and one random property...this combo of things made the Storm Crow special, desirable. However, this one time, someone linked a Storm Crow they found on the PTR and all it had on it was Intelligence, Vitality, and maybe a couple other standard things. It looked pretty generic. I'm not saying this as an argument against Smart Drops, but I try to imagine if that Storm Crow had the same affixes as the live game, but with expansion quality numbers. That'd be a pretty impressive Wizard Hat. I suppose the other side of the coin could be that by removing the ability for the Storm Crow to have all those specific things, maybe it's preventing the item from being BiS? I can't test the Mystic, but maybe it's possible that that Storm Crow can have the original Storm Crow's affixes from the live game enchanted onto it? It'd add an extra step to making it a great item, but at least it'd be something.
All in all, though, love how the game's turning out and changing, and like the direction it's going in.