First off I'd like to caveat that this is a no-cry zone. So if you happened upon my thread with the intention of spouting your grievance against Jay Wilson, Blizzard, or just want to vent about how disappointing Diablo 3 is to you: stop reading now, see the gif, and follow it's advice.
Now, for the adults still with us, let's get to the topic at hand: Itemization choke points. What do I mean by that? Good question. What i'm referring to are the good-roll rares that we're all after. Primary stat + Vit + some extremely good combination of secondary stats like crit, crit dmg, (formerly) IAS, LoH etc.
As most of us are aware, starting around act2-3 (class dependent) of inferno it simply isn't enough to have your primary stats at a healthy level. At some point you need the major damage scaling of crit or you need the sustain of LoH in order to tackle elites with any consistency. Unfortunately, you soon realize this isn't something you can tack on to your current gear-set. You need those high end items and there is no substitute.
Of course, these items are not a common occurrence. Thus the formation of a choke-point. Presuming (and this is simply hypothetical, do not over-analyze my anecdotes and made-up statistics) for a moment there are 1 million players in act2 inferno and attempting to gear up for act3/4, there is probably enough gear out there to allow 50% of them to progress; however, that figure probably shrinks to around 5-10% if your idea of progression means being able to go back and farm the content without the same level of duress.
All of this brings me to the topic of debate: The way I see it, there are two scenarios which could play out in the coming patches to allay this issue (and I assume one of them will happen given what already happened to IAS):
1. Blizzard continues to down-tune overly effective secondary stats and nerf the later acts of inferno. This addresses the issue by broadening the number of rares which fall into the acceptable range of stats; however, it also waters down the meta-game of itemizing your character to perfection.
2. Blizzard allows these relatively lofty itemization benchmarks to remain mostly untouched, but dramatically increases higher ilvl drop rates such that more of these "good," items come into the economy. This addresses the issue by pushing the later inferno item supply closer to the player demand; however, it also devalues items on the whole and exacerbates natural inflation.
To my mind, a combination of the two seem to be the preferable choice. That being said, I would like to hear the opinions of others on the matter.
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Number1337 posted a message on Force quit Diablo 3Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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proletaria posted a message on Itemization choke-points: A civil discussion.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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Doez posted a message on wait until 1.0.4?Come on man, DHs are not struggling in act1 of Inferno, even with the changes to IAS. Re-think your playstyle, build, and such.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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Belloc posted a message on Any news on DropRate Fix ?Same deal with WoW news: When there's info, it'll be posted on the main page.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
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zrave posted a message on 1.0.3 Inferno Barbarian GuidePatch 1.0.3 has drastically changed the game, to the point that most strategies that have been developed for barbarian are no longer optimal. The focus now is on DPS and clearing speed, not survivability.Posted in: Barbarian: Bastion's Keep
First, I'll talk about the optimal farming strategy, and then the builds you can use to complete them. The Nephalem Valor Buff change means that bosses will drop less loot, while elite packs after the 5th will drop a lot more. This rewards a farming strategy that kills as many elite packs as possible in a single run. Therefore I recommend that your farming run consist of entire act farms, maximizing the proportion of elites that are killed with 5 stacks of valor.
Act 4 farming is bad because it is so short. There are only about 10 elite packs in the entire act so only a few will be killed after the 5th stack. Whimsyshire is also inefficient, first because it only has a few elite packs and also because of the magic find change; it does not affect clouds anymore (didn't get a single blue when I tried it.)
Therefore the best farming routes are full clears of acts 1, 2, or 3. Since a full clear involves killing about 30 elite packs and several bosses, it could take up to 2 hours to complete. In the interest of efficiency I recommend you farm the highest act you can while using a dps strategy. The drop rate change means that farming act 1 in 90 minutes using a dps strategy will be more rewarding than clearing act 2 in 3 hours using a tanking strategy. The most efficient farm in the game will be the fastest completion of act 3.
Survivability requirements have dropped drastically. I was able to drop my EHP in half while tripling my dps and still clear act 3 without too many issues. Currently I clear act 3 in about 2 hours, killing 30 or so elite packs and all 4 bosses, which translates to about 4 full backpacks of loot and 50-60 rares. My stats are 7k armor, 700 all resists, 60k hp, and 40k dps, further boosted by brawler and berserker rage.
I was able to get such a high DPS by stacking as much Crit hit chance and crit hit damage as I could. Currently at 46% and 289%, respectively!
Arcane enchanted seems to be the most deadly affix right now, especially when paired with affixes that constrain your movement.
I'll also share the build I use but first I want to talk about build diversity. It is no longer necessary to use a cookie cutter tank build, but you'll probably want Wrath of the Berserker with the Insanity rune and Revenge with Provocation, as they are our most powerful skills. You can satisfy the meager defensive requirements in any number of ways, whether using passives, high EHP gear, War Cry, Ignore Pain, or even using a shield. Yes, sword and board is no longer necessary, 2h and DW are just as viable!
I currently use:
Wrath of the Berserker(Insanity): Once you are over 30k dps you can kill act 3 packs within the 15s duration, which makes this skill amazing.
Revenge(Provocation): Very strong and reliable skill, gives you both sustain and strong aoe damage. Practically a requirement unless you are using a whirlwind or ranged build.
Ignore Pain(Ignorance is Bliss): I chose the lifesteal rune, even though it is nerfed in inferno, because my high dps gives good returns. When I pop Wrath of the berserker I do about 500k aoe dps, which means 4% lifesteal gives me back 20k hps! That's better than an extra 2 seconds duration.
Leap (Iron Impact): One mobility skill is a good idea, and leap doubles as a defensive cooldown. I also like that I can take shortcuts by leaping over gaps and walls.
Frenzy(Sidearm): Still the best single target dps skill for this build. Also provides some bonus aoe damage! Excellent for small packs and boss fights.
War Cry(Impunity): Still a great defensive option, I chose to keep it and replace my defensive passives because war cry is just so good
Passives:
Berserker Rage: I don't have any fury spenders so this is an easy 25% more damage.
Ruthlessness: Ties in well with the crit hit chance/damage build.
Brawler: Being surrounded by enemies is where I want to be. Massive 30% increase, but stops working as you kill a lot of stuff.
I want to replace Brawler with Weapons Master (Axe/Mace) because of the crit strategy and also because Brawler is useless against ranged elites. Just gotta find the right weapon!
Check out my stream for a demonstration or to ask questions
www.twitch.tv/zrave
Also, I'll be uploading new guides for 1.0.3 content to my youtube channel!
www.youtube.com/zraveX
TL;DR: Blow stuff up -
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Nensec posted a message on ERR37 - The D3 All-In-One Calculator (v0.4c)Hey there Fans of Diablo!Posted in: Theorycrafting and Analysis
As some people roaming the official DH forums might have seen already there is a project running to create the ultimate user-friendly D3 calculator. We have named this calculator in honor of our good friend: ERR37.
It is currently very much a work in progress, slowly building it up piece by piece. But we are getting there, having most basic implementations in there. These currently include:- Basic damage calculation for Demon Hunter ( including archery, sharpshooter and steady aim )
- Adding items to a character, building them up stat by stat ( not all stats implemented yet )
- Saving and Loading of characters
- A seperated calcuator from the main application, allowing us to develop a Silverlight and possible a Mono for Android version in the future
You can download the latest version here by clicking this shiny yellow link!
Changes that include in this version:- a. Fixed saving issue
- b. Fixed calculation error
- c. Fixed IAS from the Enchantress not working
- Passive Skill damage modifiers implemented for all classes
- Follower Buff support, for when you run with your Scoundrel or Enchantress
- Dual Wield support
- Better error handling Should you run into an exception, you have the option to send us a report of the error.
- A lot of UI changes, though minor, that should make handling the application easier
- We have an icon!
This report includes data from the application namely:
The exception message.
Stacktrace of the exception.
Character data that you were working with.
Possible extra notes that the user would give us about what he was doing.
- You will be unable to load in save files from 0.3 without manually editing the save file! If you want to do this you can do the following: Open the .e37 save file with notepad
Find the line where it says"$type": "System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection`1[[DataContracts.Items.Item, DataContracts]], mscorlib",
and change it with:"$type": "System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection`1[[DataContracts.Items.IItem, DataContracts]], mscorlib",
next for every item you wear you need to change every line where it says"$type": "DataContracts.Items.Item, DataContracts",
to this"$type": "DataContracts.Items.Armor, DataContracts",
Save the file and you should now be able to load it just fine in 0.4+.
- You can select any weapon as your dual wield target.
- You are not limited to 3 passive skills for your character
- Entering a % value for stats that use % the value turns into x.xx format whilst non % values do not.
- Character class and weapon type combobox lists are not localized yet and show enum values instead more human readable strings.
As always, should you have a suggestion or want to manually report an issue post it here.
-------------------------------
You can find our project, and the source for it aswell, over at our Google Code page. You are very much free to grab the source and mess around with it. Even better if you wish to contribute to the project, we are always on the lookout for help from other devs.
The project is currently maintained by:- Nensec
- pdluke
- Dretar, our math genius
- Cronos
The application is written in C#. The current front end of the application is done in WPF. The Calculator itself is a class library with a Portable Class Library to communicate in between. This iwll allow us to add Silverlight and Mono for Android, any other .net front end to the calculator using the same code. The WPF client is using the Caliburn.Micro framework in conjuction with Ninject. -
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spaace posted a message on Patch 1.0.3 - magic find buffI'm pretty sure in every diablo (so far..) I have found my best/fave item from a random corpse or jar...Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
I was sad when they nerfed gold from pots....
Now this -
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DiabloFanUser47052 posted a message on WORLD RECORD 1-60 in 42 minutes /playedPosted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Guys this isn't a boast thread. Just so you know. I mean, he put it in the title, so how could it possibly be a boast thread?
Also im sure he had 0 help doing this. Someone this humble would never do such a thing as make a thread trying to take credit for such a monumental achievement in life. -
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Daemaro posted a message on QUESTION ON 1.03 DESIGN GROUP CHANGEMonsters did more damage in co-op. They won't anymore. That's basically it.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Monsters will do the same in solo and co-op now. -
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tuuvaak posted a message on SFJake's Whining Topic. Today: Blizzard's Broken Design Philosophies.tl;dr OP hates the entire game and blizzard and everyone that likes the game at all.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
look, d3 was a huge commercial success. that much is obvious. was it still a complete let down? yes, everyone knows it. was it a worthy successor to d2? did it become the freeform ultima online 2 people were hoping for with pking and stuff back in whatever ten years ago date it was originally announced ?
no. its a korean grind game with a RLAH. BUT ITS MY GRIND GAME OK? LET ME JUST GRIND IN IT, AND LET ME TRY TO ENJOY IT. NOW IM CRYING. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY WITH YOURSELF. WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST LET ME ENJOY THE BAD GAME D3 IS??!1 WHYYYYY
but seriously - d3 is what it is. its honestly probably just a cash battery for Project Titan for blizzard right now. what did you expect? the development took forever and like a zillion different people had their dirty paws in the mix at one point or another.
quotes to live by:
"its diablo."
and
"this game sucks, but i can't stop playing it."
just play it for a few months. get yo sixty bux out of it, then play whatever the next hyped up MMO or MOBA out is around christmas time.
roll yourself a nice spliff and put on the QVC shopping channel for background noise and pour yourself a nice beer and log in to ventrilo with your friends and just farm for some drops. just relax. have fun with it. not everything has to be a mega battle arena world invitational sponsored gaming hollywood event to be worth sixty bucks anymore. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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1. There's a filter by Lifesteal.
2. There's a filter by "Life On Hit". What's that?
3. Most interestingly, there's a filter by "Unique Item". Did they decide to bring that term back?
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Let dipshits be dipshits and move on. Lovely day outside, isn't it?
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I think a good amount of people believe d3 will be very easy. And I can't blame them for thinking it. The only footage we've seen is of demos that don't really represent how the game will turn out at all. In the demos, it seems like every class has basically infinite resources and not a big problem with dying - more like what to expect in act 1 and act 2 normal difficulty (which I think exactly what it is). But my point is, the content that's been shown affects how people feel about the game.
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Nobody knows what the book will actually contain because of these numerous conflicting reports. For example, Kotaku says "Metzen said that the company's upcoming Diablo book will focus on the events that occur between Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and Diablo III." which is not the entire franchise as that article suggests.
Another example (link to Sixen's article) would be off of Amazon:
Confusing, if you ask me.
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Official Blizzard Quote:
@cherubdown Sorry that was an incorrect answer. Drops don't change while playing in a group vs. alone.
Official Blizzard Quote:
I've gotten this same question wrong in the past, I don't know why it continues to confuse me. Drops are not different in co-op. The fact that you're killing faster (which you will) in a group means more items in less amount of time, means we don't need to provide other incentives. Your own drop modifiers will affect your personal drops, such as magic and gold find. But that's the same while playing alone or in a group.
I like it. It's very simple and straight forward. We won't be wondering now if we're getting the most bang for our time spent. If you want to get better lootz, you'll just have to get better Magic Find.
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