You buy a car. You are also expected to buy the extra tires if you want them. Vanity is extra.
Not to nitpick, but this is a terrible example. What if those tires were Azure Tires of Dexterity? Now some smirking Paladin who paid real money for them is going to round that curve *slightly faster than you*, and look better to boot (Azure tires DO look good with the right chassis color and Paladin aura).
Unfair advantage? You bet.
I think we should stick to the example in my previous post. A better sound system isn't going to make my car faster, handle better, or even look different. The only thing it will do is amuse me while I drive, and annoy the cop who pulls me over (and also irritate the guy holding the "Fight the Inequality!" sign over at the car dealership).
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Er... it seems to have disappeared again when I hit "submit" on making an edit.
Any possibility that my edits are causing this? All I'm doing is setting the offhand to the Piro Marella, and changing around some of the paragon point priorities.
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Thank you!
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Greetings,
My build disappeared after I hit the "submit" button on making a minor edit for patch 2.4. Here is the original link:
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/53898-2-4-the-cannonball-be-your-teams-rift-guardian
This is the second time this has happened, could it be something is accidentally flagging it as spam?
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Not to nitpick, but this is a terrible example. What if those tires were Azure Tires of Dexterity? Now some smirking Paladin who paid real money for them is going to round that curve *slightly faster than you*, and look better to boot (Azure tires DO look good with the right chassis color and Paladin aura).
Unfair advantage? You bet.
I think we should stick to the example in my previous post. A better sound system isn't going to make my car faster, handle better, or even look different. The only thing it will do is amuse me while I drive, and annoy the cop who pulls me over (and also irritate the guy holding the "Fight the Inequality!" sign over at the car dealership).
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- Blizzard's not going to sell anything that could possibly change gameplay. It should be obvious with their stated design goals and history of games. It's not even worth worrying about, really.
- They won't sell armor dyes, or anything that permanently influences the aesthetics of your gear. The Diablo series has emphasized loot and looks moreso than other games, and your gear defines much of who you are and what you've accomplished - Blizzard knows this, it was their primary design goal. You can worry about this a tiny bit, but only if you're afraid of the dark.
- In WoW, they sold cute non-combat pets, fun-looking steeds, or small usable items that produced lights or sounds. None of these impacted gear, the look of gear, or gameplay. They were all instantly recognizable as items bought off the Blizzard store, and therefore didn't compete with recognition of a player's skills (or lack thereof). Casual and Hardcore players alike purchased them and enjoyed them for precisely what they're meant for: small bits of entertainment. You can worry about this a fair amount, if you find cute bunnies and pretty ponies terrifying.
- Many of the sales from WoW's online store (particularly the pets) had the proceeds to go charities and special funds. For the accusations of greed and avarice, it's worth noting that annual donations made by Blizzard lead to staggering amounts.
My advice: Stop talking about anyone being the next Scrooge.
- For ANYONE talking about money at all, you really need to work in a game software company to have even a notion of what is or isn't needed to produce, expand, and support an MMO or a game like Diablo3. I have, and many of my friends are programmers/designers in that industry, from major MMOs to games like Plants versus Zombies, and even I can't really say. Most of you can't even comment on the raw engineering manpower needed for a game of this scale, much less the tools, technology, facilities, artistic support, customer support, legal support, marketing, and production that goes along with it.
My advice: Stop talking about whether Blizzard needs the money or not, because if you're in a position to truly know - you wouldn't be talking about it (and you'd be working on your stock portfolio).
- Saying that the vanity items impact "fairness" is like saying some sports teams have an unfair advantage because their team mascot is fuzzier/more colorful, or because they have hotter cheerleaders. (Well, the latter might have a significant effect on the fans, which might have an impact on the players... nevermind.)
- Saying that additional money for some non-performance-related perks leads to "inequality" is ridiculous. I might buy the same car as you, but my choice to spend a little extra to get a better sound system is my prerogative, as it is yours to decline. The notion that the car dealership condones inequality because of this is laughable. Everyone gets exactly what they paid for, and everyone has the freedom to pay a little more to giggle/smile/scream at a cute bunny or a pretty pony.
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Hmm... the problem with FA is that it's too mana-intensive to be used as a single-target spam ability. I thought about using FA for the crowd control, but it wasn't sustainable. At the moment, the same applies to Guiding Arrow (though if I sink a lot of points into it, the mana consumption becomes easier to deal with). That's why I got the Holy Freeze merc to replace FA, and was looking for other options.
I guess for now that only leaves me with Magic Arrow. Is it really as weak as the tooltip says? Converting 1% per point into magic damage and only adding 1 damage per point invested?
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Thanks for the insight. I just entered Hell difficulty, and it's VERY slow going with only a halfway decent bow. Valkyrie is basically saving my ass every single time, plus the holy freeze aura Act 2 merc.
It looks like I have a choice between sinking points into Magic Arrow, Guided Arrow, and Freezing Arrow. My friend swears by Guided Arrow, and I personally have enjoyed having to carry fewer arrows and worry less about mana (my mana drain sucks) with Magic Arrow. Between the three of these, what are your recommendations?
(Magic arrow seems like it does pitiful damage. 1 pt for each 1% physical damage converted to magic damage? That seems excessively low. Also.. adding only 1 additional pt of damage per rank? Is that a tooltip typo?)
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- Strafe is great! I currently have it at rank 2, against a large group it does indeed let fly 6 shots. Against a single target, it looks like it only shoots 3 arrows? Against 2 targets, it only lets loose 1 arrow per target for a total of 2. A bit of a disappointment, as I thought it might work like Zeal - where all attacks can go to a single target.
So how does strafe work against fewer foes or a single foe? When it's maxed out (to 10 arrows), will it shoot a single target 5 times? 2 targets once each?
- Been researching quite a few guides, some players recommend going the Ice Arrow/Freezing Arrow route to counter physical immunes. Some say "screw magic damage" and instead put points into more skills for the Valkyrie. Others even say going to rank 13 Magic Arrow is nice, as your attack becomes free (no mana or arrows needed) and does damage physical immunes where strafe cannot. Personally I'm kind of partial to the Magic Arrow idea.
What advice do you guys have?
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The only problem with the Holy Freeze merc is that I cannot control where he goes (and he also might die). Having a controlled AOE snare would be really useful. The reason I asked about Blizzard was because in Hell difficulty, chill duration is reduced to 25% of what it normally is. So a 5 second chill from Frozen Orb would require some 13 points invested (adding up to 20 seconds in Normal mode)! But if Blizzard snares the 4 seconds it's going no matter the difficulty, then a 1-point investment would work really well for that purpose. Even better if it snares longer than the 4 seconds of damage.
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Do you know what Blizzard's chill duration is? It doesn't say in the wiki or the spell tooltip. I assume it's not just the 4 seconds while Blizzard is active.
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Frozen Orb makes a decent controlling spell. Let's say I'd only use it for slowing enemies, I don't care about damage. In that case, is necessarty to put more than a couple points into it? As long as the cold duration is sufficient (say, 15 seconds, which is 5 seconds in hell), is there any reason to put more in? What about Cold Mastery, do I even need a single point, or does it not impact the chances of Chill being applied?
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That said, I will probably build a Blizzard Sorc and just be a dutiful potion-drinker.
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So against a moderate group of monsters, Blizzard still does better damage?
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Though Blizzard seems to do more damage, Frozen Orb can be cast faster, and consumes less mana. In addition, it seems difficult to hit highly mobile/fast enemies with Blizzard, whereas Frozen Orb is an attack that travels (and can at least clip fast moving enemies).
Is the damage difference really that big? Is one build easier to play than the other?