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I did extensive analysis on this but pretty much no one seemed to care about this ;-) Read here:
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I think the "or" is what got him confused. It just means you can only dye an item with one dye (at a time) you know =PQuote from Rbzzz
Quote from viferno
Just to be clear, there are 2 different dyes, and you get one random one with the collectors edition? So if you wanted both and say your friend bought one its still 50:50, you don't PICK which one you want? Random chance even before I play the game :D, love it!
...what?
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Ok, I had bad or maybe old info.
Updated my previous post with "It's 1 per *character* you create. You can't drop or trade them, and can't sell them on the AH, of course."
The CE dyes are infinite in their use. Keep them forever, dye as much stuff as you want "Cloud" or "Smoke" colored. The colors are unique to the CE.
The wings are an item you hold in your inventory (don't take up an equipment slot on your character), and it's a toggle. Use to turn on, use again to turn off. They're awesome looking, and stack with other class effects like Shadow Power and Archon.
It's 1 per account. If you want to trade to another character you'd just want to put it in your shared stash before logging out. Same with the dyes.
Ah, uh, er... hrm. That's a good question. We'll bring that up in our next meeting.
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xp pool probly means it doesnt apply the bonus after you've earned more than 10% of your current level in experience. ie; its capped and bad.
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Got bored and thought of some
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Progression requires skill.
I think you may be confusing the two.
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1 hour of content over 8 months = boring
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It appears the new affix cap on either mf or gf in beta patch 15 is about +8%. Also note is that the green gf gems and yellow mf gems always have the same value as each other on the official guide.
max gf gem = 31%
max mf gem = 31%
It's always been a curious decision to me in D3 and I haven't come to a conclusion on it yet. Which will be better... mf or gf? Or are they truly equal???
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I hope you all are as excited as I am about counting down the days to release! With that is the time to start thinking about customizing your hero. The purpose of this article is to take a close look at the underlying design of Diablo III's skills in order to help the community create more powerful hero builds. The opinions contained within are based on my experiences with and understanding of what worked and what didn't in World of Warcraft, Diablo II, and select trading card games.
The following notes will serve to lay down the general procedure of evaluating a skill as well as some basic tips to keep in mind, especially in regards to how a Diablo game plays.
There are various aspects of a skill (and its possible runic alterations) that need to be scrutinized to better understand it. Here is a general guideline to follow:
- Applicable Game Mode
- Which mode of the game does the skill support?
- Player vs Environment (PvE): The standard gameplay.
- Player vs Player (PvP): A mode in which the value of a skill must be determined entirely differently from PvE.
- Hardcore (HC): A specialized mode of PvE that puts higher emphasis on survivability.
- Skill Uptime
- How often does the skill benefit your hero? This is defined by cooldowns, buffs, and automated attacks such as minions.
- Skill Purpose
- Is the skill (by design) an offensive, defensive, or utility tool?
- Single Target vs Area Effect
- How many targets does the skill affect? And, if multiple, how reliable is its hit rate?
- Cost vs Effectiveness
- Consider the resource costs of the skill and what you are getting in return.
These categories will help to give you a better idea of how good a skill generally is overall. These explanations are simply broad overviews so we'll need to go into detail on each subject to better grasp exactly how to gauge each of the above aspects of a skill.Applicable Game Mode
This topic is fairly straightforward and acts as a good starting point on skill evaluation. First and foremost, you'll want to check if the skill matches the game mode you are building your hero for. To do that, you'll need to understand the gameplay concepts that each mode puts higher emphasis on.
Player vs Environment (PvE) is the standard game mode, also known as Softcore, in which your goal is to destroy as many enemies as efficiently as possible. In short, your hero's offensive capabilities are much more important than his defensive capabilities. While defense is still something you should be aware of, it is not strictly vital in this mode. Killing monsters and dying is better than not killing anything at all.
PvE also focuses on the average of your hero's performance. This means that skills with low uptime, such as skills with long cooldowns, are typically substandard and should only be considered for special events like act bosses. It also encourages high cost-effectiveness ratios, because, again, you want to average out the capabilities of your hero over time. Finally, PvE encourages the use of reliable area effect attacks. The style of Diablo encompasses slaying hordes of monsters more often than a single, tougher enemy.
Both offense and defense are crucial in PvP. Because of this, it is always up to your own judgment to balance these two characteristics of your hero. However, don't forget the saying: "The best defense is a good offense."
The third game mode available is Hardcore (HC) mode. This mode mirrors PvE with the incredibly notable exception that survivability will forever take precedence over all other hero attributes. Absolutely nothing is more essential to you than your hero's defense! There's little more to say about HC other than skills that save your life are absolutely paramount.
Skill Uptime
Understanding the idea of how often a skill is of use to you will aid you immensely in the development of your hero's skill customization. It is also the prime reason why a hero build composed entirely of attack skills cannot be ideal.
The catalyst of the issue at hand is the limitation of available skill slots in Diablo III. This restraint requires that you should aim to receive the most benefit from each of your skill slots as often as possible because your hero can only execute one action at any given time. This puts an increased value on active skills that augment the rest of your arsenal. The gist of it is that "buff" skills are inherently good.
The other element of skill uptime to be aware of is the potential for some attack skills to be performed parallel to your other actions. This circumvents the fact that you can only use one skill at a time and allows these types of skills to be used in conjunction with your primary attacks. An exact example of this skill style is one that creates an AI-controlled helper-minion. After the initial time spent using the skill, it can be viewed as a free and automated source of damage that requires no further input from you.
Skill Purpose
The purpose of a skill (offense, defense, or utility) fundamentally defines its applicable game mode, but that's already been covered. The actual intent of this segment is to assist you with easily identifying the best of the best. This is possible because there exist skills that serve more than one purpose. These skills are almost twice, sometimes thrice as powerful as they first appear to be.
Conclusively, the more problems a skill can solve, the more versatile it is. The more versatile it is, the more you will be using it (which directly relates to the importance of the skill's uptime). Skills that have a wide array of usage are innately better than skills that are too narrow in their use (situational). As a final note, situational skills are not to be confused with conditional skills. The former describes when you would want to use the skill with the latter being when you are allowed to use the skill.
Single Target vs Area Effect
To reiterate, Diablo III's standard gameplay focuses more on the quantity over the quality of slain enemies, favoring area effect attacks. Single target attacks are not entirely ruled out, but because of their situational nature they will not be the focus of the following details. Thankfully Diablo III's skill system supports the ability to hotswap skills in and out as needed!
We'll end the math there, but in terms of skill evaluation, it's not entirely that simple. Some skills are less reliable than others when it comes to hitting targets. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference and practice so you'll need to try out various skills to get a feel for them.
You're always going to want the most out of your attacks, and part of that includes effecting as many targets as possible. After all, your class's resources are a very valuable asset...
Cost vs Effectiveness
However, that's not to say that the numbers don't matter because they do ultimately determine if you should be using the skill at the present time or not. Skills that are well-designed allow you to keep an eye on them for the future, but the current power level of a skill will always end up making the choice for you in the end. To determine the efficiency of a skill, you must compare its cost and damage output to each other skill of similar style (that's to say, try not to compare a summoning skill with a channeled skill). There's not much more to it. It's simply a question of: "How much bang am I getting for my buck?"
In closing, I sincerely hope you take something away from this article. These theories are the driving force behind the decisions I currently make on the official skill calculator. Only time will tell whether or not these ideas can withstand the ferocity of Inferno difficulty. See you in Sanctuary!
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In my depression, I shall roll hardcore...