-
- Slayerviper
- Registered User
-
Member for 12 years, 8 months, and 16 days
Last active Fri, Jul, 28 2017 10:36:27
- 8 Followers
- 1,582 Total Posts
- 136 Thanks
-
Sep 15, 2014
12
sicness posted a message on Blizzard will lose their most experienced players and support base.No offense, but it's pretty obvious why your post got deleted. You offer no insight as to how they can overcome their issues and are basically just complaining.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
Sep 9, 20144
ruksak posted a message on You know, I remember a time...Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
People started supporting bad behavior. It's part of this new gen apathy.Quote from ConundrumNSA
I remember a time in gaming where exploiters and cheaters hid in the shadows.
Now they are proud of what they do and THEY feel insulted and attack those who call them on their actions.
WTF happened?
When I was young and they showed on TV, for example, a person crashing their bike into a tree and obviously getting injured, people said "OHHHH, did he get hurt".
Now...it's "LOL what a fking dumbass OMG FAIL".
This detached behavior translates to online gaming. When a major exploit comes along, people say "OMG FKING BLIZZ SUCKS". Instead of the more reasonable approach of calling out those who are purposely ripping the game.
As well; Back in my day, when you played a game vs someone else, they were sitting right there next to you. If they cheated, shit got real. -
Mar 28, 20147
YoyoTanya posted a message on Immortal Doctor - Live Long and ProsperPosted in: Witch Doctor: The Mbwiru EikuraImmortal Doctor
This is a Witch Doctor build that aim for tankiness and pet.
With the durable and cover/distraction from pets will let you hold your ground and fight until the end of the day.
The less time you spend on running = the more time you spend on damage dealing. And that where our DPS come from.
This is what the skills set look like.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#YchleT!SXaV!bZaZac
Skill Explanation
Active Skill
Summon Zombie Dogs - Life Link
This provide you a group of meat shield and 10% damage reduction. I apply this to left mouse button because I don't need a primary skill that much. And this will prevent the awkward moment when you try to run away from something deadly but stand still because you accidentally clicking on something along the route instead.
Firebats - Vampire Bats
This is your main DPS skill. One of the best Witch Doctor skill so far. Have a high DPS rate, good AoE, free to channel, and synergy well with Fetish Sycophants.
Locust Swarm - Pestilence
Another great AoE damage over time skill. With Creeping Death and Bad Medicine Passive this will lower the enemy damage by 20% for the rest of their life. I use Pestilence to help it spread faster but you can change the rune to anything you want, except Searing Locust because it will change damage to fire and don't apply Bad Medicine on the victims.
Piranhas - Zombie Piranhas
A new essential skill for Witch Doctor. Apply 15% increased damage taken buff on enemy is a huge DPS boost especially when you play with a party. The buff are last forever with Creeping Death, and Zombie Piranhas make the area effect become a screen-wide (literally). It's has a poison damage too, so it will apply Bad Medicine on their victims if they don't already have one.
Haunt - Consuming Spirit
Actually, this can be a free slot for anything you want to have in your arsenal. But for me, I want to have more DoT on a tough enemy like Elite or Boss. Haunt also last forever with this build and Consuming Spirit provide a lot of health per second which make you harder to kill and recover faster.
Gargantuan - Bruiser
How can it be a pet build if you don't have all pet on your tab? I select bruiser because an extra cc always great.
Passive Skill
Creeping Death
All of your DoT skills are last forever (5 minute actually). Even Piranhas DoT stop ticking after 8 second but the damage buff still go on.
Bad Medicine
With eternity Locust Swarm, this buff become eternity too. All enemy deals less 20% damage are a great buff, both in team play or solo.
Jungle Fortitude
Reduce damage done to you and your pet for 15%. More durable are always good, but if you feel your self are durable enough, feel free to switch this to other DPS Passive skill if you want.
Fetish Sycophants
This skill is one of your trump card. It's synergy well with Firebats and give you a small army of Fetish that provide extra DPS and meat shield for you. See strategy section for more explanation.
The Concept
This build aim for a very durable Witch Doctor. With all skills sum up, it's provide 45% damage reduction.(10% from Life Link, 15% from Jungle Fortitude, and 20% from Bad Medicine.)
And with a lot of meat shield (Gargantuan, Zombie Dogs, Fetish) that run around and pull aggro from enemy, you will take less hit from them, that's mean less damage you will get.
With all this advantage, You can hold your ground and channel Firebats until the end of the day.
You can even ignore some floor mechanic and keep channeling like nothing happen, Or you can be off-tank those Elite or Boss if needed.
The longer Firebat you channel = more DPS and Fetish proc = more DPS stak up over time.
The Damage for this build may seems low on the paper.
But by stand and fight almost entire battle you can do more damage than some DPS spec that keep run for their life almost all the time.
Plus, with an extra damage from Fetish Sycophants, you can do tons of damage too.
Another good thing about this build is it good for solo and great for party.
You have 15% increase Damage buff and 20% damage reduction buff provide for your team almost all the time.
Plus your pets will keep the enemy busy and make your team's life a lot easier.
Don't surprise when someone says this world is a safer place with you around
Strategy
Open the fight with Locust Swarm then drop Piranhas in the middle of the enemy group. (Or vise versa, up to enemy position)
After that, start channel Firebats to do some damage and proc your Fetish army.
Some people with low level gear or people with no mana bonus may can't use Firbats right after the open combo, so try to use this gap to re positioning your self for the best spot to land Firebats instead.
Always aim Firebats to the crowd or try to hit at least two enemy with it, because Damage of this build is a bit below average, so you need to squeeze every drop of their damage potential to fill the different.
Almost all of your skill is a DoT type, so thing may seems a bit slow because you didn't quickly kill an enemy one by one like DPS spec. But with all skill you have is a powerful AoE skill and two of them can cover the whole room, so in term of overall DPS or clearing speed it won't fall behind the DPS spec that much. If you can make the most of your skill potential. (Firebats in this case)
Fetish Sycophants is the real star of this build.
By continues channeling Firebats like no tomorrow will result to a lot of proc of this skill and provide you a free Fetish Army.
You will have 4-6 Fetish follow and fight for you all the time.(Some times you may have more than 10 Fetish, up to your luck)
And this give you a huge boost in both DPS and survivability.
Each of these hobbit zombie do 180% of your weapon damage per attack and has the same attack per second as yours.
If you have 5 Fetish, that's 900% weapon damage bonus per second floating around. Multiply this for each extra Fetish you have.
And they can hold aggro from your enemy like Zombie Dogs, so with more Fetish around = less damage you will take.
Our little problem is, like any other pets, these guys will run around and randomly attack every enemy on the screen.
By spread out and attack a different target make them work like another DoT you have. And that's not the most effective way to kill something.
To fix this. You need to lower the possible target for them by try to kill small adds first.
Aim your Firebats to the weakest or lowest HP enemy, clear those small flies from the field as fast as you can.
This will limit the number of target for your Fetish. They will gather and focus on the same target, become a Nuke instead of some sort of DoT and kill the target faster.
Paragon Point For Paragon Point I recommend
Core > Move Speed > INT
Offense > Attack Speed > Crit Chance or Crit Damage
Defense> Life Regeneration > Life %
Utility > Area Damage or Resource cost reduction > Area damage (If you reach 200+ Paragon level)
You should keep your bonus move speed close to maximum move speed bonus (25%) at all time.
If you have some gear that provide move speed bonus for you, you can distribute the extra point to DPS stat like INT.
But I recommend to get all 25% extra move speed from Paragon Point.
Because move speed from Item can reforge to another useful stat like +% damage or +% Attack speed or etc.
Which is worth more than 250 INT from Paragon point.
For Defense.
Extra Health just make you a big sack of meat, and bonus armor won't give you much, unless you have 8k+ of armor.
All resist doesn't scale very well after you have more than 1k resist too.
So, I think Life Regeneration give the best bonus per paragon point.
I put 40 point on it and it give me 6k Life regen per second. Which is nice.
For Utility category. Area Damage can improve your damage a little.
It not much, but I think it's the most useful stats compare to the rest.
Resource cost reduction doesn't make much different even at full level, and can easily replace by bonus mana regeneration.
Life on Hit proc only once for DoT and channeling spell. And I think pet can't proc any on hit effect.
Gold find... No, thanks.
Gearing
I prefer a fast weapon for the attack speed.
More attack speed made Firebats tick faster, lead to more DPS and more proc for Fetish Sycophants. (And those Fetish will attack faster too.)
Even this build focus on durability, you don't need to go all out about defensive stat. Just have at least one defensive stat on each piece of equipment is ok. But I prefer to have Int on very piece too. So any Item with Int and another defensive stat (Vit, Armor, Resist) are fine.
If you feel your self durable enough and want more DPS, feel free to drop durability from some piece for extra DPS as you want.
There is a plenty of Legendary bonus that can improve this build.
Some may improve the build directly and some can alternate the build to a new strategy.
Quetzalcoatl (Double Locust Swarm and Haunt damage) and Mask of Jeram (+75% Pet damage) is a perfect addition for this build.
They will improve the damage directly to the build, simple enough.
Carnevil (Your Fetish shoot a Poison Dart every time you do) will improve your single target damage greatly.
(I suggest to replace Haunt to Poison Dart for this build, but keep Firebats because it's a great AoE skill and have the best proc rate for Fetish)
The Grin Reaper (It's like free 2 Mirror Image when you cast spell) is one of the best helmet for Witch Doctor in my opinion.
It's proc rate are very good and those mimic will cast Firebats almost all the time (and they can move around, cast other spell while Firebats still active!)
If you get this, replace Huant with Zombie Charger - Zombie Bear and you will get free Zombie Bear every couple second!
I have a level 60 version of this and it's very awesome. Try to get the level 70 version by farming and throwing all of my Bloody Shard to helmet gamble but still no luck yet.
For Mojos
Uhkapian Serpent (redirect 25-30% of damage taken to your Zombie Dogs) sound interesting with that huge damage reduction.
This may make you Immortal. Literally.
Homunculus (Spawn free Zombie Dogs every 4-6 second) is my current Mojo.
Even if you don't have Zombie Dogs equipped, It's still spawn a basic Zombie Dogs (Dogs without runes) for you.
The only thing you lose is 10% damage reduction from Life Link (which is not that much). But you gain a skill slot to equip with any thing you want.
I prefer a skill that cost you with cooldown only like Spirit Walk, Hex, Big Bad Voodoo, etc. Because they will not mess with your mana management.
Play with what you have, and get along with it.
Fetish Maximization
After the latest patch, there's a huge buff on pet, which is Critical damage bonus that can effect pets too.
This can raise pet's critical damage to any number you want (It's capped at 150% critical damage in the past).
And it's become a huge boost on pets DPS.
This change Improve this build a lot, because we have a group of Fetish follow us around all the times.
So I suggest to aim for this stat if you want to make this build to more Damage-dealing-type.
1.8 or more attack per second.
This attack speed help you proc Fetish Sycophants easier, more Fetish = more DPS.
While this stat doesn't increase Fetish attack speed, It still increase bonus damage to Fetish by percentage.
33% or more Critical Chance
+250% or more Critical Damage
Physical Damage bonus can effect Fetish damage directly. Aim for this bonus if you want to go pure pet build.
With 600k damage, 1.9 attack per second, and +330% critical damage. My Fetish can crit for 2.7-3.5m without Piranhas buff.
Now I can solo clear T2 Rift within 10 min, which is not a bad speed for a tanky build like this.
So, in the end, you can be tanky and deadly in the same time, with a proper stat.
-
Feb 28, 20144
Bagstone posted a message on Loot 2.0 did not change a thingYou talk about no long-term motivation past 20 hours, but looking at your gear you can't have played much yet. After playing 20 hours you'll see most of your gear replaced, maybe except for Unity and Skorn. It's also not raining legendaries; about 1 per hour, and while not every legendary is game-breaking, about every 2 hours I come across a legendary that lets me switch to a completely new build. If that isn't fun and long-term motivating, I don't know what is.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Yeah, you're entitled to your own opinion, but there are only 2 other people on these forums who share your opinion (brx, who is clearly nothing but a troll, and Shad3slayer, who's suffering from the 550% MF to 0% MF problem which needs some time to adjust). The vast majority of D3 players is absolutely amazed by the patch, all my friends are coming back and playing it right now (and enjoying it a lot). Obviously the drastic changes (BoA, AH shutdown, some builds removed) will scare away some players, but the game is just evolving. If you don't like it, I'm sorry, but the points you raised in your post are just difficult to accept realizing (by looking at your gear) that you clearly haven't even played 10-20 hours into the patch. But it's okay, I've uninstalled games after 15 minutes, no one forces you to play it. Move on. You won't convince us to stop playing though :-) -
Feb 6, 2014
2
Zero(pS) posted a message on On Enchanting Legacy Gear (Repost)I was gonna say exactly that Bagstone. There's a dozen examples in the original post alone.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
And Maka, some items are too good even with lower range main stat. There simply aren't a lot of Belts (even with massively inflated stats) that can compete with a 200 stat, 9% attackspeed, 50% crit dmg Witching Hour. That's similar to decent Tri/Quadfecta jewelry.
My gear is hardly top notch, and I played all the way to level 70 (about 2-4 hours?), and then farmed for 20-30 more hours without ever finding an upgrade (to some slots). That's not "trashing items around in the first half hour". That's killing a huge part about hunting items in lvls 60+. Now apply that to enchanted Gloves and Weapons.
The reason for all that guys is that,design wise, they are moving away from the mandatory 2-3 highly "scalable" stats. In the new Loot 2.0, they are limiting the stats some items can rolls, like crit damage on weapons. Every transition system is hard to adapt to (that's true for most law systems too). They have to find a way to implement the new ruleswithouthaving us "stuck in the past". Inflating stats will only get them so far, there has to be boundaries between the 2 systems. This is just a boundary.
And let's kill the myth right here!!!
People with high-end MP10 vanilla gear WILL use their gear for considerable time after RoS is released!!!My gear was barely MP 7-8, and I played for AT LEAST 4-6 hours before switching most gear pieces. I was plowing through RoS in Master+ difficulty up until lvl 65-66. People with MP10 gear will be able to start farming on higher difficulties immediately (and both level to 70 and get the better drops much faster than people with MP 2-3 gear). -
Feb 5, 20143
Dimebog posted a message on Blizzard removes enchanting for "60 items", oh but 2.0.1 60s can be enchanted...In a nutshell:Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Blizzard: We have this new itemization where quadfecta is a thing of the past.
Angry people: Yes but why you make current quadfectas obsolete!?
Logic. -
Jan 22, 2014
1
CardinalMDM posted a message on BOA's purpose is bullshitPosted in: Diablo III General DiscussionIf you bothered to quote the rest of my post, shaggy, yes, it is...I mean, not the way you twist the entire thing into being bad, but yeah...
Right off...Blizzard created this expectation? No. Players have desperately wanted that expectation for a long time in D3, because items weren't good enough...mainly because the D3 devs knew people wanted a more streamlined form of trading...which is why the Auction House was put into place...which is why legendaries couldn't be game-breaking. You say all this goes back to BoA, not entirely. This goes back to the very core philosophy of playing Diablo at all...
First, if you have to be sarcastic about that, then I'm sorry you don't have much fun killing monsters. I've killed elite packs and only gotten a blue item, some gold and maybe a crafting mat...still felt pretty good when I won the battle. Notice...nowhere in that short snarky fake quote do you say anything about item acquisition. Blizzard wants people to have fun killing monsters, but since this game is a "loot hunt," most people equate the most fun with getting the best loot.
Quote from shaggy
It's also hilarious that the last PTR patch made the best legendaries rarer, but increased the chance to get legendaries from gambling. Contradictory much? I thought killing monsters was supposed to be fun... apparently killing monsters to go to the Tristram Casino is what we're doing.Contradictory? How many times do posters, devs, and CMs need to say that this is a beta test, and that most things that are occurring now won't be as they are in release? They even make official statements all the time about it...
"We've purposefully tuned legendary drop rates high to give testers more things to try out and play with."
"We've purposefully allowed legendaries to be acquired through gambling as a test to get feedback."
"We've purposefully tuned drop rate of keys to 100% so that the Infernal Machine can be tested."
"We've purposefully removed X feature to get more focused feedback."
Sometimes, when I visit these forums, I feel like I'm living in the friggin Twilight Zone. Why am I one of the only people who realizes that if Blizzard lets drop rates of legendaries stay high, that's all streamers are going to stream about. They're not going to "test" anything else, nor will they get accurate data back...why? Because if people are dripping in OP legendaries that should, yes, take a seriously long amount of time to get, how are they going to accurately test things like difficulty levels? Uber boss difficulty? Bounty difficulty? That's why they did a wipe? They tuned the drop rate of legendaries seriously high at first to show off some of the effects. GREAT! Test over...now they need to test other things, so they're tuning the drop rate down so people aren't constantly PLAYING the beta as opposed to TESTING. People who get beta keys aren't involved in some Early Access/Kickstarter here, they're supposed to be giving feedback.
But of course, all people are doing is panicking that they'll never be OP and be covered in legendaries. This is why companies like Blizzard don't mass test on players.
As far as gambling not fitting into the killing monsters equation, not sure how that's possible...in order to get Blood Shards, you do Bounties, most of which involves killing monsters. Just adds maybe one or two extra steps in between. Also, maybe you haven't noticed the groundswell of people BEGGING for Gheed, or some such mechanic from D2, to be included in D3 where people could gamble to get unique items. Yes, Blizzard wants you to kill monsters...it's not a contradiction...it's just adding one other source of gear acquisition that can be accessed via...what? Right...killing monsters. Yes, getting items to drop on slaying a monster is plenty fun. I know I love walking around, killing something and picking up an epic sword on the ground. But if you look back at D2, it wasn't the only way people got gear, and people enjoyed it. Right now, they're testing it out to see if people like it or not. By the time release comes, they'll likely be tweaking it to different levels of effectiveness.
Quote from shaggy
It's also ironic that the most-efficient way to gear up is to play co-op with three other people who use the same primary stat because smart drops make it very unlikely that you actually find gear to pass off to other people unless they share your primary stat.First of all, shaggy, not sure if you've been on the PTR or beta this past week, but Smart Drops have SERIOUSLY been tuned down for the time being. A lot of people are thinking there's some gear bug that's causing Smart Drops to not work, but personally, I just think they tuned it down in the background. Yesterday, I played for a good long while and while I did find a bunch of Smart Drops, wasn't anything like when the PTR first went up and 90% of my stuff was Smart Drop. It was actually more like half. So like I've said...may not even be an issue anymore.
No, what's ironic is that this point actually reminds me of the big back and forth I had with you and Zero over Smart Drops, and how you both claimed it limits one's ability to find items for alts.
Let's say I take my Monk into a public game with a Wizard, a DH and a Barb...the Barb finds a Rare they say they don't need, but looks like a major upgrade for my own Barb. Why can't I offer to trade him for it? Notice...I said RARE...Rares are tradeable, and in RoS, they're going to be a lot more useful than they are now, thanks to Enchanting. But unless that Barb, for some reason, has a second Barb and would need that Rare for that "alt," the only other things he'd do with that Rare is either salvage it (which I can give him one or more Rares for), or vend it (see last point). If I'm really eager for Monk upgrades, not hard to post in General Chat that I'm looking for other Monks to do some runs in Adventure Mode to farm upgrades.
Quote from shaggy
Thorns is a prime example as to why drop rates can't be low. Without the gear to make a thorns build work, the property is still largely useless. So, it makes absolutely no sense that someone could feel that they never get to put thorns to use.All BoA has accomplished is turn the item hunt into a scenario where you have to play 10+ hours per day for it to feel hopeful. Is that really the game you want?
And why can't you get the gear to make a Thorns build work? I understand Torment 6 has enormously high HP on Monsters (something else that is likely being tweaked before release), but plenty of Rares have Thorns affixes on them, and if you're not finding enough yourself, Rares are, what? That's right. Tradeable. People like you think that just because OP legendaries aren't tradeable beyond a 2 hour window to people outside the game that "trading is dead." No, the endgame economy is dead. Trading, for purposes of putting work into a build, isn't changing.
As for your "10+ hour a day" estimate...really think you're overestimating it. Certainly sounds inflated, but...you're wildly against BoA and desperately want your friends to hand you OP legendaries. At least, that's how it sounds. I've said it before...I don't care if Blizzard does a 180 on BoA and takes it away, and turns the game back into Trading 101. I'm really fine with it. Especially if it brings people back to the game.
But most people are so focused on legendaries, they've forgotten the constant cries from people that legendaries are the only viable items and how Rares are so useless in Vanilla right now, farming is pointless.
You're seeing legendaries being BoA, pessimistically assuming you're not going to get any, especially since they can't be traded, and you have a sketchy playing schedule. I'm saying...legendaries for me are going to be bonuses. My focus in the expansion is to put my work toward finding powerful Rares and Enchanting them up so they give me builds I want. When I happen to find a legendary, whether from killing a monster, Gambling, a Bounty Bag, a Cursed Chest, in a Rift, wherever, whenever, and if it's insanely badass? All that'll do is start my project over again and give me a new direction to work toward.
So yes...that is a game I want to play.
-
Nov 25, 20136
Jaetch posted a message on Reaper of Souls: New Wizard Spells/Passives - Animations & EffectsThis is a video showcasing the new wizard spells and passives and how they look in-game.Posted in: Wizard: The Ancient Repositories
Also includes some visual updates to existing spells.
Magic Missile - Glacial Spike
Magic Missile - Conflagrate
Spectral Blade - Flame Blades
Spectral Blade - Ice Blades
Spectral Blade - Barrier Blade
Ray of Frost - Sleet Storm
Arcane Orb - Spark
Arcane Orb - Scorch
Arcane Orb - Frozen Orb
Slow Time - Time and Space
Slow Time - Point of No Return
Wave of Force - Impactful Wave
Wave of Force - Debilitating Wave
Wave of Force - Arcane Attunement
Wave of Force - Static Pulse
Wave of Force - Heave Wave
Energy Twister - Mistral Breeze
Energy Twister - Gale Force
Energy Twister - Raging Storm
Energy Twister - Wicked Wind
Energy Twister - Storm Chaser
Hydra - Blazing Hydra
Meteor - Lightning Bind
Meteor - Meteor Shower
Meteor - Molten Impact
Ice Armor - Frozen Storm
Magic Weapon - Ignite
Magic Weapon - Deflection
Archon
Black Hole - Supermassive
Black Hole - Absolute Zero
Black Hole - Event Horizon
Black Hole - Blazar
Black Hole - Spellsteal
Power Hungry
Illusionist
Galvanizing Ward
Dominance
Other significant passive changes/additions -
Dec 5, 201326
DamienJohn posted a message on [Endgame 2.0] Challenge Mode InfographicHi all!Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
Just wanted to share this mock-up infographic I designed for a new endgame option within D3. I've been traveling quite a bit for work, so to deal with my Diablo withdrawals I've pieced this together based on some existing ideas I've seen within the community as well as some new ones of my own.
Would love to hear some feedback on the concept as well as thoughts on what endgame means to you in Diablo.
Direct Link: http://i.imgur.com/JadEbrk.jpg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why? The endgame in Diablo has always been about farming for better loot so you can farm for better loot.. better.
I agree! This is purely intended to augment that loot hunt we all know and love and extend the game's replayability, not replace it.
Why not just include Trials and Towers in Adventure Mode?
Good question. Each mode has a specific purpose that not everyone will be interested in, so overloading Adventure Mode with additional features feels like messy design to me. Story Mode = Enjoy the story, Adventure Mode = Play the item-hunt game (heart of Diablo franchise), Challenge Mode = Optional, augmentative content that extends the lifespan of the item-hunt game. But of course these modes could be joined, this is merely personal preference.
Does that mean no gear rewarded in Challenge Mode?
Yes. Only cosmetic rewards, competitive rankings and XP are offered in Challenge Mode. If Challenge Mode offered loot rewards, it would diminish the inherent purpose of Adventure Mode. The aim is to bring the heroes you've built into Challenge Mode to see what they can do, i.e; to improve your capabilities in Challenge Mode you need to farm Adventure Mode.
TL;DR: I like to compartmentalize.
Are Trials and Towers randomized to any extent?
No. By removing the random elements in regards to layouts, monster types and density, the Trials and Towers can serve as directly measurable content in a competitive sense. If random was at play, someone could simply perform well due to having "lucky RNG". So to summarize, randomization has been removed in Challenge Mode in order to level the playing field.
How does Difficulty work in relation to Trials and Towers?
Trials that are not affected directly by difficulty (like Race Trials) exist as static events that are played and ranked the same across all difficulty levels. Trials that contain monsters and are therefore affected by difficulty selection are ranked as per the difficulty in which the player achieved their result (see: Seasonal Leaderboards UI). Pandemonium Towers are capped on lower difficulties, higher ascension only becomes available with higher difficulties, with the Pandemonium Tower becoming "uncapped" on Torment VI.
The Tower is Endless?
Theoretically, yes. The increase in difficulty is dynamic up until the fixed rewards cease (Level 100), after that, each level sees a static increase (additive percentage) in Monster Damage and Hit Points. For the purpose of this concept let's say that's 5% per level, this means the most godly geared/skilled players can truly test their heroes to the absolute limits.
Couldn't you just skip mobs? Change to a more defensive spec for higher levels? And what happens when you die?
To access the next level you would be required to kill all the monsters on the current level. Skill selection would be locked from when you enter the Tower with a checkpoint every 25 Levels at which you can change your skill spec. These checkpoints also act as respawn points upon death, but they no longer appear after Level 100 (which would be very hard to reach as is).
Overall I haven't put too much thought into how tower progression would work, but I think losing all of your progress upon death would be a bit too much considering how long the climb is. I would love to hear some other ideas/suggestions regarding this!
What is this simultaneous instance nonsense?
When there are other players in your game and you choose to start a Trial or Tower, a dialogue box appears asking them if they would like to join in and challenge you. If they accept, they will be transported to their own instance of the same challenge. You are able to see the "ghosts" of other players according to where they are in their instance (see "Festering Circuit" race screenshot), but you have no direct affect on their game environment. For Tower Races, you would receive toast notifications in your chat each time a player reaches a new level.
Why not just have them in the same instance?
The competitive factor in Trials and Towers is based around how well each player performs, not how effectively you can impede your rivals. This is especially applicable to wave-type Trials and Pandemonium Towers, in which you can't have both characters in the same instance without it being Co-op.
Are the Bosses in Boss Time-trials different from their typical versions?
Yes, they would essentially be Uber versions of their normal encounters, with additional modifiers, more minions, larger HP pools etc.
Do Race Trials have other variables?
Races have additional factors in play outside of simply getting a character from point A to B. For example, Speed-boosting Nephalem Glory orbs can spawn along the route but might not always be in the most desirable of locations. In addition, obstacles such as Bear Traps and Barricades can impede your progress (another reason for separate instances). P.S- I love Mario Kart.
Uhh.. Where is PvP?
Ideally, Challenge Mode would also accomodate any type of future PvP implementation. I haven't included it in my concept as it's such a gigantic feature that it would probably need it's own infographic.
What's with the groan-worthy TV show references?
Because geeknerd.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
Dec 5, 201327
MrMonstrosity posted a message on Nephalem Trials, adding competition to Diablo.We want to compete, it's huma...err Nephalem nature. Not only do we want to compete against others but we want to challenge ourselves. Besides completing the hardest difficulty, comparing player stats, or earning Paragon levels there's nothing really at all used to compare our characters in game. Even Paragon levels can't be used to judge a players skill level, it's basically just an indication of time played. We're instead left to visit third-party sites like diabloprogress or YouTube to see where we rank amongst Diablo III's playerbase. It's these sites where we find people competing for the highest dps/stats, experience earned per hour, or even Uber boss kill times. I've even personally watched popular streamers hold competitions going head to head in a legendary hunt race, and it was actually rather enjoyable. Why don't we have the ability to do this in Diablo III? Why exactly are we staying up all hours of the night hunting for loot if we can't do anything with it? Some people might argue there was nothing to do with the gear we found in in Diablo II either, but remember this is the sequel. Gamers have different standards today, especially when it comes to games that are exclusively online.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
With that said I think I've found the solution, and it's nothing we haven't seen before.
Nephalem Trials
Nephalem Trials aren't exactly a new concept. Blizzard first mentioned them at Gamescom and has since mentioned them many times as we've been nearing closer to the release of Reaper of Souls. It really saddened me when we got news of the feature being delayed.
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Nephalem Trials are indeed still alive in some form, but they will not be added with the launch of Reaper of Souls. We absolutely love the idea behind the Trials (challenge-based systems can be so much fun), but before we implement them we want to make sure they have a strong underlying reward structure and tracking system. That kind of hook is important for a system like this and we didn’t want to add in Nephalem Trials to the game without it.
Oh really a "reward structure and tracking system"... My gut feeling tells me there's a reason why both Nephalem Trials and Ladders (never announced but hinted at) are both being delayed. The simple reason being that Blizzard wants these two features to be connected in order to create a new ranking and seasonal ladder system.
You have to admit that Blizzard is pretty damn good when it comes to creating rankings, ratings, or other systems which let players compete against each other either directly or indirectly. We've seen this demonstrated in World of Warcraft with its pvp arena, server first achievements and challenge modes. Starcraft's success and popularity is widely recognized as being directly related to its ranked system and ladder, did you see the competition at Blizzcon!? Even their new free to play game Hearthstone has a pretty good ranking system being added to it and most likely their newly announced Heroes of the Storm will follow suit. Diablo III is pretty much the only current Blizzard title that doesn't have any way for players to test themselves or compete against other players, I think it's about time we get something similar.
Endless Horde
What better way to test your survivability and killing speed then a trial made of an endless horde of demons. Play too defensive and you'll be eventually overrun, play too offensive and you'll quickly find yourself taking a dirt nap. Find the perfect balance in gear, manage your cool-downs, and hone your strategies either alone or in group play.
Each new wave is released at an increasingly faster rate, with each being stronger than the previous. Killing a wave earns players a higher score. The trial ends only when every Nephalem falls. Will you be forever remembered as the Nephalem champion that held his ground the longest against the burning hells?
Perhaps to even compensate for situations where a player might only have a limited amount of playtime, certain checkpoints could be reached letting players pickup where they left off and continue their progress at a later time.
Timed Dungeon
Inspired by World of Warcraft's challenge mode players test their efficiency to earn honors for the fastest run. Players compete against each other by clearing every monster in the dungeon. Players can even help their time by earning bonuses by opening chests throughout the dungeon.
To allow this to be a fair competition, every season will have a different map with a predetermined number tile sets, monsters, chests, and champions. A map's layout should still be randomized each time to ensure every attempt is slightly different and allows for a player's dungeon navigation skills are also a determining factor. Players will need to discover new builds and try different gear combinations to compete for the top rank.
Goblin Hunt
Race against time to kill as many of the devious little creatures as possible found randomly scattered throughout a dungeon.
There are many types of treasure goblins in Diablo III, they could possibly be even be worth different point values in this trial.
Rankings & Ladders
This isn't going to be the conventional ladder Diablo players are used to. Game time shouldn't be the main contributing factor when competing for top spot in a ladder. With the shift to skill based challenges, players with varying degrees of playtime will all be able to compete for top rankings. Advantages will still be present for players with more playtime in the form of getting their hands on more legendary items or earning a higher Paragon level to use in Nephalem Trials but at least time will no longer be the only decider.
Your highest score from each Nephalem Trial will be used to determine your overall "Nephalem Score" (yeah, yeah, I know another usage of the word Nephalem). There will still be individual ladders for each trial which would offer special rewards but the most prestigious honor would go to the players with the highest overall Nephalem Scores.
It would be impossible to balance classes so probably the best solution would be to have separate rankings for each class.
There could also be separate ladders depending on if you chose to play in groups with 2-4 friends. You might not be able to get a team rating, but you would still earn individual scores for your chosen class based on 2 player, 3 player, or 4 player games.
Seasons
Seasons don't have to mean wiping every character completely and starting from scratch. One of my most disliked features regarding ladders in Diablo II was when it came time for a ladder reset. I really enjoyed a fresh new competition but I didn't like losing my character's progress in terms of all the the gear I've worked hard to obtain in the process. Sure he was only moved to non-ladder but more than likely I would never touch him again. I could see how it may have been necessary in Diablo II due to inflation caused by trading and bots but that shouldn't be the case in Reaper of Souls where, it feels strange saying it, but there isn't going to be an economy anymore. With the introduction of BoA items and increased protection against dupes and bots it should be safe to not have to do a complete wipe. The introduction of shared Paragon levels is also another key reason why I feel it would be a pretty big disappointment if we were required to start from nothing. It would basically make the system we waited so long for pointless.
A season in Diablo III could simply mean resetting everyone's Nephalem Score back to zero and introducing new Nephalem Trial maps, monsters, and rewards. Blizzard could even introduce new types of trials in later seasons but that might be pushing things. There's already the great feature to create randomized dungeons, it would be as simple as Blizzard creating one new randomized dungeon for each trial when a new season is released. New combinations of maps and monsters should allow players to come up with unique builds, item combinations and strategies every season to compete for the honor of being ranked the top Nephalem of their chosen class.
Rewards
Rewards don't have to be given to just the top players in each class. It could work in a very similar manor as how Blizzard implemented WoW's PvP rewards or the Challenge Mode transmogrification gear where players need a certain rank in order to purchase cosmetic options such as new banners (improve these!), transmogrification gear or even perhaps cool new wings.
Save some unique rewards to hand out to the top ranked Nephalem of each class and ladder every season and you'd see people never getting bored.
Conclusion
Reaper of Souls adds so many improvements to the game but I believe in order to give some much needed improvements to the overall longevity of the game there needs to be a way to compete against one another. We might not be seeing any PvP introduced in the near future but there are definitely many options to implement competition based on the great PvE elements we already see in game.
Feel free to discuss other possible options for Nephalem Trials below, I know there were many types in some of the datamined information we've already seen but I'd love to hear your thoughts on new types they could implement.
Cheers,
Monstrous - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1
1
1
1
FUCK YAH!
1
1
I could also say be happy the developers even did anything because they have no obligation to do so. People seem to take for granted that additional content that Blizzard provides for free is expected where as many people charge for such things. It's a game chill the fuck out,
2
2) Buying perspective? You can't buy anything in RoS... you have to FIND everything. Most gear becomes obsolete immediately when RoS comes out. Gold is only useful for extra enchanting attempts off the hop. Crafting and Gem is irrelevant since nobody has the new tiers or materials.
3) If you want to dump an extra 1000's hours just to have a couple hundred more paragon levels lol thats just fine with me. Getting paragon levels in RoS will be quicker than all the time wasted grinding pre RoS. Extra points won't make someone 1000X times better than you and what do you care if someone can farm 10 minutes faster than you if they put in 1000 more hours than you?
4) All new gear will make old gear obsolete ( for the most part) and you can't craft anything until you get the new mats.... so it's basically a gear wipe.
5) There is no economy in RoS. All time you put in the game pre RoS should be fun not grind, everything you obtain now is a waste of time in comparison of money/exp/gear you will obtain in RoS.
1
You could power level in every single Diablo release so far....
/thread
1
Elemental damage changed enough that specific items that increase a certain element make it worth while to have a element build. Many abilities have been changed to a certain element so if you find a + lightning % damage Legendary it will be worth while to use abilities that focus on lightning based attacks. Wizards have also been changed so that element builds can exist based on their ability revamp.
3