DiabloFans

Notice: This post has been reviewed and granted approval by Daemaro.
Notice: I will post my latest releases as replies into this thread as usual.

For those who don't know me, I am KageKaze. I create guides and tutorials on YouTube for several games and even have a newer "Diablo Digest" podcast for D3. I take a look at the current news for Diablo and try to break it down into into easily digestible bits and throw in my own thoughts about what current changes to the game mean for not only us, but for Diablo and Blizzard as well. Aside from that I do Analytical Playthroughs (okay so it's just a glorified Let's Play) on games and betas

Post Updated 8/17/14

So what did I miss? Well there were 2 Crusader updates and 1 Witch Doctor, all provided below for your perusal. I also provided a link to the Dance emote video I made just because it's silly and I used the old April Fools Deckard Cain Rap that not every modern Diablofan might have heard before. Lastly, while it might be late, I've finally finished my full Hellfire Ring/Amulet guide updated for 2.1.0. The previous version came out late as well, but it's still being referenced to this day (recently even seeing more traffic than usual) so I wanted to make sure I had a version that matched the new information. Feedback always welcome, otherwise please enjoy!

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D3 Reaper of Souls: Keywardens, Infernal Machines, and Hellfire Armaments Complete Guide (2.1.0)

http://youtu.be/vidI_DwAq-M

This is my new guide for the updated Hellfire Ring and newly added (as of patch 2.1.0) Hellfire Amulet. This guide covers the items needed, the drop rates of those items, and where to find them, as well as strategies for all the monsters you'll need to fight.

Contents:

• The Level 70 Hellfire Ring (00:46)
• The Hellfire Amulet (2:02)
• The items required (3:10)
• Drop rate of Keys and Organs (3:34)
• Act I: Odeg and the Key of Bones (4:10)
• Act II: Sokahr and the Key of Gluttony (4:50)
• Act III: Xah'rith and the Key of War (5:50)
• Act IV: Nekarat and the Key of Evil (6:50)
• Getting the Infernal Machine Plans (8:08)
• Double drop chances for Keys (3:25)
• Group based drop rate for Hellfire Organ drops (9:20)
• The new Infernal Machines (10:00)
• Machine of Bones (Discord) - Leoric's Regret (11:12)
• Machine of Gluttony (Chaos) - Vial of Putridness (12:27)
• Machine of War (Terror) - Idol of Terror (13:17)
• Machine of Evil (Fright) - Heart of Evil (15:09)
• Crafting patterns for Hellfire Ring and Hellfire Amulet (17:43)
• Warnings about Smart Look crafting (18:40)
• Reforging the Hellfire Amulet (20:37)

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Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls: So you think you can dance, Nephalem? New Dances in Diablo 3!

http://youtu.be/0sqK7U-5PKE

Patch 2.1.0 is adding some new emotes to Diablo 3! Check out the new dances here!

Going to admit I do like this change. I was always very cautious about putting video links up on the forums because I never wanted it to seem as some kind of click bait, I always tried to make sure I put some kind of description or discussion piece as I honestly like to get feedback and conversations started to see what everyone's opinions are.

Seeing people that posted a link and nothing more always upset me, it just felt cheap. Not only that, but a good amount of my time here is usually while at work and I can't often watch a video. If a topic is given and I feel it's interesting I will tend to take the time to watch later to give the person the view as a form of respect as I know what it means as a content provider, but I'll often just ignore something that's just a big "click me" sign. That's my rant and reasoning for liking the change. Thumbs up.

I don't usually just create a thread for a video without a discussion piece attached as I hate click bait type threads, but I just wanted to show this off. It's an update post about the PTR, mostly about what you see here on Diablofans anyway, but at around the 3:25 mark you'll see there's a slight issue with the new Transmog set that was added in last night's patch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZDQ4G8KuYs

For those that still don't care to click, the video shows the new Seasonal reward transmog set "Conqueror's Pauldrons" being used on a head piece instead of the shoulders. Hilarity ensues.

So apparently /dance is a thing now. Friend on B.net just had me try it out. Haven't found out if the dance is different per character/gender yet.

I'm glad the requirements for the materials are gone. I got seriously bored farming the same zone over and over again and would rather have been moving around maybe doing rifts or another bounty. The problem was that sometimes the best way to get one of the pieces was to make a game, run 10 yards to a specific mob, kill it, then restart the game. This made the items fairly easy to get but made doing so very tedious. I personally don't find this kind of thing compelling or even challenging.

With that said, I am saddened the items are being removed. I like that they had a little bit of lore and flavor to the game. I wish they'd come up with something to make it worth while. I have no idea what kind of system they could use in its place, but I'm hoping we'll see these items come back in some capacity, maybe we'll see it again in another xpac as I have a feeling they'll be more concerned with the Tiered Rift and Seasons systems to put it back in for this expansion.

Your information is not entirely accurate. With Reaper of Souls there are very specific drops that only occur in each act from the Nephalem Caches in Adventure Mode. Acts I, II, III, and V all have unique legendaries that can drop from the chache regardless of difficulty. Act IV will randomly give you one from any of these. It's not specific areas inside the acts, but you can keep farming the bounties in one specific act if you're looking to get a specific legendary inside that act.

Also, legendary crafting materials are very specific to a location if you manage to find the pattern. There's a huge thread here that goes over their locations and how to farm them, so I think a middle ground has been added.

I think you underestimate the power of the followers now. They've had some massive buffs. I personally like to play solo over group unless it's with friends and I've felt the exact same way as the OP. I even put out some rants on the subject as I felt I just couldn't help gear my follower unless they wore the same kind of gear I did. I had suggested that crafters had an option to change the primary stat focus on the UI. A simple option that would favor you or your follower, sadly, that option never got implemented.

I also miss the ability to find a really cool item for an alt. I still see some items for other classes drop from time to time, but it's not quite like finding that unique or set item that only really worked for a sorceress. I can live with it, but I still think it's a bit much sometimes.

Okay.. I watched.. But I have to agree your posts seem to be about "blizzard needs to listen to me/thisguy" and "they're doing it wrong". Feedback is great, but once again you seem to miss the idea of offering critical feedback and suggestions. The video does offer some, however, so my thoughts:

Honestly one thing that strikes me is that he's a bit confused about the intent of the monk changes regarding "speed" and the changes to dashing strike. It's not about movement speed, it's about getting to monsters. Fists of Thunder was made to teleport you on all runes. Dashing Strike now goes full distance without a target. I do agree, however, that monks really could use more attack speed in general especially when it comes to 2H weapons.

What I find odd about his complaints aboutitemizationis he says Reaper stats are boring, but his old items look the same to me. It's just a bunch of the Tri orQuad fecta stuff that boosts your damage like crazy. That's being replaced with items that are supposed to offer some kind of bonus without the need for such specific gear, I'm not sure how that's considered boring. He is right about old items being really good if you have them already. I'm thinking that enchanting shouldn't work on legacy items to prevent such an issue.

He has an interesting idea that good legendaries should be a Torment difficulty bonus and I don't quite disagree but I do disagree that some legandary items should be only on the highest difficulty. There should be rewards, better chances, but items shouldn't be locked for players that don't have the time to reach that level of gear.

Overall there was some good details even if I don't agree with all of it.

I know I already put this in the advertising thread, but I've already got a lot of discussion so I wanted to put this in its own thread to keep things from getting cluttered in that one. Here's my post from the official forums for people can see what is discussed if they cannot or do not want to watch.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is that time again and a new Diablo Digest has been spawned. For those not familiar with it, the Diablo Digest series I created is something of a news summary and personal opinion video podcast. The reason I'm posting it here today and in the feedback forum is because it concerns my thoughts and impressions of the current 2.0.1 PTR and things I'm concerned about. My hope is, of course, to also make sure that it is viewed by Diablo devs so the opinions inside could be taken into consideration.

To keep lines of discussion open, I'll summarize for those that can't or don't wish to watch.

I like many of the changes happening in Reaper of Souls and a lot of the changes are available to test on the PTR. While things are looking up, there are still issues I would see addressed and hope they can be fixed or modified for the future.

Death and No-Taxes:
Death is but a stumbling block. Reviving at Corpse is not a feature I enjoy. I know many people are concerned about efficiency and would rather not lose those valuable seconds, but I want death to be something that is undesirable and to be avoided at all costs. Part of the fun in a game comes from overcoming challenges and having a risk to reward. I'm not talking about having to punish players for it, just a setback that says "hey I shouldn't do that again". Maybe a bonus for living some kind of benefit like Nephalem Valor was that you could lose if you died.

Difficulty should not be restricted to expansion purchase:
Currently I'm in agreement with many people that Master difficulty mode is abit too easy. I'm not very geared and I can run Master mode without too much issue and I'm nowhere near geared for MP10 like others are. Either there needs to be change to how tough Master really is or Torment should be available to all players. I honestly don't see why the difficulty should be an unlockable feature at this point either. The previous unlockable difficulties were due to monster levels being tied directly into the 'beat the game multiple times' progression. Now that level progression is removed from the difficulties they should just be playable from the start, allowing players to choose what level of challenge they desire. For those concerned about giving non RoS purchasers any RoS benefits, those can all be tied to the expansion and turned off for basic players, but I really think there should be some kind of increased reward for base game players that makes it all worth while.

The Templar healing is a bit too strong:
While leveling up and after getting the Templar, I found that the game suddenly lost its challenge. I took on Leoric the Skeleton King at around level 20 when the Templar got all his healing abilities. Leoric couldn't hurt me. At all. I think the Templar's healing needs to be reduced while leveling (maybe even at 60/70, not 100% on those) because it pretty much negates all damage you take. I intentionally run with only one of the spells because it feels more balanced that way.

Loot 2.0 is Too Smart:
I like that smart loot drops, I like that finding upgrades is so much easier now and I don't have to get shut down by nasty RNG. However, I feel like smart drops are all I find. I get constant items with my stats, on occasion something neutral, but I have yet (not exaggerating here) to find loot with stats for another class (DEX, INT) outside of a class specific drop (Flail, Mighty Weapon). I've been unable to gear my Templar follower because I can't find STR gear for him on my Wizard. I had heard that Smart Drops would consider who your follower is when dropping items, I have yet to see that happen. Loot for other classes is so rare that I never find a piece that says to me "hey trying class X would be cool now that I found this neat item". I like loot 2.0 and smart drops, but I think it needs to be reigned in a little so that a little bit of randomness can return.

Arts and Crafts:
Adding to the Loot 2.0 problem, I have an issue with crafting. I know that drops are being constantly evaluated, so I won't go into that too much, but know that I think Common Debris might need to be reevaluated. With Loot 2.0 the idea of making whites special might not be needed anymore.

My main issue with crafting currently is becuase crafting is 100% smart, I can't even craft for my follower now. Nothing will roll STR unless it's class specific. If I want to make something for my Templar, I have to roll up a Barbarian to craft for him. My suggesting is to add some kind of switch or toggle on the UI that lets me choose between myself or my follower. Heck, let's take that a step further and add some kind of switch for being able to craft for any class. If I'm running in a party of friends and I want to craft a new weapon for a friend, I don't want it to have INT on it when he's a Demon Hunter. Maybe a radio button at the top to pick a class to craft for would be enough.

Okay that's the major topics, please enjoy the video (if you still decide to watch). I'm hopeful this will be considered in development.

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Diablo Digest: Vanilla Difficulty, Changes to Vendor Salvage, Loot 2.0 Concerns

http://youtu.be/A5lMioIxtuw

Audio and video recorded Jan 11 2014

Topics that are included in this broadcast:

• Discounting Death - Reviving at Corpse (1:34)
• Reduced bonuses rather than punishing for death (2:46)
• Case Example: Torchlight 2 - Increasing cost of death (4:29)
• No reason to punish with XP loss (5:40)
• Death in regards to Nephalem Rifts (6:43)
• The good and bad on Follower buffs (7:25)
• Is healing too strong on the Templar? (10:10)
• Difficulty scaling Leveling vs Max Level (16:33)
• Why do you have to unlock difficulties? (18:13)
• Torment should not be RoS exclusive (19:10)
• Give players the choice to make the game as hard as they want (23:05)
• Why give D3 Vanilla players more features? (25:07)
• Smart Drops and Loot 2.0 (27:18)
• Izual - An example on Overpowered healing (28:15)
• You can no longer salvage vendor gear (29:08)
• Beta is Beta, lots of time for changes (31:20)
• Smart drops are too smart (33:45)
• Smart drops not taking Followers into consideration as intended (37:04)
• Needing alt characters to craft specific gear (14:45)
• More randomness is good, just not too much (41:35)
• A suggestion: switches for crafting (player or follower) (42:30)
• Why drops for other classes are good (42:50)
• Boss damage needing to be improved (44:55)
• Overall impressions (46:40)
• The Barbarian Build used in the earlier examples (48:38)

Notice: This post has been reviewed and granted approval by Daemaro.
Notice: I will post my latest releases as replies into this thread as usual.

Post Updated 12/15/13

For those who don't know me, I am KageKaze. I create guides and tutorials on YouTube for several games and even have a newer "Diablo Digest" podcast for D3. I take a look at the current news for Diablo and try to break it down into into easily digestible bits and throw in my own thoughts about what current changes to the game mean for not only us, but for Diablo and Blizzard as well. Aside from that I do Analytical Playthroughs (okay so it's just a glorified Let's Play) on games and betas

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UPDATE: I would like to say while I love Diablofans, this new forum editor is really weird and it took me a lot of time to get this to look nice

It's official, I hate the new post editor.. please see the latest reply to the thread for the latest videos for Diablo 3's PTR.

Quote from KageKaze

Ladders are a great way to get people to start over again and replay, but Ladders usually have some kind of system in place that entice people to play it. What made Diablo 2's ladder work so well wasn't just the race to the top it was the Ladder-specific items that you could find along the way. Things you couldn't find if your character wasn't part of the active season. A good example of this is what Path of Exile has been doing, they've been making challenge ladders that add new gameplay elements and surprises. It could be about anything, but there really needs to be something unique to that ladder to get a majority of people to want to play it or it's just a character reset just for the sake of resetting.. which I guess works for some people since there are player who like the "Prestige" thing in other games. I'm hoping Blizzard keeps these things in mind when they crate Ladders again.

I've seen others on this site make the following counter-argument, and I happen to agree with it: why do we need an incentive to play ladder? Shouldn't the ladder itself be the incentive? In D2 the ladder was kind of pointless since everyone who took it seriously hit level 99 in the first week and then it was pretty much locked in for the next several months. But with Paragon being unlimited, the race will continue the entire season. The drive to beating everyone else and staying at the top should be enough of a reason to keep playing ladder for those who are interested in it.

If Blizzard does feel the need to add some incentive, then I really hope they don't use D2's method of having the 'best' gear be ladder exclusive. This kind of thing goes beyond encouragement and makes people feel like playing the ladder is required, even if they aren't interested in the race. Sure, you COULD play non-ladder and be just fine, but knowing that you'll never get the best gear in the game is a bit of a downer and being forced to start from scratch just to have that opportunity is really frustrating.

The exception to the above would be if the ladder-only items actually starting dropping in non-ladder after the season is over. Then they add a new wave of exclusive items to the next season, while people who play non-ladder now have some new items to hunt for. Essentially, the best gear is available to everyone, but non-ladder players have to wait longer for it than ladder plays, which I think would be acceptable.

An alternative would be ladder-exclusive content that is purely cosmetic or 'just for fun'. It would add a bit of prestige for the people who play ladder, but wouldn't make people feel like they have to start over every season just to keep up with the gear.

Paragon 2.0 is going to introduce allocateable skill points into the game again. Of course this is only for high level characters, but I half wonder if there's even a point to it. The next topic is about Attribute Points and Skill Trees. A lot of people like to claim they disliked the removal of both of these elements and it looks like Blizzard is at least willing to acquiesce to Attribute points for Paragon. I'm not really sure this is needed, really the benefit of these points isn't going to amount to much by end game when you unlock it. The secondary stats are pretty minimal (crit, crit damage, etc) unless you have maximum paragon points into them (Paragon level 800). However, I don't think they could have made these points be more than they are because then it would be too strong, especially for hardcore characters who thrive on the razor's edge of life and death. Skill points have been done well before, I like to use Torchlight 2 as an example just because they put a few different gameplay mechanics on some of the stats, they also made it so gear unlocks by level not just by what stats you had, which was a failing in my eyes for Diablo 2.

The problem that I see with the current paragon system in that regard is that letting you choose exactly which attribute you want to upgrade each level is kind of pointless since there are really only 2 choices: your primary stat or vitality. And even then, pretty much everyone is going to pick their primary stat since that provides dps as well as a small boost to defense. The other categories have more interesting choices depending on what kind of build you want to do or whether you favor utility over efficiency.

I think a better system would be to keep the current pattern for boosting attributes each level (3-2-1-1 for Primary-Vitality-Secondary-Secondary) and ALSO give you a point to put in one of the other categories of your choice.

There are too many hostile natured posts in this thread. Could you at least be a little more constructive and helpful/nice in your criticisms instead of just getting upset at the OP. There are too many posts in here dripping with disdain.

Just to supplement what Shaggy and Kage are saying, remember too that Blizzard makes a profit off these RMAH exchanges. So if they are profiting off someone who spent $250 on an item (about $40 of it going to Blizzard) and then they want to nerf the effect that item provides, that person is then mad at Blizzard and has a pretty valid complaint, even if they were prior warned. Then people criticize Blizzard for just trying to steal their money and it's just not worth the hassle for them, especially when they just want to make the game better and balanced without their hands being tied.

A couple things to consider about this issue...

1) Like some others pointed out, higher damage on weapons. In just the DPS department, that will make a major difference, as if some people only stack CC and CD for damage purposes, higher weapon damage will play a big role.

2) I do realize that CC does affect how certain passive and active skills work, and yes, some might be a LITTLE less effective...CM Wizards for example (not just with WW, others too). Then again, when they lowered the proc rate on Wicked Wind, people seeped out of the woodwork crying about how the build would die, sure enough, it's still around. Don't let your fear of higher challenge talk you out of appreciating the value here.

3) While there may be a cap on CC on ITEMS, it'll still be reasonably hard to get to for most players. Why? Primarily due to the Auction House going away. With the AH around, it's STUPIDLY easy to max out your crit. Without the AH, and people relying on drops and trade? For someone starting a new character from scratch, unless they have a ton of spare gear saved in their stash, it may take them a decent amount of time to gear up that character to max their CC.

4) Loot 2.0, as well as the item affixes and legendary affixes being introduced, will help with this big time...
-A cap on CD will ONLY affect damage, but part of the motivation for these new item effects is that by equipping specific items, insanely high damage isn't needed, or may not be preferred, as the items make different builds more EFFECTIVE. Right now, we have thousands of people thinking that efficiency = super high DPS. And they're not wrong. But truthfully, I'd rather have a character that's slightly weaker in the damage department, but that has items that make his or her skills work slickly, like a well-oiled machine, and offer a varied style of gameplay and survivability that simple damage stacking doesn't offer. Damage stacking in and of itself presents shallow, one-note gameplay. Capping CD may drop players' DPS, but it'll require players to gear smarter...which is ultimately a good thing.
-In the same way, a cap on CC may make certain skills work slightly less effectively (CM Wizards, for example, may see a slight drop in their cooldown reductions...provided CM even stays the way it is when the updates come), however again...certain items may offer effects that make up the difference. Check out the list...may be an early list of tested effects, but look at it...there are effects that kill cooldowns, offer crazy survivability options, health restoration, resource restoration, shrine effects, town portal effects, etc. Sure, right now, passives like Critical Mass are seen as godly...but when the item updates come? You might not need a passive like that anymore, once you find a particular item.

All in all, I'm a big supporter of this. Caps don't prevent people from being godly, they just ensure that people don't end up exploiting the lack of a limit, and pretty much break the game. Yes, everyone has fun facerolling, but truly smart and well-geared players/characters can still faceroll with capped stats...they just need to use their heads instead of saying..."ooh! this number bigger than that number!"

Quote from PiousFlea

A lot of the post is completely valid suggestions that most players would agree with (better minibosses, more meaningful low level loot, better skill damage display) but it's worded in a super-negative, almost whiny manner.

That was my feeling, almost word-for-word.

When I was reading about the "inconsistencies" I couldn't help thinking that nitpicky complaints like that are best served as direct feedback to Blizzard so they can potentially "fix" anything that's unintended and not as part of a 10,000-word manifesto as evidence that the game sucks.

Also I have trouble really ascribing to anything said by a guy who seems to believe he was slighted because he couldn't sell characters on the RMAH. Whether or not that was promised, it seems to reveal more about what his desires for the game truly are.

Quote from PiousFlea

Some of it is hilariously unrealistic. For example, calling the game a failure because it's not 100% cheat- and bot-free is absurd. No computer system is 100% secure, especially not multiplayer games.

To me that kind of absolutism (only a Sith deals in absolutes) is representative of people who simply want to take a jab. The idea that Blizzard should just come up with some upgrade to Warden that detects and bans bots every 24 hours seems more like a suggestion posed by someone who knows what outcome they want but doesn't understand the process necessary to get there. To treat Warden like Norton Anti-Virus would require far more man-power than Blizzard would ever be willing to devote to the cause ... because man-hours are not free and resources are not infinite. This is the exact kind of problem that simply doesn't have a perfect solution and we can argue "good, better, best" all day long and probably have some productive discussion, but trying to say anything less than 100% is a failure is just thoroughly ignorant of all computer systems.

Ultimately, I think posts like this are why Blizzard has CMs to "filter" suggestions. Aside from having to read through his life's story to pick out the bits which are actually relevant, and trying to sort through superfluous narration and total lack of brevity, many of the suggestions are either handled in some manner (probably Loot 2.0 + AH removal, extending all legendaries up to 70), or are exceptionally minor (inconsistencies, etc.) or are things that would be great updates but are hardly game-breaking (skill damage display, better bosses). I think it's telling of the official forums that people think that it's some kind of must-read for the devs.

Frankly, reading through the responses, I'm convinced that 90% of people (at least on the official forums) who claim to have played D2 say it just to gain "cred" even though it's obviously untrue.