I started with a full defensive CM build with Crystal Shell, Prismatic Armor, and the CD reduction rune on frost nova, as well as Cold Blooded, CM, and Evocation as passives that were unchanged throughout. I took the fight time and my char sheet dps to compute the DPS Multiplier, which is the effective dps gain of the build. For example, at 100k dps using the full defensive build I would expect an effective dps of 247k. I also computed relative DPS of each spec meaning switching from Prismatic to Storm Armor increased dps by about 36%.
And in case there's any confusion, 'x' in the table means that skill was used.
| Storm Armor | Shocking Aspect | Pinpoint | Shards | Prism | DPS Multiplier | Relative DPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.47 | 1 | |||||
| x | 2.78 | 1.13 | ||||
| x | 2.99 | 1.21 | ||||
| x | 3.01 | 1.22 | ||||
| x | 3.36 | 1.36 | ||||
| x | x | 4.06 | 1.65 | |||
| x | x | x | 4.25 | 1.72 |
The interesting information is that Storm Armor is about a 36% dps gain over prismatic armor. When you add Shocking Aspect it's a 65% dps gain over prismatic armor and about a 36% dps gain over pinpoint barrier. Adding Diamond Shards further increases the dps gain but it's only about a 4% dps gain by itself when you use Shocking Aspect. The dramatic decrease in survivability for the fight makes it very not worthwhile, but that could easily change depending on the fight. Rak for example, would probably be just fine with DS or prism.
I also expect the values for Shocking Aspect to be dependent of crit and attack speed, since it only procs on crits and higher attack speed should lead to more procs from WW, so with 50% crit, I'd expect the damage to increase by about 16%, or I'd expect the total dps gain to be about 90%, for a relative dps of 1.9. With a crit % of 52% I would expect Shocking Aspect to double your dps over prismatic armor, roughly speaking, with the same APS of 1.965 or so.
For reference, my stats at the time of the data collection were 104k dps buffed (110k with pinpoint), 1.965 attacks per second, 20 APoC, 1298 LoH, 1.5% Life Steal, 641 resist all and 4588 armor unbuffed, with 40.5k hp and 43% crit with Scoundrel. I also had about 400 life per second regen, just to complete the stats.
2
This post is exemplary for many other posts here saying that the current system is "too simple", the original system was better, and so on.
The first few screens are all just a resemblance of D2/WoW, I really don't get how the new skill+rune system is more towards WoW. To the contrary - they moved away from WoW and created something relatively new.
I also think it's not correct to say the current system is "too simple"; having a skill tree is so dumb and simple because on every level there are some basic spells you have to pick just to get to the interesting skills further down the skill tree. Re-spec in WoW or Torchlight is always the same - a handful of "must have" skills and then you choose between some end-game spells. In D3, you have potentially so many combinations and since there is no hierarchy, there are not necessary any "useless skills along the way". Plus, there are literally billions of combinations if you think about all the rune variations.
Some of the initial ideas were nice, but scrapped for a reason (e.g., Talisman/Charms). And I'm glad they chose to get rid of them - they didn't really add anything new, just yet another slot for the typical must-have stat.
1
Actually I was. Kinda. (Both DPS and gold).
I've never seen a screenshot with a number that high. Insane. Mine is about the same, just take away the last three digits.
1
Blizzard: We'll double it!
1
Blizzard has said this so many times, it almost makes me angry if someone says something like "no point in giving feedback b/c they don't even read it anyways". Blizzard has so many CMs, almost every well-articulated thread is read by at least *someone* from Blizzard. Just because they're not putting a blue "read it" sign on every single thread, it doesn't mean it hasn't been read. Seriously, they have explained this a hundred times.
At some point they even say they DON'T respond to topics even after having read them because then everyone and their dog just jumps onto it and posts random stuff about their favorite button color, and give the impression that other threads are less important, which they aren't.
I mean, just look at this thread. Someone posts a suggestion on a developer's forum of a game. Within a couple of days (here actually it's just a few dozen hours) the feature gets implemented. Just as proposed. Hell will freeze before this ever happens on any EA game. As a developer, I am so impressed that they just take this suggestion up 1:1 and implement it right away, but I would also be extremely frustrated if random gamers just a few days later utter blurbs like "meh, no one reads our feedback, it's all pointless". This is - sorry that I can't find a different, more polite word here - just ignorant.
1
Swapping Force Weapon to Blood Magic will make you lose 5% DPS. Just load your character into some spreadsheet/tool and check the details, but it's not really that important. What's more important is that you'll lose half of your life steal by switching to Blood Magic. If you're barely surviving right now or feel that you're a bit squishy, you either need some more EHP or get a weapon with LaK to compensate. This should be of more concern than DPS at this point.
About the Mempo vs Andariel's: this topic has come up a couple of times and it was actually one of the starting points why I wanted to write the guide and have an advantage/disadvantage discussion in there.
Mempo has extremely good EHP - always: it has high AR and high life% by default, and is quite cheap with an additional vit or armor roll. Andariel's can never roll that high EHP, as it has neither AR nor life% or vit or armor by default, and can only roll one random stat. To add on that, it has this stupid fire damage taken debuff, which can make this helmet deadly - for the wearer. Try to visit Vault of the Assassins with a 25% Andariel's. It's like walking through hell barefoot.
In terms of DPS, Andariel's might look better at first sight: it always has IAS and crit, Mempo only IAS, and both roll high int by default (not considering the 2/3 of dex/str helmets here obviously). If you look at absolutely high-end characters who can afford a Mempo with max crit, they will still have higher DPS with a Mempo than with an Andariel's (because the 4.5% crit are fixed on the latter). If you don't belong to this group who is maxing out gear for billions, you can't just go for straight DPS, but you also need to take a look at your EHP. Furthermore, most people see a socket as mandatory for helmet, which makes the one random roll on Andariel's already a mandatory socket roll. The ruby and therefore the socket might not be that useful on higher MP levels... but then again you really don't want to miss out the EHP from a Mempo. After all, if you are a glass canon and just want to max DPS for little money, yes, take a look at Andariel's. But it's definitely a choice that has some heavy drawbacks and will cost you money in the end (EHP stats on other slots).
1
P.S.: I know it's frowned upon to talk about grammar... but you say "quiet" four times in your post and once here, while what you wanna say is actually "quite". Just sayin'...
1
Exactly. :-)
I think a lot of gear can be replaced and significantly improved for under 1 million, and that should be done.
I think one of the weak spots are your gloves. For high DPS it's really important to get to high crit chance/crit damage levels. Your gloves seem to have nice stats (so much int, some vit, and pickup radius!), but these stats are almost wasted because you want close to max crit chance (8+) on gloves for sure. If possible some crit hit damage. Don't get ones with IAS right now, trifecta just makes the price for gloves insane; after getting CC/CD you can focus on high int or maybe even high EHP stats first.
Another weak spot, in my opinion, is your chest. Tyrael's looks fine because it has MS and AR, but it lacks vitality. If you were to get a Witching Hour, Lacuni's, or Inna's pants, you would lose a lot of vitality on either of these slots, and you should try to get this back somewhere else - chest. Also, a chest with three sockets would be better; you can add gems for more DPS, or for the beginning while you lack EHP you can add vitality here.
I'm on a break from D3 so I'm not sure about prices currently, but you should really just try to get small updates for almost every slot that don't impact your budget that much. For example, get Zuni boots+ring, Vile Wards, Tal Rasha chest, cheap WH, cheap Lacuni's, cheap Inna's, better gloves/amulet. If you get 350m and you spend a maximum of 5m on 10 slots, you still have 300m to buy 1 or 2 major upgrades - could even be a Mempo with crit, a high-end Witching Hour, an insane Echoing Fury.
11
It's so sad that people actually help them earning money.
4
Guess what: that person saying that was Jay Wilson.
I won't vote, because none of the options actually reflects the truth.
It doesn't make a difference. There were patches while Jay Wilson was on the team, there would be patches coming now if he was still on the team. And the game got better over the last 10 months, not just the last two months since he left. All this hatred towards Jay Wilson is stupid.
1
I have played almost every RPG game that was available on computer in the past 25 years, and Torchlight 2 is among the worst when it comes to telling a story. There is no story in Torchlight 2. Even Tetris has a better story than Torchlight 2.
Same for the color argument - people are often complaining about the "light colors" of Diablo 3 and comparing it to the "dark theme" of Diablo 2. Then we see comparisons of D2 act 3 with D3 act 2. Well done. Nothing, absolutely nothing in D3 is as bright and colorful as the entire act 2 in D2. And if you just look at the end of D2 classic, where you walk through lava areas so bright they hurt your eyes and Lord De Seis's wizards are throwing rainbows at you... compare this to D3 and the very level before Diablo that makes your screen glow dark red like you're walking through an area covered in blood. Really? REALLY?
If you think D3 is not dark enough, turn down monitor brightness, skip act 2, install DarkD3, or play with sunglasses.
Or: just install D2 or TL2, do a full playthrough, and then go back to D3. And you'll notice that D3 beats both games in terms of being dark - by a mile. (Been there, done that.)