Quote from Litheum
Who cares? D3 is better than D2......no one is really arguing that.
Thanks for clarifying a point that doesnt matter though. The point stands, forcing any portion of the game is bad design.
It's really quite obvious you constradict every post of mine, I am really just going to stop replying to you. Kind of feels like your just trolling me.
Act 3 is only popular because the hardcore theorycrafting bunch of players noticed the density is slightly bigger in that Act. Lots of players do like to run Acts 1 and 2, with just a few also enjoying Act 4. Blizzard hasn't forced anyone, efficiency is "forcing them". The invisible guide to rule all farming games. Just like the elitist bunch are saying Blizzard "forces them" to do dailies in WoW even though they can absolutely not touch them and still cap valor and get great gear. But that's another topic.
Once density in the Acts is equalized, which I suspect will be Blizz's priority after 1.0.7 goes live, all Acts will be absolutely equal. Except for 4 which is shorter. Sad. But it was so in D2 as well.
So what are you angry about and why do you think Blizzard is "forcing" anyone into anything? Is it because of density? Can't you be a bit patient? Or are you gonna use the "it's been an year" argument?
4
Am I the only one who likes this?
In many seasons, I didn't hunt for one particular weapon; I just took the first ancient I got and ran the build for that (or tried to fit it into my build). I will just farm and whatever primal ancient weapon I get, that's what I'm gonna do.
This is basically bringing D3 back to where D2 was. 1% chance for primal is still better than the 0.0001% chance for Tyrael's Might and that kind of stuff. And where in D2 you had "lesser" uniques to pave the way while farming, normal/ancient items are the temporary replacement in D3.
What I like is that as soon as you hit level 70 and play on Torment 1, you might find that gg-rolled perfect primal weapon. There's no stupid gating system that prevents you from doing something, but it brings the Diablo-esque grind back to Diablo: farm for more and better loot.
Also, like some people noted, it will further diminish the impact of paragon and augments. I personally hope that it will strengthen LoN builds (since you can just keep whichever primal items you get and make a 13x primal ancients character, as most slots in many LoN builds don't have specific items required). Furthermore, as Wudijo reported on Reddit, weapon damage "only" increased by about 16% which is a bit less than one GR tier; so it's not like not finding a primal weapon will hold you back by several levels (to put it in perspective, the ancient increase is 30%).
Overall, I like this change. The only thing I don't like about it that farming NS now feels pointless to me for the next few weeks. So back to SC2 probably for a while
1
A lot of helpful tips by IvveP. That being said, I strongly advise to take your own steps into the game and not get a "boost" from a powerful player. The start of a new journey and gearing up a character is the most fun part of this game for many. If you just follow someone who kills everything for you and boosts you to 70 (and maybe for a few 100 paragon levels and some free gear), you'll miss out on what might be the best part of the game - and no one can give that experience back to you.
Try to just enjoy the game and make your first steps alone, it might be more enjoyable that way. If you feel otherwise, you can still ask for help in one of the several in-game communities or here.
1
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-general-forums/diablo-iii-general-discussion/221227-brainless-builds-comparison-sages-set-builds-with
1
1) STR.
2) STR.
3) STR.
Stat priority is: 1) STR 2) CDR until you get 61% 3) Thorns 4) VIT
And obviously sockets and physical% wherever possible.
Try to get new bracers and a new amulet, and also a crown with higher percentage to make sure you hit 61% (until then I'd run speeds with In-Geom and Gogok to make up for it)
1
Wish it was ancient. Well, no use for it anyway at the moment.
1
Tried it for a bit (2p speeds GR84 with double wiz). Not sure if it was really better - still had some "no hit" scenarios. However, AT without lightning lacks the high damage in Archon downtime that can finish off annoying mobs and also the stun. So not really an option imho.
1
There is this thread which is the single best resource for everything Manald Heal related at the moment.
As people are arguing in there, it might just be some skewed perception of RNG based on the fact that your attack speed fluctuates so much depending on Archon stacks.
About the Archon rune: When I ran speed rifts with Jamoose yesterday (double wiz action), and he had Black Hole, we observed sometimes that the color of the beam would change. Probably if you cast Black Hole and suck enough mobs in to give you more +cold% damage than your +lightning% on bracers, Archon gets overwritten and is cold instead of lightning (and thus no MH proc). Maybe there are some other, similar effects happening. But the color of the beam should tell if it's an elemental issue. I don't think the rune has any relevance, as it gets overwritten anyways due to the Tal sets which gives you all 4.
My guess is that it's a weird CC effect interaction, simply because that would offer another seemingly random variable coming into play. But no one knows at this point. At the end of the day, just because the wizard is not in the "meta", it'll take much longer to figure this out because not many people are playing it. If people were fine to actually clear 2-3 rifts lower (but 5x faster and with more fun) and ditch the stupid gen monk or WD, we'd resolve the MH issues much faster. But the "I have to play meta" perception of the community is just holding us back so much at the moment. I wish sheeple would wake up. Go play wizard everyone! Nothing's more exciting these days.
1
[S9] LoN FoK + Shi Mizu - Solo 90+
This has been the #1 DH build for the past few seasons.
You can play without Shi Mizu for a more safe variant on HC.
2
That's fair, and it's exactly the reason why I wrote "SUBJECTIVE" in the intro to those ratings.
Of course this build shouldn't run T13. No sage's build should run T13. You can see by my numbers that actually TX is the sweet spot for the crusader. It still has 3 stars because its relative strength to the other builds. The only other builds that have similar damage were LTK monk and EB wizard - both of which also received 3 stars, but both of which shouldn't run T13/T12 either. The reason why I ran T12/T13 on those classes was merely to show that T13 is not worth it, because I know a lot of people seem to think "I need to run T13". Which is wrong. There are paragon 1500 top players who farm T11 all day because they know it's the fastest.
Anyways, my subjective assessment is based on relative strength. And in relation to the other builds, the crusader was among the strongest of them all. Also, forget about the rift closing time, really. How fast you clear a rift is 80% about the rift and 20% about your build. I always roll my eyes if people say "this build runs average 2 minute rifts". Yeah well... there are rifts which are impossible to close in 2 minutes, by design. And there are rifts which you can clear in one minute, if your damage+mobility is high enough. That's why the "rift clearing competitions" never really got a lot of audience: it was more about fishing 10 open maps in a row rather than anything else.
P.S.: On Reddit someone also had concerns about the crusader, and after some talking he linked his crusader and we discovered some issues that were holding him back. I'm not sure if that's the case for you, probably not, but I'm just saying that sometimes there are other reasons as to why a build is perceived as rather weak.
2
There are two metas:
1) The top #1 meta that everyone blindly copies, which is support barb, support monk, generator monk for single target, Firebats Arachyr WD for most damage during the rift.
2) The speed run meta which everyone should run. On SC, people seem to be too stupid to understand that and switch, because no one ever wants to try anything that's not rank 1. On HC, people understand that for speed farming is monk+barb+2x wizard. It's even #1 on HC right now: https://www.diablorank.com/grift/season9/hardcore/4players/class_126/region_30/page_1 so I guess it's established as HC 4p meta already.
Wudijo also made a nice video about DH in groups (link), which is for SC but it might still be a viable option (though not the best). Last but not least, a class/build that is really underestimated at the moment is the Hammerdin crusader. You can see in 2 player that it's slowly picking up and showing its potential.
Basically, you and your friends can pick *any* class. Also keep in mind that switching classes takes close to no time in Diablo 3. So here's the breakdown:
Choose wisely! (Hint: "wisely" here means "the class you like".)