Erich agrees: “We didn’t want anything to get in the way of what some developers dismiss as ‘the grind’. Instead we focused almost solely on the grind, trying to make it fun to kill the same monsters over and over again. What we cared about was the tactile feel of smashing skeletons and constant sense of exploration. Mouse control seemed natural, although there was a lot of iteration. We noticed that anyone could pretty much play, even people’s moms.”
Simple, as it happens, would be the operative word for Diablo. “Back then, RPGs were so overwrought with statistics that the genre had shrunk to a tiny audience,” says Erich’s brother and Condor’s co-founder, Max Schaefer. “We wanted to do an RPG how we’d played Dungeons & Dragons as kids: hit monsters and gain loot. Our mission was that we wanted the minimum amount of time between when you started the game up to when you were clubbing a skeleton.”
Certain elements, however, like the control system which pared movement, fighting and picking through loot down to a couple of mouse clicks, was something that everyone could come together on. “We always wanted to keep your options simple: left button, right button, and a few keys,” Brevik explains.
The game has always been meant to be simple, straightforward, and designed to allow people to jump right in to killing monsters. The purpose was to move away from the complex-for-the-sake-of-being-complex elements of RPGs that had turned the genre into a majorly-niche market. Diablo was always supposed to EXTEND the playerbase, not limit it.
Ultimately, there's a reason they added respecs to D2 and I'll give you a hint... most people don't find re-playing the storyline over again just to try out a new build to be very "fun." Even GGG realizes this and their races tend to have rules that make them feel different from just leveling another character. As an example, I made it through the TL2 story 2.5 times (twice on NG, half on NG+) and then I gave up on the game. It was FUCKING BORING. It didn't give me any sense of "I really want to keep doing this." If TL2 had some kind of full respec system I'd probably still be playing it. But having to start over every time I find out that my build doesn't work past NG..... no fucking thank you. I'd rather waste my time sticking my foot in a woodchipper.
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Welcome to Diablofans!
1) No, it's a separate damage reduction multiplicator. It applies to all elements except physical (which is a resistance type as well), but in its own category and independent of the resistance values you see on your character sheet. It's important to keep this distinction up between armor, all resist, and other damage reduction means to understand how things add up. You can import your profile to d3planner.com and hover over the toughness stats to see how it is being calculated.
2) You need to beat a GR70 (in time, so under 15 minutes) to be able to get primal items, yes. But not only from crafting (there's almost no useful items that can be acquired through crafting; maybe Reaper's Wraps for some necro builds and Hellfire Amulets), so not sure if you literally meant this "crafting" bit. Basically as soon as you clear that GR70 any item that you get (from a drop, from Kadala, from bounty caches, from crafting) can be a primal.
3) Not exactly sure what you're referring to; it's difficult to generalize as sometimes there are caveats and exceptions and so on, but in general if some description says "reduces enemy damage by X percent" or so that also applies to elites, yes.
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Impale DH. UE DH needs insane gear/paragon to be able to run T13... if you're like paragon 2000 or so than UE DH is faster because it one-shots entire screens. But the general answer is: Impale DH.
2
In general I agree, I would be okay with it if at least sets would be nerfed (from giving 3000% buffs to 1000% buffs or so). But not gonna happen.
However, usual caveat: this is first iteration of PTR, everything is subject to change. And since we haven't seen an announcement that they raised the GR cap (which is currently GR150) I think they'll have to dial some of this down as top players will get dangerously close to that level.
1
Area damage works with Archon, but in the end you want to play the Manald Heal build and Manald Heal does not work area damage (MH and AD are both procs and procs can't proc procs ;-)). So basically area damage is a wasted stat for now on a wand.
2
Wizard consistently clears GR80s in 3-4 minutes... with no augments. Wizard can run T13 off the bat with all non-ancient, mediocre gear.
Anyways, this thread is interesting: I didn't think so many people would be willing to champion their class and be so defensive about it. If you want a *real* answer though, you need to clarify a few things.
First, running T13 isn't smart. Streamers only do this to show off, but really efficient players run at most T12 (you can watch the paragon 1500+ seasonal streamers these days running T12, so when you think you can run T13 at paragon 800 fast enough to justify T13 that's your opinion, but you're definitely not being as efficient as you could be).
Second, which class is best depends a lot on power level, your playstyle, and preferences. But there is unanimous agreement among the top players that wizard is the fastest class for speed farming, by a margin. That's why every paragon farming group is running 3 wizards with a support monk. Nothing else. Think about it: if that is so fast on GR80+, why would anyone else run something else? Inspect a few top players and you'll notice that almost all of them have a wizard, even if it's not their main class. That's how good it is.
Close second to the wizard is the monk, and some say it's even as good as the wizard. In T13 clearing competitions, the monk is the closest thing to the wizard; however, the wizard still reigns supreme for a few reasons: 1) The wizard's beam just clears the entire screen, once you have enough Archon stacks and therefore enough damage. Just circle around and everything's dead. 2) The wizard's scaling is just insane. While every other class relies on the typical skill+items+sets+gems multiplicators, the wizard adds the Archon stacks - if you're playing on the right difficulty you should have 100-150 Archon stacks all the time, and with overlap that's 200-300 combined Archon stacks. Everything melts, you don't even need the Manald Heal proc. 3) In the beginning of the rift many classes struggle a bit to "get things going", and that includes the non-MH wizard. But Manald Heal is the solution here: once it procs, the first elite is dead, In-Geom is up, and the party begins. Basically, the wizard has infinite power scaling, and the lower you go the faster it is; if you think it's not fast enough then you're either playing the build wrong, or playing on a difficulty too high (i.e., not gaining enough stacks).
After that follow Necro and DH. DH has two builds that both have issues: Impale one-shots elites but you'll struggle to kill trash. UE is the "most fun" build for many, but you need insane power (paragon 2000+ with full augments) to be able to clear T13, and even then it's questionable. As for the necro, its damage spikes are ridiculous, but it's just too unreliable in certain situations (doors are you mortal enemy, sometimes long cooldowns hold you back, no corpses = no damage in many builds, and pet builds lack AoE compared to monk/wiz). I love Fluffy for all his guides and his compassion for the necro, but on "even ground", i.e., comparing necro to wiz/monk with similar gear level, it doesn't hold a candle. It's still viable enough (if you enjoy it) to farm on the necro if you want.
Crusader is in-between. It's still insanely powerful and fast, and especially the most laid-back class as you just ride through everything and it dies. The problem is that you're either only killing stuff you ride through or have to rely on the ridiculously long Bombardment cooldown. The damage a LoN Bomb crusader can deal every few seconds, wiz/monk dish out multiple times *per second*. If you feel crusader is fast that's good for you! But as numerous competitions have shown us, it's fallen behind. It was once the fastest class, but others have caught up now.
Barb has the usual power struggles. And WD just isn't made for speeds at all. WDs either farm on wizard or pay their duty as "rift closer" in groups.
So basically:
Wizard > monk > necro = DH > crusader > barb > WD.
Note: this is mostly not my perception or opinion, but that of the top players who have min/maxed everything and who recently discussed this on streams. Some of them would put monk ahead of wiz, but on that I'd disagree simply because of streamer "Baudusau's" competitions which has been won by a wizard the last 438958 times (despite a lot of high-paragon monk participants).
5
No.
Why not?
Here's why.
Picture this: you and your friends are in this small little AH community. For simplicity it's just and one other friend. You go on and play and gain 1000 paragon and all the gear you ever wished for. Your friend quits just after he hit 70. Your friend comes back. Now he instantly gets flooded with your "gg gear" that you obviously don't need. He has 10 minutes playtime on level 70 and his gear is absolutely finished. All he needs is rift keys and maybe a few hundred paragon (which you as a good friend give him by dragging him through a few GR80 runs).
Result? Your friend has 2 hours played after coming back but nothing to farm for. The entire purpose of the game (gearing up), all the fun parts, are entirely lost. He is wearing (and will be wearing) zero pieces of gear he has found himself. Attachment to the character, to the game? None.
Your friend will be offline tomorrow again, and not come back to Diablo. Ever. But hey, at least you got his money!
Auction house has always been terrible, will always be terrible, and I hope it never comes back. If you're into trading sell your soul and become a broker at the New York Stock Exchange. Well, or play Path of Exile. But in Diablo 3, you won't find your new business opportunity.
Thanks, but I hope this explains why no one wants the AH back (except for the "nice individuals" that made thousands of dollars in D3V - please go away). And from hearing some of the D3 developers' responses to ideas like yours, I think they have similar thoughts. Again: D3 = no trading. PoE = trading. Play a different game, but we have danced with the devil and killed him for good.
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1
Moved to HC forums.
Highest DPS right now are necro and wizard (necro highest GR for pushing, wizard highest for speed GR farming). Both are very squishy though. I personally went for wizard - died once, but it was my own mistake (as it is always on HC ;-)). Learned my lesson, everything good now. It's definitely a bit more challenging. Before that I ran a crusader on non-season, but deleted it - it's just too boring. Actually pretty decent DPS and super easy GR70 but never even in danger of dying. Doesn't feel HC-like.
Many people play the DH, because it offers the best trade-off between good DPS with relatively low chance of dying. I see a lot of people playing the Impale DH for that reason. But again, if I play HC and I'm not in danger of dying I might as well just play SC, right? So that sounds boring as well.
Basically: if you're looking for a safe farming class with a little bit less danger of dying and good DPS, pick the DH. If you want to be super safe pick crusader (but doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for). If you want to be a bit more adventurous and try something new pick the necro. And if you're absolutely mad and fearless and want the fastest mid-GR farming speed, pick wizard. (But be prepared to die! :D)
Edit: Just as an advice, have backup gear ready - and that should also already be re-rolled to the right stats and with backup gems, if possible. It really sucks if you die and have no backup gear, or that backup gear has to be re-rolled but you have no Death's Breath left. It's just nicer if your backup gear works right off the bat on T10. Basically I have 2 free deaths right now already because of 2 backup sets ;-)
1
Yes, you can overwrite any Caldessan's by just augmenting it again, with any gem of your choice - higher or lower.
1
Unfortunately it's not that simple. Items have two different levels - an item level and a required level. For example, for Manald Heal the required level is 24, but the item level is 27. So basically you can't get it from Kadala below level 27. (We had a discussion about this on Reddit before the season and together with a lot of people we gambled tens of thousands of shards on various levels between 0 and 28, and you can't get MH below level 27).
Someone was nice enough to write a script and query'd every item from the game API to list both required and minimum levels:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/6ogand/list_of_all_items_with_their_itemlevel_and/
But there's more: some items can be gambled below their item level - for example, you can gamble Gungdo Gear on a level 1 monk, Lut Socks on a level 1 barb, and so on. Initially we thought it was just a -7 level reduction, but it doesn't make sense for the case of Gungdo Gear (which are not even the lowest bracers since Cesar's Memento have both lower item level and required level). So there seems to be some special rule for some (not all) low-level gambling slots/items.
Be careful with info you find about this - basically all of this we found out a week ago. So basically any "low level gambling guide" that's older than July 19, 2017 might contain wrong information. We really had no idea and are just scratching the surface here.