- CardinalMDM
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Member for 11 years, 1 month, and 14 days
Last active Mon, Jul, 24 2017 05:04:24
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Jul 22, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on Seasonal Rewards on PTR, Philosophy on T6 viable buildsInteresting comments from Vaneras...Posted in: News
Funny thing is, though...this community is often so dead-set on bucking the system and doing literally anything to go against what Blizzard says, that if the devs sat there and mapped out every "top-performing" build for all six classes, the best players would sit there and go, "what do they know, they're all morons, here, lemme show you how to play your own game." And not even listen. -
Jun 18, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on Upcoming Change - One With EverythingPosted in: News
I was thinking about how they would address dodge in the future, as I don't think it's formally going away, just being reworked somehow?Quote fromEzciel
I think the "nerf' to One With Everything is good for balancing. However i feel as though Dex not giving dodge anymore feels out of place. When you think of Dexterity based characters, they should be nimble and fast - i believe that if Dex doesn't give dodge anymore, Monk's and Demon Hunter's shld have base 20-25% dodge at least - because dodge is actually more useful that it seems. I've cheated death more than once being able to dodge molten explosions and other things.
One thought I had was that they could make Dodge work the same for all classes, similar to how Awareness originally worked, but bake it into all classes' stats without needing a passive. You gain a bit of dodge per second until you actually dodge a blow, then it resets. Their philosophy for changing dodge as a primary damage mitigator for two whole classes is sound, however this would still be a realistic way to imagine dodge working in real life. If I'm not being attacked, but I see enemies, I'm ready enough for them to dodge an attack. Once I'm being bombarded by shots, it becomes far harder to dodge.
In addition to this, they could also make adding small amounts of dodge chance roll as a secondary affix on gear (the pool of which is pretty small), so that you can constantly have a base amount of dodge by which to help get more mileage out of your Healing and Armor/all res, but not enough to be game breaking.
I'm interested to see where they go with this. -
Feb 25, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on [Updated: 02:00AM PST] Diablo III - Patch 2.0.1 NotesSounds pretty nifty. Loved trying it out on the PTR, can't wait to get out there and get killin ASAP.Posted in: News
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Feb 7, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on New Patch for 2.0.1 PTR and Closed Beta Now AvailablePosted in: News
Been playing D3V self-found as well...I'm only on the PTR, not on the beta, but the highest gem the Jeweler has standard to combine right now is the Marquise, and no, it doesn't cost 50m, not even 2m. Obviously, if one were to upcraft their gems 100% to their highest tiers on the live game, like I have (not a single gem on my account is purchased or traded for), it would take a ton of time to make even one Marquise...and like Marcus says, it's really not all that worth it once you do.Quote from lMarcusl
Honestly, playing self-found D3, why would you ever be interested in making a marquise in the first place? Spending 50m gold to get +4 to Vit? When your character probably already has about 2000 Vit anyway? That's not even talking about the thousands of Tomes of Secrets you'd need to get the Radiants before that. Fuck that.Quote from Tooch
Anyone in the Beta that can give us an update on gem crafting prices? Playing self-found D3V, I am really worried that I will spend my entire time just trying to scrape up enough gold to make a marquise. I understand those will be common drops RoS endgame but I hope that their enhanced versions don't still cost 50m (as I saw a while back).
Unless they scale the gems up to ridiculous power (I'm talking like the next tier gives you double the stats the previous did) it's not worth going above the basic Star, maybe even Radiant Square. Socketing is a fucking chore in self-found, the only reason I upgrade my gems is because crafting doesn't give you crap, with gems you're at least guaranteed the +4 stat after all those tomes and gold you spend. With crafting you sacrifice materials, gold, tomes, more gold (since salvaging items means you're not selling them for cash) and after 3 acts you still have no upgrades.
However, Tooch, do check around on some of the other Diablo sites for some gem images. While most of the stat boosts up to Marquise are in increments of 4 (Cooldown reduction is in half a percent intervals, same with XP and +damage to elites, etc., in other words, small increments), when you get to Imperial, Flawless Imperial, Royal and Flawless Royal, you can get up to 200+ on one gem, for example, for a core stat. So while it will probably cost a ton of gold to craft, I'd think stat boosts like that would be pretty worth it.
The expansion is still in development, though, so depending on how feasible it is to get people crafting that many gems to those kinds of tiers, or letting tiers like those drop from enemies, there's likely more development left to go. But that's what I've seen of high end gems so far. That'd be cool if they stuck to that. I wouldn't mind stacking my nickels and dimes in the expansion to finally craft a gem that can boost a core stat by 200 in a single socket. -
Feb 6, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on New Datamined Patch - Class Changes, Passive Effects, Rift Keystones, Item Set Names, Bounty Scrolls, New Banners, WoD BuffPosted in: News
That'd be nice. I'm only on the PTR, so I won't get to play with all, or even most, of these things, but they are supposedly retooling the Paragon XP curve and XP gain on various things, so gaining levels should at least go faster.Quote from Maka
So, is this what they're implementing with the server shutdown that just happened? -
Feb 3, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on List of Torment Only Legendaries, MannerCookie's Reaper Witch Doctor Build, European Community Meet Up in ParisPosted in: News
I can agree with you somewhat on wanting to play Hardcore...even without Adventure Mode on the PTR, thanks to the increased difficulty levels, Softcore leveling is pretty swift. Conversely, playing on Hardcore in Adventure Mode seems way more dangerous, as it's not as predictable where the next real danger will be. So I'm looking forward to playing on Hardcore more as well.Quote from Koksii
the motivation for playing (high) torments just ripped. i basicly have almost all the items i want (just missing 2 setitems) and got most of them from farming expert mode...within 6 weeks of the beta btw
i hope they will introduce something new with the next beta patch (besides tuning and class changes) and give us a motivation to play on high torments besides a higher drorate for legendaries...(i wonder when they will reveal how much the legendary find chance increases with every slidertick)...
i think i will start on HC when Ros comes out, with this item system softcore is getting so boring after a coouple of weeks. i hope hc will be a bit more time consuming
btw i have a bottomless potion, if i use it my life after kill is increased by 5000 for 5 seconds...so legendary! ._. the only bottomless potion with some kind of "legendaryness" is the one that allows you to walk through waller walls but i havenf found it yet
and i can confirm that those potions are identified on drop and arent tradeable (not even within 2hours)
However, so many people have constantly complained about loot being better, both in quality and as a reward. If you're happy with what 6 weeks of Expert farming has gotten you, that's your business. Play the expansion for six weeks and quit, or simply don't buy it at all when it releases. But lots of people are salivating for awesome legendaries and new sets that change up builds. For a lot of people, that desire to hunt down awesome items is still there, and boosted drastically as a result of items that only drop on levels ABOVE Expert.
As for more motivation for playing on higher Torment levels...what better reward is there than more xp, more gold, and special items that don't drop below that level? You want an exact drop chance based on each slider tick? Honestly, will that really make much difference? If you were to find out that, hypothetically, on Torment 2, you have 30% extra chance to get Torment-only legendaries and on Torment 4 you have 60% extra chance, given what you said about what you've found, is that really going to change anything? I highly doubt it.
And by the way...extra temporary Life on Kill may not mean much to you, but I'm sure people will find smart ways of using it, as well as make builds around it. -
Jan 30, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on Explore the Resplendent Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition, Login Issues - 29/01, SammaeL89's Diablo III ArtPosted in: News
Yeah, that's kinda doubtful that 3 new classes will come in a single expansion, especially 3 that have been done already. Only reason I think they might bend and add the Necro is that there's such an enormous groundswell of people that are begging for D3 to have a Necromancer. Even people who aren't begging for it want to see it, and while I'd personally rather the Witch Doctor be the "undead/zoo" specialist, I'm sure they could come up with great ways to bring back the Necro in ways unique to D3, and make his abilities different than the Witch Doctor's.Quote from Demonhoarde
Yea i'm interested in seeing what they'll bring in the next ex-pack. I knew this time it would be a STR user as it balances things out with 2 of each resource user per stat.Quote from CardinalMDM
Something tells me Blizzard might bend and put the Necromancer in the next expansion.
Hey you never know, they may surprise us by giving us 3 classes next ex-pack. One for each resource i.e. Druid (STR), Necro (INT) and Assasssin (DEX). Not only would it balance the resource users again (yes i know they don't HAVE to) but it would go a long way in increasing the re-playability of the game.
Doubt they will do it but hey, i can always dream.
Also, I don't think they should add more than 1 class in the next expansion (and hopefully, subsequent 3rd expansion after that...could just be wishful thinking on my part). I mean, LOD raised the total in D2 to 7, and that's fine...but more than that, and the game just feels like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter, ya know? League of Legends supposedly has over 100 Champions. That's full-blown insane.
Honestly, I would hate for D3 to have even 10. :-) -
Jan 30, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on Explore the Resplendent Reaper of Souls Collector's Edition, Login Issues - 29/01, SammaeL89's Diablo III ArtPosted in: News
Something tells me Blizzard might bend and put the Necromancer in the next expansion. There's such a demand for it back, and while it's been slow for them to work in player feedback, they're certainly doing it in a big way, so...personally, I don't think it's off the table 100%.Quote from miles_dryden
Not as good as the necro concept from awhile back, but still cool.
As for the Druid, I feel weird about wanting the Druid included in D3, when I feel like the Druid wasn't really well-respected in D2 all that much. Anytime I tried putting together a good Druid build, it just never worked out. Then again, I'm fervently behind them making a Vitality-based class to even things out...2 Str classes, 2 Dex classes, 2 Int classes...a Vitality class would be perfect, and being all about life, the Druid seems like the perfect fit for a Vitality-based class.
Would LOVE to see what the Druid's resource would be. Maybe a small thing, but I love that D3 has unique resources for each class, and each class' resources works slightly differently. The Druid wouldn't have Spirit, the Monk has that...and it wouldn't be Souls, if any class had that, the Necro would...Mana's the Witch Doctor's thing...maybe something relating to biology or cells or...stupid as it sounds...photosynthesis? :-)
I don't know...I'm just glad that the image above says "first" expansion. Looking forward to see where the end of Reaper of Souls goes, so I can start speculating on where the saga can go from there. -
Jan 22, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on Diablo III Launcher Upgrade Incoming, More on the Legendary Drop Rates, The Boulder Barb Beta BuildPosted in: NewsQuote from Abstract_Chaos
We want low drop rates for the good stuff. I don't want to join a public match and see the same 3 douche bag classes with the same build and the same glowy sword everyone has (transmog aside, i'm talking cookie cutter item standardization)...
I think this sums it up right here.
One HUGE factor, if they raise drop rates too high...is that the more legendaries that drop, the more selectivity people can have with which legendaries people see as "awesome and/or must-have" and which ones people see as "garbage." I mean, one only has to look at what the Auction House has done in that regard. Anyone with enough gold or real world money can go to the Auction House right now and have literally the entire library of D3 items open to them at any given time. And look what happens any time anyone links a legendary in chat...what do people say within seconds? "brimstone"..."vend"..."trash"..."no X? [where X is the one stat it needed to be "good"]"
Yet, when drop rates are low, people have more incentive to make happen what they can with what they have available. They find a legendary that gives them a nice stat boost, but not a lot in terms of superpowers. They can brimstone it, sure...or they can make it into something good however they can for the time being.
Plus, as I've been saying lately...low drop rates of legendaries also means more emphasis on Paragon Point allocation synergizing with Rares, as well as Enchanting Rares in the expansion. If legendaries are dropping a few times per hour, why bother picking up Rares for anything but salvage? If legendaries aren't dropping often, there's much more incentive to look closer at what Rares are dropping, and even sometimes...yes...TRADE for specific Rares that have stats on them that synergize with Paragon Points and existing item buffs.
The more legendaries that drop? Far less incentive for any of that.
I mean, look at the video clip of the Boulder Barb. His gear isn't using anything insanely special. Skorn, Lacuni and Andariel's Visage...IK belt, maybe Blackthorne boots...nothing OP, really. Yet he's put together a really cool build that uses smart skill choices and Paragon Point synergy. Very well done.
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Jan 20, 2014CardinalMDM posted a message on Balance on Legendary Drops, Zakarum, Paladins, Templars and Crusaders, Are Numbers Too Large in RoSPosted in: News
I don't know, personally, I think gambling with Kadala is pretty much the same as gambling in D2...it just presents a different/additional form of gear acquisition. The idea comes up of people farming Bounties and Blood Shards on Normal in RoS, but how is that any different than high end characters who can faceroll Hell difficulty in D2 farming class-specific items in Nightmare (with lots of skill buffs) to sell for oodles of gold that they take to Gheed for gambling? Granted, not sure how many people did that specifically, but to me, it feels like basically the same idea. And by restricting the available high end items Kadala can produce, it provides more incentive to push oneself to go to those harder difficulty levels to get those better items.
My big concern with getting items from Kadala would be to gamble on specific slots to finish off Sets. The blue above says legendaries can be acquired through gambling, and I think that's pretty great. But most of my Blood Shards (unless I hit some cap or limit and can't get any more) are going to go toward finishing Sets. So even if the most powerful Set items aren't available through Kadala, that at least some set items are available through Kadala.
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Dec 16, 2013CardinalMDM posted a message on What's New in the Closed BetaPosted in: News
Just curious...is this "new" Hellfire Ring the NEW Hellfire Ring, or a different Hellfire Ring added as an alternative for crafting the existing Hellfire Ring?
Also...I find it interesting the reagents needed to craft it, as well as the Keys that craft the machines to (presumably) get them. The Key of Bones, for instance, implies the Skeleton King (as does Leoric's Regret, obviously), but Leoric is already part of the tag team with Magdha in the Realm of Discord.
Could this mean that Leoric is being lifted out of that tag team and being given his own "realm," of sorts? And if so, who would take his place alongside Magdha? Maybe she could team up with Uber Araneae, and the evil sorceress could team up with the Spider Queen? Not going to speculate on what that Realm would be called, ;-)
Anyway, the chances of Uber Diablo, and possibly even Uber Malthael, would be awesome. More huge and gigantic bosses is a-okay in my book, :-)
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Dec 12, 2013CardinalMDM posted a message on New Reaper of Souls Beta Patch
Wait...you don't want to go back to the D2 method...but you hope for a version that involves a final battle with multiple Uber Bosses? So, I guess you know about this then, ;-) http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Pandemonium_Event Already, the Uber Bosses currently in D3 rather mimic D2...getting keys off of particular bosses, using them to open portals to higher level pairs of existing bosses. Only difference is that Uber Diablo, specifically, appears via SOJs being sold... http://diablo2.diablowiki.net/Uber_Diablo Whereas Pandemonium Diablo in D2 is the one that appeared alongside Baal and Mephisto in Uber Tristram. That's why I was saying that I hope Uber Diablo appears the same way as D2. I'm absolutely not against them having a second more powerful Diablo to fight, in some alternate realm alongside other more powerful bosses, though. Check out another thing that stood out for me in this post, that I haven't seen mentioned by others yet...Quote from miles_dryden
I'm not concerned about the implementation as much as the actual fight, and the rewards for doing it. I'd rather not go back to the D2 method, though, unless they make it more intuitive.My hope, long-term, is that they have uber versions of all 7 Evils, and possibly a grand final battle with all 7 at once. Will probably need to wait for the 2nd expansion to get anything like that.Quote from CardinalMDM
Absolutely curious about Uber Diablo as well. I was thinking it might be cool if he were tied to Blood Shards/Gambling, in a similar way as selling SOJs brought Uber Diablo out in D2. Like, when enough Blood Shards are traded in, you get that "Evil walks the land" or whatever message, and if you're out in the wilderness, say hello to pain, ;-) Might be good to just keep that to Torment Difficulty levels, so that lower level characters don't have to deal with that as much, but I really think that'd add more of a sense of danger and unpredictability when you're out farming or grinding.-
InfernalMachine_Diablo_x1 -Infernal Machine of Evil
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InfernalMachine_SiegeBreaker_x1 -Infernal Machine of War
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Dec 12, 2013CardinalMDM posted a message on New Reaper of Souls Beta PatchPosted in: NewsQuote from miles_dryden
Bwa? This should be interesting.Boss_Strings.txt
- Uber_Diablo_Encounter_Name - Boss: Diablo
- Uber_Diablo_Join_Instruction - Triggered by {s1}
- - Defeat Diablo, Lord of Terror!
- - You are about to enter
- Uber_Diablo_Info_Text - Your party will teleport in when everyone has accepted.
THANK. YOU. BLIZZARD. Knockback on a barb is so stupid. It's nice there's a rune for the people who want it, but removing it from the base skill for Bash and Seismic Slam is a huge plus for me.Seismic Slam Cost: 30 Fury / Slam the ground and cause a wave of destruction that deals 550% weapon damageand 4 yard Knockbackto enemies in a 45 yardarccone and knocks them up.Absolutely curious about Uber Diablo as well.
I was thinking it might be cool if he were tied to Blood Shards/Gambling, in a similar way as selling SOJs brought Uber Diablo out in D2. Like, when enough Blood Shards are traded in, you get that "Evil walks the land" or whatever message, and if you're out in the wilderness, say hello to pain, ;-) Might be good to just keep that to Torment Difficulty levels, so that lower level characters don't have to deal with that as much, but I really think that'd add more of a sense of danger and unpredictability when you're out farming or grinding.
As for Knockback on a Barb, I don't think it's stupid at all for a melee class to have an alternative way of placing distance between themselves and enemies. However, you are right in saying that removing it from the base skill and making Knockback more of a choice is absolutely a good thing. I can agree there, :-)
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Dec 12, 2013CardinalMDM posted a message on New Reaper of Souls Beta PatchPosted in: News
Looks like we got some Cursed Chest clarification.
I'm with a lot of people thinking that there was a way to grandfather Nephalem Trials into some kind of competitive multiplayer...even if they weren't a separate mode, and you just did them, and got a report at the end saying something like, "your performance in this trial was better than 43% of players today". However, this is still a cool way to do it.
Blizzard is clearly looking for players to have MORE avenues to get gear and items and loot besides just simply "killing monsters." I love killing monsters, and it's my favorite way to get loot, but getting it in different ways is kind of the key, as it's what people seem to be asking for. I can't wait to trade some Blood Shards and do some gambling for gear for specific slots, that should be fun.
Beauty is, the more different ways to kill monsters/get loot are put into the game, the more fondly we can look at specific ones WE choose as our favorites or preferred methods. For instance, I know a lot of us were excited when the Infernal Machine/Hellfire Ring/Uber Bosses were patched in. Didn't take long for Key Farming to get boring, though. I haven't done an Uber Run in quite a while, most of my time in the game is spent just farming certain spots. Then, when they announced Bounties and Rifts, my first thought was, "gee, I haven't done an Uber Run in a while, I kinda miss it."
The more different ways people can get loot and kill monsters, the more variety we get, and the less boring and monotonous the game feels.
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Dec 9, 2013CardinalMDM posted a message on Reaper of Souls Highlights: Nephalem Rift Pylons, Blizzard Wants Feedback on Endgame, Curse Weekly RoundupPosted in: News
Pretty much this right here.Quote from chelatek
D3 does not need to be like WOW or any other MMORPG, and I say that as an MMO player. D3 isn't that type of game. The market hasn't changed, people still want a fun game with something to do, and hopefully D3's revamped loot and rifts and everything will be what is necessary. It's absurd to expect constant content updates in a game you don't pay a monthly fee to nor is there any way for them to get income relative to the number of active players, and frankly that isn't what the game is about.
Getting to be the most powerful character in D3 should be a goal you can never reach but a goal that is in sight. I mean an entire expansion 1.5 years after release is a great release schedule and I see no reason that Blizzard won't try to make that A Thing with D3.
I don't know, I feel like people have really written off Bounties and Rifts and Patch 2.0.1 way before they actually get their hands on the full release, or even the PTR. The main thrust of most "Diablo" endgame has been to strengthen or tune your strong characters in different ways. Hell, for a lot of people, D2 endgame had little to nothing to do with "new content," it involved starting brand new toons from level 1, grinding them up to high level and using muled uniques and sets and runes farmed with other high level characters. If people really wanted a "level 1" challenge, they entered a new Ladder, and for people like me, who were pretty terrible at it, we just kept working on getting at least one character of each class just to the point of being "really strong."
One thing I love about D3 over D2, though, is that I don't have to start a brand new character just to experiment with skill builds and such. In fact, with Loot 2.0, most legendaries that drop will be tempting to try making a build with, or at least strong enough to be worthy to keep in my stash so they're available to play with in case any other complementary pieces pop up. With the amount of awesome legendary effects being introduced, build diversity is seriously going to skyrocket, and without the AH to magic-bullet people to the next flavor-of-the-week OP build, people will have a lot more to work on for the long-haul. Paragon 2.0, great long-term goal for giving characters a boost in areas they might need it, if particular gear leaves holes. And provided the Uber Bosses stay in the game, we'll have them to slay, Bounties to claim, Rifts to clean out, as well as events and farming spots in the rest of the game.
I really think people should see for themselves how the game feels when the updates come before thinking endgame is still totally barren. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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That being said, I think I've been on battle.net for D1 all of about 30 seconds, and didn't even get in a game for more than a couple. Would've love to try it out, and if I knew a way to do so present day, I'd give it a shot.
Sorry you're having trouble getting in, though. For nostalgia's sake, I installed D1 with Hellfire a few weeks ago and got through Normal with a warrior in not too much time. Still pretty fun. Working on Nightmare now.
Good luck getting it fixed.
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I'd be fine with it if they required one more trip through the campaign, but doing Adventure Mode from the get og feels great, too.
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This item being added to the mix adds more options to peoples' gearing, and even if it's not ideal, it's still a great idea.
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Then again, due to smart drops giving Wizards so much more Intelligence and Vitality, and itemization overall seeming to hand out slightly less crit chance and crit damage, when the expansion comes out, I'd be interested to see how many Wizards out there choose more defensive SKILLS, but on gear, choose to enchant much of the Vitality and +%Life and perhaps even All Res off their gear in favor of more crit damage and attack speed and offensive based affixes.
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To add to some of the other comments, I think one of the reasons the devs don't hotfix or patch this out is 1) because it presents a fairly annoying hassle of changing skills just to take advantage of this, and 2) what you're actually getting out of it is fairly minimal. So ultimately, the benefit likely doesn't warrant immediate action.
I mean, if people want to go through the trouble of using the Circle of Life passive to summon three standard zombie dogs (not even special ones like Leeching Beasts or Rabid Dogs), and switching the passive out to keep the dogs, unless they've got other passives to keep those standard dogs alive, they're not going to amount too much, and then they would have to reapply the Circle of Life passive again, kill more mobs, then switch it off again, to "exploit" this.
I want to say it classifies as an exploit, but eh...there's worse out there probably. If they were summoning 20-30 dogs with this, then yeah, massive exploit. But it's only 3. I can let it go, :-)
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I do agree that DS is definitely addictive. I remember before 2.0, Serenity was pretty much mandatory because Monks were just a different kind of Barb in the sense that they were both melee but one dodged inherently and the other soaked damage with armor. Now, Monks can stand a bit more uniquely in the melee department dashing around the battlefield and dodging blows. Makes for a more engaging playstyle than mandatory Serenity did.
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Blind Faith I found for my Throw Barbarian (a build way more viable than it ever was in vanilla D3) adds 22+% Blind chance. That kind of crowd control really helps in keeping distance.
Just last night, found a Countess Julia's Cameo for my Monk that makes Arcane lasers heal me. Sorry...wouldn't have found anything like that before the patch.
Yesterday morning, I found a Spider Queen's Grasp Ceremonial Knife that adds an 80% slow wherever Corpse Spiders impact. Great for a lower armor pet class like a Witch Doctor.
On the PTR, I found an Emimei's Duffel Quiver that makes Bolas explode instantly. Really stepped up my AOE damage. Another Quiver I found, Bombadier's Rucksack, allowed me to have 5 Sentries out at once with Custom Engineering. Also really stepped up my damage.
Aside from MAYBE the Blind Faith, which I'm honestly not sure existed before the patch (it may have)...those four at least are brand new, and have effects no AH purchases could touch. The AH is a scapegoat? Keep dreaming.
Pardon my correcting you, but I've found a bunch of items since the patch came out that have mainstat, vitality and all res on them. Feel free to look up my profile on Bnet. My Countess Julia's Cameo has mainstat, all res AND black damage.
Sorry if you feel the RNG gods aren't on your side, but to say nothing's changed? Really not sure what game you're playing.
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I think the downside is just exactly how much total shielding you can build up vs. how much Life you can have stocked. If that total isn't high enough, I imagine running into trouble at higher difficulties. Though, I'm sure there are ways to make it work.
In regard to people not liking Hydra...I really like it myself. For me, the lure of it is being able to stack damage over time for relatively cheap. For instance, my Wizard's current Arcane build includes Arcane Hydra and Temporal Flux, so I can economically throw down a Hydra to get started slowing guys down and not dip too heavily into my AP pool. Then when I'm firing off Raging Storm twisters and Disintegrate beams, it's still busy blasting away, and I can recast it easily if it expires.
That being said...going for not only a fire build but a close-range fire build, I would agree that better things are probably available than Hydra. I mean, if you're getting close up with Spectral Blades and Wave of Force, I'd definitely add Explosive Blast to that. I think there's only one or two runes that deal fire damage, but I'm sure there are ways to work that in. If you were going for a long-range fire build, I might agree that a fire Hydra variant would be a good idea for the extra cheap damage stack, but since you're close up, that's what I'd recommend, :-)
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OP, I love that you actually factor in a death, simply because it's the fastest way back to town to save time. You are hilarious.
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I'm not sure what the devs can do about that, though, aside from lowering the XP reward maybe. Banning definitely seems extreme.
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In my opinion, the only thing they should do about Cursed Chests is maybe change the XP reward based on performance: If you start/activate the event, you get a small XP reward for participation. If you survive til the end, but don't get the extra chest, you get a moderate XP reward. The biggest XP reward is for successfully meeting the requirement and winning the extra chest.
That would prevent people from taking advantage of just FINDING Cursed Chests and cashing in on big XP when they didn't actually push themselves farther along and didn't get strong enough to complete them.
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Think of it this way...what do squishier character classes do when they're having trouble on a tough group of fast powerful enemies or a boss? Do they kite? If the answer is yes, then I see nothing wrong with Odeg doing the same exact thing. Or the Blood Clan Occultists in Act 3 doing it either. Those guys not only run away, but they have the power to add a shield for extra defense, and shield other enemies in the area.
As for having a character that can bulldoze MP10, and having trouble in Torment 3, not to sound snarky or snippy, but what did you expect? For the devs to just tune Torment 6 to be exactly like MP10 because Inferno MP10 was allegedly the hardest thing D3 had? And they weren't going to go any farther? Hell no. The devs want to push us, and push us hard. They want to give players something difficult to work toward, and without the Auction House, presuming it does in fact get shut down on March 18 (anything is possible), it's going to be a struggle, and that's how it should be. It should be a hard-fought battle to rise in the ranks of endgame difficulty, and not just, "oh yeah, I heard some massive overhaul patch came out...barely notice it.
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I absolutely LOVE the update to Dashing Strike. While the idea of creating a super defensive tanky Monk is a real possibility for people, it's more likely a super defensive tanky Monk would use something like Serenity. Whereas, for me, I'd rather use Dashing Strike and zip from enemy to enemy, place to place. I'm standing there bashing away on an enemy, they're about to explode or spray poison around, I can reposition on the battlefield instantly. That's awesome. The buffs to Spirit Generators, also a huge help. The Monk doesn't come with innate Spirit Regen, but Spirit also doesn't deteriorate like the Barb's Fury does. It still means you need lots of fuel for big skills, and things like Replenishing Light and Strong Spirit (that got a HUGE buff), it's a snap. It's just a matter of what types of attacks and approach you want to go with once you have enough Spirit to spend.
Here's where my Monk's build is right now, though I'm with some others...I love the idea that drops will be inspiring people to experiment more, and that "cookie cutter" builds are likely to be no more.
Games like this, that have an assumed LONG amount of longevity should have a really easy way of picking it up and experimenting, and being able to switch skills and Paragon Points at one's will completely encourage that type of gameplay. Continually starting over from scratch at level 1 shouldn't be a necessary, and continuing to gain more and more points farther and farther into endgame only make the journey different the farther along you go. Sure, the way this game is now, compared to games like D2 and PoE, may reduce the chance that people fall into some dumbly put together branch on a tree format, and their first character ends up a total fail...then again, when people collect lots of Cold gear, +Skill gear, Reduced Resource gear, Cooldown Reduction gear, etc., it may still be hard to move away from that into different gear territory...and the cycle can start over or continue...except in endgame this time, not at level 1.
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I don't know how to handle all the melodrama surrounding the Barbarian. Especially when it comes to a class that's losing builds that are that overpowered and that close to being seriously broken. Honestly, people get into these ruts of thinking a wildly OP/broken style of gameplay is fun, then it gets taken away and they actually have to WORK on a build, and suddenly it's not fun anymore. It's really fascinating to me how often that plays into peoples' innate pessimism...
Which really, just feeds my own optimism. I observe peoples' disdain over permawrath/ww barbs not being viable EN MASSE anymore (as I'm sure clever use of legendaries or rares can make at least almost infinite WW builds work, I guarantee it), and I use it as a reason to try my best to build an awesome Barb and show what they can do.
I'll give ya some examples of stuff I came up with on the PTR, that totally beat anything I had on the live game...
1) Rage Skill Build...I threw Call of the Ancients, Earthquake and Wrath of the Berserker on my active skill bar all at once. Obviously, since they all have high cooldowns, Boon of Bul-Kathos is wise to go with (at least in the expansion, it won't take up a 1/3 of your passives), and definitely going to want Cooldown Reduction gear (something previously unavailable in the live game), as well as some other smart active skill choices both to generate Fury AND keep up the attack on your own.
2) Distance Build...Weapon Throw generates Fury now (Ricochet is good for a little AOE), combine that with Overpower - Storm of Steel (no Fury cost, just a Cooldown which can be reduced with Crits and lots of Attack Speed), Seismic Slam (got a pretty decent buff in the updates as I've seen, as well as some elemental flavor), maybe Leap, Animosity, Berserker Rage (for the extra damage while on full Fury), maybe War Cry - Charge and/or Ground Stomp - Foot of the Mountain for a nice burst of Fury. Maybe put Call of the Ancients on there, the rune where the Ancients generate Fury for you as they attack is really handy.
Hell, if you really want Whirlwind to subsist?
Use the Hurricane rune. It draws enemies in close, where you can use skills like Overpower - Momentum for a good burst of Fury, maybe you can even go against the grain and use Cleave - Reaping Swing for a little extra Fury Generation...Hammer of the Ancients, Earthquake and Rend are all great for tight packs.
And this isn't even taking into account a single legendary item, many of which I'm POSITIVE would make some of these builds insanely effective. :-D
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Loots, loots, loots...can't wait to get home and lay waste to bad guys!