A Few Questions Answered
Bashiok took the time to answer a few questions, however please keep in mind This system is a work in progress, this information can easily change while the system is being worked on!
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(When you say extra loot, do you mean, extra loot. Or do you mean extra loot that is on par with what elite/champs drop. I remember from the article before, bosses do not drop gear that is as good as champs/elites.
They will drop gear as good as champions and elites with this buff (because you have to kill champions and elites to get it, which was the point). With the buff active you’re guaranteed one extra item drop from the boss, and it’s likely that it’ll be 1 item per stack of the buff. Up to X stacks. We don’t know how many it’ll be, probably a handful.
How many stacks will there be if any?
We're not totally sure but probably a number you can count on one hand.
Do you lose the buff when you die?
It lasts through death currently, and we like it. I know some people will also want it to be a punishment for death, but repair costs are already extremely impactful.
Does the buff split between players?
Like someone joins after you've been killing and they have less stacks? It's a direct increase to your MF/GF, so it uses the same mechanics.
Do you lose it on disconnect?
There's a small grace period, similar to WoW where you can get back into the game before your character is actually logged out (ie a timeout), but yes if your character times out you would lose the buff.
What is the Time limit on the stack, if any?
We're messing with times from about 15 minutes to an hour. We don't know yet.
Do Stacks get removed after a boss?
We don't really think it needs to. Your focus is still going to be seeking out champions and rares. If you want to get full stacks, kill a boss, and then try to rush to kill another boss before the buff falls off... have fun? It's not going to be the most lucrative way to play, so it's likely a non-issue hypothetical.
They will drop gear as good as champions and elites with this buff (because you have to kill champions and elites to get it, which was the point). With the buff active you’re guaranteed one extra item drop from the boss, and it’s likely that it’ll be 1 item per stack of the buff. Up to X stacks. We don’t know how many it’ll be, probably a handful.
How many stacks will there be if any?
We're not totally sure but probably a number you can count on one hand.
Do you lose the buff when you die?
It lasts through death currently, and we like it. I know some people will also want it to be a punishment for death, but repair costs are already extremely impactful.
Does the buff split between players?
Like someone joins after you've been killing and they have less stacks? It's a direct increase to your MF/GF, so it uses the same mechanics.
Do you lose it on disconnect?
There's a small grace period, similar to WoW where you can get back into the game before your character is actually logged out (ie a timeout), but yes if your character times out you would lose the buff.
What is the Time limit on the stack, if any?
We're messing with times from about 15 minutes to an hour. We don't know yet.
Do Stacks get removed after a boss?
We don't really think it needs to. Your focus is still going to be seeking out champions and rares. If you want to get full stacks, kill a boss, and then try to rush to kill another boss before the buff falls off... have fun? It's not going to be the most lucrative way to play, so it's likely a non-issue hypothetical.
Nephalem Valor Buff
Blizzard just posted an article describing the mechanics and the goal of the new Nephalem Valor buff!
Originally Posted by (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re working hard on balancing and testing Diablo III, and one of the major components is making sure that the end game experience is fun and exciting. We’d like to share a few of our goals for end game:
The exact amount of magic find and gold find provided by the buff is still being reviewed, as is the amount of extra loot you get from a boss while the buff is active. We’re also playing around with whether or not the buff stacks, what the duration should be, and whether or not it should persist through death. We want to make sure the buff is strong enough to make staying in your current game more rewarding than creating a new game. At the same time, if the buff is too strong, it risks making shorter play sessions feel not worthwhile.
We expect this system will encourage players to stick with a skill build of their choice, select an area of the game they enjoy, and sweep it for rare and champion packs on their way to a boss, finishing off a run with a boss that’ll be worth killing. If you wanted a shorter play session you could be done at that point, but if you have more time, the path of least resistance would ideally be to stay in the same game and make your way towards the next boss.
- We have an enormous number of skill build combinations, and we want a lot of those skill builds to be viable and interesting
- While there are millions of skill builds available to players, we don’t want players swapping skills regularly to beat specific encounters as they come up
- We don’t want repeatedly running specific three-minute chunks of the game to be the most efficient way to acquire gear for your character
- While a three-minute run shouldn’t be the most efficient, we also don’t want you to feel like it’s a two-hour commitment every time you sit down to play
- Bosses should still feel worth killing
The exact amount of magic find and gold find provided by the buff is still being reviewed, as is the amount of extra loot you get from a boss while the buff is active. We’re also playing around with whether or not the buff stacks, what the duration should be, and whether or not it should persist through death. We want to make sure the buff is strong enough to make staying in your current game more rewarding than creating a new game. At the same time, if the buff is too strong, it risks making shorter play sessions feel not worthwhile.
We expect this system will encourage players to stick with a skill build of their choice, select an area of the game they enjoy, and sweep it for rare and champion packs on their way to a boss, finishing off a run with a boss that’ll be worth killing. If you wanted a shorter play session you could be done at that point, but if you have more time, the path of least resistance would ideally be to stay in the same game and make your way towards the next boss.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(Nephalem Valor Only For Inferno?
No, it kicks in at 60. Once you hit 60 you have access to this buff regardless of difficulty. You can use it and go back to Hell to help you gear up for Inferno, absolutely.Diablo 3 Beta Screenshots
Today we have some 4 player screenshots with a lot of action! Enjoy
As far as I'm concerned, this looks satisfying. A few things, however:
-I don't think a time limit should be given with this. There are MANY things that can remove the buff. A time limit just feels completely ridiculous.
-Of course, losing it on death is more-or-less necessary without a time limit.
-I think if it doesn't stack, it kills 90% of the purpose of this buff. It should have you killing as much as possible up to a limit, where you kill a boss and get good chances for good loot. Thats how it sounds fun to me.
If it didn't stack then that means killing one pack of champions would be all you would have to do to increase your MF is very quickly (teleport, run though whatever) finding 1 champion, killing it then on to the boss making it still be a very short run defeating the purpose quoted here.
So by what the article says it almost would have to stack to make it worth it but if it stacks my idea would be it would have to reset if you go to town or change acts? If not you could go kill every champion between all acts, have it stacked to like 50 and go kill a boss getting some ridiculous drops.
And for group gameplay, would this buff average out like MF does? Or would it only affect your drops?
And since they is always 1 champion mob somewhere on a level near the boss, you'd just back up 1 waypoint. It'd almost have to stack.
My favorite solution would be to have like 15 stacks, each granting a minor % of extra MF. Killing one boss pack on your way by accident shouldn't give you any advantage, but getting all 15 should net you a considerable bonus. Like that you'd also stay in the game and run other bosses.
My point exactly. Either there'd have to be a cap or it would have to reset using waypoints or traveling to the next act.
However, some of their indecision is very worrying. I can see a few things that could really mess it up if they decide to go in that direction.
* As other people have said, if it doesn't stack it's going to turn into boss farming again. If you only need to kill 1 champion pack you'll just go straight for the boss and kill a pack on the way.
* I really think it needs to reset when you kill a boss (or change acts). Otherwise you'll hit the cap and then kill all the bosses in the game for awesome loot.
I'm excited but at the same time a bit letdown with the announcement. They didn't really tell us much to know if it'll be a good change or not.
yeah, this is what I'm saying up there ^^^^ a ways.
Any difficulty my man!
Pretty much exactly my thoughts. Except, that I think the stacks should be halved after killing a boss instead of reset. This gives incentive to staying in that game and killing the other packs/bosses instead of leaving and starting a new game to kill that same boss.
Also, 10 stacks seems a bit too excessive. I was thinking something like 5 stacks, with 6 being more likely since it can still be a whole number when halved.
I like that idea (assuming the max stack is 10). If the max stack is too low, it'll amount to just farming the other bosses and picking off 1-2 champion packs on the way to the other bosses.