Well, I have an Ivory Tower that I pick up on one of my MP5 run , so here's the stat
924 armor
14% blocking
+179 Str
+12% life
125 hp regen per second
reduce damage from melee by 4%
reduce damage from ranged by 5%
Ok that's it for an ilvl 61 shield, do you count this useful. Cause having a discussion with a bunch, this item was considered trash by many. And as the discussion goes, I realize one thing. The problem of the loot and loot drop today and likely even with 2.0 will still suffer if Blizzard do not fix the gameplay. Right now the gameplay almost center entirely on DPS, AS, LS and all gearing is towards that end. The whole experience of tactical gameplay needed to balance offensive vs defensive move is pretty much ignored. Thus effectively turning many gear to become well, trash.
What transpire to me is that, there are actually quite a bit of good drops if we take in the totality of them and their stats. But in the light of usability, because building a character with balanced offensive and defensive power as well as allowing flexibility to the character is totally eclipsed by the speed and efficiency to kill, thus the call for DPS over all thing else and the whole principle is just able to pump off as large as as possible DPS, as fast as possible, and do LS as much as possible so one can just fill the life pool in what might be 1/4 of a second.
With this it lead me to consider, even if we have loot 2.0, it will still be the same if the gameplay do not balance the various aspect of their stats. And mostly made those stat needed for them to actually game. Which ( I guess ) explain why the LS are to be nerfed ( very likely ).
And as such, I guess that also explain why some class is so monotonous in their gear choice. Some time on DiabloProgress and one can see almost all the top end player gear almost pretty much the same as to facilitate gaming at MP10 , this is the only way to go. Is this really healthy for D3, am thinking NO. The game should allow various diversity of builds and gameplay style to succeed and also making party synergy well which they are both missing.
So what's your say, and finally as for that shield, I am going to save it for the Crusader, and I've lend it to a friend on his P70+ barb to do MP10 ubers. He reflect while he's not doing as much DPS as before, he's more comfortable with the shield on as he's able to survive mobs after mobs as well as able to stand and fight with more casual pace ( much less strain is the word he puts it ) so obviously there is a use of good defensive gear as well as offensive ones. I hope Blizzard could fix the gameplay balancing and made it more complete.
You do know they are considering a more balanced approach and that LS will no longer be available or very hard to come by. LoH, regen, and damage mitigation will be much more important. This is all theory of course and no one knows what the final changes are. The early data mining of potential changes has removed all LS from Barb passives/runes, a shield like this is likely more valuable based on that one change. Items will be receiving revamping past ilvl 63.
Diablo has ALWAYS been about stacking more damage and using LS/MS to cover all other needs. The main issue is that nontraditional builds in D3 aren't as viable/fun in comparison of D2.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
In fact its much less fun than D2 and D1. I recall in D1 I can have a Rogue who do magic as significant part of her skill or having her equip a 2 hand maul and still OK to get to the bottom of it all. Its not that the alternative build cannot be made to work. Its a issue that the equipment and stats are too monotonous in their roll to facilitate adding that depth into the system right now. And I can see why Blizzard want to take away almost all LS , especially for much overpowered melee character like Monk and Barb. Or even Wizard doing face tanking. It just made no sense and pretty much kill tactical gameplay as Jay Wilson also sees it.
By forcing player to mind both the offensive and defensive part of their build as well as making the HP important ( right now anyone can just glass cannon and face tank simultaneously courtesy of LS ) would made the gaming experience much better. Of course I can see a lot of resistance to that as many now only see the ability to speed farm and number of kills as the only thing counts. And this had mitigated into the current situation regarding gears. And that need to be taken care of, Loot 2.0, crafting is only the start, the actual stat roll, and synergy to skill, team play is the 2nd, but for real the game play balancing need to reflect the change by allowing the builds to diversify into making all sort of build possible and workable instead of just oen type of it that work and everything else left in the dust.
I hate to beat a dead horse here (another 5 months and it'll be dead, anyway), but a big part of that problem of leaning more towards offense than defense, for the past 1.5 year plus, has been the Auction House. Since it's so easy to get huge DPS, and just kill kill kill, it's an obvious way to go. For players that don't use the AH, it makes a lot more sense to add in a bit more defense into one's gear and skill choices.
I understand what you're saying, though...most gear, people just look for the big stats...crit chance, crit damage, attack speed, main stat, vitality, %life, all res, things like that. However, what's happening soon will fix much of that problem:
1) With the AHs going away, upgrading will be relegated to finding one's own gear, or trading for it. Meaning, pumping up your DPS within a few minutes won't be an option any longer, and instead, in order for people to get the most out of their characters, they benefit more by looking harder at the gear and items they do pick up, and not just say, "oops, no X, garbage." And in fact, if they can't boosts their offense fast enough, but their defense goes up, that can still be deemed an upgrade.
2) This being the case, someone going on a farming run finds a piece of gear for their class that offers some INSANE bonus to a skill they've never used, they may be inspired to try it out on their skill loadout, even at the cost of a little damage, and because of how much more effective their gameplay is on the whole, even taking a small hit on damage could be seen as a huge upgade. Loot 2.0's item affixes will be a huge improvement in this area. Right now, the only way to be effective or efficient is big damage. Come Loot 2.0, other ways of playing will present themselves to make straight damage...look rather boring by comparison.
3) Finally, Paragon 2.0 will allow players to boost various stats on their own, without necessarily needing them on gear. Thus, if they're looking for gear that raises their crit chance or all res, but aren't finding it, they can use a certain character's paragon points to boost those stats that way, instead of needing it on gear alone. Thus, the gear they do find may be good or great, even if it doesn't have those stats or affixes on them immediately. But when they do find the right gear with those affixes, they get even stronger, and until they max out their paragon tabs, they can redirect paragon points elsewhere if they want.
I was going to mention aspects of D1; however the spell book mechancis is just so different than what D2 & D3 offers. Gear had less impact, e.g. a sorc could literally go into nightmare at level 1 and kill shit with fire bolt.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
Ok that's it for an ilvl 61 shield, do you count this useful. Cause having a discussion with a bunch, this item was considered trash by many. And as the discussion goes, I realize one thing. The problem of the loot and loot drop today and likely even with 2.0 will still suffer if Blizzard do not fix the gameplay. Right now the gameplay almost center entirely on DPS, AS, LS and all gearing is towards that end. The whole experience of tactical gameplay needed to balance offensive vs defensive move is pretty much ignored. Thus effectively turning many gear to become well, trash.
What transpire to me is that, there are actually quite a bit of good drops if we take in the totality of them and their stats. But in the light of usability, because building a character with balanced offensive and defensive power as well as allowing flexibility to the character is totally eclipsed by the speed and efficiency to kill, thus the call for DPS over all thing else and the whole principle is just able to pump off as large as as possible DPS, as fast as possible, and do LS as much as possible so one can just fill the life pool in what might be 1/4 of a second.
With this it lead me to consider, even if we have loot 2.0, it will still be the same if the gameplay do not balance the various aspect of their stats. And mostly made those stat needed for them to actually game. Which ( I guess ) explain why the LS are to be nerfed ( very likely ).
And as such, I guess that also explain why some class is so monotonous in their gear choice. Some time on DiabloProgress and one can see almost all the top end player gear almost pretty much the same as to facilitate gaming at MP10 , this is the only way to go. Is this really healthy for D3, am thinking NO. The game should allow various diversity of builds and gameplay style to succeed and also making party synergy well which they are both missing.
So what's your say, and finally as for that shield, I am going to save it for the Crusader, and I've lend it to a friend on his P70+ barb to do MP10 ubers. He reflect while he's not doing as much DPS as before, he's more comfortable with the shield on as he's able to survive mobs after mobs as well as able to stand and fight with more casual pace ( much less strain is the word he puts it ) so obviously there is a use of good defensive gear as well as offensive ones. I hope Blizzard could fix the gameplay balancing and made it more complete.
Diablo has ALWAYS been about stacking more damage and using LS/MS to cover all other needs. The main issue is that nontraditional builds in D3 aren't as viable/fun in comparison of D2.
By forcing player to mind both the offensive and defensive part of their build as well as making the HP important ( right now anyone can just glass cannon and face tank simultaneously courtesy of LS ) would made the gaming experience much better. Of course I can see a lot of resistance to that as many now only see the ability to speed farm and number of kills as the only thing counts. And this had mitigated into the current situation regarding gears. And that need to be taken care of, Loot 2.0, crafting is only the start, the actual stat roll, and synergy to skill, team play is the 2nd, but for real the game play balancing need to reflect the change by allowing the builds to diversify into making all sort of build possible and workable instead of just oen type of it that work and everything else left in the dust.
I understand what you're saying, though...most gear, people just look for the big stats...crit chance, crit damage, attack speed, main stat, vitality, %life, all res, things like that. However, what's happening soon will fix much of that problem:
1) With the AHs going away, upgrading will be relegated to finding one's own gear, or trading for it. Meaning, pumping up your DPS within a few minutes won't be an option any longer, and instead, in order for people to get the most out of their characters, they benefit more by looking harder at the gear and items they do pick up, and not just say, "oops, no X, garbage." And in fact, if they can't boosts their offense fast enough, but their defense goes up, that can still be deemed an upgrade.
2) This being the case, someone going on a farming run finds a piece of gear for their class that offers some INSANE bonus to a skill they've never used, they may be inspired to try it out on their skill loadout, even at the cost of a little damage, and because of how much more effective their gameplay is on the whole, even taking a small hit on damage could be seen as a huge upgade. Loot 2.0's item affixes will be a huge improvement in this area. Right now, the only way to be effective or efficient is big damage. Come Loot 2.0, other ways of playing will present themselves to make straight damage...look rather boring by comparison.
3) Finally, Paragon 2.0 will allow players to boost various stats on their own, without necessarily needing them on gear. Thus, if they're looking for gear that raises their crit chance or all res, but aren't finding it, they can use a certain character's paragon points to boost those stats that way, instead of needing it on gear alone. Thus, the gear they do find may be good or great, even if it doesn't have those stats or affixes on them immediately. But when they do find the right gear with those affixes, they get even stronger, and until they max out their paragon tabs, they can redirect paragon points elsewhere if they want.