So whats everyone's thoughts on the latest PTR/Beta?
I've been enjoying playing my wizard again as frost. I've switched up skills and everything seems to go together well. The past two days I've played for one hour stretches off and on in act 1. The doubled drop rate is nice and it feels about right. When I heard they doubled it I kind of worried that it would be raining legendary items, but I've found one legendary item every run which seems like a sweet spot. This is playing for about 1 to 2 hours at a time. I've found an upgrade and a few side grades that I know I would use if I had access to the mystic.
The density in act 1 is a lot better too. There are a few areas were a little empty, but over all its pretty great. It felt like a steady flow of monsters until the areas were clear and I was searching for the last few mobs to kill.
The rare drops are kind of meh. There are so many items that roll the lower level req so its pretty annoying. Crafting is a waste of time on the PTR since every item I tried to craft rolled the exact same affixs. I'm thinking it might be a bug. The smart drop system isn't awful. I've had mostly int drops, and a lot of one handed crossbows. Its kind of nice being able to focus on upgrading the character I'm playing.
I'm only on the PTR, so I was wondering what other's experiences were like on the PTR/Beta. Thoughts? Complaints?
I'm really enjoying the PTR, so much so that I can't play live anymore.
The best part is easily the wizard skill revisions. It's really fun to be able to choose skills to make a particular elemental theme, without eliminating the ability to mix and match however you choose if you don't care about theme. This is something I'd really like to see extended to other classes - their skill revisions are also a lot of fun, but there aren't as many thematic options, as they usually only have a handful of elements. Maybe they could implement different schools of physical damage? I don't know.
I also think the leveling-up experience is much much better thanks to the dynamic difficulty system. It almost gives you too much control over the experience, to the point that I don't really feel like I'm overcoming anything, but I like it much better than having to play through Normal and Nightmare just to get to a mildly engaging difficulty.
The only real complaints I have about it is the fact that I'm having trouble finding upgrades for my existing level 60's. A lot of gear has great primary stat boosts, but it always costs a ton of crit - which I get they are trying to lower, but it's a total impasse for characters that already have a lot. My barbarian is only MP2/MP3 geared, so I was kind-of expecting to keep finding upgrades for a while yet.
The lower level requirement thing, in case you aren't aware (I'm not going to assume either way), is a known bug. I want to say I read something to that effect, it was kind of a buried blue post. I believe they're looking to fix it in the next patch...
Anyway, overall, I'm having an insane amount of fun on the PTR. It's not Reaper of Souls, but it's still really awesome working with the updated skills. I originally started D3 with a Wizard but since moved to a Monk as kind of my main character. Seriously...I'm having a hard time finding builds that don't work. Even with gear that isn't super synergized.
The new passives show tons of promise. Love all the elemental additions to some of the skills, like...making a Cold Monk. Not even feasible in the live game, but definitely a build style in the expansion. Another thing I love is the increased shield that Mantra of Healing grants. Combined with Chant of Resonance, that now reduces the Spirit cost of Mantra Active effects, and enough Life Regen, I can use Mantra of Healing as a slow type of life restoration method. Also, I can combine Mantra of Healing's shield with Guiding Light when low on life for a pretty sweet damage buff that I'm pretty sure spreads to allies. And that's not even mentioning how they changed Dashing Strike to be really effective as a fantastic escape skill, but also has one or two really decent damage runes. Oh, and Hand of Ytar getting a major buff was fantastic as well. I've been dying to make a build around that, and I'm glad it's finally doable in the expansion. Looking to put together a long distance build using that, maybe Explosive Light and a few others. Definitely excited.
As for legendaries, I agree, I haven't been rained on, but a little bit more has helped, certainly. I found a Dovu Energy Trap amulet that increases Stun Durations. I found the Barter Town Pads shoulders that supposedly make casting Town Portal uninterruptible, but when I tried it, it didn't work. Maybe they deactivated it (temporarily)? My Monk's also wearing a Band of Hollow Whispers that randomly Haunts enemies. Proc is pretty strong, too. Oh, and my Demon Hunter got a high level Balefire Caster that was more powerful than my live game Windforce...as well as a Bombadier's Rucksack quiver that allows me to summon 2 additional Sentires. Put together with Custom Engineering and Ballistics? SWEET!
Not to mention the Nemesis Bracers, that summon an elite pack when activating shrines. Very fun to keep the battles nonstop.
Density...a lot of people have complained about it since the PTR started, but my thought is...even when not calculating in elites I summon with the Nemesis Bracers, I feel like I've been tripping over elite packs. Which honestly, I'd rather have that than denser groups of white mobs...but I did read that they "adjusted" Act 1 density...could just be an illusion but I do feel it's been upped slightly and that's nice.
QoL wise...even without Adventure Mode, jumping around using the region map, and not being required to hit a Waypoint to travel is SOOOOO nice. Especially in bigger towns like New Tristram. When I'm done with whatever, all I need to do is teleport to the Waypoint instead of walking all the way to the New Tristram Waypoint. Paragon Points are also really fun to play with. It should probably have some kind of cost to respec it, but they'll have to think about how to do that right...too little, respecing becomes trivial...too much, and it becomes too heavy a chore. I do think it should cost gold, though. I find I'm mostly salvaging loot so I can craft more, and not vending as many items, and since gold isn't as easy to come by, it's the best thing to use, in my opinion.
I think the only thing I can complain about is how Smart Drops effect legendaries. I really like Smart Drops, and think it's a healthy change to make boring affixes like mainstat and vitality easy to get...items are then made special based on the other stats they have, not to mention it reduces guilt enchanting those stats off of gear knowing they'll just pop up again easily. But here's an example of what I mean...
This is what the Storm Crow looks like on the live game. Lightning Damage, +90-100 to all attributes, Life on Hit, Arcane Power on Crit, +damage to elites, a fireball proc and one random property...this combo of things made the Storm Crow special, desirable. However, this one time, someone linked a Storm Crow they found on the PTR and all it had on it was Intelligence, Vitality, and maybe a couple other standard things. It looked pretty generic. I'm not saying this as an argument against Smart Drops, but I try to imagine if that Storm Crow had the same affixes as the live game, but with expansion quality numbers. That'd be a pretty impressive Wizard Hat. I suppose the other side of the coin could be that by removing the ability for the Storm Crow to have all those specific things, maybe it's preventing the item from being BiS? I can't test the Mystic, but maybe it's possible that that Storm Crow can have the original Storm Crow's affixes from the live game enchanted onto it? It'd add an extra step to making it a great item, but at least it'd be something.
All in all, though, love how the game's turning out and changing, and like the direction it's going in.
I've only had the PTR as well but yea I have had similar experiences. Getting a legendary every 1 to 3 hours is nice but does not feel overblown Not to many upgrades even for someone who really is not heavily built for more than MP3 but I have found 3. Density is way up from where it started and thats nice. Honestly the rares are better then what I had for a lot of my characters again this is due to me having not so powerful equipment though. Then again a re-roll away might have made the difference.
I like the smart rolls I have been getting, its a nice tune and for every 20 items I find with my INT I get a str or dex item as well so it helps.
. Getting a legendary every 1 to 3 hours is nice but does not feel overblown Not to many upgrades even for someone who really is not heavily built for more than MP3 but I have found 3.
Curious what difficulty you're playing on? My MP2/3 barb is pretty slow in Torment I. 90K DPS but using Skorn, so very slow.
. Getting a legendary every 1 to 3 hours is nice but does not feel overblown Not to many upgrades even for someone who really is not heavily built for more than MP3 but I have found 3.
Curious what difficulty you're playing on? My MP2/3 barb is pretty slow in Torment I. 90K DPS but using Skorn, so very slow.
Ive been playing on Torment 1 with my wizard. He has 210k dps. Torment 2 is doable but on the slower side, while torment 1 is a breeze.
If you have some decent rares already (archon patterns) rares that drop are pretty meh. I think one of the only complaints I have is I wish there was a little bit more loot dropping. I miss having the floor covered with items.
Just a day or so ago, I started a new Demon Hunter on the PTR. I must admit, I haven't had this much fun since the game first launched. Granted, I'm only only lvl 44 and I've only played on normal. But this is the first time I've actually looked at loot or cared what dropped. The only disappointment has been that 5 out of my 8 or so legendaries have been rings or amulets. I also found the same boots twice, just on different levels.
The buff to legendary drop rates was major. It helped fix that feeling of "why the fuck am I killing things?" that I previously had. Now I do feel that loot might be around any corner, and that's exactly how everyone should feel in this genre.
I'm still not thrilled with the overemphasis on +15% damage to <skill> mods on rares, though. I don't think it's added to itemization in any meaningful manner. I think all it has done is created properties which are found frequently, but rarely match up with the skills you're using... so it becomes an "enchant it or scrap it" situation.
The buff to legendary drop rates was major. It helped fix that feeling of "why the fuck am I killing things?" that I previously had. Now I do feel that loot might be around any corner, and that's exactly how everyone should feel in this genre.
I'm still not thrilled with the overemphasis on +15% damage to <skill> mods on rares, though. I don't think it's added to itemization in any meaningful manner. I think all it has done is created properties which are found frequently, but rarely match up with the skills you're using... so it becomes an "enchant it or scrap it" situation.
Yeah I keep finding ones that are like +12% to blizzard damage, which I would love to use, but the other stats on the item aren't great so I end up salvaging them. It seems to me that without the mystic rare items become pretty much useless. I'm sure it that feeling will change when crafting is fixed
I kind of miss the star on the map when a legendary item drops and the label for gold on the ground.
Because we can't try adventure mode and can only grind in vanilla areas, the PTR is fairly boring and I can never stand to play it for more than an hour at a time.So far I'd say I've clocked in maybe 25-30 hours on farming alone and have found exactly four legendaries, which is lower than I think it should be, and only one of the four actually had an interesting effect.
I really love this amulet. Not only does it increase my dps in an unconventional way, but I even saw my clones use Black Hole a few times. When I handed this amulet over to my barb friend whom was in game with me, his clones sometimes used Avalanche. The clones seriously packed a punch and could even kill trash mobs completely on their own.
Recently I've spent more time in the brawling grounds with my friends trying every single rune for every single skill on all five classes to see any changes as well as new synergies, and to be honest I've had more fun with that. I love the new items, new skills, and I look forward to adventure mode, but on the PTR it just takes too many hours of vanilla style farming to get a good legendary, even after the drop rates were increased, for it to feel worth it. Lets not forget that what we have on the PTR will eventually be deleted anyways.
I've been using the Furnance to farm T6 Ghom on the PTR. Did it for 4 hours yesterday and found 11 legendaries.
But outside of that I usually run t2 to t3 to farm normally and with the doubled rates I'm getting about 1 leg an hour or an hour and half which is a good rate.
Needless to say with all the time I've spent on the PTR, I'm having a lot of fun with it.
That's about the same rate I'm getting aspect farming T2, I just can't stand to do it for much more than an hour. It's cool to see the new items, but I think most of the broken stuff is well known by now. It's up to Blizz to fix stuff at this point, then I'll go back to testing more.
The buff to legendary drop rates was major. It helped fix that feeling of "why the fuck am I killing things?" that I previously had. Now I do feel that loot might be around any corner, and that's exactly how everyone should feel in this genre.
I'm still not thrilled with the overemphasis on +15% damage to <skill> mods on rares, though. I don't think it's added to itemization in any meaningful manner. I think all it has done is created properties which are found frequently, but rarely match up with the skills you're using... so it becomes an "enchant it or scrap it" situation.
I think these affixes will result in more novelty if not necessarily more utility. Also, I really like it when I find them for primary attacks because I feel like primaries don't do enough damage.
So whats everyone's thoughts on the latest PTR/Beta?
I've been enjoying playing my wizard again as frost. I've switched up skills and everything seems to go together well. The past two days I've played for one hour stretches off and on in act 1. The doubled drop rate is nice and it feels about right. When I heard they doubled it I kind of worried that it would be raining legendary items, but I've found one legendary item every run which seems like a sweet spot. This is playing for about 1 to 2 hours at a time. I've found an upgrade and a few side grades that I know I would use if I had access to the mystic.
The density in act 1 is a lot better too. There are a few areas were a little empty, but over all its pretty great. It felt like a steady flow of monsters until the areas were clear and I was searching for the last few mobs to kill.
The rare drops are kind of meh. There are so many items that roll the lower level req so its pretty annoying. Crafting is a waste of time on the PTR since every item I tried to craft rolled the exact same affixs. I'm thinking it might be a bug. The smart drop system isn't awful. I've had mostly int drops, and a lot of one handed crossbows. Its kind of nice being able to focus on upgrading the character I'm playing.
I'm only on the PTR, so I was wondering what other's experiences were like on the PTR/Beta. Thoughts? Complaints?
The lower level requirement thing, in case you aren't aware (I'm not going to assume either way), is a known bug. I want to say I read something to that effect, it was kind of a buried blue post. I believe they're looking to fix it in the next patch...
Anyway, overall, I'm having an insane amount of fun on the PTR. It's not Reaper of Souls, but it's still really awesome working with the updated skills. I originally started D3 with a Wizard but since moved to a Monk as kind of my main character. Seriously...I'm having a hard time finding builds that don't work. Even with gear that isn't super synergized.
The new passives show tons of promise. Love all the elemental additions to some of the skills, like...making a Cold Monk. Not even feasible in the live game, but definitely a build style in the expansion. Another thing I love is the increased shield that Mantra of Healing grants. Combined with Chant of Resonance, that now reduces the Spirit cost of Mantra Active effects, and enough Life Regen, I can use Mantra of Healing as a slow type of life restoration method. Also, I can combine Mantra of Healing's shield with Guiding Light when low on life for a pretty sweet damage buff that I'm pretty sure spreads to allies. And that's not even mentioning how they changed Dashing Strike to be really effective as a fantastic escape skill, but also has one or two really decent damage runes. Oh, and Hand of Ytar getting a major buff was fantastic as well. I've been dying to make a build around that, and I'm glad it's finally doable in the expansion. Looking to put together a long distance build using that, maybe Explosive Light and a few others. Definitely excited.
As for legendaries, I agree, I haven't been rained on, but a little bit more has helped, certainly. I found a Dovu Energy Trap amulet that increases Stun Durations. I found the Barter Town Pads shoulders that supposedly make casting Town Portal uninterruptible, but when I tried it, it didn't work. Maybe they deactivated it (temporarily)? My Monk's also wearing a Band of Hollow Whispers that randomly Haunts enemies. Proc is pretty strong, too. Oh, and my Demon Hunter got a high level Balefire Caster that was more powerful than my live game Windforce...as well as a Bombadier's Rucksack quiver that allows me to summon 2 additional Sentires. Put together with Custom Engineering and Ballistics? SWEET!
Not to mention the Nemesis Bracers, that summon an elite pack when activating shrines. Very fun to keep the battles nonstop.
Density...a lot of people have complained about it since the PTR started, but my thought is...even when not calculating in elites I summon with the Nemesis Bracers, I feel like I've been tripping over elite packs. Which honestly, I'd rather have that than denser groups of white mobs...but I did read that they "adjusted" Act 1 density...could just be an illusion but I do feel it's been upped slightly and that's nice.
QoL wise...even without Adventure Mode, jumping around using the region map, and not being required to hit a Waypoint to travel is SOOOOO nice. Especially in bigger towns like New Tristram. When I'm done with whatever, all I need to do is teleport to the Waypoint instead of walking all the way to the New Tristram Waypoint. Paragon Points are also really fun to play with. It should probably have some kind of cost to respec it, but they'll have to think about how to do that right...too little, respecing becomes trivial...too much, and it becomes too heavy a chore. I do think it should cost gold, though. I find I'm mostly salvaging loot so I can craft more, and not vending as many items, and since gold isn't as easy to come by, it's the best thing to use, in my opinion.
I think the only thing I can complain about is how Smart Drops effect legendaries. I really like Smart Drops, and think it's a healthy change to make boring affixes like mainstat and vitality easy to get...items are then made special based on the other stats they have, not to mention it reduces guilt enchanting those stats off of gear knowing they'll just pop up again easily. But here's an example of what I mean...
This is what the Storm Crow looks like on the live game. Lightning Damage, +90-100 to all attributes, Life on Hit, Arcane Power on Crit, +damage to elites, a fireball proc and one random property...this combo of things made the Storm Crow special, desirable. However, this one time, someone linked a Storm Crow they found on the PTR and all it had on it was Intelligence, Vitality, and maybe a couple other standard things. It looked pretty generic. I'm not saying this as an argument against Smart Drops, but I try to imagine if that Storm Crow had the same affixes as the live game, but with expansion quality numbers. That'd be a pretty impressive Wizard Hat. I suppose the other side of the coin could be that by removing the ability for the Storm Crow to have all those specific things, maybe it's preventing the item from being BiS? I can't test the Mystic, but maybe it's possible that that Storm Crow can have the original Storm Crow's affixes from the live game enchanted onto it? It'd add an extra step to making it a great item, but at least it'd be something.
All in all, though, love how the game's turning out and changing, and like the direction it's going in.
I've only had the PTR as well but yea I have had similar experiences. Getting a legendary every 1 to 3 hours is nice but does not feel overblown Not to many upgrades even for someone who really is not heavily built for more than MP3 but I have found 3. Density is way up from where it started and thats nice. Honestly the rares are better then what I had for a lot of my characters again this is due to me having not so powerful equipment though. Then again a re-roll away might have made the difference.
I like the smart rolls I have been getting, its a nice tune and for every 20 items I find with my INT I get a str or dex item as well so it helps.
Just a day or so ago, I started a new Demon Hunter on the PTR. I must admit, I haven't had this much fun since the game first launched. Granted, I'm only only lvl 44 and I've only played on normal. But this is the first time I've actually looked at loot or cared what dropped. The only disappointment has been that 5 out of my 8 or so legendaries have been rings or amulets. I also found the same boots twice, just on different levels.
The buff to legendary drop rates was major. It helped fix that feeling of "why the fuck am I killing things?" that I previously had. Now I do feel that loot might be around any corner, and that's exactly how everyone should feel in this genre.
I'm still not thrilled with the overemphasis on +15% damage to <skill> mods on rares, though. I don't think it's added to itemization in any meaningful manner. I think all it has done is created properties which are found frequently, but rarely match up with the skills you're using... so it becomes an "enchant it or scrap it" situation.
Because we can't try adventure mode and can only grind in vanilla areas, the PTR is fairly boring and I can never stand to play it for more than an hour at a time.So far I'd say I've clocked in maybe 25-30 hours on farming alone and have found exactly four legendaries, which is lower than I think it should be, and only one of the four actually had an interesting effect.
I really love this amulet. Not only does it increase my dps in an unconventional way, but I even saw my clones use Black Hole a few times. When I handed this amulet over to my barb friend whom was in game with me, his clones sometimes used Avalanche. The clones seriously packed a punch and could even kill trash mobs completely on their own.
Recently I've spent more time in the brawling grounds with my friends trying every single rune for every single skill on all five classes to see any changes as well as new synergies, and to be honest I've had more fun with that. I love the new items, new skills, and I look forward to adventure mode, but on the PTR it just takes too many hours of vanilla style farming to get a good legendary, even after the drop rates were increased, for it to feel worth it. Lets not forget that what we have on the PTR will eventually be deleted anyways.
I've been using the Furnance to farm T6 Ghom on the PTR. Did it for 4 hours yesterday and found 11 legendaries.
But outside of that I usually run t2 to t3 to farm normally and with the doubled rates I'm getting about 1 leg an hour or an hour and half which is a good rate.
Needless to say with all the time I've spent on the PTR, I'm having a lot of fun with it.
That's about the same rate I'm getting aspect farming T2, I just can't stand to do it for much more than an hour. It's cool to see the new items, but I think most of the broken stuff is well known by now. It's up to Blizz to fix stuff at this point, then I'll go back to testing more.
I actually don't bother with T1 and just do master. Its fast enough that I get more runs in to offset the less drop rate
Anyone know the benefits of playing on higher torment levels? Currently the tool tip stays at zero when you slide it.