I've used it. Maybe spent a total of 600k across all accounts. I guess I broke your reality
My main issue with posts like this is that you're pretending that the game requires an intense amount of skill and that you're in some way better than everyone else because of how you've played the game. There's nothing that you've done in this game that millions of others haven't -- you're not special.
And they are directly buffing drop rates in Inferno next patch. Then they are buffing Sets/Legendarys right after. I dont see the issue? I have yet to go a single day without finding something decent.
Don't make stuff up. Everyone playing in late inferno are using almost exclusively gear they've bought from AH.
The only thing I bought off auction house (no lie)
1x rare xbow at 825 damage @ 80k gold
1x magic bow (RMAH) at 1025 damage @ 4.33 USD
No offense, but as a DH, all you need to buy on the AH is a bow. The ease of progressing on a DH vs. a melee class is not debatable and not the purpose of this thread. What I would be interested in knowing is the quality of drops you've received while playing the game.
the way items drop will change, but the way i see, many people are taking the easier way and blame it on the game.
in my opinion it's atleast half player fault and half blizzard for let people be able to do so...
but here is my point of view:
you just got in Act I, you try to kill some stuff and you start to die.
what you would do in D2: keep going, you die but you get better and in a few hours you get upgrades.
what you do in D3 : run the AH.
I disagree. If I could have farmed hell for upgrades, I would have. But again, in my trip through Normal, Nightmare and Hell, I found a total of zero set pieces and legendaries and virtually nothing would get me through Butcher in Inferno. I needed gear from Act 2 Inferno and later to progress in Act 1 Inferno (as a Barb). The dynamic made no sense.
Still though, that's not even the biggest issue. Because even if Inferno was nerfed drastically, the problem of not finding good drops wouldn't be solved. The difference is that instead of farming Act 2 right now, I'd be farming Act 4, equally frustrated.
In a related note, I think the way Blizzard should have set it up is to make it so 99.5% of all the loot in the game could drop in Hell. Then, with Inferno, equalize the difficulty of all the acts, keep it hard, and just increase the drop chances of high-end gear and sprinkle in a few "Inferno Only" pieces. That way, people could have farmed Hell for upgrades and met the challenge of Inferno when they were ready (and had all 4 acts to choose from without any jump in difficulty). This way, people were froced to buy upgrades in the AH just to progress so they could get upgrades, haha. Makes no sense. Why would anyone farm Hell endlessly if the gear dropping in Hell won't allow them to progress into the current Inferno?
They tried the flat difficulty model and found it didn't work out how they wanted it to be. Without actually being able to try it ourselves, it is hard to say which model is better/worse. Personally, I prefer the difficulty to increase.
As for the farming hell and getting upgrades, it IS possible. I cleared act2 inferno on my barb and did a run of act3/4 in Hell to see what kind of drops would come out of it. I actually found an upgrade from act4 Hell, then I found another upgrade in a subsequent run of Act1 inferno. Is it common? Of course not. But lets not act like it is impossible.
Well, I imagine it is possible, but is it enjoyable? Even now, with Act 2 on farm, I find some elite packs that tkae me 2-3 minutes to kill. I don't enjoy the fights for two reasons: 1) Fights that long are not synonomous with hack and slash games to me; 2) I know beforehand that the result of the fight is gonig to likely be a 200 damage blue bow.
That was my point on the flat difficulty Inferno. I'd be ok with Inferno being very hard and having the option of going to any act for good rewards if there actually were rewards. I'd also have the option of farming Hell for a lesser chance at good rewards. As of now, there's virtually nothing that can drop pre-Act 2 that's an upgrade for me and the VASt majority of what does drop in act 2 I vendor (I expect that won't change in Act 3...).
People want the legendaries and set items to drop more often and you wan't them to be the best items in the game. That's pretty ridiculous.
Do legendaries need to be upgraded? Yes. I don't think they should all be made BIS items, that takes away from the randomness of the game. I think the drop rate is fine for these items as well, you want them to be rare or they are less valuable.
I think ideally legendaries and buffed to be useful with unique characteristics but if you find a perfect rare, you should be far better off. Examples of this are things like Lantern and Helm of Command; having a stat on these you can't find them anywhere else makes them very useful but there are certainly better items for those slots...
I know it sounds funny that I want the drop rate and effectiveness increased, but understand that that's accross the board, not to specific elite ones. The idea should be that middle-ground sets and legendaries are more common than they are currently, but the best of the best are just as rare as they are now. The idea should be that ideally rolled high-end legendaries are rare like they are now, but something like a random Bul Kathos Wedding Band should be relatively common. Essnetially, the goal would be for all palyers in inferno to have several legendaries and set items equipped, with both room to improve on the stats on them and room to improve to better sets and legendaries. My issue is that most players in Inferno right now are decked out in rares, which are just inherently less "fun" to pocess.
Ppl keep saying that they are "buffing" drop rates in the next patch. But can anyone with any degree of security say that they are really doing that? From what ive read blizzard has never revealed any information regarding item droprates that are in the game at the moment. How can everyone be so sure that this "buff" is really an increase and not just the opposite(with a slight tuning)?
And we have already seen the datamined drop rates, so we in fact can confirm that these are indeed "buffed".
Yes, but it's unclear if it's two seperate points. Act 1 will contain ilvl 63 drops at a small percentage, but will the percentages in all the acts increase as well? More to my point though, the drop rates on set pieces and legendaries needs to increase. No one wants to have a Diablo character in full yellow gear, they want them in full Legendary/Set gear. Those items need to be both better and more common.
It's as if the D3 devs borrowed from WoW instead of D2. A legendary should be special in WoW...it should be an everyday occurance in Diablo.
I think whenever anyone waxes poetic about Diablo 2 they should be forced to use rose colored font.
I played D2 for a little a few months back and it's jsut as addicting as it was a decade ago. Sadly, the graphics have decayed horribly with time. D2 hit the nail on the head concerning the reward/addiction dynamic. No matter how much you played, you always managed to be rewarded enoguh to feel that it was worth it. With D3, I've been playing for a month and have not gotten one "reward."
Note: I want to be clear though, I love Blizzard and this thread (and my posts) are not intended to flame them. I just feel very strongly that they made serious mistakes with this game. This is literally the first time I've been on this side of the fence concerning a Blizzard game. Every other title they've released has been virtually perfect in my eyes. If this game were any other company, I'd just quit and move on...and certainly not engage in any discussion like this. I desperately want to love Diablo 3.
the way items drop will change, but the way i see, many people are taking the easier way and blame it on the game.
in my opinion it's atleast half player fault and half blizzard for let people be able to do so...
but here is my point of view:
you just got in Act I, you try to kill some stuff and you start to die.
what you would do in D2: keep going, you die but you get better and in a few hours you get upgrades.
what you do in D3 : run the AH.
I disagree. If I could have farmed hell for upgrades, I would have. But again, in my trip through Normal, Nightmare and Hell, I found a total of zero set pieces and legendaries and virtually nothing would get me through Butcher in Inferno. I needed gear from Act 2 Inferno and later to progress in Act 1 Inferno (as a Barb). The dynamic made no sense.
Still though, that's not even the biggest issue. Because even if Inferno was nerfed drastically, the problem of not finding good drops wouldn't be solved. The difference is that instead of farming Act 2 right now, I'd be farming Act 4, equally frustrated.
In a related note, I think the way Blizzard should have set it up is to make it so 99.5% of all the loot in the game could drop in Hell. Then, with Inferno, equalize the difficulty of all the acts, keep it hard, and just increase the drop chances of high-end gear and sprinkle in a few "Inferno Only" pieces. That way, people could have farmed Hell for upgrades and met the challenge of Inferno when they were ready (and had all 4 acts to choose from without any jump in difficulty). This way, people were froced to buy upgrades in the AH just to progress so they could get upgrades, haha. Makes no sense. Why would anyone farm Hell endlessly if the gear dropping in Hell won't allow them to progress into the current Inferno?
In D2, everyone aimed for the same gear -- specific sets and uniques -- and if they didn't have the best one of the slot, they had a lesser one of the slot. Instead, in D3, we have a collection of characters in meaningless rares. When someone asks what helm I'm using, I can't say Shako and get a head nod back, instead I say: "Oh, well it's got some Strength and All Res on it...and a socket that I've gemmed with more health...it's pretty good." No one gives a crap about it, especially me. It's valueless. It's a piece of nameless garbage that I bought off the AH because it had higher numbers than the previous piece of garbage that I bought off the AH.
I understand that posting complaining topics generally means you are bad, but this is just so wrong that I feel the need to post.
Do you really think BoTD was the best weapon ? Sure shako was "BiS" for some classes, but godly rare scepters for a hdin or godly axes for a barb, godly circlets for every classes, those were the real money items. Shako was trash noob food.
You should also know that there are still uniques that are BiS in this game for pure IAS (as an example),like lacuni prowlers, andariel's visage/mempo of twilight, but I mean you don't even have a clue of what's going on in either of the games and act like you do.
Please do some research and then complain when you know the real problems.
I understand that there were perfectly rolled rares in D2 that were "BiS," that's not my point. It's the idea of the philosophy behind the gear. Shako was the perfect starter piece for a lot of classes...and yea, it was common and any serious player had several. My point is that I'd prefer a piece of gear like that than a nameless rare at the same point of accomplishment in the game.
More to the point, please calm down. My post was designed to discuss these ideas and your response is incredibly rude and needlessly aggressive.
Try using MF gear as well, my useful drop rate skyrocketed when i went from 80% mf to 239%. You just aren't farming correctly.
I've used MF gear and all it does is increase the magic/rare drops I've found, not the quality of them...it also hasn't yeilded me any set/legendaries. Even worse, while it was possible to use MF gear on Butcher runs, I can't use it on Beliel runs...unless of course I went to the AH and bought really good MF gear...
And they are directly buffing drop rates in Inferno next patch. Then they are buffing Sets/Legendarys right after. I dont see the issue? I have yet to go a single day without finding something decent.
I just don't see how that's possible. The chances of me having such bad luck or you having such good luck are dismal. You are farming Inferno and finding upgrades multiple times a day? Or do you mean that you're finding upgrades as you level through the other difficulties?
P.S. Why is your font so small? Haha.
Wierd glitch with the font....
All the way up to Inferno I have found constant upgrades, little to no issue.
In Inferno its thinner findings to be sure, but I usually find a decent weapon or shield or helm, etc. Sometimes I find really good drops for a different class, etc.
Sure, Inferno needs the boost in the next patch, no question, but it just means more swag for me....
(125% MF + 5 stacks NV)
I don't believe you, haha. I've literally found thousands of weapons in Act 1 and 2 and none of them are remotely useful due to how cheaply you can get later weapons on the AH.
What was so different in D2 that made the same basic gameplay (farm, farm and then farm some more) so much more enjoyable? Was it knowing that once you had that BiS item, that you knew you were done with that slot? Was it so you could flex your e-peen (not meaning that as an insult) to your buddies? Was it something else?
I think the big clash between Blizz and the players is that Blizz made a game wherein there is no BiS due to the fact that they aimed to have this huge number of viable builds/skills that you could interchange and still be able to progress forward. A "play as you want to play" style if you will. The problem with that, at least in my opinion, is that that isn't what today's players are looking for.
The internet databases have changed -everything-. Players can now look up every item in the game, affixes, suffixes and determine what -the- best item is for each and every slot. I'd say WoW contributed a good bit to this attitude (be it good or bad). Players aren't playing to play what they enjoy so much as playing what puts out the best dps, or can kill the quickest, or can survive X, Y, and Z situations. At it's foundation, I believe the biggest issue is the disparity between the game Blizz developed and the game the players wanted it to be.
Well, the big difference with D2 is that you were constantly finding set pieces and uniques as you leveled through the game and farmed the end game; and those pieces are virtually always better than the rare/magic counterpart. The result was a sense of accomplishment when you found one. If Windforce was the best Bow in D2, that's what you strived for as an Amazon...and you would use other Uniques, etc., as you leveled and farmed.
In D3, they increased the drop rates of rares and strongly decreased the drop rates of sets and legendaries (they also decreased the value of sets and legendaries), so the best gear in the game right now is ideally rolled ilvl 63 rares. The problem with that is rares are unique to the roll. There's no "epeen" flexing to your buddies because the piece can't be duplicated...the piece doesn't even have a name. There's a huge difference, psychologically, between quipping a D2 SoJ and a D3 rare ring that's better than the SoJ, haha.The SoJ had a status in the community, the rare ring is meaningless.
And they are directly buffing drop rates in Inferno next patch. Then they are buffing Sets/Legendarys right after. I dont see the issue? I have yet to go a single day without finding something decent.
I just don't see how that's possible. The chances of me having such bad luck or you having such good luck are dismal. You are farming Inferno and finding upgrades multiple times a day? Or do you mean that you're finding upgrades as you level through the other difficulties?
I just can't fathom being alone in this thinking, but it seems all the posts I see on all the different D3 sites revolve around RMAH, high difficulty level of Act 2+ and a million other nonsense issues. All of them seem secondary to the primary issue I'm having with the game, which is the drops.
I understood from the beginning that I would need to get to Inferno to really be able to farm good items (similar concept to getting to hell in D2), so I went through the first three difficulties on my barb, replacing gear as I went and steamrolling the content as expected.
Then I hit the brick wall that is Inferno. I soon realized that to progress in Act 1, I'd need to make some purchases at the AH -- ok, that's fine, because once I did that I'd be able to farm Act 1 Inferno for some upgrades. 50 or so Butcher runs later and I didn't get one upgrade -- even more startling, I only found one set item and one legendary (a terrible monk 2hand and an even more terrible barb belt -- both selling for less than 100k).
But that's ok, I was then informed that in order to get the best drops in the game, I needed to farm Act 2. Alright, well I certainly couldn't do that with the garbage I was vendering to Act 1, so I visited the AH again with all the money I had collected on my Butcher runs. Now I was ready for Act 2 and progress I did.
So, today, I sit here in a position where I can do endless Khulle/Beliel runs, farming the crap out of them. What have I found? Nothing...not one upgrade...hell, the only thing I've even been able to sell are Int pants for about 300k. That's it...no upgrades...no set pieces...no legendaries. Nothing.
But that's ok, right? Because now I understand that to get THE BEST gear I need to be farming Act 3 and 4. So all I have to do is save up some more gold, visit the AH, and keep on progressing.
But then what? I'm terrified of what lies around this next corner, because I'm certain I won't find the joy of D2. All I'm going to likely find is the same thing I've found in Act 1 and 2 -- garbage drops, only now with a supposedly higher chance of getting something useful...maybe.
There is absolutely no joy in farming content and getting no reward (except gold, which is constantly devaluing). And the joy of purchasing an upgrade on the AH is only a fraction of the reward that finding one is. Blizzard has crafted a game on the backs of the talented D2 Devs, but built in no reward system. It's mind blowing to me.
In D2, everyone aimed for the same gear -- specific sets and uniques -- and if they didn't have the best one of the slot, they had a lesser one of the slot. Instead, in D3, we have a collection of characters in meaningless rares. When someone asks what helm I'm using, I can't say Shako and get a head nod back, instead I say: "Oh, well it's got some Strength and All Res on it...and a socket that I've gemmed with more health...it's pretty good." No one gives a crap about it, especially me. It's valueless. It's a piece of nameless garbage that I bought off the AH because it had higher numbers than the previous piece of garbage that I bought off the AH.
We're less than a month into the game and if my character was deleted I wouldn't care. Think about how incredible that statement is?! THIS IS A DIABLO GAME! We're less than a month in and I have no addiction to it. I'm playing it because it's a Diablo game, haha.
Now, I understand the difficulty is being nerfed, the drop rates of good items will increase in Act 1, and the power of legendaries and set items will increase, but that's not enough. If 1.3 were implemented today, I'd be able to farm Beliel quicker I guess...or get through Act 3 easier...but the drop rates in those acts aren't changing! So it's still more than likely that I'll sit down to do an hour run and get nothing for it.
I've now reached a point where I'm alarmingly aware that this game is unsavable; that in spite of Blizzard's soon-to-be greatest efforts, D3 is a sinking ship.
You're missing leap(armor rune) and ignore pain. There are a couple of specs that work but personally I wouldn't do something hard without leap and ignore pain, you can chain them for nice damage reduction. Other 4 skills would be frenzy/cleave, revenge, warcry and 1 last skill of your choice. Can do WotB for the last one or something more defensive like threatening shout or charge.
In determining your skill setup, go pure defensive and then determine whether or not you can live if you replace something defensive with somethnig offensive.
I use: Frenzy (Side Arm), Leap (Iron), Ignore Pain (Ignorance), Revenge (Provocation), War Cry (Impunity) and WotB (Insanity), with Tough as Nails, Nerves of Steel and Superstition, and the logic works like this.
Single-Target: Frenzy and WotB
AOE: Revenge
Mobility: Leap
Defensive: War Cry, Ignore Pain, Tough as Nails, Nerves of Steel and Superstition (and armor from Leap and life return from revenge)
As you gain comfort with the content, you look to remove one of the defensive options in favor of an offensive option. Ideally, I'd love to sub-out Ignore Pain for Earthquake or Superstition for Beserker Rage...but I can't on progressino content.
You just need to keep improving, bud. I'm just at a point where I can comfortably farm act 2 and my stats are roughly (I'm at work):
1400 STR
1100 VIT
14k DPS
9500 Armor
800-950 All Res
53k Health
28% Block
425 Life on Hit
375 Life per Second
The best advice I could give you is to just keep increasing your STR and VIT...every opportunity you can, get those stats higher. Always keep your total numbers in scope and don't get bogged down by your individual pieces. Analyze your gear and hit the AH with 3 or so pieces and stats in mind that you want to upgrade and don't settle for something insignificant.
Last weekend I was getting raped by Sand Wasps just outside the act 2 town...as frustrating as it is to be forced to farm gold in game just so you can buy gear and turn a profit in the AH, that's the way Blizzard set it up.
Also, keep in mind, you hear people insulting the quality of the Act 1 and Act 2 drops all the time, but it's not because the drops are awful, it's because they're relatively awful. To farm Act 1, you need gear that you find in Act 2; to farm act 2, you need gear found in Act 3...in turn, the gear you find in those acts will sell for far less than the gear you need to farm those acts, haha. So yea, in Act 1, it's not crazy to find a piece you can sell for 50k...but you need gear that sells for 300k...in Act 2, you find gear that sells for 300k, but need gear that sells for 1M...
Ideally 1.3 will address the idiocy of this setup.
Edit: P.S. Bloodthirts is absolutely worthless for you with your DPS. All life steal is nerfed by 80% in inferno and you're doing no damage to begin with. For Bloodthirst to be even remotely viable, you'd need to be doing 100-150k damage. Use Superstition instead until you're more comfortable in the act.
0
100-500 Dex? Dex = Int
500+ Dex? Dex < Int
Regardless, you shouldn't be prioritizing either stat.
1
My main issue with posts like this is that you're pretending that the game requires an intense amount of skill and that you're in some way better than everyone else because of how you've played the game. There's nothing that you've done in this game that millions of others haven't -- you're not special.
I guess I broke your reality.
0
No offense, but as a DH, all you need to buy on the AH is a bow. The ease of progressing on a DH vs. a melee class is not debatable and not the purpose of this thread. What I would be interested in knowing is the quality of drops you've received while playing the game.
0
Well, I imagine it is possible, but is it enjoyable? Even now, with Act 2 on farm, I find some elite packs that tkae me 2-3 minutes to kill. I don't enjoy the fights for two reasons: 1) Fights that long are not synonomous with hack and slash games to me; 2) I know beforehand that the result of the fight is gonig to likely be a 200 damage blue bow.
That was my point on the flat difficulty Inferno. I'd be ok with Inferno being very hard and having the option of going to any act for good rewards if there actually were rewards. I'd also have the option of farming Hell for a lesser chance at good rewards. As of now, there's virtually nothing that can drop pre-Act 2 that's an upgrade for me and the VASt majority of what does drop in act 2 I vendor (I expect that won't change in Act 3...).
0
I know it sounds funny that I want the drop rate and effectiveness increased, but understand that that's accross the board, not to specific elite ones. The idea should be that middle-ground sets and legendaries are more common than they are currently, but the best of the best are just as rare as they are now. The idea should be that ideally rolled high-end legendaries are rare like they are now, but something like a random Bul Kathos Wedding Band should be relatively common. Essnetially, the goal would be for all palyers in inferno to have several legendaries and set items equipped, with both room to improve on the stats on them and room to improve to better sets and legendaries. My issue is that most players in Inferno right now are decked out in rares, which are just inherently less "fun" to pocess.
0
Yes, but it's unclear if it's two seperate points. Act 1 will contain ilvl 63 drops at a small percentage, but will the percentages in all the acts increase as well? More to my point though, the drop rates on set pieces and legendaries needs to increase. No one wants to have a Diablo character in full yellow gear, they want them in full Legendary/Set gear. Those items need to be both better and more common.
It's as if the D3 devs borrowed from WoW instead of D2. A legendary should be special in WoW...it should be an everyday occurance in Diablo.
0
I played D2 for a little a few months back and it's jsut as addicting as it was a decade ago. Sadly, the graphics have decayed horribly with time. D2 hit the nail on the head concerning the reward/addiction dynamic. No matter how much you played, you always managed to be rewarded enoguh to feel that it was worth it. With D3, I've been playing for a month and have not gotten one "reward."
Note: I want to be clear though, I love Blizzard and this thread (and my posts) are not intended to flame them. I just feel very strongly that they made serious mistakes with this game. This is literally the first time I've been on this side of the fence concerning a Blizzard game. Every other title they've released has been virtually perfect in my eyes. If this game were any other company, I'd just quit and move on...and certainly not engage in any discussion like this. I desperately want to love Diablo 3.
0
I disagree. If I could have farmed hell for upgrades, I would have. But again, in my trip through Normal, Nightmare and Hell, I found a total of zero set pieces and legendaries and virtually nothing would get me through Butcher in Inferno. I needed gear from Act 2 Inferno and later to progress in Act 1 Inferno (as a Barb). The dynamic made no sense.
Still though, that's not even the biggest issue. Because even if Inferno was nerfed drastically, the problem of not finding good drops wouldn't be solved. The difference is that instead of farming Act 2 right now, I'd be farming Act 4, equally frustrated.
In a related note, I think the way Blizzard should have set it up is to make it so 99.5% of all the loot in the game could drop in Hell. Then, with Inferno, equalize the difficulty of all the acts, keep it hard, and just increase the drop chances of high-end gear and sprinkle in a few "Inferno Only" pieces. That way, people could have farmed Hell for upgrades and met the challenge of Inferno when they were ready (and had all 4 acts to choose from without any jump in difficulty). This way, people were froced to buy upgrades in the AH just to progress so they could get upgrades, haha. Makes no sense. Why would anyone farm Hell endlessly if the gear dropping in Hell won't allow them to progress into the current Inferno?
0
I understand that there were perfectly rolled rares in D2 that were "BiS," that's not my point. It's the idea of the philosophy behind the gear. Shako was the perfect starter piece for a lot of classes...and yea, it was common and any serious player had several. My point is that I'd prefer a piece of gear like that than a nameless rare at the same point of accomplishment in the game.
More to the point, please calm down. My post was designed to discuss these ideas and your response is incredibly rude and needlessly aggressive.
0
I've used MF gear and all it does is increase the magic/rare drops I've found, not the quality of them...it also hasn't yeilded me any set/legendaries. Even worse, while it was possible to use MF gear on Butcher runs, I can't use it on Beliel runs...unless of course I went to the AH and bought really good MF gear...
I don't believe you, haha. I've literally found thousands of weapons in Act 1 and 2 and none of them are remotely useful due to how cheaply you can get later weapons on the AH.
0
Well, the big difference with D2 is that you were constantly finding set pieces and uniques as you leveled through the game and farmed the end game; and those pieces are virtually always better than the rare/magic counterpart. The result was a sense of accomplishment when you found one. If Windforce was the best Bow in D2, that's what you strived for as an Amazon...and you would use other Uniques, etc., as you leveled and farmed.
In D3, they increased the drop rates of rares and strongly decreased the drop rates of sets and legendaries (they also decreased the value of sets and legendaries), so the best gear in the game right now is ideally rolled ilvl 63 rares. The problem with that is rares are unique to the roll. There's no "epeen" flexing to your buddies because the piece can't be duplicated...the piece doesn't even have a name. There's a huge difference, psychologically, between quipping a D2 SoJ and a D3 rare ring that's better than the SoJ, haha.The SoJ had a status in the community, the rare ring is meaningless.
0
I just don't see how that's possible. The chances of me having such bad luck or you having such good luck are dismal. You are farming Inferno and finding upgrades multiple times a day? Or do you mean that you're finding upgrades as you level through the other difficulties?
P.S. Why is your font so small? Haha.
1
I understood from the beginning that I would need to get to Inferno to really be able to farm good items (similar concept to getting to hell in D2), so I went through the first three difficulties on my barb, replacing gear as I went and steamrolling the content as expected.
Then I hit the brick wall that is Inferno. I soon realized that to progress in Act 1, I'd need to make some purchases at the AH -- ok, that's fine, because once I did that I'd be able to farm Act 1 Inferno for some upgrades. 50 or so Butcher runs later and I didn't get one upgrade -- even more startling, I only found one set item and one legendary (a terrible monk 2hand and an even more terrible barb belt -- both selling for less than 100k).
But that's ok, I was then informed that in order to get the best drops in the game, I needed to farm Act 2. Alright, well I certainly couldn't do that with the garbage I was vendering to Act 1, so I visited the AH again with all the money I had collected on my Butcher runs. Now I was ready for Act 2 and progress I did.
So, today, I sit here in a position where I can do endless Khulle/Beliel runs, farming the crap out of them. What have I found? Nothing...not one upgrade...hell, the only thing I've even been able to sell are Int pants for about 300k. That's it...no upgrades...no set pieces...no legendaries. Nothing.
But that's ok, right? Because now I understand that to get THE BEST gear I need to be farming Act 3 and 4. So all I have to do is save up some more gold, visit the AH, and keep on progressing.
But then what? I'm terrified of what lies around this next corner, because I'm certain I won't find the joy of D2. All I'm going to likely find is the same thing I've found in Act 1 and 2 -- garbage drops, only now with a supposedly higher chance of getting something useful...maybe.
There is absolutely no joy in farming content and getting no reward (except gold, which is constantly devaluing). And the joy of purchasing an upgrade on the AH is only a fraction of the reward that finding one is. Blizzard has crafted a game on the backs of the talented D2 Devs, but built in no reward system. It's mind blowing to me.
In D2, everyone aimed for the same gear -- specific sets and uniques -- and if they didn't have the best one of the slot, they had a lesser one of the slot. Instead, in D3, we have a collection of characters in meaningless rares. When someone asks what helm I'm using, I can't say Shako and get a head nod back, instead I say: "Oh, well it's got some Strength and All Res on it...and a socket that I've gemmed with more health...it's pretty good." No one gives a crap about it, especially me. It's valueless. It's a piece of nameless garbage that I bought off the AH because it had higher numbers than the previous piece of garbage that I bought off the AH.
We're less than a month into the game and if my character was deleted I wouldn't care. Think about how incredible that statement is?! THIS IS A DIABLO GAME! We're less than a month in and I have no addiction to it. I'm playing it because it's a Diablo game, haha.
Now, I understand the difficulty is being nerfed, the drop rates of good items will increase in Act 1, and the power of legendaries and set items will increase, but that's not enough. If 1.3 were implemented today, I'd be able to farm Beliel quicker I guess...or get through Act 3 easier...but the drop rates in those acts aren't changing! So it's still more than likely that I'll sit down to do an hour run and get nothing for it.
I've now reached a point where I'm alarmingly aware that this game is unsavable; that in spite of Blizzard's soon-to-be greatest efforts, D3 is a sinking ship.
It's more than discouraging; it's heart-breaking.
0
In determining your skill setup, go pure defensive and then determine whether or not you can live if you replace something defensive with somethnig offensive.
I use: Frenzy (Side Arm), Leap (Iron), Ignore Pain (Ignorance), Revenge (Provocation), War Cry (Impunity) and WotB (Insanity), with Tough as Nails, Nerves of Steel and Superstition, and the logic works like this.
Single-Target: Frenzy and WotB
AOE: Revenge
Mobility: Leap
Defensive: War Cry, Ignore Pain, Tough as Nails, Nerves of Steel and Superstition (and armor from Leap and life return from revenge)
As you gain comfort with the content, you look to remove one of the defensive options in favor of an offensive option. Ideally, I'd love to sub-out Ignore Pain for Earthquake or Superstition for Beserker Rage...but I can't on progressino content.
0
You just need to keep improving, bud. I'm just at a point where I can comfortably farm act 2 and my stats are roughly (I'm at work):
1400 STR
1100 VIT
14k DPS
9500 Armor
800-950 All Res
53k Health
28% Block
425 Life on Hit
375 Life per Second
The best advice I could give you is to just keep increasing your STR and VIT...every opportunity you can, get those stats higher. Always keep your total numbers in scope and don't get bogged down by your individual pieces. Analyze your gear and hit the AH with 3 or so pieces and stats in mind that you want to upgrade and don't settle for something insignificant.
Last weekend I was getting raped by Sand Wasps just outside the act 2 town...as frustrating as it is to be forced to farm gold in game just so you can buy gear and turn a profit in the AH, that's the way Blizzard set it up.
Also, keep in mind, you hear people insulting the quality of the Act 1 and Act 2 drops all the time, but it's not because the drops are awful, it's because they're relatively awful. To farm Act 1, you need gear that you find in Act 2; to farm act 2, you need gear found in Act 3...in turn, the gear you find in those acts will sell for far less than the gear you need to farm those acts, haha. So yea, in Act 1, it's not crazy to find a piece you can sell for 50k...but you need gear that sells for 300k...in Act 2, you find gear that sells for 300k, but need gear that sells for 1M...
Ideally 1.3 will address the idiocy of this setup.
Edit: P.S. Bloodthirts is absolutely worthless for you with your DPS. All life steal is nerfed by 80% in inferno and you're doing no damage to begin with. For Bloodthirst to be even remotely viable, you'd need to be doing 100-150k damage. Use Superstition instead until you're more comfortable in the act.