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FoS means absolutly nothing, except what they say. This player was a beta tester. It's no way a matter for merit.

Overall I think there are four main "paradigm" for the monk survivability boost which one with it's own strengths and weakness.

Dodge: The Monk has several ways to boosts his Dodge. It works almost like common Armor once in Diablo 3 Dodge works normaly against magical attacks. The real difference is that dodge has inherent variability. Take for exemple an Barbarian with 50% damage reduction from Armor and an monk with 50% Dodge. In terms of expected damage taken both classes are equal. however the barbarian allways take half the monster's damage while the monk ignore the damage 1/2 of the time and take the full damage in the other cases.
This is really important difference in terms of gameplay. The "dodge monk" health bar will be really volatile: it stays full until it suddenly drops while the Barbarian's one drops more constantly. This volatility are dangerous: you have less time to drink potions, grab health globes and use defensive abilities. Also some hits that can be endure after the damage reduction but not without it will allways be handled by the barbarian but the monk has a set chance to simply die.
However volatility have it's advantages too. Against really, really strong attacks a small chance to ignore is better then anything. Imagine an attack that will kill the barbarian even after the 50% damage reduction - the barbarian will allways die from that blow. But the monk still have 50% chance to survive, no matter how strong the attack is.
Since the first is much more common then the later I think pure damage reduction is better choice overall despite the small advantages of dogde. However dodge has the advantage of beign associated with offensive stats: (1) increasing dodge via DEX also gives your %damage; (2) you can increase dodge by stacking critical hit chance and picking the Sixth Sense passive; (3) the Backlash rune in Mantra of Evasion. For an pratical view of what I'm saying play Path of Exile.
Because of that I picture the "dodge monk" being somewhat an balance character: stacking huge amounts of DEX and/or CHC and getting survivability while doing so.

Damage Reduction: Concusion Creepling Wave + Resolve = 52% damage reduction debuff. Thats freaking huge number for something you get with one active, one rune and one passive. This is far better then the individual benefict you get via Dodge (comparing 1 passive + 1 rune + 1 active skill). And as I argued before, damage reduction has no variability.
This combo has severe limitation through. You have to debuff enemies which means you have to attack first. As long as you have a fast weapon I think you can ensure the debuff against melee enemies but the problem persist against bosses (wich you can't face all the time) and ranged monsters.
An alternative damage reduction combo is Slipstream Tempest Rush + Resolve. This combo gives you 43.75% damage reduction against monsters that you attack first and 25% against all other monsters as long as you channel tempest rush. This might be an good alternative to reach and kill ranged enemies.
Damage Reduction has greater values and no variability but you need to play in very specific way in order to pull out your debuffs and might have hard time against bosses's special attacks.

Heal:

Mobility:

Later i finiush my post...

If buying ammo and feeding pets is your vision of dificulty I hope D3 is very easy.

Imo that rune does not work as you put it.

The cooldown will trigger 1.5 seconds after you cast the first teleport no matter how much times you cast it. So if you're using 1.5 APS weapon you will cast 3 teleports in an roll and wait for 16 until cats 3 teleports in an roll again.

Thats how i see that rune. Casting unlimited amount of mobility skill is something D3 game design explicit avoid. Thats why i think this rune works that way, it more coherent with option mobility options.

This is an joke, you're ignoring resource costs, how the resource behave and the AoE/range of skills.

Cluster Arrow costs 50 hatred. A DH can only casts two. I know meteor costs 60, however Arcane Power comes back incredibly fast while hatred don't. This is also the reason why DH's hatred generators are so freaking strong, because he have to spam then much more commonly.

The same works for zombie bears. 3 zombie bears and the WD's mana is done. And his mana takes quite a while to go back. Not to mention zombie charge is a incredibly slow spell and has very short range.

If you want to compare DPS between skills of different classes, you gotta run a time similations including resource costs and regen, not simply compare DPS. In my spread sheet the character with biggest single target DPS is an wizard (ray of frost / spectral blades).

also the reason why Wiz takes 20% more time to kill leoric is because you're using Arcane Orb, an spell that is not quite good to kill bosses. Do it with ray of frost, you will see you will get even faster times then other classes.

Quote from GladHeHasBeta

Quote from italofoca

Man you must be playing with 500 ping or something. Because hitting poison darts are pretty easy, i don't know what you're talking about. Unless Inferno monsters actually attempt to EVADE your abilities like a player would normally do, your arguments holds no merit. Anyone easilly have 99% accuracy with poison darts.

again. your basing your argument off of NORMAL MODE just like him. your argument has zero merit because like i said what works in normal has nothing to do with what will work in inferno.

I'm basing my arguments on theorycrafting + normal mode experience + information available about higher difficulties including inferno. You were saying spiders beat darts because of it's better hit likelyhood but theres no reason to believe hit likelyhood will change between difficulties.
Unless you prove somehow monsters in inferno will evade your attacks like a player would normaly do, i don't think your arguments hold any truth.

when they are obviously lacking strategic analysis. yes, i highly doubt he will get anywhere close with his way of thinking and inferno will be a nice wake up call for both of you apparently.

You're the one lacking strategic analysis once you're the one not taking damage per second and spiders horrible behavior against multiple enemies in consideration while overvaluing the accuracy discrepance of two skills while one have 100% and the other have 95% or higher.
Apparently you have secret analysis methods you refuse to share and submite to judgment by the community.

They are blood vessels/orbs... there is some coagulated blood / organ vestige in the extreme parts. In an lore perpective, they are simply something that represents the fact that in sanctuary, killing heals your wounds (at least if you've nephalem powers awekened). Reading the lore background of all 4 health globes related skills gives this sort of insight:





"We are all connected in life and in death. Partake of the spirits of the dead and flourish like the jungle that grows wild after the fire." —Shadewalker Zunimassa


The Witch Doctor's one implies theres some connection between living and dead beigns. Maybe killing someone make it "release" some energy that belongs to living things and you, in your living condition, may absorb it. Taking those spirits also enhance your spiritual/mental condition, in Witch Doctor's case (that why he gets intelect bonus by grabing health globes).


"When the sky bleeds, the crops grow tall. When our enemies bleed, we grow strong." —Chant of the Harvest


The Barbarian one show much less knowlegde about this strange phenomenon, but it cleary says it happens. Killing heals and make you stronger... Chant of Harvest almost sounds like barbarians are harvests lives, not crops.


"If it bleeds you can kill it. Kill this one slowly." —Greyscarr, Veteran Demon Hunter


This Demon Hunter veteran are lecturing sadistic pratices when it's possible. Almost like you will get something back from killing.


"It just doesn't sit right with me. Some of the things these so-called wizards do... They border on necromancy. Or worse! It's just not proper magic." —Venerable Sorcerer Fob Dunar


This cleary shows wizards can DO something that is close to necromancy, at the eyes of this sorcerer. Gathering energy from the dead is what this skill do and what this Fob Dunar seens to be refering as "necromancy".

I think Health Globes 've an background, as showed by those skills. Sanctuary is a entire world made of demon-angel hybrids, each one having hidden godlike powers. Gathering lifeforce from recent killed beigns is not the stragest thing in the context of this game. If you ask me, programming an giant stone to manipulate how the entire world behaves it's far more fantastical and bizarre.

Sanctuary is a world with magic flowing in every corner, Diablo is a very fantastical story. It has some dark tones but still it's an very magical world, as much as Warcraft's Azeroth. Health Globes are certainly within context.

Man you must be playing with 500 ping or something. Because hitting poison darts are pretty easy, i don't know what you're talking about. Unless Inferno monsters actually attempt to EVADE your abilities like a player would normally do, your arguments holds no merit. Anyone easilly have 99% accuracy with poison darts.

And being "semi-homing" doesn't remotely compensates the fact that spiders have lower damage, have an delay before the damage fully triggers and the damage spread when theres multiple targets available, which is absolutly fucking horrible. The only situation were spiders are good is against bosses and against bosses Spliters Poison Darts are better in all possible ways.

Maybe for PVP leaping spiders will be good for ticking out HP with high accuracy skill. But in PvE damage and other properties counts more then hittability.

but sure man its cool ill let you think what you do and lulz when your wondering why your having so much trouble beating nightmare let alone getting close to the end-game.

Funny how you assume another player can't beat the game.

+1 rep ! Nice work ! I hope you keep on !

Just because something scale indirectly with another thing doesn't mean it doesn't scale.

Im making this a general progress thread, ill update it with anyone who wants to show their progress, this isnt a race thread of who gets the farthest first (because it will obviously be someone from asia <_<). So if you want just let post letting me know and ill add your info below and then at the end of each day ill update it accordingly.

Please post with:
1. class
2. hours played
3. difficulty or act beaten
4. death count (be honest, i thought it showed somewhere but i dont see any way to prove it as of yet, but no judgement here some of us have already died :P)


*****Screen shots will only be required for Hell completion and Inferno progression because beating nightmare is nothing to brag about. Most of us will have nightmare done by the weekend.*****




WHHB Solo Progress:

Slayerviper 2-Team Progress:


Bleu42 Solo Progress


ClassicWafflez Solo Progress


Pskfry 4-Team Progress


Italofoca HC-Solo Progress


Denkasaeba25 2-Team Progress


Caddin Solo Progress


InternetheroxD Solo Progress


TimDAMan99 Solo Progress


RaidLeadGuy Solo Progress


drclawixp Solo Progress


Kalikoojack Solo Progress

Characters: Monk - (lvl 31)
Hours Played: 11
Difficulty beaten: Normal
Death Count: 2

Hi all. I have being thinking about making this spreadsheet for a while now. Since I am planning to roll a barbarian first, hence this spreadsheet. I feel every class is so unique in their spells and runes that there needs to be a separate spreadsheet for each of them.

Now what does this spreadsheet do for you?

Well if you are a Barbarian, it does 2 things for you.

1a. You can choose your build(any 6 active skills) and the rune and it will compute the white damage range, white damage average, critical damage range, critical damage average, approximate damage, and any other damage due to extra effects from the rune for each skill. Hence it's useful for any offensive skill. For ex. if you select Ground Stomp, then it will show it does 0 MH (mainhand) and 0 OH (offhand) damage, however if you choose Ground Stomp with the rune Trembling Stomp (76% weapon damage), then it will show the amount of damage the rune would do. Here is a screenshot of it

http://img341.images....rbskilldmg.jpg

1b. You can also select your 3 passive skills and based on that your damage might change (For ex. if you have Weapons master and you are wielding a sword, then your damage will go up by 15% and so on.)

1c. Skill affixes can also be added. Though it wasn't in the beta but it has been data mined, that weapons have affixes which enhance the damage or critical chance of some barbarian skills like Bash, Cleave, Seismic Slam and so on. You can also select the skill which has an affix and mention the amount of increase in that affix.


2a. The other thing that it does, is to compare different pieces of gear in the same slot and how it affects the weapon damage and the overall DPS.

Here is a screenshot of that tab.

http://img443.images....omparisonv.jpg


So how to use the spreadsheet the first time you open it.

This is how it will look the first time you start it.

http://img52.imagesh...35/howtouse.jpg

1. The first thing that you want to do is Enable Editing and Enable Macros else it won't work.

2. Press the "Input Char. Attb." and fill up the text boxes. Make sure you read what exactly you need to fill up for Crit % and Bonus Crit Damage %. Please read #8 and #9 on that worksheet. Press Enter to update the fields on the "Barb_Skill_Damage_Calculation" and "Gear_Comparison" worksheet.

3. Now go to the "Barb_Skill_Damage_Calculation" worksheet and start playing with the different skills to see how much damage they do.

4. Check the "Gear_Comparison" worksheet to change gear and see the effect on weapon damage and DPS.

5. Any time you want to update both the stats of "Barb_Skill_Damage_Calculation" and "Gear_Comparison" at the same time, click on the "Input Char. Attb." button and fill it up. However you can also manually update each of those worksheets. (But in that case the other sheet won't be updated and you have to manually update that too.)

Things to note.

1. In the beta, some skills did damage from both MH and OH weapon (so weapon damage was calculated separately for them). Therefore, for now I have listed both MH and OH damage for every skill.

2. The damage done by the skill that is shown takes into account the fact, that the monster has 0 armor and will take the entire damage. Once I know the armor values of all the monsters and how much damage they mitigate, I will update the spreadsheet likewise.

3. This spreadsheet only cares about your damage and DPS. It doesn't list any effects that has nothing to do with damage.

Please have a look at it and let me know if you find any bugs and if you have any suggestions. I hope the spreadsheet will help Barbarians who want to seriously theory craft and min-max their gear. Here is the link for the spreadsheet

http://dl.dropbox.co...ator_v1.02.xlsm

BTW programing isn't my profession, it's just a hobby, hence to some programers the spreadsheet might not look very professional. I apologize for that.

I spent 2 weeks entering any contest i could find to get into the beta, i even altered my sleeping patterns to enter some of the overseas ones which gave me around 4 hours sleep over that time period. Not that beta access wasnt enough of a reward for my efforts, but I feel ive earnt a FoS for that...

@Sumsarr.

That has to be the worst over generalization I have seen in a long time and I edit and mark papers for a university. You neglected to even account for skill differences. Your math of "lol they have 30% that means melee wiz not possible, lol" is sad. If you actually spent the time to consider the possibilities available to the wizard, you would see that it is not as one-sided as you posted it to be.

Let's go through your invalid points chronologically.

Nerfing Weapon Throw. This was made because the amount of damage possible (if you even attempted to try napkin math here, you'd see) was extremely high. They reduced the %weapon damage on almost all of the Barbarian's abilities, including weapon throw. I hardly see your case for there being no more throw barbarians.

Removing fundamentals. Again, not a very good argument. There are plenty of ways to play a melee DH. What is even more, we do not even know the itemization of D3 yet. A lot of builds that were viable in D2 only became viable because of the items. Quite a short sighted and thought lacking point.

Removing virtuoso = You want a wizard to only use their wands? I do not understand your point. This point made me think that you just want to play random and weird builds for no good apparent reason. While that is your prerogative you cannot expect every single off-shot build you come up with to be optimal or even efficient in killing the minions of D3.

Chakram nerf. So, your point about build diversity and viability loses me here. You think ONE skill should determine the viability of an entire subsection of a type of DH? Sounds like you're contradicting yourself here. A nerf to chakram, if we're following your logic, does not mean a nerf to all melee DHs, just one of the melee DHs YOU want to play.

I've already touched on the 30% thing, but to reiterate, what? The skill sets and rune choices of the other classes allow for similar mitigation. At a dps cost? Perhaps, but if you were to check any of the 'melee' abilities of those non-stereotypically melee classes, you would notice that the spells have a higher base damage anyways. I don't think you've even tried to think about this issue. Makes me sad.

Quote from moomoo

Yea, I trust them. It's time to innovate anyway. I really don't want this game to be identical to D3.

I'm pretty sure it will be identical to D3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoTc5BgvmhQ

A comparison and evolution look at different types of monsters in Diablo 2 & Diablo 3. Keep in mind, we only have access to just part of Act 1 with the Diablo 3 beta ... with the exception of the leaked area. When the game releases there might be more monsters like those in Diablo 2, or the evolved version.

Thanks for the kind words everyone!! Nice to know that some people are digging the Dyes I'll be working on them this weekend (time permitting lol.) As I mentioned above, I'll put together a little site that features all of these once I'm done.

What can we learn from Apprentice Flamberges?
 
Everything!
 
Right now in the beta, these two handed swords are the best you can craft with a max dps of 20.2. In order to get that magic 20.2 dps, you need to get the following 2 magic properties:
 
+2 to 4 of any Damage Type
+5% Attack Speed
 
I've been selling these in 4 of my 10 auction slots every single night on both auction houses. They are absolute money making machines. I can charge 15,000 - 60,000 per weapon, depending on competition, and almost every night they sell out. It costs me approximately 6,000 to 10,000 gold to craft them (including subtle essences because who farms those when you need hundreds?) so I'm still making a very healthy profit margin even at 15,000 gold. [15,000 x .85 = 12750]
 
The biggest pitfall for crafting in Diablo 3 is the starting income you need to get going. If you don't have that 6,000 to 10,000 gold to begin with, then you will struggle if none of your Apprentice Flamberges turn out with perfect stats. And honestly, sometimes you just get unlucky for long streaks at a time.
 
This initial investment creates a thinking in players that crafting is just gambling and therefore just luck of the draw. But understand that this hurdle is exactly why crafting is so profitable!!! If it was easy, everyone would do it.
 
Besides the pitfalls and hurdles set by Blizzard fees, expensive crafting costs, and random statistics, you also have to be good at identifying what players actually want. Some want max magic/gold find gloves, others want perfect apprentice flamberges, and everything in between. There are just too many markets to play, even if you had more than 10 auction slots per auction house. So you need to pick and choose based on the competition and your own stockpiles of gold/materials.
 
Another way to play the market is to flip underpriced items. I've seen a few perfect Apprentice Flamberges with 20.2 dps going for less than 5,000 gold. Those have been easy flips, as well as many other types of highly saught after, perfect items.
 
To play the markets well, I've done the research and invested daily time/gold/beta bucks into supplying myself with an ample stock of Subtle Essences. I buy far more than I sell, and luckily there is no limit on how much you buy. That's key actually, because you need a huge amount of Subtle Essences for the amount of crafting you'll need to make perfect items. Right now Subtle Essences are dirt cheap, so I've had no problem collecting them. But when the beta first launched, I resorted to buying out magic items and salvaging them becuase they were often cheaper than the resulting essences.
 
If you take nothing else from this post, know that perfect items are what players want, and they'll pay top dollar/gold for them. Positioning yourself in such a way that you can provide these perfect items is the key to your success. Whether it's buying materials, buying salvage fodder, or outright flipping.

Overview
I have not seen any threads cataloging all the minute quarks and mechanics of the D3 auction house. So along those lines, I propose we start pooling all information we might have to allow an easy resource for those interested. Feel free to have me add things or point me to useful sites for information.

General information
Many official channels have produced a lot of information for those casually interested in the AH. They can be found at:

http://us.blizzard.c...ion:auction-faq



http://www.diablowik...t/Auction_House


Information Not Easily Found Elsewhere
Although these 'official' sources have a lot of information, there are things they don't tell you that are quite relevant.

• No cancelling auctions after a grace period. What this means, is that after a 5 minute timer, your posted item is stuck till it's sold or expires. Can't cancel early to give your buddy that item that he just now told you he wanted. Can't cancel because you noticed too late that you posted it a few digits too cheap. Can't cancel because you have been undercut.
• No reselling won items during a cool down period. If you win an item of the AH, you can't trade or repost it for 24 hours. This minimizes the amount of market manipulation AH junkies would love to do. It also means that if you are a re-seller of large amounts of items, that you take additional risk losing sales during that time. Some items are exempted from this rule, primarily anything that stacks, including gold.
• No names shown on the AH, for buyers or sellers. You can no longer directly track what you competitors are doing and adjust around them. You can not blacklist people you don't like or people you suspect of hacking. It also means you won't get 9001 whispers from people asking you to sell your Sword of Godliness for cheaper then $350. It is anonymous for all users.
• Only one duration to choose for posting items. And its 48 hours. Short bid auctions for quick sales? NOPE
• Buying stacks automatically buys the cheapest items first. But it quotes you as though they were all at the most expensive price. This means that you might actually pay less then it says it will cost.
• Armor and DPS are the default sorting metrics. What this means is that even if your Cod-piece of Manliness has similar or better stats then all the others, if it has lower armor, then it gets less advertising. The same goes for weapons: if there are stats that are valuable that don't directly get rolled into DPS, then they are at a disadvantage. The best advertising will exist on the first page results, and so higher armor or DPS rolled pieces will sell better.
• DPS metrics on weapons are not accurate. The DPS contribution of any stat cannot be taken in a vacuum and applied generically to all users. The values and contributions of the various stats have various worth to differerent classes and gear setups. What this means is that even though an item is listed as a higher DPS weapon does not mean it will give YOU higher DPS. It also means there may be 'diamond in the rough' type weapons that get overlooked due to low shown DPS, when they are actually quite valuable.
• Max bid amounts are reserved from your funds. It makes sense to make sure people don't promise their money to multiple people if they can't afford to do so. It also means that those who participate in mass bidding (trying to get cheap prices) will have to have SIGNIFICANT funds to do so, even though only a fraction of your bids may win.

TL;DR
Summery of GAH/RMAH rules and mechanics. Please add/correct more information.

Hey guys RG again bringing you a video on How To Win a Bidding War on the RMAH:

http://youtu.be/5F_mrNPJUtI

to see more HD videos visit my channel! http://www.youtube.com/rgdiablo3