As a vet D2 softcore player, I used to say I wasn't interested in hardcore. After all, I never really thought of myself as a hardcore player, diablo was just something I did for fun after school or work with my friends.
It was fun, nice low stress good times. Then it happened. We were about to jump into uber tristram when I saw one guy talking about this "experimental" sorc he had built that required no gear and was designed to just corpse rush the bosses. (it was terrible btw). I realized that was a complete disconnect from the spirit of play, nah, the very spirit of hobbies in general. If shaking a box of pocket watch parts could at some point accidently make a watch, would you do that instead of learning the skill to build one? I played softcore a little while longer but my heart wasn't in it. It wasn't fun anymore. Then the hardcore checkbox caught my eye when I was deciding on a new build, so I checked it.
I will be playing blind HC for my first run, and when that one finally dies, I'll make another one. Those first ten levels of softcore will be the only softcore levels I ever play in diablo 3.
On the one hand, I lust for the raw dps increase of soul harvest, while at the same time I hate the spell. You gotta be shaking hands with mobs to be able to hit them with it. And five mobs at 16 yards is not a good place for a WD to be. Where as gruesome harvest is a free, no cast similar effect, and it leaves me room for another active.
I will say however, this build lives or dies based on the luck of the health globe. And if that just isn't something take falls in my favor almost everytime, I will switch it to vision quest since I'll almost always have four skills on cooldown.
I was looking however, and you may be right, CE is one of the most mana intensive spells I could possibly pick, and it's not focus damage it's aoe. So what about this switch up instead.
Change the burn dogs to rabid dogs to help spread the posion around, but the big change is the grasping spirit. Which does three things, adds another defensive snare, one I can spam, and adds a potent multi-target point damage spell, and is almost half the mana of CE. Whata thing of that?
I know gruesome feast seems less than appealing, but I'm open to it, especially if I stack +pick up range gear, ;).
I personally felt like that was just animation flair and not aoe.
I agree though, I would prefer line aoe over a small-ish burst. Maining because of the way the mobs seem to naturally pack themselves, especially when squaring off against WD pets, a few well placed cross-fire dire bats would ruin a mob packs front line.
I know it looks like a summoner build, but that wasn't my core intention. This idea came about when I saw how the corpse spiders interacted with the pathing of mobs when a nice big pile of them was thrown out. Specifically, the leaping spiders, which alway seemed to find themselves forcing mobs into trying to walking around them. Multiply this by a new course change everytime you add a new jar of spiders, and compound that with the extreme slowdown of unbreakable grasp. Then add in the attention getting burning dogs and big stinker, and mobs will have a hard time even paying the WD a visit.
This all works together wonderfully, I think, with bad medicine, jungle toughness, and gruesome feast. Because the first two increase survivablity for you and pets across the board, and between big stinker and your own corpse explosion, everything should always be poisoned. Which brings me too gruesome feast. It may be risky basing the only damage upper and resource recovery on the random health globe dropping. But they are very common, not a pack went by without atleast two in my experience in just beta.
Horrify is the o crap button.
The idea here is to keep a pack swimming in spiders, and pounding them with corpse explosion as much as possible, which has nice damage, aoe, no cool down, and poisons anyone not under BS influence.
Let me sum in up. I feel this build provides a lot of off target and ally crowding defense, along with flat damage reduction for you and pets. While at the same time blanketing all mobs in a have 40%+ Weapon damage dot (BS, unbreakable grasp, burn dogs) not to mention the hits from the various pets. While at the same time providing a powerful, fast nuke that is also supported by a dps and resource ability.
I mentioned it before. And after putting all the pieces phrozen has offered up together. I'm completely convinced Azmodan is speaking to Diablo in cinematic about the soulstone. It's his tone, he is so prideful, almost mocking. You only talk that way when your really rubbing it in. I believe Azomdan has figured out that the primes engineered their exile, and the black soulstone is his coup. Furthermore, that soulstone is from the high heavens, more over, it was the falling star. Someone their is trying to undo humanity, and Azmodan's invasion is a way to get hell the do their dirt work for them. Azmodan might even be walking into a trap, he doesn't seem the subtle type. I realized that it was Tyrael who gave the horadrim the soulstones, they aren't a human invention.
So basically, everyone, Izual, Tyrael, Diablo, Baal, Azmodan, everyone has be tricked by the soulstone plot. When in reality, it was all just a way to get the demons onto sanctuary so they could destroy humanity leaving "someone" with clean hands.
Rewatching that video, I realize something. Diablo seems like he is used by his brothers. Sort of like a wrecking ball. It's possible diablo really isn't much of a schemer and his brothers just point him towards things they want destroyed. Baal, Mepth, even Adrial, Duriel, and Azmodan seem a lot more "in the politics" of hell than Diablo does.
As you may remember, it's is extremely difficult for powerful demons to be on sanctuary, they required host bodies, and even then were weakened. That must still be true even with the world stone destoryed, otherwise why would Azmodan care about the blackstone?
Not necessary. The panel explained that the act of the exile, coupled with the loss the Prime Evils faced at the end of the civil war, was what weakened them. The Worldstone dampens their powers to some extent, but not fully. Thus Andariel and Duriel made it into Sanctuary no problem without no hosts.
I'd be ready to theorize that the Black Soulstone was at the center of Diablo's plan all along, and that with it he somehow planned to unite all of the Great Evils with himself, possibly to achieve the power of Tathamet or something along thise lines. It perfectly explains the cinematic with Azmodan, it would place Diablo as the final boss of the game after Azmodan has been beaten, and it also accounts for the popular theory that Diablo is all Three Prime Evils fused together when we see him in the first teaser cinematic.
[spoil]It also explains the string file entry from the Beta that lists him as "Diablo: The Prime Evil"[/spoil]
Problems with it is of course that it would involve him doube-crossing his brothers. Or maybe they're in on it but Azmodan doesn't know that. Because it the cinematic doesn't make much sense if it's just Azmodan talking about Andariel and Duriel when he talks about how they fell "one by one."
However, another possibility is that Azmodan plans to use it on the other primes in the burning hells, forever trapping them away. Remember, the three prime evils haven't been destroyed by losing their stones, they were more or less banished from sanctuary. And Azmodan certainly does not want them taking hell back from him.
If I follow in the same vein as my proposed theory above, he would use the Black Soulstone same as Diablo would: to unite all the powers of the Great Evils into himself, thus making him THE Prime Evil, just as he states in the cinematic.
Which leaving me on the last point I'm still figuring out. Why would Azmodan confront Leah in that vision? I believe it was either a memory from an resident in the blackstone, or Leah is an agent of some other party. Also consider this, I wouldn't be surprised if a demon double crosses Azmodan, we may find ourselves taking a quest from Belial, or another.
If Diablo left some part of him in Leah, or some imprint remains in her, maybe she has a connection to him? It could just be that Leah isn't the intended host of Diablo, that Diablo never planned to have a kid while possessing the Wanderer, but in his weakened state in Aidan he could do nothing about it.
Regardless of whether Diablo is actually possessing Leah at the time or whether some imprint of him remains, it still gives Leah a reason to be in the vision.
Destroying the black soulstone would ideally destroy all evil. Or so it's thought. This was revealed at the lore Q&A.
I think what they meant in the panel was that once Azmodan and Belial were destroyed, all evil would be "destroyed" as well, since no great evils would remain. And the Black Soulstone would be an integral part of that process.
Bear in mind that Leonard clearly added the "or so it's thought". There's more to this story than just killing Azmodan and Belial and then everything is happy and dandy.
I am actually wondering if the black soulstone is the opposite of the worldstone...
Ie the worldstone came from the being of complete good.
Therefore why wouldn't there be an equivalent evil object...
I don't think so. Anu, before splitting into the diamond warrior and the dragon, was everything, and when the Worldstone is called the " Eye of Anu" itse ems to reference that first version of Anu. After all, both Heaven and Hell could use it to their own ends, and both used it just as poorly, so I doubt it's more aligned to Heaven than it is to Hell.
I agree you could throw Diablo in there... but why would he be trapping his own underlings? More likely I would say that an angel was involved in this somewhere...
See above theory, to achieve some greater power akin to that of Tathamet.
That is, you could just as easily throw tyrael in there as well... ie he was the one who started all this soulstone stuff. Though whether he was tricked into doing it is a question that should be looked at...
Maybe. But how do you connect Tyrael to Leah? With Diablo there's a clear trail to follow and some pretty solid indications. If you propose that Tyrael is performing that same function, you'd have to explain where he comes in and how that's more plausible than Diablo being the villain here.
Thanks for the concise response(s). It should be obvious I missed the lore panel and have only briefed the highlights. It seems I've lost track of what has and has not been re-conned. Another subtle little detail. Leah clothes, color motif, and shoulder pads are all very diablo.
Re-watch the cinematic again and put Diablo in Leah's place. Azmodan's syntax makes much more sense. "Our brethren fell into your trap" "I defy you" Plus, of course Azmodan would gloat about his victory and plans, Diablo is in his peer group, he's one of the entities he has to account for.
Well, with the two creator entities semi-re conned into the story, with the worldstone being a piece Anu, it would stand to reason that Tiamat, I mean Tathamet, had it's own relics. And if Azmodan has figured out how to use it, then that would definitely set him apart from the other prime evils.
Help me get this soulstone plan straight. As far as I know The stones were created by the to contain the prime evils on sanctuary. And so, one by one, they were lured out of the burning hells and trapped. But, the soulstones where actually a double cross set up by Izual, as a way to cheat around the worldstone.
Now, we have the three prime evils stones destroyed on the hellforge, Azmodan and Belial are besieging sanctuary. Belial through cult influence, Azmodan through a direct invasion. And the new cinematic tells us he's after the black soulstone. Which is apparently the key to all of this. And that he wasn't fooled.
As you may remember, it's is extremely difficult for powerful demons to be on sanctuary, they required host bodies, and even then were weakened. That must still be true even with the world stone destoryed, otherwise why would Azmodan care about the blackstone? Based on it's size and appearance compared to the other soulstones, it's possible it will allow Azmodan to manifest in full glory on sanctuary. However, another possibility is that Azmodan plans to use it on the other primes in the burning hells, forever trapping them away. Remember, the three prime evils haven't been destroyed by losing their stones, they were more or less banished from sanctuary. And Azmodan certainly does not want them taking hell back from him.
Which leaving me on the last point I'm still figuring out. Why would Azmodan confront Leah in that vision? I believe it was either a memory from an resident in the blackstone, or Leah is an agent of some other party. Also consider this, I wouldn't be surprised if a demon double crosses Azmodan, we may find ourselves taking a quest from Belial, or another.
Anyone who's ever been partied with 5 summoner necros know why they limited it too 4.
However, I'd rather it be 5 max, so you could have 1 of each, just feels better tone wise. But 4 is perfectly fine, specially since the pacing seems slower than it was in D2.
One thing I always despised was remaking the same type of character over and over again just trying to get it right. With no real permanent decisions in the character process, I can just stick with one of each, instead of 4 different types of necros like in d2. And, many times I was discouraged from trying a build just because to get it to were it was fun was days of leveling, and weeks of gearing. Now, as my own tastes, patches, and theory craft shift into new types of builds, I'll be able to shift my preexisting characters as I want, only having to get some new runes and maybe different gear. Sound boarding this in the forum has really put my concerns at ease I must say.
Yeah, Im defenitely a fan of the respec feature of DIII. I remember my frist 2 Chars in D2, a Barb and a Pala, that failed hard after reaching Hell because I totaly f*ked up the skills... but that doesnt really change the fact that the lvls after you aquired your last AS/PS dont feel as powerful as the first few lvls. And the "soft choise" of new builds isnt linked to your lvl, you can swap around your skills while being lvl 34 until you found your perfect build, without gaining anything new at lvl 35. You could swap your skills again, but that has nothing to do with being lvl 35, you could have done it with lvl 34... so again the only change is gear/runes. And gearing was also a part of D2 and you could handle it while skilling your char without problems (except the no-respec thing^^).
This new way really feels like respec with different branding. Which is fine. And this way it fixes a problem I just now thought of.
In this new hot swap scaling skill system, you can test any rune in any skill when you want. Even just to see it in action (something I'm going to do for every skill and every rune option in time, which is about 30x5x5=750 different effects a player can generate on a monster). If I had to respec, or even redo a character, I'd never seem them all without a massive effort.
0
0
It was fun, nice low stress good times. Then it happened. We were about to jump into uber tristram when I saw one guy talking about this "experimental" sorc he had built that required no gear and was designed to just corpse rush the bosses. (it was terrible btw). I realized that was a complete disconnect from the spirit of play, nah, the very spirit of hobbies in general. If shaking a box of pocket watch parts could at some point accidently make a watch, would you do that instead of learning the skill to build one? I played softcore a little while longer but my heart wasn't in it. It wasn't fun anymore. Then the hardcore checkbox caught my eye when I was deciding on a new build, so I checked it.
I will be playing blind HC for my first run, and when that one finally dies, I'll make another one. Those first ten levels of softcore will be the only softcore levels I ever play in diablo 3.
0
I will say however, this build lives or dies based on the luck of the health globe. And if that just isn't something take falls in my favor almost everytime, I will switch it to vision quest since I'll almost always have four skills on cooldown.
I was looking however, and you may be right, CE is one of the most mana intensive spells I could possibly pick, and it's not focus damage it's aoe. So what about this switch up instead.
http://eu.battle.net...YXeT!ZcY!aaabYY
Change the burn dogs to rabid dogs to help spread the posion around, but the big change is the grasping spirit. Which does three things, adds another defensive snare, one I can spam, and adds a potent multi-target point damage spell, and is almost half the mana of CE. Whata thing of that?
I know gruesome feast seems less than appealing, but I'm open to it, especially if I stack +pick up range gear, ;).
0
0
I agree though, I would prefer line aoe over a small-ish burst. Maining because of the way the mobs seem to naturally pack themselves, especially when squaring off against WD pets, a few well placed cross-fire dire bats would ruin a mob packs front line.
0
I know it looks like a summoner build, but that wasn't my core intention. This idea came about when I saw how the corpse spiders interacted with the pathing of mobs when a nice big pile of them was thrown out. Specifically, the leaping spiders, which alway seemed to find themselves forcing mobs into trying to walking around them. Multiply this by a new course change everytime you add a new jar of spiders, and compound that with the extreme slowdown of unbreakable grasp. Then add in the attention getting burning dogs and big stinker, and mobs will have a hard time even paying the WD a visit.
This all works together wonderfully, I think, with bad medicine, jungle toughness, and gruesome feast. Because the first two increase survivablity for you and pets across the board, and between big stinker and your own corpse explosion, everything should always be poisoned. Which brings me too gruesome feast. It may be risky basing the only damage upper and resource recovery on the random health globe dropping. But they are very common, not a pack went by without atleast two in my experience in just beta.
Horrify is the o crap button.
The idea here is to keep a pack swimming in spiders, and pounding them with corpse explosion as much as possible, which has nice damage, aoe, no cool down, and poisons anyone not under BS influence.
Let me sum in up. I feel this build provides a lot of off target and ally crowding defense, along with flat damage reduction for you and pets. While at the same time blanketing all mobs in a have 40%+ Weapon damage dot (BS, unbreakable grasp, burn dogs) not to mention the hits from the various pets. While at the same time providing a powerful, fast nuke that is also supported by a dps and resource ability.
I'd love some feedback,
0
So basically, everyone, Izual, Tyrael, Diablo, Baal, Azmodan, everyone has be tricked by the soulstone plot. When in reality, it was all just a way to get the demons onto sanctuary so they could destroy humanity leaving "someone" with clean hands.
0
0
0
Thanks for the concise response(s). It should be obvious I missed the lore panel and have only briefed the highlights. It seems I've lost track of what has and has not been re-conned. Another subtle little detail. Leah clothes, color motif, and shoulder pads are all very diablo.
0
0
0
Now, we have the three prime evils stones destroyed on the hellforge, Azmodan and Belial are besieging sanctuary. Belial through cult influence, Azmodan through a direct invasion. And the new cinematic tells us he's after the black soulstone. Which is apparently the key to all of this. And that he wasn't fooled.
As you may remember, it's is extremely difficult for powerful demons to be on sanctuary, they required host bodies, and even then were weakened. That must still be true even with the world stone destoryed, otherwise why would Azmodan care about the blackstone? Based on it's size and appearance compared to the other soulstones, it's possible it will allow Azmodan to manifest in full glory on sanctuary. However, another possibility is that Azmodan plans to use it on the other primes in the burning hells, forever trapping them away. Remember, the three prime evils haven't been destroyed by losing their stones, they were more or less banished from sanctuary. And Azmodan certainly does not want them taking hell back from him.
Which leaving me on the last point I'm still figuring out. Why would Azmodan confront Leah in that vision? I believe it was either a memory from an resident in the blackstone, or Leah is an agent of some other party. Also consider this, I wouldn't be surprised if a demon double crosses Azmodan, we may find ourselves taking a quest from Belial, or another.
0
However, I'd rather it be 5 max, so you could have 1 of each, just feels better tone wise. But 4 is perfectly fine, specially since the pacing seems slower than it was in D2.
0
This new way really feels like respec with different branding. Which is fine. And this way it fixes a problem I just now thought of.
In this new hot swap scaling skill system, you can test any rune in any skill when you want. Even just to see it in action (something I'm going to do for every skill and every rune option in time, which is about 30x5x5=750 different effects a player can generate on a monster). If I had to respec, or even redo a character, I'd never seem them all without a massive effort.