DiabloFans

I'm not getting a new PC but I am upgrading my memory from 8GB to 16GB and I'll be upgrading my video card closer to release when we get a date.

WD Survival build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#acXZYT!adW!cYaYZY


The idea behind this build is to give the largest amount of survivability to the WD for later difficulties by providing him with damage reduction to himself and his pets and monster control utility, making him extraordinarily durable.

The passives are relatively self explanitory. Jungle Fortidude reduces all the damage the WD and his pets recieve substantially. Since almost all of this build's damage is poison, Bad Medicine will be active against enemies pretty much 100% of the time, reducing damage to himself and his pets even further. Zombie Handler is to provide even more pet durability through an extra dog and more Gargantuan health.

Snake to the Face is to help with extra control with occasional stuns on the target as well as provide more poison damage to help keep Bad Medicine active.

Addling Toads, much like Snake to the Face, is to provide confusion to monsters, having them fight amongst themselves, on top of providing even more poison damage.

Hedge Magic is to help top off the WD and his pet's health, keeping the already durable pets and WD alive. (Unclear if Hedge Magic will also hex enemy targets on top of healing, but if so, can be used for extra control)

Desperate Grasp is to provide more control on the field via slowing, as well as provide physical damage to things immune to poison as well as helping provide aoe damage in general. With the cd reduction, Desperate Grasp can not only remain up indefinitely, but can actually overlap, providing coverage in a larger area. (I believe the cd shown on the calculator will decrease even further as the WD levels up, hence the green number)

Rabid Dogs will provide 4 mongrels, each providing it's own poison damage to help spread out the effectiveness of Bad Medicine without having to actually use mana to keep poison active on enemy targets.

Big Sinker, much like Rabid Dogs, again will provide good poison damage in an aoe around the Gargantuan, ensuring that anything the Gargantuan fights will be effected by Bad Medicine, making him extremely durable and tanky.

People that are arguing D2 whites are the same as D3 whites are making an invalid argument. In D2, white items still had value.

D2 whites could be imbued into quality rares. D2 whites could be socketed to make god-tier runewords. D2 whites (armor especially) could often times be sold for the vendor gold cap sale price, paying for repair bills and gambling. In D3, this won't be the case. Bashiok has already stated that white and grey items are not meant to be picked up and even went as far to say that if players started picking them up, they would be devalued even further to ensure they no longer will. They're just loot confetti to make other items more compelling. This implies we won't be imbueing or socketing them. They won't be a viable source of income for repair bills or crafting. They are trash items with absolutely no value. They are, in every sense of the word, useless.

Of course, that isn't even the discussion of this thread. The value of trash items isn't what's in question. It's whether or not they make the finding of great items even better. To some, they do. To some, they don't. I'm somewhat indifferent on the matter myself.

However, I believe there is more behind this change than Blizzard let on. Though I can't take credit for the theory, the idea that useless white and grey trash items are another layer of protection to combat botting in the game makes the most sense to me. If botter's inventories are filled with garbage, it lessens their impact on the game and it's economy and slows them down enough to be found out and banned. Personally, I honestly believe this to be the reason behind the change, and if it lets players get more enjoyment out of finding those rare items among a sea of trash, bonus!

Well, on the official Diablo 3 forums, someone made a comment that makes a whole lot of sense to me.

Though Blizzard may not come right out and say it, it stands to reason that having completely worthless trash items may be another layer of protection vs botting. If/when bots make it into the game, their inventories will become cluttered with tons of useless white garbage, slowing their farming down enough that Blizzard can pinpoint who's botting and banhammer them before they can influence the game too much.

Whether or not this is the actual reason behind useless trash items, nobody can really say. However, this is the reason I'll personally choose to believe they exist and with that in mind, the white/grey items holding no real value doesn't bother me nearly so much.

Truth be told, the voting results up to this point have very much surprised me. I was expecting it to be extremely one-sided but it's neck and neck. Very interesting to say the least.

Basically self explanatory. Blizzard has come out and told us that white and grey items are completely worthless. They've even gone as far as to say that they aren't even worth picking up to vendor for gold. The only purpose behind them now is to make it feel more 'epic' when you finally do find a truly rare drop.

My question is, does it really accomplish this? In D2, did the fact that worthless grey, white, bolts, arrows etc make finding that unique or set item more satisfying? What do you think?

There's only 1 health bar for all 3 dogs but I believe they each have their own individual health. At the very least, I can verify that it's possible for one dog to die while the other 2 remain alive.

Up by the dog's portrait, there's a number telling you how many dogs are remaining. When you first summon them, there's a 3 up there. When I was playing through, I noticed at one point the number went down to 2 and that's when I realized I had been running around with one of my dogs dead.

I suspect that hydras may be returning in later difficulties and it was just decided that arcane hydras in Normal was too much for beginning players.

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Hydras returning in Nightmare or Hell. I wouldn't even be surprised if we see a combination of the two come Hell/Inferno, so we're dodging both arcane bolts from hydras as well as maneuvering between laser beams.

Grats to the winners. Lots of good entries so I don't feel too bad about losing out on this one

Quote from Designation15

Or, perhaps, in stead of making an inhibition on skill swapping, that effectively debuffs or removes me from combat, just let us switch out skills on the fly.

The problem with swapping skills on the fly is it devalues to prospect of builds. In a sense, there wouldn't be builds when people swap on the fly and the limit of only having 6 active slots becomes a minor inconvenience to people running around using 18 abilities all the time by simply swapping them out as they go. There's already people that have done this in the beta, running around with their skill window open and swapping skills out as they see fit. This would become even more rampant as more abilities are unlocked when the game goes live.

No, there really needs to be some kind of limitation. As to what that limitation should be, I don't know. In a perfect world, would be something simple that doesn't take away from the flow of the game, yet restrictive enough so players aren't just running rampant with every ability the character possesses instantly at their disposal.

In town swapping only seems to break the flow of the game. Even the devs (Jay Wilson specifically) didn't seem too keen on that implementation. However, I think they are even more displeased with people just swapping skills on a whim. Crossing my fingers in hopes of a more elegant solution.

Edit: Verity's example is much more elegant than my rant.

Best of luck to ya. I haven't been around for long but sucks to see you go.

"Ah, my young apprentice, even we have myths dat are only known ta us. It is said dat da great Witchdoctor Penkac once battled hordes of demons wit' nothing but da blowgun in his hand and da trusty frog, Binkles at his side. After 4 days and 4 nights, da demons lay dead at his feat and our hero was victorious. However, da battle proved too perilous and shortly after, Penkac succumbed to da wounds. As for da frog, Binkles, we cannot say for certain.

However, if you be true to da voodoo, it's been said dat you can summon da great Binkles in times of extreme danger and peril. He appears on da battlefield and when da fighting be over, disappears without a trace. If you eva be fortunate enough ta conjure up dis legendary creature, count your blessings for da voodoo bein' kind to ya dat day."

-Witchdoctor Master

"Adria? Of course I remember Adria. She was a beautiful woman that lived on the outskirts of town before Tristram was destroyed by demons. However, her reputation outweighed her beauty. Perceived as a witch by the town; she was always brewing potions and writing magical scrolls, selling them to warriors brave enough to venture into the depths of the cathedral and battle the forces of hell. Beyond that, most of the townsfolk kept their distance.

Always with her was this strange, abnormally large frog. Some believe it was simply a pet. Others believe that it was something more sinister.

Barnaby Kinkle, a good drinking buddy of ol' Farnham, disappeared suddenly from Tristram without a trace; never to be heard from again. Barnaby was a good man, always lightened everyone's mood at the Tavern of the Rising Sun. Ogden told me once that Barnaby was the only thing that kept Tristram cheerful in those dark days. At first, most believed that Barnaby simply wised up and left town before things turned for the worse. However...

The story goes, as coincidence would have it, the very next day after Barnaby's disappearance; Adria set up her hut just outside town. Of course, along with Adria was that strange and peculiar frog. Now here's where things get a bit interesting. Barnaby always wore red and yellow. It was an idiosyncrasy of his that many joked about at the pub. The frog just happened to be a red frog with yellow spots. A strange looking frog around these parts for sure, but the coincidences don't stop there.

When Adria first appeared, I welcomed her to Tristram. During our conversations, I asked her about the frog. What can I say, curiosity has always been a weakness of mine. With a sly look that I couldn't help but notice, she told me that 'Binkles' was her treasured companion. Aside from it's strange looks, it's name shares a semblance to Barnaby Kinkle. However, no matter how much I tried to uncover some hidden truth about this strange animal, beyond it's appearance it was simply an ordinary frog.

As you have likely guessed, the rumors spread throughout Tristram. Many believe that Binkles is in fact Barnaby Kinkle; transformed by the witch Adria, and that it was no coincidence that his disappearance coincided with Adria's arrival. Now I can't say for sure if I believe these rumors or not, but I will say this. I do believe there was something special about that frog beyond it's odd looks. A secret Adria never shared. As to what that secret could have been, we will likely never know.

After Adria died and I took Leah in, I never saw another trace of that frog. It disappeared as effortlessly as Barnaby himself. Something tells me though that the tale of Binkles, The Frog remains unfinished. Unfortunately, I don't believe I'll be around long enough to find out how that tale ends."

-Deckard Cain

Quote from MonkManD3

This has been answered in another thread. It's this site's beta keys, they should choose.

Essentially, they would still be choosing. However, if you can post the link to the other thread, I'll be happy to move the discussion there.

Hear me out on this. So, I was reading the locked thread that was posted earlier and something Sixen posted caught my eye.

Unfortunately for the 1999 people who do not win, I choose the winning submission, not the community.

This got me thinking, why not the community? Honestly, it would reduce the amount of QQ you get from the masses almost entirely.

My idea is simple. Sixen would pick 4-5 of his favorite submissions after the deadline. Then, afterwards hold a poll for people to vote on which one they believe is the best from those. Keep the poll open for say 2-3 hours. After that, close the poll and the winner wins, no hard feelings.

Thoughts?