Yeah, I think Imperius is going to fall and be the major villian. He's probably still pissed as hell that a mere mortal saved Heaven, and probably won't take very well to Tyrael being in the council as a mortal either. It just seems to me that Blizzard spent decent time developing Imperius as someone who disagreed with the council, and has the potential to fall.
I imagine we'll see Adria again also, but she doesn't seem like a good major villain.
Yeah, I haven't been able to get it to happen again either. I thought I saw it happen once, but I've been unable to do it again, so I may have been seeing something else.
The split arrows from Scatter do pierce and are seeking.
However, be aware that the homing mechanism on hungering arrow is not 100% reliable. I've seen plenty of arrows fail to acquire a target even when one seems to be in range. Sometimes they hit a barrier and disappear before they turn around as well. At any rate, it's the rune I'm using right now, and it even looks pretty awesome.
Oh, someone asked somewhere. Yes, all three splits can come back and hit the same target.
I love Strafe. It's like the Demon Hunter's version of Whirlwind. Think of it like an AOE version of Rapid Shot. Like Rapid Shot, you fire really really quickly, except instead of a line, it's all around you. You'll move toward you cursor, but you'll hit enemies in any direction.
It's really great for enemise like Imps because they scatter and run quickly, making them difficult to target with other skills.
Well, what I meant is that the 40% loot rune by itself is meaningless without context. Percentage to drop loot doesn't matter in the long run, only drops per minute do (will some other skill kill mobs more than 40% faster than hammer of the ancients? Probably.). And because Hammer of the Ancients is a single target, probably rather slow hitting (from the videos it was shown in, it has a rather long cast animation), high damage skill, I'm not yet sure whether it's a good farming skill (bosses, maybe?).
Once again, it's too early to say for sure. It's also too early to say whether Hammer of the Ancients attack speed will be affected by Frenzy.
A very potential problem arises from how Frenzy will function (whether it works best with quick weapons) while as I could see Hammer of the Ancients benefit most from high-damage, slower weapons (of course, this is 100% speculation before we play the game).
Hammer and Frenzy are both in beta, so we actually do know quite a bit about how they work.
Hammer casts very quickly, it's not slow at all. It's based on weapon speed. If I had to guess, I'd say it's basically equal to a swing, but I don't have any testing data to back that up.
Frenzy's increased attack speed only affects Frenzy, it does not affect any other skill.
So the basic tradeoff between fast and slow weapons is more attacks that do less damage vs. fewer attacks doing more damage. A Hammer with fast weapons does less damage, but you'll also generate fury faster and thus will cast more Hammers than you would with a slow weapon.
Hammer is also not single target. It's small area AOE. For monsters that cluster tightly (zombies), it can hit quite a few. For larger monsters (Unburied), it's a one hit deal.
I have tried a Frenzy build with a two-hander and I didn't like how it felt. The Frenzy buff duration is very short, so you have to start it up again on every mob group. It takes too long to swing a two-hander before you start getting the benefit of the attack speed. Not that it's not viable, I just prefer DW for Frenzy much more.
But anyway... it's a solid concept. If you're planning on getting drops from Hammer Crits, you might want to consider Revenge Alabaster as well. It's yet another crit boost (and additionally provides some survival benefit). Or for even more item find potential, Obsidian Threatening Shout helps as well (and some survival).
The other thing is that Pound of Flesh might actually be a stronger survival tool than Bloodthirst, given that you'll be getting extra health globes as it is, doubling what they heal for and spawning even more of them might provide far more healing than you'd get from Bloodthirst alone. But that would have to be tested to be sure.
I'm thinking that for a magic find barb of this style, you'd want to go 1h/shield for maximum survival and damage reduction. Less damage is ok, because that means it takes more hits to kill enemies = more opportunities to drop extra items.
Are there any changeling skills available in the beta for the other classes? (Can't recall)
By chance I remember how in one of wizards vids Force showed how you can was simultaneous Spectral blade and Electrocute ...
.... so very impatient to see some post Blizzcon videos
Yes, there are channeling spells in beta right now. Disintegrate for Wizards and Firebats for Witch Doctors. You can't do anything else while channeling those spells.
I really doubt you'll be able to do anything during a Whirlwind. I suspect Whirlwind lasts as long as you hold down the button for it. So if you want to use Overpower or Revenge, just let go, hit them, and start up again.
It's probably not any different than a Wizard casting Disintegrate, a Witch Doctor's Firebats, or a Demon Hunter's Rapid Fire.
They are an iterative design company. They try new systems all the time until they find something that works. Changing how a player comes across runes is a relatively simple change.
Coming up with new runes is a huge endeavor. That requires concept design, art and sound design, implementation, testing, fixing, retesting...
And really, there's a point where having too many choices is annoying too. Can you imagine having 100 possible rune effects for every skill? That's obviously extreme, but the point is there's a line in there. 5, I think it just right. It's enough options to be interesting without being so many as to be overwhelming.
In short, Blizzard will keep changing the rune system until they find something that works really well. That's a good thing. It's certainly better than just picking something and forcing it to work. That's how most companies do it, and that's why Blizzard's games last 10+ years, and others' don't.
I think you've already identified the problem. There are far too many runes out there that become far too powerful if you can stack their benefits.
And some of the combinations wouldn't even make sense. What would a Golden+Indigo Weapon Throw even do? Toss a body that bounces 8 times for absurd AOE damage each time? Nope.
I've lost some interest in the beta... but only because there's not much content there. It's gotten a bit old looking at the same hour of stuff so many times.
But the game itself? Still super psyched. The beta confirmed that the same, good old Diablo magic is still there.
Part of the failure with grenades is they just do crap damage (Fan of Knives has the same issue). I've tossed three sets of grenades into a group and had all of them hit without killing anything.
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Yeah, I think Imperius is going to fall and be the major villian. He's probably still pissed as hell that a mere mortal saved Heaven, and probably won't take very well to Tyrael being in the council as a mortal either. It just seems to me that Blizzard spent decent time developing Imperius as someone who disagreed with the council, and has the potential to fall.
I imagine we'll see Adria again also, but she doesn't seem like a good major villain.
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Dying and getting a rez is just an easy way to get a full heal right now.
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The split arrows from Scatter do pierce and are seeking.
However, be aware that the homing mechanism on hungering arrow is not 100% reliable. I've seen plenty of arrows fail to acquire a target even when one seems to be in range. Sometimes they hit a barrier and disappear before they turn around as well. At any rate, it's the rune I'm using right now, and it even looks pretty awesome.
Oh, someone asked somewhere. Yes, all three splits can come back and hit the same target.
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It's really great for enemise like Imps because they scatter and run quickly, making them difficult to target with other skills.
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Hammer casts very quickly, it's not slow at all. It's based on weapon speed. If I had to guess, I'd say it's basically equal to a swing, but I don't have any testing data to back that up.
Frenzy's increased attack speed only affects Frenzy, it does not affect any other skill.
So the basic tradeoff between fast and slow weapons is more attacks that do less damage vs. fewer attacks doing more damage. A Hammer with fast weapons does less damage, but you'll also generate fury faster and thus will cast more Hammers than you would with a slow weapon.
Hammer is also not single target. It's small area AOE. For monsters that cluster tightly (zombies), it can hit quite a few. For larger monsters (Unburied), it's a one hit deal.
I have tried a Frenzy build with a two-hander and I didn't like how it felt. The Frenzy buff duration is very short, so you have to start it up again on every mob group. It takes too long to swing a two-hander before you start getting the benefit of the attack speed. Not that it's not viable, I just prefer DW for Frenzy much more.
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I wouldn't say that no one has...
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/30679-mf-fury-build/
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/29677-i-cant-be-the-only-one-who-thought-of-this/
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/28883-the-farmbarian/
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/28639-treasure-hunter-barb/
http://www.diablofans.com/topic/28552-magic-findingfarming-barb-build/
But anyway... it's a solid concept. If you're planning on getting drops from Hammer Crits, you might want to consider Revenge Alabaster as well. It's yet another crit boost (and additionally provides some survival benefit). Or for even more item find potential, Obsidian Threatening Shout helps as well (and some survival).
The other thing is that Pound of Flesh might actually be a stronger survival tool than Bloodthirst, given that you'll be getting extra health globes as it is, doubling what they heal for and spawning even more of them might provide far more healing than you'd get from Bloodthirst alone. But that would have to be tested to be sure.
I'm thinking that for a magic find barb of this style, you'd want to go 1h/shield for maximum survival and damage reduction. Less damage is ok, because that means it takes more hits to kill enemies = more opportunities to drop extra items.
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It's probably not any different than a Wizard casting Disintegrate, a Witch Doctor's Firebats, or a Demon Hunter's Rapid Fire.
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They are an iterative design company. They try new systems all the time until they find something that works. Changing how a player comes across runes is a relatively simple change.
Coming up with new runes is a huge endeavor. That requires concept design, art and sound design, implementation, testing, fixing, retesting...
And really, there's a point where having too many choices is annoying too. Can you imagine having 100 possible rune effects for every skill? That's obviously extreme, but the point is there's a line in there. 5, I think it just right. It's enough options to be interesting without being so many as to be overwhelming.
In short, Blizzard will keep changing the rune system until they find something that works really well. That's a good thing. It's certainly better than just picking something and forcing it to work. That's how most companies do it, and that's why Blizzard's games last 10+ years, and others' don't.
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And some of the combinations wouldn't even make sense. What would a Golden+Indigo Weapon Throw even do? Toss a body that bounces 8 times for absurd AOE damage each time? Nope.
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But the game itself? Still super psyched. The beta confirmed that the same, good old Diablo magic is still there.
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Hopefully weapon damage scaling fixes that.