Came across what I believe is a very nice pair of Nat's Bloody Footprints yesterday and am trying to decide whether to hang onto them and save up for a Nat's Reflection for my Monk or sell them and upgrade a few of my other pieces. I'm open to offers and will make a decision once I see what these things are realistically worth.
Stats:
605 Armor
+269 Dex
+83 Vit
+73 Resist All
+250 Armor
+12% Movement Speed
6% Reduced Melee Damage.
You're definitely a little more geared than I am, but we've got similar builds, so I'll respond with what I'd probably do in your shoes.
The cyclone build generates significantly more damage with higher attack speed. That being the case, I'd look at swapping out Skorn for 2x 1.4+ APS 1-H weapons, probably 1 with Dex, Crit Dmg + Socket, the other with Dex, Life Steal & Socket. Alternately, if you like Skorn/2-H playstyle, look at swapping your SW rune to Bladestorm or Firestorm -- you will probably see more DPS from those vs the cyclones.
In addition to that, I'm curious why you use Mantra of Evasion? I'm sitting around 65-70k dps and use MoC/Overawe and the additional damage should outweigh the reduction in dodge, especially at your DPS level.
As for gear, only suggestion I have is swap out Bond Ploy for a ring with higher Dex, Crit Chance and Crit Damage. Your gloves (find Crit Damage + Crit Chance) and amulet (higher Crit Chance & Damage) could also be replaced.
My Monk:StandByMe-1120/hero/570204
(Note: I've got Light Resist Vile Ward in my stash, maximizing my MF for a couple goblins with the currently equipped shoulders)
@ Solus -- For "just starting" on gearing your Monk you're in a pretty good spot. The two places i'd tweak are your rings and your helm. Rings you should be able to find with at least 2 out of 3 of Crit % / Attack Speed / Crit Damage + vit/life%, Dex, resist for relatively cheap. As others said above, the Mempo of Twilight is the way to go with the helm. That unfortunately just requires a bankroll or some solid sales in the AH to save up for.
Monk is my main and I'm at the point where I'm running A3 with minimal deaths aside from the occasional bad affix/bad pull. I run a lot with a friend of mine playing Wizard. I know I could pull a little more DPS with another skill, but use Cyclone Strike because it makes runs for the two of us go a lot faster. Open to other build suggestions using my current gear though.
BoP and guaranteed "good" drops just aren't the Diablo train of thought. No matter what you call it how you try to justify it.
What it all comes down to is that some people aren't happy with drop rates of what they deem as "usable/good" gear.
If you want to find upgrades frequently and feel a sense more of a sense of accomplishment for the time you put in, try starting a character and not touching the AH at all. Things you normally would have vendored instantly become more valuable because what you see is all you're going to get.
If you want to utilize the AH, remember what you think is valuable or a piece of trash may not be what someone else thinks. I found a 60 ring the other day that had what I thought were really low stats and threw it in the AH with an opening bid of 10k and no BIN...auction ended yesterday with the ring selling for a little over 3 mil. I've also had the reverse happen quite a bit where I post something I think is awesome and it goes unsold for 2+ posts.
IMO drop rates are where they need to be...just need the AH to do a little balancing out now that 1.04 has hit so the new items come down a to being a little more reasonable.
Finally...800 hours? You know the game has only been out for 111 days, right? That's an average of 7.2 hours a day...
I agree some gems definitely don't provide the same value as others in the different slots and leveling vs. end game, but the changed you're talking about are taking them the polar opposite way. Gems are supposed to supplement existing stats and provide items that rolled sockets some customization based on your needs. Honestly, Emeralds (weapon) and Amethysts (helm) are OP and their values should be reduced to bring them more in line with the benefits of other options. Increasing the stats gems provide will only further add to the value of sockets and basically make them a 100% requirement for weapons and helms --- limiting gear diversity and itemization. Replacing things that aren't used at all with stats like attack speed or crit % isn't a bad idea, but you have to remember just because you don't use them in their current state doesn't mean other people don't find value in them.
I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with gem statistics the way they are now, but I will say the value we receive from gems in the weapon / helm sockets vastly outweighs the value of the gems put in other pieces of gear. IMO there's a little too much weight being put on gems at the moment. The fact that it's almost a requirement for a helm or weapon to have a socket for it to be considered a "great roll" / valuable is pretty annoying, even if it's got optimal stats on it.
A) Not really a fan of the ability to change stats on items. The entire point of the game is the item hunt. By allowing people to "forge" so-so items into a relatively decent item, you will basically kill the game (economy, longevity, etc.). In WoW it made sense, because there is a definitive set of "best gear" (epics) with set stats. That's not the case in Diablo. Inferno difficulty doesn't require the best gear in the game to farm, so nobody is going to pay for "perfectly rolled gear" when they could just buy one-off items and change them instead. Only itemization changes I think they need to make are legendary and set items making you feel like you're using the best of the best again -- which they're already doing.
Gear Swap = 0% MF Cooldown -- I agree with this. I'd probably make it closer to 1-1 1/2 minutes. That way, it won't be a significant impact on your ability to move forward if you do find an upgrade but make it incredibly inconvenient for someone to swap gear back and forth. There's plenty of gear out there that both the offensive/defensive stats you need AND MF. I don't understand how anyone thinks having a separate set of crappy gear with MF on it and swapping it back and forth during fights, whether Blizz were to make it easier or not, thinks that's a fun way to play. Gearing is a conscious choice, and if you want the best of both worlds (survivability/damage & MF) you should have to find/buy that gear that has both.
C) This is another one of those "it would ruin the game" things for me. If you automatically had any of the right stats on certain gear, it wouldn't make having the gear with the correct stats feel as good. So what 9/10 of the Fist Weapons I find has + Str and no + Dex on them. Other aspects make them good, and keeps those with + Dex and other useful stats feeling as powerful as they do.
Bottom line is that Diablo III is meant to take a long time to get the right gear, and that means adding short cuts to get there is only going to hurt it in the long run for all players, both hardcore and casual.
I play Monk and not being able to switch skills without losing NV has definitely caused me to waste some time trying to progress through new content. Disclaimer: I'm not saying attempt content I'm not geared for. I'm saying those few packs that are just the "yin" to my current build's "yang". Ex: Currently using a FoT / Cyclone build for A2 Inf, which works 90% of the time, but whenever I hit a Fast + Jailer + Molten/Desecrator/Plague pack I haven't found a way to survive using this build. That situation has basically motivated me to go back and steamroll-farm A1 rather than sacrifice NV stacks in A2 when I hit a difficult affix combo pack and build them back up after swapping builds. If I were able to switch to a Deadly Reach build for those packs without losing NV I would stick to farming A2.
It's not something that's going to cause me to stop playing the game, but it's annoying to have to skip packs or make a new game not because you aren't geared enough to kill a champ/elite, but because it's the perfect storm against your current build and you don't want to lose NV. The random affixes champs/elites have require a diverse play style to kill different combos, and Blizzard has set the game up so building NV stacks and running basically a whole act is how they want us to play, so it makes sense to me players shouldn't penalized for utilizing all of the skills they've got at their disposal to overcome whatever challenging pack is thrown at them.
Error 37 just means they're experiencing high traffic on the initial log-in servers. Every time I see it I just copy/paste my PW and get in within 5 min of repeat attempts. It really just depends how many other people are hitting their log-in button when you do. Keep trying and you'll get in.
Just a quick question regarding craftable Legendary and Set Blacksmithing plans. Since Blizzard announced they will be buffing these items in a future patch and the buff will only affect those found after the patch drops, what do you think is going to happen with the Blacksmithing plans for those items? Will already learned plan's stats receive the buff or will you have to find a new version of the plans to craft the updated version of the item? Do you think it's worth holding onto the plans unused until that's announced?
0
Stats:
605 Armor
+269 Dex
+83 Vit
+73 Resist All
+250 Armor
+12% Movement Speed
6% Reduced Melee Damage.
0
First Ring:
171 Dex
+ 30 Lightning Resist
+ 76 Resist All
+105 Life Per Hit
+4.5 Crit Chance
Not the most amazing ring in the world, but actually increased my damage & resists from one of the rings I was wearing.
0
You're definitely a little more geared than I am, but we've got similar builds, so I'll respond with what I'd probably do in your shoes.
The cyclone build generates significantly more damage with higher attack speed. That being the case, I'd look at swapping out Skorn for 2x 1.4+ APS 1-H weapons, probably 1 with Dex, Crit Dmg + Socket, the other with Dex, Life Steal & Socket. Alternately, if you like Skorn/2-H playstyle, look at swapping your SW rune to Bladestorm or Firestorm -- you will probably see more DPS from those vs the cyclones.
In addition to that, I'm curious why you use Mantra of Evasion? I'm sitting around 65-70k dps and use MoC/Overawe and the additional damage should outweigh the reduction in dodge, especially at your DPS level.
As for gear, only suggestion I have is swap out Bond Ploy for a ring with higher Dex, Crit Chance and Crit Damage. Your gloves (find Crit Damage + Crit Chance) and amulet (higher Crit Chance & Damage) could also be replaced.
My Monk: StandByMe-1120/hero/570204
(Note: I've got Light Resist Vile Ward in my stash, maximizing my MF for a couple goblins with the currently equipped shoulders)
0
Siege Breaker + Hulking Phase Beast "Minions" (vortex, jailer, desecrator, frozen), hahaha.... --> Plays Monk
0
Monk is my main and I'm at the point where I'm running A3 with minimal deaths aside from the occasional bad affix/bad pull. I run a lot with a friend of mine playing Wizard. I know I could pull a little more DPS with another skill, but use Cyclone Strike because it makes runs for the two of us go a lot faster. Open to other build suggestions using my current gear though.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/StandByMe-1120/hero/570204
0
What it all comes down to is that some people aren't happy with drop rates of what they deem as "usable/good" gear.
If you want to find upgrades frequently and feel a sense more of a sense of accomplishment for the time you put in, try starting a character and not touching the AH at all. Things you normally would have vendored instantly become more valuable because what you see is all you're going to get.
If you want to utilize the AH, remember what you think is valuable or a piece of trash may not be what someone else thinks. I found a 60 ring the other day that had what I thought were really low stats and threw it in the AH with an opening bid of 10k and no BIN...auction ended yesterday with the ring selling for a little over 3 mil. I've also had the reverse happen quite a bit where I post something I think is awesome and it goes unsold for 2+ posts.
IMO drop rates are where they need to be...just need the AH to do a little balancing out now that 1.04 has hit so the new items come down a to being a little more reasonable.
Finally...800 hours? You know the game has only been out for 111 days, right? That's an average of 7.2 hours a day...
0
0
0
Came across a Stormshield last night and can't really put a value to it because I haven't seen another one with + Crit Chance. Stats are:
~1150 Armor
+171 Str
+72 Res All
+9% Chance To Block (22% Total)
Reduce Melee Damage 6%
Reduce Elite Damage 7%
+6.5% Crit Chance
Curious how much value Barbs put on Crit Chance and what this might go for given the prices in the AH range from 4 mil to 400 mil.
Thanks for the insight.
0
C) This is another one of those "it would ruin the game" things for me. If you automatically had any of the right stats on certain gear, it wouldn't make having the gear with the correct stats feel as good. So what 9/10 of the Fist Weapons I find has + Str and no + Dex on them. Other aspects make them good, and keeps those with + Dex and other useful stats feeling as powerful as they do.
Bottom line is that Diablo III is meant to take a long time to get the right gear, and that means adding short cuts to get there is only going to hurt it in the long run for all players, both hardcore and casual.
0
It's not something that's going to cause me to stop playing the game, but it's annoying to have to skip packs or make a new game not because you aren't geared enough to kill a champ/elite, but because it's the perfect storm against your current build and you don't want to lose NV. The random affixes champs/elites have require a diverse play style to kill different combos, and Blizzard has set the game up so building NV stacks and running basically a whole act is how they want us to play, so it makes sense to me players shouldn't penalized for utilizing all of the skills they've got at their disposal to overcome whatever challenging pack is thrown at them.
0
0