DiabloFans

I don't remember them saying it was too hard, though I could have missed it. I thought it was because a lot of people hated it in D2 and they didn't want to create a separate realm or game mode for people who like it, like they do with Hardcore. FYI, I'm definitely in the camp that hated it in D2 though.

Quote from overneathe

But then you remove rare items right out of the equation. That's an immense part of the itemization.

I think what's ideal would be Legendaries all having comparable average and maximum DPS, but rares having the capability to roll maybe 2-5% higher max DPS on perfect rolls. This way, you go for a rare if you need max DPS and you go for a legendary if you want the legendary bonuses.

For bonuses on legendaries, we definitely need to see more outside the box type stuff. How about a 1-handed mace weapon with -.2 to -.25 attacks per second, but a large bonus to min-max damage that also applied to the other weapon, if any, kind of like an anti-EF? How about a weapon which lets you teleport to enemies like the Monk's rune? How about a weapon which extends your AoE attack range slightly? What about a weapon which raises all per-hit proc chances?

There are plenty of things that could be done to make legendary weapons cooler -- they just need to do them.

Quote from shaggy

I think you misunderstand what I've suggested.

This "slider" is basically your idea but instead of on/off, you basically set the level where it kicks in.

If you set the slider to "Blue" it would mean that you never see White or Grey items. You can't click on them, you don't even see them drop. If you set it to "Green/Orange" it would mean that you never see Yellow, Blue, White, or Grey items.

I mean it's your idea, but instead of just an on/off option you are in complete control of the actual threshold. That's a good thing right?

Are you maybe confusing ruksak with Vulmio? Unless I've misread a post, ruksak is suggesting /nopickup which is nothing like the slider you are proposing. With /nopickup, you still see all items but you can't pick up any item at all unless you hold down whatever key is mapped to it.

Quote from ruksak

I would prefer them to figure out how to make white and blues have some use, some kind of potential.

I'm actually surprised that I never hear anyone complain about mis-clicking on junk loot, and the fact that there isn't a /nopickup option.

This issue drives me nuts but nobody seems to care. Makes me wonder if I'm missing something, because I rant out loud everytime I play about this issue when I'm dumping loads of junk that I accidentally picked up.

Convert them to gold when you run near them? I know I don't want to start having to pick up / examine white / blue items because Blizz decided to make them "useful". I don't even examine rares most of the time, though hopefully the itemization changes will fix that part.

I'd vote for /nopickup though.

That's not really an easy question as a lot of it has to do with the feel of how it plays. If you want to give it a try, I'd suggest rare mace or axe main-hand and EF offhand. For the main-hand, you want as high of a damage range as possible, a socket and extra crit damage is a bonus. Both should have lifesteal as this lets you drop the IK belt for a Witching Hour while being able to deal with not using Rend: Bloodlust which will lose a lot of potency without the Skorn. In Rend's place, go with HotA: Smash to deal with elites.

Whether or not that's better will be up to you. You'll probably still like the Skorn better for farming white mobs and Ubers regardless, but you may notice smoother play with the two weapons, such as easier maintenance of WotB, less rubber-banding and less wasted time/damage with Bash / HotA.

Quote from Azidonis

As for the 'personal life' thing, is gaming not included in 'personal life'? Should we all need to be on our best business manners in order to kill hordes of fantasy demons?

What I'm specifically referencing as far as my personal life is interaction with people I know who I am sure aren't going to be offended by my use of expletives, which would be a similar case if you were on a private Vent server with like-minded adults, or to a certain extent, a fan forum like this one. Cursing on an official gaming forum seems more like cursing loudly in a business like a restaurant, and I tend to think both are unnecessary at best even though I'm not offended.

Quote from Azidonis

Have you ever been to the GGG forums?

I mean, I understand if someone is cussing every third word.

But, if someone say, is doing MP10 ubers on hardcore, and gets killed by a lag spike, you would probably expect them go run off at the mouth with a stream of obscenities.

Not only that, but the game has a Mature rating. I don't care if people playing the game are underage - they shouldn't be.

That said, whatever happened to, "Hey John Doe, this is Game Master Bootlicker from Blizzard. We wanted to let you know that you are getting complaints for your overuse of obscenities. Would you mind toning it down a bit?"

And John Doe replies, "Sure thing."

A 30 second conversation instead of just waving the ban hammer. Abuse of authority, imo.

Like I said, I tend to agree with you. However, Blizzard can draw any line on their official forums or in-game chat that that they wish and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it as long as the rules are consistently enforced and readily available. I curse all the time in my personal life, but I don't swear at work and I rarely, if ever, swear in print in any format. It's not like you can't express an idea without doing so, so why pick this particular fight?

Also, I have no idea what GGG is.

While I tend to agree with you, this is the general policy of every large video game's official forums I've ever been on. The response is always that the mature language filter is there to "protect" people from those who break the rules, not to invalidate the rule.

I feel like this whole argument kind of misses the point. It's not that keeping any buff up 100% of the time through gearing and skill selection is bad, it's that doing this feels mandatory because the buff is so strong and the other runes aren't nearly as good as the ability to maintain 100% uptime. They could solve the whole issue just by moving some of the buffs such as attack speed, crit chance and dodge out of the main skill and into runes other than ToC. Now all ToC would give you is run speed and CC immunity. Some builds would still take it while others might prefer to use other runes for larger defensive or offensive bonuses, or other skills altogether.

I ran Insanity when I first started and was having trouble with sustainability for ToC. It's fine for dealing with CC, though I'd prefer a less severe cooldown (it's not worth taking the passive). The main issue imho is that DPS takes a pretty significant nosedive without ToC. I haven't spent enough time playing other classes to know whether this will bring us in line or put us at a disadvantage for equivalent levels of gear, but I am getting a monk up to speed just in case.

I'd probably drop the Ice Climbers for Zunimassa's. That will get you the 12% run speed you are missing plus like an 8% dps increase from the poison damage (less in reality since you'll lose some strength).

I personally think Mempos are overrated for the cost. Consider an IK helm instead which will give you some crit and less damage taken in melee.

If you can afford it, consider off-handing a lifesteal Echoing Fury. This would let you drop your belt for a Witching Hour as well as increase your DPS quite a lot I think.

The above is probably worth running through a calculator such as d3rawr.com/d (check tDPS there) to verify before you commit though.

EDIT:

On the second question, I'd say Rend + HotA is probably redundant outside of Ubers. Use HotA if killing elites, or Rend if farming white mobs (preferably with a lifesteal Skorn). If you are still having survivability issue and want to keep the ruby in your helm, you could use the reflect damage Overpower rune, or bash for initial fury if not.

Also, try Brawler instead of Unforgiving for a large DPS increase, which will also increase health stolen.

Average damage per hit between your two weapons is almost identical, so consider swapping them with each other. EF fear procs a lot less from the off-hand and I think you're unlikely to notice any other difference.

Also, your crit chance is pretty low. Consider dropping the Mempo for an IK helm and the IK belt for a Witching Hour. Alternatively, I think keeping the Mempo but using a WH might get you to the next tornado breakpoint on the EF (it will be pretty close) but look it up if you want to pursue that route, particularly since it might be too much for the Axe -- I'm not sure. You'd probably want to pick up some more crit chance somewhere else though if you do this, probably either on the amulet or hellfire ring.

I'd pretty much agree with Frencbend for now, though Strafir makes a valid point since 1.08 is going to shake stuff up. If you want to keep the weapons you have now (and continue main-handing EF) consider getting a cold damage SOJ to help counteract the fear somewhat.

Also, once 1.08 launches, running AC2 scorpions / KD2 and skipping elites will not be the way to go anymore -- In 1.08, you're going to want to take down those elites which may change preferred builds such as from Rend to HotA as well as likely lowering your preferred MP a bit from 10, so don't feel like you have to switch to Skorn if you like dual-wielding. Personally, I might look for an EF with lifesteal and a socket for the off-hand (less fear that way), a high damage-range main-hand mace with lifesteal and a socket for main-hand, and then a str/vit Witching Hour belt.

Also, if you are doing a decent MP level, you should be able to drop Unforgiving for Brawler for a large damage increase and still be able to maintain WotB.

Quote from Xion

It amazes me how people may think this feature invokes some nigh-magical powers that finds other players based on nothing but their actual, physical location. You would think on a forum for computer gamers you can find folks with better undestanding of absolute basics of networking... Alas, not the case.

As for the feature in question: it's nice for LAN parties and internet cafes. I would actually prefer it added to SC2 but hey, maybe D3 is just a start.

It's primarily colleges and universities I was thinking of when I made my previous comment. While Blizzard could approximate your physical location via IP geolocation rather than by magic, I think we're all aware that's not what they're doing here. I wouldn't put it past them in another 10 years though based on how they keep pushing the line on this stuff. I might even be interested in the feature in the right game, but it's the automatic opt-in that bothers me.

What Strafir said. Also, once you raise health and resists a bit, you should be able to drop Warcry for either HotA:Smash (elites) or Rend (trash farming). If you still need the defense right now, I'd still run Overpower: Crushing Advance over Warcry, myself.