I'm going to weigh in here. For instance, I have a level 60 barbarian, it was copied over from live, I killed Rakanoth, who is supposedly sporting a guaranteed legendary drop chance, and he indeed did drop one. I'm yet to kill him on a character that hasn't had him drop a legendary (although I'll add my sample size is a measly 3 kills on various characters, varying levels) on that same character however, I killed the rest of the act/mid bosses, no legendaries to report of.
I also levelled a barbarian from scratch, not every act boss dropped a legendary either, that's already been touched on though by others in here, and by Blizzard themselves. As per Blizzard, mid bosses have an increased drop quality for their first kill, but not afterwards.
(Source: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10895039792#2)
I wouldn't mind a source however on max level being a factor in what can or cannot drop legendaries. Because that's being heavily touted in here, but without anything to back it up.
It wouldn't be a bad thing to have bosses as a viable farming method, but it needs to be done in an interesting way.
No, boss runs in Diablo 2 were short and addictive. I wouldn't need anything else. If they were to make boss runs viable, they should let boss runs be boss runs and not ruin them with some "interesting" idea. But it won't happen anyway.
Short and sweet, I get that. It's a run people were interested in doing because of the rewards and relative ease of it. Lots of experience (In the case of Baal runs) and good drops eventually came your way.
One thing I always wonder about what made the quick boss runs so addictive: was it just the large amount of uniques and sets? (Or runes with the Countess, maybe there needs to be a gem encrusted boss somewhere, combination gems, jewels? Another idea I'm sure somebody has thought of, maybe unnecessary complexity, is that depth?) Not necessarily the fact that they were uber uniques, just that they were uniques, these potentially desirable drops, especially the jewellery in my case, dropping at all. I know I'd certainly be more compelled to run if I was indeed showered in lots of (possibly) mediocre (not useless, just less than perfect) legendaries.
As Blizzard so affectionately said, it's the unwrapping of presents mentality.
Maybe I'm easily amused by it, maybe it's the key, who knows?
From my understanding, cooldown reduction works a little differently to how most would think it would.
100% isn't cooldown removal, 100% is twice as fast as the original cooldown. It's kind of hard to put it into terms that properly convey the meaning that fit on a tooltip.
Maybe "x% faster cooldowns" might more accurately portray just how it works. Hey, maybe it wasn't so hard.
I could be wrong though, I don't know the exact mechanics behind it.
It wouldn't be a bad thing to have bosses as a viable farming method, but it needs to be done in an interesting way. I do enjoy being showered in uniques (golden shower? >_>) in Diablo 2, for sure. But finding a nice short map to Mephisto or Andariel to farm them over and over because their drops were good, it was rather just a pleasant coincidence more than anything.
I know that Nephalem Valor stacks are going to be removed, but something relating to clearing areas or killing certain enemies (Elites? Keywardens?) then culminating finally in a boss kill for an additional reward that may be improved somehow, it could be interesting.
An idea I had for Nephalem Rifts was to have the last floor (if they decide to stick with 10 floors, if not, then every so many floors, 10, 25, whatever) eventually lead to an act boss who had different abilities, they could be unique to the Rifts, improved from their base abilities, or be a combination of the other act bosses abilities, or even something else. Whatever the implementation, I wouldn't mind having the act bosses introduced in a compelling, meaningful (in the fact that they drop useful items, whether they be unique to this method of killing, or just an increased chance of dropping certain items) way.
The only problems I could see with the random abilities is a way to concisely convey just what abilities they have, as it could be difficult to learn at a glance what they're capable of in a hardcore environment, but maybe the additional randomness and danger of it would make it all the more appealing to that crowd? Of course certain abilities wouldn't be technically or graphically possible to share, like Diablo's impaling and screaming in your face when he catches you in a cage, but the cages certainly could be used!
0
I also levelled a barbarian from scratch, not every act boss dropped a legendary either, that's already been touched on though by others in here, and by Blizzard themselves. As per Blizzard, mid bosses have an increased drop quality for their first kill, but not afterwards.
(Source: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/10895039792#2)
I wouldn't mind a source however on max level being a factor in what can or cannot drop legendaries. Because that's being heavily touted in here, but without anything to back it up.
0
Short and sweet, I get that. It's a run people were interested in doing because of the rewards and relative ease of it. Lots of experience (In the case of Baal runs) and good drops eventually came your way.
One thing I always wonder about what made the quick boss runs so addictive: was it just the large amount of uniques and sets? (Or runes with the Countess, maybe there needs to be a gem encrusted boss somewhere, combination gems, jewels? Another idea I'm sure somebody has thought of, maybe unnecessary complexity, is that depth?) Not necessarily the fact that they were uber uniques, just that they were uniques, these potentially desirable drops, especially the jewellery in my case, dropping at all. I know I'd certainly be more compelled to run if I was indeed showered in lots of (possibly) mediocre (not useless, just less than perfect) legendaries.
As Blizzard so affectionately said, it's the unwrapping of presents mentality.
Maybe I'm easily amused by it, maybe it's the key, who knows?
0
100% isn't cooldown removal, 100% is twice as fast as the original cooldown. It's kind of hard to put it into terms that properly convey the meaning that fit on a tooltip.
Maybe "x% faster cooldowns" might more accurately portray just how it works. Hey, maybe it wasn't so hard.
I could be wrong though, I don't know the exact mechanics behind it.
0
I know that Nephalem Valor stacks are going to be removed, but something relating to clearing areas or killing certain enemies (Elites? Keywardens?) then culminating finally in a boss kill for an additional reward that may be improved somehow, it could be interesting.
An idea I had for Nephalem Rifts was to have the last floor (if they decide to stick with 10 floors, if not, then every so many floors, 10, 25, whatever) eventually lead to an act boss who had different abilities, they could be unique to the Rifts, improved from their base abilities, or be a combination of the other act bosses abilities, or even something else. Whatever the implementation, I wouldn't mind having the act bosses introduced in a compelling, meaningful (in the fact that they drop useful items, whether they be unique to this method of killing, or just an increased chance of dropping certain items) way.
The only problems I could see with the random abilities is a way to concisely convey just what abilities they have, as it could be difficult to learn at a glance what they're capable of in a hardcore environment, but maybe the additional randomness and danger of it would make it all the more appealing to that crowd? Of course certain abilities wouldn't be technically or graphically possible to share, like Diablo's impaling and screaming in your face when he catches you in a cage, but the cages certainly could be used!
Just a throwabout thought I had either way.
0
+159 Vitality
+70 All Resistance
+214 Armour (563 armour total)