I just posted this on the official forums, but seeing how it's likely to be drowned out by all the yammering whines on there, I decided to repost it here. This is off the Endless Dungeon thread that seems to be picking up speed.
While the idea is more original and creative than most, the very idea of an endless dungeon seems to me to smack too much of Jrpg's, a category that I've begun to dislike over the past several years - lots of meaningless, repetitive and artifically added content.
While you could argue that running the same route over and over is equally meaningless and repetitive, a dungeon that keeps spawning floors is basically the same thing, dumbed down, plus you're forced to commit to it which is the biggest thing that turns me off.
I would humbly suggest that instead, some focus be given on the side-dungeons in the game - better monster density, more interesting layouts, events, and traps, and maybe minibosses - stronger than elites, weaker than full bosses, spawns with and can spawn more trash, with interesting scripted combat elements a la Heart of the Swarm.
Furthermore, for those who still want an 'endless grind' experience, the end of the dungeon would have TWO portals - one outside and one that ports to another random side dungeon in the same act. Some kind of bonus should be given for clearing a side dungeon and moving on to another one, perhaps as simple as another neph stack or even gold and exp bonuses that multiply by the number of side dungeons cleared in a row. In my honest opinion, this sounds better and truer to the Diablo style than some procedure-generated cave that just keeps going deeper.
The danger of this would be that the above ground maps might become obsolete. So there should be some thought given on the kind of rewards done by dungeon hopping, and it should be different from that of normal grinds. For example, specific achievements and BoA item rewards, maybe even BoA dungeon-only legendaries and sets, maybe even recipes and mats for new BoA gear. This would make the 'endless dungeons' slightly more geared towards the self-found crowd, while above world and normal grind routes will cater more towards gold, sellable gear, and exp.
It's Diablo, not a roguelike, and I don't ever want it to be some kind of hipster indie game clone. The solution should be dungeon content quality, not quantity.
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May 25, 20138
Lezard_Valeth posted a message on RE: The Endless Dungeon TopicPosted in: Diablo III General Discussion -
Apr 25, 20131
Lizardo posted a message on Patch 1.0.9 Dungeons, a dream... [[ FANMADE ]]Just bothers me that lots of people are calling this guy a genius for his ideas when they aren't original. I posted this idea on the official forums over a month ago and got no comments, and again the same idea on these forums a few days ago and only got a couple comments. Yet this guy posts a couple pictures with the same idea and people call him brilliant.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
It is a good idea, and blizzard should listen to these ideas. But if he wanted to continue the conversation he should have helped elaborate on the original idea from my thread rather then making a new one with the same idea. -
Apr 24, 20132
ruksak posted a message on Diablo 3: Hunting the Stone (fan xpac)Diablo 3: Everyone Is A DeveloperPosted in: Diablo III General Discussion
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Apr 18, 2013
6
Magusrex posted a message on [Guide] Black IceI returned to D3 recently and received a bunch of quality advice from a number of kind people on these forums. I was low in resources, 200k and my gear was very outdated. I want to share what I have learned in my short journey so far. I ended up using a Black Ice/Blizzard build because it was cheap. Here is my story. This build is not original https://us.battle.ne...opic/7681548262 I cannot play without Teleport and Hydra is unnecessary DPS. IMO Black Ice and Blizzard is all you need.Posted in: Wizard: The Ancient Repositories
The Build . http://us.battle.net...QSTj!ZXW!cbYZaa as I use it
My current gear http://us.battle.net...97/hero/4552603
The Active Skills
Ray of Frost
Black Ice is the way to go here. At 504% weapon damage, if used properly it can melt mobs. It self propagates meaning a creature dying to black ice will make more black ice. If you use terrain to your advantage you can watch mobs kill themselves. I will try to show this in the new video.
Snowblast is actually very useful in some multiplayer games. At MP8-10 if your DPS is not high enough that you are getting a reasonable amount of black ice you should switch to this rune. 364% weapon damage is very helpful with elites, golblins rares and bosses.
Sleetstorm can be used but only when your gear makes you more tanky. This plays more like a tank and can be impressive but certain affixes will make you a little nuts. 364% AOE with a blizzard on your head is pretty fun though.
I do not like the other rune choices.
Blizzard
The build is called Black Ice but I think it should be called Snowbound(maybe, Black Ice sounds cooler though). Blizzard at only 20 AP is one the best skills available to us. Nearly any death can be prevented with another Blizzard. The benefits from the other runes are nothing compared to only 20 AP. Nothing is more critical to this build than being able to cast a Blizzard when you need one. The synergy with black ice can be hurt if you freeze the mobs apart, black ice is a small radius. Extra duration is not as good as casting a second blizzard. Increased radius is not as good as 2 blizzards. Snowbound is king here. LoH works nice with a lot of blizzards and the new monster density so having some mixed in to your gear is great.
Armor
Storm armor
I like Reactive for solo play. The mobs are going to be on you. LS does proc on this so it is a damage shield. You know your gear is appropriate for the MP level when some mobs one shot themselves attacking you.
Power of the storm is very useful if you gear does not support RoF AP. It will usually always fix the problem but it does slow down farming somewhat so it is not ideal or a good long term solution. It can get you through gear gaps.
Energy Armor.
Pinpoint Barrier is my rune choice for MP 8-9-10 group play. I need the extra crit without the scoundrel because the elite fights are longer, more crit equals more AP when geared with AP on crit. I lways use this on group play now. Mobs do not stick to me enough to make reactive armor worth it. With Cold Blooded on d3 up my DPS goes up to 285k and 304k vs elites.
Prismatic barrier, every time I think I need it my gear is not good enough for the MP I am playing, moving back one MP is the right choice if you think you need this. The other alternative is more EHP on your gear (better).
Magic Weapon
Force weapon is the way to go here. I have used conduit if I need a small bump in AP because of my gear. Blood magic could be useful if your weapon does not supply enough LS.
Familiar
Spark Flint is a nice DPS boost. Arcanot can be used if you are having serious AP issues or if you do not want to use Astral presence.
Teleport
I can’t play without this. I only use Fracture. I am sure someone could play without it. Experiment here if you like but this builds biggest weakness is to CC. I love teleport fracture.
Slow Time
I have started experimenting with this in group play. The 20% damagefrom Time Warp seems to speed group clearing, it appears to be a fair trade of against personal surviviability of teleport I would only use with high EHP stats.
Passive Skills
Cold blooded. No explanation necessary. Use it
Astral Presence. I have tried to use other things. I find this mandatory as well. Running out of AP for just a second can kill you while tanking a reflective elite while standing in some evil poop on the ground.
I mess around with the third one often and it usually about gear, MP level, group or Solo. Glass cannon at lower MP with high DPS is very productive. Blur is nice at higher MP. I have recently settled on Unstable Anomaly because I die very infrequently, but when I do it is usually an unlucky set of circumstance that UA prevents. Others have used Power Hungry/ with pick up radius. I am not found of that option. I like to go after other stats on my gear.
The Gear
The build is trying to leverage High Weapon Damage combined with no IAS stats. This helps with cost. Trifecta gear is very expensive. IAS actually hurts this build. Crit chance a Crit damage are key the higher the better. 50 CC and 500 CD is sweet.
Weapons
Skorn
I prefer a high LS one. You can make due at very low MP with LoH if you cast a lot of blizzards. Crit Damage, Intelligence and Average dam are key here. This build is possible with a triumvirate and 1 hnd black weapon damage weapon and make sure have 2 sources of AP on Crit. I have not tested it myself so I cannot comment on it. It should work. A lower speed 1hnd would be helpful to you
Helm
If you are planning on Tal’s 4 piece set bonus the guise of wisdom is you choice here. I prefer Storm Crow as your CC increase so I can use AP on crit instead of Tal 4 piece
Amulet
Tal allegiance’s W/CC is must if using Tal 4 piece You want a good one, your amulet provides a lot of stats. If using a storm crow, craft one with High CC and CD with other good stats.
Chest
Tals relentless pursuit or a Zuni Marrow here. A nice crafted one with work as well. Tyreals Might could be awesome but the ones you want are crazy expensive. 3 Sockets and high stats. The Tal chest will inflate your DPS do not be fooled. The IAS DPS increase hurts, not help.
Shoulders
Craft or vile ward
Gloves
Craft high CC,INT CD gloves EHP here helpful
Belt
Tal belt or rare. Get some EHP here
Legs
I prefer Depth Diggers with big stats but there are a few options here. Get EHP here for sure
Boots
Zuni Trail is what I use. If I could find the tight Ice climbers with MS that did not break the bank I would. I cant find them at a bargain. I love the zunI 2 and 3 piece set bionus for this build though.
Rings
I use a Zuni Pox with High CC here but it is not a must. Other rings make great options. Go after your core stats here, high CC and CD int and EHP stats too.
My current gear level farms MP8 with speed solo and I can hang in MP9 and 10 group play. MP9 is better because there are way more leechers in MP10. The key to group play is blizzard and not RoF. Cover the board with them, WW barbs go everywhere, one should always be centered on the CM wizard at all times too. One centered on you as well.
Remember, this build is about Life Return, D3 is fast and dynamic, casting your blizzards where you anticipate the mobs are going to be is key. Once you become good at this, this build is freakin awesome. Good luck. Look for new video here in the upcoming days.
Everything you attack, cold blooded applies because all of your dps is frost, so the effective DPS is higher than listed. Pretty much everything you attack has a bizzard on top of it as well. This is why every time I try archon I go back to black ice. On d3up my effectve DPS is 285k and 304k vs elites.
Use a calculator or spreadsheet and know your conversions. Bagstone’s gear guide is an absolute must, it contains so much information, it is embarrassing when he answers your questions pointing to the guide and you have already read it and he has linked it for you previously(It has happened to me). http://www.diablofan...ard-gear-guide/ -
Apr 11, 2013
9
SexyShane posted a message on Kripp and Alkaizer talk about Diablo 3Long time reader, first time poster.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
I played a lot of diablo and diablo 2 LOD back in the day. I was pretty stoked to see D3 was in the works a few years back. Checked up on it now and then, but probably not near as much as some of you. Release day came and i did manage to get my hands on a Collectors Edition. Played for a few months, felt kind of disappointed in it, but decided to take a break knowing it will get better. It never actually crossed my mind blizzard would let a game like this fail. And, in my opinion, i am correct. They are making great improvements.
I suppose you can call me a fanboy, although i dont like any other Blizzard game. Tried them, didnt really like them too much. But its odd, that like everyone else, I EXPECTED a game to be improved. I spent 100 bucks on my collectors edition (which I am not upset about at all), but it was a one time fee. This isnt a game with a monthly fee. So the more I have thought about it, I dont know where people get off expecting so much. Is it wrong to expect more? Hell no, the game needs help, I definitely admit it. But the attitudes on the Battle.net forums towards the Devs themselves and other CMs as well as the attitudes here are just insane. People feel entitiled to these improvements theyre giving. Is the game perfect yet? Nope, but I dont get how some dont even see it as progress. As I said, i was disappointed, but my world did not come crashing down. One of two things was going to happen when i quit for a bit: 1. They update the game like I thought they would and implement great changes or 2. they wouldnt do a damn thing and id just be out 100 bucks. Which is the equivalent to two freaking tanks of gas nowadays. And i STILL played for 80 or so hours before i quit.
But i wasnt raging mad when i quit. I just simply stopped. I read this board a lot and it seems so many angry people spent a LOT of time playing a game they loathe so much. I dont really understand it. It must not be that bad of a game if you log 400 hours on it. Thats like ordering a huge steak, eating the ENTIRE thing, and THEN complaining it didnt taste good enough. I am not going to lash out at the staff demanding a refund for something that has now been devoured completely. And it took 400 hours to devour it.
These two "pro" diablo players (I have no idea how you can be regarded as elite or pro on a Point and Click Adventure) cannot be taken serious. Its disheartening to read so many people take their opinion as fact. They do not speak for me. I am not whining the entire time I play. I am not whining about the game on a forum every night. I am not praising the game the entire time i play. I am not praising the game on a forum every night. However, I thought some might like a breath of fresh air from another perspective. I feel as though the game needs improvement, but i do NOT expect anything. I am VERY pleased with the progress they are making. I do not feel as though i fall into the fanboy or hater category, which seems to have taken over every diablo board.
If you like it, youre a fanboy. If you dont like it, youre a hater. Its the most extremely narrow minded mess ive read. Im sure ive got a breaking point, as a lot of you have clearly hit yours, but Im sure when i reach mine i will just simply move on to something else. I suppose that seeming so easy to me doesnt make me very understanding to the ongoing bitter war on diablo forums.
As for POE, thats really the only topic im just going to give a nice firm "Hell No" to. I played it for about 2 days and it is not anything its made out to be by some here. It looks God awful for one. I tried to get by that, but then realized how much i couldnt stand running around the same damn place for 30 minutes trying to find the exit with NOTHING to even look forward to while i ran around EXCEPT the exit. -
Apr 5, 2013
3
Lezard_Valeth posted a message on The Case For Buffing Life Per Second: An Analysis Of Sustain Options For The Discerning DevilkillerThis post was originally put up on my blog. I've copied it here for reading convenience.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
archmagelezard.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-case-for-buffing-life-per-second.html
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A while back in a previous post I made, I argued that one of the particular runes for the Familiar spell was largely useless. This rune was Vigoron, which at level 60 gives you 310 Life Per Second. Now, 310 LPS is pretty good as regen goes - the maximum LPS on any non legendary slot is 340 (according to D3MaxStats), which means Vigoron comes close to providing a max roll for this particular stat. And yet, Vigoron is still as useless as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, by virtue of LPS being said man's missing leg.
In an early blue post for Diablo 3 (I can't find the exact thread, but I'd be grateful to whoever can supply the link), the devs touted LPS as one of the four major sustain options (the others being life steal, life on hit, and health globes; before the advent of Archon builds, life after kill was seen more as a minor leveling/farming quality-of-life advantage). It was supposedly a major cornerstone of Monk gameplay, as well as Witch Doctors to a lesser degree, and was advertised as being useful for all classes. Nearly eight patches later, we now all know better.
Missing The Goal: Life per second started out as a humble, yet useful affix called Replenish Life in Diablo 2. Oddly enough, in those days when everyone and their follower had life steal, Replenish Life still had its place. The average run through Harrogath could see you chugging down entire stacks worth of potions, and buying those pots was a significant gold sink. Replenish Life allowed you to ease the fiscal damage of profligate potion use and ensured you started each fight relatively close to a full hp orb. Nobody really stacked it, but it was a good stat to have, and you didn't lose anything by having it on you.
Now, fast forward over 10 years later. Potions now have a 30 second cooldown, and you'll find more of then in the course of a run than you can ever consume. Monster density and run efficiency means that LPS is significantly devalued as a between-fight heal; you simply don't want to spend any time not killing anything. LPS also takes up an affix slot that could easily be something more worthwhile - even in a shoulder slot, with no direct dps stats, the 'perfect roll' of mainstat, mainstat + vit, all res, +armor means that 4 out of 6 mods have already been consumed. For the last two, pickup radius, +life%, and bonus to health globes are all much better choices, and even mfind/gfind sounds pretty good if you're below Paragon 100. And this is on the most versatile armor slot - can you seriously imagine giving up LoH on jewelry or +crit chance on gloves for LPS? Didn't think so.
A World With More Options: Okay, so the whole healing-between-fights thing has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Well, what about LPS in combat? Why use the other options when LPS can roll on every item slot except weapons? Well, why eat chopped liver when you can have Kobe beef?
Referring again to D3MaxStats, the absolute maximum LPS you can ever have with the current patch is 5217. This assumes max rolls on every slot and a max roll on a Sky Splitter (don't get me wrong, it's a great weapon, but not everyone will want or be able to use it). This also means that you gave up potential stats on the other slots - for example, an optimal rare (non class-specific) helm will have mainstat, vit, crit, armor, all res, and a socket. And we haven't even started talking about the Helm of Command, Storm Crow, or god forbid, a Mempo. In other words, you gave up either DPS or EHP for that couple hundred hp worth of regen. If you could argue that it was worth it, I wouldn't be here telling you how bad it is. Let's see how the other life sustain sources stack up against it.
Life Steal - The sustain of choice for two-hander barbs, bell monks, non-CMWW wizards, and a lot of heavy, slow hitting builds. Devalued by difficulty level, it nevertheless scales directly with your damage output, meaning the better your gear is, the better it gets. At 100k DPS (which is entry level into the big leagues) and with good crit damage modifiers, this adds up to significant life recovery. 1.5% life steal, which is the average for a 1-handed weapon, will still heal for 1,500 in Inferno if you get a 500k crit. And you can still multiply that for area targets. Life Steal tends to jack up a weapon's price by a lot - since it can only roll on weapons unless you're a barb - but by the same token, once you get a good weapon with life steal, that purchase will last you a long time.
Life On Hit - A popular option, this has been a staple of the most popular builds in D3; WW barbs, CMWW wizards, witch doctors with Rain of Toads, and two-weapon monks of all stripes. Another expensive stat, this rolls only on jewelry (and legendary pieces like the Storm Crow and Jousting Mail). This skill is limited by the proc coefficient of the spells you're using - with the wrong skills, it's dead weight. With the right skills, it renders you nearly immortal. It maxes out at over 4100 LoH with legendaries, realistically capping at 2876 with rares. While on paper, this number is greatly lower than the maximum possible LPS, in practice this easily overtakes it depending on the number of targets, cooldown/attack speed, and the skill's proc coefficient. In fact, a popular guide for wizard gearing indicates that 500 LoH should be enough for endgame needs, depending on the rest of the gear. Since LoH caps out at nearly 500 on rings (and nearly 1000 on amulets), this is easy to get provided you're willing to spend a good deal on a single jewelry piece.
Health Globes - While rarely geared for specifically (Gruesome Feast witch doctors and Pound of Flesh barbs come to mind), this mechanic particular to Diablo 3 is one of the most reliable options for healing between fights, and sometimes in mid fight too. Globes heal a percentage of your max health, meaning that it scales with your health pool. All monsters have a chance to drop it, and elite packs can drop it multiple times. While not as strong in terms of pure sustain as the previous options, it's easy to use provided you can survive between health globe drops, and it's dead easy to gear for. A single bonus affix caps out at almost 13000(!) extra life, and this applies to potions as well, which is just GREAT. It doesn't significantly increase the price of gear, and one affix somewhere on your set is good enough to be noticeable without negatively impacting your DPS or EHP.
Life After Kill - One of the least used recovery options, this affix is nevertheless useful to note in high speed farming runs at low MP. Archon wizards benefit greatly by it, as their main mechanic involves fast killing, and Rend Barbarians can also make use of this. Like Bonus Health To Globes, this affix doesn't usually increase a piece's cost, and one should be enough somewhere on your set. It caps out at 2878 life per piece, which is pretty good by itself. While killing large amounts of white trash (or Illusionist packs), this pretty much negates the need for any other kind of healing on lower difficulties.
(Note that there are other niche options for recovery not mentioned here. For example, monks have Life Per Spirit Spent and some barbarian pieces have Life Per Fury spent. These are too class specific to be included in this discussion.)
The first two options completely outclass LPS for combat life recovery, while Life After Kill is clearly superior for post-fight recovery. Health globes are somewhere in the middle, healing for a static amount relative to life pool that can be used both in combat and out of it. All of them reward aggressive gameplay and high DPS. Compare that to LPS, which is a completely static amount regardless of the player's actions, and which heals for an insignificant amount in comparison, and you'll understand why it's not a very impressive stat.
The 411: As it is, LPS is currently a very underwhelming affix that could use some improvment to be a competitive recovery option. Even in combination with certain skills (Mantra of Healing or the aforementioned Vigoron rune), it's still not very good. Worst of all, those skills are subpar options that have much better analogues; Mantra of Conviction and the Sparkflint rune come to mind.
It's true that LPS is still an important factor in a tiny number of builds. The biggest one that comes to mind are glass wizards specs, which rely on the Force Armor rune, small life pools and large EHP values. To a lesser extent, witch doctors with Blood Ritual and/or Fierce Loyalty benefit from stacking LPS. Still, this is far too small a sample size to justify the existent of LPS in the current state of D3.
In my opinion, LPS needs to be buffed, and bad. I'll go out on a limb and say that LPS on gear should be DOUBLED. By doing so, a player needs less pieces of gear with smaller rolls, making it easier and more practical to stack LPS to a useful amount. I would argue that there's no real harm if said player chooses to go ahead and stack it on all his gear pieces; as I've already pointed out, all this does is negatively impact his overall DPS and EHP.
Skills that affect LPS should be tweaked on a case by case basis - Galvanizing Ward and Vigoron could be doubled with little harm, I would think. However, skills like Blood Ritual or Mantra of Healing (which is percentage based or affects the whole party) could be kept as is. Or maybe the opposite could be applied - keep LPS on gear the same while greatly increasing the amount skills recover. This in turn could promote build diversity, effectively transferring the burden of EHP to the skills, allowing the player to gear more offensively instead. In any case, Life Per Second is a stat that needs watching and improving, and hopefully we can make this case to the devs in an upcoming patch.
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Mar 19, 2013
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Lezard_Valeth posted a message on Wizards and the Conjuration School: Why It Sucks And Rocks At The Same TimeI've posted on my blog about some suggestions for Magic Weapon, Familiar, and the various Armor spells. Feel free to follow the link for sources and images, but I'll post most of it up on this thread.Posted in: Wizard: The Ancient Repositories
archmagelezard.blogspot.com/2013/03/wizards-and-conjuration-school-why-it.html
Wizards and the Conjuration School: Why It Sucks And Rocks At The Same Time
If you've ever played a wizard to 60 and above in D3, there's probably 3 spells that have made a near-permanent home in your skill slots. To be exact, these would be Magic Weapon, Familiar (the Sparkflint one to be exact), and an Armor Spell (of any type). The benefits of these three spells are incredible - increased dps for two to five minutes, or some other kind of defensive advantage. All it takes is 25 AP at one pop, and you're good for the next 120 seconds or so. No wonder most people use it.
How do I know that most people use it, you ask? A quick look at the skills used by the top 500 Heroscore players (according to DiabloProgress) shows you the breakdowns. While this obviously doesn't cover every single D3 player, seeing the skills chosen by the top 500 is at least indicative of what skills players trend to. Magic Weapon is at the top of the pack with a whopping 73% usage, with an Armor spell (Energy Armor) in fourth, closely followed by the Familiar spell. Breaking this down further, we see that Blood Magic and Force Weapon are the most used runes for MW, Sparkflint the ONLY rune of choice for Familiar, and Pinpoint Barrier the overwhelming winner in theForce ArmorEnergy Armor category.
In a side note, Storm Armor makes a healthy showing at number 8 in the list. Ice Armor is number 20, however, showing that most people care about the dps gains provided by the other Armor spells. The prevailing Wizard dogma is "kill it before it kills you", and apparently even the incredible 12% melee damage reduction isn't enough to interest many players in it (As a personal disclaimer, this is one my personal favorite armor spells, as it's saved me more times than I can count and is a cheap way to trigger Cold-Blooded).
With all these spells providing a good duration of free dps, it's clear why many people would use them, probably all at the same time. All three spells are near mandatory for Archon farming specs, while even CMWW and SNS builds carry at least 1 Armor spell each. One could, if I may, argue that they're almost too good.
And that brings me to the next point - why they suck. One is that there's almost no reason not to pack them - common wisdom would say that, if you pack 1 signature spell, 1 AP spender, and 1 ohcrap button of your choice, that leaves 3 slots for MW, Familiar, and an Armor spell. In fact, before Monster Power, I had all three spells for nearly every one of my builds. In other words, they worsen diversity because apart from sacrificing a slot, there's no other downside to using them. They'll mostly be on, they only take a second and a nominal AP cost, they're basically 3 passive slots you swapped for active slots. Which leads me to the next reason they suck - they're BORING.
The Conjuration school has rough equivalents with a couple of the other classes, that is the Barbarian Tactics and the Monk mantras. Every barb has a shout, usually Battle Rage, although a lot of people use War Cry as well (and Threatening Shout is at least represented on DiabloProgress as well at number 16). And every monk uses a Mantra of some kind. But what makes them different and more interesting than the Conjuration school?
In the case of the Barb, using the shouts is a significant decision. War Cry and Threatening Shout restore Fury and have cooldowns, meaning it's better to save casting them when you need them rather than just refreshing them each time the cd is up (especially in the case of a party). While Battle Rage has no cooldown, it costs 20 Fury, usually a significant sum since it actually takes effort to gain Fury. In the case of monks, Mantras have a bonus effect each time it is cast, which is also a significant decision since Spirit is an equally precious resource (We all know there's really only one Mantra worth casting... maybe a second if you're a two-handed weapon monk... but that's a different discussion).
If you've played a Wizard, then you know AP is a dime a dozen. We get ten points of it a SECOND just by standing around and scratching our heads. And we haven't even begun to talk about AP on crit items or Astral Presence. The Conjuration skills are such no brainers that I end up casting them by absent-minded mistake even when I'm playing different classes.
Ok, then, so what can be done about this state of affairs? As a matter of fact, we have a couple of options.
HELL TO PAY: There needs to be a significant consequence to use the Conjuration spells. I'm not saying nerf them to the ground (unless we want another wave of wizards to ragequit en masse right behind the melee demon hunters), but rather that they incur a cost that would at least influence the user's choices. Let's look at Energy Armor - it lowers the maximum AP by 20 in all runes except one, and yet it's still the number 4 spell on the DiabloProgress list. This means that despite the drawback, people are still willing to use it. Why not do something similar to the other spells, then? If you consider that the Conjuration spells last a long time, wouldn't it make sense that they're a constant drain on a Wizard's resources?
I'm proposing that each Conjuration spell cast, apart from its AP cost, reduces maximum Arcane Power by 5.ForceEnergy Armor would reduce it by 25 instead, considering how desired it is. What this means is that, if you used all three Conjuration spells at the same time, your total AP is reduced by 15 (or thereabouts, again assuming you're not using Energy Armor). Or maybe each Conjuration spell could, instead, reduce Arcane Power GENERATION by 1 point each, affecting both AP regen and AP on crit. This would make choosing such spells an actual choice, instead of a no-brainer.
GIV 'UM SUM FLASH, BOYZ: But wait - doesn't the above idea just nerf the Conjuration spells to the ground? Whatever happened to making them more interesting? Well, we can do that too - for example, with the Armor spells, why not make them have an effect when they're cast?
But wait - isn't that just a cheap knockoff of the monk Mantras? Sure it would be... if the effect was a buff. We all know from Blizzard's lore overview that Wizards are supposed to be rebellious, flamboyant, and lacking in finesee... in game terms, pure hoses of demon-crunching Dee Pee Ess. So make the Armor cast effect reflect that - when casting an Armor spell, it releases a large area effect wave of X% weapon damage of the corresponding element (ice, lightning, and arcane damage depending on the Armor spell). The damage should not be comparable to actual AP spenders, but rather, give you an incentive to refresh your Armor spell in the middle of combat instead of out of it. Furthermore, the cast effect would be able to proc the corresponding passives (Cold Blooded, Temporal Flux, and Paralysis, which badly needs another source of lightning damage).
ME AND MY LITTLE FRIEND: Familiar these days is pretty much a single rune spell. Sparkflint is just that damn good - no one really cares about Vigoron's bonus hp regen (which is the red headed stepchild of life regain anyway) or Arcanot's AOE effect. That 12 percent bonus, no-questions-asked boost to dps just makes Sparkflint the only choice. But then what do we do? Nerfing Sparkflint is just asking for trouble and forum flames. So... here's a thought... why not BUFF the other runes?
A simple fix would involve looking at WHY Sparkflint is so good - that 12% bonus dps. Why not give a small amount of that to the baseline Familiar effect, say, a 5% dps bonus? If Arcanot gave you bonus 2 AP regen a second AND a 5% damage increase, wouldn't you start looking at it some more? Sparkflint would still be the best choice for raw dps, but the other familiar runes would then offer flexibility with being a dps loss. One would imagine this makes them a LOT more attractive.
I GOT THE MAGIC STICK: Magic Weapon suffers from the same problem as the Armor spells - once cast, it just sits there and adds to your dps. Even worse, its rune diversity suffers because there's only real 2 real choices for the rune; Blood Magic and Force Weapon. The reason behind this isn't even because the other runes are a loss of dps - it's because they can't proc anything. Electrify can't even proc Paralysis, which is downright silly, while Venom not only has zero proc coefficient, it uses an element that isn't supported by any Wizard passive and just feels downright out of place. Conduit, on the other hand, gives much too little AP to make it worth using.
Apart from allowing it to proc and buffing some of the effects, there are other ways to make Magic Weapon more interesting. Does anyone remember the Sorceress' Enchant spell from Diablo 2? What if the secondary effects from the Magic Weapon spell (lifesteal, knockback, DoT, resource gain, aoe lightning) applied to your ENTIRE party? It might require some numbers tweaking (granting an entire party 1.5% lifesteal might turn out to be too good), but doing this would actually give the Wizard some co-op viability, instead of just being the dps glass cannon.
There should be a ton of ideas out there on how to make the Conjuration school more interesting. I'm not saying my suggestions are the best ones, but I hope they're a start. Maybe this'll get people thinking about concrete, positive proposals for these spells. -
Mar 15, 2013
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Zero(pS) posted a message on So whats the point in playing anymore? (constructive no flame please)The game is only not ok for those who care about what's "most optimal" and what's the "best way to play the game", which is a very negative way to view games nowadays, imho.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
I'm not saying they're wrong (either in how they play or their expectations).
I'm saying these people in particular will always feel that the game is unfair, not deep enough, not fun enough - no matter the changes made. For these people in particular, perfect balance is the most important aspect of the game (balance between item affixes, balance between specific skills/runes, balance between classes/builds, balance between acts/bosses/elites/farming areas). And that won't happen in an ARPG, ever!
The sooner they realize this and start just enjoying things instead of caring about something that affects 0,000001% of the playerbase, the sooner they're gonna move out of the hatewagon and start actually enjoying the game for what it is: a solid action rpg experience with very fast paced and fun (or challenging, depending on your build and MP) combat and coop.
I'll take some time to explain my point of view further (considering what you said), because I honestly think these 2 topics have been discussed to death but never appropriately. Sorry in advance for the wall of text
On skills:
The simple fact that you say there are 4 skill builds (either for all classes or for each of them) is saddening to me, because that's how most players see D3 nowadays.
Just for my Archon MP1 farming build I can think of 5-7 variants of it, some with Storm Armor for better movement speed (Scramble) or AoE (Shocking Aspect or Reactive Armor), some with Teleport Wormhole for faster movement when I'm out of Archon form, some with Blizzard and Hydra so that I can throw AoE and leave monsters be (if I don't care about gold/items). Passives can include Evocation, Critical Mass or Galvanizing Ward - again that depends on other skills and whether you mind dropping out of Archon to recast armor spells. I can think of dozens of variants that I've tried for the popular builds that fared better for my gear/MP than what is considered to be the best.
If I go for Critical Mass, I might consider Force Armor with +5% crit chance, and I might drop my Hellfire Ring for a crit chance rare ring, and then I might be able to up MP a bit with the added armor, and the cooldown reduction from Critical Mass will keep me in Archon form. This is theorycrafting, and this is the one of the "role playing" aspects of Diablo 3 that people claim isn't there.
That's ONE thematic build. People say Wizards only have Archon or CM builds, and I heavily disagree with that. I've been recently using The Oculus, a Wizard off-hand that greatly decreases Teleport cooldown and increases Blizzard duration, and I'm able to do a crapload more damage with Blizzard + Hydra than I can with CMWW.
And I don't EVER have to care about Fire Chains, Desecrator, Plagued, Molten, Frozen, Nightmarish + Arcane with it. I can sacrifice a ton of EHP for damage. But then I have to be really careful with Jailer/Waller (to not blow my Teleport cooldown too early), I have to be really careful with really fast and resilient minions (hordes) since I can't burst them to death.
"Oh, but that's because your gear sucks!!!", YES IT DOES! Awesome isn't it? My gear sucks, I change my weapon and off-hand and a couple skills and suddenly the way I play changes completely. But I can still play on MP 4-7. With Teleport + Evocation + Fracture I got decent repositioning skills + ranged firepower (which is invaluable versus goblins and ranged elites/monsters).
And that's the beauty of it: I don't give a SHIT if my "build of the day" is 5-10% less effective than John_Doe's. All I care is that in every session I'm playing my ARPG and enjoying its combat in a completelly different manner.
Could give dozens of examples on other classes, but this is long enough as is.
On items/itemization:
Another urban legend right here: there's no choice in items/affixes.
That's pure, utter, absolute bullshit. "Oh but it's SO obvious which stats you want on items, and the BiS IS SO OBVIOUS too!!!"
Oh really? Please, enlighten me which are those. "Well, you want mainstat, vitality, all res on most defensive gear, and then you want like average damage, mainstat, attackspeed, crit chance, crit dmg on rings/amulets, and then mainstat/crit dmg/crit chance on gloves..."
If you can describe 3-4 desired stats on a given slot (can go up to 6-7 on rings/amulets), there is a goddamn choice. "But I want them all, otherwise the item is useless" (people love this word, don't they?). No, it's not useless - it's just no the absolute best item.
I have never used a trifecta gloves with decent stats (vit or int or whatever). I am completely aware that I will never use a perfect pair of trifecta gloves. That's something reserved for the top-end players. And if you can't have everything (all 5 stats on your gloves) AGAIN, you have a freaking choice right there.
It does not affect me in any way whatsoever (nor the majority of the complainers), because I still need to choose between crit dmg, crit chance and attackspeed, and I still need to decide whether I want some EHP in there as well (all resist, armor, vitality). There's a choice when you look at 2 items and see that one has pickup radius and the other has physical resistance (secondary affixes) and you can't be 100% sure which would be better for you at the MP you play and with the build you use.
I certainly don't mind that some affixes are primary (more important than others for the core of my character) and some are secondary (refer to specialization, like specific resistances). People want "+ bonus to health globes/pots" to be as important as +Intelligence and that (again) just won't happen.
"But BUT how about the Best in Slot items? Skorn for instance?" You got me there. That is obviously the strongest 2-handed weapon when perfectly rolled, but hey, what's the chance of you getting a perfectly rolled Skorn if you try reaaaally hard? 5%? 10%? I know mine is 0%. If I dropped something like that, I'd sell it for 2 billion and buy mid-tier gear for all slots on all my characters.
Most people complaining have "pretty damn good gear", but FAR from perfect or best in slot. And some of these guys have 2k+ hours played (sometimes 3k+), and they're not REMOTELY close to having BiS items. AND THEN D3 HAS NO END-GAME - brain: exploded!!!
The price on these BiS legendaries is also way higher than something like an IK's Boulder Breaker or an Inna's Reach which can fulfill the same needs. A BB can work wonders with a HotA build and it can give you a full IK's set bonus, which is pretty awesome for a HotA build as well. An Inna's Reach can reduce the cost of Lashing Tail Kick or increase the crit chance of WoL as well as give you the free SW bonus. Skorn can do neither of those.
The same can be said for the oh-so-mighty Witching Hour. Is it the best DPS belt in the game? Yes. Is it the ONLY belt worth using? Hell no. Rares can still add a crapload of EHP (my Wiz's belt gives me 150 vit, 60 allres and armor). I will never be able to afford a WH with those stats.
The fundamental game design that says that DPS is more important than EHP (hence why mainstat is almost always more valuable than vit/allres/armor) is the same that dictates Diablo has no defined roles - everyone is a DPS machine. You can NEVER have too much dps, but you can (and most preach that you SHOULD) have the minimum defensive stats to survive long enough to kill your enemies.
That's WHY mainstat, crit-chance, crit-dmg and average dmg (weapon dmg) will ALWAYS be more important than defensive stats. That doesn't mean you can't have 150k HP + 4 million EHP + 3k LoH, but there's simply no point to it when we know the enemies capabilities.
Again, the whole idea of efficiency comes to mind. People don't do that because it's not "efficient". We could have a huge change of paradigm when (and if) PvP arena comes. Suddenly EHP might become a huge deal.
The sheer ignorance regarding these themes shown on D3 forums blows my mind. Sometimes I think the biggest deal is that people didn't get what they personally wanted from the game. But then again everyone (fans) got what they wanted from Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 and nobody is playing those games anymore - go figure.
Let me make myself very clear here. I, too, have a buttload of suggestions and feedback to the developers. I do have a very long list of criticisms. I do think there's a ton of things they can and should improve, both in items, skills and overall game-design.
But I simply refuse to become a tunnel-visioned hater who just repeats what the others are saying. I've had a very strong critic sense my whole life, and almost never believe on what's presented to me without putting a lot of thought and research into it.
And that won't change with D3 or whatever gaming community I'm part of. -
Feb 22, 2013
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Artemix posted a message on Diablo 3: Designed for ConsolesThere is a fact that no one cant deny, everything that is going to be implemented in the PC version, has to work in the console version as well. And that, is a limitation per se.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
And, it is true, that the console games are more casual friendly than the PC games, despite the interface limitation. -
Feb 21, 2013
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Catalept posted a message on Diablo 3: Designed for ConsolesLook, I know intellectual laziness is par for the course on the internet, but guilt-by-association just doesn't work as anything other than breathless polemic. If you've got a beef with game mechanics, evaluate them on their own merits.Posted in: Diablo III General Discussion
This idea that simplified game controls or mechanics are inherently bad is just PC-gamer self-congratulation wearing a crayon-lettered name-tag saying "Ima gaem critic, no srsly". Being a PC gamer doesn't make you a member of some exclusive club that gets a free +10 int perk... hell, identifying as a "PC gamer" is, IMO, a red flag. You either love games, or you don't... and if you do, don't be so goddam hipster about it. "Oh ya, I was, like, into Blizzard before they sold out.", "I only game on hand-made artisan PCs with ingredients sourced directly from Cybertron."
/puke - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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OOOOOOOH that's a brilliant idea. Now I'm gonna make a first armory entry called "empty" on all my characters! Yes!
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We've discussed the conquests before, and I think many are straightforward. Boss mode is often left out and considered to be hard - when it's actually relatively easy and by far the easiest for any well-coordinated group. And in my opinion, it's by far the conquest that's most fun.
Time to KILL a Boss: Estimate your Power
First, we need to understand the relative difficulty of the bosses. There are four bosses that have animations and take a bit longer to kill:
All the other bosses can, at least in theory, be a one-shot. Test how long it takes you to kill Malthael on TX, and after that any of the others (e.g., Azmodan) just to get a feel for how long the boss fights will take you. Can you kill Malthael in less than a minute (including all animations) and Azmodan in less than 15 seconds? Then your DPS should be high enough.
Time to FIND a Boss: Make an Ordered List
Next, we need to look at the difficulty of getting to the bosses. For that, we create an ordered list. The one we used for our run was this:
Basically the list can be split into two halves (top 9, bottom 7). The first 9 take a bit longer, either because the way is so long (Malthael, Siegebreaker) or the pathing can be difficult to find (Izual, Aranae) or both (Urzael, Adria). Also, as aforementioned Malthael, Urzael, and Diablo take a bit longer because of animations and transitions and stuff, so it's good to get those out of the way early (only Belial being on the bottom half).
Gear and Spec Requirements/Advice
In terms of gear/specs, you obviously need great mobility. That means:
Can I Solo It? Yes You Can!
I think for doing this solo, WD is probably best because it has a great mix of mobility and insane boss DPS. But any class can do it. If you're solo, start from the top and keep in mind that the last ones can be done super quickly. You could probably do the bottom 6 in 3 minutes including going there and killing them, so if the first 12 take you 15 minutes you'd still be more than fine! It might take a few tries, but it's absolutely possible.
Group Play - Coordinate and Celebrate
Now to my favorite part: How to get this conquest done super easily - in a group. That's how this was done super early on in the season by some groups, and why I advise some people to try it out. This conquest was completed just 5 hours after the start of the season (by a group of paragon 200 players of ZE).
The preparation is that everyone needs to agree on an order to kill the bosses in, as well as an assignment for the early bosses about which players take which bosses. Depending on if you're 2 players, 3 players, or 4 players, you should have this list either printed out, on your PC, or even best just write it down on a piece of paper and put it next to you:
http://imgur.com/a/UotMl (pic a bit outdated b/c of old Malthael pathing)
It's arguable if setting up bosses makes sense for 4 players in round 3; we did it, but you can also just start running together. For 3 players, after Ghom there's no potential to run into dead ends and no super long walks anymore, so you should definitely not split up anymore but just run all together, because setting up bosses takes some time.
Now the reason why this list is so important is because you set up bosses in the group. You do this by putting a Town Portal in front of the boss area, join the others to kill a boss, and then use the MAP (not your town portal spell!) to go back to town, use your town portal to go back to the previous boss you have set up, and then all the others join. Is this confusing? If you think so, let's do a walkthrough of an exemplary Boss Mode run in a full group. The four players are called Adam, Beth, Carol, and Dan.
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Adam takes Malthael, Beth goes for Urzael, Carol starts looking for Adria, and Dan searches Diablo.
Dan arrives first and teleports back to town - and waits.
Adam gets to Malthael and teleports back to town - and waits.
Carol finds Adria and teleports back to town, and waits.
Beth finally get to Urzael, starts the teleport - and realizes (by looking at the chat) that all other three players already have found their bosses. She cancels the teleport and just clicks on the boss fight area to start the fight. Everyone accepts, and Urzael is put to rest.
The remaining three bosses are to be tackled in their respective order, which means Malthael is next. Therefore, as soon as Urzael is done dying, Adam presses "m" (NOT "t"!) and clicks on the Enclave to go back to town. There, he clicks on the town portal and everyone joins in to fight Malthael.
After the fight, Carol is next. Again, Carol uses the map and not the town portal to go back to the town hub, and then proceeds to use her town portal to go back to Ruins of Corvus and start the fight with Adria.
Last but not least, Dan does the same afterwards to set up the fight with Diablo. After Diablo is dead and the seemingly endless animation of his death is over, Adam teleports to Silver Spire level 1, Beth goes to Halls of Agony 3, Carol heads to the Aranaea Caverns, and Dan makes a run through the Bridge of Korsik. Round two starts!
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A few notes:
Good luck everyone! I know this is a lot of text, and I could've probably made it shorter, but I didn't have time for that. But I hope this helps some people.
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This is a screenshot from 4 man leaderboard on PTR; taken a minute ago:
Wiz/DH/double crusader is the new meta. You heard it here first. Made top 20 on PTR, so it must be meta, right? RIGHT? RIGHT?
Well...
Maybe not quite. It's only GR40.
No one is playing PTR. There's simply not enough testing to give any definitive answer about the S10 meta. And there won't be until PTR goes down, because Blizzard recently started to make meta-impacting changes post-PTR. You can ask about the meta a few weeks into the season. But: IT DOESN'T MATTER. In the first few days and weeks, the meta is *not* the same as the final season push meta. You're not pushing on day 1 or in week 1 of the season; you're speedfarming.
Pick any class you like, or whatever your group wants you to pick. Be prepared to change classes. That's it. Same every season.
Currently it's assumed that the meta is sup barb, sup monk, WD for trash, and either monk, wiz, or DH for the RG (all three seem to be viable). But anyone who will now tell you "THIS IS THE S10 META FOR SURE" is an absolutely bloody fool. Don't ask for them, don't listen to them. If anyone of the top players tells you what the S10 meta is, they'll be trolling you; they know better.
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My thoughts
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Every class can do Bossmode - easily. It's just about the question "when". With Marauders being the free set, I think WD and DH are basically on par - the only difference being that WD is about an hour faster at level 70. But once you are farming T6, WD is one of the slowest classes, so the DH will take over here. It's funny: WD is the best class for the first 3 hours of the season (level 1-70) and the best at the end (main damage dealer in high GR clears). But for everything in between it... sucks. (And I say this as someone who has played most seasons as WD).
As for the conquests, all of them are infinitely easier in groups. Unless it is anyone's passion to "play solo", I urge everyone to group up with others. It will make the 6x GR55s easy as hell. I personally am only playing S10 if at least one of my friends is playing. This season solo is gonna be a terrible experience, but in a group you'll get the 6 required sets very soon - as well as get the conquests much easier. This is a non-solo player season. Last season was for solo players. Unless a solo player fancies the portrait (which is freaking ugly) or doesn't have the stash tab yet, sitting this one out might not be the worst thing to do.
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If you just want to go for Conqueror, definitely go for Boss Mode and the rank 65 gems. Those conquests are BY FAR the easiest and least time-consuming in S10. Going for Guardian and doing any other 3rd conquest will definitely take a bit more time this season (unless you're super experienced with Sprinter and can one-shot this one; but for anyone who has never done this, Sprinter can take up to an entire day if you make mistakes and/or get unlucky). Of course doing the set dungeons or 6x GR55 is simply time consuming due to the fact that you need 8 or at least 6 sets, respectively. It's not about leveling the second class (that takes 10 minutes of powerleveling) but getting all the gear, changing build, doing the dungeon/GR and so on.
As for the tracker update, I definitely intend to update the tracker - but I don't have ANY data for the conquests past chapter 4. Not sure if I have time to do the season journey on PTR, so if anyone has screenshots of all those up to Guardian that would be great. I'll prepare the new version then (it'll go live once S9 is over).
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"Adding 1 new item per class" has never been a major patch (please look at previous patch numbers).
If you personally consider that a feature should've been in the game from the start, that doesn't mean the programmer doesn't have the rights to ever increase the major build number. That's simply not how programming works. Patch numbers and the decision of minor/major is not decided by how significant *you* think a patch is. It's the developer's decision. Diablo could receive some huge back-end changes that would bump up its patch number to 2.6 but you wouldn't notice any difference in the game.
The crafting mats storage and its implementation alone was probably enough to warrant so many in-depth code revisions that justify a major version number iteration.
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Not sure how you can argue for this being a "minor patch".
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Nah, he might just want to use them for a website. I've been wondering the same a while ago, to be honest. Was too lazy to find out.
You could use the one that Diablorank uses:
#b52615 for barb
#b52615 for crusader
#735289 for DH
#e5d34d for monk
#46c230 for WD
#5fc6e5 for wizard
Maybe if you click on the official website there's a page with all the colors where you can get them from. Or maybe just datamine from the client's code.
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In addition to that, please always take a look at this thread which is where all knowledge about the Manald Heal is currently documented.
I really think Coldkil's boldface statement is all there is (with small caveats, like the fact that MH can deal damage multiple times during one Paralysis proc, which is another reason for high attack speed - although we still don't know every little detail here). It's also important to consider that you can deal MH damage even when the Paralysis stun gets denied due to CC immunity. Again, that's because MH just checks if the 15% roll of Paralysis got a "yes" or "no" on cast. MH doesn't care if the target is actually stunned.