Diablo III

[Nork]

I would like some middle ground where I could at least help my buddy out who just joined the game beyond throwing junk at him he'd see on his own in <10 hours of max level gameplay.

I keep a few level 70 weapons with 28-30 reduced level requirements on them in case friends start playing. Beyond that, I wouldn't mind if the jewelcrafter included an option to turn Marquis gems into a special type of gem that had all the stats of a marquis gem, was tradeable, couldn't be upgraded, and sold for next to nothing to vendors. That way you could get gems to a new player without Blizzard having to worry about the market implications of tradeable RoS gems.

[mosc]

It's sad though because even if I could give them marquis gems, a few million gold, and all the crafting materials they need to get going (like souls), I wouldn't really be able to help them anywhere near as much as a quality legendary would do. Blizzard is so worried about trading these crafting materials when they have little to no value to an experienced player anyway.

[Nylonathatep]

I'll just like to Chime in regarding Monks.

Vanilla Monks are the support melee with Mantras, and Cyclone to bunch the mobs up so the rest of the party can AOE them. They can survive being inside Elite's AOE via self heal and being invunerable for a few seconds, with randomly generated whrilwind as their source of dps. I describe Vanallia Diablo 3 monk as a turble... slow but lives forever.

I think Blizzard wanted something different for RoS Monks. The above thunder-monk is certain viable but I find the best monk build to be The Epiphany fire monk build. The Fire Rune Epiphany with Tempest Rush means every mob on your screen gets hit, and the rest of your build is focus on movement speed and fire damage (Fire Mystic Ally/Dashing Strike/Lashing Tail Kick) and Mantra of Rebribution(speed), with OWE, Exaulted Souls, Momentum, Beacon of Ytar. I also See people use SSS.

The basic concept of the build is reduce cooldown and fast movement speed. Ideally your cooldown reduction would reach the point where you an have Epiphany constantly to generate your spirit constantly and plowing through trash mobs.

I think Blizzard is moving away from the role-thing and instead just let every class do their thing in their own way. So now instead of an optimaul buil, there's deviation due to +% Elemental damage and other considations. Still I think you can do a lot more with fire based skills then any other elemental based set of skills, as well some class skills just out-shines any other possible available skills (DH's Fire Cluster Arrow/Witchdoc's Melee Fetish). Wizard is still the most balanced class, skills wise as in having the most varied skills available (Fire, Ice Orbs, Blizzard, Disintergrate, Lightning build). I also have no clue whats Crusader does besides pretending to be a D2 Hammeradin.

[Enokh]

Finally just said "screw it" and blasted through the story as my Monk to unlock Adventure Mode. Literally just Dashed everywhere, dropped it down to normal, and blew through all of Acts 3-5 in a single sitting over the course of. . .not a lot of time.

Reaper of Souls was crazy short for an expansion, though I guess the actual point of the expansion was the level cap increase and other such goodies. I beat Malthiel and I was like "And. .and then something else happens! Right?"

Spoiler:

Like maybe I fight Imperatus? Or something? Please?

[Chen]

So double legendary drop chance and rift shard drops today until next thursday for the 2 year anniversary event. That's kinda nice.

[Izawwlgood]

It's been pretty great. I got like 5 legendaries, 3 plans, two set items just lastnight.

Got this thing and now electrocute ALL the things! I'm liking my Wizard a bit more, I feel Elemental Exposure encourages hugely varied builds, whereas my Crusader and WD feel somewhat pidgeonholed into always using a handful of skills.

[Chen]

Yeah the legendary drops have been nice. Got my second Tal Rasha set piece. One more with my Royal Ring and I'll have meteors flying everywhere. Considering I can gamble for the set pieces now is a huge boost too since I can try getting the belt at cheap blood shard cost.

Also the Rift it Forward community works really well for either quick blood shards or free rifts. Basically you open a rift, run it all the way to the end, then announce to the channel you're taking invites for the boss. People come in kill the boss, everyone gets shards and then one of the 3 people you invite opens a new rift for you. So either you keep running them alone for free or you wait in the channel get in on just rift bosses for quick shards and 1/3 chance of needing to open the next rift. So basically 3 times the value of your rift keys. Right now its not worth doing the quick boss kills with the double drop rate, but its awesome to be able to only use 5 rift shards per session for as many rifts as you want.

[Izawwlgood]

So you're clearing Rifts solo? Why not just grab a group of people and clear Rifts with them?

[Nork]

I can't speak for Chen, but I know that I prefer solo play in D3. Playing solo gives you the freedom to be as inefficient as you want without feeling guilty and it gives you a pause button. I know a lot of people like the group aspect of the game, but for me the game's main appeal is that it's a single-player MMO.

[Chen]

So you're clearing Rifts solo? Why not just grab a group of people and clear Rifts with them?

Couple of reasons. One is that I'm geared such that I play around my templars two heals often enough. Its rare you'll find random people who like healing you. Next is that random pugs end up very often being WAY undergeared to efficiently clear the torment level they play at. Meaning I need to deal significantly more damage to kill things and things generally take longer. Also a lot of people I've tried doing rifts with, like to leech and not open their own fair share of the rifts. Last I do like being able to pause or stop what I'm doung at whim if I need to. I tend to feel bad doing that if the whole group is going to end up waiting for me or just forcing them to clear less efficiently.

[Decker]

I got my Witch Doctor up to Torment 3 before deciding to take a break.
Creeping Death + pestilence locusts + haunt (I was using Resentful Spirits until the haunt jump distance buff, then I switched to Draining Spirit) + piranha wave of mutilation + Those two zombie buff passives + leeching zombie dogs + gargantuan bruiser + perice the veil + Firebomb ghost bomb or whatever it's called. The last rune.

I'm not super hardcore, but it works pretty well so far. The only problem is no spirit walk = can get trapped by large number of mobs if I'm not careful.

Been trying to find Mask of Jeram

[Izawwlgood]

That's very similar to my WDs setup, but I can't use PtV as I run out of mana, because Soul Barrage is just so much cooler than a signature.

[Decker]

That's very similar to my WDs setup, but I can't use PtV as I run out of mana, because Soul Barrage is just so much cooler than a signature.

+20% to damage is hard for me to give up. And +15% with wave of mutilation is icing on the already heavily frosted cake. I might switch it around to see what works better. It's a lot easier to play around with different builds now. There are a lot of skills in that category that I like, really.

[Telchar]

I've been running a similar build but with spirit walk, Rain of Toads and the passive the procs fetishes. The duty those fetishes pull is unreal. I have a Tall Man's Finger and Mask of Jeram at 99%. My zombie dog crit regularly for 16mil and my Gargantuan (on cooldown) crits for 30 mil. Fetishes run around 2-3mil depending on the buffs/debuffs. Overall a really succesful build up through T3. My damage only shows as 500k but I don't have a problem soloing or in a group.

[Izawwlgood]

Do abilities still have different proc rates for on hit? Like, does Poison Dart - Splinter (the one that shoots 3 darts instead of one?) have a 3x proc rate over Poison Dart - Snake to the Face?

[Chen]

Do abilities still have different proc rates for on hit? Like, does Poison Dart - Splinter (the one that shoots 3 darts instead of one?) have a 3x proc rate over Poison Dart - Snake to the Face?

Proc rates are different per ability AND per rune (generally). So its likely the 3 dart one has a lower proc rate than a single dart ability. Google D3 proc rates and you should be able to find the full list fairly easily (I can't link them from here at work).

[Nork]

Here's a link - Splinter is a 33% proc chance and Snake to the Face is 100%.

[Decker]

I can't post a link right now, since it's a pain in the ass to do that on my phone, but there is a blue post saying that they are going to make the "double legendary drop rate anniversary bonus" permanent.

[Chen]

Yup a good change I think. I feel the drop rate right now is pretty solid when doing rifts. You still won't gear up in a week, but it feels a bit more like progress.

[Enokh]

And here I was just about to post how I was going to be sad that the drop rate was about to return to normal.

[Decker]

Does anyone know how the Jade Harvester full set bonus (Soul Harvest causes all DoT spells to deal remaining damage all at once) interacts with Creeping Death?

[mosc]

I'm getting very frustrated by the ring of royal grandeur. It seems impossible to get. I do normal act 1 cache runs for hours and it doesn't drop. It's been even longer since I've seen somebody actually get that act 3 DH-dreamy hat too.

I feel like when the expansion first came out there were lots of people running normal caches, hoarding them, and going to T6 on whatever act and opening them with ridiculous drop rates. They noticed this only after rings were had and their fix was to hard code in the drop as if it's normal no matter where you open it. Maybe they should have hard coded it where it was T1 no matter where you opened it? I mean the drop rate now is just abysmal.

it doesn't help that I'm a monk so I need to run 3 set bonuses to not friggin' die every two seconds in T4. Most other classes only run 2 sets, the ring is less mandatory.

[Chen]

I'm getting very frustrated by the ring of royal grandeur. It seems impossible to get. I do normal act 1 cache runs for hours and it doesn't drop. It's been even longer since I've seen somebody actually get that act 3 DH-dreamy hat too.

I feel like when the expansion first came out there were lots of people running normal caches, hoarding them, and going to T6 on whatever act and opening them with ridiculous drop rates. They noticed this only after rings were had and their fix was to hard code in the drop as if it's normal no matter where you open it. Maybe they should have hard coded it where it was T1 no matter where you opened it? I mean the drop rate now is just abysmal.

it doesn't help that I'm a monk so I need to run 3 set bonuses to not friggin' die every two seconds in T4. Most other classes only run 2 sets, the ring is less mandatory.

Caches had a bug where you could get T6 contents (in terms of gems and gold) if you opened them in T6 game, regardless of where you got them. There was never a bug that allowed you to get the T6 drop rate for caches, because prior to the last patch, Caches had the same drop rate regardless of difficulty.

Cache specific legendary drop rate before was around 1 legendary per 10 caches. Now it scales with torment (presumably at the same rate as the regular buff being 15% per torment, multiplicative). It's still probably more efficient to speed farm normal caches though.

[faranim]

I had to farm around 100 Normal A1 caches before I got my ring. It took me about 5 days of farming A1 Caches (~3 hours a day, so ~15 hours total).

I also got lots of those purple armbands and whatever other A1 legendaries come from the cache (skeleton king shoulders, and I think also some crappy amulet).

[Izawwlgood]

So the drop rate has been left high! I found a bunch of plans and legendaries in the last few dayys.

[mosc]

well apparently bitching is good, because I did 7 runs after posting here and I got a ring. Had lightning resist on it too, along with dex, LOH, attack speed, and something useless I turned into 6% CC. RNG apparently likes me and I should stop complaining now.

EDIT: and yes, I can now survive in T4 as well as I could in T3 without it. I know other classes have some real benefits from it but nobody requires it like a monk.

[Izawwlgood]

I'm trying to grind out a legendary flail for my Crusader. What is the best way to do this? Rifts + blood shard gambles?

[Chen]

I'm trying to grind out a legendary flail for my Crusader. What is the best way to do this? Rifts + blood shard gambles?

Yeah Rifts + blood shards. You can try Rift it Forward and just go in to kill guardians. Saves you on rift keys and gets blood shards at a very fast rate. Gambling for weapons is tough though since there's so many different types that can drop and they're expensive. I'm just clearing rifts (again using Rift it Forward so I don't need shards) and gambling when I can for my Wand of Woh on my Wizard. I assume it's going to take forever.

[mosc]

I'd love to rift it forward but I end up wasting too much time in chat. Better to speed clear T1 rifts to the guardian and restart.

[Chen]

I'd love to rift it forward but I end up wasting too much time in chat. Better to speed clear T1 rifts to the guardian and restart.

When you're at the rift guardian all you need to do is post a "T1 lowest opens" or "T1 my choice" in the community chat and you'll have FAR more than 3 people join very quickly. Figure out whoever opens the next rift by whatever metric you chose and boom. Free rift. Costs you 5 shards to start the cycle and you can keep doing rifts at no cost for that play session.

[Izawwlgood]

I wish there was a change to the legendary acquisition. A number of builds are only possible with a legendary or set. I know the games about grinding for loot, but it'd be a lot better if there were some convenience measures built in.

For example, if salvaging a piece of gear gave you the recipe for it.

[mosc]

I'd love to rift it forward but I end up wasting too much time in chat. Better to speed clear T1 rifts to the guardian and restart.

When you're at the rift guardian all you need to do is post a "T1 lowest opens" or "T1 my choice" in the community chat and you'll have FAR more than 3 people join very quickly. Figure out whoever opens the next rift by whatever metric you chose and boom. Free rift. Costs you 5 shards to start the cycle and you can keep doing rifts at no cost for that play session.

I have plenty of stones (RORG farming). I don't need them for stones. I'm just saying I end up using my own stones to get shards rather than joining already cleared games.

[Chen]

I have plenty of stones (RORG farming). I don't need them for stones. I'm just saying I end up using my own stones to get shards rather than joining already cleared games.

I agree just waiting to join RIF games is annoying so I don't do it. But I can clear rifts fast enough that its a real pain to have to stop and go do bounties for my own shards. In that aspect RIF is great. Once they reduce the cost to 1 shard though, doing a few bounties here and there to get a ton of rift entries won't really be an issue.

[barbearian]

o.o didn't know there is Diablo III thread here xD

My ID is Grammaster#1952. Looking for Rift Buddy xD
I like to do Rift and my main is WD. I can do fine up to t4 although my friend used to kidnap me to do t5 and I feel okay with it. I have Zunimassa and trying to get Jade Harvester set.

[setzer777]

Went ahead and got RoS. My monk just can't seem to keep up enough DPS though (I'm playing solo). Basically got stuck on Urzael (my attacks barely scratch his life), and decided to take a break and try out wizard. I have to say, I'm really enjoying the change in play style. I've just crafted the Deckard Cain set, which on Torment 2 has allowed me to level up remarkably quickly.

[mosc]

Urzael doesn't scale well. Play him on normal mode to complete the act, seriously. You can beat him on torment easy enough with 4 people or when you're geared better. It's really the only fight you can't do with a decently geared pre-expansion character at T1 or lower difficulty levels. That said, monks are the worst class now and you're better off with your wizard (or better yet, WD if you got one).

[setzer777]

Yay, my monk isn't total garbage anymore!

Good timing too, because I'm having trouble getting past Zoltun Kulle with my wizard (torment 2). Hard to dodge his shit while still dealing enough damage to beat enrage timer.

[sardia]

There's no enrage timers anymore iirc. I'm going to check after work if the wizard blizzard, hydra, twister or firebird builds have been fixed or nerfed. Last night was an awful night for endgame wizards. You either channel or you luck out with wow.

[Chen]

Haven't played in a while. The buffs to channeling spells for the Wizard definitely look interesting. I'll have to try it out since I always ran an Arcane Torrent Wizard.

[Izawwlgood]

Is 2.1 out now? I've been DYING for the "Salvage All" button.

My Crusader is still one piece away from the full Akkhan set, but I've had no luck on Flail of the Fells, Gyrefalcons or Jekenborgs.