Diablo III

[setzer777]

They got rid of enrage? Just hard enrages or all timers?

ETA: And yeah, 2.1 came out yesterday. Unfortunately they also got hit with more stupid DDoS attacks.

[Xenomortis]

2.1 added a ladder and seasons, right? Like D2?

Last time I played D3 I found it very antisocial - leveling up was so intensely boring.
I hope this helps.

[Obby]

Yes, they added seasons. The first season begins this Friday.

[Chen]

2.1 added a ladder and seasons, right? Like D2?

Last time I played D3 I found it very antisocial - leveling up was so intensely boring.
I hope this helps.

Since there's still no trading I don't see why ladders would suddenly make it more social.

[Xenomortis]

There might be more people doing the leveling stage though, if they're encouraged to re-roll.

[sardia]

2.1 added a ladder and seasons, right? Like D2?

Last time I played D3 I found it very antisocial - leveling up was so intensely boring.
I hope this helps.

Since there's still no trading I don't see why ladders would suddenly make it more social.

Because you're racing people for the many leaderboards. It's fun to push urself.

[Chen]

2.1 added a ladder and seasons, right? Like D2?

Last time I played D3 I found it very antisocial - leveling up was so intensely boring.
I hope this helps.

Since there's still no trading I don't see why ladders would suddenly make it more social.

Because you're racing people for the many leaderboards. It's fun to push urself.

Call me cynical, but considering the people who either multi-play the account (like in WoW) or just play 24/7 (see some streamers) I have little hopes at any type of reasonable competition in the leaderboards. I assume the leveling ones are already done by now anyways. My only point was the level of social or antisocialness of it didn't seem to increase all that much with this patch. The patch killed one of the biggest communities they had (RIF) though I guess that wasn't terribly social either considering all that was in chat was: "T2, lowest opens" or "T6, need one more, you open" etc.

[Negated]

Greater Rifts don't feel rewarding at all. To be precise, playing to your potential in GRifts seems like a bad idea.

I just finished a GRift run with 3 others. After the trial, we started from level 23, then 25, 26, and finally 27. We failed to finish in time at 27 and got our 3 gem upgrades there. The GRift boss at each level gave 1 gem and 0~2 extra legendaries. Personally I don't feel higher rifts give you better legendary drops, but they take much longer time. For the level 27 G Rift, I could easily finish 2 lower level G Rifts in the same time frame.

I did not try this but perhaps slacking off at the trial and starting from lower level G Rift, and stop before you start to find G Rifts challenging is the more rewarding way to go.

They really need to redesign this. You should not be punished for challenging harder G Rifts.

[Obby]

Yeah, GRifts aren't that great in their current incarnation. The only reason to do them is to get and level up legendary gems. Otherwise, they are less efficient at just about everything compared to normal rifts and not really worth the time (unless you like the style of play, I suppose).

[setzer777]

I think it's funny how in almost any other video game beating a challenging section is its own reward, but in Diablo it's considered better to eternally grind unchallenging content if that's the more efficient loot-generator.

[Izawwlgood]

To be fair, those legendary gems are pretty awesome, and upgrading them will only make them more so. I think GRifts are just to be thought of 'the grind to get those uber gems and upgrade them', instead of a loot grind.

The GRift guardian drops bloodshards, so it's not a totally lootless endeavor.

[Chen]

To be fair, those legendary gems are pretty awesome, and upgrading them will only make them more so. I think GRifts are just to be thought of 'the grind to get those uber gems and upgrade them', instead of a loot grind.

The GRift guardian drops bloodshards, so it's not a totally lootless endeavor.

Maybe it's just me but I like the fact the boss has a very high chance of dropping legendaries and nothign else really does. Even if its slower legenadaries per hour than regular rifting, the fact I kinda KNOW when to expect my legenadries is nice. Sorta like boss farming back in D2. Also not having to worry about all that mess of junk falling from creatures and trying NOT to pick it up while moving is nice too.

[setzer777]

I don't know if anybody here cares about lore, but if so I have a question:

Is everything supposed to be angelic, demonic, or some combination? Or are there unrelated animals? Do any of those animals evolve to become sentient, or all sentient beings descended from angels and demons?

Edit: Oh, I guess they could use the worldstone to create life?

[sardia]

Iirc, there are undead demons and beasts. The game refers to them with damage bonuses on certain legs. It's not what your asking but it's close.

[Xenomortis]

Presumably Sanctuary had some "neutral" life forms.
And Malthael didn't seem concerned with non-humans.

[Izawwlgood]

Heh, so with respect to GRifts being loot poor.

[Chen]

Heh, so with respect to GRifts being loot poor.

So I didn't play the PTR, how does this mechanic work? If I spawn a Greater rift, there's a timer? At the end of the timer a rift boss spawns and has good loot? So the rift boss doesn't spawn via killing things in the rift? Or is that another way to make it spawn. I'm confused as to the "strategy" that link is suggesting.

[Izawwlgood]

I've only done one GRift, so this may be incorrect;
You get into the GRift and there's a 'trial', in which you need to kill as many spawning mobs as you can in a set period of time. This determines what level you start on. You then... kill elites and such to fill this bar, which is ticking down against a timer, and the further you get... the... tougher the guardian is?

So I think the strategy is suggesting that instead of doing the second part, where you try and make the guardian tougher, just run bounties during that time, and then kill the guardian at whatever the difficulty set by the trial is.

[Chen]

I've only done one GRift, so this may be incorrect;
You get into the GRift and there's a 'trial', in which you need to kill as many spawning mobs as you can in a set period of time. This determines what level you start on. You then... kill elites and such to fill this bar, which is ticking down against a timer, and the further you get... the... tougher the guardian is?

So I think the strategy is suggesting that instead of doing the second part, where you try and make the guardian tougher, just run bounties during that time, and then kill the guardian at whatever the difficulty set by the trial is.

Oh so you can't spawn the guardian by killing things like in regular rifts? The guardian just always spawns when the timer runs out?

[mosc]

I am not enjoying this update so far. Monks need to be pretty thoroughly re-geared which I find particularly annoying. Everybody needs new jewelry now re-prioritizing sockets and the greater rifts are a little more complicated than I thought. I don't like carrying around a bunch of grift stones at various levels and I feel like I waste the opportunity to level the gems if I hold onto them. That leads you into a system where each group you do has to do the trials and likely has to do a regular rift in order to GET the trials. This becomes a bigger time commitment locking 4 people together than seems to work.

Chen, you can spawn the guardian by killing things in the grift but if you fail to kill enough when time runes out he shows up anyway.

[Chen]

Chen, you can spawn the guardian by killing things in the grift but if you fail to kill enough when time runes out he shows up anyway.

Ok so if I spawn the guardian early, do I get to continue on to harder rifts? But if I wait out the timer I'm done? That's what the original incarnation I believe was, don't know how much they changed it since then.

[Obby]

Ok so if I spawn the guardian early, do I get to continue on to harder rifts? But if I wait out the timer I'm done? That's what the original incarnation I believe was, don't know how much they changed it since then.

The guardian must die before the timer runs out in order to advance to higher rift levels.

[Chen]

The guardian must die before the timer runs out in order to advance to higher rift levels.

In which case I definitely don't understand that "strategy" that Izzy posted. I guess the key is being able to do the regular rifts super fast an ensuring you get greater rift keys. Presumably if you CAN'T do that it might be more worthwhile to clear rifts until you get to ones that are too slow and then enact the strategy of waiting.

[Negated]

The main reason to do G Rift is for the gem upgrades. You can get more loots from normal rifts.

Since you can get only 3 gem upgrades every time you start a G Rift run, there is no point in progressing to the next G Rift level unless you need to upgrade a high level gem. So the idea is to do trial to the best of your ability and get a high level G Rift. Instead of fighting through difficult monsters for 10 minutes or so and get nothing before the boss, you can spend the time on bounties and key hunts. When the timer is up, go back to the G Rift and kill the boss for the 3 gem upgrades and whatever drops you get. Then you can start a new run.

[Chen]

The main reason to do G Rift is for the gem upgrades. You can get more loots from normal rifts.

Since you can get only 3 gem upgrades every time you start a G Rift run, there is no point in progressing to the next G Rift level unless you need to upgrade a high level gem. So the idea is to do trial to the best of your ability and get a high level G Rift. Instead of fighting through difficult monsters for 10 minutes or so and get nothing before the boss, you can spend the time on bounties and key hunts. When the timer is up, go back to the G Rift and kill the boss for the 3 gem upgrades and whatever drops you get. Then you can start a new run.

Yeah I just ran a few and I see what you mean. Oh well maybe they need to increase Grift boss drops.

[sardia]

I tried it last night and we got to rank 15 before we stopped getting 100% upgrades. So we went back to regular grifting to get the triple upgrades. So my take is to do it 5 times per gem and then return to farming regularly. You shave 10 to 45 minutes for those 5 to 15 rifts but then no more

[mosc]

... per gem. And there are a lot of gems.

[Negated]

They aren't all worth upgrading though. The affixes I have on amulets and rings are quite good. I will most likely end up only socketing a ring for a leg gem.

[sardia]

A undergeared barb friend uses conduit and the gem that causes bleeding. They proc Each other and deal more damage than his own skills.

[setzer777]

Now that my monk is playable again, I'm not sure how fast I'm going to keep leveling my wizard. Teleport seems mandatory - without it wallers and jailers murder me.

I'm thinking of leveling up another melee to be my main alt. Given that I already have a monk and want a different feel, would y'all recommend barbarian or crusader?

[Izawwlgood]

I love my Crusader, and think they're kind of OP. There's a ton of build diversity too, which is nice.

[setzer777]

Thanks! I'll check them out then.

On an unrelated subject, I'm mostly not that concerned about optimizing gear, but I do get weirdly upset at having any element or ability damage boosts I'm not taking advantage of. But I also don't like sticking to one ability setup indefinitely. Maybe I should just reroll most of those for more general benefits.

[Izawwlgood]

Definitely. I feel the same way about gear with +specific skill damage.

[setzer777]

Especially now that strength and dexterity do the exact same thing, I don't understand why the game even has so many distinct stats. It seems like they could just replace the four primary stats with "power (damage/armor)" and "vitality". Just seems like pointless flavor now, since non-primary non-vitality stats are next to useless.

[Izawwlgood]

Yeah, I think it's principally a means for preventing you from swapping ALL your gear between all your toons. What I don't understand is why there are secondary benefits for stats, like why Int adds to resist.

[Chen]

Yeah, I think it's principally a means for preventing you from swapping ALL your gear between all your toons. What I don't understand is why there are secondary benefits for stats, like why Int adds to resist.

It was so that they weren't completely useless on off classes. Once the whole Gear 2.0 thing came in though that became largely a moot point with no more than 1 primary stat per piece of gear.

You really do want to stack one type of elemental damage nowadays though. The skill damage is not as important since there are other good stats on the pieces that can roll it. But no +elemental damage is seriously going to slow your killing speed.

[Mishrak]

So I finally grabbed Reaper of Souls and played it this weekend. Probably the most I've enjoyed D3 since its release. I've managed to fully upgrade all of my items and even gotten a few legendaries that I particularly hoped I would get (SoJ, the ball lightning quiver).

I'm still tinkering with rifts and grifts and trying to totally understand what they mean and how they work, but it's been fun so far. I do like the loot changes a lot; namely being able to re-roll an affix on basically everything, the gambling system, and the fact that legendaries are no longer unicorns in a game that revolves around them. In a progression game, I actually feel like I could probably play it semi-casually and progress.

[Izawwlgood]

yeah I've had a blast since RoS. If anyone is actively playing, we could GRift or something together!

[Mishrak]

I'd be up for that sometime. I've been able to (barely) finish level 16 rifts (grifts?) solo, and generally have been doing normal stuff on Torment 1 as that seems to be a comfortable place for my current dps/gear level. Still missing a lot of stuff for the DH build I'm running, but so far it's been manageable.

[mosc]

I still play actively as well. Drop me your info guys I'll try to add you. It's one of the few online games where you can play for 10-60 minutes once or twice a week and feel like you're getting somewhere and not completely hold back more active players.

The adventure mode tree:
Bounties give rewards including rift fragments and if you do all of an act you get a box with potentially a special act specific legendary in it (100% at T6) and lots of fragments
Rifts are randomly generated zones with no time limit and difficulty based on what you set it to, Torment 1 for example. The end guy has a chance to drop a greater rift trial key (100% at T6)
Trials are waves of increasingly difficult enemies designed to gauge how much you can handle. When you're done, you'll get a leveled greater rift key 1-40. Typically, people do not hoard these keys at varying levels and just do a simple trial before immediately using whatever key they get.
Greater Rifts are leveled 1-40 where 25 is about Torment 6 and are a race against a clock to spawn and kill the rift champion. The race is only if you intend to level up your keystone for a better one. If you lose the race or elect to, you can level up your legendary gems when you beat the guardian. The only purpose of higher level GRIFTS is to level your legendary gems higher and to compete for time in a rewardless ladder.

All these activities give you blood shards, more the further up the ladder and the higher difficulty you're doing. Rift guardians drops are good, GRIFTS only have drops from the guardian and tend to be legendary heavy. Newer players should skip out on GRIFTS until they can handle a T6 rift without having to go back and repair their stuff. Regular rifts are the main endgame activity because of XP and item drops.