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stvnbrs
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join:2009-03-17
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stvnbrs

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[D3] Diablo 3 Revisited

Diablo 3 launched with mixed reviews. Currently Metacritic scores D3 with an 88 based on 86 critic reviews and 3.8 for 8,135 user reviews. Since launch, many changes have occured, most notible is the departure of Jay "Fuck That Loser" Wilson. I wanted to use this thread to cover the game as a fresh take and highlight some of the changes instead of burying them in thread such as the Gold Dupe Thread.

Some of the changes are:
• Major modifications to Inferno Difficulty to include Monster Power or MP.
• Paragon Levels to continue character progression beyond level 60.
• A new level of gem called Marquise Gems that are account bound and a major gold sink.
• Major changes to abilities and damage output.
• Item stat revamp on legendaries with more to (hopefully) come.
• New crafted recipes that guarantee at least one specific stat.
• New infernal machine and Uber boss challenge.
• Increased monster density in Acts I, II, and IV.

Inferno difficulty can now be changed on the quest menu to best suit the player's desired challenge. MP goes from 0 to 10 and with the increase of power the health of monsters and bonus to experience and magic find are increased. This allows players to be able to fight in Inferno difficulty on 0, in order to start establishing gear until they are more comfortable on higher levels.

Players now continue to earn experience after level 60. This experience goes towards a character's Paragon Level. Paragon levels are independent of each avatar and go to 100. Upon reaching a new Paragon level, characters will receive a bonus to Magic and Gold find as well as their primary stat, capping at 300% MF and GF at 100. Characters at PL 100 will not need to wear any MF or GF gear as they are considered capped on those stats (though there are additional ways to go beyond the 300%)

There are new Marquise Gems (level 15) that are account bound. The cost to create them are 3 Radiant Star Gems (of the same color), 25 Tomes of Secret, 10 Demonic Essences and 20 million gold. The cost for removing a gem is 5 million.

Many abilities have been buffed since release through multiple patch releases and hotfixes. There are too many to list, but overall damage has been increased for players on many abilities.

Legendary items have been a sore spot since release. Blizzard had done one revamp since and there are reports of another pass coming in 1.0.8. Items found before the legendary pass did not receive a buff, only future drops.

Recently Blizzard added additional recipes that allow players to craft very good amulets, shoulders, chest, gloves and bracers. These items guarantee at least one specific stat and have massive potential and are a very good way to get a player geared to continue demon bashing.

If you want a little more to shoot for besides the random legendary or level grinding, you can try to do infernal machine key runs. Blizzard added a new recipe that requires 3 keys dropped from 3 different named mobs across 3 acts. After using the keys to create the machine, players can challenge two of the mid-act bosses at the same time for a chance at one of 3 item drops. Once the three items are obtained, they can be used to craft a hellfire ring that is a BOA ring with high stats and 35% XP gain (usable by all levels). There is a little more to it, and additional reading is recommended. The nice thing is that the higher the MP level, the greater the chance the items and keys will drop with 100% chance at MP10.

Finally, Acts 1,2 and 4 are now viable farming locations due to the increase of monsters to bring them in line with act 3.

There is also a dueling ground that players can go to, this is still being worked on and no additional PvP has been implemented.

With all the above changes the game feels a lot more enjoyable. I enjoy going into wave after wave of monsters instead of chasing down the two or three while my buffs wear off. Monsters no longer regen health if you die, so no more brick wall of OP affixes that make you restart your game, the difficulty is in your hands with XP, MF and GF the rewards for pushing yourself. The game still has the pay-to-win formula, and that was always going to be the case. You can argue that Blizzard made it easier or not, but it is purely optional now with many of the quality of life changes they have made. Is the game the best thing ever now? No.Is it worth another shot, especially if you haven't played since launch? Definitely.

Savious
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join:2012-03-05
Billings, MT

Savious

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Additionally:

-Monster health only increases by 50% per additional player in a game (max of 150% in a full game)
-Players are encouraged to fight alongside other heroes. Every other person in game grants an additional 10% to Magic Find, Gold Find and Experience gained (this can put you over the top of the 300% soft cap)
-Improved matchmaking. Now you can select your desired Monster Power, what your trying to do (kill monsters, hunt keywardens or brawl) and select the option for “All Acts, Any Quest”. It will immediately throw you in a game with other players wanting to accomplish the same goal.
-Brawling, limited 1v1 PvP.
-Stacks of Nephalim Valor now carry over to the next act.
Zaltex
join:2006-07-03

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Son...Of...a....

5m to remove a Marquise? @#$#$^@# I removed one today to pass to another toon to "try" something for a few minutes and passed it right back. HOW DID I NOT SEE THE AMOUNT....

Anyways, awesome little thread. I am enjoying the hell out of the game again, especially grouping with others to blow mobs away and reaping the benefits of everything to go along with it.

First WW kill this morning before work. Zunimassa's Chest piece, not a bad start to the Diablo day (Though I got 1 Demonic Essence in the next 45 minutes) but oh well.

Savious
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join:2012-03-05
Billings, MT

Savious

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Im really enjoying my time in D3 again. Its great fun to jump in a game with 3 other people and wreck havoc. I even switch up strategies depending on who I am playing with. If I am with a good tank monk, I go with a Meteor build that gives me crits in the range 1,000,000-1,200,000. If I am soloing or with a bunch of barbarians Ill go to archon and solo on MP5 4 player.

I HATE playing with SpinToWin barbs. They run pass a lot of mobs, mobs that love to find a glass cannon wizard tooling along behind trying to do REAL damage, not farting out tornados like a sissy.

stvnbrs
Premium Member
join:2009-03-17
Cary, NC

stvnbrs

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Link to my toon. I can go either WW or a Bash/Rend build, depending on what I feel like. TBH, I only group with my brother so far and haven't even tried matchmaking or group play. Hopefully I can catch one of you online to do some runs. I will be in the aftershock conference bridge for chatting.
Sprakk
join:2009-10-01

Sprakk

Member

I relogged onto D3 after almost a year. I stopped playing a day or so after the real money AH come out. I got to A4 Inferno, but couldn't finish it, due to the bad internet I had at the time.

So I logged in the other day, and finished off A4 Inferno. And thought that was it. It seems there's more to D3 then that?

Can someone clarify something for me - do monsters in A1 Inf with MP10 give the same gear as monsters in A4 Inf with MP10?

Using pretty much my old gear from almost a year ago, Act 4 was pretty much a joke. So I bought some new gear and it's even moreso a joke. How much harder is it with increased MP?

ironweasel
Weezy
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I don't think I've touched D3 since my Witch Doctor hit the Act 2 Inferno "wall" about a month after release....maybe as recently as patch 1.0.2. I have kept up with the patch notes up through the current one which is 1.0.8 and it kinda irks me to see all the other classes receiving numerous tweaks / fixes / buffs / etc. and then look at the Witch Doctor and see one ability changed.

Maybe one of these days I'll load D3 up again, but lately when I get the ARPG itch, I scratch it with Torchlight 2.
Sprakk
join:2009-10-01

Sprakk

Member

I think I stopped playing around patch 1.0.2 as well, I managed to get to Act 4 Inferno, with a bunch of just sheer hours being put in. Specific builds to get past certain mobs, etc.
Now looking at all the Barbs out there, they all just spin to win, what the hell, is that the new thing? Surely there's a more viable option than that.
ohh
join:2011-07-16
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D3 revisited geo version: still boring. thee end.

kabhal
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join:2002-02-05
Oklahoma City, OK

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The critic score is a laughable joke and the user score at metacritic (while far more accurate) is still too generous.

Savious
Premium Member
join:2012-03-05
Billings, MT

Savious

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Its cool to hate Diablo, isnt it?
Zaltex
join:2006-07-03

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Hopefully I will have a bit more time to play tonight or tomorrow Stv. Had a good time though.

Weasel
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I started playing again a few weeks ago, and I agree it is improved. I don't ever see it having the replay value D2 had, but it is better.

stvnbrs
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join:2009-03-17
Cary, NC

stvnbrs

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said by Weasel:

I started playing again a few weeks ago, and I agree it is improved. I don't ever see it having the replay value D2 had, but it is better.

I agree. The post was more an informative one detailing some of the quality of life changes that have made the game playable beyond it's initial launch CF. If users already have it and put it down shortly after launch, or hit the inferno wall, it is worth another glance as things have changed and the game is now more enjoyable. At it's core it is still a loot hunting and monster bashing game, nothing will change that. I hope the expac will add more to the game, but that is still down the road.
Shatter13
join:2006-07-24
Waterford, MI

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The latest mass gold duping fiasco that shut down the AH and RMAH for days, etc was a nice continuation of the cluster f*ck this game has been...

»www.ibtimes.com/diablo-3 ··· -1244739

Savious
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said by Weasel:

I started playing again a few weeks ago, and I agree it is improved. I don't ever see it having the replay value D2 had, but it is better.

This is an interesting topic for discussion that I have often thought about while performing monotonous task. There are definently some things that Diablo 2 had that 3 needed to continue on.

Public Game Browser: The ability to look at a list of games and find what you wanted is more efficient than the current system to join public games. Its nice to join a game for Keywardens in general, but if I click the button and find myself in Act 1, I get a little frustrated. I already have 3 keys for Act 1, I would rather get keys from Act 2 or Act 3. I can put myself on a quest in Act 2 for a keywarden game, but what quest do I select that is the most likely to put me in a full game? I don’t like the “join at this quest” thing at all. I feel powerless in what game I want to join.

PvP: Imbalanced as hell in D2, but still fun to join an 8 player melee. I understand Blizzard didn’t want to put it in game with how imbalanced it would have been at launch, it would have been just another check mark for people to cry about, but I would like to see it taken to a rating system, with PvP gear available, or some sort of reward for being rated at a certain level, perhaps visually, like dyes or something along the lines of the collectors edition angel wings.

Things that Diablo 2 did that Diablo 3 replaced well:

Runewords: These I think have been replaced by the excellent new crafting system, and the addition of gems that are actually useful. Sure they are fairly dumbed down, Wizards want Topaz, monks and DH want emeralds, etc, but at least they are on the same power level as socketing your Occulous with an IST rune.

Followers: I would like to have my follower with me in multiplayer, as the equipping them with sweet legendaries and +exp or +mf gear is fun, but I think the ability to customize your follower and tweak them is far better than the ”Get Act 2 merc, equip with godly gear, profit” model.

Uber Bosses: These guys are tough, provide an exciting reward possibility and give you an additional option for farming. Good work.

MFing: MFing in D2 was either Andy/Meph or Pindle. There were other outlying strategies, but these were the primary. Farming Meph was not that fun, in retrospect. Sure, it was exciting when a Vampire Gaze dropped, but it was the same task repeated countless times. I think NV and Paragon Levels made MFing something outside of farming bosses, which is much better. Now you can level and MF at the same time without sacrificing a lot of gear.

What the majority of players recall is Diablo 2 taking up a lot of their time when they were younger. When a lot of things in the real world were new to them, and video games being one of them. It isn’t possible for any game to recreate those memories you forged when you first started playing ARPGs, euphoria is not repeatable in the video game world. Weve reached a point in our gaming lives that weve seen it and done it. Diablo 3 is a fine game, and the statement that it wont equal the replayability of D2 is an individual issue, not the games fault.
Savious

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said by Shatter13:

The latest mass gold duping fiasco that shut down the AH and RMAH for days, etc was a nice continuation of the cluster f*ck this game has been...

»www.ibtimes.com/diablo-3 ··· -1244739

What a useless comment. Weve already discussed this issue, try bringing something new to the table. Generic Diablo bashing is passé, son.

pr1mo
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join:2003-11-12
Chicago, IL

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I'll continue playing Path of Exile. Nothing will bring me back to this game, unfortunately.

puppy
join:2010-01-28
San Diego, CA

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After my current SWTOR kick is over I'll probably play D3 from start again. The production value was excellent, just not the repeating the game 3? 4? times and the inferno act 1 wall. Now that wall has been addressed and difficulty adjusted I'll probably try again.

ironweasel
Weezy
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Since the RMAH was brought up again....

I think the AH in general, both gold and RM portions, is part of the reason why I'm not as "engaged" with D3 as I was D2 & LOD. No, I'm not wanting to be part of the cool kids group by bashing it...so just hear me out.

In D2 & LOD, gold was basically worthless. You could use it to repair your gear and that was it. By the time my account was full of level 90+ characters, every stash was full of gold as was my backpack simply because there wasn't anything to spend it on. I preordered D3 and I was playing a few hours after release when a few items were starting to trickle into the AH at reasonable prices. As time went on, the prices started going higher and higher. First 10k gold, then 100k gold, then 1m gold, then 10m gold, etc. On the other side of the issue, this was happening back when everyone pretty much blew through the game up to Inferno and then promptly got bitch slapped by Act 2.

OK, your gear kinda sucks....so you take a trip to the AH only to find out that a small upgrade on armor or a weapon is 450k gold. Awesome, you spent all the gold you had on a better weapon so you'll be able to get past Act 2 Inferno now, right?

Wrong.

Back to the AH.....but anything that is an upgrade is in the hundreds of thousands of gold per slot. Don't have a couple million gold sitting around so you go back and smash your head against the proverbial wall that is called Act 2.

Perhaps I picked the red-headed stepchild class when I started. I chose a Witch Doctor because I loved the Necromancer in D2. In the early days of D3, the Witch Doctor was the least played class and felt the most underpowered. You had all these cool things you could summon, but if anything in Inferno did so much as give your pets a dirty look, they rolled over and died and you had to wait to resummon them.

That issue was compounded by the inability to purchase meaningful upgrades from the AH, the horrible early crafting system, the woefully underperforming Followers, and a couple other problems and that all ultimately left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.

I know a lot of those problems have been fixed in the various patches, but I still have this mental image in my head about how D3 was in the first month or two after release and I find it really hard to even load up the game - much less actually log in and play. And all this is coming from someone who had a character of every class over level 90 in both D2 and the LOD expansion.....I probably had over 1500 hours into the game over the years and I really wanted to like D3 and I feel I gave it a chance to win me over but it failed to do so.

Maybe I'll give it another chance this weekend and see how much things have changed.

Meningitis
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Bah. Thanks to this thread I'm downloading as I type to check out the changes.

Weasel
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I can say from experience that the Act 2 Inferno wall is gone. Rolling from A1 to A2 was pretty seamless.

The need to upgrade via the AH is still an issue. As I moved along I consistently had to come back to the AH every 3-5 levels and upgrade a few pieces of gear, depleting what gold I had. Otherwise I would end up stuck because I couldn't kill anything fast enough to survive.

Savious
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join:2012-03-05
Billings, MT

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said by ironweasel:

Since the RMAH was brought up again....

I think the AH in general, both gold and RM portions, is part of the reason why I'm not as "engaged" with D3 as I was D2 & LOD. No, I'm not wanting to be part of the cool kids group by bashing it...so just hear me out.

In D2 & LOD, gold was basically worthless. You could use it to repair your gear and that was it. By the time my account was full of level 90+ characters, every stash was full of gold as was my backpack simply because there wasn't anything to spend it on. I preordered D3 and I was playing a few hours after release when a few items were starting to trickle into the AH at reasonable prices. As time went on, the prices started going higher and higher. First 10k gold, then 100k gold, then 1m gold, then 10m gold, etc. On the other side of the issue, this was happening back when everyone pretty much blew through the game up to Inferno and then promptly got bitch slapped by Act 2.

OK, your gear kinda sucks....so you take a trip to the AH only to find out that a small upgrade on armor or a weapon is 450k gold. Awesome, you spent all the gold you had on a better weapon so you'll be able to get past Act 2 Inferno now, right?

Wrong.

Back to the AH.....but anything that is an upgrade is in the hundreds of thousands of gold per slot. Don't have a couple million gold sitting around so you go back and smash your head against the proverbial wall that is called Act 2.

Perhaps I picked the red-headed stepchild class when I started. I chose a Witch Doctor because I loved the Necromancer in D2. In the early days of D3, the Witch Doctor was the least played class and felt the most underpowered. You had all these cool things you could summon, but if anything in Inferno did so much as give your pets a dirty look, they rolled over and died and you had to wait to resummon them.

That issue was compounded by the inability to purchase meaningful upgrades from the AH, the horrible early crafting system, the woefully underperforming Followers, and a couple other problems and that all ultimately left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.

I know a lot of those problems have been fixed in the various patches, but I still have this mental image in my head about how D3 was in the first month or two after release and I find it really hard to even load up the game - much less actually log in and play. And all this is coming from someone who had a character of every class over level 90 in both D2 and the LOD expansion.....I probably had over 1500 hours into the game over the years and I really wanted to like D3 and I feel I gave it a chance to win me over but it failed to do so.

Maybe I'll give it another chance this weekend and see how much things have changed.

It’s a funny thing. A lot of people remember gold in D2 as being completely useless, but they forget about the option to gamble, which was a great way to get unique and items in before LOD came out. Blizzard went back and forth on allowing players to gamble for unique, depending on the patch. I spent tons and tons of gold on Skullcaps, trying to get a Tarnhelm. I finally did get one, and it rolled the lowest possible MF it could, but I had my Tarnhelm!

Anyways, I know what you mean about the Inferno wall. Its interesting how players wanted D3 to be difficult, and Blizzard stated Inferno would be extremely hard to beat and they didn’t expect anyone to get through it for a long time. Well, gamers gonna game, and it was beaten within a few weeks of release. A lot of corpse running and taking advantage of abilities that weren’t looked at from every angle allowed that. For example, Wizards had a Force Armor ability that made it so if you got hit for damage that would take your life below 35%, it would take you to 35%. So they didn’t get any vitality on their gear, keeping their life total extremely low, so every hit in Inferno brought their life to 35%. A team of monks could also cycle an ability that made the whole team invulnerable to damage for 2 seconds, and if they all timed it perfectly, someone on the team always had the ability up. Pretty smart.

But for the majority of players, Inferno was an exercise in futility. They wanted hard, but not impossible. At the time, Barbarians were considered the worst class in the game!

Smartly, Blizzard introduced MP, and that allowed players to adjust the difficulty to whatever they thought they could handle. Those that wanted a challenge could strive for MP10, those just starting could go MP0 or MP1.

Blizzard also introduced upgrades to legendarys and increased the amount of rares dropped by mobs. Ive found a significant amount of gear myself, including a Manticore and Windforce in the last week. Ive also found a Skorn and a Wizardspike. Nothing godly, but certainly good, just needed better rolls.

Anyways, TL;DR, the changes have made Inferno a challenge that you can control, and playing with other players is a lot of fun now. I think you will be surprised!
Savious

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said by Weasel:

I can say from experience that the Act 2 Inferno wall is gone. Rolling from A1 to A2 was pretty seamless.

The need to upgrade via the AH is still an issue. As I moved along I consistently had to come back to the AH every 3-5 levels and upgrade a few pieces of gear, depleting what gold I had. Otherwise I would end up stuck because I couldn't kill anything fast enough to survive.

I agree for your first character. Once you start your second, your stash should have all sorts of levleing goodies (gems!) in store for you characters.
Savious

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I got my first Hellfire Ring last night, thanks to Baineschild and a group of awesome dudes. Baineschild was playing a CM Wizard, there was a Paragon level 100 monk and a Paragon 98 Barbarian playing SpinToWin.

These guys carried me through MP10 Ubers. MP10! Very impressive. My ring was mediocre at best. If I equipped it I would lose between 5-10k DPS, which sucks, but the 35% increased XP should make up for that. Thanks a lot, Baineschild!
Zaltex
join:2006-07-03

Zaltex

Member

Saw you online yesterday but didn't have a ton of time to play. Grats on the Hellfire though, mines not terrible. I need one with Attack Speed on it so I can stop wearing the pants I have. Perhaps this weekend!

ironweasel
Weezy
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join:2000-09-13
Belen, NM

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You're totally right about forgetting about gambling.

I didn't really utilize that aspect of D2/LOD so I forgot it even existed. I keep reading about all the improvements, so I think this weekend will be my "give D3 a second chance" weekend.

Fedinv
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Feel free to add me for any group games. Always looking for people to play with - Drakun#1682
Sprakk
join:2009-10-01

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What do you usually farm on?

I've been trying Act 1 MP3-MP5, and finding it to be fairly easy - although as a spin-to-win Barb, that's not saying much.

Also, I have a question I was hoping someone could answer. Are the drops in Act 1 MP5 the same sort of level as Act 4 MP5?

Savious
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join:2012-03-05
Billings, MT

Savious

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MP5 in a full game is my farming method. My wizard archon is at 200k dps now, so I mow through mobs and keep archon up almot indefinitely.

Yes, any MP makes all mobs lvl 63, so the drops are going to be the same quality in mp1 as mp10. Higher mp will increase quantity.

This is rudimentary look at it, but its close enough.