tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85860999558637913232024-03-13T14:28:23.036-05:00Diablo 3 theorycrafting, strategies and tipsA blog about Diablo 3 theorycrafting, gameplay discussion, auction house strategies and gold/money making tips from a veteran gamer and Diablo fan.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-55485612844565734992012-10-29T19:18:00.000-05:002012-10-29T19:18:12.778-05:00Patch 1.0.5 commentaryI will make no apologies for not blogging about D3 lately because, well, I haven't felt the need. That and the fact that I was away from the computer for several weeks. But then I returned just in time for patch 1.0.5. And what a breath of fresh air this is! Now Diablo 3 is finally beginning to feel like the game it should have been from the beginning. <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/08/patch-104-paragon-of-excellence.html">I lauded the Paragon system</a> when it was introduced in 1.0.4 but the new Monster Power system helps to further consolidate the game. But even more than MP, I was excited about the huge improvements to the Auction House interface.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Love the new AH</span><br />
"Search for similar items" is an awesome feature. It has simplified AH searches immensely. Best of all, they managed to implement it exactly the way I envisioned it. Of course, YMMV. It helps in two major ways: 1) makes searching for upgrades very easy and 2) helps you easily price items for sale. I'm just annoyed they didn't think of this from the beginning. Oh well, better late than never.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Monster Power = Players X rebooted</span><br />
Monster Power is, IMHO, even better than Diablo 2's Players X because it allows for finer tuning and it also improves the loot and XP gained. I'm currently playing on MP 1 in Act 1 because, well, I'm chicken. I like to play it safe. I prefer to annihilite everything easily vs struggling to survive on a higher difficulty.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The market is more dynamic</span><br />
Maybe it's just me but I've noticed that the AH seems to be more dynamic in patch 1.0.5. I've never managed to sell more items and for such high prices as I do now. Maybe it's the surge of new players or the huge influx of improved items. Speaking of gold and stuff...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">How to make and lose a fortune</span><br />
For the first time in my D3 career I've managed to top 14 million gold. I know what you're thinking, pathetic. But hey, I make most of my gold by selling stuff I find on my own, not by playing the market, ok? So give me a break. Anyway, I decided I deserved an early Christmas present so I spoiled myself by buying a Tal-Rasha's chestpiece with good stats for 13 million. Was it worth it? I might have paid less in a week or two but I wanted to enjoy the game today. Besides, it added over 8000 DPS to my Wizard.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cool drops bro!</span><br />
I can attest to the fact that item drops have been vastly improved in 1.0.5. I found a lot of good stuff that I managed to sell on the AH for decent amounts. I even got 2 legendary drops, which, while mediocre, fetched a few cents on the RHAH. This is a very good sign. Before the patch, I never found anything worth more than 100K on the AH. Now, I sold drops for hundreds of thousands or millions of gold. And I didn't even play that much.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Wizard 2.0</span><br />
My beloved Wizard is kicking ass more than ever. A week ago she was standing at around 65K DPS. After buying a 2H weapon with good DPS and nice stats for 1 million gold, and swapping the 1H dagger + off-hand she was using before, her DPS jumped to 95K. Massive! With the new Tal-Rasha's chestpiece, it went up even farther, to 103K. Now granted, that 1 million upgrade was a much higher bang for the buck (+30K DPS) compared to the 13 million chestpiece (+8K DPS). However, keep in mind that my equipment is pretty good and, going forward, each upgrade is very expensive. The only thing that will make a big difference now is a shoulder upgrade. Anyway, despite all the DPS, I still haven't killed Diablo on Inferno. I could do it anytime but I'm just lazy. Because I would do it on MP 0 (just to be safe), there's no big incentive for me, so I'm postponing it indefinitely. I'd much rather farm items in Act 1 on MP1 (or higher).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Torchlight 2</span><br />
A quick word on Torchlight 2. It was supposed to be a D3 killer, or D2 reincarnated or something. I downloaded the demo and tried it for a while but it didn't gel with me. I disliked the original and, while the sequel is a vast improvement, I found it unappealing. Some of you will hate me for this but I find D3 superior in every way. TL2 made me realize how much I enjoy D3's skill system, automatic attribute leveling and the weapon-DPS-to-skill-damage system. In contrast, TL2's system felt confusing and awkward to use. Sorry folks, maybe I spent so much time with WoW and D3 that I "dumbed down" but I don't feel like going back to the old system. The dark side must have won me over because I much prefer D3's online play with all the convenience of the AH to an offline game which seems very static and isolated in comparison.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">No expert here</span><br />
Having said all this, I want to re-iterate something. I'm not a Diablo 3 expert. A reader once lambasted me for being too pretentious because I tagged this blog with words such as "strategy" and "theorycrafting". Not to burst anyone's bubble, but I don't take myself too seriously with this blog. I don't excel at making money (gold or $), in fact I downright suck at it, because I don't play the AH. I don't excel at killing Diablo on MP 10 (or even MP 1) because it's not my thing. I'm not a D3 pioneer in any way. I simply play the game for my personal enjoyment and blog about it occasionally. If I happen to come across an interesting strategy, I will discuss it. If I can craft some theory, I will. But I won't go out of my way to do these things. So there. Expect laid back, not cutting edge.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The future</span><br />
Diablo 3 is slowly getting there. It's too bad they released it in an unfinished state and it took 5 months to get it on track. Either way, things are looking good. I love the feeling of being (slightly) overpowered and mowing down monsters with the greatest of ease. Unfortunately there's something about D3's progression (zones/events are separated by quests and acts remain separated from one another) that gives me a weird vibe. And now with Monster Power I don't feel the need to venture outside Act 1. The next 3 acts are pretty boring to me. What I think Diablo 3 desperately needs is an expansion with an additional, much improved act and a revamped/reloaded/reimagined crafting system.<br />
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The end.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-42325638554275412352012-09-08T13:30:00.000-05:002012-09-08T13:30:00.475-05:00State of the nation address (Wizard rocks!)I feel that now's about as good a time as any to give an update on my progress in Diablo 3. Not that anybody would (or should) care. I'm mostly doing this as a personal journal to refer to later.<br />
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2 weeks after patch 1.0.4 I can safely state that I enjoy Diablo 3 much more than before the patch. Before, I was in a kind of lull and was just going through the motions. In fact I used to spend most of my 20 minutes a day on the AH, wheeling and dealing. I played actively only on weekends. But now, I would like to play at least 3 hours during the week and 6-8 hours on the weekend. Unfortunately I've got other things to do so my time is limited. But still, I really feel like playing the game as much as possible.<br />
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<b>My characters</b><br />
I made a bunch of mistakes in D3, that I will admit. The first was starting to play with a Demon Hunter. The other was abandoning it for a Monk and then spending more than 100 hours on this character. The one thing that I did right was leveling my Wizard to 60, although she was the last one there. In retrospect, I should've started with the Wizard from the beginning. These days the Wizard has become my main and she's by far my most favorite class. In fact, if Blizzard doesn't do anything to fuck up her skills (read "nerf"), I can safely say that I won't play another class until my Wizard hits Paragon level 100.<br />
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The Monk is Paragon lv 2 and while he's very resilient, it comes at the cost of DPS and 22K is not nearly enough to have fun in Act 3 (Inferno) where he's at right now. He can kill boss packs - eventually - but it takes a very long time. And that's not fun to me. All my other classes (Barbarian, Demon Hunter and Witch Doctor) are 60 but I have abandoned them a long time ago and they don't tempt me in the least.<br />
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<b>The Wizard</b><br />
Andromeda, as she is called, is my pride and joy. She's Paragon 13 as of this writing. She has progressed to Act 3, just before Cydaea. I am confident that with her current equipment she can finish the rest of Inferno. But I'm in no rush. I like to smash everything without effort. I like being overpowered. It felt awesome to finish Acts 3+4 on Hell with 12K DPS on all of my characters. I want to feel the same thing with the Wizard in Inferno. She's not there yet, but she's inching closer.<br />
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Speaking of stats, she does 57K+ DPS (with the Enchantress follower), with 20.5% crit chance. Unfortunately her crit damage is only 50% because I was going for a Critical Mass build before I decided to go in a different direction. Her attack speed is pretty awesome at 2.22 attacks per second. Her defenses are nothing out of the ordinary because I kind of play a glass-cannon build. She has 26K life, 5000+ armor and between 200-300 resistances. Best of all, she has over 1000 life per second regeneration because that's something I like very much. It helps enormously, especially when kiting.<br />
<br /><a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#blXdiO!YWf!bYaZZY" target="_blank">Here's my build</a>. Incidentally this build is available at level 54.<br />
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<b>The gameplay</b><br />
What I love about the Wizard is that, using the above build, she obliterates-exterminates-devastates everthing in Act 1. She one-shots trash mobs and 3-5 shots boss packs. She's a vicious killing machine. Act 2 is almost the same but for some reason I feel that I make more gold farming Act 2, as well as find more boss packs. She hardly ever dies in these two acts. Act 3 is very doable but sometimes she dies if I'm not careful and I meet the wrong affixes on boss packs. But whenever I want to feel like a god, I go to acts 1 or 2 and zap everything with my finger of doom.<br />
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<b>Finances</b><br />
I will admit that I suck at making money in D3. This hasn't been a big priority for me until now so I didn't spend countless hours researching and playing the market. Well, ok, I have a couple of strategies that work but they simply provide a bit of additional income. The most I saved was a bit over 7 million. Thing is, I feel that now's not the best time to waste money on upgrades. I made the mistake of buying a good weapon for 3 million (a bargain at the time) right before patch 1.0.4. That weapon was quickly upgraded post-patch with something that was much better and only cost 1 million. And I barely managed to sell the original for less than 100K. Oops. Yeah, I made many of these stupid decisions which ended up costing me a lot of gold. Anyway, I plan to wait another month or two before I start to spend more seriously. Prices will only go down (as more good loot is found over time). The only spike I anticipate is when the PvP patch is released but I doubt that will happen before November. My problem is thay my equipment is pretty decent right now and it is becoming harder and harder to find cheap upgrades that don't cost millions. Suffice to say that I can't afford any good legendary item. But that's ok. It takes time to build kick-ass equipment.<br />
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Just don't ask me to lend you money if you see me in game. A dude I played with a couple of times wanted to borrow some but I was like, dude, I barely have enough for myself and now you want me to trust you when I don't even know you? Sorry dudes but I don't lend gold and that's final.<br />
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On the Real Money side, I'm inching close to $30 which is pathetic. On the other hand, as I said, I don't play the AH so whatever I sell is stuff I find on my own. Unfortunately most of what I find is crap (but you can relate, right?). First, I want to cover the cost of the next expansion ($40 likely). Second, I'd love to cover the cost of the game x 2 (I bought 2 copies), or $120.<br />
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<b>Goals</b><br />
I don't have big ambitions but my long term goal is to reach Paragon level 100 with my Wizard. The way I play, I doubt this will happen in less than 2 years. But fuck it, I've waited 10 years for this game. 2 years of actually playing it won't be so bad.<br />
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My short term goal is to reach a sufficient amount of DPS to steamroll Act 3 and possibly Act 4. I don't care much for Act 4 because I hate everything about it (and drops are supposed to be the same) so I would be satisfied to stick to Act 3. I want to kill mobs as easily as I do in Act 1 today. That's my fantasy. For that, I estimate I need at least 65K DPS. I'm only about 9K short so I shouldn't have big problems getting there in the next several weeks. Once I can cruise through Act 3, I will finish Inferno once and for all and continue farming for 1337 items.<br />
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<b>Conclusion</b><br />
To those who quit, sorry but I still enjoy Diablo 3. I believe it will become even more enjoyable as they continue to fix some of its issues. I just hope they don't nerf my favorite class, the Wizard, in any significant way. Yup, there's still life in this here game.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-12340196935571418752012-09-06T11:06:00.000-05:002012-09-06T11:06:04.613-05:00Introducing the Legendary Items pageRecently I decided to keep records of all the legendary items I found in Diablo 3, for fun and for future reference. I have created a page appropriately called <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/p/legendary-items.html" target="_blank">Legendary Items</a>, which lists all of them, in the order I found them. I'm also showing the prices for which I sold them (if the case) and giving a short commentary on each of them. Feel free to peruse!Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-61136407259991696062012-09-01T12:46:00.001-05:002012-09-01T12:46:23.236-05:00Magic Find is uselessI believe I have a decent understanding of how Magic Find works. I didn't spend a lot of time analyzing all the intricacies but at it's most basic level (and correct me if I'm wrong), MF works by increasing the chances of Magic, Rare, Set and Legendary items dropping. I don't know the actual numbers but if an item that drops has, say, a 0.01% chance to be Legendary at 0% MF, the chance will increase to 0.03% with 300% MF. However...<br />
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Here's a nugget of wisdom for you. It might shock you but... Magic Find is actually useless. It doesn't do anything. Nada. Zilch. You're better off without it.<br />
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I kid. Somewhat. Anectodal evidence suggests that MF doesn't have a big effect on the quality of items that drop. While I realize this isn't really true, because MF does in fact increase your chances of getting higher quality items (as shown above), my personal experience is whacky enough that it makes me think otherwise. Now mind you, this is just a personal impression and not a statement of fact and I'm sure it's wrong. Nevertheless...<br />
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I grinded Inferno Act 2 with my Monk up to Paragon Level 4. I carry a set of MF gear with me that I swap right before killing elite bosses. That gear, along with 5 Nephalem Valor stacks gives me almost 300% MF. Not bad, right? While I do seem to get more yellow items, I have never seen a Legendary on the Monk, and he's my most-played character.<br />
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Recently my Wizard has become my main character. She's Paragon Level 6 now, also in Act 2. She has already found 2 legendary items ("new generation") after patch 1.0.4 was released. Her MF for the latter of the two? 87% (with 5 NV stacks). She doesn't even have a special MF set. It's true that these 2 were pretty crappy (see below) but still, they're LIGINDUHRIES! And I managed so sell them for a few $.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vm6X8HWMciw/UEJJcU6d8TI/AAAAAAAAA7o/Kuv3t70cmzI/s1600/sever.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vm6X8HWMciw/UEJJcU6d8TI/AAAAAAAAA7o/Kuv3t70cmzI/s320/sever.jpg" width="218" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yjqbx_lc2QY/UEJJcphph7I/AAAAAAAAA7w/3HovKXBCbw0/s1600/thunder-gods-vigor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yjqbx_lc2QY/UEJJcphph7I/AAAAAAAAA7w/3HovKXBCbw0/s320/thunder-gods-vigor.jpg" width="263" /></a></div>
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Even more surprising is the fact that all the other legendaries were found by my Barb, while he had close to 0 MF! He even got <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/08/sunday-legendary-sunday.html" target="_blank">3 of them</a> (!!!) while playing with my buddy, in the space of an hour. That's some crazy shit man!<br />
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My point is that I am aware that Magic Find helps. There's no reason to doubt the math behind this. But I'm done agonizing over how much MF I have. I just don't care anymore. The randomness of drops makes it such that you may never see a Legendary in over 100 hours of playing, with very high MF, or you may get a shitload of them with much less time played and < 10% MF. And you know what? I prefer it this way. I'm sick and tired of swapping 8 pieces of gear every time I prepare to give an elite the death blow. Paragon Level 100 can't come too soon.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-25127391470164795682012-08-20T19:34:00.001-05:002012-08-20T19:34:05.057-05:00Patch 1.0.4 - a paragon of excellence?With a little luck, patch 1.0.4 hits tomorrow. I have to say, I haven't been so excited since Diablo 3 launched. Yes, there are the naysayers and those who've quit the game for good (hey there Loque!) but I'm sure there will also be many who are returning to sample what 1.0.4 brings. To them I say "to each his own". I don't blame you for giving up on Diablo/Blizzard. I've raged against them on many occasions. But hear me out brothers: these improvements really appeal to me. I haven't stopped playing the game completely but my interest has piqued now. Here's what I like about this great (and long in the making) patch.<br />
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<b>Class changes</b><br />
While the changes themselves are rather meh, along the lines of "this skill is under-used, let's buff its damage", I'm really glad they didn't nerf the popular ones instead, such as Poison Hydra. They could have done that, in typical Blizzard nerf-bat style but they chose the correct path of buffing the unpopular ones. Good.<br />
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<b><a href="http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/auction-house-changes-for-diablo-3-1-0-4" target="_blank">Auction House changes</a></b><br />
This is everything I was hoping for, and more. If I were to nitpick, I would also ask for tabs for the various types of transactions: sales, buys, cancellations, outbids and so on. This would bring some order to the way transactions are listed but at least we're getting a lot more detailed item information.<br />
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<b><a href="http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/introducing-the-paragon-system-2" target="_blank">The Paragon system</a></b><br />
I can already hear the naysayers decrying Blizzard's approach to the "endgame". To me this new system is very appealing. It single-handedly increases Diablo 3's longevity by orders of magnitude. Granted, it's gonna be grind-grind-grind-grind on and on and on and on, the same zones for months and years on end. But if that turns you off, maybe the whole concept of Diablo isn't for you. After all, Diablo 2's endgame consisted of endless boss runs in the never-ending quest to level 99. At least Diablo 3 has brought variety by making it more lucrative to kill random elites, rather than the same boss over and over. In addition, 1.0.4 makes trash mobs more important and increases their chance to drop rares, so they will really be worth killing.<br />
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The Paragon system gives Diablo 2 fans what they have been asking for from the beginning: a virtual "level 99". But in a way it's even better. Each Paragon level (up to 100) gives +3% Magic and Gold Find to a cap of 300% (at Paragon level 100), in addition to base stats (Str, Dex, Int, Vit). I find this great because the more you advance, the less you will rely on MF/GF gear, because the MF/GF bonus will be inherent to your character.<br />
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Eventually, after a tremendous grind, you will reach Paragon level 100. At this point you won't need any MF/GF gear at all because you will have reached the 300% cap. I'm betting that some people will be upset at this point because they can't increase their MF/GF past 300%. Well, don't worry folks because you should be able to equip the most powerful items in the game and you should absolutely dominate Inferno Act 4 with full MF. But of course, by the time people reach Paragon level 100 I'm sure they'll be playing in Act 5 or 6 of the next expansion(s).<br />
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There's one thing that I would have liked: a way to swap gear at the touch of a hotkey. It's really annoying to click-click-click-click-click-click on the MF gear I keep in my inventory, just before killing an elite or boss. But this is something that I don't think Blizzard will ever implement because it's against their precious "principles".<br />
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In conclusion, I'm pretty much stoked about what patch 1.0.4 brings. If you quit Diablo, I understand. We don't all like the same games and different things make us happy. I'm sticking to it because it gives me enough satisfaction. Now bring on the Diablo 3-bashing! I'm ready to take it!Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-9856881998644242962012-08-12T20:25:00.000-05:002012-08-12T20:25:16.673-05:00Sunday, legendary SundayHow crazy chance can be sometimes. My buddy from overseas, whom I play with on weekends, had reached level 60 recently with his Barbarian and I joined him in Inferno Act 1 with my Monk. We wanted to get him past the first few quests.<br />
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In the space of less than an hour, to my utter shock, I got no less than 3 legendary drops. Here they are.<br />
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Cindercoat, Gladiator Gauntlets and Skorn.<br />
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What are the chances of that happening? 1 in a gazillion? The silly thing is that I didn't have any Nephalem Valor or even a Magic Find set. In total I had about 15% MF. Even crazier is the fact that all these items dropped from random monsters, not even elites or champions.<br />
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While I was obviously excited to see them drop, my enthusiasm quickly cooled when I identified them. These legendaries are pathetic. Once again, this is an example of Blizzard's failure in item design. Not only are they bland and flavorless, but these particular ones are also useless for a level 60 (or even lower) character.<br />
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Oh well, at least I can get about 400K if I sell them.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-70691147172293787352012-08-03T19:37:00.002-05:002012-08-03T19:37:22.747-05:00The AH patchAfter wallowing in <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-quit-d3-kind-of-and-hardcore-pr0n.html" target="_blank">indifference</a> towards Diablo 3 for a while I can finally see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. Blizzard has announced that they are working on some nice changes for the Auction House. Instead of pasting that stuff here, I'm going to direct you to <a href="http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/changes-to-auction-house-coming" target="_blank">Incgamer's post</a>.<br />
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Lately I haven't even bothered to sell stuff on the AH. I suspect that the market is shrinking and sales aren't as forthcoming. But then again, I don't have so many items to sell because I haven't been playing seriously over the past weeks. The changes that they are proposing, though, are very exciting and exactly what I would have done to improve the AH. Here's my take on this.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Increase the attribute filters from 3 to 6</span><br />
This change can't come soon enough. Everybody has been asking for more filter slots from the beginning. It will make searches so much more precise.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cancel auctions without bids</span><br />
Something that I was dearly hoping for. If I could just cancel my bid-less auctions I would be so much happier. I could lower my buyout successively and re-post if the item doesn't sell, perhaps once a day.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Detailed stats in the auction log</span><br />
I can't believe how nearly useless the auction log is currently. There's no way to tell what stats the items you sold or bought in the past had. You can't tell what price your unsold items were posted at. It's really frustrating because it makes it hard to price your items correctly in the future, unless you keep detailed spreadsheets of every item sold.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One other thing that I'd like to see</span><br />
While these changes are leagues ahead of what we already have, and should have been in the game from the beginning, I'm still hoping for one extra thing. I would like the ability to use the AH in game. I know that Blizzard said that the AH interface has no place in the world of Sanctuary but that's bullshit. No one cares about the thin story of D3 anyway. So why not make it convenient for us to use the AH without having to leave a game if we don't want to? It would be nice to keep those NV stacks, right? The way I propose they do it is to be able to access the AH only in town. This way there won't be any possibility of being killed by monsters due to inattention.<br />
<br />
D3 was released in an unfinished state but these AH improvements go a long way towards making the game better, even if it won't be perfect. This patch can't come soon enough.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-88370310465026984752012-07-27T19:45:00.001-05:002012-07-27T19:45:11.569-05:00I quit D3, kind of, and hardcore pr0nAs some of you might have noticed (but I don't blame you if you haven't), I haven't posted anything for a long time. That's because I kinda-sorta quit Diablo 3. Well, not quit it completely but my enthusiasm has cooled off to a large extent.<br />
<br />
The thing is, I don't feel like posting anything anymore about Diablo. I was planning an article about a nice Witch Doctor build I was using but I don't have the energy for that. The D3 community is falling into a torpor and so am I. It's surprising because in all my years playing WoW, and despite the occasional nerd rage, this never happened.<br />
<br />
There are many problems that plague Diablo 3. Among them I will mention the bad itemization, the extremely hard Inferno difficulty, the futility of playing in groups in Inferno, the rampant botting and hyperinflation, the bad AH interface, the lack of a viable endgame, the insanely high repair costs in Inferno, the poor story and on and on.<br />
<br />
But there are also plenty of things that I like. To me, Diablo 3 fits really well in the Diablo series. The moment I lay hands on it it felt like Diablo. I know that this opinion isn't shared universally but it's true for me. The graphics and art are gorgeous and so are the sounds. The gameplay is frantic and largely satisfying. Most of the skills are very satisfying to use and runes make them even better. I still love the pinata loot system but, in truth, Diablo 2 was more satisfying in this aspect.<br />
<br />
As a result, I am still playing the game but a lot less than at the beginning. In fact, over the past few weeks I haven't farmed Inferno at all. Instead, I've concentrated on leveling my Witch Doctor to 60, though she's still in Hell Act 4.<br />
<br />
Then, I spent a couple of hours every weekend with my friend from across the big pond, leveling my Wizard. She's 52 now and the going is slow because at these high levels we can't gain more than a couple of levels per play session. Problem is, I'm itching to get her to 60 because I love the Wizard best of all classes. Of course, there's a distinct possibility that she'll suck in Inferno but we'll see.<br />
<br />
My Demon Hunter with 50K DPS can't do shit in Inferno Act 1. He destroyed everything in Hell but Inferno is really bad. He's a 2-hit kill and mobs move too fast for him to be able to escape. I just can't do it, so I abandoned him for now.<br />
<br />
Surprisingly, I decided to start a hardcore character. It sounds crazy because I always thought it would be a waste of time but here I am. The class? Wizard, of course. She's 22 in Act 2 and she's doing fine so far. My strategy is to repeat content until I outlevel it, just to be on the safe side.<br />
<br />
I find it interesting that in hardcore it seems the Auction House moves better. I sold most of the good items I found and I even managed to sell a rare level 13 ring for 20K. Prices are higher, but you can still find good deals. It should be really interesting if they add a hardcore RMAH.<br />
<br />
So that's what I've been up to these past few weeks. I've also sold a few items on the RMAH here and there, for the minimum amount because most of it was junk.<br />
<br />
Plans for the future? I just want to level that damn Wizard to 60 so I can try to kick some butt the way I like it. Unfortunately I don't think I'll be posting too often, I just don't feel energized like I was when the game launched.<br />
<br />
What about y'all? If I don't get any comments I'll just assume none of my readers is playing any more lol.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-392208655385275652012-07-06T21:26:00.002-05:002012-07-06T21:26:11.385-05:00Barbarian 30-60 buildI would like to share with you the build I used on my Barbarian from level 30 all the way to 60. Why 30? Because that's about the point where you step into Nightmare difficulty. Act 2 especially can be tough. Normal mode is very easy but Nightmare ramps it up a notch and very often it requires a re-shuffling of your skills in order to progress. I was ready to give up on my Barbarian at this point because I was taking too much damage with my previous hodge-podge build. The fact that I was using a 2-hander didn't help either.<br />
<br />
I came upon an interesting build on a forum somewhere but unfortunately I can't remember where, to link to it. I decided to give this build a try and I was very impressed. My Barbarian became an unstoppable force (and immovable object) and he sailed easily all the way to Inferno Act 1 using this build.<br />
<br />
You won't have all the sweet runes that finalize this build from level 30. But the skills themselves don't change at all. Only one passive skill changes, but much later. Instead, the basic build continues to improve as you go along and unlock better runes. Furthermore, it so happens that you don't even need to enable Elective Mode if you use the same skill placement I use.<br />
<br />
I found that this build works best with sword-and-board, i.e. 1H weapon and shield. Your mileage may vary with a different weapon setup but personally I wouldn't want to give up the extra protection afforded by the shield.<br />
<br />
Without further ado, here's the build at level 30:<br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeRVkP%21bVe%21ZZaa">http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeRVkP!bVe!ZZaa</a><br />
<br />
<b>Primary</b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/frenzy" target="_blank">Frenzy</a> with <b><span style="color: orange;">Triumph</span></b> - This is your bread and butter Fury generator. It deals massive damage to a single target and it works best with a fast weapon. <b style="color: orange;">Triumph</b> heals you for a significant amount when you kill an enemy. I consider it essential for survival. You will use this rune all the way to 59.<br />
<br />
<b>Secondary</b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/seismic-slam" target="_blank">Seismic Slam</a> with <b><span style="color: orange;">Shattered Ground</span></b> - <b>Seismic Slam</b> is your main Fury spender. I love it because it deals massive damage in a 45 degree arc in front of you to all the monsters caught in it. More importantly, it knocks them back, allowing you to recover if you are surrounded. The rune simply improves the range of the skill and the knockback effect. This rune is so good that there is no reason to change it even at 60.<br />
<br />
<b>Defensive</b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/ignore-pain" target="_blank">Ignore Pain</a> with <b style="color: orange;">Bravado</b> - It seems that <b>Ignore Pain</b> has become a must for most builds and this one is no exception. Pop it up whenever things become hairy. The <b><span style="color: orange;">Bravado</span></b> rune is temporary until you can get a better one but it is still very good, knocking enemies back if they surround you and also dealing 50% weapon damage to them. In fact this rune can be used as an extra source of DPS if you so desire, popping <b>Ignore Pain</b> whenever it's off cooldown. While the cooldown itself is fairly short, I prefer to use it only when shit happens.<br />
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<b>Might</b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/revenge" target="_blank">Revenge</a> with <b><span style="color: orange;">Vengeance is Mine</span></b> - <b>Revenge</b> is one of my favorite skills. It has a chance to activate when you are taking damage. So the more you are hit, the higher the chance. It procs very often when you are surrounded or standing in a pool of nasty damaging stuff. You need to keep an eye out for it but it does some nice AoE damage when you hit it. Make sure not to wait too long because the effect eventually expires. Damage aside, the main strength of this skill is that it heals you for a very nice amount for each enemy affected by the skill. It is literally a lifesaver. The rune (temporary until much later) increases the healing effect and also gives you some Fury. <br />
<br />
<b>Tactics</b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/war-cry" target="_blank">Warcry</a> - This one buffs your armor (and your allies') by 20% for 1 minute. The cool thing is that it also generates Fury so I use it whenever it is off cooldown, every 30 seconds. At level 30 there is no rune for it yet.<br />
<br />
<b>Rage </b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/wrath-of-the-berserker" target="_blank">Wrath of the Berserker</a> - This one is optional but highly recommended. It provides massive burst damage and even though the cooldown is long at 2 minutes, I like to save it for boss packs when I can pop it and destroy them in a few seconds. Runed, this skill becomes even better, but at level 30 you will have to contend with the naked skill.<br />
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<b>Passive</b><br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/passive/nerves-of-steel" target="_blank">Nerves of Steel</a> - Awesome defensive passive. It increases your armor by the same amount as your Vitality. Since you will have a ton of Vitality anyway, this means that you will have huge amounts of armor. This passive does a lot to help mitigate a great deal of physical damage.<br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/passive/tough-as-nails" target="_blank">Tough as Nails</a> - Further increases your armor by an additional 25% but also improves your Thorns damage. If you have a build centered around Thorns, this passive is a must. Otherwise it still does a lot of mitigation which makes it important for this build.<br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/passive/superstition" target="_blank">Superstition</a> - While the previous two passives take care of physical damage, this one reduces non-physical damage by 20% and also gives you a little Fury when taking ranged or elemental damage. In all, it's a solid defensive skill and highly recommended.<br />
<br />
<b>Gameplay</b><br />
As you can see, this build centers mainly around defensive skills but also has some nice health recovery via <b>Revenge</b> and the <b>Frenzy</b> rune, as well as good damage thanks to <b>Frenzy</b>, <b>Revenge</b> (again) and <b>Wrath of the Berserker</b>. Between all the mitigation and health recovery you will use very few health potions. For this to work you will obviously need a good 1H weapon and shield but fortunately these are cheap to buy on the Auction House until level 55 or so. For the shield I recommend as much block as you can find (ideally about 20% or so), and then armor. Shields also have Strength, Vitality (which also gives armor via the passive) and other desirable stats.<br />
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<b>Progression from 30 to 60</b><br />
This build will evolve in your journey to level 60 but the beauty of it is that you'll be using the exact same skills. Only the runes change, for the better. Here's what I recommend, as you go along.<br />
<br />
<b>Level 32</b><br />
<b>Warcry</b> gets its first rune, <b style="color: orange;">Hardened Wrath</b>. This doubles the armor bonus to 40%. You will use this until level 60 when I recommend another rune.<br />
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<b>Level 36</b><br />
<b>Ignore Pain</b> gets <b style="color: orange;">Ignorance is Bliss</b>. This rune gives you additional healing while <b>Ignore Pain</b> is active. At 20% that's a lot of healing. If shit hits the fan, pop this and you will do a complete turnaround.<br />
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<b>Level 40</b><br />
<b>Wrath of the Berserker</b> gets <b style="color: orange;">Impunity</b>. This rune doubles your damage while <b>Wrath of the Berserker</b> is active. In other words, you can deal double damage every 2 minutes. This allows you to burn down boss packs and bosses in record time.<br />
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<b>Level 40</b> (but you can do it at 60 if you don't feel the need)<br />
After 40, when you feel like you are getting too close to death for comfort, you have the option to swap the <b>Superstition</b> passive for <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/passive/relentless" target="_blank">Relentless</a>. While you will lose some elemental resistance, your survivability will be greatly increased when your health gets really low. This passive has saved me numerous times and allowed me to recover from desperate situations. I'd say it's a must for hardcore builds. In addition, it also reduces your Fury costs by 75%. This skill used to be even better because it reduced costs by 100% but it got nerfed because people were using a build where they deliberately got their health down to 20% so they could kite tough mobs from a distance with unlimited <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/barbarian/active/weapon-throw" target="_blank">Weapon Throw</a> and/or <b>Seismic Slam</b> with <b style="color: orange;">Shattered Ground</b>. This really sucks, IMO, but Blizzard are sometimes dicks like that.<br />
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<b>Level 52</b><br />
<b>Revenge</b> gets <b style="color: orange;">Provocation</b>. You give up some healing and also Fury generation but <b>Revenge</b> now procs twice as often. Believe me when I tell you that the tradeoff is definitely worth it. Now it seems like it's up all the time. Do massive AoE damage! Because it procs more often you can also heal more often (even though the amount is smaller) but this does wonders when you're surrounded by lots of monsters or when you get a boss pack with Plagued or Desecrator.<br />
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<b>Level 59</b><br />
<b>Frenzy</b> gets <b style="color: orange;">Maniac</b>. Each stack of <b>Frenzy</b> increases your damage by 4% for a potential total of 20%. That's a huge amount of extra damage. You'll be forgoing the healing after monster kills but this rune is much better for downing boss packs and tough mobs.<br />
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<b>Level 60</b><br />
Use <b style="color: orange;">Impunity</b> for <b>Warcry</b>. While you'll be giving up some armor, I think you'll gain a lot more by boosting all your resistances by 50%. Don't use this if you don't have enough base resistances because the difference won't be significant.<br />
<br />
At level 60, your build will look like this:<br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeRVkP%21bVU%21cZbccZ">http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WeRVkP!bVU!cZbccZ</a><br />
<br />
It's a very solid defensive build that can also deal a fair amount of damage provided you have a decent weapon. I'm currently in Inferno Act 1 with this build but I haven't really played the Barbarian a lot there due to lack of good equipment. I did kill a few Inferno boss packs with this build, although in truth I am a bit squishy. If you've used this build or have better suggestions I'd love to hear all about it.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-50841018611901368102012-07-02T18:58:00.001-05:002012-07-02T21:35:28.780-05:00Oh cruel fate why do you mock me?I don't believe in fate or destiny (merely in coincidence) but sometimes life can be very ironic, to say the least. Diablo 3 has been toying with my feelings for a while now. Over the past couple of days I decided to start farming that damn Staff of Herding so I can get into the secret pony level. What, did you think it would be easy? Perish the thought.<br />
<br />
I leveled 3 characters to 60, another to 50+ and another to 30+. I killed Izual (who drops the plans for the Staff) many many times. The plans didn't drop. Then, over the last 2 days I decided to farm him specifically for the plans with my Monk. So I ran him over and over again, on Normal difficulty. Did the plans drop? Nah.<br />
<br />
I bought a copy of Diablo 3 for my best friend over in Europe. We get together about once a week for 1-2 hours and play together, chatting over Skype. It's an awesome way to enjoy the game even though we're thousands of miles apart. He plays a Barbarian and I play my Wizard. Because we don't get to play a lot, advancement is slow. Yesterday we both reached level 32, after finishing Normal difficulty.<br />
<br />
So guess what drops for my friend on his very first Izual kill? You guessed it. The plans for The F*#$% Staff of Herding. He was like "Oh, I got a legendary drop". I was like "Sigh", already knowing what dropped.<br />
<br />
On the whole, this episode makes me me lol uncontrollably. I plan to continue farming for the staff, even though I'm not sure about the benefits of farming Whimsyshire. Does it give better drops? More of them? Or is it just a novelty thing?<br />
<br />
How about you? Have you found the plans yet? What about the other components? How long did it take you to find them?<br />
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UPDATE: I got the plans tonight, just after posting this article and after killing Izual about 5 more times. OK fate, I forgive you.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-43314427515681623902012-06-29T19:15:00.000-05:002012-06-29T19:15:01.714-05:00Demon Hunter is 60Last night I hit 60 on my Demon Hunter. I stopped playing him a few weeks ago and left him languishing at 55. My spec sucked, my DPS was mediocre and leveling was a drag. Then, a couple of nights ago I decided to make the final push to 60 so I could equip my DH with level 60 items inherited from the Monk, not to mention a bow or two that I had set aside for him.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rLIaw4HkFTI/T-5DmUJ6t7I/AAAAAAAAA6w/bjGPx2bL0Cg/s1600/you-have-reached-60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rLIaw4HkFTI/T-5DmUJ6t7I/AAAAAAAAA6w/bjGPx2bL0Cg/s400/you-have-reached-60.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of the tricks that you can take advantage of when you're close to 60 and things seem to slow down is to search the Auction House for a weapon with Reduced Level Requirement. You'll be surprised what you can find. In many cases you'll be able to grab a level 60 weapon (with the associated massive damage) for your level 55-56 character.<br />
<br />
After buying a 758 DPS bow (which had more than double the DPS of my existing crossbow), my damage spiked from 13K to a massive 32K. In truth, these numbers are with the passive <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/demon-hunter/passive/sharpshooter" target="_blank">Sharpshooter</a>. It's all good though. I love that passive.<br />
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At the same time I decided to change my spec. I adopted this <a href="http://www.diablo3artisans.com/demon-hunter-inferno-1-0-3/" target="_blank">guy's spec</a>. It's awesome, I can tell you that. From that point onward, I was pulverizing everything in my path. That is, until I decided to group up in order to kill Belial. The group wiped 4 times before we decided to split. Afterwards I killed Belial on my first solo try. BTW, I still think this is one of the worst encounters in the game.<br />
<br />
In Act 3 I joined another group and found myself in a party of 4 Demon Hunters. It was the first time that happened and it was fun. Unfortunately my DPS was disproportionate to what the others were dealing.<br />
<br />
About halfway into Act 3 I hit 60 without too much fuss. I equipped a 1H crossbow that I was saving, along with 2-3 other upgrades and my DPS jumped again to... drumroll...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ioCnZiEkyg4/T-5CX0vXLjI/AAAAAAAAA6o/N6Bmz8KZmLw/s1600/47k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ioCnZiEkyg4/T-5CX0vXLjI/AAAAAAAAA6o/N6Bmz8KZmLw/s1600/47k.jpg" /></a></div>
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Yup, 47K DPS. I also have +145% Critical Hit Damage and 2.16 attacks per second. That's pretty damn awesome. Mobs die like flies. Champions don't stand much of a chance either. I just love being overpowered. Unfortunately I am rather weak. 2-3 well-placed blows will kill me. I'm also sure that 47K DPS in Inferno for a DH without too many defenses won't quite cut it.<br />
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The best thing, however, is that now I can go back to farming Inferno with the Monk so I can equip the Demon Hunter and the Barbarian who are both 60 now.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-66707037881126988592012-06-28T19:08:00.002-05:002012-06-28T19:08:52.871-05:00Blizzard fails at game designDid the controversial title make you click through? Good. That was my intention. Before you start hating on me, give me a chance to make my case. I don't really think that Blizzard fails at game design and the title is more tongue-in-cheek than deadly serious. But some of their design decisions do make me scratch my head. It is said that true love has both highs and lows and there's a love-hate relationship between me and Blizzard. There are many occasions in which I cussed them to hell but many more in which I praised them. This little article is meant to question some parts of their game design so bear with me if you will.<br />
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With Diablo 3, Blizzard has always maintained that their goal was to encourage a vast number of builds and equipment choices, such that no particular build would shine above all others and no piece of equipment would be mandatory in order to advance through content. It turns out that their plan didn't pan out too well. Here are a few reasons why.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">1H vs 2H</span><br />
Normally it shouldn't really matter which kind of weapon you use. It would come down to personal preference and specific builds which favor one type of weapon or another. Unfortunately, in Inferno it's almost impossible to play as a melee class without a shield. This excludes 2H weapons and makes 1H + shield almost mandatory. To my horror, I heard that even Wizards, Demon Hunters and Witch Doctors are using shields instead of their class-specific off-hands.<br />
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I'm sure there are literally tens of players who go against the norm and use 2H weapons but those are the exception. A shield provides too many benefits to give up in favor of slightly more DPS on a 2H weapon: block, armor, life, resistances and other desirable stats.<br />
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I would argue that the same thing is valid for 1H vs dual 1H. Though you will get more damage from dual-wielding 1H weapons, the tradeoff might be too big.<br />
<br />
Take my Barbarian, for example. Until Act 2 Nightmare he bullied his way through using a variety of weapon setups, including 1H + shield, dual 1H and 2H. But he hit a wall right about that point and I was forced to change both his spec and his equipment to 1H + shield. After that, his problems ended.<br />
<br />
Blizzard wanted to stay away from mandatory equipment setups but they failed in this noble endeavor. Unfortunately I don't have a ready solution for this. If I recall correctly (and hopefully I'm not seeing this through rose-colored glasses), Diablo 2 handled this better by offering a much wider build variety, where any combination of gear could be viable. Of course, some were more efficient than others but on the whole you could still finish Hell with a non-mainstream setup.<br />
<br />
Strangely, I like D3's DPS system. Translating weapon DPS into skill DPS is very simple and intuitive. But this introduces gremlins into the system. And frankly I don't have any idea how Blizzard will manage to chase those gremlins out.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Crafting</span><br />
Crafting is supposed to be something exciting, that players find a lot of fun to engage in, as well as a convenient gold sink. Unfortunately, crafting in Diablo 3 leaves me cold. I leveled my Jewelcrafter to some extent and now I regret it. I was hoping to flip some gems and this worked well for a couple of days until commodity auctions were disabled. After that it became useless. Flipping gems is unprofitable now and crafting gems for myself is... meh, since I can usually buy them cheaper from the AH.<br />
<br />
Luckily I didn't level the Blacksmith at all, but if I had, I wouldn't find any use for him. From what I can determine, the Blacksmith is only useful to a small niche of players who have figured out how to take advantage of certain crafted items on the Auction House. That's cool but the vast majority of players doesn't engage in AH warfare.<br />
<br />
Then there's the small group of players who don't use the AH for certain reasons, preferring to craft their own gear. Unfortunately, until the late 50s you'll be better off buying very good gear directly off the AH so they are still wasting their time and gold.<br />
<br />
Blacksmithing does come in its own at max level, but again, only if you invest a lot of gold in it first, buying rare recipes and expensive mats. Even then, there's no guarantee that you will get good stats on an item.<br />
<br />
Personally I just don't want to bother with crafting. It is too unappealing to me but I'm hoping this will improve in future patches. Hah, ironically it almost seems like Diablo 2's gambling system was more appealing to players than Diablo 3's crafting system, despite the fact that results were a lot less predictable.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Crafting mats</span><br />
Another thing that failed, in my opinion, is the market for crafting mats. The only ones that are worth something on the AH are level 60 ones. In other words, Normal, Nightmare and Hell mats are completely useless. I don't even understand why people choose to salvage their items <i>and then</i> sell the mats on the AH. You are losing money people! On the flip-side, those who know how to exploit this will profit by buying cheap mats, crafting certain niche items and selling them on the AH. Once again, these people are a very small minority.<br />
<br />
Even at 60, things aren't rosy. The prices for the 3 types of mats are dysfunctional. Leaving aside the fact that Inferno mats are several orders of magnitude more expensive than their lesser counterparts, Exquisite Essences (magic) are 8-10 times more expensive than Iridescent Tears (rare)! How the hell is that even possible? I find it ridiculous.<br />
<br />
Blizzard designed crafting in such a way that the demand for lesser materials is much higher (up to 10 times in fact) than that for rarer materials. How messed up is that? Something needs to be done here: either decrease the drop rate of rare items (something that I would hate), or tweak the number of mats of each type required to craft a recipe.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span><br />
These are just some of the nits I wish to pick right now. While Blizzard is an awesome company with a lot of top-notch talent, they are still human, and humans make mistakes. They have frustrated me on many occasions with what I perceived as stupid design decisions but their games have also entertained me like nothing else. With Diablo 3 they went through several iterations and radical changes in game systems but unfortunately all is not well in the magic kingdom. But this is nothing that a few major patches and an expansion or two can't fix.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-43491154937435050292012-06-26T21:52:00.000-05:002012-06-26T21:52:49.418-05:00Act 1 Inferno downLast night I completed Act 1 of Inferno on my Monk. I killed the Butcher easily in what felt like an anticlimax.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F8SAB-GP7TE/T-pxObaBNzI/AAAAAAAAA6c/abIKxHMu_9c/s1600/butchered-inferno.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-F8SAB-GP7TE/T-pxObaBNzI/AAAAAAAAA6c/abIKxHMu_9c/s400/butchered-inferno.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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After <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/06/oh-nerfs.html" target="_blank">bitching so hard</a> about patch 1.0.3 I feel almost ashamed at my outburst. What can I do, I'm hotblooded... The fact remains that the patch lost me over a million gold, even if I managed to make a full recovery afterwards. Recoveries don't come cheap though.<br />
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Let me tell you a bit about my Monk's stats, which allowed me to so easily complete Act 1 in Inferno. All of these are unbuffed but with the Enchantress companion (who gives extra armor and DPS).<br />
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18K DPS (1549 Dexterity)<br />
30.4K Life<br />
5871 Armor<br />
35.5% Dodge<br />
20% Block<br />
303 Resist All<br />
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Here's my build. I changed it a few days ago, in a departure from what I had been using for the past couple of weeks.<br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#biXgYh%21ZUX%21ZZbaca">http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#biXgYh!ZUX!ZZbaca</a><br />
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If you get stuck with your Monk, I highly recommend this build. If there's one word to describe it, it's "awesome". I don't take credit for it because this is the exact same build used by the guy in this video:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qFjdTSF4CGc?rel=0" width="640"></iframe>
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So while this isn't my own innovation, I can attest to the fact that it works very well and playing the Monk is, once more, a pleasure. The video is quite long but worth watching, at least until you can see how he explains the build.<br />
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My gear is quite decent for Act 1, as you can imagine. I have a 910 DPS blue sword with 1.47 attack speed. I paid 850K for it on the Auction House and even though it seemed expensive at the time, now I believe it was quite a steal. For some reason 900+ DPS weapons are incredibly expensive.<br />
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Yeah, so that's about it for now. I'm satisfied that I have Act 1 on farm mode. I can make a very nice circuit of the most interesting areas (by taking various waypoints) and finally, with 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, I can kill the Butcher easily. The fun is back in the game. I really enjoy this endgame farming aspect where I have a chance to find the most powerful items in the game, including a <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/06/ka-ching.html" target="_blank">legendary</a> or two.<br />
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I don't want to move to Act 2 right away. I think I'm going to farm Act 1 for at least another couple of weeks until I can slowly gear myself up for Act 2. I need about 500 Resist All for that, and also more DPS.<br />
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So where are you at? Have you reached Inferno yet? Have you finished it? What is the highest area you have on farm?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-11061114089960092192012-06-22T20:05:00.001-05:002012-06-22T20:05:29.578-05:00Ka-ching!Apparently Blizzard read my <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/06/oh-nerfs.html" target="_blank">whiny, ranting post</a> the other day and decided to bribe me. After the big IAS nerf I decided to (what the hell) spend some more gold to re-equip my Monk. 1.7 million gold later I found myself with the same DPS I had before the nerf: around 17K. I also switched from using the Scoundrel to the Enchantress and DPS went up to 18K. OK, I was back on track to farming <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/05/farming-fields-of-misery.html" target="_blank">Fields of Misery</a> on Inferno.<br />
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So there I was, minding my own business, killing shit in one of the random dungeons that spawn in that zone, namely Scavenger's Den, level 2. I had 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor (for a total of +131% Magic Find) and I just killed a champion group (or was it a rare elite?). The final monster dies and I do a double take when I see what drops:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Etevsv-MWI/T-UQ-GVLQOI/AAAAAAAAA5w/rs7-NEpYQLw/s1600/legendary-crossbow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="375" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_Etevsv-MWI/T-UQ-GVLQOI/AAAAAAAAA5w/rs7-NEpYQLw/s400/legendary-crossbow.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Yup, a legendary crossbow. I pick it up...<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqmuQygHjto/T-UREflHPkI/AAAAAAAAA54/bKLpVEPU6fA/s1600/unidentified-hellrack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqmuQygHjto/T-UREflHPkI/AAAAAAAAA54/bKLpVEPU6fA/s400/unidentified-hellrack.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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and identify it...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vSWbRlDKcnc/T-URJwICDmI/AAAAAAAAA6A/0Q2qHEmpl10/s1600/hellrack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vSWbRlDKcnc/T-URJwICDmI/AAAAAAAAA6A/0Q2qHEmpl10/s400/hellrack.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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Hmm, not bad. It would make a nice weapon for my Demon Hunter when he hits 60. On the other hand, I had just picked up from the AH for 200K a bow with more DPS, but also with a lot of life leech on it. What if I sell the Hellrack?<br />
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About 12 hours later this is what I see in my AH log:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6HcZw9-kVCY/T-URor8xRzI/AAAAAAAAA6I/5E_AX8zRJmU/s1600/sales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="43" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6HcZw9-kVCY/T-URor8xRzI/AAAAAAAAA6I/5E_AX8zRJmU/s400/sales.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I posted it for $8.48 and ended up with $7.48 after Blizzard's cut. Also notice the other sales that happened in fairly close succession. Pretty good, I'd say. You may think I'm a fool for selling it for such a low price but I did my homework before that. There were better legendary bows on the RMAH for less than $10 and I wanted to sell this quickly. I decided to price it comparably to other bows in that range. Mine had pretty good stats for a Hellrack so I guess that's why it sold so quickly. Could I have sold it for $1-$2 more? Maybe, but it's impossible to know. When they allow us to cancel auctions I will price items more conservatively.<br />
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I have three additional reasons why I decided to get rid of this legendary bow quickly. One is that $7.48 will buy me a hell of a lot of gold (if I so desire) once gold buying is enabled. Second is that Hellracks go for about 500K-600K gold, which is pathetic. $7.48 >>>>>>>> 600K gold. Third is that Blizzard will buff legendary items in a future patch. I don't want to risk waiting until that patch, when my own Hellrack becomes worthless.<br />
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The point is that whatever you may think about this sale (too high or too low), I am happy with it. It's my highest sale so far, by far. This brings my total to over $11. Yes, it's a pathetic amount but I'm not gonna pay my bills with RMAH money. Instead, I just might use it to buy a really good item or two in the future. I have a feeling that actual money will be a lot more valuable and stable than gold.<br />
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Finally, here's a little tip. I have this nasty trick that I use to boost my Magic Find. A bazillion other players use the same trick so I'm sure you are aware of it, and it's "nasty" because Blizzard doesn't really like it but there isn't much they can do about it. I have an extra helm in my inventory with +32% MF. Just before killing the last boss or champion I will swap my usual DPS helm with the MF one. Simple but apparently effective.<br />
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So that's it then. All you gotta do to make money on the RMAH is to bitch about Diablo 3 and Blizzard will read your post and give you some nice legendary drops to appease you. I kid, of course, but the funny thing is that something similar used to happen to me in WoW. After a long hiatus or a loss of enthusiasm I would get some really nice drop, when I least expected it. Pure coincidence, all of it. Don't count on this method kids.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-6592112956026478192012-06-19T19:44:00.000-05:002012-06-19T19:44:49.284-05:00Oh the nerfs!Fuck you Blizzard! I said it in the past and, there you go, I'm saying it again. Patch 1.0.3 is oh so bittersweet. It brings some nice changes, like reduced crafting costs but also fucks many of us hard in the ass. Sorry if your delicate ears are insulted by my cursing but that's how I feel right now. I've suddenly lost all the wind in my sails.<br />
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You see, I was preparing to write this post in which I enthused about finally being sufficiently geared to <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/05/farming-fields-of-misery.html" target="_blank">farm Fields of Misery</a> on Inferno with my Monk. Over a couple of weeks I managed to buy a few pieces of gear from the AH, not too cheap mind you, and at the end of this my Monk found himself with 17K+ DPS, 27K health (a bit on the low side) and 250 resistances.<br />
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I beat the Skeleton King without issues, as well as a lot of champions and rares, and only died about 3 times in 2-3 hours of play. I reached the Fields of Misery and did a complete clear. Boss packs were challenging but eminently doable. I got a lot of nice drops, mostly upgrades for my Barbarian. Rare items galore. Happiness.<br />
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And then along comes Blizzard and completely fucks me and a lot of other people over. Of course, they had to nerf Increased Attach Speed (IAS). And they did it in the most ham-handed way possible by retroactively slashing IAS on all weapons and items (except for quivers). I was fervently hoping that they would only do this on future items. Alas, it wasn't so. I had some significant IAS on a few of my items.<br />
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Worst of all, my 800+ DPS fist weapon for which I paid in excess of 600K, had +24% IAS. Now it has 10%. Guess how much my total DPS dropped. It went from 17K+ to 14K+. The weapon now barely has a bit over 700 DPS and in the process has been rendered valueless, as I doubt I can sell it for even 50K on the AH. Nice work Blizzard! Fuck you again!<br />
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Now my choices are to spend my remaining gold on upgrades that will bring me back to where I was before the nerfs, or to wait a few more weeks and try to catch some good deals until I can step again in Inferno. You can tell I'm overjoyed.<br />
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Don't even get me started on the increased repair costs. If you ask me, that's another quick-but-dumb fix they implemented to "equalize" the difference between ranged and melee classes. Apparently ranged classes were having a ball in Inferno, throwing themselves repeatedly at boss packs in a kamikaze sort of way until the pack went down. I don't know what they are smoking over there at Blizzard but that sounds like complete bullshit to me. Dying is the thing I hate most. I will do everything in my power to avoid it. And now I will hate it even more.<br />
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And then there's the little nerfs to drop rates. I won't even go there because this isn't what bothers me the most.<br />
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I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. All that time spent farming gold to afford better gear is now wasted. I feel robbed and I can't even imagine what people who have paid real money for those items feel. I can't even focus on the good things the patch brings because I am too distressed by the bad stuff to care.<br />
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So tell me, has 1.0.3 screwed you over?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-17902709940795917972012-06-16T12:22:00.001-05:002012-06-16T12:29:43.077-05:00It's raining legendariesWell, chance is fickle indeed. I played Diablo 3 for a month for countless hours, leveled my Monk to 60, grinded a lot of Hell and a tiny bit of Infeno with > +100% Magic Find and I never saw a legendary item drop. And then, on my noob Barbarian I get 2 legendaries a few days apart, with 0 Magic Find (read that again: ZERO MAGIC FIND). A few days ago I got this <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-first-legendary.html" target="_blank">legendary amulet</a>. Today, at level 51, I got this sword in Act 1 Hell from a random elite boss:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jJxO87nC8zQ/T9y70fWtdpI/AAAAAAAAA5k/dJ5rpcHuIjs/s1600/the-ancient-bonesaber-of-zumakalis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jJxO87nC8zQ/T9y70fWtdpI/AAAAAAAAA5k/dJ5rpcHuIjs/s400/the-ancient-bonesaber-of-zumakalis.jpg" width="275" /></a></div>
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The Ancient Bonesaber of Zumakalis. Now the first question that needs to be asked is who the hell is Zumakalis? Leaving that aside (because we all know it's some random name that Blizzard slapped on this item), the second question is what to do with this sword?<br />
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To me this looks like a very good weapon for a Monk. At level 45 120 DPS is not too shabby. Slap a Ruby on it and you cat get a lot more out of it. Attack speed is decent and it looks like there's quite a bit of life leech on it. That's cool. My Barbarian certainly can't use it at level 51 because it isn't itemized for Barbarians and besides he's already got a more powerful weapon, and my Monk is 60 so it's definitely useless to him. The only remaining option is, of course, to sell it.<br />
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Luckily, the RMAH is now functional so I can make some good money with this sword. Or can I? Though I was kinda expecting it, I was dismayed to find out that I can get somewhere between $1.70 and $2.00 for it. Oh, minus Blizzard's $1 fee, that would be in fact $0.70 or $1.00 tops. Yikes! Of course, I understand that this is simply a leveling weapon that will be replaced as soon as possible so it can't hold its value very well. On the other hand it <i>has</i> to be better than the yellow weapon I <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/06/welcome-to-25-cent-club.html" target="_blank">sold the other day for $1.25</a>.<br />
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The sad truth is that competition on the AH is bound to be fierce and people will undercut each other viciously. Now, of course, I could try to sell this on the Gold Auction House but I would get between 50K and 70K for it. Not too tempting. That would value gold at 29K-35K per $1 (before Blizzard's tax) or ~70K gold per $1 after Blizzard's tax. It is obvious to me that even after Blizzard takes their cut, I'd still be better off selling this for the minimum of $1.70. I highly doubt you'll be able to buy less than 100K gold for $1 when commodity auctions are enabled. In fact I predict that prices will go down to 1M / $1 or even less, but that's another story.<br />
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So it's settled then, I'm going to try to sell this for a maximum of $2. It's sad but necessary. I can't let it gather dust in my inventory because I can't use it (unless I decide to level a second Monk but I doubt that will ever happen).<br />
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I've read a blog post somewhere (sorry, can't remember the blog) where the poster argued that it might be better to keep legendaries unidentified in your inventory until the big "legendary patch" is released (probably 1.1), which buffs legendaries going forward. But this assumes items are assigned attributes at the moment of identifying them, and not when they drop. That's certainly possible but we don't know that and I simply don't want to risk waiting until this item is completely worthless.<br />
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Should I sell it then after gold trading is enabled? That would allow me to value this item better in terms of gold per dollar. What do you think?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-3684818277060081932012-06-14T20:35:00.002-05:002012-06-14T20:35:30.571-05:00Welcome to the 25 cent clubApparently there's a thing called "the 25 cent club". It refers to those who sell (or have sold) items on Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House for the minimum amount of $1.25. After Blizzard's cut of $1 per sale (this only applies to items, commodities have a different tax structure), you are left with $0.25. But this is only if you choose to have your money deposited in your Battle.net account. For Paypal deduct an additional 15%.<br />
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Well, quite unexpectedly, I had my first sale on the RMAH today. I placed a new batch of items last night and one of them (some rare leveling weapon with decent stats) sold. I posted all items for the minimum $1.25 buyout because I wasn't very optimistic that any of that crap would sell. I simply took a shot in the dark. Besides, the RMAH is convenient for extra storage, if nothing else. Cancelled auctions go to that temporary limbo space which can hold 50 items. And if they happen to sell, hey, that's a bonus.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RmJNIKm8Q6U/T9qNIpYvUAI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/qDH3jWdP7iA/s1600/125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RmJNIKm8Q6U/T9qNIpYvUAI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/qDH3jWdP7iA/s320/125.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As you can see, I'm not one of those who only think of ways in which to make real money on the AH. I've got better things to do. One of them is to simply have fun playing the damn game. You know, killing shit and stuff. Which leads me to refer you back to my <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8586099955863791323&pli=1#editor/target=post;postID=4049428350772393304;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=96" target="_blank">Make $1 an hour playing Diablo 3</a> post.<br />
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It's no accident that it is my most popular article. Though there are blogs and bloggers who hope to make 10-20 times that amount in an hour, most people realize subconsciously that it is unrealistic for <i>everybody</i> to earn that much. Hence, the much more modest amount that I proposed. Sure, there will be people who will make a lot more than you or I. But they are enjoying the AH aspect of D3 while you and I are enjoying the gameplay. The way things are moving, though, I'm afraid that even my $1/hour figure was perhaps too optimistic. I'd be content to make this guaranteed amount. If nothing else, I can cover some additional expenses.<br />
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It baffles me that people are - <i>allegedly</i> - spending hundreds of dollars on the recently-opened RMAH for a single item. Looks like there are either too many idiots or too many millionaires, or both, in this world. I kind of understand the logic of paying for a virtual item that would take you 10 hours of play to find, with real money earned in one hour. But even then, I would ask, are you telling me that you are paying <i>not</i> to have to play the game? I thought that was the entire point of this game: to kill endless hordes of monsters in the hopes of getting a rare and valuable drop.<br />
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To each their own. Maybe I'm the idiot for not seeing the true rationale behind paying so much money for virtual items but it would take a lot to convince me of the benefits. $250 can buy a hell of a lot of real stuff.<br />
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So how about you? Sold any stuff for real money lately?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-31410239657349041792012-06-11T19:47:00.002-05:002012-06-16T11:56:55.715-05:00My first legendarySo there I was, minding my own business, killing fools in the sewers of Act 2 of Nightmare with my level 39 Barbarian. After dispatching a group of champions, I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed this on the ground.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbTsWobx4Tk/T9aQVwleIiI/AAAAAAAAA5E/jijbAyi2BOY/s1600/legendary-drop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="347" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZbTsWobx4Tk/T9aQVwleIiI/AAAAAAAAA5E/jijbAyi2BOY/s400/legendary-drop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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WTF! A legendary amulet! Fricking awesome!<br />
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It turns out that this was a pretty good upgrade for the Barbarian, after I fitted it with a Ruby for some extra damage. One of the best features of this amulet is the +7% run speed. Now I have a total of +17% run speed which is pretty sweet.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0-Uzge3tblo/T9aQ0fteMPI/AAAAAAAAA5M/V0a7ZmydBIk/s1600/talisman-of-aranoch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0-Uzge3tblo/T9aQ0fteMPI/AAAAAAAAA5M/V0a7ZmydBIk/s400/talisman-of-aranoch.jpg" width="381" /></a></div>
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This amulet, called Talisman of Aranoch, is all the more amazing as it dropped with only 22% Magic Find and it happened not only to be an upgrade for my Barbarian, but also a level-appropriate item.<br />
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Now I have become a true believer. No longer am I paranoid that legendary items are just something that Blizzard creates and injects directly into the Auction House. Lol jk.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-71270594969493347562012-06-09T20:39:00.000-05:002012-06-09T20:39:10.908-05:00Prometheus reviewToday I'm going to review a movie. It is, perhaps, the most anticipated movie of 2012. So what does a movie have to do with Diablo 3? Well, for one thing we are all geeks and nerds and we love our SF. For another, I <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/04/character-names.html" target="_blank">named my Demon Hunter</a> after the movie. Third, you might thank me later (or not) for saving you some cash.<br />
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You see, I had high hopes for this movie. The trailers looked kick-ass and the pounding music in them hinted of unspeakable horrors. I almost didn't make it to the movies. I had read a bunch of reviews on various sites and one of them in particular gave me pause. In the end I thought "what the hell, maybe it isn't so bad". To a large extent, that review will mirror my own.<br />
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<b>POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD, BE ADVISED</b><br />
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Let me get the good stuff out of the way first. The visuals are great. The landscape on the alien planet is beautiful, though it is too Earth-like. The planet is a satellite of a gas giant very much like our Saturn and I love how the large planet with its rings fills the sky.<br />
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The ship itself, the Prometheus, is a very cool machinery. Problem is, I very much doubt that humans will reach that level of technology in only 80 years. The alien machinery on the planet, likewise, is pretty good visually.<br />
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The sound and music are decent but they don't stand out. Where's the amazing sound from the trailers? Normally I'm not big on sound and music but I still vividly remember the beautiful music from The Lord of the Rings and Inception (though I consider the latter to be a mediocre movie).<br />
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Moving on to the frustrating bits, I'm sorry to say that the plot of Prometheus was idiotic and didn't make much sense. One of the things that bugged me most was that it makes a mockery of science in general and the scientific method in particular. The archaeologist couple are scientists? They are fucking morons! Elizabeth Shaw (played by Noomi Rapace) is only slightly better than her husband (boyfriend??) but it's hard to feel any empathy for her. When her boyfriend/husband died I must have sighed in relief.<br />
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Character development is extremely shallow, to the point where I didn't give a crap if any of them died. Many of the characters were there simply as props because they certainly didn't say or do much. The main character, Elizabeth Shaw, could have been very interesting and she was definitely inspired by Alien's Ripley but unfortunately she wasn't even remotely as good as Ripley.<br />
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Ironically, the characters I liked best were one of the "bad guys", Meredith Vickers (played by Charlize Theron) and the captain (played by Idris Elba). Sadly, they were vastly under-developed and both died at the end. I would have much preferred to see them in the sequel, as opposed to Elizabeth Shaw.<br />
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The third character I liked was, of course, the android David, played by Michael Fassbender. I already liked Michael Fassbender from other movies and he does an exceptional job in this role. Too bad the script is so piss-poor that his talents are essentially wasted. To give an example, David does a couple of things that seem idiotic and nonsensical.<br />
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As for thrills and fears, there wasn't a single moment that caused me (or anyone else in the theater) to jump from our seats. There's some gory stuff, as expected, but nothing you haven't seen already in the Alien series. Man, the original Alien was a hundred times scarier, compounded by the fact that the crew was isolated on that huge ship, with a terrifying monster running loose and no weapons to defend themselves. In Prometheus, not so much. Small, very high-tech ship, with well-lit interiors. Large crew with weapons (that didn't get a lot of use). The "scariest" action takes place outside the ship anyway so Prometheus itself doesn't even play a huge role in the plot.<br />
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So yeah, the plot sucked big time and a lot of acting talent was wasted. Nice work, Mr Ridley Scott!<br />
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Trivia: a family had brought their 4-year old to the movie. That's their problem, but I would definitely <i>not</i> recommend taking your kid to see Prometheus. Hell, even I, who am over 30, was asked by the ticket clerk if I'm 18. Luckily the kid didn't utter a sound during the movie.<br />
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If you really want to see this movie, I would suggest you wait until you can rent it for $1. I only paid $5 because I caught the matinee but even then, I felt like I was ripped off a little. See, that's the reason why I've become jaded about movies lately and why you'll catch me at the cinema only 1-2 times a year. Hollywood has been spewing a lot of garbage lately and very often the trailer is better than the actual movie. Bonus: the trailer is free!Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-23393906126868398342012-06-06T20:21:00.000-05:002012-06-06T20:21:23.110-05:00F*cking finally!So commodity trading has finally been enabled! How long has it been? 2-3 weeks?<br />
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It's all good now, especially since things seem to be much improved. The AH interface feels much more responsive and much less laggy.<br />
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The only problem is that this little hiatus has cost me a few hundred thousand gold. I'm wondering if Blizzard can be sued for this sort of thing once the RMAH is released. Not that I would sue them myself, but I'd be very pissed if I were to base some gold-making strategies around one aspect of the Gold Auction House, only to have them take it offline for a couple of weeks.Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-13196946416865187232012-06-05T19:37:00.001-05:002012-06-05T19:37:09.516-05:00Wanna buy some gold?Over the past week I've been watching in horrified fascination how the black market for Diablo 3 gold evolved. I can't help noticing. I like to join the Trade chat channel because occasionally I see a good deal. I have yet to buy something that was advertised there, but I remember the days of WoW when you could get your hands on some very sweet deals if you paid close attention to Trade.<br />
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Unfortunately, just like in WoW, the chat channels are flooded with gold spammers. I hate these guys and what they represent with a passion. I'm not going to judge the players who buy gold from these sites (though my opinion of them isn't very high) but the spammers and gold sellers are baaaaaad.<br />
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It's about damn time Blizzard released the Real Money Auction House. The economy will go to shit if they don't do it soon. Already gold is losing value with each passing day. On the other hand more and more people are farming Inferno which makes for cheaper high-end items so these two cancel each other out to some extent.<br />
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What's interesting (and maybe worrisome) is that the unofficial price of gold has been dropping a lot over the past week. When I first noticed the spammers, they were offering 1 million gold for $30. Prices dropped successively to $25, $20, yesterday $15 and now a little over $13.<br />
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I wonder how far they will continue to drop. I wonder what the "official" rate will be during the first day the RMAH is released. I wonder how far the rate will drop during the first 24 hours, and then again during the first week. I wonder at what level it will stabilize. I really, truly, honestly hope it won't be something like $1 for 1 million gold. If that's the case, I might be tempted to just pull out my wallet and buy myself some Inferno farming equipment.<br />
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I always thought that I wouldn't spend a single cent on the RMAH. But if gold prices are low enough, it might make more sense to simply buy my way into Inferno instead of approaching it the hard way. I think I would hate myself if I did that.<br />
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Any thoughts?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-42054777214917228962012-05-31T19:03:00.000-05:002012-05-31T19:03:15.966-05:00Diablo 3 is too easyWhile making my way through the acts and difficulties of Diablo 3, all the way to Inferno, I kept getting these nagging thoughts that maybe the game is too easy. Easy compared to what, you might ask? To Diablo 2, of course, I would reply.<br />
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Let me elaborate. In Diablo 2, moving from Normal to Nightmare automatically lowered your resistances by 50. Going from Nightmare to Hell lowered them even further, by 100. Diablo 2's systems were different than Diablo 3's. Resistances were measured in percentages and the maximum you could have was 75%. In certain cases (with unique gear) you could even go over that. At 75 resistance you were a very happy camper. Monsters that dealt elemental damage barely scratched you.<br />
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But 75% resistance in Normal suddenly became only 25% resistance in Hell. While that was still better than nothing, it dramatically lowered your survivability. Equipment upgrades mitigated this to an extent but in most cases you never managed to find enough good gear to fill that gap.<br />
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And then you moved into Hell where resistances dropped by another 50%. Sometimes you found yourself with negative resistances. This actually meant that you took <i>more</i> damage than the monster dealt. For example, if a monster did 100 lightning damage and you didn't have any lightning resist gear on Hell, you actually took 200 damage from that attack. Ouch?<br />
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In Diablo 3, in contrast, I only started worrying about resistances <i>after</i> I finished Hell, when I stepped into Inferno. Up until then, I found Nightmare and Hell challenging enough, but not as much as I remembered from the days of Diablo 2.<br />
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There's a big difference between D3 and D2 though. D3 has an Auction House. The game can be made trivial to a large extent by purchasing upgrades from the AH. Gear leading up to Inferno can be had for very low amounts of gold and you'd be crazy (or a masochist) not to make use of this advantage.<br />
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If you look at the statistics released by Blizzard, very few people have unlocked Inferno. This means one of several things: either people have become bored after Normal and quit the game, or the game is difficult enough for most players, or most players are taking their sweet time leveling through it.<br />
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Personally I don't know what to think. On one hand I do believe that the AH can make the game easy but I wouldn't want to live in a world without it. On the other hand, each difficulty has steep slopes that can be a very solid barrier unless you have the right gear. Inferno is the hardest of all because good gear suddenly becomes <i>very</i> expensive, as in "millions of gold expensive".<br />
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In time I believe that even this final barrier of entry will drop lower thanks to more and more people unlocking and farming Inferno. It's inevitable. Will more people start complaining that Diablo 3 is too easy then? What about you? Do you think D3 is too easy?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-29870820713781880922012-05-29T19:21:00.000-05:002012-05-29T19:21:15.626-05:00D3 Marathon - Day 14 - EpilogueMy <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/search/label/D3%20Marathon" target="_blank">14-day Diablo 3 Marathon</a> has come to an end. Real Life called and wants me back. So what have I accomplished in these 2 weeks of playing D3? More than I bargained for and less than I hoped. Let me explain.<br />
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I leveled a Monk to 60 and unlocked Inferno, though I'm still stuck at the very beginning of Act 1 due to the steep difficulty curve.<br />
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I leveled a Demon Hunter to 40, actually my first class choice, whom I subsequently abandoned in favor of the Monk.<br />
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I leveled a Barbarian to 34. Because he inherited a lot of good gear from his forebears, he breezed his way to this level.<br />
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I leveled a Witch Doctor to 19 and unlocked <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/witch-doctor/active/gargantuan" target="_blank">Gargantuan</a>, one of the skills I was most interested in.<br />
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I leveled a Wizard to 14.<br />
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More importantly, I got 2 of my oldest and dearest friends who are all the way across the world, one in Europe and the other in Asia, to play Diablo 3. I played a game with each of them but it was very imbalanced in my favor because their gear sucked while mine was much too good for that level, being passed down from my high level characters.<br />
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On the financial side, I'm disappointed. I now have less than 2 million gold but I do have "assets" in excess of that amount, currently gathering dust. I was hoping to make a lot more but the Auction House conspired against me. Here's hoping that patch 1.0.2, which was just released today, will correct this.<br />
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After this marathon, I'm going to take it easy. I plan to level my other characters some more and build up a set of better gear for the Monk, slowly and painfully, to get him to the point where he can farm Act 1 Inferno comfortably. I want to expand my storage and, most of all, do some real trading on the Auction House.<br />
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How about you? How were these first two weeks of Diablo 3 for you? Are you going to continue playing or is the game already "dead" for you?Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-44827769277918855052012-05-28T11:29:00.001-05:002012-05-28T11:30:53.838-05:00D3 Marathon - Day 13There isn't much to say about day 13. I was gone most of the day and only got about 3 hours of play, spent exclusively on farming Acts 2 and 3 in Hell with my Monk. I make about 100K an hour doing that, during which the 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor also built up quickly.<br />
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I didn't find a single upgrade for the Monk, though I did get a couple of rare drops for my other classes. On the other hand I spent about 200K on the Auction House for some incremental upgrades that I thought were "cheap" but they barely raised my DPS from 10K to 10.8K. At least my Monk looks better now without that ridiculous helmet he was wearing previously.<br />
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It has become clear to me that the only way I'm going to get 15-20K DPS is to buy a much better weapon. My current sword gives 500+ DPS along with some Dexterity. I would need at least a 800+ DPS weapon in order to progress. The problem is that those weapons are very expensive, usually upwards of 1 million gold. I pretty much have 2 options right now: spend most of my gold on getting a better weapon or continue to grind Hell in the hopes of getting better drops and more gold.<br />
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I'm reluctant to spend so much money though because it might still be worth something when the RMAH finally decides to show up. But this is a catch-22. Don't spend gold - can't progress. Spend all the gold - be broke but progress and perhaps make some of it back before the RMAH is released. What to do?<br />
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My plan is to keep an eye out on the AH for some good deals on a better weapon. While in the past I've been able to snag some really sweet gear for very low prices, all of a sudden, from level 59 and up, a wall has been erected and the bar has been set a lot higher for those items. Up until then, I considered a good deal anything south of 50K. Now, I'll be very happy to find a 800+ DPS weapon for less than 500K.<br />
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<b>Build and skills</b><br />
My build has changed a little bit now that I'm farming Hell.<br />
<a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UZXgQT%21YZX%21cZZaaa" target="_blank">http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UZXgQT!YZX!cZZaaa</a><br />
I've replaced <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/mystic-ally">Mystic Ally</a> (because he kept dying at higher levels and I was tired of wasting Spirit refreshing him) with <a href="http://us.battle.net/d3/en/class/monk/active/sevensided-strike">Seven-Sided Strike</a> runed with <b style="color: orange;">Sudden Assault</b>. This is my "emergency" nuke and helps me a lot especially for champions and rare bosses. Besides, the cooldown is low enough that I can use it often, including on annoying monsters who like to run away.<br />
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<b>Barbarian</b><br />
I have also put in a few hours over the past couple of days on my Barbarian who's level 30 and has just finished Normal difficulty. Because he does 700 DPS at this level, everything is a piece of cake for him. Why so much? Because he has some of the best items courtesy of his big brothers the Demon Hunter and the Monk. He does have some issues with survivability, though he hasn't died once in all his 30 levels. I can tell, though, that he will never be my main.<br />
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Next, I'll be continuing to attempt to gear the Monk for Inferno Act 1. Will I succeed? It remains to be seen.<br />
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<a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/search/label/D3%20Marathon">Follow the D3 Marathon</a>Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8586099955863791323.post-4303155513994342452012-05-27T20:05:00.000-05:002012-05-27T20:05:39.726-05:00D3 Marathon - Day 12This update will be brief and very late because I was away on business for most of the day.<br />
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On day 12 I moved to Inferno after reaching 60 but I haven't even met the first champion/rare pack and got scared. Those zombies at the very beginning hit hard and have a lot of hit points.<br />
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I checked my stats and it took me 48 hours and 30 minutes of play on the Monk, to finish Hell. I finished it with 10K DPS and 26K health. I beat Hell Diablo on the first try, though it was quite challenging and I came close to dying several times. Luckily, I kept using my defensive cooldowns successively, along with health potions and health shrines, keeping myself alive.<br />
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The problem is that I hit a big tall wall in Inferno. My 10K DPS doesn't cut it anymore. I was hoping I could kill the Skeleton King quickly and go on to <a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/2012/05/farming-fields-of-misery.html">farm Fields of Misery</a>. Alas, that ain't gonna happen soon. I need at least 15K DPS, preferably 20K or even more, to get to that point.<br />
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So I did the only thing I could: went back to Hell, Act 2 this time. I'm farming the zone where you get the quest to find Zoltun Kulle's body parts. With 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor (which build up fairly quickly) I can make 100K gold in an hour. I need some serious gear upgrades if I'm to farm Act 1 of Inferno.<br />
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That's it for today. Have you made it to Inferno? How's your progress so far?
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<a href="http://diablohead.blogspot.com/search/label/D3%20Marathon">Follow the D3 Marathon</a>Darth Solohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01110818057322485070noreply@blogger.com0