Showing posts with label legendary items. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legendary items. Show all posts
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Introducing the Legendary Items page
Recently 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 Legendary Items, 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!
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Magic Find is useless
I 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...
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.
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...
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.
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 $.
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 3 of them (!!!) while playing with my buddy, in the space of an hour. That's some crazy shit man!
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.
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.
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...
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.
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 $.
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 3 of them (!!!) while playing with my buddy, in the space of an hour. That's some crazy shit man!
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.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Sunday, legendary Sunday
How 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.
In the space of less than an hour, to my utter shock, I got no less than 3 legendary drops. Here they are.
Cindercoat, Gladiator Gauntlets and Skorn.
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.
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.
Oh well, at least I can get about 400K if I sell them.
In the space of less than an hour, to my utter shock, I got no less than 3 legendary drops. Here they are.
Cindercoat, Gladiator Gauntlets and Skorn.
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.
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.
Oh well, at least I can get about 400K if I sell them.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Ka-ching!
Apparently Blizzard read my whiny, ranting post 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 Fields of Misery on Inferno.
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:
Yup, a legendary crossbow. I pick it up...
and identify it...
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?
About 12 hours later this is what I see in my AH log:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Yup, a legendary crossbow. I pick it up...
and identify it...
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?
About 12 hours later this is what I see in my AH log:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
It's raining legendaries
Well, 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 legendary amulet. Today, at level 51, I got this sword in Act 1 Hell from a random elite boss:
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?
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.
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 has to be better than the yellow weapon I sold the other day for $1.25.
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.
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).
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.
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?
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?
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.
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 has to be better than the yellow weapon I sold the other day for $1.25.
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.
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).
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.
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?
Monday, June 11, 2012
My first legendary
So 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.
WTF! A legendary amulet! Fricking awesome!
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.
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.
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.
WTF! A legendary amulet! Fricking awesome!
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.
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.
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.
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