Ender
6241
I’m not able to log in. When I go to authenticate it tells me a new patch is available and can play once it is installed. Then it kicks me out to the launcher screen and tells me sometimes that D3 is already running or it just doesn’t patch anything. Weird that I just started getting this today.
I strongly suspect that’s one reason it’s delayed, their balance wasn’t as good as they thought it was. Honestly, there are some pretty major (and interesting) legal issues there.
Commodities are back.
There seems to be a key change though and I didn’t see any of this in the patcher notes or a quick peak at the official forums but they are a mess. It appears that when you buy something, like a gem, you pay the up-to-the-nanosecond price, not the shown price. I bought a few gems and sometimes I got a refund. I don’t know if it goes the other way, that you pay more than shown if the price goes up.
Legal issues? What legal issues?
I was under the impression that basically games that have real money stuff do whatever they want and tell you to deal with it? Buy an item that is nerfed to half its glory the next day? SUX2BU
Not to mention nobody really expected or expects diablo 3 to be balanced for at least a few years.
Ender
6246
Apparently I wasn’t the only person with this problem, and here is the fix: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5152415037?page=1
The world isn’t only the US you know :P
ShivaX
6248
Its still not enforcable as far as I know. WoTs changed Type59 matchmaking and I don’t think anyone in the EU sued them successfully or it would’ve been all over the forums. As long as you make it clear that things can and will change people are on their own.
StGabe
6249
I use both vault and caltrops although I only recently started using vault.
Vault needs to be used a little differently than Smokescreen. If you’re about to die Smokescreen is your only hope. Vault needs to be used earlier for positioning. If you use it well you won’t get to the point where you’d need smokescreen in the first place. I don’t think you can replace smokescreen with it (yet) but there are a lot of cases where using Vault is much better than using Smokescreen and so I have both on my bar.
Caltops works great as a kiting tool in Inferno if you rune it with the 2s immobilization and drop multiple caltrops as you kite backwards. I used it that way for a long time but recently switched the rune on it to Bait the Trap as the 10% crit chance ends up being something like a 16% DPS increase.
The biggest problem I see with DH is that Nether Tentacles is just way better than any other attack. If that becomes less powerful I think you’ll see a lot more variation in which attack skills get chosen.
Interesting information.
I find the AH comments particularly surprising - as they’re saying the AH has absolutely no interaction with drop rates.
I find this good because it means they haven’t designed the game around getting players to the AH.
I find it bad, because it means they completely missed the obvious nature of the impact of the AH.
If they tuned drop rates to give people a certain experience of loot upgrades at specific intervals - then it’s really strange that they “forgot” how the AH will affect this.
It’s almost as if they realise that the AH is hurting the pleasure of finding loot - and it lessens the value of great items.
Is the easy access to item trading really worth what it’s doing to the actual gameplay? I think the experience changes from a cool and challenging loot hunt with occasional trading - into a farming simulator, with a pretty predictable road through Inferno.
I know people could just NOT use the AH - but human beings are weak in that way, and the vast majority of people will be using it. I doubt a single player has gotten through Inferno without use of the AH or some loot exploit. It’s a counterproductive feature in terms of longevity. Unless the game is supposed to last based on generating gold/cash on the AH - which is pretty non-gamey.
That’s interesting. My SO and I must have really been screwed by the RNG. We had not been using the AH, but when we hit Act III nightmare we were getting decimated. We switched around our skills/runes, which helped but we still struggled. At that time we had gear 10-15 levels below us in most slots. We decided to give in and bought a few things from the AH, and that allowed us to progress the rest of the way through smoothly. Until we reached Hell, again with items 10-15 levels below us, so we we used the AH even more liberally. Anecdotally , I would say the vast majority (something like 90%) of our drops either were way below our level, or had the wrong stats even for class specific drops (wizard and WD.) It would be nice if they had the NV buff for lower levels instead of saving it for 60.
Finally defeated the Queen of Blades… err Diabloette … err Diablo. Time to do it hardcore as well.
KevinC
6254
The problem I have with Vault is the hit detection mechanics. Cue the video that was linked a page or two back for a demonstration of what I’m talking about. You can Vault and be “safely” away but you’ll often still take damage from the hit that occurs at your old location… and in Inferno, “take damage” is mostly synonymous with “death”. If we had unlimited skill slots I’d still find some use for this but when it’s competing with all my other abilities for those four utility slots (and sucking up Discipline that could be used for the superior Smoke Screen), it’s going to lose every time.
I used Vault a lot early on, I found it really fun. Then I started noticing the “buggy” behavior and chalked it up to lag, and once I started getting towards the end of Hell and Inferno that bug/lag was making it… not as useful. When Blizzard confirmed that’s intended, well, I haven’t equipped it since. :) My build has been stagnant at Hungering Arrow | Elemental Arrow, then Companion(bat), Smoke Screen, Prep, and spike traps. My passives are the usual suspects and they haven’t changed since late Hell either. I really can’t wait for 1.03 and 1.1!
What level should i be when beating diablo on normal mode?
I beat the game on normal last night as a 31 (mêlée) wizard. My friend said i was high, but i never repeated content. About half the game i spent a lot of time exploring, but after that i just went to the objective as direct as possible (but still killing as i went). Solo the entire time.
The main reason i ask was that doing the last area i got about 5 rares (i’m not sure it had any effect, but my friend was following me around with a magic find suit on because she was bored). 2 of them were level 17. 2 were 21 and 1 was 27. The 27 was actually, surprisingly, an upgrade to me, but the rest was vendor junk of course. Getting 17 and 21 items from the last level is pretty BS though, but kind of matches my experience so far, that most items i find are 5+ levels under my level.
The strategy guide says that Nightmare I monsters start at level 31, so I think you’re spot on.
The main reason i ask was that doing the last area i got about 5 rares (i’m not sure it had any effect, but my friend was following me around with a magic find suit on because she was bored). 2 of them were level 17. 2 were 21 and 1 was 27. The 27 was actually, surprisingly, an upgrade to me, but the rest was vendor junk of course. Getting 17 and 21 items from the last level is pretty BS though, but kind of matches my experience so far, that most items i find are 5+ levels under my level.
Indeed, some of us have been complaining about this and were told we’re whiny nancy-boys. We should beat down Diablo with our leafy twig and LIKE it, and that way when we get to Nightmare 1 that crappy blue with +47 life globes but that’s actually a level appropriate weapon will actually seem pretty dang spiffy.
I think the post above re: timing of finding “good” vs. “great” items may have a clue as to the issue. If they’ve set up the distribution curves to have similar timings at all levels, well, by the time you find a good item at level X, you’re level X+1-2 and by the time you find a great item you’re level X+5. I have no idea if this is what actually is going on, but it seems to match most of our experience, and is the type of error that would likely occur given the types of things they’ve overlooked elsewhere. This of course becomes less and less of a problem as you level, because the time spent in level becomes larger and larger. And at level 60, it works just fine of course. And nothing below 60 matters anyway, right?
KevinC
6257
The item drop thing will get worse as you progress… for starters, until the 1.03 patch, end bosses don’t drop rares anymore until you’re L60 and get Nephalem Valor stacks.
L30 is around the time I beat Normal, though, although I’m sure you could do it faster. If you’re wondering if your level was way too high and that’s why the items were lower level, though, that’s not it.
I cannot remember what my Barbarian was, but last night I also finished normal with my Monk and she is 31. I did not repeat any content, but uncovered every nook and cranny of every map. I got a bunch of rares it seemed. Not many helpful ones, but it was nice to see them drop. ;)
Did anyone think that the connecting corridors in the Silver Spire (I think that is what the end areas are called) in Act IV changed after the last patch. That was my third time through and I certainly could have forgotten, but that last map or so before meeting the big boss looked a little different. I could have been imaging things.
Kyrios
6259
I was 31 on my first character, a Demon Hunter that explored pretty much everything but didn’t do anything twice. I have consistently been in the ~29 range with subsequent characters that haven’t been as diligent about content completion. 90% of the loot drops throughout the game are 5+ levels under your level, unfortunately.
Question on Hardcore: I’ve lost 2 characters so far, and they still show up in my character listing. Do I have to delete them or will they be pushed off as I fill up my hero spaces?
Also: I had assumed that dead heroes in Hardcore just take all their gear with them up to heaven. Is that the case, or should I be looking for a corpse someplace (ala Hack and Nethack)? I sort of doubt the latter, but that would be pretty cool.
