robc04
3221
I think the light bulb finally went on today when I was thinking about it. The big problem is that Blizzard doesn’t let you play that game from the start. I finished the campaign once and I still can’t play that game because I’m not level 60 yet and my difficulty is capped. I’d have to grind 10-15 more levels replaying the campaign (I don’t have the expansion for adventure mode) to unlock torment level I think. I don’t know how many hours I already played - I’d guess 20-25, but that is too many to not be able to play the game in a way that is challenging. There were a few moments that I was in any real danger. I did die a couple times, but I only needed to try again a little more carefully instead of tweaking my build.
If the expansion ever gets cheap (< $15) I may be willing to give it a try. I’d like to see if my enjoyment level goes up once I can make the game hard, but I think it would be better if I didn’t have to play the campaign. I’m pretty sure the Diablo genre will never be one of my favorites, but I am curious to see if having to overcome hurdles by tweaking my build would elevate it to a game I’d like to play in smaller bursts. I game that I’d play instead of something like Faerie Solitaire or Race the Sun.
If it was really a problem long term, seems like they could just add character slots. The pre-order bonus on the PS4 version was an extra three slots, so I can’t imagine it was much more than an arbitrary limitation in the first place, right?
Not so sure, I recall way back near release comments (maybe from Blizz) about slots and stash restrictions being limited by storage infrastructure.
And it has already been long-term. They could have easily added more slots and (near) infinite stash, so it is either limited by future monetisation plans or technical/infrastructure limitations.
JoshL
3224
No, that’s just… no. How many Diablo 3 accounts are there? I don’t know, let’s say… 10 million. Say each account has 12 characters. How much storage space does each character take? I’d guess no more than a few hundred bytes, but let’s be generous and say each one takes… 100k. That’s 120 million characters times 100k, which is 12 terabytes. That’s maybe, maybe $1,000 worth of drive space. You gotta back that stuff up, so call it $2,000. That’s rounding error for Blizzard.
I don’t know why the character slot limit is there, but it is not a storage infrastructure limitation.
On the other hand, nobody (except me) seems to care that much, so maybe they just kept it small to keep things simple. I dunno.
jpinard
3225
My level 68 Crusader is about to finish the whole story mode. Exactly what do I do with him then and then when’s a good time to get my alternate characters going (looking forward to magic user)
ARogan
3226
So months of no upgrades on my wizard and now several in less than a week. It’s like they know Destiny comes out next week, and they are trying to hold my interest.
- RRoG - took about 7 million to get a socket on it which I consider pretty cheap. This completes my Tal Rasha 4p bonus.
- Stone of Jordan - still working on that socket. This one is going to take a while and a lot of gold. Not sure if it’s worth the extra 13% more elite damage over the unity I’m wearing now.
- Firebird gloves - my 2nd piece in this set. I can’t really use it since it’s a pretty big dps loss. Also, I’m still looking for my magefist.
- Fire Walkers boots - still pretty sucky but better than what I had before.
- Cindercoat - slightly better than the one I had.
- Nemesis - crap rolls so probably can’t use it.
I might be in the same boat ARogan.
So far since the patch: 2 Unity rings, completed the Firebird set and Vyr’s. No Tal Rasha pieces (but an endless amount of Blackthorne’s.)
Anyway before getting Firebirds I completed my first solo T5 run using Ashera’s, Aughild’s, Thunderfury and a Mirrorball with a meteor build. The Unity ring I put on my enchanter since she has the follower can’t die item. That greatly increases survivability.
After the Firebird set, I swapped to a Serpent Sparkler (two hydras) using blazing hydra and Blizzard (Apocalypse.) Lost both Asheras and Aughilds. Only set I could do besides Firebird is Cain’s. With that layout, I could still do T5, but it wasn’t any easier or faster. Granted getting used to a new configuration takes me a bit of time, but with Firebird’s it feels essentially like a kiting build. Drop the hydras and blizzard, run around while the dot ticks. Not particularly fun :( I don’t think it’s going to help me at all in greater rift runs. I still have more room for improvement though. I did burn through millions of gold and two dozen souls getting the gear I have configured so there’s no lack of things to do :)
One Ramaldani’s Gift drop aside, the RNG seems to hate me. In something like 50 hours of level 70 Wizard play, the only end game item I’ve dropped is a half-decent magefist (and a clan member just gave me a better one, so it wasn’t that good). No Tal Rasha’s at all, no Firebird’s Finery, no Cindercoat, no Thunderfury, certainly no Wand of Woh. In 100s of Act 1 bounty runs I haven’t dropped a single RoRG, and my only Stone of Jordan isn’t even level 70 so everything but the Elite damage sucks.
tryte
3229
Nothing running a bunch of rifts and gambling won’t resolve. You don’t have a signature piece (helltooth doesnt look all that impressive, but I’m a new WD) to gear towards yet, so I’d suggest gambling for helms (jerams) or torso slots. If you can keep T4 at 15 minutes or less, do that, otherwise smash through T1’s.
If you’ve found any crafted set plans, I’d suggest try rolling up something decent (aug’s, cains)
Don’t bother gambling rings/amulets, it’s generally not worth it, especially considering you’re running mostly rares.
I don’t even know that Ramaldi’s Gift actually exists to my RNG, which is a bummer because I have rolled two incredible items (a 2650 Serpent Sparker and a 2600 Sunkeeper) awaiting the day I actually get a few. I’ve still yet to ever see a Wand of Woh, and foolishly sharded the only Furnace I ever got because I didn’t believe 2 handers would ever be worth using.
Interestingy, Thunderfury and Shard of Hate aren’t even really good unless they just happen to be perfectly rolled. With the massive damage inflation since this last patch, their procs don’t account for a massive boost and really just take a few seconds off clearing trash. I say this as someone who is still rocking one of my 4 Thunderfurys on my Wiz just because I need sockets on the aforementioned two weapons. Thunderfury most definitely exists on my RNG, and is probably one of my most dropped uniques. This isn’t as great as it sounds, as there are a bunch of things that are IMO better now.
Looking at the Wizard leaderboards, they are completely dominated by Blizzard (apocalypse) and Black Hole (Blazar) as the main two offensive spells. Some of them use Meteor (molten impact) and or Hydra (massive) as well. They’ve virtually all got teleport, prismatic armor and magic weapon, to absolutely no one’s surprise. They, to a man (or woman) all use Firebird 6.
I understand the appeal of the build, and something like it is probably required for grift 38+ where I can’t imagine anyone surviving many more than 2-3 hits. But man is it a boring build. Drop those fire blizzards and kite! Group them up, don’t get more than a screen or so ahead of the enemy packs, and drop Blazar every time it’s up, and let Firebird’s infinite 3000% tick burn them down. They all seem to use Efficacious Poison as a legendary gem, too, so I suppose that must be efficient for kiting, which makes sense. As was pointed out earlier by another Wizard, I really don’t have the patience for it, even if it is almost certainly the safest build. I can quickly and easily do T6, but since the upper Grifts are considerably more difficult than that, I can only see myself attempting them just to say I’ve done it.
Reemul
3231
So I just killed Malthiel and am Level 64. I have done a few adventures and also 1 rift. Is that the quickest way to level to 70. I am playing on hard atm, is it now worth trying harder levels to speed things up or to wait until 70?
You should definitely up the difficulty.
Tyjenks
3233
Yeah, the jump between Hard and Expert isn’t that large and you should be well geared for it at this point. The jump in XP is easily worth it. I started a Seasonal character on Hard and jumped to Expert while still in the first act.
That character made my 5th to get to 60 and will soon be by 5th to get to 70. I love this game.
Hanacker
3234
That’s me except I have a RoRG and no SoJ. Oh, and two mediocre Firebird’s Eyes.
jpinard
3235
Sorry to ask again but I totally don’t understand the paragon stuff, adventure mode, and what you’re supposed to do once you finish the main storyline. Someone once said there was a way to level u your alternate characters quickly by having the main story done and I think I want my magic user to go through the story again. Can I change to adventure mode with her if I’m in the middle of the story? Can I change to any difficulty, up or down once I finish the story with my Crusader? Note I played the whole thing on expert and I still felt the game was too easy for him, but didn’t have any other difficulty levels to choose from.
Sorry if these are dumb questions.
Squee
3236
Once you kill Malthael once you unlock adventure mode. Adventure mode is the way to quickly level new characters up (And is generally the best way to play unless you really enjoy the story). You can hop from adventure mode to story at will, since the game scales with you if you flip a character to adventure mode you won’t really lose progress if you decide you want to go back to story mode. You can adjust difficulty freely (You do it in the “Game settings” button on the character select page. The game is much more particular about letting you adjust difficulty if you’re in the middle of something), although master and torment both get unlocked after you do certain things. Master unlocks when you beat the game (Kill Malthael) with any character, torment unlocks once you hit 70. Once you unlock the difficulties you can enable them for any characters, so you could start level 1 newbies off on master or torment.
I don’t know anything about the fast leveling, but you can jump between adventure and story modes and change difficulty (in either mode) at will.
Oh, and adventure mode is available once you complete Act V.
There is a revelation that happens (it did to me) when you realize that drops are not based on location but on pure math. When D3 first came out, I would uncover every corner to make sure I wasn’t missing a drop somewhere. Now, I run the bounty, transfer to the next location, run that bounty - rinse, repeat… I know this is old hat to a lot of you, but it took an epiphany for me to shed that particular form of OCD.
In Season, I’m again having to get in the habit of running every dungeon in story mode to make sure I get the score for the events. I do it in story mode because of the new habits, because when I’m running bounties I will NOT explore. Just when I though I was out… they pull me back in.
Scouring a location is important if you’re looking for the Keywardens, though. :\
jpinard
3240
Thanks!
OK yet a few more questions. In the screenshot below, why do some of the stats have a solid orange diamond in front of them and some of them are grayed out?
Also, when I have a whole bunch of “gold find” articles of clothing on, where would be a good place to go to get lots of gold? I want to buy a bunch of stuff. When it comes to companions I’m also confused. They never seem to lose health or die is there any point to giving them items that increase toughness, vitality or resistances?
