Yeah, I would agree. Playing on normal for a few minutes until you at least have an item in each non-jewelry slot and a decent weapon isn’t asking a lot, and then you can drop into hard very easily and really save some time. I feel like starting on hard would actually lower your XP/hour ratio.
I played SOOO MUCH Diablo III this weekend - I not only hit level 70, but I hit 56 Paragon. I did almost all the seasonal achievements, only have 3 left (but they are going to be tough ones, I suspect) and I even am saving up now as I have the materials at last for a Hellfire Amulet (a goal I gave up on a year ago).
This morning as one of the achievements was “upgrade a rare to a legendary” I dropped the mats into a cube and this popped out:
As I’m using Electrocute (which is 94% more damage thanks to a ring, I think, and does 10% more damage per 10 yards up to 40 yards away I am (all my lightning spells do!) thanks to an active power I extracted previously with the cube, and as all my signature spells are 50% faster and generate 12 Arcane Power per hit also thanks to a power I extracted) this was a great get. The fact that I’m using Disintegrate as my go-to damage dealer helps a lot, so now I have Meteor set up so it drops constantly (well, that and electric hydra, but this sigil seems to intelligently not recast hydra over and over again, instead dropping free electrical meteors every 1 second) while I hold down right-mouse for Disintegrate. I only just got it this morning, so I haven’t had much chance to experiment with it.
My Monk is wearing a set that lets her have all of the mantras up at once. I confess that this gives me a certain amount of goofy childlike joy. Working on completing the set which, once I have it, will let me call all of the mystic allies simultaneously.
Switch to Master, take the Templar’s weapon, and hit up a quick-to-reach boss bounty like Kulle or Magda. Easy fights at L1, and you’ll gain a couple levels plus some yellow items. Then back down to Hard. :)
That set is awesome, get the boots as well and you’ll have 8 Allies up at the same time :-) And there’s an item I believe that gives you 50% more damage PER ally you have up.
Success!
I do so much damage now it’s incredible. I’m killing Rift bosses in a literal heartbeat, before the life bar shows up, when I have all my spells going off at once. The problem is survivability - I’m on Torment V and I’m getting killed a lot, though the instant resurrection with a 60 second cooldown is helping there.
I actually rolled up a Crusader myself, though I just remembered here today that I think now I have a full set of items I can do some kind of… set item dungeon? Or something? I should look into that, I’ve never had a full set in Diablo 3 (or 2, even?) before.
Pretty much what @LockerK said. There’s a lot of “Do this not because it’s fun or effective, but because this objective says you have to.”
Things like “Kill all the elites in this dungeon while they’re afflicted by X and Y.” So don’t let your damage get too high and don’t hit too many spells, because then you’ll accidentally kill the fifth one without applying Crotch Rot and have to start over again.
Because not doing too much damage and not pressing buttons to make monsters explode faster is what’s fun about Diablo :/
