Level 66!! So thatās what hardcore people are talking about.
Hardcore players:
Just get to level 66, and get the resurrection ability, then itās easy to get to level 70.
Me:
Ok guy. Whatever you say.
You know, it just occurred to me that the Hardcore side of the Season still has rewards to dole out, right? So maybe after I take a Demon Hunter to 70, maybe I can take a Hardcore Wizard to 70 and get all these season rewards all over again. Itāll be easy, I just have to get to level 66, and then itās a smooth ride to 70.
If itās any consolation, I feel the same way. I got Diablo a while ago to play co-op with my then 11 year old daughter. We had a little fun with it, leveled a few different classes up to Chapter 3 and set it aside for some other co-op game, Lego something or other.
Started playing it again with her recently and just like before, right around the 3rd chapter we both got bored with it. But popping in here every once in a while and seeing how popular it still is years later got me curiousā¦was i missing something?
Then i started Adventure mode and discovered Seasons and doing rifts and bounties repeatedlyā¦it became addicting just doing runs to get better gear to clear out enemies quicker but aside from a glance at stats in-game, I didnāt pay real attention to the numbers or plan things out on a spreadsheet, nor will I.
At least I donāt think so. I have become quite addicted to the game nowā¦Iāve gone to bed late without the girlfriend (we always make it a point to turn in together) to do ājust one moreā bounty. Didnāt exercise for the last 2 weeks because Iāve lost track of time. But I am still not planning builds and only just learned about recipes and the Kanai cube or whatever itās called.
Played the numbers game with Dark Age Of Camelot way back and spent way too much time on spreadsheets and class planning sites when I was not playing the gameā¦with the 4 to 8 hours daily playing and this other time diddling with stats and crafting, it became a very fun yet somewhat unhealthy obsession. I donāt want to ever do that againā¦
But the more i pop into this thread the more curious I become about planning a more optimal build and really delving into the gameās systems and learning the ālanguageā. Makes me feel like I am missing out on something, like I am not playing the game as it was meant to be played.
In the meantime, I will keep farming for better gear so i can keep blowing shit up and not worry that all my stuff is mismatched or not as optimized as it could be or that I am not on some leaderboard.
You shouldnāt be upset that you didnāt āgetā what the gameās about. I got Diablo when it was first released in the '90s, played it and killed Diablo. Okay, I thought, that was fun, but not sure Iām for repeating the game again. I didnāt get what it was supposed to be. The same with D2. I didnāt get how people were playing this repeatedly. I thought it was inferior to D1 actually and I didnāt get it. Itās just a game about defeating Diablo, after all. It wasnāt until just before D3 was to be released that I went back to D2 to refresh myself on the experience. Reading some stuff that was posted on forums about D3, and then looking into commentaries on D2, I started to āgetā what these people were playing at. I played and beat D2, but I didnāt get too much into the theorycrafting because I got sidetracked. When I finally got D3 (Iād waited b/c so many hardcore players said it sucked compared to D2) I reached the top level 70 and then began to understand what the game really was about. This was a revelation. Itās why the Auction House ā which I never experienced ā was originally included. That might not be apparent for those who think itās a game about killing Diablo.
You can play the game any way you like and for any reason, if thatās your inclination. But if you want to play it how the developers intended it to played by the aficionados, then youāll ultimately realize what the true gameplay is intended to be. You might glean this at some point, or you may not. It took me a long time through all three Diablo games where I, too, was like you.
Look Iām as addicted to Diablo as you guys. Well, maybe not some of you guys. But Iāve taken all the characters to level 70, in some case multiples. Gone through adventure mode and rifts and I love gettting loot. I just donāt think about it all that much. I see green arrows and I think oh yeah, thatās better.
Itās just when I come into the thread after, like I mentioned, a decent absence and I see all this deep analysis and planning and my brain goes ugh, this is homework! But you guys all dig it and thatās cool, Iām not here to piss on anybodyās good time. I just kind of feel a slight urge to assimilate, but Iām probably just going to resist. I think it may adversely affect my enjoyment. Probably better off as a casual.
I enjoy the gear optimization wheel. Itās an integral part of the game. But I continue to go back to said wheel because of the most important part of the experience for me: D3 gives incredible visceral feedback, and while Iām out killing stuff, it becomes an incredibly simple process, inviting flow. Theyāve got the moment to moment stuff down better than any other ARPG out there, imo. Other ARPGs, like PoE (path of exile, i.e.), might have a longer, more interesting wheel, (might), but D3 is king of the full screen mob smear.
Now I want a bagel.
I think itās second to Grim Dawn in the full screen mob smear, but I agree with the rest of your statement! Including being hungry for a bagel now. You jerk!
Kadath
6292
Seriously you canāt judge what D3 is about until youāve experienced a ways beyond level 70. I fully support you guys who want to play the game along the path youāve got in your mind, but you havenāt touched 1% of what the game is really like.
Error: Meant to reply to divedivedive, not Hotfreak, sorry.
I donāt do complex calculations to ascertain maximal damage theories or anything like that. But Iām very aware of what numbers are needed on what equipment, and what are the best numbers available. Thatās what you shoot for. I pretty much let others determine the subtle synergies that exist by viewing leaderboards. When I see a trend, I investigate to learn whatās up with that convention. Pondering the theories is also too much work for me. But when I get good gear, I like to know why itās good (not always readily apparent) and how others are using it. It doesnāt bother me at all to be more derivative and let others do the heavy lifting. But I pay attention to what the experts, like sharaleo, have to say about the principles of gear optimization. Thatās the fun part of the game for me, as it enables me to fight better and in a more interesting way, and advance when I want to advance.
Iām cool with that. I play MMOs like single player games, same with Destiny. When they start to feel like work I bug out. I donāt need to get 100% utilization out of every game I play.
Fair point. I probably had half a dozen bardiches in season 9. None so far in 11.
Nope. Itās per account. Once you get the rewards on any character, any mode, thatās it. As I found out, having taken two of the three gift bags on a character I thought was HC but really wasnātā¦ When I started over to level my HC characters, the Seasonās Journey stuff was already done up to the point I had done it on the normal mode character.
So, sorry, one per customer it seems.
Ran into my first Final Service last night on my HC Necro. GR 25 last boss, got bounced around some. Only on return to town do I notice an icon Iāve never seen before.
āOh. Oh, shit. Heheheā¦ā
My necro is hitting above her weight ATM anyway, so I think Iāll just grind T4 for a while :)
Yeah, there is so much going on on the screen itās sometimes hard to tell when that sort of thing procs. Whichā¦can be bad.
It was a warning, too. I nearly got my ass handed to me in the first ten seconds of the GR, buried under Succubi and demon bombers. I was clicking so frantically I actually went back through the portalā¦then I took a few breaths and headed back in. Eventually I was able to get my corpse count high enough to ensure my survival.
Skeleton builds arenāt great at higher levels, but this may have been the one time where having those 7 extra meat shields saved my ass. Same with the boss that pseudo-killed me: I had no corpses to play with, and the boss drank my army of the dead like kool-aid.
Still got 8:07 on the level, though :)
SamS
6300
Ran my first ever Treasure Vault - holy crap I had no idea these even existed. Netted a cool 10mill.
Iāve played around with my gear and can now scrape by in T4 and have taken out the keywardens. Just Maghda and the GR20 run left to finish Chapter 4.
I am still not really set on what I want to do with my Necros. Right now Iām running a build, if you can dignify it with that term, relying on the set ability that shoots corpse lances when you use revive. I have the skeletons, revive, decrepify, and bone armor, with siphon life and bone spirit on the mouse. Once I get enough corpses itās pretty good, in that with the rune Iām using for revive the revived minions leave corpses themselves, so you can sort of have a rolling train of bodies. As long as a boss is where there are corpses, a few revives and associated free corpse lances usually takes them out.
But Iām pretty sure Iām not doing anywhere near enough damage fast enough. I like siphon life because it actually is a decent point target spell, and with the bonuses to primary skill damage and specifically to siphon that I have even a one-two pop with it rather than a full channel dispatches most trash. But bone spirit, while theoretically doing good damage (and I have a piece that increases it the longer it runs), seems underwhelming. Bone armor is good for defense, for sure, and with the ādo more damage to slowed stuffā bonus and decripify, I should be doing some decent numbers. But clearing seems slow.
I donāt have a good weaponāIām using a crusader two hand because, well, it has bar none the best stats Iāve found, period, even if it lacks a socket. I only have I think two pieces of the set that gives me the revive/corpse lance thing, and most everything else is a hodgepodge.
Running:
Revive, skeletons, army of the dead (big boss punch/panic button), bone armor
- 2 set for revive shooting corpse lances
- 2 set for 1 sec countdown on AotD on pet hit
- A fat purple in a Leorics helm for 23% + 21% health, which has saved her butt more than once.
Thatās my HC necro. She mows over everything until she doesnāt, but sheās corpse-bound. Iām grinding her up to get her up to my non-HC necro standards.
My non-HC necro has the full set that has me swapping skeletons out for mages (and a power which gives me 2 per activation) for the big corpse lance bonus, plus a power that boosts the corpse lance even more. On my non-HC, I basically just my primary to build resource and nuke everything with my corpse lance. Not nearly as corpse-bound here. I could definitely push her past the GR36 sheās sitting at now, but I have more fun with HC.
50 caches? I have to use all my willpower to restrain the āyou can do a rift higher, never mind that you procād twice in the last oneā voice in my head.
The last time I played seasons when avarice was a conquest I was playing a crusader, and I remember it being kinda easy. May have done it by accident in a rift.
Pretty much the same story with this seasonās Monk. Tried a āspecialā build in a couple of bovine zones, no dice. Switched back to a normal build with a Boon, a Kymbo and a Goldwrap and got it in a couple of tries in T12 rifts.
And itās not like a failure is terrible here. Youāre netting stupid amounts of gold to empower rifts.
Kadath
6304
Soloed Grift 65 in 9.59. Got that cheevo for 8 before I even finished 7 off. Will have to work on conquests this weekend!
