Diablo III

[Mugsy]

Blizzcon panel Saturday at 9:30am AEST.

Rumour has it that stash space will be discussed... yes, stash space, the real legacy of the void.

[Mythor]

More space plz! Can always use more space. Even with being able to turn in legendaries with the cube, I need more space!

Would love it if they dropped a new expansion on us. Not sure that's even on the cards?

[Brewr]

I played the demo of Diablo III didnt get into it, is it worth a purchase on special maybe? I liked Torchlight II quite a bit though and Gauntlet.

[Mugsy]

I played the demo of Diablo III didnt get into it, is it worth a purchase on special maybe? I liked Torchlight II quite a bit though and Gauntlet.

I'm assuming you're asking about the PC version if you're talking about Torchlight II.

Despite both being ARPGs, there's obviously differences. I like Diablo's simplified skills system... when I played through Torchlight 1, I never used too many skill points, relying on spells and gear upgrades instead keep my survivability and damage up.

Diablo 3 is also the more social friendly game IMHO... an internet connection is mandatory to play but as a consequence, it makes being part of a clan or community much easier.

I also enjoy the drop rates in Diablo 3 more since the expansion came out.

But the main thing about the game is if you're there for the campaign only, or are you open to the endgame? If all you want is a campagin to play through, you'll get a few hours out of this game. If, grinding for better gear so you can tackle tougher difficulties isn't your thing then there won't be much longevity (and I must admit, I had to try it to see if it was my thing... and it was!).

I picked up a second copy of D3 and the expansion for $5 each for my second account a few months back (that was how eager for more stash space I was) and if you could get it for this price, I say why not just get it and give it a try.

[Brewr]

Thanks Mugsy I will definitely give a try then. I LOVE grinding aslong as it is rewarding.

[Mugsy]

Yeah, I reckon now would be a pretty sweet time to play through Diablo 3 and the expansion. Changes they've made make going through the campaign less tedious to gear up. Anything you find that that's not useful, break it down into crafting materials and go craft something better at the blacksmith.

And any legendary items with a cool affix but you've outgrown in level, keep em.

After you finish the campaign, you get access to Adventure Mode which is basically the entire campaign but as a sandbox world. There's a new area called the Ruins of Secheron where you can pick up Kanai's cube. The cube allows you to extract legendary powers from items to equip as a passive power.

And if you grind long enough, your profile might just end up like this:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Mugs ... ro/1466294

Yeah, I've played this game for way too long - lol

[Brewr]

Jesus you make this game sound awesome. I cant believe it has a sandbox mode

[Mugsy]

Even with being able to turn in legendaries with the cube, I need more space!

I finished extracting all legendary powers on Sunday morning (non-season mind you) and my stash and inventory is pretty darn full again.

Anyone in their right mind can see that you keep any legendary items that have a use so you can get a power from the item equipped, and then another power from the cube. If you keep every set, good ancient legendary weapons, useful offhand items, jewellery, belts, bracers and other armour pieces worth keeping, you will eventually have a very full stash.

Would love it if they dropped a new expansion on us. Not sure that's even on the cards?

Yeah, that one is quite up in the air right now. 1hr of panel time isn't a lot and they may leave a D3 xpac for another year.

[Jagji56]

I am hoping that there going to announce a new expansion for D3. Its very possible given some of the things that I have heard. Just a matter of when. Maybe not this Blizcon tho...

[Sathias]

Jesus you make this game sound awesome. I cant believe it has a sandbox mode

It was improved a lot when the expansion came out, Adventure Mode and Rifts are good fun. Definately worth checking out.

I've played it pretty casually but had a pretty good DH during season 2, got very busy with work when Season 3 came out so haven't participated in this season. I'll probably get back into it when Season 4 starts I reckon.

[Mugsy]

I've played it pretty casually but had a pretty good DH during season 2, got very busy with work when Season 3 came out so haven't participated in this season. I'll probably get back into it when Season 4 starts I reckon.

Work must really be busy for you as you'd need a time machine to do this... season 4 started two months ago

I personally haven't played seasons since Season 2 either (short of starting one in Season 3 to get the transmogs). I have a pretty complete collection of sets in Non-Seasons already so it always feel futile for me to restart.

[Sathias]

Oh haha, yeah I think I have my seasons mixed up. I had my DH in season 3 and skipped season 4 then

[vcatkiller]

I'm gonna try rerolling a character with this one of these days. I actually tried earlier in the year, got as far as the ruins of Tristram and just lost interest again. I just can't stand how there's zero custom character building, the game takes care of the lot for you, and just shovels every skill at you. Basically two naked characters of the same class and level are identical, as someone who loves tweaking that annoys me...

[Sathias]

Tweaking is more about combinations of skills, runes and gear, and more focused around the end-game. Levelling is a means to an end really.

[Mythor]

You pick skills and can then further customise them with runes and can get granted the benefits of multiple runes with certain items. While two naked characters have access to the same set of skills, that was true in past games too. The only difference here is you can freely swap between skills instead of being locked in.
I guess in 2 you also had to allocate stat points where in 3 you have to stack via items, gems and paragon levels. But there's still a huge range of options for you to pick and choose between.

[vcatkiller]

Yeah I've had this conversation over and over again and I just don't see it. Mind you the last time I gave it a shot I didn't play long enough to see the new expansion pack stuff, so maybe there's something there? Personally though I prefer Grim Dawn, give me a skill tree and skill selection over "select the right gear you hopefully found lying around" any day of the week.

[Mythor]

I've skipped out on Grim Dawn for quite a few updates, trying to wait on that constellation thingo to go in now to get back into it. Anyway... >_>

[Mugsy]

Yeah I've had this conversation over and over again and I just don't see it. Mind you the last time I gave it a shot I didn't play long enough to see the new expansion pack stuff, so maybe there's something there? Personally though I prefer Grim Dawn, give me a skill tree and skill selection over "select the right gear you hopefully found lying around" any day of the week.

I think you've already decided on what mechanic you prefer/want to play with so I won't try to convince you otherwise mate.

For me, skill trees are too time consuming... when I played D2 and Torchlight (1 and 2) I allocated like 3-10 skill points to access some skills and saved up the remainder due to fear of spending them incorrectly and wasting points. Items that added extra skill points were great for me! Same thing goes for stat points... only being spent when needed to equip something.

D3 does away with this meaning I can change between abilities with zero consequences and can try out different builds more easily. A simplified skill system's strength is that it does make multiplay less sluggish than other multiplayer games which require a bit of downtime to think about stat and skill point allocation.

The limitation to progress is gear... but multiplay is encouraged yet again with better xp gain and gear sharing.

[Mugsy]

More space plz! Can always use more space.

Well, we're getting space.

At the current time, at the start of patch 2.4, you can buy 1 stash tab.

Additional tabs can be earnt by completing Conqueror in the Seasonal Journey until your stash has 10 tabs.

It seems a big kick in the gut to non-seasonal players. NS players have the ongoing issue of gear to hold onto (especially since they're advocating getting all 24 character sets to finish Set Dungeons)... but they're getting us to play Seasons to solve our NS stash space issues.

[Mythor]

Hmmm, hopefully they do come up with a way for nonseasonals to get to the new maximum tabs. I guess they're meaning it as an extra incentive to get involved and it's good in that respect, I guess.

[vcatkiller]

I think you've already decided on what mechanic you prefer/want to play with so I won't try to convince you otherwise mate.

Yeah you're right there. I guess it's a preference thing, each style has its strengths and weaknesses, and the way D3 does it just isn't my preference.

That said I've nearly convinced myself on several occasions to try again. I think it might help if I try a character class I don't usually play and see how I go, it might feel like an entirely different game if I'm forced to think differently.

[kharis]

yeah might have to jump back in and plat something that isnt a demon hunter for once

whats good to play atm? (i'm guessing DH as I just said I wasn't going to play it)

[Mugsy]

@Mythor

Yeah, it's definitely their way of creating an incentive to get involved in seasons. But what I think Blizzard have to accept is that the core essence of a season is the chance to start over... which a good number of players don't want to do. They've already created Set Dungeons which will require us to master each and every set to get the achievements/rewards that goes hand in hand with the Set Dungeons. This will be more than enough for many of us to remain occupied in NS. I couldn't imagine doing the Set Dungeons achievement in Seasonal play... 3 months to complete 24 sets and use them well is not for casuals.

@vcatkiller

If you do give D3 another try, I recommend giving it a go for the multiplay. Join a clan and start playing it when a season starts. You'll find a few good clans on the AU/NZ Diablo 3 forums but I suggest 7 Sins (yeah, the one I'm in). It's as casual as clans go. The focus in end game is simply creating effective builds and tackling higher and higher difficulties but it's addictive none the less when you're doing it with players who work with you.

[Mugsy]

yeah might have to jump back in and plat something that isnt a demon hunter for once

whats good to play atm? (i'm guessing DH as I just said I wasn't going to play it)

Atm, DHs, Wizards and Crusaders are out of favour, though, a well specced DH is still useful in GRs for damage buffs, and Wizards and Crusaders have some proc builds (more on that later).

Monk is the class to be for this patch/season. They are the most versatile class. Barbarians are OK, as are Witch Doctors.

If you're mainly playing alone, I suggest giving WDs a try... the Helltooth set is plenty fun and still is useful for team games for damage. WDs also only have two 1h spears that drop for them so it's real easy to use Kanai's cube to get an ancient Scrimshaw to make a zombie bears build. If you only play team games, then give Monk a try. I personally don't like the class for solo play but it's king in team games.

A chinese player came up with a dual generator build for Monk that leverages off the Fist of Thunder skill that applies "static charges" to enemies. These charges have the benefit of being able to be procced by any player to cause insane number of electricity to arc between mobs of enemies. As a consequence, effective teams not work on pulling together mobs to increase density. Support builds that utilise skills that have insanely high proc coefficients to trigger the static charges have become popular due to the rise of the SC monk.

Also popular is the healing monk and xp healing monk builds. The player Quin69 came up with this build after the crowd control nerf came into effect. The healing monk is set up to heal the team for insane amounts... I'm talking 1million+ life per second which is crazy. Thus this build is essential in all higher GRs... it's the heart of the team and required to stay alive. The xp healing monk is a variant that stacks a tonne of +xp modifiers so teams can farm for paragon points.

[kharis]

yeah might have to jump back in and plat something that isnt a demon hunter for once

whats good to play atm? (i'm guessing DH as I just said I wasn't going to play it)

Atm, DHs, Wizards and Crusaders are out of favour, though, a well specced DH is still useful in GRs for damage buffs, and Wizards and Crusaders have some proc builds (more on that later).

Monk is the class to be for this patch/season. They are the most versatile class. Barbarians are OK, as are Witch Doctors.

If you're mainly playing alone, I suggest giving WDs a try... the Helltooth set is plenty fun and still is useful for team games for damage. WDs also only have two 1h spears that drop for them so it's real easy to use Kanai's cube to get an ancient Scrimshaw to make a zombie bears build. If you only play team games, then give Monk a try. I personally don't like the class for solo play but it's king in team games.

A chinese player came up with a dual generator build for Monk that leverages off the Fist of Thunder skill that applies "static charges" to enemies. These charges have the benefit of being able to be procced by any player to cause insane number of electricity to arc between mobs of enemies. As a consequence, effective teams not work on pulling together mobs to increase density. Support builds that utilise skills that have insanely high proc coefficients to trigger the static charges have become popular due to the rise of the SC monk.

Also popular is the healing monk and xp healing monk builds. The player Quin69 came up with this build after the crowd control nerf came into effect. The healing monk is set up to heal the team for insane amounts... I'm talking 1million+ life per second which is crazy. Thus this build is essential in all higher GRs... it's the heart of the team and required to stay alive. The xp healing monk is a variant that stacks a tonne of +xp modifiers so teams can farm for paragon points.

oh god that sounds complicated, i usually reserve build generators for mmo's