Diablo 3

[Bison]

And yes I would do Leah.

Yuck! Seriously... without too much of a spoiler... yuck!  ???


Anyway,
I'm playing on American servers, anyone knows of any good way to locate each other.
I keep forgetting my stupid #number thing that get affixed to the username. :P

You battlenet ID I believe is on the main screen or you just need to log onto your account and it's easy to see on the front page.

[Bison]

Just a couple of observations from Hell.

1.  Folks do not understand how Magic Find % works.  If I have 40% and the other 2 players in my group have 0% and 5% respectively, then the group Magic find is (40+0+5)/3= 15%  This of course leads to more often than not white/blue then yellow drops since drops are a random seed effected by MF%, difficulty level, monster level and party size.  So when folks complain about loot finds, in part that is due to the fact that the odds are increasingly against you with a lower magic find group.  While gear farming you need magic find to max out the random yellow boss kills.

2.  Resist element drops are not rare.  What is rare is a element resist with another stat or two.  See point one for my current theory.

3.  I soloed a good bit this morning and got several yellow drops.  I go into a group and get 0.  See point 1.

4.  A lot of people ignore other stat modifiers in order to max DPS and Armor.  Sure you do more damage, but there are other ways to burst damage or increase DPS beyond maxing primary stat.  Blizzard is not helping by making the primary stat increase so much more alluring than say 5% attack speed bonus or 2% increase crit chance.

Note my opinions with change most likely within the next hour.

[Arctic Blast]

^

This is why you have to be an AOE ranged master like the Witch Doctor!  ;D

I'm progressing sort of slowly, but I should be near the end of normal level soon (Act IV). I'm definitely going to have to tighten my WD build to deal with higher level threats - at the moment I'm just a hybrid of summons and spells. That will have to change and I'll either have to pick direct damage, AoE, or streamlined summons. The problem is, I can't conceive of playing without zombie dogs... although they may not be the most efficient killers.

Same place I'm at. I had to go back and grind out a couple of levels and grab some new gear to get my damage up. Early attempts at Diablo were...pathetic. I may as well have been hurling insults at him.

Come to think of it, I was. I suspect any damage he incurred was probably hurt feelings.

[son_of_montfort]

After hitting Nightmare mode, I've switched over to using more AoE type DoTs (and running away!) and an AoE blaster (like Zombie Charger that multiplies per kill) on my Witch Doctor.  The WD probably has the least amount of escape skills available so DoT & run has become my main M.O.

I stopped using zombie dogs somewhere in the middle of Normal mode after getting the Gargantuan with the aoe swing.  He just lasts far longer against the bigger enemies.  I've actually used both of them, for a short time, but I dunno if the extra pet slot use is worth it or not.  Overall, the WD is a very slow killer - even moreso with primarily DoTs for big-hitters.  Easy to die if you get stuck or surrounded.  :-\

If anything I would not say that my WD is a "slow killer." Drop an acid rain, hit with dire firebats or locusts and finish up with firebombs (if needed) and I have killed entire groups within seconds. I use ZDs and Gargantuan, just for added effect. And when I tweaked my build to have Spirit Barrage and Haunt instead, I literally killed an Act 3 boss before he stopped saying his initial taunt. It was sort of wild.

But I also bought some items from the AH to up my Int to wild levels (I think my DPS is something like 500 still at level 33). I'm thinking of binding Spirit Barrage as my primary button, although firebombs is a nice AoE cleaner.

As to escape skills, you have Horrify (which scares them from you), Spirit Walk, and Mass Confusion. Zombie Wall also is a defensive/offensive, but the cooldown is really long for that one.

I'll try to get my username/number so I can get unexpected visits from people.

4.  A lot of people ignore other stat modifiers in order to max DPS and Armor.  Sure you do more damage, but there are other ways to burst damage or increase DPS beyond maxing primary stat.  Blizzard is not helping by making the primary stat increase so much more alluring than say 5% attack speed bonus or 2% increase crit chance.

It really depends on the character or build. If you have a lot of 150-200% damage skills, I think maxing DPS is the way to go. If you have a lot of lower 80-100% damage skills, and your character has special abilities that can fire, then upping critical chance and critical damage is a good strategy. You should ALWAYS try to find +vitality along with your main stat, because adding 300 HP+ for one item alone can be life or death.

For my initial run-through I tried to get items with +monster kill XP (I think I am at 80 bonus xp per kill). I will drop that in Nightmare level, because the XP gains make that insignificant. I'm not big on +magic item find. If you can get it on an item, that sounds great, but I don't actively seek it out. I much prefer +Life and Mana Regen, particularly Life Regen. But the WD has to either specifically slot his skills to heal or have no healing at all, so that is more a priority than, say, the Monk who has designated healing skills.

[LongBlade]

LB I sent out a friend request to you but haven't heard anything back. Did you get it? Subtle message? :)

I don't think I've seen it, but I'm thinking I'm needing help defeating Belial.

[Gusington]

^Hmm. Crap.

[Bison]

LB I sent out a friend request to you but haven't heard anything back. Did you get it? Subtle message? :)

I don't think I've seen it, but I'm thinking I'm needing help defeating Belial.

Well next time I'm on I'll lend you a helping hand.

[LongBlade]

LB I sent out a friend request to you but haven't heard anything back. Did you get it? Subtle message? :)

I don't think I've seen it, but I'm thinking I'm needing help defeating Belial.

Thanks. I think I got killed ten times in a row. At some point you have to come the the conclusion that you just don't have enough firepower.
Well next time I'm on I'll lend you a helping hand.

[Bison]

4.  A lot of people ignore other stat modifiers in order to max DPS and Armor.  Sure you do more damage, but there are other ways to burst damage or increase DPS beyond maxing primary stat.  Blizzard is not helping by making the primary stat increase so much more alluring than say 5% attack speed bonus or 2% increase crit chance.

It really depends on the character or build. If you have a lot of 150-200% damage skills, I think maxing DPS is the way to go. If you have a lot of lower 80-100% damage skills, and your character has special abilities that can fire, then upping critical chance and critical damage is a good strategy. You should ALWAYS try to find +vitality along with your main stat, because adding 300 HP+ for one item alone can be life or death.

For my initial run-through I tried to get items with +monster kill XP (I think I am at 80 bonus xp per kill). I will drop that in Nightmare level, because the XP gains make that insignificant. I'm not big on +magic item find. If you can get it on an item, that sounds great, but I don't actively seek it out. I much prefer +Life and Mana Regen, particularly Life Regen. But the WD has to either specifically slot his skills to heal or have no healing at all, so that is more a priority than, say, the Monk who has designated healing skills.

The problem is that a build that works in Normal will hit a small wall in Nightmare, but will still work eventually as/if your gear keeps up.  However at Hell level and above the builds are completely different.  The VIT is important but if you are depending on a high DPS kill rate a glass mage is not a bad strategy, because you are not going to intentionally get into a melee situation.  So sacrificing a +VIT for say +crit, +life regen, +mana bonus is a worthy comprimise.  The Gems slots can make up for stat bonuses in such a swap.

The Find Magic is important when farming.  Eventually you are going to hit a wall where your gear is at it's limits and you are not pulling a better piece.  In the Hell level you still will pull level 19 or more common 10 levels below your level.  The Find Magic increases your odds of pulling yellow, orange or level equal blues.  Is it optimal when you are going into a known boss fight or a run to move up a chapter?  No.  However I usually try to keep some armor and helmet with slot for farming.

[Nefaro]

I've been trying to keep over +30% Magic Find while playing.  Once you pass about +35 it really starts to get noticeable - your pack fills up with blues and yellows more quickly.

My numba is 1 4 5 6.  "Nefaro".  Top Secret Ninja Sh*t!  :P

I'll turn my Open Join option back on.  ;)

[son_of_montfort]

The AH (when it works) seems to mitigate the need for loot farming. That Blacksmith isn't too bad, but needing to get those pages is going to be a pain in the neck.

[Bison]

The AH is going to be hard to keep up with for Hell/Inferno level worthy gear.  Your talking 1-2 million gold per item and once you factor in the real $ AH your picking will become even slimmer.  I for one am not giving a damned penny to a gear farmer.

Anyway the point is you will either end up farming for gear/gold/pages.  It's the Diablo design.

[Bison]

Nefaro I'll send you a friend invite.

[Arctic Blast]

Amazing what some new gear can do for ya!

After multiple attempts at Diablo, and multiple butt kickings that left me swearing at the screen, I did some level grinding for Gold to buy upgrades. Jumped my total number of HP from about 2,600 to over 4,000. My damage had been a pathetic 300 or so. Now it's over 700.

And Diablo died. Actually, he died pretty damn easy. I probably over dead the spec up.  ;D

So Nightmare looms...perhaps as a Monk this time.

[Bison]

My group ran into an insurmountable blue group this evening.   Besides the fact that they were blue which gives them more hit points and harder hitting attacks.  They were also plagued, molten and self healing.  So they would have a trail of fire, stand in a pool of poison and slowly regenerate health.  Did I mention they were FAST?  I cannot even imagine what Inferno level is like because this is only Chapter 1 of Hell.  It was the most frustrating 45 minutes, before we decided to move onto another area of the map board.