I so envy you guys who have had time to get your teeth into this. I have been too busy to try it though I might fire it up for a little bit. Grrr... bad time to get busy
I am excited to try out the new difficulties. I think this is a great system that the TL series had, better than the old Diablo series style difficulty. I am so happy that they scrapped their old one.
So...maybe I'm a nOOb and last to know this but...
When I replaced gear that had gems in them, I would head over to the gemcrafter and pay to have the gems removed, then I'd either sell or DE the old item. I paid 5,000 gold to remove one gem.(I've been leveling my lower level character, so not sure if the price is higher at level 60)
Well.../blush...last night I accidently DE'd a piece of gear that had a gem in it and...the gem was placed in my inventory instead of destroyed like I thought it would be.
ALL THIS TIME I HAVE BEEN PAYING 5,000G TO REMOVE THE GEMS!! OMFG! lol
Anyways...in the off chance this is new I thought I'd share. If it's not new...hand out a few laughs...
If anyone here is interested I created a MMORPGcom (no dot) community... I will likely create a separate thread about this. Just a heads up to any interested.
Now that I have had some time to play, I love the changes! I rerolled an SC monk with no gear at all. I am playing him completely from scratch. I am still in Act 1.
What I like:
- I can choose straight away the difficulty I like. I immediately ramped it up to a PoE-like difficulty and it is so much funner than before. I can still repeat the game once I finish it, but the levels scale to me. It is like TL2 now in that sense. I feel now like the first playthrough is not as much of a 'tutorial' for getting to Nightmare like it was before.
- Less bad gear and now it makes sense to pick up almost everything since you can recycle white/grey items too and crafting is actually worthwhile. The less bad gear has already been touched upon by other posters in this thread so I won't go into it.
- Monk changes. I have noticed they tweeked a lot of the runes and smoothed out the play. That is a great thing! I am guessing they made decent changes to the other classes too, but so far with limited time I have not investigated.
- New tweeks to the old areas like putting more skeletons in coffins, barrels, etc. Feels even more dynamic than before.
What I did not like:
- More rubberbanding than usual, but perhaps that will smooth out after this patching cycle.
- What happened to the side areas and side quests?? Am I just unlucky and managed to roll maps without any of those so far? I have not had a single one.
- More rubberbanding than usual, but perhaps that will smooth out after this patching cycle.
- What happened to the side areas and side quests?? Am I just unlucky and managed to roll maps without any of those so far? I have not had a single one.
I haven't seen any rubberbanding after playing a lot this week so hopefully that will smooth out for you, and I've actually seen a lot more side quests too so sounds like it was just an unlucky run.
- More rubberbanding than usual, but perhaps that will smooth out after this patching cycle.
- What happened to the side areas and side quests?? Am I just unlucky and managed to roll maps without any of those so far? I have not had a single one.
I haven't seen any rubberbanding after playing a lot this week so hopefully that will smooth out for you, and I've actually seen a lot more side quests too so sounds like it was just an unlucky run.
Uh? The side quests are still all there. In fact, there are new ones called the cursed chest. May be they decrease the chance of quests to spawn.
- More rubberbanding than usual, but perhaps that will smooth out after this patching cycle.
- What happened to the side areas and side quests?? Am I just unlucky and managed to roll maps without any of those so far? I have not had a single one.
I haven't seen any rubberbanding after playing a lot this week so hopefully that will smooth out for you, and I've actually seen a lot more side quests too so sounds like it was just an unlucky run.
You are lucky that you did not have rubberbanding. I did on Friday night and quite a few hideous lag spikes of 1200+ ping. Yesterday was alright though, more like normal so perhaps a lot of people were patching up their game Friday or something.
I *finally* got a couple of side quests and one side area in the last outdoor map of Act 1. Beginning of Act 2, I also had a couple. I guess you are right, it was just an unlucky run. Perhaps I am still unlucky because I still find there are fewer than before. I used to get two side areas and a side quest per map, now I am lucky if I have one of either.
Originally posted by nariusseldon
Uh? The side quests are still all there. In fact, there are new ones called the cursed chest. May be they decrease the chance of quests to spawn.
There is at least the cursed chest that is new (got one in the beginning of Act 2). All of the others I have come across (not many I admit) are the same as before.
I have found a few good uniques so far, way more than before, but the rares are so good that you can equip yourself with them exclusively and still do really well. I am doing four times the dps I did pre-patch and have three times more hps with the self-found loot. The monsters are harder though at the same time so it balances out.
I like the changes to the monsters too: the trees that throw poison bombs are actually somewhat hairy whereas before they were far too easy to deal with. Some nice new elite mob and boss abilities and thankfully they are not crowd control-based. First run through the game and I am coming across elites with multiple affixes like old hell-mode. Very nice
I like the changes to the monsters too: the trees that throw poison bombs are actually somewhat hairy whereas before they were far too easy to deal with. Some nice new elite mob and boss abilities and thankfully they are not crowd control-based. First run through the game and I am coming across elites with multiple affixes like old hell-mode. Very nice
The challenge level can be quite high. I, too, like many of the new affixes. There is a lightning one that will just kill you if you stand still.
Heck, even trash can be dangerous if they gang up on you.
I really have to watch for those fireball spitting birds .. if 10 or so hit me at the same time, i am dead (and have been when i did not pay enough attention). You really have to pay attention to have good tactics even for trash (like move around, kill off a few first, so they cannot all gang up).
Yet to have a drop that's better than what I had already.
Didn't really change my skills and the play feels the same.
Grouping is still a silent and anonymous activity, with no strategy and no cooperation. If the other 3 players were AI NPCs, I would not be able to tell the difference.
The only change I've seen is group members less frequently jump back to vendor to sell inventory.
Yet to have a drop that's better than what I had already.
You must be really unlucky or have super gear before. I already have many upgrades, including those with skill variations that allow me to have good new builds.
Didn't really change my skills and the play feels the same.
That is because you have not tried. I have already experimented with many builds (including variations). If you play a wiz or a barb, the standard builds are gone, and gameplay is very different.
Grouping is still a silent and anonymous activity, with no strategy and no cooperation. If the other 3 players were AI NPCs, I would not be able to tell the difference.
Yet to have a drop that's better than what I had already.
Didn't really change my skills and the play feels the same.
Grouping is still a silent and anonymous activity, with no strategy and no cooperation. If the other 3 players were AI NPCs, I would not be able to tell the difference.
The only change I've seen is group members less frequently jump back to vendor to sell inventory.
You must have either bought all your gear on the AH or put in 100s of hours in loot grinding. My bet is on the AH.
Grouping can still be anonymous if you choose to play that way.
Me and a friend joined a clan, frequently get on voice chat, and never have trouble finding others to play with inside the clan. I play with the same group daily.
If your not having to cooperate and use some strategy then up the difficulty level and try playing with other people than random joe # 3908
If you want to play solo or with a random Joe then you can. However the tools are there to make a better experience if you choose. You not taking advantage of those tools is not the fault of the game.
How are you guys gearing your followers? If I'm playing my Barb, then virtually all drops are STR / VIT items. No bows or cross bows for the scoundrel or Magic Staves for the Enchantress.
Seems like the options are use the Blacksmith or play an alt that uses the same stats as the follower you wish to gear up.
The game is a lot more tolerable now with the smart loot system and several of the other QoL changes, but as you said, Adventure Mode would go a long way to not making it feel quite as repetitive.
It was refreshing seeing so many Legendary items drop, even if the occasional one wasn't really an upgrade.
I think until the expansion comes out I'm going to play it somewhat sparingly as to not burn myself out on it. I play every once in a while with a friend and that's pretty fun since we can joke around while playing, but grinding it out solo isn't very fun for me.
Regardless of the changes I'm still finding it hard to justify dropping $40 down on an expansion. The problem with Blizzard games is that they don't depreciate very quickly. (see: Heart of the Swarm)
I tend to invest myself in one game if I'm playing an MMO so until I completely run out of content or don't find enough things to do in that game throughout the week, I think that would be the point in which I would consider buying Reaper of Souls.
How are you guys gearing your followers? If I'm playing my Barb, then virtually all drops are STR / VIT items. No bows or cross bows for the scoundrel or Magic Staves for the Enchantress.
Seems like the options are use the Blacksmith or play an alt that uses the same stats as the follower you wish to gear up.
That is the only way.
I am using the templar for my wiz ... so i essentially have my barb made a set shield for him. I think using alt and crafting is the way to go.
The challenge level can be quite high. I, too, like many of the new affixes. There is a lightning one that will just kill you if you stand still.
Heck, even trash can be dangerous if they gang up on you.
I really have to watch for those fireball spitting birds .. if 10 or so hit me at the same time, i am dead (and have been when i did not pay enough attention). You really have to pay attention to have good tactics even for trash (like move around, kill off a few first, so they cannot all gang up).
Yep, very fun changes. Some of the affixes are really quite nasty now. I am glad I ran through this at first with a Monk who is pretty tanky. Even with my mantras, heals and other defensive abilities, they still can hit really hard. I am trying a Wizard now and loving the changes on her too. Yeah, I concur, there are some pretty nasty trash mobs too. Those blowy up guys in Act 3 that move really fast come to mind. Open door: *evil cackle* BOOM!
Funny thing related to one of my gripes earlier: the Wizard rolled tons of side areas in the first few maps of Act 1. I guess I just had a really bad initial run on the Monk.
Yet to have a drop that's better than what I had already.
Didn't really change my skills and the play feels the same.
Grouping is still a silent and anonymous activity, with no strategy and no cooperation. If the other 3 players were AI NPCs, I would not be able to tell the difference.
The only change I've seen is group members less frequently jump back to vendor to sell inventory.
Not sure we played the same game. The drops are hugely better than before and more interesting stats with some that actually seriously change how your character plays. The uniques are also a lot better now, some have really interesting procs. There are also no more class-specific items with the wrong stats on them. There is far less junk being dropped in general.
So far on both the Monk and Wizard there have been huge changes to skills. I don't feel that my Monk plays the same as it did pre-patch. Mantras, for example, pre-patch just had one effect once you activated them. Now they have two: an active and a passive that can be both quite very distinct one from the other. He has more crowd control too now than before.
I play solo or with friends for the most part so can't comment on grouping, but it is no different from other ARPGs.
Comments
I only wish RoS is here so i can play the new content .... but i am certainly enjoying 2.02 now.
I so envy you guys who have had time to get your teeth into this. I have been too busy to try it though I might fire it up for a little bit. Grrr... bad time to get busy
I am excited to try out the new difficulties. I think this is a great system that the TL series had, better than the old Diablo series style difficulty. I am so happy that they scrapped their old one.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Made me think 60$ i payed at first place was not waste of money after all.
Yea.
It makes the game much more enjoyable. And actually finally there is this element, ill play for few minutes more waiting for some cool drop.
So...maybe I'm a nOOb and last to know this but...
When I replaced gear that had gems in them, I would head over to the gemcrafter and pay to have the gems removed, then I'd either sell or DE the old item. I paid 5,000 gold to remove one gem.(I've been leveling my lower level character, so not sure if the price is higher at level 60)
Well.../blush...last night I accidently DE'd a piece of gear that had a gem in it and...the gem was placed in my inventory instead of destroyed like I thought it would be.
ALL THIS TIME I HAVE BEEN PAYING 5,000G TO REMOVE THE GEMS!! OMFG! lol
Anyways...in the off chance this is new I thought I'd share. If it's not new...hand out a few laughs...
What are your other Hobbies?
Gaming is Dirt Cheap compared to this...
Now that I have had some time to play, I love the changes! I rerolled an SC monk with no gear at all. I am playing him completely from scratch. I am still in Act 1.
What I like:
- I can choose straight away the difficulty I like. I immediately ramped it up to a PoE-like difficulty and it is so much funner than before. I can still repeat the game once I finish it, but the levels scale to me. It is like TL2 now in that sense. I feel now like the first playthrough is not as much of a 'tutorial' for getting to Nightmare like it was before.
- Less bad gear and now it makes sense to pick up almost everything since you can recycle white/grey items too and crafting is actually worthwhile. The less bad gear has already been touched upon by other posters in this thread so I won't go into it.
- Monk changes. I have noticed they tweeked a lot of the runes and smoothed out the play. That is a great thing! I am guessing they made decent changes to the other classes too, but so far with limited time I have not investigated.
- New tweeks to the old areas like putting more skeletons in coffins, barrels, etc. Feels even more dynamic than before.
What I did not like:
- More rubberbanding than usual, but perhaps that will smooth out after this patching cycle.
- What happened to the side areas and side quests?? Am I just unlucky and managed to roll maps without any of those so far? I have not had a single one.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
I haven't seen any rubberbanding after playing a lot this week so hopefully that will smooth out for you, and I've actually seen a lot more side quests too so sounds like it was just an unlucky run.
Uh? The side quests are still all there. In fact, there are new ones called the cursed chest. May be they decrease the chance of quests to spawn.
You are lucky that you did not have rubberbanding. I did on Friday night and quite a few hideous lag spikes of 1200+ ping. Yesterday was alright though, more like normal so perhaps a lot of people were patching up their game Friday or something.
I *finally* got a couple of side quests and one side area in the last outdoor map of Act 1. Beginning of Act 2, I also had a couple. I guess you are right, it was just an unlucky run. Perhaps I am still unlucky because I still find there are fewer than before. I used to get two side areas and a side quest per map, now I am lucky if I have one of either.
There is at least the cursed chest that is new (got one in the beginning of Act 2). All of the others I have come across (not many I admit) are the same as before.
I have found a few good uniques so far, way more than before, but the rares are so good that you can equip yourself with them exclusively and still do really well. I am doing four times the dps I did pre-patch and have three times more hps with the self-found loot. The monsters are harder though at the same time so it balances out.
I like the changes to the monsters too: the trees that throw poison bombs are actually somewhat hairy whereas before they were far too easy to deal with. Some nice new elite mob and boss abilities and thankfully they are not crowd control-based. First run through the game and I am coming across elites with multiple affixes like old hell-mode. Very nice
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Huh..
So Diablo III has finally been released.
Awesome! Time to see if it's still on one of my platter drives and do some major patching.
The challenge level can be quite high. I, too, like many of the new affixes. There is a lightning one that will just kill you if you stand still.
Heck, even trash can be dangerous if they gang up on you.
I really have to watch for those fireball spitting birds .. if 10 or so hit me at the same time, i am dead (and have been when i did not pay enough attention). You really have to pay attention to have good tactics even for trash (like move around, kill off a few first, so they cannot all gang up).
I'm still waiting for the magic.
Yet to have a drop that's better than what I had already.
Didn't really change my skills and the play feels the same.
Grouping is still a silent and anonymous activity, with no strategy and no cooperation. If the other 3 players were AI NPCs, I would not be able to tell the difference.
The only change I've seen is group members less frequently jump back to vendor to sell inventory.
First day back - reset quests - expert difficulty
I'm just about to discover tyrael again. 4 legendary drops - all useful
Play for fun. Play to win. Play for perfection. Play with friends. Play in another world. Why do you play?
You must have either bought all your gear on the AH or put in 100s of hours in loot grinding. My bet is on the AH.
Grouping can still be anonymous if you choose to play that way.
Me and a friend joined a clan, frequently get on voice chat, and never have trouble finding others to play with inside the clan. I play with the same group daily.
If your not having to cooperate and use some strategy then up the difficulty level and try playing with other people than random joe # 3908
If you want to play solo or with a random Joe then you can. However the tools are there to make a better experience if you choose. You not taking advantage of those tools is not the fault of the game.
yeah .. certainly there are syneries, and you can kill a lot more efficiently with a good group strategy.
For example, i am using skills that have cc ... and if i am grouping, i will go all out DPS instead if someone else is cc-ing.
How are you guys gearing your followers? If I'm playing my Barb, then virtually all drops are STR / VIT items. No bows or cross bows for the scoundrel or Magic Staves for the Enchantress.
Seems like the options are use the Blacksmith or play an alt that uses the same stats as the follower you wish to gear up.
The game is a lot more tolerable now with the smart loot system and several of the other QoL changes, but as you said, Adventure Mode would go a long way to not making it feel quite as repetitive.
It was refreshing seeing so many Legendary items drop, even if the occasional one wasn't really an upgrade.
I think until the expansion comes out I'm going to play it somewhat sparingly as to not burn myself out on it. I play every once in a while with a friend and that's pretty fun since we can joke around while playing, but grinding it out solo isn't very fun for me.
Regardless of the changes I'm still finding it hard to justify dropping $40 down on an expansion. The problem with Blizzard games is that they don't depreciate very quickly. (see: Heart of the Swarm)
I tend to invest myself in one game if I'm playing an MMO so until I completely run out of content or don't find enough things to do in that game throughout the week, I think that would be the point in which I would consider buying Reaper of Souls.
That is the only way.
I am using the templar for my wiz ... so i essentially have my barb made a set shield for him. I think using alt and crafting is the way to go.
Got my Barb to 60 last night.
Not as fun as my Monk. Just was missing that "omg that's cool/fun" factor that Monk has for me.
D3/RoS not releasing on XB1 till probably September, so I'll have to buy for PC to start rocking out Crusader.
I hope Crusader "clicks" with me as well as Monk does.
Monk is farming Torment 3 w/o issue.
Hehe .. i just "graduated" my wiz last night to T4 farming after getting a good shoulder drop that up my toughness.
It would be fun to start leveling and restart the whole gear hunt at 70 though. All my gear will be obsolete soon.
Are you doing that solo or in groups?
Yep, very fun changes. Some of the affixes are really quite nasty now. I am glad I ran through this at first with a Monk who is pretty tanky. Even with my mantras, heals and other defensive abilities, they still can hit really hard. I am trying a Wizard now and loving the changes on her too. Yeah, I concur, there are some pretty nasty trash mobs too. Those blowy up guys in Act 3 that move really fast come to mind. Open door: *evil cackle* BOOM!
Funny thing related to one of my gripes earlier: the Wizard rolled tons of side areas in the first few maps of Act 1. I guess I just had a really bad initial run on the Monk.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Not sure we played the same game. The drops are hugely better than before and more interesting stats with some that actually seriously change how your character plays. The uniques are also a lot better now, some have really interesting procs. There are also no more class-specific items with the wrong stats on them. There is far less junk being dropped in general.
So far on both the Monk and Wizard there have been huge changes to skills. I don't feel that my Monk plays the same as it did pre-patch. Mantras, for example, pre-patch just had one effect once you activated them. Now they have two: an active and a passive that can be both quite very distinct one from the other. He has more crowd control too now than before.
I play solo or with friends for the most part so can't comment on grouping, but it is no different from other ARPGs.
Playing MUDs and MMOs since 1994.
Solo for me.