Diablo 3 - Non-rant gameplay thread (for those of us enjoying the game)

[Code187]

Originally Posted by Mindray

I play monk. On Normal and Nightmare, you pretty much can go with any build combination and not to worry about much anything.

On later Hell and Inferno difficulty, you need to start stacking some armor and resistances. Your build is pretty standard one, and I see no problems with Hell or Inferno with proper gear. In Inferno you might consider weapon and shield approach to mitigate some damage and use Enchantress to buff your armor and attack speed.

When you will feel it's a waste, and you really can't find good gear, you can always try an Auction House - 'from zero to hero' route...most people farm there.


Good luck.

Thx M8 for replay to me. will post agan when i have played it a week or two :-)

[hay82]

How far have people gotten without buying anything on the AH?

[Shoganai]

I got as far as Diablo normal.... :/

I'm in inferno Act I right now.... and have hit a wall. I've been farming inferno with the full buff trying to get better gear to get me past the butcher - but have nothing to show for it yet. But I've only been farming for about 10 hours.

With the opening of the RMAH gear prices have shot up to insane levels on the gold AH. it's not a pretty sight atm.... I expect more patching in the near future.

[Ashtroga]

Well i'm currently in inferno act 1 with my barbarian. I haven't bought anything from ah to him and he is my main character. It wasn't easy though, hell was manageable few deaths here and there but man inferno was something totally else, almost a brick wall. I had 32k hp with warcry, about 4k dps, 4-5k armor and extremely low resistances. After weeks of dying and farming and dying some more and then even more I managed to find better gear. Quite often I had to retreat back to hell to farm gold and perhaps something useful. Almost every elite pack was instant death and most normal monster were serious threat.

Ground stomp with wrenching smash, leap with death from above and earthquake with mountain's call are primary reason why I got anything killed at all. 2 different stun skills and high damage aoe. First ground stomp, it pulls monsters into a nice tight pack then earthquake and then second stun. Then alot of hammering, hammer of ancients with smash was working really good because of high damage and +5% crit chance.

Now i'm doing quite good. 50k hp, 25k dps, over 10k armor and about 200 resistances. It took alot of time and even more nerves but it is doable.

[Mindray]

Originally Posted by hay82

How far have people gotten without buying anything on the AH?

Till Act 1 Inferno, where I got gift weapon and shield from fellow forum member (thanks man). I'm kind of 'self-found items only' person when it comes to booty-looty, but I hit the wall (pre-patch) there and coundn't do much with my resistances and DPS.

Lately I sneaked to Act 3 Inferno (coop), but it's too much for me. Repair costs/probablity of good drop ratio are not worth the trouble, same for Act 2. I mostly rumble around in Act 1 now, have no problems there, and it's best place to safely get booty without worrying much about enormous repairs costs. Once in a blue moon I get an upgrade there too, crafted nice shield lately and am looking for weapon now.

It's worth to remind that since patch 1.0.3, with full Valor stack, you get at least 1 rare drop from elite and rare mobs, so in the long run you get far more loot. Now searching for them feels like the the way to go, not to mention you still have chance to get nice iLvl 63 drop.

[Shoganai]

Originally Posted by Mindray

It's worth to remind that since patch 1.0.3, with full Valor stack, you get at least 1 rare drop from elite and rare mobs, so in the long run you get far more loot.

Really??? I was certain that my last couple of Skeleton King inferno farm kills resulted in 0 yellows... hmm... I need to run him a couple more times today...

[hay82]

It's nice to know that's it's possible without going to the AH, well I knew that but that it's possible before dying of old age.
In act 2 on hell and doing 2300 dps at level 58 as a monk.

[Mindray]

Originally Posted by Shoganai

Really??? I was certain that my last couple of Skeleton King inferno farm kills resulted in 0 yellows... hmm... I need to run him a couple more times today...

With full valor stack you should get at least one. Heres the quote how they changed it:

The Nephalem Difference

It’s no secret that our goal for the end-game item hunt is players hunting monsters packs, building to five stacks of Nephalem Valor, and then killing a boss. While we’re seeing a lot of that occurring, what we’re missing is people feeling like it’s worthwhile to continue onward after killing a boss. To help hit that goal we’re lowering the number of guaranteed Rare items on bosses when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor from two guaranteed Rares to one guaranteed Rare (you still have a very good chance at multiple rares, it’s just no longer guaranteed). In exchange, all champion and rare packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed Rare item when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor. The change benefits players with more overall drops, and a reason to push to continue progressing.

Very good and needed change imo. I think more games should come up with similar system, that makes exploring more profitable and rewarding instead of boss runs, which gets pretty stale and boring after a while.

[Shoganai]

Interesting... after reading that I went back in with a friend and we just farmed Act I inferno up to the Skele King. Indeed, on yellows and some blue packs we were receiving 2-3 yellow drops... but on the Skele King himself just one.

I think I personally farmed 15 or so rare items (all but 1 trash sadly :P)

[LostSoul]

Originally Posted by Shoganai

Interesting... after reading that I went back in with a friend and we just farmed Act I inferno up to the Skele King. Indeed, on yellows and some blue packs we were receiving 2-3 yellow drops... but on the Skele King himself just one.

I think I personally farmed 15 or so rare items (all but 1 trash sadly :P)

And this is pretty much why I stopped playing. This isn't fun, or productive. It's repetition and monotony without even the benefit of a change of scene.