Diablo III / 3

[Imhoff]

Welcome back Sir!

 

[nerdykarim]

9 keys acquired. Anyone interested in doing the ubers with me sometime? I'm going to be traveling a bit this week, but I'll be back Sunday night and all of next week. Will probably use my barb--125k dps unbuffed, 210k buffed, 7.3k armor, 600-700 res all.

I've never done the ubers before. Anything I should be aware of re: my gear or skill setup?

 

[gettoasty]

Ubers? (Obviously I can't do it) lol

What keys?

 

[TheFoo]

Anybody still playing?

 

[Imhoff]



Anybody still playing?

I haven't played in awhile. I will be back on once I get moved into new place and have internet once again.

 

[nerdykarim]

I popped back in for a few weeks at the beginning of the summer. My friends peer pressured me into buying $10 worth of gold, so I geared up my barb and ran the ubers a few times.

It was fun for a while. I might go back when the itemization patch drops (but I have no idea when that's supposed to be).

 

[TheFoo]

Ubers have been pointless since they introduced the new crafting system. You collect Demonic Essences and Lvl. 63 item plans to craft stuff that is potentially better than any Legendary or Rare otherwise available. It's how you get the best gloves, shoulders, and amulets in the game. All of the crafted items are account-bound, so you cannot trade them or buy them off of AH. It can take dozens, if not hundreds, of crafting attempts to get one pair of optimal gloves or shoulders.

The Hellfire ring can be good, but you are probably better off with a really good Unity.

 

[nerdykarim]



Ubers have been pointless since they introduced the new crafting system. You collect Demonic Essences and Lvl. 63 item plans to craft stuff that is potentially better than any Legendary or Rare otherwise available. It's how you get the best gloves, shoulders, and amulets in the game. All of the crafted items are account-bound, so you cannot trade them or buy them off of AH. It can take dozens, if not hundreds, of crafting attempts to get one pair of optimal gloves or shoulders.

The Hellfire ring can be good, but you are probably better off with a really good Unity.

I didn't have an HFR at the time--and I was only plvl 20 or so--so I decided to go for one. I'm currently using Unity/Nats.

I have a few crafted items on my DH, but I mostly took advantage of the fact that crafting was driving down AH prices and bought gear that way on my barb. I think I have a few hundred DE that I should use to craft.

This is my barb. Not great, but he can get the job done up until MP8 or so. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/whatupmoney-1395/hero/12690223 (skill spec is probably from the last time I did ubers...I typically do sprint/whirlwind)

 

[TheFoo]

Not bad at all!

Here's my guy: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Mafoo-1974/hero/3285168

I'm kind of stuck. Any marginal upgrade would cost a couple of billion a piece, but wouldn't even be all-out better. I'd inevitably lose somewhere for a gain elsewhere.

I can run MP9 without a problem. Some MP10 elite combos can frustrate, though.

 

[TheFoo]

Karim, just added you.

 

[nerdykarim]



Karim, just added you.

I actually don't have access to my account right now due to a [failed] hack attempt last month. I'll confirm you when I get a chance to reset my password.

Are you playing pretty actively? Are you just farming DE at this point?

 

[TheFoo]

I stopped playing months ago and just started up again. I'm just messing around and farming DE. If I had more friends playing, I'd be on more often.

 

[yjeezle]

this is obviously a loaded question... but what's changed since i quit playing... (roughly a year ago)

 

[TheFoo]

I don't remember when all the changes took place, but the game is substantially different versus its incarnation at release.

1. Difficulty levels have been signficantly adjusted. Damage is far less spiky than it used to be. "Monster Power" levels have been added. So, within the Inferno difficuly setting, you can choose any Monster Power level beteween zero and 10. The higher the MP level, the more powerful the monsters, which correlates with more experience points and higher chances of better item drops. It is hard to say whether the game is now "easier" or "harder" than before, as so many things have changed. However, it is certainly more playable. Infinitely so.

2. Legendary items have been entirely revamped. The original Legendaries (now labeled "Legacy" items) were awful and never nearly as good as well-rolled Rares. Now, Legendaries are usually the best of any particular item you can get, by a wide margin. This is due to higher rolling numbers and more useful bonus abilities that synergize.

3. Classes have been significantly modified--vastly upgraded, for the most part. Abilities have been buffed to make them more usable. Certain exploits have been nerfed, though. The Witch Doctor has managed to become the most over-powered class in the game.

4. New account-bound super items have been added to the game. The first was the Hellfire ring. You have to collect keys by killing Key Wardens (new, super Elites). There is one Key Warden in approximately the same place in each Act. You need to collect one key from each (except from Act 4, which you only need to do once), to make one Diabolical Device. Each Diabolical Device opens one portal to fight an Uber Boss. There are three different Uber Bosses (well, actually six, as you fight two at a time in each battle). Winning an Uber Boss battle yields the chance of one component of the Hellfire ring dropping. You need three different components to craft one ring, and each Uber drops a specific component. The higher the MP level, the greater the chance of a component dropping (same goes for the keys).

5. In addition to the Hellfire ring, you can now pick-up plans to craft certain Level 63 Rares (gloves, shoulder plates, rings, amulets, etc.). These special, craftable Rares can roll higher than ones you find in the game. They are also account-bound (cannot be traded or sold). To craft one, you need to collect the plan for it and a certain number of Demonic Essences. Both only drop from killing Elites.

6. They added a half-baked PvP function, called "Brawling." You go to a single level, where any other player can join you. There, you just bash each other's brains out, to no consequence whatsoever.

7. A new top-level gem has been added, the Marquise. It's expensive to craft and cannot be traded or sold.

8. I'm not sure if this was the case when you were playing, but it has been for some time: Life Steal is now absolutely essential to play into the higher MP levels. At least one of your weapons has to have it--otherwise it is often impossible to survive an Elite battle. Life-on-Hit is now meaningless for the most part.

 

[nerdykarim]



I don't remember when all the changes took place, but the game is substantially different versus its incarnation at release.

Also, most recently (in the May patch), they also significantly buffed monster density in some parts of A1 inferno (at MP1+) which changes the "optimal" A1 pxp farming route and makes it a little more fun.

They also added a feature that gives bonus MF%, GF%, and xp when multiple people are in a game to incentivize co-op.

A couple of other things made the game smoother--you can now "identify all," for example. They're on the right track--it's a shame, though, that it took such a long time to make the game as much fun as D2 used to be.