You guys know you don't have to do Act 3 runs right? There are 3 other acts to play. >_>
Going from Act to Act is not worth it because you lose your NV stacks and in terms of monster density, Act 3 is the best place to farm for items or XP.
Ofc there is a "best" but if it gets old, the other acts can be farmed.
Not as efficiently. They need an option to increase monster density in the other Acts.
I thought they had a fix for this in an early release of the patch notes, but apparently it's not there anymore.
At least they are changing the experience points per MP level, especially since that guy on the bnet forums provided all of those calculation spreadsheets suggesting that there is no reason to farm items or XP on anything higher than MP1 (or MP0 act 3).
Interesting... I tried logging some stats between MP levels and acts. My "official" (I'vedone it mentally before, this time I recorded it properly) sample size sucked, but it matched my previous mental notes okay.
Long story short, MP4 gimped my goldfind rate by ~30% compared to MP2 thanks to deaths and more difficult monster. MP3 was somewhat similar, but not as bad. MP1 was actually similar to MP2 since my damage was pretty high -- the fewer deaths and more frequent item drops (I sold everything blue+) balanced out the extra 25% gf.
As for switching acts and losing your NV5, it takes about 5-10 minutes to get a full stack again once you know the maps... Unless you're with a group with dead weight or running MP3+, it's a minor annoyance.
Act 1: Festering Woods for easy 2 or 3, maybe 4; Leoric's Manor courtyard for 1; and Leoric's Hunting Grounds for at least 1.
Act 2: Black Canyon Mines for easy 2 and backtrack to town for 1-3 more, and Dahlgur Oasis for at least 5 (big map though).
Act 3: Tower of the Damned lvl 1, usually 1 or 2 near WP, it's a small map so easy circuit; Tower of the Damned lvl 2, usually 1 near WP; and backtrack through Arreat Crater 1 or 2 for at least 2 or 3. Otherwise, Bridge of Korskik, then find the cave dungeon for 2+ and a Resplendent Chest.
I don't get the bolded....I knew all the Unique items and Rune-words by heart and most of the people I played with did as well. Just because you never saw the item drop doesn't mean you didn't see anyone else wearing it in a public game or that you didn't look it up on the Arreat Summit.
Also this:
Seems accurate.
Maybe I'm just jaded at this point. Every game for the past few years that came from a previously "amazing" franchise has been dumbed down. Neverwinter Nights started it, from what I remember; Deus Ex 2 kept it going (but redeemed at most recent one); and many games in general just lack the complexity in trying to be more casual. So, I just go in with low expectations. I've blow over 500 hours on D3, so I'm satisfied. Even Morrowind, m yall-time record, kept me around for 300-400 hours. Oblivion was about 190 hours with all "expansions".
yeah pretty much. That's why I got bored with the game about 2 weeks ago. I realized there aren't really multiple builds of any character. It's just...stack strength on a barb, use WW, for instance. There were DOZENS of viable builds in D2 for each character class. There's probably 2 at most per class in D3 (I'm talking viable in inferno). When I heard you couldn't choose where points go in D3 I was so disappointed. I should've listened to my gut instinct then, which was that I'd enjoy the game for a couple months then get bored.
You think every time someone wants to try a build out they enjoy leveling a new character? Casual players (which are the majority of players) don't want to do that.
I unhumbly disagree. All of my "casual" friends in D2 (years ago...), ranging from teen girls to old ex-military guys, enjoyed the leveling process trying new things.
Was quite a bit of fun starting something new just for a heck of it, with a friend giving you some nice uniques to help along the way.
One guy even made like 7 paladins one after another for the imbue quest at level 38 (to get the right mods), each time trying different stuff and enjoying it.
I am glad you've taken your sample size of around 5 and formed an opinion on why games are getting MORE and MORE casual as the years go on. There is a reason games are going in that direction. And a reason they are selling more copies than ever before. The majority of people don't want to level 7 paladins.
Also, locking players into choices serves no purpose except for forcing replay in games. There is really no reason other than to punish players and force new character rolls. It offers nothing as far as complexity nor any gameplay elements. The only reason we have this is because that is how RPGs have done it, and most of those weren't mean for continuing playing for hundreds of hours. The DnD level up, pick new skill and stat, system worked for a single campaign or story and then the game was over. As changes and updates happen being forced to abandon my character because certain skills have changed, sometimes completely, is stupid.
The depth of the D3 skill tree (if you can even call it that) is lacking, but that is a different argument.
Interesting... I tried logging some stats between MP levels and acts. My "official" (I'vedone it mentally before, this time I recorded it properly) sample size sucked, but it matched my previous mental notes okay.
Long story short, MP4 gimped my goldfind rate by ~30% compared to MP2 thanks to deaths and more difficult monster. MP3 was somewhat similar, but not as bad. MP1 was actually similar to MP2 since my damage was pretty high -- the fewer deaths and more frequent item drops (I sold everything blue+) balanced out the extra 25% gf.
As for switching acts and losing your NV5, it takes about 5-10 minutes to get a full stack again once you know the maps... Unless you're with a group with dead weight or running MP3+, it's a minor annoyance.
Act 1: Festering Woods for easy 2 or 3, maybe 4; Leoric's Manor courtyard for 1; and Leoric's Hunting Grounds for at least 1.
Act 2: Black Canyon Mines for easy 2 and backtrack to town for 1-3 more, and Dahlgur Oasis for at least 5 (big map though).
Act 3: Tower of the Damned lvl 1, usually 1 or 2 near WP, it's a small map so easy circuit; Tower of the Damned lvl 2, usually 1 near WP; and backtrack through Arreat Crater 1 or 2 for at least 2 or 3. Otherwise, Bridge of Korskik, then find the cave dungeon for 2+ and a Resplendent Chest.
This line of thinking baffles me. All that does is punish uninformed players for choices they make early on in the game. This stifles build experimentation as well. You think every time someone wants to try a build out they enjoy leveling a new character? Casual players (which are the majority of players) don't want to do that. They don't want to have to google what skill they should level or what stats to pick every time they level just so they don't have a worthless character end game. And the hardcore players that want this, Blizzard doesn't give a shit about you. You make up such a small minority of the community you could leave and they wouldn't notice. And that isn't just Blizzard; that is every company.
There are multiple builds for each class and variations to every build. Some are better than others. That is how games work. Deal with it. No game ever has had multiple choices and all been 100% equal.
So many people bitch about this game not being D2, and yet they can do play D2. Except they just continue to bitch and that is it.
OK, then let people distribute attribute points as they want, and then make it that once you hit level 60 you can reset all your points, as a one-time deal, so if you fucked up in earlier levels you can fix it. Also make it so that at any point you can redistribute the attributes from the last level you achieved, that way if you accidentally misclick you're not pissed off.
There are NOT multiple builds for each class, that's the entire point of why this game is a downgrade from D2. There's probably 2, maybe viable builds for each character in this.
Also; there are no 'casual' players in the Diablo series. They make up probably 10% of the total.
For elite / champion pack density, Act 3 Tower of the Damned then Tower of the Cursed are the two best. That seems to be the best area for farming Demonic Essence on the PTR. It think Festering Woods would be close though because of the 4 you get there. Then hit then grab another stack in the key warden area and grab a key maybe. I never tried Assassin's Den though in Act 2. That place has at least 4 packs.
Basically the guy put up a spreadsheet on google docs showing that the kill speed on MP1 (and even mentions MP0, act III because of the max monster level) was so much faster that it overshadowed the exp difference and MF in higher MP's. I think Blizzard already realized it though, since people have been complaining about it since the MP system was released. But this actually illustrated it with some testing and calculation that he provided.
Assassin's Den and the other similar dungeon (Vault of the Assassin?) in Act 2 are amazing places to farm because of their densities and predictable layouts. However, unless you have start a game spawned inside the dungeon, it's time consuming to find the openings because they are random on two of the largest maps in the game.
Cool. That was my thought, that the higher drop rate (from monsters dying faster) would balance out a higher MF/GF because you would actually get the rolls to occur more often.
I've been doing MP2 and MP3 lately. Time to go back to MP1. Speaking of, there's the additional benefit of not dying as often, and being able to put more gf/mf gear on if it's easy. Most of my equipment is for survivability right now.
On a side note, I marathoned on Sunday. Found 5-7 uniques. Only 1 was worth close to 1 million, the other were disenchanted. That is, the "market rate" for similar stat items for those 5 was 50k or below, which is roughly what brimstone is worth. The kicker was one of them was an ilvl 58. FML.
Games in general are going more toward gear based. Look at MMOs. Having better gear makes you better. Gone are the days of game likes UO where everyone was equal with 7x 100% skills. Gone are the days where the only difference between you and other players were skill and ping. The grind for gear is what drives games today. D3 just uses that model.the d2 attribute system was superior because you didn't need to spend resources to distribute your stats. d3 stats are directly tied into gear - a level 42 character can have more health and dps thanks to -18 lvl req weapons. once you hit level 60 you can more than quadruple your main stats by buying cheap yellow gear.
as far as build quality goes - there are dozens of builds for each class. some will only work on mp0 (leveling builds) and only one or two will work for ubers. its the same in d2, other action rpgs, and to an extent mmo rpgs. some builds are just better than others, depending on how you want to play.
and "casual" is a pretty subjective definition. i'm a hardcore player (i use spreadsheets, optimize gear, etc.) but only have a casual commitment to the game. or are you referring to people with way too much time on their hands that can play 12 hours a day? those people aren't hardcore, they just have way too much time.
Games in general are going more toward gear based. Look at MMOs. Having better gear makes you better. Gone are the days of game likes UO where everyone was equal with 7x 100% skills. Gone are the days where the only difference between you and other players were skill and ping. The grind for gear is what drives games today. D3 just uses that model.
OK, then let people distribute attribute points as they want, and then make it that once you hit level 60 you can reset all your points, as a one-time deal, so if you fucked up in earlier levels you can fix it. Also make it so that at any point you can redistribute the attributes from the last level you achieved, that way if you accidentally misclick you're not pissed off.
There are NOT multiple builds for each class, that's the entire point of why this game is a downgrade from D2. There's probably 2, maybe viable builds for each character in this.
Also; there are no 'casual' players in the Diablo series. They make up probably 10% of the total.
nope nope and nope.
Don't even want to bother arguing about how wrong you are, but lets just say the respec mod for torchlight 2 is the most popular one out there.
Wrong about what? Distributing stats? You mean the current default autostat distribution is not retarded?
the d2 attribute system was superior because you didn't need to spend resources to distribute your stats. d3 stats are directly tied into gear - a level 42 character can have more health and dps thanks to -18 lvl req weapons. once you hit level 60 you can more than quadruple your main stats by buying cheap yellow gear.
as far as build quality goes - there are dozens of builds for each class. some will only work on mp0 (leveling builds) and only one or two will work for ubers. its the same in d2, other action rpgs, and to an extent mmo rpgs. some builds are just better than others, depending on how you want to play.
and "casual" is a pretty subjective definition. i'm a hardcore player (i use spreadsheets, optimize gear, etc.) but only have a casual commitment to the game. or are you referring to people with way too much time on their hands that can play 12 hours a day? those people aren't hardcore, they just have way too much time.