The Official CoG Diablo III Thread

[Darkmatter]

Originally Posted by Serapth

You know you can unlock it so you don't have to use anything from that category, right? I don't use a single spell from that group.

Man, if i had to use the default spell set, I would be screwed!

As to wallers, Diamond Skin/Mirror Image often help you weather the storm.

Ya I know. I don't use the default system.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by Shjinta

My WD never made it passed 40.. All I was doing was spamming poison dart with the splinters rune.. that's pretty much it. Every spell I had was to snare or slow mobs so i can spam the darts. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzz

Very boring build, a build that isn't even that good without a lot of IAS.

Normal/Nightmare I did zombie dogs/gargantuan/spirit walk/soul harvest and then just mixed up the rest depending on what I was doing.

Once I got to hell I put the dogs away and started playing with spirit barrage, locust swarm, dire bats, etc.

As soon as I hit 54 I switched over to a 5 CD zombie bears/VQ build and rode that all the way to act II of Inferno, at which point I switched to darts+CC+stacked IAS until the nerf.

Since then I've been using nerfed darts while trying out other builds like crits(way too expensive to gear for at the moment, plus I expect it to get nerfed), tank doctor(rain of toads/acid cloud-acid rain + Life on Hit stacking), and Witch Proc'ter (tank doctor but with as much cc on each gear like chance to freeze/stun/knockback/immobilized/etc.).

Acid cloud+acid rain has an ungodly number of "hits" at the moment, causing it to work to great effect with Life on Hit and/or on hit cc. Probably get nerfed real soon.

The tank doctor/witch proc'ter builds are very cheap to gear up for, at least to do Acts 1&2 of Inferno. A good Life on Hit weapon is going to cost you a bit, though. I already had one that I swapped into my darts build whenever I ran into reflect damage elites.

I'd estimate ~5m to build a Tank Doctor for acts 1 and 2 and that includes an OK Life on Hit weapon. The only thing that will kill you is if you get hit by 3 arcane lasers at once or if you get disabled long enough that your acid cloud stops ticking(and you stop gaining Life on Hit from it).

If they hotfix the pathing for Zombie Charger/Zombie Bears---which they royally screwed up in 1.03---tomorrow, I will most likely switch to full on Witch Proc'tor with Zombie Bears for burst DPS when needed. Without working bears I sadly do not have enough burst to kill a treasure goblin before he gets away.

[RandoM51]

Diablo III Patch 1.0.3a – v.1.0.3. 10235

Classes

Witch Doctor

Bug Fixes

Zombie Charger
Skill Rune – Zombie Bears
Fixed a bug where Zombie Bears were unable to attack targets on slopes
Zombie Bears should no longer become stuck on objects with which they shouldn’t have collision

Items

General

Equipped items will now take "wear-and-tear" durability damage at half the previous rate

Please note that durability loss as the result of normal combat is different from the 10% durability loss characters will incur when they die. Equipped items have always suffered durability loss while fighting, and we are simply slowing the rate at which the loss occurs.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug that was causing Unique monsters to not drop the appropriate amount of loot when slain

Fixed a bug with linking items with 3 gem sockets

It is no longer possible to create fake achievement links

Bug Fixes

General

Fixed a bug that was causing the “Switch Hero” button to occasionally disappear after leaving a game while in town

Fixed several gold and leveling exploits

Fixed several game and service crashes (for Mac and PC)

[RandoM51]

So yeah, looks like bears gets fixed tomorrow.

Another thing about itemization:

Due to the quick turnaround, we were unable to make any adjustments to item drop rates for Hell and Inferno difficulty in 1.0.3a, but we do have some changes planned for 1.0.3b (which isn't far out)

Great, another week of this crap.

For clarity, we're currently looking to patch to 1.0.3b some time this week. That may change depending on testing needs, but it's definitely our goal to get the patch out sooner rather than later.

[Darkmatter]

Well I had my first real taste of Act I Inferno.

Ass + Hand = Handed.

I need to up my dps as well as probably pretty much everything. Sadly I never learn these "gold and leveling exploits" that they keep fixing so I don't have a million+ gold to get anything decent for lvl 60. I keep looking off and on to try to catch a deal on the AH but the asking prices for lvl 60 stuff is pretty crazy a lot of the time.

[RandoM51]

A big part of inferno is learning to not get hit, or to only get hit whenever you've got a class special up that will mitigate all the damage(like one of the wiz armors?).

The gear check itself isn't really that steep from act 4 hell to act 1 inferno unless you're a barbarian.

[Serapth]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

A big part of inferno is learning to not get hit, or to only get hit whenever you've got a class special up that will mitigate all the damage(like one of the wiz armors?).

The gear check itself isn't really that steep from act 4 hell to act 1 inferno unless you're a barbarian.

I just shifted from Act1 to act2 inferno and my god is it broken. The new death penalty is bad enough, but drops in act2 are freaking awful. I had a full 5 stack and got exactly 2 rares in about 2 hours of playing. Net income in two hours... 2k... negative. Not counting potion costs.

As it stands now, unless they fix repair costs, you are going to have to farm earlier acts just to play at later acts. That needs to be fixed.

[ShivaX]

Originally Posted by Serapth

As it stands now, unless they fix repair costs, you are going to have to farm earlier acts just to play at later acts. That needs to be fixed.

Er... how else would you do it?

[Serapth]

Originally Posted by ShivaX

Er... how else would you do it?

Earlier, meaning Hell difficulty.

[RandoM51]

Just farm Act 1 if Act 2 is too much to handle. Same items can drop.

If you think it is broken right now you would have been grabbing torches and a pitchfork if you'd tried it a week ago. Back then you couldn't farm previous acts to get the stuff you needed because they didn't drop in previous acts!

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by RandoM51

Just farm Act 1 if Act 2 is too much to handle. Same items can drop.

If you think it is broken right now you would have been grabbing torches and a pitchfork if you'd tried it a week ago. Back then you couldn't farm previous acts to get the stuff you needed because they didn't drop in previous acts!

So, am I understanding this right? All the same items can drop (albeit with less frequency) in Act 1 of Inferno as Act 4 of Inferno?

(Assuming from your comments that everything from 2 can be had in 1, everything from 3 can be had in 2, and everything from 4 can be had in 3.)

[ShivaX]

Originally Posted by Serapth

Earlier, meaning Hell difficulty.

Why would you farm Hell if you've cleared Act1 Inferno?

[Narradisall]

Yeah, seems some people are starting to hit the Inferno issue a bit more.

Personally I don't think there is anything fundermentally wrong with it, it could do with some tweaking (I actually think the last patch made it too easy), but I think the issue is people perceive inferno as something that should be as easy as Norm, NM and Hell. Whereas inferno was made to be 'a step beyond' that wasn't for everyone.

While I kinda get that, I think people don't see that they shouldn't be able to get through inferno with relative ease, or at least not painful dick slamming.

I've only dicked around in inferno and gotten to act 3 so far, and I've done that without using the AH for that char, but I see many people, esp post patch, trying to blunt force their way through using tactics that get everyone slaughtered. The repair thing put a slow to this, but I don't think inferno works as intended.

I've actually found myself more enjoying new chars in Normal, NM and Hell, because I can play about with builds, and I raised previously that inferno forces you into some strict builds (although you get to dick around and enjoy before that).

Class balance aside, I think this is what was intended, and although they could strive to add a bit more variety into applicable builds (some classes have several inferno builds where others have like one) and some useless abilities could be replaced, I think this issue doesn't sit with inferno being a terrible thing, but the perception of what it should be from people.

It's a bit of a pain since D2 didn't really have a comparison (perhaps uber tristam?) that you could point to as something that was only for the people willing to go to the difficult lenghts.

[Serapth]

Originally Posted by Narradisall

Yeah, seems some people are starting to hit the Inferno issue a bit more.

Personally I don't think there is anything fundermentally wrong with it, it could do with some tweaking (I actually think the last patch made it too easy), but I think the issue is people perceive inferno as something that should be as easy as Norm, NM and Hell. Whereas inferno was made to be 'a step beyond' that wasn't for everyone.

While I kinda get that, I think people don't see that they shouldn't be able to get through inferno with relative ease, or at least not painful dick slamming.

I've only dicked around in inferno and gotten to act 3 so far, and I've done that without using the AH for that char, but I see many people, esp post patch, trying to blunt force their way through using tactics that get everyone slaughtered. The repair thing put a slow to this, but I don't think inferno works as intended.

I've actually found myself more enjoying new chars in Normal, NM and Hell, because I can play about with builds, and I raised previously that inferno forces you into some strict builds (although you get to dick around and enjoy before that).

Class balance aside, I think this is what was intended, and although they could strive to add a bit more variety into applicable builds (some classes have several inferno builds where others have like one) and some useless abilities could be replaced, I think this issue doesn't sit with inferno being a terrible thing, but the perception of what it should be from people.

It's a bit of a pain since D2 didn't really have a comparison (perhaps uber tristam?) that you could point to as something that was only for the people willing to go to the difficult lenghts.

My issue with inferno isn't the difficulty, its the shit drops ( at least for me so far) don't out weight the high repair costs. Two rare mobs down with one death and I lose money. So if a rare kills me 4 or 5 times, I'm out 25-30k.

[Narradisall]

Originally Posted by Serapth

My issue with inferno isn't the difficulty, its the shit drops ( at least for me so far) don't out weight the high repair costs. Two rare mobs down with one death and I lose money. So if a rare kills me 4 or 5 times, I'm out 25-30k.

Oh, I agree, they still are off with the balance on the drops. While I don't think it should be raining legendaries, useless stats on class specific weapons should be removed, and drop rates should be adjusted to reward the difficulty more.

I think they cocked up the last patch with the drops though (I think the minor update is fixing some), but I am hoping they adjust it to be a bit more rewarding for the risk.

[TheKeck]

Originally Posted by Serapth

My issue with inferno isn't the difficulty, its the shit drops ( at least for me so far) don't out weight the high repair costs. Two rare mobs down with one death and I lose money. So if a rare kills me 4 or 5 times, I'm out 25-30k.

Seems like the difficulty is the issue.

Do people play Doom on Nightmare! and complain about the broken gameplay? The monsters respawn after being dead for 30 seconds! It's ridiculous.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by TheKeck

So, am I understanding this right? All the same items can drop (albeit with less frequency) in Act 1 of Inferno as Act 4 of Inferno?

yes. let me find the drop rates again.

Item Hell Act III/IV Inferno Act I Inferno Act II Inferno Act III/IV
iLvl 61 9% 18% 19% 24%
iLvl 62 2% 8% 12% 16%
iLvl 63 0% 2% 4% 8%

This covers your gear. I suspect crafting recipes might be on a different formula/table.

One bit of info, that is what the drop rates were supposed to be in 1.03. It seems though that they significantly DECREASED the drop rates in Act 3 and Act 4 for some unknown reason. If you can breeze through Act II it is the sweet spot at the moment, if not just do Act1 which has a really good route for elite farming.

One other note is that there is plenty of awesome armor/jewelry/offhands to be had at ilvl 61 and 62. It is only weapons that are pretty much required to be ilvl 63 to be anything other than junk at this point.

[TheKeck]

Interesting. So Acts III and IV are just completely the same? Interesting.

[RandoM51]

Originally Posted by TheKeck

Interesting. So Acts III and IV are just completely the same? Interesting.

Yes. There is almost always a "Why should we bother to farm act IV thread." on the official forum.

[resikel]