Diablo III

[Mogul]

Yeah that's sort of the way I'm leaning. I'm getting tired of spending like 15 hours farming Butcher over and over and hoping that maybe a decent resist item will drop. I realize a big part of the game's design is that you're supposed to replay segments to improve your gear, but I think they set the bar too high as far as balancing the damage you have to put out in Act 2+ with the amount of survivability you need. In other words, if it's by design that you're literally supposed to either farm Act 1 endlessly and/or spend literally millions of gold on the AH in order to progress in Inferno, that's not fun and it's not a challenge. It's just a time/money sink for the purpose of propping up "hard" content. Fuck that.

[xer0s]

Basically it's a wait game for people to sell items you need. Just better have the gold when it comes around...

[Mogul]

Pretty much... but don't you think that's dumb? Don't you think every class ought to be self-sufficient enough to get what's required to move on? I know trading/selling is part of the game, but it seems to me that the auction house feature in any gear-based game like this should supplement your gear, not furnish every piece you need. For barbarians, and maybe every class (post-nerfs), the AH is mandatory, and you're buying items from those (previously) overpowered classes that were able to farm gear in Acts 3 and 4 the first week+. I don't know, I'm touching on several subjects at once, but it all just seems very out of whack at the moment.

edit: this post is in response to the post before Memphis'.

[Mogul]

In other words, if it's by design that you're literally supposed to either farm Act 1 endlessly and/or spend literally millions of gold on the AH in order to progress in Inferno, that's not fun and it's not a challenge. It's just a time/money sink for the purpose of propping up "hard" content. Fuck that.

Arst thou new to Blizzard RPGs?

I am new to Diablo, but I've been playing WoW for years. In fact, my guild V A N Q U I S H earned top-5 US kills for every boss in Sunwell, still widely regarded as one of the hardest, if not the hardest, raid zones in the game's history. I know what it is to farm a raid after you've completed the content and get gear. But in that game some things about gearing up are very different:

--The best items in the game are bind-on-pickup: you can't sell them, so trading items in WoW serves as a supplement, where you can get a couple of pretty decent pieces per tier of content, but the best stuff you earn yourself. Which brings me to the next difference.

--Boss loot tables are actually set. Maybe the item you want doesn't drop, but it will. And if you know what drops from a boss, you can count on it eventually dropping. In Diablo, a legendary item might drop (like a one in 100000 chance or something) and because Diablo's items have randomized stats, it might be an absolutely horrible item.

I guess what I'm saying in this post is that gearing up in WoW means you have to perform well in a raid, not necessarily farm it ad nauseum. The tedium involved in being able to survive Act 2 is not fun and doesn't rely on player performance. In fact, many of the current barbarians in Act 3+ got gear funneled to them by their formerly OP friends of other classes. And in this game, if you can just be given all that gear for free, you can progress through the content extremely quickly and easily. In a game where prestige matters, like WoW or Diablo, shouldn't skill be more important than that?

I hope this doesn't read too much like, "I want Diablo to be WoW." I appreciate the ways they differ more than most, probably. In fact, I have found a passion in this game that I wasn't expecting to find (read my heavy skepticism toward the game from a few weeks ago on this forum). But I think my criticisms of the game's systems stand on their own apart from asking the game to be like WoW.

[xer0s]

Pretty much... but don't you think that's dumb? Don't you think every class ought to be self-sufficient enough to get what's required to move on? I know trading/selling is part of the game, but it seems to me that the auction house feature in any gear-based game like this should supplement your gear, not furnish every piece you need. For barbarians, and maybe every class (post-nerfs), the AH is mandatory, and you're buying items from those (previously) overpowered classes that were able to farm gear in Acts 3 and 4 the first week+. I don't know, I'm touching on several subjects at once, but it all just seems very out of whack at the moment.

edit: this post is in response to the post before Memphis'.

Yes, I do think it's dumb. I shouldn't have to rely on other people (Auction House) in order to be able to play the game until the very end.

I suppose I could spend 5000 hours farming, then maybe I'll have the resist items I need to take on Inferno...

[bitWISE]

I had a really lucky streak last night and ended up changing my mind. Ditched my attack speed gear since it only burns mana faster for wizards, got a big fat 1127 2h weapon with 191 vit, and found some really good all resist items to stack.

Got myself up to roughly 400 all resist and 41k hp which is enough to appear to make act 2 manageable (can solo beliel).

[bitWISE]

Just posted a guide on reddit for playing inferno as a wizard

http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments ... o_wizards/

[xer0s]

Can someone explain sockets to me? I found a rare socketable helm and need to figure out what and how to put in it. I've got a chipped gem, but if I can use something better, then I'll wait to use it. What are the basics on this?

[Mogul]

Pretty much click a gem in your bag, then click on the item with the socket. The only way to remove a gem is to go to the jewelcrafter and use the interface there to remove it, for a fee. Gems add a stat bonus to the gear you're wearing. The numbers on the gem just stack on top of what you're already wearing, simple as that.

You will notice though that each color of gem (there are only four: topaz, emerald, amethyst, and ruby) does something different depending on which piece of gear the socketed item occupies on your character.

For example, a gem will provide a different bonus depending on if you put it in your chest armor (it's a straight stat increase) or your helm (a percentage-based increase, such as chance to find magic items).

It's all there in the tooltip.

[Tsakali]

[xer0s]

Mogul, I'm assuming chipped gems don't do as much for an item as a flawless gem (such a thing?). Do I have to be a certain level to use a certain gem? I'm only a level 19 Barb. So what gem would work best?

[Mogul]

There are different tiers of gems, as far as quality goes, but as far as I know, there's no level requirement to use them. It's been since like day 2 since I used the very worst gems, so I don't remember off the top of my head, but it's something like:

chipped flawed "normal" (just the gem's name, i.e. ruby) flawless perfect radiant square radiant square... and so on. By the time you get to 60, radiant square is the most common you'll see, but there are several cuts of higher quality beyond that. I assume you don't see them until Act 4 Inferno or something.

[Transient]

They go up to 14 tiers. It's a bit excessive if you ask me.

http://www.diablo3auctionguide.com/diab ... aft-guide/

[xer0s]

I guess I'll try to buy the best I can on the AH...

[bitWISE]

I'll be shocked if they don't release runes and runewords with a patch or expansion to complement gems.

[U4EA]

This is hilarious [depending on your definition of hilarious].

[Fjoggs]

I guess I'll try to buy the best I can on the AH...

I haven't played D3 yet, but if gear is anything like in Diablo 2 then buying a gem for a simple sockethelm you found at level 19 is a waste of money. Just socket it with something shit seeing how you'll probably replace it after 2 seconds in the next act anyway.

[LawL]

Fjaggs

[xer0s]

I guess I'll try to buy the best I can on the AH...

I haven't played D3 yet, but if gear is anything like in Diablo 2 then buying a gem for a simple sockethelm you found at level 19 is a waste of money. Just socket it with something shit seeing how you'll probably replace it after 2 seconds in the next act anyway.

You may be right, but I figured I could sell the helm once I'm done with it and turn a profit. Or use it on my other characters at some point...

[Transient]

I guess I'll try to buy the best I can on the AH...

I haven't played D3 yet, but if gear is anything like in Diablo 2 then buying a gem for a simple sockethelm you found at level 19 is a waste of money. Just socket it with something shit seeing how you'll probably replace it after 2 seconds in the next act anyway.

The gem's not wasted. You can pay a merchant to unsocket items.

[U4EA]

Game Design Update

I hope you get reimbursed for blacksmith and jewel crafter levelling costs

[Transient]

LOL, yeah right. Don't hold your breath.

I just want the AH to work right.

[xer0s]

About the AH, I can't find any gems for sale. I tried looking for all types. What is quantity? Is that how many search results it will show me? I don't know what number to put in there. Am I doing it wrong?

[U4EA]

It's bugged, hasn't worked for me in the past few days, whereas last week I was able to search for and buy gems.

[bitWISE]

That message on the right hand side of the login page that you are ignoring states that they took down commodity auctions. They have been down for like a week now.