Diablo 3 Impressions

[stessier]

For my own amusement I've been saving all my ilvl63 items in my bank unidentified.

I'm debating on selling them for guaranteed cash (200k - 500K each), or I could have a Christmas tonight when I go about identifying all my stuff.

Hmmm.....

This game really is like gambling.

I've read on the boards that the item already has all the stats when you pick it up - identifying it is really just unwrapping it. Don't know if that is true or not though. If it is, then the sales are all about psychology which is both cool and amusing.

[Chesspieceface]

For my own amusement I've been saving all my ilvl63 items in my bank unidentified.

I'm debating on selling them for guaranteed cash (200k - 500K each), or I could have a Christmas tonight when I go about identifying all my stuff.

Hmmm.....

This game really is like gambling.

I've read on the boards that the item already has all the stats when you pick it up - identifying it is really just unwrapping it. Don't know if that is true or not though. If it is, then the sales are all about psychology which is both cool and amusing.

That's true. There is also some speculation that the right kind of hacks might be able to view the UNID stats in memory somewhere to game the system.

[stessier]

16:24 and I just finished lighting the Signal Fires. Monks are incredible for crowd control! It's a ton of fun coming from the DH that can hit a bunch of guys, but really doesn't want to be surrounded and then going to the Monk that actually draws them in close so she can demolish them in one fell swoop.

18:24 and I just cleared out the Larder. Got some really nice weapons too.

[Crabbs]

Just killed Daiblo on NM. On to Hell with my HC WD.

First Boss pack in Hell: Fast Arcane Waller..... I ran like a little bitch.

[GreenGoo]

Just killed Daiblo on NM. On to Hell with my HC WD.

First Boss pack in Hell: Fast Arcane Waller..... I ran like a little bitch.

Lol, good for you. I would have pulled he rip cord myself. Assuming I had the patience to get that far. Which I don't.

[Chesspieceface]

Just killed Daiblo on NM. On to Hell with my HC WD.

First Boss pack in Hell: Fast Arcane Waller..... I ran like a little bitch.

Lol, good for you. I would have pulled he rip cord myself. Assuming I had the patience to get that far. Which I don't.

So here's the thing I realized after my first slow play through to 60... this game is terrible if you play it slow. The real game they care about here is the level 60, Beat Inferno game... and its to some extent the only fun game here. If you like that kind of fun. Don't get me wrong I quite enjoyed my solo play through 3 times the progressing difficulties... but... Now...?

The lower level chars get all +xp gear I only go places where I know there is stuff to kill for sure or to progress a quest to get xp rewards... and the only thing I want is for Normal and NM to be over as soon as possible, then I'll kind of dig the grind through Hell as a taste of how the character really plays, but I feel Act II really drags through the ZK plot so I always hate that part despite loving the dungeon designs. Act III and IV I view as kind of one thing but I do tend to break after Azmo for awhile.

Anyway... if you need patience to get near the endgame, you are undergeared for the experience that Blizzard seems to care about. Normal is so easy that playing plodding along at the pace stuff drops is an awful experience anything but the first time. I say spend a small amount of money on gear at 15, 30, 40 and 50. upgrade your main weapon at least that often too. And buy stuff with slots so you can put over levelled gems in them, especially a ruby in the helm and get that shit done.

What's amazing is even with clearing every Act many times now there is still content I haven't seen.

I'm not saying like, DON"T PLAY THAT WAY... but if you're getting bored fast... its your gear. That's just how they made the thing.

[Jag]

I still need to figure out how price things on the AH. I'm getting a decent amount of 62/63 items on Inferno Act I, but have no idea what range to price them. I only have like 300k, so any decent chunk of gold would be helpful.

I'm also not sure what I'm supposed to do with once I get a 5 stack of the valor buffs. Do I just keep killing packs and elites or am I supposed jump to a quest to kill a boss? If so, what's the fastest way once you have 5 stacks?

[msduncan]

Chesspieceface,

I've been kinda in limbo running Act 1 Inferno farming runs for a good month. I got to Inferno pretty quickly, but since then I've had several things happen that has stopped my progress:

1. I play a Barbarian and it's ultra gear dependent
2. Just about the time I finished Act 1 Inferno and was ready to farm a week or so for the money to buy Act 2 level gear, they nerfed gold drops and spiked the HELL out of my repair costs. Now if I try to progress in Act 2, I am spending on the order of 30K every 15 minutes or so in repairs
3. Around this same time, the AH prices on the gear that I need spiked from something that I could farm for to tens of MILLIONS for a weapon, and millions per piece that I need in armor.

Frankly, I'm not sure what the hell to do now. The price on Act 2 - 4 gear that I need to move into those realms has accelerated beyond my reach, so I'm stuck running Act 1 over and over feeding on the scraps from 1 or 2 ilvl63 drops that happen here and there.

Do you have any advice that might be able to help me?

[Fretmute]

Chesspieceface,

I've been kinda in limbo running Act 1 Inferno farming runs for a good month. I got to Inferno pretty quickly, but since then I've had several things happen that has stopped my progress:

1. I play a Barbarian and it's ultra gear dependent
2. Just about the time I finished Act 1 Inferno and was ready to farm a week or so for the money to buy Act 2 level gear, they nerfed gold drops and spiked the HELL out of my repair costs. Now if I try to progress in Act 2, I am spending on the order of 30K every 15 minutes or so in repairs
3. Around this same time, the AH prices on the gear that I need spiked from something that I could farm for to tens of MILLIONS for a weapon, and millions per piece that I need in armor.

Frankly, I'm not sure what the hell to do now. The price on Act 2 - 4 gear that I need to move into those realms has accelerated beyond my reach, so I'm stuck running Act 1 over and over feeding on the scraps from 1 or 2 ilvl63 drops that happen here and there.

Do you have any advice that might be able to help me?

I'm curious to see what sort of of gear that you're running with now. I play a barbarian as well, and while I certainly can't just walk into Act 2 and dominate, it's not quite the brick wall that it seems to be for you. As long as I'm smart about which packs I choose to engage, I can progress, albeit slowly.

I've never had more than 1.5M gold on my person at any given time, so it's not as if I've been buying my way in.

It does help to have a partner (if for no other reason than for someone to kite the packs while you run back, so that they don't heal in the interim), but I've found that soloing is still somewhat viable.

[msduncan]

Well it's not that I can't progress, I can and have. The problem is that it's at GREAT cost in repair bills. I can skip packs, etc, but if I hope to gear up so that the other Acts are more manageable and (gasp) even farm-able, I'm going to have to make money.

The progression costs of Act 2 and beyond in Diablo 3 are staggering in terms of repair bills.

This is by memory only, but my stats are roughly:

31k health
13.5k dps
320-375 resistances

[stessier]

Has anyone else hit a Shade of Nar Gulle bug? I encountered him this weekend and try as I might, I could't kill him. I got his health to a sliver over 3/4 and there is sat. I tried changing weapons and attacks, but nothing hit him. I had Leah and the Enchantress with me when it happened while I was a Monk on Normal. I cleared out the rest of that sewer before finally giving up and leaving.

[Fretmute]

This is by memory only, but my stats are roughly:

31k health
13.5k dps
320-375 resistances

Well, there's the difference, I guess. I have you by 15k health and 7k DPS.

[msduncan]

Yeah... and the prices on the AH skyrocketed right before I could further gear up. I've managed to save back 12 million gold at this point, and I have a inventory tab full of ilvl 63 items I farmed. Tonight I plan on opening them and hoping I hit big with something either I can use or sell for a big windfall.

I have to start upgrading my armor piece by piece to boost my STR, DPS, Health and Resists. At the rate I'm going though it could take months.

[Fretmute]

I'd suggest going slightly more piecemeal. While the str/vit/AR home run pieces are very expensive, you can get ones that aren't quite so efficient in the 200k-500k range. I think of my gear as a complete package; not every piece has to be perfect. My shoulders have 200 str, 100 vit, and jack all for other stats, but the big str on them lets me run something like vit/AR in another spot. You might shop around and look for some similar deals. I picked up three situational pieces yesterday for under 600k.

[msduncan]

I'd suggest going slightly more piecemeal. While the str/vit/AR home run pieces are very expensive, you can get ones that aren't quite so efficient in the 200k-500k range. I think of my gear as a complete package; not every piece has to be perfect. My shoulders have 200 str, 100 vit, and jack all for other stats, but the big str on them lets me run something like vit/AR in another spot. You might shop around and look for some similar deals. I picked up three situational pieces yesterday for under 600k.

So you are saying balance the purchases. For instance buy a piece that has super high resists and then another piece that has low or no resists but super high strength to balance. I'll look into this tonight.

[Chesspieceface]

I'd suggest going slightly more piecemeal. While the str/vit/AR home run pieces are very expensive, you can get ones that aren't quite so efficient in the 200k-500k range. I think of my gear as a complete package; not every piece has to be perfect. My shoulders have 200 str, 100 vit, and jack all for other stats, but the big str on them lets me run something like vit/AR in another spot. You might shop around and look for some similar deals. I picked up three situational pieces yesterday for under 600k.

So you are saying balance the purchases. For instance buy a piece that has super high resists and then another piece that has low or no resists but super high strength to balance. I'll look into this tonight.

YES! With the exception of slot specific bonuses, this is the only practical option... I was telling Fret last night... I've got 10mil and nothing sensible to spend it on. 3k armor, 32k dps, 400 AR, 40%crit, 200%critdmg AND 1000 LoH... Plus I have +hate regen, and + Max disc on every possible slot.... to get crit like that you need it on gloves, helm, ammy and both rings... gearing up is best handled like a puzzle where you slide pieces around to make room for others. Each piece just needs to balance with the others.

[Chesspieceface]

This is by memory only, but my stats are roughly:

31k health
13.5k dps
320-375 resistances

Well, there's the difference, I guess. I have you by 15k health and 7k DPS.

Don't let Fret fool you though he has nearly NO All-resist armor on. He's making up for resists with 11,000 Armor! It works too,

[coopasonic]

This is by memory only, but my stats are roughly:

31k health
13.5k dps
320-375 resistances

Well, there's the difference, I guess. I have you by 15k health and 7k DPS.

Don't let Fret fool you though he has nearly NO All-resist armor on. He's making up for resists with 11,000 Armor! It works too,

I'm told 11k armor is the same as 1100 resist all. I don't know where my friend got that info or how correct it is, but he's the sort I expect to know such things.

[Chesspieceface]

I still need to figure out how price things on the AH. I'm getting a decent amount of 62/63 items on Inferno Act I, but have no idea what range to price them. I only have like 300k, so any decent chunk of gold would be helpful.

I'm also not sure what I'm supposed to do with once I get a 5 stack of the valor buffs. Do I just keep killing packs and elites or am I supposed jump to a quest to kill a boss? If so, what's the fastest way once you have 5 stacks?

After the RMAH opened the gold market froze... then they tweaked drop rates and prices fell through the floor. In the current market you wont get more than 100k for most anything unless its clearly primo... I sold a 70 AR, 37 MF, 100 Int Amulet for 1.5 million the other day but it was cherry. If you want your stock to move choose only things that are legitimately good for lvl 60... 1h over 700 dps, 2h over 800 dps, Primary stat, Vit and All Resist or class specials... and then, unless its just tits, decide what its worth and ask for half. Otherwise you are competing with the Trade channel and every person who posts a similar item after you. If someone buys your stuff to flip, good... its out of your stash. Also Salvage any 60+ Blues and 60+ rares worth unser 900 gold or so and sell those exquisite essences.... The price has dropped by about 33% the last few weeks but they are still worth about 1100 apiece.

All that said if you need a gold infusion I'd be happy to throw some your way... I farm it up and there's not much to spend it on besides the 20-50 mil pieces I'd like someday.

[Chesspieceface]

This is by memory only, but my stats are roughly:

31k health
13.5k dps
320-375 resistances

Well, there's the difference, I guess. I have you by 15k health and 7k DPS.

Don't let Fret fool you though he has nearly NO All-resist armor on. He's making up for resists with 11,000 Armor! It works too,

I'm told 11k armor is the same as 1100 resist all. I don't know where my friend got that info or how correct it is, but he's the sort I expect to know such things.

Yes, that should be roughly correct. 10 INT = 1 AR = 10 Armor = 10 Str (except barbs)

[GreenGoo]

Man, the Scoundrel has got all the best lines, and is a great actor too. Aside from the "I'm going to rob you if we stand around much longer" I posted earlier, he's been speculating if Adria is into younger men, getting pissed at the maze-like cellars below the keep and how asinine they are, and generally hitting on my female monk so often she's considering lotus palming him into next week.

[Jag]

I still need to figure out how price things on the AH. I'm getting a decent amount of 62/63 items on Inferno Act I, but have no idea what range to price them. I only have like 300k, so any decent chunk of gold would be helpful.

I'm also not sure what I'm supposed to do with once I get a 5 stack of the valor buffs. Do I just keep killing packs and elites or am I supposed jump to a quest to kill a boss? If so, what's the fastest way once you have 5 stacks?

After the RMAH opened the gold market froze... then they tweaked drop rates and prices fell through the floor. In the current market you wont get more than 100k for most anything unless its clearly primo... I sold a 70 AR, 37 MF, 100 Int Amulet for 1.5 million the other day but it was cherry. If you want your stock to move choose only things that are legitimately good for lvl 60... 1h over 700 dps, 2h over 800 dps, Primary stat, Vit and All Resist or class specials... and then, unless its just tits, decide what its worth and ask for half. Otherwise you are competing with the Trade channel and every person who posts a similar item after you. If someone buys your stuff to flip, good... its out of your stash. Also Salvage any 60+ Blues and 60+ rares worth unser 900 gold or so and sell those exquisite essences.... The price has dropped by about 33% the last few weeks but they are still worth about 1100 apiece.

All that said if you need a gold infusion I'd be happy to throw some your way... I farm it up and there's not much to spend it on besides the 20-50 mil pieces I'd like someday.

Thanks. I'll toss some up for 100k and see how they go. A friend sent me some nice Monk upgrades, so I went from getting my ass kicked to being able to farm Act I fairly well.

[GreenGoo]

Scoundrel just commented on the lack of rats in the keep cellars. Monk mentioned she's seen at least one.

[stessier]

Scoundrel just commented on the lack of rats in the keep cellars. Monk mentioned she's seen at least one.

I find all of them amusing. The Enchantress has her moments as well. "These clothes are getting awfully small. Should I change them?"

[msduncan]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

[GreenGoo]

They all have their moments, but none have the number of wins the Scoundrel has. I literally laughed out loud when he threatened to rob me out of boredom/habit. He's got far more range too, like weeping that he's going to reform, change his ways, then realizing he lived through the encounter, so he just coughs, straightens his lapels and pretends nothing happened.

He's a coward, a hero, a sneak, a womanizer, honourable, greedy, caring and full of quips, all at once. I my scoundrel.

[Chesspieceface]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

Its going to be a serious problem. As far as I can surmise there is only one reason its not live: The price of gold will go through the floor instantly. I can farm ~300k/hr and close to 400 if I use some hardware macros... Originally Blizz was hoping to set it at like $15/mil which is what the farmers sold at... now the farmers are down to $3/mil... I think Blizz has to accept that they can't stop the thing they developed this huge workaround for. At $15/mil gold farming becomes a minimum wage job on just one PC, on Five accounts I could support myself... at the $1.25 mil its likely to end up at... no chance... and there goes the whole economy of the game.

[msduncan]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

Its going to be a serious problem. As far as I can surmise there is only one reason its not live: The price of gold will go through the floor instantly. I can farm ~300k/hr and close to 400 if I use some hardware macros... Originally Blizz was hoping to set it at like $15/mil which is what the farmers sold at... now the farmers are down to $3/mil... I think Blizz has to accept that they can't stop the thing they developed this huge workaround for. At $15/mil gold farming becomes a minimum wage job on just one PC, on Five accounts I could support myself... at the $1.25 mil its likely to end up at... no chance... and there goes the whole economy of the game.

What about mats though? Books, gems, and Essences, etc? You figure something like a penny per Essence or something?

[Chesspieceface]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

Its going to be a serious problem. As far as I can surmise there is only one reason its not live: The price of gold will go through the floor instantly. I can farm ~300k/hr and close to 400 if I use some hardware macros... Originally Blizz was hoping to set it at like $15/mil which is what the farmers sold at... now the farmers are down to $3/mil... I think Blizz has to accept that they can't stop the thing they developed this huge workaround for. At $15/mil gold farming becomes a minimum wage job on just one PC, on Five accounts I could support myself... at the $1.25 mil its likely to end up at... no chance... and there goes the whole economy of the game.

What about mats though? Books, gems, and Essences, etc? You figure something like a penny per Essence or something?

I can't guess without knowing how they are going to handle minimums and fees... right now with $1/trans and a 15% xfer fee... its hard to understand how selling things that are worth one cent is going to work.

[stessier]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

Its going to be a serious problem. As far as I can surmise there is only one reason its not live: The price of gold will go through the floor instantly. I can farm ~300k/hr and close to 400 if I use some hardware macros... Originally Blizz was hoping to set it at like $15/mil which is what the farmers sold at... now the farmers are down to $3/mil... I think Blizz has to accept that they can't stop the thing they developed this huge workaround for. At $15/mil gold farming becomes a minimum wage job on just one PC, on Five accounts I could support myself... at the $1.25 mil its likely to end up at... no chance... and there goes the whole economy of the game.

Just curious, why does Blizzard care where the price ends up? They aren't the ones doing the farming. The whole RMAH really intrigues me.

[Chesspieceface]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

Its going to be a serious problem. As far as I can surmise there is only one reason its not live: The price of gold will go through the floor instantly. I can farm ~300k/hr and close to 400 if I use some hardware macros... Originally Blizz was hoping to set it at like $15/mil which is what the farmers sold at... now the farmers are down to $3/mil... I think Blizz has to accept that they can't stop the thing they developed this huge workaround for. At $15/mil gold farming becomes a minimum wage job on just one PC, on Five accounts I could support myself... at the $1.25 mil its likely to end up at... no chance... and there goes the whole economy of the game.

Just curious, why does Blizzard care where the price ends up? They aren't the ones doing the farming. The whole RMAH really intrigues me.

They get 15% of all transactions... They care. The problem is if the price bottoms out and they still want their cut, and the farmers will sell "wholesale" then Blizz is still just in a lousy micro-transaction game selling items for cash and the black market just goes the long way around it.

[Chesspieceface]

The second major issue is conversion rate though... the max buyout on the rMAH is $250... for gold its 999,999,999,999 or something like that, 900 billion. If gold is worth $3/mil... tje maximum gold value of anything on the RMAH is 85 million gold... if the price goes up... to say$15/mil then the $250 items are only worth 17 mil... and if it goes WAY down... $250 may equal 250 MILLION GOLD... either way there is an artifical ceiling and floor that are arbitrary and force a specific exchange rate. There is no inherent value to any of these commodities, zero value. So from a basic financial standpoint this is a clusterfuck.

[stessier]

Oh, good catch on the forums. People are keeping Legendaries un-IDed. Imagine now the Legendary buff comes along and all of these hit the Auction Houses. There will be no way to tell which can before or after the buff and since the stats are set on drop, a bunch will be listed for way more than they are worth. That should lead to some fun posts!

[LawBeefaroni]

What do you suppose the Essences and Tombs will go for on the commodity RMAH when they decide to turn that feature on?

Its going to be a serious problem. As far as I can surmise there is only one reason its not live: The price of gold will go through the floor instantly. I can farm ~300k/hr and close to 400 if I use some hardware macros... Originally Blizz was hoping to set it at like $15/mil which is what the farmers sold at... now the farmers are down to $3/mil... I think Blizz has to accept that they can't stop the thing they developed this huge workaround for. At $15/mil gold farming becomes a minimum wage job on just one PC, on Five accounts I could support myself... at the $1.25 mil its likely to end up at... no chance... and there goes the whole economy of the game.

What about mats though? Books, gems, and Essences, etc? You figure something like a penny per Essence or something?

I can't guess without knowing how they are going to handle minimums and fees... right now with $1/trans and a 15% xfer fee... its hard to understand how selling things that are worth one cent is going to work.

Commodities are just 15% though, right? There is no $1/trans for commodities. Not that it matters much, I agree that prices of everything will continue to tank into worthlessness.

Why they didn't get an economist to vet their economy I'll never understand.

[Chesspieceface]

Oh, good catch on the forums. People are keeping Legendaries un-IDed. Imagine now the Legendary buff comes along and all of these hit the Auction Houses. There will be no way to tell which can before or after the buff and since the stats are set on drop, a bunch will be listed for way more than they are worth. That should lead to some fun posts!

Can't auction or vendor UNIDs... can only sell them p2p via Trade or Forums... and yeah when people start claiming they have pre-patch UNID's its going to get shady unless Blizz makes a watermark or something.

[Chesspieceface]

Best mob I ever found:



Killing him unlocked a hidden "Feat of Stength" Achievement.

[GreenGoo]

Another RMAH sale for the Great Goo. $0.65 into the coffers.

[Chesspieceface]

Another RMAH sale for the Great Goo. $0.65 into the coffers.

I made one sale for $4.50 but since I'm using paypal they do instant transfer taking their fee immediately without the chance for me to stay in their system... so $4.50 sale = $3 credited to paypal, and still a zero balance with battle.net. So weird.

[GreenGoo]

Server issues? Got booted with some wacky "error creating your party" message, now can't get past authentication. Switched to Europe zone and logged in fine. Switched back to Americas but no dice. Times out.

I only have 1 character slot left, so I'm not keen on starting up a character in another zone just for times such as this.

Unless....can you have 10 per zone? Testing...

Edit: And the answer is 10 per zone, for anyone who wasn't aware.

[Chesspieceface]

Edit: And the answer is 10 per zone, for anyone who wasn't aware.

But no shared gold or stash across regions and RMAH only in home region... otherwise yeah everyone has 30 character slots when the servers are all on the same patch cycle.