Octopus Overlords

Yep, the season set I got this weekend is the only set I have. Running T7 difficulty I am seeing more set items than I have with weaker characters.

Also, Kadala may be a bad gamble, but you are limited on the blood shards you can carry, so you may as well use them. Is there any other use for them?

Also if you get a dupe set piece you can use the cube to change it into another slot.

Here are the numbers for Kadala.

coopasonic wrote: Also, Kadala may be a bad gamble, but you are limited on the blood shards you can carry, so you may as well use them. Is there any other use for them?

Right, of course you go ahead and use them, there is no other use for them. I grind shards on my best-geared characters to buy items on my weaker characters, in hopes of gearing them up (since you blow through the rift much faster). It's just that the odds of getting good stuff aren't very good, I think last time I needed a specific weapon, I went through several thousand shards and still only got that weapon with really weak stats (so I'll need to grind for it again and hope for a better version, I can't progress my character any further without it).

I haven't ever really been to the point where I need a specific thing, though now my Wizard is at the point where I don't really see avenues for improvement so if I want to progress I will have to do research.

I just did research. I learned some things.

I use icy-veins all the time. Diablofans is too hard core for me.

Lorini wrote:Here are the numbers for Kadala.

How does one interpret that table?

Cortilian wrote:

Lorini wrote:Here are the numbers for Kadala.

How does one interpret that table?

If I am interpreting this correctly, using the first item (Blackthornes Cross) as an example, the chart is indicating that 80% of Barbarians who spend at least 19,866 bloodhards on amulets can expect to get the cross. Since item drops are tied to class the algorithm will change based on which class you are using to do the purchases, hence the drop down menu at the top. Similar for level, i.e. a level 60 item will not drop for a level 59 or below character. Guessing the Death's Breaths column has to do with using the cube recipe to upgrade items to legendary's.

Thanks!

coopasonic wrote: ↑Wed May 16, 2012 4:31 pm barbarian > monk > everyone else

This post did not age well.

Off hand I would say:
Demon Hunter > Wizard > Witch Doctor > Necromancer > Monk > Barbarian > Crusader

Last week I started playing around in season EIGHTEEN. I started with Monk this time which is one of the few classes where I only had one level 70. I got that to GR63 and then switch to Wizard AGAIN. This seems to happen over and over again. The power and ease of use of the Wizard is addicting.

Anyway it amazes me that I can still sit down and play this game for hours and hours.

We recently started playing again. Mostly because, due to the significant changes in damage output, getting the additional stash tabs is now pretty easy. We got in just in time last season to get the tab. And knocked out the tab this season as well.

I do disagree with your assessment... although I'm not sure if you are referring to easy of the class or the fun of the class. I've been running Barbarian Hammer of the Ancients/Immortal King. It is a serious beast. I got to GR 91 (with plenty of time to spare) before I stopped pushing. Mostly I like how easy it is to play. Very little clicking or button mashing. I basically just hold down the attack button and use shift to move; with the periodic charge thrown in. It's very easy on my fingers. It also has the easiest set dungeon that I've run into yet. I mastered it with 2-3 minutes to spare.

I guess after doing Barbarian for so long everything else just feels fresh. I don't think I have given Barbarian a fair shake in years. It was just funny to me to find that post and realizing how much I have changed. I used to be 100% melee in every game ever where it was an option. I think Lord of the Rings Online was the first time I branched out to a ranged main and at this point I have shifted significantly in that direction.

That's definitely fair. Burnout is definitely a thing.

I suspect that my Multishot Demon Hunter could probably give my Barbarian some competition. The nice thing about the Barb is his survivability. The Demon Hunter puts out some incredible damage, but is pretty squishy. And wizards are considerably worse. At least the builds I've played with so far. I tend to not push higher rifts because they are so easily killed by a single hit. The Witch Doctor is a bit better, though still can be pretty risky depending on the build. The Necromancer has a pretty decent build when you get it set up. But they all definitely have that 'one mistake is the last mistake' thing going on. The Barb has been kind of relaxing because I don't have to worry as much about that first hit.

I will say that one of the most fun builds is the WD's exploding chicken. Obviously it's for farming lower level rifts. But it's a "blast".

Demon Hunter is the only thing I've ever gotten to GR70. I am not dedicated enough to optimize a build or learn how to play anything too complicated. My monk could do it if I were to work on it a little longer and she is pretty tanky and the army of Mystic Allies is kind of fun.

Now you've got me thinking about making another barb. My main problem there is that while I can PL my kids characters to 70 in about 25 minutes, they just don't understand how to return the favor so I end up doing it the "hard" way. I guess I could go to a non-seasonal character.

Just hit us up. I'd be happy to PL you. I did it this season for gilraen. I think it took ~4 regular rifts to get her most of the way. She did go back and run through the campaign to get the set rewards. But a few more runs and that probably wouldn't have been necessary either. I believe that you can only do T6 until you hit 70. That takes <10 min/run.

I also have all I need for my Barb (I got the stash so I'm basically done). So I could give you all the legendaries that drop for me.

Oh, and while I'm sure you already know about them, the Icy-veins builds are really easy to apply. They also give excellent write-ups. If you have the gear (I often have what I need sitting around already), then setting up one of their builds is pretty easy. But I don't mess with that until I have at least a full set. And even then it's just to get an idea of what I need to be on the lookout for.

What I really like about the builds is that they are generally focused around a primary damage dealer and a movement skill. Most of the time the rest of the stuff is just for buffing/specific situations. It makes the builds easier to use. There are exceptions, of course.

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 12:16 pm Just hit us up. I'd be happy to PL you. I did it this season for gilraen. I think it took ~4 regular rifts to get her most of the way. She did go back and run through the campaign to get the set rewards. But a few more runs and that probably wouldn't have been necessary either. I believe that you can only do T6 until you hit 70. That takes <10 min/run.

I'd say I might take you up on that, but realistically I won't because reasons. Thanks though.

coopasonic wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 5:03 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 03, 2019 12:16 pm Just hit us up. I'd be happy to PL you. I did it this season for gilraen. I think it took ~4 regular rifts to get her most of the way. She did go back and run through the campaign to get the set rewards. But a few more runs and that probably wouldn't have been necessary either. I believe that you can only do T6 until you hit 70. That takes <10 min/run.

I'd say I might take you up on that, but realistically I won't because reasons. Thanks though.

Yeah. I'm aware of your... "eccentricities". But I figured I'd offer anyway. If it helps, we could do it without headsets/voice comms. Just stick to party chat. Not like much communication is necessary. I kill, you try to stay alive. Done.

Diablo 3 is a game I truly hate. I don't get a lot of enjoyment from the game because it's almost like work. Yet once I start it I'm hooked.

I haven't played it in almost two years, but I might have to give it another go. I had found the Wizard to be much more powerful than my other classes. I guess I need to give it another go.

Also, I don't even know what seasons are. Is that a multiplayer thing? I've only soloed the game.

Nope. Someone who's done it more than I could explain it better, but basically a seasonal character is a brand-new character that is isolated from all of your other characters. You start at level 1 and don't get access to shared storage or anything like that. As you pass certain milestones with that character, you gain certain powerful rewards (eventually a full matched set of very high-end armor), and other milestones offer other rewards (extra stash tab, pets, frame, etc.) At the end of the season, your seasonal character is automatically turned into a regular character.

Multiplayer is the same as with a non-seasonal. You'd just be playing with other seasonal characters if you chose to engage in it.

If you're starting a new character, there's really no reason not to go with a seasonal.

McNutt wrote: ↑Wed Sep 04, 2019 10:47 am Also, I don't even know what seasons are. Is that a multiplayer thing? I've only soloed the game.

It's a way to keep the game sort of fresh. Each "season" there is a theme and special feature that mildly alters gameplay. There is a set of chapters which contain tasks to accomplish and the rewards are a specific armor set (and apparently a stash tab but I haven't looked that up to see how to get that yet). When you create a Seasonal character, it is separate from your existing characters for the duration of the season. No access to your non-seasonal stash or money or resources or paragon levels. You even have to rank up the Blacksmith, Jeweler and Mystic again (which is really trivial once you are max level).

If you create a second character in the season, that character can access everything the first character had and when the season is over, it is all merged back to the non-seasonal resources including combing paragon xp. You only get the class armor rewards once for the season and it will be for the class of whatever character opens the boxes.

A few questions about seasons:

I made a monk last night and did adventure mode. I'm running around and kicking a little butt, and then I get to a boss area and die. Repeatedly. It's not that the boss was that tough, but rather that I was getting swarmed by tons of creatures. After dying a couple of times, I killed the boss and went to another quest area. Same thing.

A few questions:
1. Are these quests meant to be accomplished with groups?
2. Are there more difficult areas and I just happened to pick a tough area, or does it scale everything up to your power?

I don't know how much I'd like multiplayer because I've always found Diablo to be a little mindless when it comes to combat. I don't have any great strategies, just hitting my powers in certain orders.

McNutt wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:14 am A few questions about seasons:

I made a monk last night and did adventure mode. I'm running around and kicking a little butt, and then I get to a boss area and die. Repeatedly. It's not that the boss was that tough, but rather that I was getting swarmed by tons of creatures. After dying a couple of times, I killed the boss and went to another quest area. Same thing.

A few questions:
1. Are these quests meant to be accomplished with groups?
2. Are there more difficult areas and I just happened to pick a tough area, or does it scale everything up to your power?

I don't know how much I'd like multiplayer because I've always found Diablo to be a little mindless when it comes to combat. I don't have any great strategies, just hitting my powers in certain orders.

1. No, there are no quests that require grouping.
2. Difficulty is determined by your level and the difficulty setting that you picked for your game (Normal, Master, Torment 1, etc.)

I do not go above Expert until I get at least one legendary - preferably a weapon.

If you are dying to a boss, you may have your difficulty turned up too high for your gear level. Also, some bosses are just crappier than others - like they will put pools of poison or fire under you, or charge you and kill you in one shot if you don't move out of their line of charge, etc. If the boss is summoning too many creatures for you to handle, then you are either not killing it fast enough (allowing it to summon too many adds) or you should add a different AoE to your rotation, to handle the swarms.

The first question is easy enough to answer: no. I've mostly done Adventure mode solo.

That said, why are you doing Adventure mode? The main draw (IMHO) of running a Season character is the complete set of gear you get for completing the Chapters. Although, now that I think about it, they removed the goals that required you to complete the story. So I guess you could run Adventure mode. (As an aside, if I run a second Season character, I will generally do Adventure mode.)

So the next questions are: what level are you running? and are you running Nephalim rifts or doing Bounties? Doing rifts with a low level character can definitely be challenging. At least with bounties you are essentially running around in the same maps as the story mode.

It sounds like you over-reached and are running at a higher level than you should be.

For new Season character, I generally start on Expert. I don't jump to Master unless I find a legendary weapon - or I find that stuff is dying really easy. And I don't usually jump to T1 until I have the first 2 pieces of the set that you get from completing the ... second? ... chapter of the Season.

TheMix wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:27 am That said, why are you doing Adventure mode?

Because the story slows your progress with no meaningful reward.

I haven't touched story mode in years.

Years? I thought it used to be required for the Season chapters. Maybe that was longer ago than I'd realized. My sense of time is pretty terrible. I usually do the story through the first 3 Acts. I don't mind it. There are some fun bits (I always love to listen to the Jeweler's dialogues when you first bump into him). But I'm not a big fan of the Heavens and Act 5 can go suck an egg.

The story is the only reason to play it. Mindless looting gets boring fast. And I never care for the seasonal stuff. Once I played the story in the game and addons I was done. Have no friends that play now to keep me interested in online play.

Once you've gone through the story X times it loses its appeal.

I can see that. And I don't let all the cut scenes play out. However, when you take 6+ months (and sometimes years) between, then /shrug. It just isn't that big a deal for me.

This is all pretty off-topic since he asked why he was struggling in Adventure mode. I'd argue that going through Story mode is easier. If for no other reason than it slows things down a bit and allows you to learn your character better.

Besides,

Because the story slows your progress with no meaningful reward.

Which means that Adventure mode lets you get to... what? faster? Grinding rifts? After I've been through a few, I realize I'm not going to be getting much more out of it and tend to move on to something else(work on rift X to get gear to do X+1, work on X+1 to get gear to do X+2, and on and on, only to quit at X+50.)

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 4:18 pm Besides,

Because the story slows your progress with no meaningful reward.

Which means that Adventure mode lets you get to... what? faster? Grinding rifts? After I've been through a few, I realize I'm not going to be getting much more out of it and tend to move on to something else(work on rift X to get gear to do X+1, work on X+1 to get gear to do X+2, and on and on, only to quit at X+50.)

Precisely. It's not an evergreen game, it's a binge for me. I crush on it for a week or two and move on until the next season. The story holds exactly zero interest for me. It was stupid the first time and becomes more annoying on replay.

You play more for immersion. I play for achievement. That may get me to stick around a little longer, but the story still sucks.

I suppose getting to the point that I can stop playing as quickly as possible isn't really my goal in gaming.

Rather, I'm happiest if I hit the burn-out point just after I've sampled the endgame enough to see what it's about. That means that the focus, for me, is level 1 through X, not level X.

I want to be the biggest baddest bad-ass there is and once it becomes too much of a grind to become bigger and badder I am out. In D3 the end game to me is GR70+. That's the last "reward" I am aware of. I have never gotten the stash tab that TheMix mentions because I find set dungeons annoying to master with their restrictions on play style.

Play a HotA/IK Barbarian. Mastering the set dungeon is phenomenally easy. You don't have to do anything other than play the way you have been. I tried a couple other set dungeons and quit as soon as I discovered/read that I'd have to gimp my character or play style in order to succeed. @#$% that (*&).

When leveling always play at Hard difficulty level. You do no DPS when dead.

Lorini wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:34 am When leveling always play at Hard difficulty level. You do no DPS when dead.

I would edit that to say a difficulty level you are comfortable with given your current gear. I tend to start on Master with a brand new season character and scale it down if I am dying or taking forever to kill things.

TheMix wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:44 pm Play a HotA/IK Barbarian. Mastering the set dungeon is phenomenally easy. You don't have to do anything other than play the way you have been. I tried a couple other set dungeons and quit as soon as I discovered/read that I'd have to gimp my character or play style in order to succeed. @#$% that (*&).

I am not having much luck putting together the IK set. I have 3 pieces and can do Torment IV but set/legendaries are pretty uncommon so I end up running T12 on my monk and collect blood shards to gamble. I have gotten nothing useful in the last 3000 or so spent (that's 120 armor pieces).

Well, I'd volunteer to do a quick rift with you (since I generally get 2-3 set pieces, at least, per run), but we already covered that.

The other option is to do a Season character and collect the full offered set. I'm not a fan of the Furious Charge build (too "busy" for my liking). But I picked it up and then ran with it long enough to get the pieces I needed. Even without trying to maximize that set and build, I was able to run T7-8 long enough to get the pieces I needed for IK.

Though your method is also viable. It just can take longer since you aren't getting any random Barbarian drops while doing it. Well, you might get one or two, but it's pretty unlikely.

I already got the season set on the Monk so that's not an option.

As for helping me out, well I don't think we are Blizzard friends. I am at work and don't know what my battletag is either... from memory it MIGHT be coopasonic#1243, but I could be totally making that up.

Well, since I work from home...

Mine is Dhrak#1508.

I sent a request that that battletag. So I guess we'll see.

I guess I got it right.

On a related note, Kadala finally managed to give me two more pieces. My kit is far from optimal, using the set weapon and ring of royal grandeur to get the bonus, but it's enough to get to torment tiers where legendaries actually drop. I've been running regular rifts increasing the difficulty after each one. I'm at T8 now and I should be able to go up a couple more levels with my current gear.

So, I've briefly toyed with the idea of doing another seasonal run. I'm thinking wizard or demon hunter (I'd like to try necromancer, but don't own it.) Anyway, how are the sets for those two this time around?