Diablo 3 question thread

[XT]

My only question is...when is there going to be an expansion for this game (I know that no one knows the answer to this)?? I've played 2 characters through Hell level, and am just waiting for some friends to level up so we can tackle the final level. Already, though, the game has lost some of it's edge for me...it's really the same thing, over and over again, just with harder monsters. I know that this is exactly what the first two games were, but this time it seems more stifling for some reason. I want to do more, but like in Skyrim, after I've finished and played through with a different character there comes a time (rapidly approaching with D3) where there isn't anything left for me to do. I still have the final difficulty level and Whimsyshire (I don't have all the parts yet), and I'll probably do it with both my DH and Mage, but after that I'm pretty much done...until the expansion comes out. But if they take a year or two I might not be all that excited about an expansion either, unless it's a really good one. I'm almost at the point now that even a Skyrim expansion isn't something I'm really anticipating because it's been so long since I fired the game up.

-XT

[Tom Scud]

Question on the followers: do their buffs only function when they're active/"alive"?

[Telperion]

Originally Posted by XT

My only question is...when is there going to be an expansion for this game (I know that no one knows the answer to this)??

I expect they'll announce it during the christmas season to boost D3 sales and release it some time next summer, much like they did with the D2 expansion.

[Chronos]

I don't know, they still haven't released Heart of the Swarm. They might announce it this year, but Blizzard tends to take their time on actual releases.

[Gozu Tashoya]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

I've been running with the Scoundrel for my Critical Mass build. I currently have him on Anatomy, but since my crit chance is close to 50% anyway maybe I should use Hysteria, which would basically be a permanent 5% damage buff.

OOC, what's your CM build like? I have a crit-oriented build that centers on "AP on crit" gear and meteor storm. It's letting me get through inferno at a slow but steady pace, but it does feel like it needs some tweaking.

[Tom Scud]

Originally Posted by Gozu Tashoya

OOC, what's your CM build like? I have a crit-oriented build that centers on "AP on crit" gear and meteor storm. It's letting me get through inferno at a slow but steady pace, but it does feel like it needs some tweaking.

My build is pretty sketchy; I've gotten to the point in Act I Inferno where you meet the scoundrel, so you're ahead of me there.

Build includes Diamond Skin/Prism (should probably push that to the double-strength one) and Mirror Image/5 duplicates, Energy Shield/Pinpoint Barrier, Arcane Hydra, Magic Missile/seeking, and Arcane Big Ball o' hurt/piercing. Passives are Evocation (15% cooldown reduction), Critical Mass (chance for -1 second on all cooldowns on a crit hit), and Temporal Flux (arcane damage slows enemies).

I have a lot of plus crit (about 46% total with the bonuses from the scoundrel and the energy shield), some AP on Crit (need more), and otherwise the usual int/vit/some resistances/random. General plan is to use hydra and diamond skin immediately upon contact with the enemy and alternate balls o' hurting and magic missile as appropriate, making liberal use of mirror image, diamond skin, and good old fashioned fleeing in terror when anything remotely threatening happens.

ETA - this game plan doesn't work very well against fast elites (like scavengers) especially if they have fire chains, and I'm not too fond of vortex and mortar, either. (and invulnerable minions, which I suppose should go without saying).

[Chronos]

Are Evocation and Critical Mass really worthwhile when you only have two cooldown spells?

[Tom Scud]

I'd be tempted to use them both with just mirror image, to be honest, but I play in maximum coward mode. Yes, there's illusionist, but I like not taking the damage if i can avoid it.

[Mekhazzio]

Originally Posted by Chronos

Are Evocation and Critical Mass really worthwhile when you only have two cooldown spells?

When those two are Diamond Skin and Mirror Image? Critical Mass can frequently get those recharged before they've run out, which lets you just outright ignore most generic enemies. I'm not sold on Evocation, though, since all that does is shave off one critical mass proc. It's only really worthwhile for Archon, IMO.

[Tom Scud]

Originally Posted by Mekhazzio

When those two are Diamond Skin and Mirror Image? Critical Mass can frequently get those recharged before they've run out, which lets you just outright ignore most generic enemies. I'm not sold on Evocation, though, since all that does is shave off one critical mass proc. It's only really worthwhile for Archon, IMO.

Point on evocation; I suppose I could drop it for Arcane Dynamo, Astral Presence, or Blur.

[Chronos]

Actually, come to think of it, my wizard uses Evocation with only one cooldown spell, but that's a bit of a niche case.

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

Point on evocation; I suppose I could drop it for Arcane Dynamo, Astral Presence, or Blur.

If you rely heavily on images, then consider Illusionist. This lets you relax your crit numbers and take Force Armor instead of Pinpoint Barrier. You will always have an image up when you need one (i.e., when you get hit), and Force Armor will make it possible to do some fighting without having 100% uptime on Diamond Skin. Those crit numbers are great if you get a lot of AP on crit so you can spam Arcane Orb, and they are certainly wonderful if you invest heavily in crit damage.

If you are just using high crit to keep Diamond Skin up, I would humbly submit that there are more efficient ways of surviving inferno. Diamond Skin does not scale all that well, as you will soon see.

ETA, high crit with a fast cast signature and Arcane Dynamo is sexy as hell. I had monstrous orb crits very regularly when AD was fully charged.

[Munch]

So last night in a public game, someone in my party posted in the chat window a rare he picked up, asking if anyone could use it. How in the world did he do that?

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Munch

So last night in a public game, someone in my party posted in the chat window a rare he picked up, asking if anyone could use it. How in the world did he do that?

Open your inventory. Open the chat box. Mouse over the item you want to link. Shift-click.

[Tom Scud]

Originally Posted by Maeglin

If you rely heavily on images, then consider Illusionist. This lets you relax your crit numbers and take Force Armor instead of Pinpoint Barrier. You will always have an image up when you need one (i.e., when you get hit), and Force Armor will make it possible to do some fighting without having 100% uptime on Diamond Skin. Those crit numbers are great if you get a lot of AP on crit so you can spam Arcane Orb, and they are certainly wonderful if you invest heavily in crit damage.

If you are just using high crit to keep Diamond Skin up, I would humbly submit that there are more efficient ways of surviving inferno. Diamond Skin does not scale all that well, as you will soon see.

ETA, high crit with a fast cast signature and Arcane Dynamo is sexy as hell. I had monstrous orb crits very regularly when AD was fully charged.

At this point, I'm sufficiently all-in on the crit plan that I'm going to keep going with it. A few questions:

1 - What slots can give AP on crit? I'm getting 9 each from my hat and my (one-handed) weapon at the moment.

2 - Do hydra crits count for AP on crit/CM procs?

3 - Also with the hydra - do hydra shots use up the AD bonus? That could actually be either good or bad, as I will cheerfully abuse the AI when I can by shooting my missiles & hydra around corners at bad guys who can't quite figure out how to walk through an open door.

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

At this point, I'm sufficiently all-in on the crit plan that I'm going to keep going with it. A few questions:

1 - What slots can give AP on crit? I'm getting 9 each from my hat and my (one-handed) weapon at the moment.

2 - Do hydra crits count for AP on crit/CM procs?

3 - Also with the hydra - do hydra shots use up the AD bonus? That could actually be either good or bad, as I will cheerfully abuse the AI when I can by shooting my missiles & hydra around corners at bad guys who can't quite figure out how to walk through an open door.

Oh, I love crit and stack it via gear, myself. I was just making a few skills suggestions that might fit into a crit build.

1) Hat, weapon, and offhand. I got to 30 AP on crit between three items, and I found it pretty satisfactory with Orb and my attack speed. Orb (Tap the Source) has a coefficient of 33%, so I could refill my AP fairly consistently. I had MM (Seeker) as a backup if I started to get unlucky. That has a 100% coefficient, so it was very easy to refill and charge up AD. I ran a lot of lph with this build, too. If I needed to refill my life and AP, I just ran around a corner and spammed MM.

I did not have enough firepower with this build to carry on past A1 inferno, but it was incredibly fun to play. Perhaps I will try it again when I can afford better gear.

2) Hydras don't do anything. Only the DoT on Venom Hydra can actually crit. Hydra has a coefficient of 0%, so you get no life per hit, no AP per crit, no life steal, nothing from hydra strikes.

3) In my observation, Hydra discharges the AD stack but does not increase damage. I've only really tested with Venom, though. It should be easy to experiment with if you turn the damage numbers on.

[Chronos]

These coefficients you speak of: What do they apply to, and where can they be found?

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Chronos

These coefficients you speak of: What do they apply to, and where can they be found?

Skill coefficients apply to any and all all effects that are triggered when the skill strikes a mob. For instance, if your weapon is +500 life on hit, then it is really +500 life on hit for a skill whose coefficient is 1.0.

Actual Effect = Base Effect * Skill Coefficient

Suppose you are running the Paralyze passive for the 8% stun chance. But you run it with Living Lightning, whose coefficient is a miserable 2%. Then you really only have a .16% chance to proc a stun per attack. Of course you want to run it with Lightning Hydra. But the Hydra's coefficient is 0%, so it has no chance to proc anything at all. Hence people who keep thinking that Paralysis is broken.

Coefficients are meant to reduce the effectiveness of large AoE spells for obvious reasons. A Blizzard that hits five or six mobs would return thousands of life with every tick. This clearly does not happen. As you can see, Blizzard has a frightfully low coefficient.

The Wizard table can be found here. These are very easy to verify with a little testing.

[XT]

I've got a quick question. Does anyone know why every time you log into a different computer that Blizzard requires you to change your password (I realize it's security oriented btw, but why a password CHANGE, instead of just a verification??)...and, more importantly, is there any way to get around it (other than not loading it on a new computer)? I borrowed a friends laptop yesterday so I could get my Diablo fix while on the road, and it wouldn't let me log in until I went through a password change. That's a pain in the ass, since the password I use is one I have memorized, as I use it for other things, and if I take off for a couple of weeks or whatever I'll almost surly forget it (thus necessitating a password recovery and change).

Also, if I got one of those security authenticator fob thingies would I still have to do this whenever I change machines or use a new machine? I'm sure this isn't a problem for most people, but I actually change machines fairly often, especially when I'm on the road, since I don't have a gaming laptop anymore.

-XT

[Gozu Tashoya]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

At this point, I'm sufficiently all-in on the crit plan that I'm going to keep going with it. A few questions:

1 - What slots can give AP on crit? I'm getting 9 each from my hat and my (one-handed) weapon at the moment.

Weapon, OH, helm, bracers, gloves, jewelry.

And moving on to coefficients, here's a fascinating tidbit from a Reddit talk with some of the D3 devs.

So - back to your question. Life on hit is proc scalared down for certain skills, whereas Life Steal is not affected by the proc scalar at all. So if you Seismic Slam or Whirlwind a large number of targets, it will surpass Life On hit faster than for Frenzy. Of course on single targets Life on Hit will generally always be better. In terms of where the breakpoint is, I think what you'd want to look at is breakpoints for various DPS levels for different skills for different numbers of expected targets.

I think this is absolutely fascinating, especially since LS is considered virtually worthless by the marketplace. I've been meaning to do some back-of-the-napkin numbers on how much LS is needed for it to actually be useful, but if someone beats me to it, well, I'm not going to complain.

As for me, I hit act 2 inferno last night. It's a gear check, and boy did I fail. Time to go shopping for a 1h that has at least 800 dps, a socket, and some combination of crit, crit damage, 100+ int, or AP on crit. Not looking forward to paying for this...

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Gozu Tashoya

Weapon, OH, helm, bracers, gloves, jewelry.

This cannot be right. Only wizard-specific gear returns AP on crit. And only wands, sources, and wizard hats are wizard-specific. You cannot filter for AP on crit for any other items. Perhaps some set items have it unexpectedly, but that would be about it.

And moving on to coefficients, here's a fascinating tidbit from a Reddit talk with some of the D3 devs.

I think this is absolutely fascinating, especially since LS is considered virtually worthless by the marketplace. I've been meaning to do some back-of-the-napkin numbers on how much LS is needed for it to actually be useful, but if someone beats me to it, well, I'm not going to complain.

As for me, I hit act 2 inferno last night. It's a gear check, and boy did I fail. Time to go shopping for a 1h that has at least 800 dps, a socket, and some combination of crit, crit damage, 100+ int, or AP on crit. Not looking forward to paying for this...[/quote]

Life steal is not affected by coefficients, no. But it is affected by a global 80% haircut in Inferno. Hitting a mob for 50k at 50% mitigation, 2.5% life steal, and the Inferno haircut yields 125 life. You have to stack quite a lot of it to notice.

[Tom Scud]

Originally Posted by Maeglin

3) In my observation, Hydra discharges the AD stack but does not increase damage. I've only really tested with Venom, though. It should be easy to experiment with if you turn the damage numbers on.

Confirmed this for Arcane hydra, at least. Unfortunate, as the hydra and temporal flux are a match made in heaven; I tried replacing my hydra with the arcane meteor but things did not go well in testing. I think Hydra is probably more important to me than AD would be.

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

Confirmed this for Arcane hydra, at least. Unfortunate, as the hydra and temporal flux are a match made in heaven; I tried replacing my hydra with the arcane meteor but things did not go well in testing. I think Hydra is probably more important to me than AD would be.

Temporal Flux works with Arcane Hydra just fine. Ditch the AD and try Arcane Torrent (Disruption) instead. Arcane Torrent takes a little getting used to, but the 15% bonus to all Arcane damage after you land the Torrent is absolutely huge.

[Gozu Tashoya]

Originally Posted by Maeglin

This cannot be right. Only wizard-specific gear returns AP on crit. And only wands, sources, and wizard hats are wizard-specific. You cannot filter for AP on crit for any other items. Perhaps some set items have it unexpectedly, but that would be about it.

Whoops, I was thinking of just crit. Don't mind me.

Life steal is not affected by coefficients, no. But it is affected by a global 80% haircut in Inferno. Hitting a mob for 50k at 50% mitigation, 2.5% life steal, and the Inferno haircut yields 125 life. You have to stack quite a lot of it to notice.

Sure, but the dev in question seemed convinced that sooner or later that players would see the value of LS. And, hey, pretty much any stat needs to be stacked to be noticeable. Maybe LS is no different even the inferno nerf.

[Nava]

Originally Posted by XT

I've got a quick question. Does anyone know why every time you log into a different computer that Blizzard requires you to change your password (I realize it's security oriented btw, but why a password CHANGE, instead of just a verification??)...and, more importantly, is there any way to get around it (other than not loading it on a new computer)?

It doesn't, so yes. Look again, there is an option to "answer your security question" from the login screen itself, without going to battle.net. Took me several strings of curses before seeing it and facepalming myself face-backwards, it's not obvious.




I can't use group channels and suspect it may be due to playing across the pond. Anybody else having this problem? The message I get is along the lines "you can't use that when you're not ingame."

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Gozu Tashoya

Whoops, I was thinking of just crit. Don't mind me.


Sure, but the dev in question seemed convinced that sooner or later that players would see the value of LS. And, hey, pretty much any stat needs to be stacked to be noticeable. Maybe LS is no different even the inferno nerf.

Sure, you have to stack any stat that you want a build to turn on. But LS is still a ba deal. The amount of LS per item you can get is too low. And LS is too situational, to boot. The amount of life you can steal is limited by the amount of life the mob has left. Life on hit will return everything it is supposed to return even if the struck mob is down to a hair of life, but this obviously reduces the utility of LS.

Right now LS is too small, you need to collect too much of it to hit equivalence in lph, and it is only situationally useful even once you do. The only advantage it has at the moment is that it is very cheap.

[Ike Witt]

I'm stuck and I am not sure how to advance at this point.

I just got my monk to Inferno and can still do okay with most of act one, so far. However, I have trouble with elites. I can't really buy any upgraded equipment since I only have 101K in gold. I just replayed act four in Hell but didn't get that much money from it.

What is my best bet for farming some good gold?

[Apocalypso]

Originally Posted by Ike Witt

I'm stuck and I am not sure how to advance at this point.

I just got my monk to Inferno and can still do okay with most of act one, so far. However, I have trouble with elites. I can't really buy any upgraded equipment since I only have 101K in gold. I just replayed act four in Hell but didn't get that much money from it.

What is my best bet for farming some good gold?

I've been able to make some pretty decent cash runs doing the last half of act 3 in hell difficulty. I forget the exact waypoint but it's the one that starts you on the battlefield (outside the keep). Or you could start on the bridge itself. I run up to azmodan himself and usually do about 150-200k per run. Plus theres lots of elites for Nephalem valor stacks, which is why I like it more than act 4. Also its pretty straightforward, unlike the mazes of the keep itself.

[Munch]

I run up to azmodan himself and usually do about 150-200k per run.

Jeez - how much gold find do you have on?

[Chipacabra]

A quick tip: Never vendor anything that's item level 61 or higher. The essence you get for smashing them beats the vendor price.

[Ike Witt]

Originally Posted by Apocalypso

I've been able to make some pretty decent cash runs doing the last half of act 3 in hell difficulty. I forget the exact waypoint but it's the one that starts you on the battlefield (outside the keep).

Where you have to destroy the ballistas and trebuchet?

[by-tor]

This is what I have been doing in inferno:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=L1NUJsFuzgU#!

But then they nerfed the gold drop amount, so I switched to MF. I think they also nerfed the spawn rate.

[Punoqllads]

Originally Posted by Maeglin

Temporal Flux works with Arcane Hydra just fine. Ditch the AD and try Arcane Torrent (Disruption) instead. Arcane Torrent takes a little getting used to, but the 15% bonus to all Arcane damage after you land the Torrent is absolutely huge.

Ooh, thanks for pointing out Arcane Torrent, I hadn't noticed the Disruption glyph. I had been running an arcane build already, and while I was sad to get rid of Arcane Orb (Celestial), I feel like I'm running around less.

[Gozu Tashoya]

Originally Posted by Chipacabra

A quick tip: Never vendor anything that's item level 61 or higher. The essence you get for smashing them beats the vendor price.

Ditto for jewelry and follower items that are ilvl 60 (clvl requirement 59) as they smash into the same mats.

[Vicullum]

Originally Posted by Gozu Tashoya

Ditto for jewelry and follower items that are ilvl 60 (clvl requirement 59) as they smash into the same mats.

Although, with the increase in drop rates for lvl 60+ items the price for exquisite essences has fallen from 2000 to around 1300 and will probably keep dropping.

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Vicullum

Although, with the increase in drop rates for lvl 60+ items the price for exquisite essences has fallen from 2000 to around 1300 and will probably keep dropping.

This is true, but it should also be accompanied by a drop in prices altogether as decent items become more common. It doesn't seem to be clear yet whether this is offset by the inflating effects of gold farming. The economy is a bit of a mess, so it is hard to see what direction we are really heading in

[Punoqllads]

Originally Posted by Vicullum

Although, with the increase in drop rates for lvl 60+ items the price for exquisite essences has fallen from 2000 to around 1300 and will probably keep dropping.

Strange. Two days ago I sold 100 essences for c. 1900g a pop.

[Chronos]

This is true, but it should also be accompanied by a drop in prices altogether as decent items become more common.

I'm not sure that's really relevant, though. One is seldom faced with a meaningful choice between auctioning an item and salvaging it, since if it's worth auctioning at all, it's probably worth more than the cost of the essences. But with the price of essences dropping that low, it might get to the point where you'd have an inferno-level item that you're getting rid of that you still won't salvage, because the vendors will give you more than that, and the vendor prices aren't influenced by the human economy.

[magnusblitz]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I don't know, they still haven't released Heart of the Swarm. They might announce it this year, but Blizzard tends to take their time on actual releases.

Blizzard had a pretty good track record of releasing an expansion one year after the original game; I think HotS is the first time that hasn't happened (coming up on two years now in July). I'd guess HotS for Christmas and the first Diablo 3 expansion next summer or next Christmas, but it's impossible to say.

IIRC Blizzard has said they intended to do two expansions for Diablo 3, and that there would be no level cap increase ala WoW.

[Vicullum]

Originally Posted by Telperion

I expect they'll announce it during the christmas season to boost D3 sales and release it some time next summer, much like they did with the D2 expansion.

According to their leaked product slate they originally planned the next Diablo xpac for 2nd quarter 2013...but given that they missed their original release date for D3 by half a year, an Xmas 2013 date is as good a guess as any.

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I'm not sure that's really relevant, though. One is seldom faced with a meaningful choice between auctioning an item and salvaging it, since if it's worth auctioning at all, it's probably worth more than the cost of the essences. But with the price of essences dropping that low, it might get to the point where you'd have an inferno-level item that you're getting rid of that you still won't salvage, because the vendors will give you more than that, and the vendor prices aren't influenced by the human economy.

I don't think you are looking at the key issue here. The question is not the decision to vend or salvage some individual item in isolation. What matters is the decision players make to either buy an item on the AH or craft it themselves. People buy essences because they think at a certain price per input, the cost of crafting a good item is somehow less than the cost of buying an item of like quality on the AH. So when drop rates go up, the supply of salvageable lvl 60+ goes up and at the same time, the rarity of high quality gear goes down. The price of essences has to drop. But this is not a bad thing as long as the costs of crafting and buying are more or less in equilibrium. Eventually it may well be that the gains from vendoring a lvl 60+ or selling the essence are about the same. This is fine in theory, because it would have to mean that good gear is relatively cheap on the AH.

ETA: The prices of vendors almost certainly are influenced by the human economy. Blizzard can change them at any time to help the economy equilibrate.

[Apocalypso]

Originally Posted by Ike Witt

Where you have to destroy the ballistas and trebuchet?

Yep thats it. Oh and i mis-typed about gold find. I'm getting roughly around 75-100k per run with constant 5 neph valor stacks. I guess I could do more with gold find gear but can't do that without major sacrifices. I can't do inferno too well atm, so this is my favorite spot to raise cash.

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by Apocalypso

Yep thats it. Oh and i mis-typed about gold find. I'm getting roughly around 75-100k per run with constant 5 neph valor stacks. I guess I could do more with gold find gear but can't do that without major sacrifices. I can't do inferno too well atm, so this is my favorite spot to raise cash.

The Siegebreaker quest is also very good for drumming up cash. There is a lot of trash close together to melt, and killing the Siegebreaker himself is always good for some blues and yellows.

[My Darn Snake Legs]

So, what do I have to do to not die from the very first bug or elite pack I find in A2 Inferno? Our little group wrecks everything in A1, but we are so frustrated by A2 because we can't survive at all. And this is post-nerf? Yikes.

When wearing our barb's shout I have around 400-500 resists to all and around 30k hp with 44% dodge. What do I need to improve?

Or is it just that no one can take out a pack of Arcane, Desecration, Jailer, Fast Wasps?

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by My Darn Snake Legs

So, what do I have to do to not die from the very first bug or elite pack I find in A2 Inferno? Our little group wrecks everything in A1, but we are so frustrated by A2 because we can't survive at all. And this is post-nerf? Yikes.

When wearing our barb's shout I have around 400-500 resists to all and around 30k hp with 44% dodge. What do I need to improve?

Or is it just that no one can take out a pack of Arcane, Desecration, Jailer, Fast Wasps?

A2 is just a bitch, no question about it. Lacuni, Wasps, and Vipers are challenging enough to begin with, and Inferno just makes it worse. Honestly, I spent a lot of time tinkering with my build and gear to make it through A2 and I died a hell of a lot. I barely squeaked by pre-nerf and have not gone back. Frustration seems to be inevitable.

The Wasp champ affixes you describe are horrendous. You and your group might want to consider parking that one instead of trying to kill it.

How are you dying? Are you getting one-shotted or do you run out of steam a few seconds after a battle starts? What is your character sheet dps versus how hard you actually hit? Do you have numbers turned on? What proportion of your health pool is returned per second either via life per hit, life regen, or life steal? Does everyone in your group have a cc-negating skill available (e.g., Mirror Image, Teleport, Furious Charge, Vault, etc)? Getting jailed in a desecration and arcane sentried area will kill anyone who doesn't have a way out. Aside from unlucky champs, what mobs are especially lethal?

[My Darn Snake Legs]

Yeah, those were the champs that we encountered. Only they weren't fast (whoops) they were illusionists. Ugh.

I'm looking at my details, and I think perhaps I need to get some more life steal and loh. I don't have much, so I'm probably not returning nearly enough to my pool from hitting things. I guess I was focusing on dodge instead of life-gain. Should I go for life on hit, then?

[Maeglin]

Originally Posted by My Darn Snake Legs

Yeah, those were the champs that we encountered. Only they weren't fast (whoops) they were illusionists. Ugh.

I'm looking at my details, and I think perhaps I need to get some more life steal and loh. I don't have much, so I'm probably not returning nearly enough to my pool from hitting things. I guess I was focusing on dodge instead of life-gain. Should I go for life on hit, then?

I can't really give you a straight answer without knowing more about the rest of your build and tactics. Life regen, life on hit, and life steal work very differently and which one is best depends on how you play. But if you are getting one-shotted frequently, then we have to deal with that first. Assuming that the problem is staying power, then I have some more questions.

1) Do you use a 2h, dual wield, or 1h + offhand?
2) Do you spam lots of fast attacks or make fewer, harder-hitting ones?
3) Do you use largely AoE skills with low life return coefficients or single-target skills with high coefficients?
4) Do you crit a lot and/or very hard?
5) Do you kite? Just champs or champs and trash?

[My Darn Snake Legs]

Firstly, I'm a monk. I don't think I mentioned it, and that was dumb of me.

1) 1h + shield.
2) I use crippling wave as my main attack because it slows, deals good damage, and deals that damage to everything within 17 yards. My secondary is the bell that does 285% damage, and I usually have sweeping wind as well, for extra damage all around me.
3) Yeah, largely AoE stuff.
4) I seem to crit a lot. I only have about 15% crit chance, but those crits happen a lot due to the way that monks do damage.
5) I kite champs. I don't have to kite trash in A1 inferno.

[Maeglin]

Ok. Crippling Wave has either 35% or 50% scaling in Inferno depending on your rune, which is totally adequate for life on hit. Find a decent 2-socketed weapon and pop in a pair of Star Amethysts for 600 life on hit for starters. You can also get shields with life per hit. I suspect you will see a real difference if you collect 1k or so. If you are kiting champs, then you will also want to collect some life regen. I am not sure what the magic number should be for you, but you should be able to accumulate 500 or so without sacrificing too much. If champs aren't 1-shotting you, then the issue is staying up long enough to kill them and evading CC. Getting enough DPS to mow down champs without investing in defense and life return is not easy, and it works better if you are farming late game inferno and getting sick drops consistently. It's not a great strategy coming into A2. So keep making incremental improvements to life return without sacrificing too much armor or resists, and at some point, you will see that you are just staying alive longer.

[My Darn Snake Legs]

I'm not doing the theory-crafting research in D3 that I did in, say, WoW. What does "35% or 50% scaling" mean? If you don't want to write a description, then just drop me a link to a place where I can find a good theory-crafting community.

You said to find a wep with a couple of slots in it, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a weapon with two sockets, and there aren't any in the AH right now. Do these things exist? If I find one, should I take it even though it's weak in other areas? I suppose what I'm asking is how much loh is worth compared to other skills. I had been valuing dex over everything else because it pumps my damage and dodge, but maybe it's not worth it if I get crushed when I don't dodge. :-P

Whoops, forgot to add my build: Here is is.