At this level, it’s not nearly as dangerous as you remember from level 60. I think my DPS is pretty close to the maximum possible for a level 37 char, and Reflects Damage only takes me down to something like 90% health.
not sure if i want to hop back on. anyway, a new patch is out? i should probably read it for myself but, is there anything worth coming back to?
No, unless you have an end-game character. Added a couple of BoA recipes which can yield really good items (compared to Legendaries, anyway), if you are lucky.
And PvP, of course, if that’s of interest to you.
i thought i would come back with the new patch but now i’m not so sure. i’ve glanced through the patch notes and it doesn’t seem too exciting. additional BOA does nothing for gameplay and the duel system seems like an afterthought. if i really want to pvp there does not seem to be a goal or even a matchmaking service for it.
Haven’t even logged into the game since October or November. Shame.
I’ve been playing a lot the past week, although I shouldn’t. I took my Witch Doctor from lvl 9 to 53, and I just finished NM. I’m so overpowered (twinked quite a bit) that I’m playing at MP10 and still not having trouble. My biggest problem is leveling faster than I progress. The stuff that drops is 7 levels below me, but I’m running through as fast as I can. Getting “rushed” is way easier than in D2… if you have friends playing.
I found that, for some reason, Subtle Essense (the normal crafting elememt) sells for about half a K; which is more than any of the other crafting materials. I have no idea why this is. I was salvaging anything that would vendor for less than ~$200 and ended up with over 500 of them. So I sold 450 of them and got $240k. Quality low level stuff sells pretty well, because a twinked low lvl char can kick ass at MP10 and get good stuff that can sell pretty well… (rinse and repeat).
I was never into PvP, but it appears that there are no penalties to dueling, so I guess I’d give it a try, if I had anyone to do it with.
Yeah, I’ve been wondering about Subtle Essence, too. My best guess is that there’s some sort of influx of new players who are excited about crafting but don’t know about higher difficulties… But it’s been consistently high since well before Christmas. I also note that the Subtle price inflation does not seem to occur on hardcore, or at least not nearly to the same extent. More experienced players there, maybe?
And I’m about to log on; if I see you, I can rush you.
Emeralds also sell for WAY more than the other gems. (They provide dexterity and critical hit damage). This makes me think that Demon Hunters are the preferred class. Are DH’s the new Hammerdins? Or is there another reason?
not sure about the new patch, but the critical hit alone makes it a must for all classes, not just DHs.
Last I knew, Barbarians were the preferred class, though not anywhere near as dominant as hammerdins were. Emeralds are valuable because (at least before this patch) they were pretty much the only thing worth sticking in a weapon.
Well, I took the Ruby out of my weapon and put in an equal Emerald and it didn’t help my witch hunter’s DPS. I got about half of the DPS boost from the emerald as I got from the ruby. Maybe I’ll try this with my demon hunter.
Well, my DH doesn’t have a bow with a socket, so I couldn’t test this. However, I understated the difference with my WD (not witch hunter as I said before). With no gem I do 3371 DPS. Adding a flawless square emerald brings it up to 3533. Replacing that fse with a fsr brings it up to 3951. So that’s about 160 vs. 580.
Are there other classes who have something like the DH’s passive skill that boosts the chance of critical hit?
All classes have skills that boost crits in some way or another, though they mostly all work in different ways. Barbarians, for instance, have a passive that gives +10% chance, +50% damage, another passive that gives a bonus to damage with the right kind of weapon (axes, IIRC), and a bunch of other skills or skill runes that give a bonus to crit chance for a short time after using them. I think it’s even possible for a barbarian to hit 100% crit chance, for a few seconds at a time (the only class other than DHs using Sharpshooter for which that’s possible).
Even aside from that, most characters try to boost all three of crit chance, crit damage, and attack speed (the “trifecta” of item mods) as high as possible, since those all multiply average damage, instead of just adding to it (plus other effects you might get from crits, such as Critical Mass on a wizard). And if you’ve already got high crit chance, then that makes increases to crit damage more valuable, and vice-versa.
Note that all of this is for level 60 characters, since it’s so quick to get up to level 60. In the meanwhile, though, rubies are indeed generally better while you’re leveling up (especially at level 15, when a flawless square in any old weapon with a socket can roughly triple your damage).
As a corollary (I hope I’m using that word right) to your theory: I hypothesize that the Infernal Machine quest, which gives you a kick-as ring that is account bound but has no level requirement, incentivizes people to use their best characters to farm for keys, etc. , and wait until they have a ring that they can put on their lvl 1 characters.
Because, how awesome would it be to put a Hellfire Ring on a lvl 1 character?
Therefore, only new players are playing young characters in Normal and finding themselves in need of Normal crafting materials.
That’s what I’m doing with my Monk and Barb: Leaving them where they are until I can twink the shit out of them. Hopefully with a Hellfire ring on them ***and ***on their follower.
it’s not necessary though. a single ruby the moment you’re high enough to equip a weapon with a slot would be enough to tear through most everything, even on MP10. all you need is a weapon on the AH for something dirt cheap. the Hellfire ring is more remarkable for its experience bonus.
edited to add: or what Chronos said.
It’s a lot harder than you think: To get the ring onto the new character, the new character has to get to the stash, and to get to the stash you have to get through the little scene with Rumsfeld at the gates, which gives you enough XP to take you to level 2.
But yeah, one of my new characters started with a Hellfire at level 2, and proceeded to solo Whimseyshire (albeit with a ton of deaths), gaining about 10 levels in the process.
Speaking of that first scene with Rumsfeld: I beat Diablo on MP7, then entered Inferno still at MP7. That first scene took forever to get through. I was knocking down the zombies’ health bars about 5% at a time.
Searching around on the auction house, this isn’t until lvl 15 (unless you buy an overpriced Unique.)