New-ish to D3

[Fhi]

Hello all!

Just started playing a week or so ago, currently level 51 in Hell. New to Diablo series.

Is there a trick to get good weapons outside the AH? I'm trying to avoid using the AH, because I find drops more fun. My weapon has 226 dps right now, yet I'm reading about people with 600, 900 dps at my level. All of my gear comes from drops - perhaps I am lucky enough to get STR/VIT stats on many upgrades. I saw a blacksmithing plan from a vendor that sells for 1.5M gold... and I'm wondering how to get that amount of gold. Right now I have 200k, mostly from picking up gold. I salvage stuffs to craft, but I'm thinking maybe crafting isn't such a good idea (never got more than a couple of usable crafteds in 51 levels), I should vendor instead.

Also, what's up with features in-game that aren't explained in game at all? For the longest time I saw a checkbox "Enable Monster Power" and I thought it's just a little feature to amp up the difficulty for skilled players. It wasn't until I looked at forums and guides and realize it's the "MP" everyone's been talking about and it's a whole new feature disguised in one little checkbox.

[Herecius]

Odd time to start playing, honestly! If you're enjoying just going off of self-found gear, I'd recommend you keep doing that. Especially when it comes to not hitting max level yet. A lot of those higher dps weapons you're talking about are actually level 60 weapons that rolled 'reduced level requirement' on them, which is always good for funsies on a leveling character, but honestly makes things rather a bit of a joke.

As for how hidden MP can be for new players, yeah, that always struck me as odd. In RoS it's going to be a bit different, as difficulty levels up through Torment will be much more clearly labeled.

[Deleted]

The trick to getting good gear without using the AH or trading with people? Getting lucky.... maxing your MF as high as you can whilst still being able to efficiently kill stuff and hope that you get good stuff! Crafting is also viable - and will become a lot more viable without the AH... but again, it is very much about luck whether you get something. If you had the mats to craft say, 100 of an item, odds are, there's an upgrade in there. If you're just crafting one now and again, it's probably not going to feel like you get much.

[Coldkil]

Well, gold stockpiles much faster when you start playing Inferno and going up with paragon levels - as herecius said anyway, odd time to start

You have some months of time to farm gold and paragon levels; don't worry much about gear since when preexp patch hits, all itemization will change so you'll be going to farm new gear Don't waste money on AH now, unless you want a very good gear set to farm now keeping in mind you're going to change it all with expansion.

EDIT: it's worth to go to AH and buy the archon recipes - they cost more or less 5k gold each and especially spaulders/gloves are really easy to craft (they require very few materials); you can get right off the bat at 60 a couple of nice items to start farming.

[Fhi]

Thanks all for the replies!

Odd time to start playing, honestly!

Haha, I know. I got D3 as part of the annual pass last year, but none of my friends played D3, so when it was launched, I was not in a hurry to try it out. Forgotten about it really until recently.

Can't afford the expansion yet. I figured since the expac launch does not affect my enjoyment of D3 as a single-player game, why not play it now?

A lot of those higher dps weapons you're talking about are actually level 60 weapons that rolled 'reduced level requirement' on them, which is always good for funsies on a leveling character, but honestly makes things rather a bit of a joke.

That... explains a lot. Pretty much won't see it as a new character then.

Crafting is also viable - and will become a lot more viable without the AH... but again, it is very much about luck whether you get something. If you had the mats to craft say, 100 of an item, odds are, there's an upgrade in there. If you're just crafting one now and again, it's probably not going to feel like you get much.

Yeah, I craft here and there. How do you get that many mats to craft bulk though? Just Magic Find? MF = Magic Find not Maximum Fury right? >.>

You have some months of time to farm gold and paragon levels; don't worry much about gear since when preexp patch hits, all itemization will change so you'll be going to farm new gear Don't waste money on AH now, unless you want a very good gear set to farm now keeping in mind you're going to change it all with expansion.

Hehe, I'm not even sure if I have the skill to survive Inferno. But now that I know gold comes from there, I'll probably try to get better at playing.

EDIT: it's worth to go to AH and buy the archon recipes - they cost more or less 5k gold each and especially spaulders/gloves are really easy to craft (they require very few materials); you can get right off the bat at 60 a couple of nice items to start farming.

3k on the AH now.

When you say farm... what do you mean exactly? Is it pick a "stage" from the Select Quest and run that many times? Can I just "re-do" an Act? I like Acts 3 and 4.

How do you balance offensive/defensive/bonus stats? There's like a million different stats that can appear. Seems to be the higher I get, the more worthless blues would be, due to not having many affixes on them?

[Fiana]

Odd time to start playing, honestly!

I wonder when was not the "odd" time to start playing...
At start everyone whined about game being too hard and loot being too rare.
The game got nerfed and everyone whined that there is nothing to do. Paragon level system was implemented.
Then people started to whine that the game is too easy and monster power was implemented.
People whined that AH became too important and it was not possible to play solo, so crafted gear with insane stats was implemented. To add some pseudo-endgame gameplay ubers were added.


So at which stage of the game development was not an odd time to start playing exactly?

[Herecius]

Hehe, I'm not even sure if I have the skill to survive Inferno. But now that I know gold comes from there, I'll probably try to get better at playing.

Inferno is fun, and you should easily be able to step into MP1 and 2 inferno with a lot of the gear you'll find towards the very tail end of leveling. If you've got 200k, that's also a ready base of gold to get some quick, cheap upgrades off the AH to fill in any of your weakest pieces of gear, too.

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder when was not the "odd" time to start playing...
At start everyone whined about game being too hard and loot being too rare.
The game got nerfed and everyone whined that there is nothing to do. Paragon level system was implemented.
Then people started to whine that the game is too easy and monster power was implemented.
People whined that AH became too important and it was not possible to play solo, so crafted gear with insane stats was implemented. To add some pseudo-endgame gameplay ubers were added.


So at which stage of the game development was not an odd time to start playing exactly?

It's an odd time to start playing because it's in the wind-down phase before RoS. Let's try not to turn this thread into yet-another-thread-about-D3-being-awful.

[Honzi]

The only "trick" to get more drops is to have magic find. You can have MF on your gear or play on a higher monster level to get +MagicFind+GoldFind+Experience.

Here's a table for monster power levels and their effects: http://www.diablowiki.net/images/5/5...r-bonuses1.jpg

At level 60 you'll still earn experience which will increase your paragon level (maxlevel 100). With each level you'll gain some bonus stats and bonus MF/GF ( http://www.diablowiki.net/Paragon ).

[Coldkil]

When you say farm... what do you mean exactly? Is it pick a "stage" from the Select Quest and run that many times? Can I just "re-do" an Act? I like Acts 3 and 4.

How do you balance offensive/defensive/bonus stats? There's like a million different stats that can appear. Seems to be the higher I get, the more worthless blues would be, due to not having many affixes on them?

Farming is exactly that - for now, since you've still to unlock Inferno and reach level cap, you don't need to worry about that. Anyway, best option to start is to ding 60 and complete Hell, then turn on MP and select MP1 and paly Inferno; actual difficulty doesn't change much but all monsters are lvl 63 which means "better" drops.

Usually self-found gear is enough to tackle Inferno that way; you'll maybe die a lot at start but you'll get used to the elite combos and react accordingly.

As for stats - there's a lot to say about them, but the best offense ones are attack speed, crit chance and crit damage. The rest are just bonus. Life on hit and Life steal when you have higher dps are what will keep you alive. At 40k HP and 400 all resist you're more than fine if you want a direction towards defensive stats.

Knowing also your class (maybe profile link) would be useful for giving you more directions.

[Fhi]

Knowing also your class (maybe profile link) would be useful for giving you more directions.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fhi-1854/

Dying quite a bit in Hell without defensive talents.

I just trained my artisans for fun. I'm not sure what purpose they serve since I'm getting better drops than recipes.

[Coldkil]

I'd use this build http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ckP!ZYb!aZaZbZ

Revenge isn't that great of a skill, since you rely a lot on the proc - Rend gives you a more steady life regen coupled with the good damage it does. I changed also your passives for more offensive power (the faster mobs die, the better) and the HoTA/Cleave runes, for (again) more raw damage.

Should be more viable. As from i see from PTR anyway, next patch/exp should rely less on life steal mechanics and more on defensive stats, making them actually useful.

EDIT: i see you have many blue pieces, have you been really that unlucky with drops? If you play on EU, add Coldkil#2265 so i can jump in and farm something with you.

[Fhi]

I'd use this build http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...ckP!ZYb!aZaZbZ

Revenge isn't that great of a skill, since you rely a lot on the proc - Rend gives you a more steady life regen coupled with the good damage it does.

I never thought of it that way. I always like revenge because, well, it heals! And I was aiming for Provocation at level 52 for 30% chance, but I'll try out Rend instead. Guess I overlooked the 9%.

I like hammer with thunderstrike rune because I can chain stun white mobs.

EDIT: i see you have many blue pieces, have you been really that unlucky with drops? If you play on EU, add Coldkil#2265 so i can jump in and farm something with you.

Partly. The other part is getting yellows with no STR or VIT on them. I play US unfortunately.

EDIT: Ugh archon recipe is now 1.8M gold. Damn, should have bought them earlier.

[Bluesftw]

any diablo in a nutshell : kill stuff to get better gear to kill more stuff faster to get better gear to kill more stuff faster to get... i think you know ;>

[Coldkil]

I never thought of it that way. I always like revenge because, well, it heals! And I was aiming for Provocation at level 52 for 30% chance, but I'll try out Rend instead. Guess I overlooked the 9%.

I like hammer with thunderstrike rune because I can chain stun white mobs.

Well, i'm leveling a new barb with a sword&board build where the less damage is compensated by the additional survivability provided by the shield - i have rend obviously but i use both Overpower and Revenge.
link (at 60): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculato...cVk!ZYg!aZaZZc

Maybe not optimal like other builds, but fin to a degree - i always love builds with less used skills, lets you learn every trick a class has.

[Fhi]

A lot of those higher dps weapons you're talking about are actually level 60 weapons that rolled 'reduced level requirement' on them, which is always good for funsies on a leveling character, but honestly makes things rather a bit of a joke.

So I found this on the AH for 120,000g:

http://i.imgur.com/LJ0S1nT.jpg

Hilarious. Skeleton King on MP10 Hell died in a Wrath of the Berserker duration.

[Herecius]

So I found this on the AH for 120,000g:

http://i.imgur.com/LJ0S1nT.jpg

Hilarious. Skeleton King on MP10 Hell died in a Wrath of the Berserker duration.

I promise you won't have that kind of result on Inferno MP10 haha. The difficulty and HP of mobs ramps up fast, Skeleton King in particular has metric shittons of hp >.< I enjoy doing A1 runs on MP10, but I always start the act at the point just after Skelly King is dead.

[Fhi]

I promise you won't have that kind of result on Inferno MP10 haha. The difficulty and HP of mobs ramps up fast, Skeleton King in particular has metric shittons of hp >.< I enjoy doing A1 runs on MP10, but I always start the act at the point just after Skelly King is dead.

Haha I read that Inferno MP0 -> MP1 is nothing like any of the lower difficulties. But for now, it's an ilevel 476 weapon at level 80, so it's still funny! Hell MP10 right now is like playing Normal, except I still die really easily, since my damage went up by 500% but health remain the same.

[Fiana]

So I found this on the AH for 120,000g:

http://i.imgur.com/LJ0S1nT.jpg

Hilarious. Skeleton King on MP10 Hell died in a Wrath of the Berserker duration.

What makes you think that this situation is impossible without AH?
A friend can find such item and give it to you. Or you can find this item yourself and give it to your alt.

It's entirely up to you if you use such items on your first walkthrough. You can reject help from friends and good people and play by yourself, or you can accept help or even ask for it.
Honestly, I never met people who said that -lvl items are bad. After beating the game 2 times another intermediate difficulty is extraordinary annoying. Why not to just fast-forward it and get to the "endgame"?

[Herecius]

What makes you think that this situation is impossible without AH?
A friend can find such item and give it to you. Or you can find this item yourself and give it to your alt.

It's entirely up to you if you use such items on your first walkthrough. You can reject help from friends and good people and play by yourself, or you can accept help or even ask for it.
Honestly, I never met people who said that -lvl items are bad. After beating the game 2 times another intermediate difficulty is extraordinary annoying. Why not to just fast-forward it and get to the "endgame"?

I don't think the OP was harping about it. Sounds like Fhi is just havin' fun, yo. No need to be indignant just for the sake of being indignant.