Pre-ROS to do list for the returning player...

[LonestarHero]

I've had a couple bouts of playing and losing interest since release.

Thus far I have three level 60's, with maybe seven Paragon levels between them all. What should I be doing before ROS? Last Sunday after dinging my Wizard to 60, I watched a video and spent 20 million gold on a pretty sweet CM build that does MP5 pretty well.

All I can think of is hunting down the Key Wardens and going for a Hellfire Ring. Is there much of a grind to that?

Are there any other activities I should be pursuing?

I want to take advantage of the AH before it is gone.

[wolfpaq777]

I posted this in another forum, but it hopefully is something that could help you -

Hey dudes,

Just wanted to give a perspective as someone who was luckily selected in the most recent round of closed beta as to what my plans are for prepping my vanilla account for RoS. Of course we are still months from launch, and tons of stuff is subject to change, but I think we can get a decent overall picture based on how polished certain aspects of beta are to help determine the best course of action.

1. Gems

Sell your gems on the AH before it goes away. Seriously. Blizzard seems intent on keeping gold a valuable resource despite their plans to remove the best way to generate it, and current gems simply aren't. At level 70 the only gems mobs drop are Marquise, unless you're in the higher difficulties in which case the next tier, Imperial, drops. You're much better off unsocketing and converting them to gold.

2. Crafting Mats

While level 70 will feature a brand new tier of crafting mats, current inferno mats will be what is used from level 1-69. If you plan to level a crusader that means having a healthy stock of exquisite essences, iridescent tears and demonic essences will be useful for crafting upgrades for yourself with the AH removal. I've also taken the time to stuff all my normal characters inventories with white items as Common Debris are needed in practically all RoS sub-70 crafting recipes.

3. Gold

As I mentioned earlier, gold is a still a high demand resource, and our best way to get it is going away. Enchanting costs insane amounts of gold due to the horrid RNG accompanying it (Want 5% attack speed on your weapon? Enjoy competing with 7%, 8%, 9%, and 10% resource cost reduction! Yes those are just 4 of the affixes competing with attack speed in that valuable primary stat slot. Don't even get me started on the 14%, 15%, 16%, 17%, 18%, 19%, 20% chance to cause "splash damage"). Anyway, every time you enchant that weapon, cost goes up. I've driven costs into the millions PER TRY on a specific item that I thought was really good, only to replace it with a great drop in the very next game. Plus the new gem combination costs, while not as exorbitant as high level gems are currently, aren't cheap (500k for a flawless royal currently). Plus repair costs haven't gone away. It all adds up VERY quickly which is very concerning when you realize the best way you had to make gold is GOING AWAY.

4. Crusader

Make yourself str hellfire ring if you haven't already and go ahead and nab a level 15 socketed weapon. It doesn't have to be good, the 190 damage ruby you throw in it will make it beyond godlike, but it took me much longer than it should have to finally find a weapon with a socket in it. Just pick one up for cheap on the AH to save yourself the trouble.

5. Paragon Levels

Personally, I can't find the will to continue farming D3 vanilla with RoS beta on hand, but if you don't have access then you're actually in a good spot. Find that will. Go farm your paragon xp and you'll have lots of paragon points to play with when RoS finally hits. As I'm sure you've heard by now, monster power is going away so there's no guarantee whatsoever that current xp rates will be matched in RoS. Take advantage of MP while it's still around.

[Morae]

Possibly slightly offtopic question or maybe not.

I got chest filled with cool legendaries (meaning they are not worth much in AH, but usable for fresh max lvl character) and rares I stored there for other characters. Should I do something to them? I hear there is transmog or something? Should I just save all the cool looking items?

[Coldkil]

All old items will be only useful if you plan to use them on alts or to make a "starter" set (again for alts). Old legendaries won't unlock skins for xmog, even if you keep them unidentified and wait for RoS.

Basically, transform everything in gold - which you will need.

Personal opinion and suggestion: if you (generic "you") don't plan to tackle RoS from day 1 and "finish" it as soon as possible, any preparation is basically useless. Atm, the bigger goal is to get your char ready for Torment, which means really good gear - a think most players have because they have bought it from AH in D3 and it's more than enough to farm Torment.
This gives you access to all legedaries, which are all BoA so you won't get to sell them. Having them before others won't mean anything - you'll have the prestige of being one of the first to get godly gear, but you have basically rushed to farm. Also, if you're unlucky, you can find only sidegrades while my humble DH is farming on expert to get over her 50k dps and get to your level.

Imho, there is no reason to have an head start. What you'll get is just to get burned of the game fast. until you decide tio play the game for a very short time and then be done with it (perfectly fine).

[glowpipe]

More or less only thing i can tell you is to farm paragon levels. I cant even get myself to log on atm. So no more paragon for me. Just cba.

Wouldnt really care much about crafting mats either. Yes you can gather mats for your crusader. But for everything else there is new mats. And the crusader will come to lvl 60+ rather fast. So really no need to farm a lot of mats.

And all in all. you can just buy like 5k of each mat for dirt cheap on the AH now. The problem will still be getting common debris. It will hold you back no matter how many mats you have. No more debris from vendor gear. So it will be hard to come by

And as coldkill say. There really is no reason to gather up a lot of stuff and prepare.

[LonestarHero]

I may have had some miscommunication on my intent.

It's not preparation to have leg-up on ROS, but more of a stuff to enjoy in vanilla before it's gone type of thread.

[wowaccounttom]

just increase your paragon levels per character.

new/old gems drop enough
gold is very easy to get
even as a new character with no boa gear, you can easily clear content in higher difficulty

[Coldkil]

I may have had some miscommunication on my intent.

It's not preparation to have leg-up on ROS, but more of a stuff to enjoy in vanilla before it's gone type of thread.

Well, farm paragon levels Gear is going to be all replaced soon, but you get to bring over your paragon.

[glowpipe]

Only thing you might miss out when RoS is out. Are the large amount of monsters on screen at the same time.
Monster density seem to be utterly suckish atm

You might try to drag all mobs from festering woods and fields of misery into weeping hollow. That can count for some real crazy numbers

And one thing that you wont be able to do when RoS is out. Is getting the Feat of strength for getting to paragon 100 before paragon 2.0 hits live

[Lyn]

just increase your paragon levels per character.

new/old gems drop enough
gold is very easy to get
even as a new character with no boa gear, you can easily clear content in higher difficulty

Pretty much this, tbh.

[Slaughty8]

Possibly slightly offtopic question or maybe not.

I got chest filled with cool legendaries (meaning they are not worth much in AH, but usable for fresh max lvl character) and rares I stored there for other characters. Should I do something to them? I hear there is transmog or something? Should I just save all the cool looking items?

Blizzard said that pre-ros items won't be usable for trasmog. In order to trasmog, you will need an RoS dropped item. http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-trac...it-to-identify

[Glasse]

As someone that was was in the friend & family beta, I can tell you that "returning players" are not going to return for long. The game is exactly the same. If you got bored before, you will get bored now too, and fast.

I suggest just saving your money.

[Nerraw]

As someone that was was in the friend & family beta, I can tell you that "returning players" are not going to return for long. The game is exactly the same. If you got bored before, you will get bored now too, and fast.

I suggest just saving your money.

Did you expect the game to not be a classic ARPG after an expansion?

[Glasse]

No, but I expected the game not to be exactly the same. I'm going to use D2 and LOD as an example. The game changed a whole fucking lot. RoS is not changing much.

[Nerraw]

No, but I expected the game not to be exactly the same. I'm going to use D2 and LOD as an example. The game changed a whole fucking lot. RoS is not changing much.

You have clearly not read up on RoS then. Pretty much every single aspect of the game is changing in one way or another.

[Glasse]

You have clearly not read up on RoS then. Pretty much every single aspect of the game is changing in one way or another.

Not read up on it? You realize that, as I mentioned before, I've been in the friends & family beta since the first "wave". The game is EXACTLY the same. The only thing unavailable in it is the last boss fight.

[Nerraw]

Not read up on it? You realize that, as I mentioned before, I've been in the friends & family beta since the first "wave". The game is EXACTLY the same. The only thing unavailable in it is the last boss fight.

Would you expect the genre of the game to change in an expansion? Of course the gameplay is the same. It's everything besides the core gameplay that changes. Items, stat distribution, trading, classes, skills, game modes. All of those are changing in one way or another.

[Glasse]

I don't expect the game to change everything, but right now if I log on the beta, i get in a game i do the exact same thing I would do in d3, but I have bounties. Every single class plays the same, there are no real new goals, act 5 is nothing impressive (I did really like the westmarch commons area though), gear is the same, but with more stats, etc. Nothing really changed. The only reason they can call this an expansion instead of a patch is the extra 10 levels.

[Kelathos]

The game "changing a whole lot" IMO, would be if I can farm items for a reasonable return on time invested.

If, while farming, I can gradually see my character's power increase, slowly enabling higher difficulties.

If there are enough item drops for me try out new character builds. If it only takes a week or two to get started on those new builds, I'll be happy.

[Djuntas]

Common Debris = white items = Vendor items no?

Also I'm not inn beta or PTR, or anything...But I do worry ROS don't change alot, cause Diablo2 LOD sure as hell did.