Finished normal difficulty with Wizard, and I'm on Act 3 with Demon Hunter. I've been switching off the characters, I'm almost through act 1 on Nightmare with my Wizard.
Diablo tricks and tips: METAGAME
Use Elective Buttons so the skills you use the most are on the keys you want them on. Quite convenient.
THe Crafters RETAIN THEIR LEVELS between different characters. I didn't know this when starting the game, or at least was not certain of it. What this means is that if your first character can level up the crafters, your second and third+ characters are ASSURED of getting items respective for their level.
Your GOLD and CACHE CHEST are retained between characters. No need for muling. You just put the doodad you want from one character into the chest for the second.
INTELLIGENCE = RESISTANCES. Yeah, that's right. Your resistance to fire/cold/poison/lightning damage is based on your INT score. So, you can't hose it.
Dexterity = DODGE. AC = absorb damage (all types).
Str/Dex/Int: Damage based on stats is PERCENTAGE based...it modifies your weapon. Thus, at low levels, things that give you a +2-4, 3-6, 4-8 damage are VERY nice. It's about +1%/2 points, I believe...I could be wrong, and would love to know the real number.
So, if you've a weapon with 25 DPR, and you've a choice between +2-4 dmg and a +20 dex, go with the 2-4...the +20 dex will be +10%, which is only 2.5. As your weapon gets better and better, the fixed damage boosters become less and less important, until you want all + stat boosters if possible.
Vitality is VERY important. More health gives you time to stay alive and hopefully stay that well until the healing well is back full or your Potion Timer goes away.
Basic Gameplay.
1) Pick your first Two CHARACTERs. This is important because the loot creatures drop is generally 5-10 levels below what you can currently wield (i.e. a level 30 character is picking up level 20-25 stuff). This means you can supply someone lower level with loot that's really usable. It also means your highest level character generally has inferior stuff unless they use the Blizzard Auction House (I don't).
2) Grab loot for your second character, stow it in the chest. Level up the Smith and Gemcrafter so you can buy new stuff.
3) Don't pick up 'normal' junk, even at low levels. You make no money, you waste time, it takes up space. Magical stuff is the ONLY stuff worth picking up, and potions (because potions stack). Oh, and gems, at later levels. My wizard never grabbed anything that he wasn't either going to wear (the first few peices of armor) and I was level 7 before I had to sell anything.
4) If you buy anything from a vendor, you can buy it multiple times.
This is important because after Haedrig's Wife, you gain access to the fence that sells jewelry. If the vendors have weapons you can use, you can always grab TWO of them (useful if you're Dual Wielding Hand Crossbows).
You should always try to grab two Rings of +2-4 dmg (and if you're lucky, a bonus to attack speed). At level 7 or so when you get them, this should instantly double your damage and make your next few levels a cakewalk. If they have a decent weapon for your level, you'll clean up!
5) The Demon Hunter is probably the easiest class to solo with the first 15 levels, but the Wizard has a great mix of damage, AoE, and crowd control stuff, and the power of Diamond Skin is not to be underestimated. Invulnerability = perfect tanking, and when you've got the AoE's a wizard does, a few seconds of that is usually enough to wipe an area.
Note: I was always picking up potions and never using them. The cool down timer means that they are only good for emergencies, so you need to invest in Vitality items to up hit points, use the Templar for emergency heals. I had tons of excess potions all the time.
6) At lower levels, you've a huge need for cash...training up the crafters, expanding your cache, buying jewelry, etc. You have to salvage magic items to Haedrig to get the raw material for the stuff he makes, but you'll rapidly find that you'll rarely need his later items unless you've had particularly poor luck finding a decent belt.
Magic items are the only things that sell for serious money, so once you've a good stack of salvaged magical item goodies, you're set. Note that you can't salvage above 100 items in a stack. If your higher level guy dumps their extra salvage horns and eyes in the Cache for your lower levels to use, they never need to salvage anything but uniques.
7) My Demon Hunter is waaaaay ahead of where my Wizard was at her level. Actually, my Wizard is 34 and my DH is 28, and their damage is about the same (since the Wizard is earning gear for the DH). This is making things a ton easier for my DH then it was for my wizard.
Key Differences between classes
1) The wizard as a class is VERY good at monster killing. Reason? Arcane ORb. This spell you get early and use often. Sure, you only get 3 of them before you need to recharge...that's FINE. Because if you have any range, you'll get all three off on a foe before the first one hits, and you can devastate even the tougher blue and gold mobs that way...plus you can start hitting them with magic missiles before the last orb hits them!
I spent most of my first few levels using Arcane Orb and Magic Missile. I'd use Ray of Frost for emergencies, and upgraded later to Disintegrate at later levels. When Electrocute/Chain Lightning came up, that became my spell for the end of Act II/start of Act III, until the resistances of stuff seemed to get too high, and I went back to spamming magic missile in the Split foray.
It took me WAY too long to get a decent wand, and level 12-15 before I got an off hand source to help up my damage, so I was walking around with an Apprentice wand and shield for way too long.
For most of the Act II-IV, I was doing the Diamond Skin/Prism Armor for longform killing of powerful stuff, running around avoiding and healing in between the combo, and stacking magic missiles on the side. I did Use Arcane Torrent against Belial, but rapidly found out I needed a lot more Hit Points as my evasion ability was poor, and I was definitely subprime on the DoT. It took me 4 tries to kill him.
Interestingly enough, it only took me two tries to kill the Butcher...but the Butcher was reaming on my Demon Hunter. I think it's because the high Intelligence means I was much less susceptible to the area burn of the Butcher Arena.
At high levels, the Chaos Beam version of Disintegrate is all the AoE you will need, and will wipe out ANY rote mobs that get off on you if you spring your Prism Armor first.
Using Archon is even more powerful then Disintegrate, although the cooldown means you'll only use it once except on a really tough boss fight (I hit Diablo with it once before the shadow fight, and once after).
I soloed Diablo the first time with my wizard, no deaths. Health was high enough to take being captured and crushed multiple times, and I just had to wait between Prism armor and disintegrate regens.
Special Note: With Prism Armor up, your Cold Ray cost is reduced to O. Yes, you can literally sit there and spam a cold ray for the entire duration of the Armor, and your power doesn't get used up at all.
Henchman: I use the Templar. His job is emergency heals, speeding up my health regen, and engaging enemies a distance aways from me, which lets me set up AoE's centered on him. His stun charge is great, buys me time, and with the Chaos Ray, I can hose down multiple bad guys at one time, including a boss hiding behind minions, and the spell also takes care of any who pass him to get close to me.
Also, a disintegrate ray is a great way of destroying, say, 18 objects in a room in a few seconds...
I am using Meteor as a nice opening volley at a distance. If there's a cluster of enemies at the end of the screen, I can drop two Meteors on them and either kill them or really soften them up.
I use Magic Weapon for the +30% dmg buff. I have Glass Cannon and Astral Prescence and Evoker to up my damage output. If I can kill stuff before it gets to me, I don't have to worry about defenses.
Most of my Wizard gear is level 27 or lower, so damage is suboptimal. Hit points are over 2400, however. I'm using a unique wand with a flawless ruby in there for damage, and that has helped. Gem loot, Crafter pages and the like are being collected to level up the crafters, and of course the cash helps the lower levels.
Demon Hunter next.
==Aelryinth
Demon Hunter
1) At low levels, you'll probably want to dual wield if you can. The mechanics of dual wielding are +15% to attack speed. This is in contrast to a quiver, which is +10%. Given the speed of hand crossbows, get a pair with decent damage, and you should be able to do well for the lower levels.
Note: Dual wielding does NOT combine damage. You are literally shooting one xbow, then the other. Unless both are excellent damage, your damage can actually go DOWN (as I found out when I bought an Apprentice Crossbow and combined it with my initiate. I had to dump the Initiate).
At higher levels, when you get get higher base damage bows with good speeeds, and quivers with higher +attack speeeds, you're going to want to switch to a bow.
My wizard found a unique bow for my DH usable at 21 that was 32.5 dmg + socket + stats. After dumping in a flawless ruby, I was at 50ish base damage and really have been tearing through everything. Of course, that has since been replaced by another bow my wizard found that was 32.5 socketable, +90 dex. Yeah!
Most of my early levels were nothing but Penetrating Shots and Rapid fire, with the occasional swapout for Impale for some extra damage. Penetrating shots are useful because the shots find a target...as soon as something approaches you, if there's a shot in the air it turns to hit it.
I use the raven familiar for a little extra damage, and the Templar for the same reason I used him on my wizard...he draws attention and has heals for me.
However, things changed in act II when I got the Shock Collar from the entangling bolas. Now, not only was I slowing stuff, but it was basically an AoE lightning damage spell on top of it...I can elminate clusters and they can't even make it to me before I drop them. To add insult to injury, I have the Spider Familiar, which does 20% damage + slows an enemy, AND I'm using WIthering Fire..which is Rapid Fire that slows an enemy. On top of THAT...my passive skill does extra damage to any opponent that is slowed, AND I picked up the turret skill, which I can drop on the ground for important fights for even more damage output.
With Shock Collar and WIthering Fire, I'm basically tearing through stuff right now. I've found the whole caltrops line to be of little use, and the same with the dodge/evasion stuff. Shadow Smoke evasion I've almost NEVER used, or had reason to...indeed, most of the Discipline stuff is so far not of much use to me. Perhaps in the future. The Collar slows down enemies approaching me to a crawl, tethers them together, and then does damage on top of it all...most mobs never make it to me without teleporting or a leap attack. Large mobs are slowed on the advance and generally run right into Withering Fire that kills them before they can do anything to me.
The Butcher gave me problems, mostly because of the burning ground he starts up, and so I had to heal far too often to do the kind of offense I needed to kill him, and I didn't have a tanking option like the wizard does.
Belial, on the other hand, went down VERY quickly. The combination of templar, turret, spider, and my shock collar/withering fire attacks combined to Slow him right down to a crawl, and he died in his major form in under one minute. The fights before then weren't even a challenge...the snakes were collared and never quite reached me, and his initial foray was Slowed to a crawl and Withered to almost nothing extremely quickly.
I've just killed Ghom the Hunger lord in ACT III, and that was also simple. He died in two uses of Withering Fire, while slowed to a crawl by turret, spider and Collars while I waited. He didn't manage to vomit more then once, even.
Having actual level 27 gear at level 27 makes a BIG difference in firepower.
The most dangerous encounters I've had to contest with are mass missile AoE effects (lacuni throwers and those spider-constructs in act II, along with the wasps). If I don't get out of the way, those can be quite lethal. Learning to move around a bit was key, but I still don't use Evasive Fire or Strafing fire. Important at later levels, perhaps?
Wall makers that hem me in with a U-wall can be annoying, but anything approaching me along one vector isn't going to reach me, so I can generally survive until it crumbles.
Incidentally, this setup works great on treasure goblins. They are hit by so many slow attacks, they can't get away, cast or flee, and so generally the only thing I have to worry about is if they are around other monsters. A single withering volley is more then enough to do for them once they can't run.
I aim to try a barbarian build next, we'll see how that works out. It's going to take a while to get my wizard to Hell level at the pace I'm going, but I'm not in a rush. The game's going to be here a while.
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As a side note, I did play both Diablo a long time ago, and Diable II. Diablo II I made the mistake of playing a barbarian, and couldn't get past the Defenders of Arrarat on Nightmare, and basically gave up on the game.
I've been seeing that the melee classes have some definite problems on Inferno levels, where you really get the best loot, so we'll have to see how they solo.
I aim to slowly get all the classes up to sixty, one after another, and see how differently they play.
==Aelryinth
I haven't done any multiplayer yet, or tried hardcore. I would consider hardcore a major challenge, since a single glitch could lose you tons of time, and I want to be comfortable with all the classes before I would attempt something like that.
I'd be open to multiplayer if someone wants to contact me. I can't remember my name (Aelryinth####, can't remember the number), but I'm open to a game if someone wants to invite me.
==Aelryinth
Followers
I've used the templar for both the wizard and the DH. Neither has healing options, and the Templar works great as aggro bait for monsters, with a charge stun that can lock a unique for a few precious seconds. The combination is excellent.
I tried the Scoundrel with my DH, and the extra ranged damage didn't really seem to do much for me...and I got the aggro, not him, which isn't good for a DH.
Likewise, the no-aggro leaning of the ENchantress meant I didn't even try her. I look forwards to trying both of them on the barbarian and monk when I play, since both of those classes close to melee and aggro is not a factor, status effects are more useful and a little extra damage doesn't hurt.
==Aelryinth
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Barbarian is awesome. The key thing to remember is that while you can pretty much curbstomp Normal Mode by just maxing STR and picking up a little VIT almost by accident, on Nightmare mode you want to strike that tactic and reverse it. Nightmare hits a lot harder, but if you pay a lot of attention to Vitality and health/regen mods, you will live through it, although you'll take awhile to kill most things.
Not sure if Ael said this, but - if you use the auction house for one thing, as soon as you find a slotted helm, go buy yourself the best ruby you can afford and put it there (and leave it there). Getting like 15% extra experience for every kill is nothing to sneeze at at all.
I just started Nightmare on my Barb, going pretty easy so far. Playing 1-handed with shield, mostly STR, some VIT. I stick with Frenzy, for the attack speed and use a lot of "Life on Hit" and "Life Steal" gear. Most bosses have been slow, but really easy throughout, I just heal all the damage they do. The only thing that ever gets me is something that has a single large hit, then I just have to play careful.
The other thing to buy on the AH is weapons. It costs about as much gold as you make in 15 minutes to buy a level appropriate weapon with pretty much the exact stats you're looking for. Don't get Legendary items, just get decent Rare items, you're going to replace them after a couple hours of gameplay anyways.
I found Nightmare a breeze on my Witch Doctor. Hell, however, was a game changer. Champion groups, that were usually just a nuisance on Nightmare, will kill the heck out of you. Elites and bosses are easy, but those darn champions...
In essence, this was an issue that was originally brought up in Diablo II (and subsequently fixed), and now reintroduced in D3. Certain random special ability combinations are just instant-killers. How do you like creatures who literally can't die? Bleah. They fixed that in D2. Let's hope they will fix it in D3 as well.
Certain random special ability combinations are just instant-killers. How do you like creatures who literally can't die? Bleah. They fixed that in D2. Let's hope they will fix it in D3 as well.
Mortar is my least favorite creature ability.
Motar + anything is pretty brutal.
Arcane Enchanted + Vortex, I get pulled into giant groups of spinning lasers and die.
Nightmare is starting to get a bit harder for my wizard.
She's six levels behind as far as her weapon goes.
Oh, oh oh!
I didn't realize the wizard can use ANY weapon and it does the base damage. Here I was an idiot and thinking she had to use a wand. GAH. So those swords with massive Intellect bonuses are actually useful! A wizard can actually be running around with a sword and shield!
heh. So, she's running around with a socketed sword with a ruby in it now, and a glowing skull in the other.
Buffed damage is ALMOST to one thousand.
Playing my archer today. Bunch of gear in the trunk for her to blow her DPR wide open. And some Perfect gems from the wizard. Levelling up that smith and gemcaster takes a lot of money, you know? She's so far ahead of damage vs the wizard at her level its not funny.
A 15% bonus on xp sounds great, up until you realize that it means +1 level/7 levels...or, you get 8 levels when the guy next to you gets 7. Not sure it's worth it to give up a stat slot, but who knows? I'll have to look at my options.
I do know that unless I can basically double my DPR soon, I'm going to start having real problems.
==Aelryinth
Mortar is my least favorite creature ability.Motar + anything is pretty brutal.
Mortar + Jailer. :(
Well, finished Demon Hunter. I didn't go whole hog on Dex, so ending DPR was about 520...which was over a hundred higher then my wizard when I did the end fight.
My ending array was the Hatred boost, Archery for the extra damage, and Cull the Weak for extra damage to slowed creatures. That nicely took care of the penalty on shock collar, and webbing shot meant everything I used rapid fire on was slowed, so no reason to use a higher damage form.
I alternated between the spider and the bat at the end, the former because it slowed stuff, the latter because I could let go a REALLY long blast of rapid fire.
Diablo was actually killed by my firespitting turret. I ran around in circles, let off a couple volleys, and the turret just kept plinking, and the bat nipping at him. I had almost three thousand life for the fight, and he only managed to do the cage and scream thing once, I got some distance with smoke screen and went back to fighting.
I'm thinking of going to the broader engtangling effect, or the one that lasts 4 seconds. Anchoring a strong bad guy to a weak little minion is a nice way to tie them up for a few seconds.
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Restarted the game on Nightmare for DH, just got done with the skeleton king. Not that hard a fight, all things considered. Groups of blues are the most dangerous thing for me now, as people pointed out...its very hard to outrun them, especially if they are teleporters or Swift. Slowing them helps, but they've got so many hit points that unless I can double my DPR I'm not going to be able to bring them down with a volley.
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Going to try my wizard again tongith, after working on the barbarian. I'm trying to understand how Elective Mode works. Does this allow you to choose two of the same type of abilities? Because FOrce Armor + Prism Skin would just utterly rock, you know?
Here's to the discovery process on the barbarian!
==Aelryinth
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There was a hotfix on force armor and prism skin iirc. But yes, that is how elective mode works. You can put any powers you like in your 1,2,3,4 and right and left click buttons.
I'm playing a monk, beat diablo at level 42 in NM, now I'm running around leveling so I can start Hell at level 50.
I've been playing with a Demon Hunter, I stand and tank while he shoots everything, seems to work well. I'm like a kung fu speed bump.
Once you hit nightmare, the elites and champions actually become more dangerous than the bosses. You'll see a lot of frozen arcane, or arcane teleporters etc...
Hello all, i pratically just started the game (Celestria,19 level wizard-just got to second act) and i'm really appreciating it.
I was considering whether to change char now or finish the game with the wizard first.
And i would like to try multiplayer too,but being italian i probably play on an european server.Anyone else from europe here?
My battletag is "nagaifan#2108"
Hello all, i pratically just started the game (Celestria,19 level wizard-just got to second act) and i'm really appreciating it.
I was considering whether to change char now or finish the game with the wizard first.
And i would like to try multiplayer too,but being italian i probably play on an european server.Anyone else from europe here?
My battletag is "nagaifan#2108"
You can switch between EU and US servers as you like, though it doesn't remember your characters, friend list or, no kidding, game settings across server region.
Aaaand just completed barbarian on normal. I didn't die until Act 3, when the Plague Mauler spells took me out while I was trying a big honking 2H axe out. I went back to shield, and lived through their spells.
He finished at level 32...two levels higher then he would have without wearing a flawless ruby in his helm since level 15.
So, meh on the +11% xp from monsters, 2 levels over 30? I suppose...
Finished with about 540 DPS, using a socketed rare dagger. I could have gone two handed and done humungous damage, but the barbarian's survivability really goes into the ground without a shield. Tried it on on Act III, and those plague fiends really messed him up with no shield.
The hardest fight was actually Izual...until I went back, swapped out some Strength for some vitality, got myself +600 life, and then killed him.
Diablo just wasn't that difficult. I popped the Three Stooges on him, which amounts to +280% damage for 15 seconds, and he got to half life and sent me off quickly. I Bashed him for the stun effect, giving me extra time, and Frenzied hits with the dagger kept chopping into him. So far, I'm 3/3 on Diablo.
For passives I had 3% life gain, weapon master, and extra armor.
Oh, and I forgot to war cry for more armor. Meh.
Frenzy works really good with a dagger, because it swings so fast you generate more Rage. I find it really annoying that the barbarian basically starts a fight out as unprepared to fight.
My usual moves were Stun Stomp, Weapon Throw (for the pesky archers running away), Revenge (latent), the three stooges (for big fights), Cleave (Rupture = exploding bad guys), and Frenzy for the boss mobs. Frenzy took out Azmodan, Belial, Ghom, and a bunch of rares.
My final moves were Stun Stomp (used twice, Diablo only stays stunned a second), War Cry for armor (forgot to use), Earthquake (finisher move for big damage), Ancients (summon the three stooges), Bash (stun) and Frenzy (ramp up the attack speed...basically rapid fire for barbarians)
I used the Scoundrel all the way through, ending up with him doing triple shots, and getting him up to 50 dps...x3 shots, so, about 30% of mine at the end, with an inferior weapon.
New Discoveries: Your NPC followers, including the ssmith and covetous, actually have highly developed backstories. Argh. Never bothered to talk to them about everything with my first two characters!
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I got both the monk and witch doctor to level 10 (up through the Skeleton King).
Nobody clears mooks like the monk. Using the teleporting fist of doom, my monk fought in the soul jar room and killed 83 SKELETONS. Homg. I couldn't believe it. Those short range AoE's of his are just killer.
However, the witch doctor was the best ranged attacker at low levels. That triple shot poison spit is equal to 180% damage, with a carryover to the next in line if you kill something. I consider it better then Penetrating Shot for the DH. With your infinitely resuable zombie hounds + Templar running interference, stuff rarely got close to me...and then there's an 80% slow effect, long duration, with 20% dmg/second on top of that? HOMG, the combo is fracking lethal. Stuff almost never got close to me.
I'm getting low on gems to equip my guys, so I probably should play my wizard and get more as loot. Done a lot of Diabloing this weekend!
I dunno why, but I've got a 'starter kit' set aside, for optimizing your low level characters. 10.2 dmg 0 level dagger, health regening armor peices, shield, all the good stuff. Trying to keep some max damageby level weapons around to swap between characters as they level. A 26.4 dmg spear at level 13 is a big bump up, but when you get a socketable weapon at level 15, watch out, you own the road. Really, getting LEVEL APPROPRIATE STUFF at the LEVEL YOU CAN USE IT makes so much difference, it's not funny. I shudder to think what my barb might have been capable of using level 32 gear in that final fight. Some of the real optimizers hit 700-1000 dps having level 30 gear in that final fight with Diablo. Must be nice!
==Aelryinth
My wizard is now 42.
A level 38 rare mace with base 83 DPR and socketed with a radiant ruby gets me, with Magic Weapon/Force weapon, up to about 1500 DPR. It's not keeping up with enemies, but it's still a nice number to look at.
Custom spell bar is now Prism, Storm Armor, Magic Weapon, Archon, Disintegrate, Arcane Orb. Storm Armor up is basically a Disintegrate extender as good as Prism Skin...with both up, Disintegrate is basically free to cast. I Disintegrate everything now, and Arcane Orb if I can snipe. Four orbs won't kill elites, but they still do a good job softening stuff up.
Debating swiping out Archon for Teleport and learning how to pop around the screen.
Passive skill, using the one that cuts cooldown timers. Never have to be without Prism more then ten seconds. Its been modified that it soaks dmg=your hit points before dying early.
Anyone noticed that the Vitality modifier to hp jumps to +15/Vitality at higher levels?
Debated using Frost Ray instead of Arcane Orb for sniping...the slow effect is nice. But using Slow Time might be more useful instead...and let me catch those pesky treasure goblins!
Not too far from having to take on Belial again. Not sure how it's going to go!
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Discovered there are three tabs on your Cache chest. Gah. 160k later, I offloaded a lot of gear I was saving for lower level characters. Now to accumulate another 260k.
Not sure why I levelled up the smith, all things told. All the gear he makes is worse then loot, 5-10 levels lower in damage then stuff you can get at the level you can make it. I guess you could make good gear for lower level characters...but wahoo?
The jeweller at least is good for making bigger jewels. More damage, please!
Probably going to level my monk up a few next. If I can get him to 23 I can dump the majority of his old gear and clean up a bunch of room for him.
==Aelryinth
Levelled up my DH a bit instead.
Found that using Smokescreen breaks you out of Snares and Locks. That is extremely useful. Doesn't help with walls, however...
Preparation used to regen all Hatred makes for a VERY long burst of Rapid Fire, hehe.
I still have no use for the big blast volley effects. I don't want to go the vaulting route, but that ability to move a long ways and get away from enemies is just nice.
Staying with Shock Collar to slow and Withering Fire to finish. With the Cull the Weak, Shock Collar actually does normal damage and Withering Fire gets the nice boost.
Plus, my DH can catch and kill them dem Treasure Goblins. The goblins are immune to stuns, but not slows. bat Regen+Quiver+Templar regen means I get Hatred back really fast, which makes for a very loooooong burst of sustained fire if needed.
I wonder if it's possible to have two different Rapid fires on the buttons? Being able to alternate between web shot and rocket shots would be nice.
UP to a base 79.5 damage bow on DH, base DPR is over 1k, using that plus a dex-boosting quiver.
Got my first Legendary Item with my DH, a 186 Armor Breastplate. Kind of sweet, unlike so many of the rares I come across.
==Aelryinth
Plus, my DH can catch and kill them dem Treasure Goblins. The goblins are immune to stuns, but not slows. bat Regen+Quiver+Templar regen means I get Hatred back really fast, which makes for a very loooooong burst of sustained fire if needed.
I've never lost a treasure goblin since trying out the monk's teleporting electric fist thingy, it's virtually impossible for them to get away without immediately being nailed another dozen times. >:)
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Aaaand just completed barbarian on normal. I didn't die until Act 3, when the Plague Mauler spells took me out while I was trying a big honking 2H axe out. I went back to shield, and lived through their spells.
He finished at level 32...two levels higher then he would have without wearing a flawless ruby in his helm since level 15.
So, meh on the +11% xp from monsters, 2 levels over 30? I suppose...
Well, I was using a flawless square ruby, but then I unabashedly use the auction house. I was getting about 16% (although I forget the exact number) more XP for each kill, as opposed to 11%. In addition, I am not really paying attention to where I finished Normal - it's all in how long it takes time-wise to get to 60, in order to get nephalem valor stacks and thus a better chance of really decent items. I'm going to hit 60 about halfway through Hell difficulty, which isn't bad.
To each his own, I suppose. I am also just playing one character, and probably WILL only play one, because for me the draw is getting well-equipped for PvP - I am guessing it's going to be a LOT of fun.
Just finished up the monk on normal.
Wow. Good gear makes the difference. I didn't even try to do dual wield or 2h...none of the benefits were as good as having the shield there to block. Ended up at the end with sword and shield and doing it like a paladin...tanking with regen life mantra, fire mystic ally, and doing Strike of a hundred fists while Diablo tried to keep up with my regen and self-heals. I blew Spirit on the big bell strike for AoE's...his AoE spam was better then my mage's. So far, definitely the toughest and most resolute of the classes, and penetrating strike when not facing bosses was usually enough distance strike to deal with snipers.
Didn't die even once with the monk. I'm sure the gear appropriate for level was part of it, but still...wow, wasn't expecting that. Adding dex to armor was just icing. I don't think I used more then five healing potions on the way to the end, there was just no need.
Hmm, what else did I find out? there's still new dungeons I haven't been in. There's books inside the bar in caldeum that grant a nice xp bonus. I made sure to tour the people between every act and see what they were saying...that was fun. Cheering crowds in Caldeum at the end, there.
Izual has never dropped the recipe for the mystic pony level, the rotter. Do I have to keep running Act IV to get it? Bleh.
Time to get the Witch Docter through. Based on his performance through the Butcher, I don't think that's going to be all that hard.
I think my favorite is still the Demon Hunter, but at this point, she's actually been the hardest one to play through because of the lack of tanking ability. Running away all the time isn't quite as much fun when the stuff is so tough on Nightmare.
==Aelryinth
Wow, Witch Docter just steamrolled Azmodan on normal. Between Templar, Gargant zombie going humongous, 4 zombie dogs, and 180% normal damage spam attacks, I crushed him in like 30 seconds.
I figure between dogs (4x18%), zombie (200%), and Templar (15%) + base attack, I was doing something like 460% base weapon damage. Blew up one set of dogs, summoned another, and blew them up to finish him off.
And I've been in danger of dying ONCE. That wall of dogs + Templar and now zombie just attracts all the attention, lets me drop huge AoE acid vomit and Grasping Hands all over my enemies. I've literally never run out of mana, because I've no need to use it that fast.
Does this hold true on Nightmare and Hell levels? Just, wow.
And I've never failed to kill a Treasure Goblin that I saw. Grasping hands + blowgun + dogs does for them quick.
==========
Wizard is now 52 and going into Nightmare Heaven. I lucked into a level 47 staff at 180 DPR and that's keeping her sort of in the damage output hunt. Still, she has the hardest time of all my characters.
I DID find out you can do Magic Weapon AND a familiar at the same time, and they stack. I think that's the only thing keeping me in the damage race.
Chaos Nexus disintegrate is my default spell. It has decent range, good damage, and auto-acquires stuff that gets in close to me, and if it's big, hits it with main beam and a secondary. With Prism Skin up and Storm Armor, that beam lasts a LOOOOOOng time. Prism armor going down when you take damage really hurts her endurance, but being able to butcher hordes of weenies closing in was too good to give up.
On the other side, my Templar screening for me now has 13000 hit points and is quite the beast!
----------
Demon Hunter is on Nightmare Act III. With a Bat Familiar can do sustained Rapid fire for a good fifteen seconds, entangling shots are still slowing stuff down. My key variable is the familiar. If I'm in an area of confined space, I'm better off with the SPider slowing things down before they can get to me, so I can retreat. With weenie hordes, the boar might be better at clearing out thickets, but I'll have to see.
BecaUse my DH gets her gear from my wizard, her DPS is okay, but I'm not finding much decent Dex/Int/Vit gear...I seem to get Str instead of Int when I don't have a choice. As a result, her Resistances are pretty low. I'm still using Webbing Shot, but I'm dropping the rocket sentry more and more to supplement my firepower and actually make use of Discipline. Smoke Screen can let me run away from anything but a wall, and get me out of most locks. It took me two tries on Belial, but he was 2% away from dead when he killed me the first time.
New stuff this run through: Does Leah really have 16 journal parts? I've never read a journal in Act II. 16 was the last one about halfway through III...I kept going back to check when the quests updated.
The treasure chest dungeon! I tried running through it, but way too much stuff in the way and my DH died. Didn't know the way, either.
One of the above posters was commenting how he wanted to be level 50 before he hit Hell. That's frankly amazing to me...my wizard is 52 already and just did the first part of Nightmare Heaven. Probably be 55 by the time she reaches Diablo. I guess they don't wipe out every map like I am compelled to do.
Hah, just read the Arginis stuff and finally found out about the old Angel of Wisdom you never see. Four guys gone through Heaven and finally saw that. I somehow never managed to run across that tale.
Still no Izual dropping the thing for the pony level.
The stories of the NPCs change slightly with every class you play. It's fun seeing the differences. Likewise, the chat when playing with the different classes is different. The scoundrel's comments in Act I are particularly funny. ("You see, THIS is why I don't get married!" "Oh, no, I'm much more comfortable in a fallen church then a real one.")
I got BOTH necromancer events on my Witch Docter run this time, the second one for the first time. That was pretty cool. There was a first time event where a guard in ACt 3 in the garrison dungeon has you trying to help find his friend, too. Got it for the first time, then twice in a row.
And on top of that, I JUST noticed that garrison dungeon was there when my wizard went through Act III on nightmare. I totally missed it on four other run throughs. Meh.
Finally managed to see what the Act III ballista looked like by coming down on one from above it before it got blown up. Heh, impressive. I STILL don't know what the trebuchet looks like...it blows up before I can get close enough to see it, and you can't see it because of the pit around it when coming down from above.
A new personal record of followers. Witch doctor, 4 dogs, gargant zombie, templar, and five human cultists set free of succubi (they got murdered quick). Of course, the horde when Belial is bombing Caldeum and you've got refugees behind gets big, too.
Finally managed to set 11 people free in Arcanis and got that acheivement (the quest stops at 8 for some reason).
So many of those acheivements pop up and I've no idea what they mean. I wish they'd tell me.
Killing Belial, exiting his lair, and running back out and through the town to see all the cheering people is kind of fun.
IS it actually worthwhile to have the smith make magic items? At the level you can make them at, he makes junk. Does he make stuff usable by lower levels? I could totally see using him then.
So far, I've had only one repeat Rare, and that was a level 27ish mace. Rares tend to have damage less then the max for their level, but more stat buffs to offset them.
Two legendary items, the al 178 armor, and the level 37ish triple orbs. Used the latter for some time...legendaries have all been worth using on someone, unlike the rares, which are often times just junk.
Next up...finishing up witch docter Heaven on normal, or Wizard Heaven on Nightmare. I anticipate a slaughter of Diablo on the former, and a knuckle-biter on the latter.
==Aelryinth
oh, and I played the barb on Nightmare up to the Butcher. DId soul jar with him.
Only killed 72 skels with his AoE swings. The monk and teleporting fist of doom still has the lead!
==Aelryinth
I'm a 54 wizard on hell mode. It's amusing, but I'm losing interest in the game.
Playing one character will do that.
Having each of the characters go through with each of the NPC followers is fun, because they say different things depending on who is with who.
Covetous Shen told a story about one of his ex-wives to the Witch Doctor that he never told any of the other characters.
The scoundrel managed to piss off the Demon Hunter by intimating that he learned the crossbow so he could run away if he missed, and she said that the crossbow was not the weapon of a coward. "Oh, touched a nerve, did I?"
:)
Playing multiple characters has been fun. Being able to get decent gear for my new characters by using the older characters really helped speed them along in the slaughter.
My Witch Docter is already over 700 DPS, and he's about to start act IV. If I had better jewels and a level 30 weapon, he'd be over 800, maybe higher. He's rocking the clock.
==Aelryinth
Final verdict for me -- a tad more than Meh.
I just finished the game with my 32 Witch Doctor on normal. I was using a pure AoE build. Basically Plague dogs, Gargantuan with Cleave (unless a major boss which is use the rune for extra boss damage), groping hands, Jungle Drums, the Cloud with the Lob Glob rune, poison darts of course (the triple shot ones), etc. I used Vampire bats on occasion for some close range stuff.
The fight with Diablo made my build semi worthless. I used Dogs but swapped the rune for the one that gives em a chance to drop health globes, same gargantuan, used wall of zombies in place of the hands, fetish army over cloud, etc. basically a ranged DPS build over AoE. Diablo dead on the 2nd attempt.
Oh never changed Zombie Handler, Fetish Sycophants, and one other that eludes me ATM.
Overall I had trouble bringing myself to play some nights which is unheard of for me as a blizzard game fan. It just didn't grab me as the other two did. Maybe I'm just getting older and my tastes are changing, I don't know. I did enjoy the game though.
I dabbled with nightmare mode a little but I'm not sure I'll keep going on this character. I want to try a different class but playing a game more than once normally doesn't work with me.
PS. The end movie/cutscene was a tremendous let down next to the previous scenes. The ending felt rushed to me. Not necessarily act IV, just the end dialogue after downing Diablo and the end movie.
I used zombie handler, the one that mitigates 20% damage, and I forget.
Diablo first time. Admittedly, I was being supplied gear by higher level characters, and DPS was close to 800. I believe if you have all 30+ gear you can easily hit a 1000 on the DPS meter. Most of mine was in the 27 range instead of the 23.
Blowing up my dogs, summoning more, and sending those in to blow up again was actually kind of fun!
I note the Witch Docter's AoE is MUCH nicer then the wizard. The wizard has that damn delay before it goes off with the Meteor. Arcane Orb doesn't cover quite the area. The biggest AoE is the freaking monk, when he does that bell strike that radiates out from him. Run into the middle of the enemy hordes in Act III and kill them all. Wipes half the screen.
==Aelryinth
Ugh. That was a hard three hours last night.
I decided to get my wizard through Nightmare. So, I'm walking in with Prism Skin, Storm Armor (spells cost less), Magic Weapon (force weapon) and Familiar (arcanot), with Disintegrate-Chaos Nexus and Arcane Hydra as my defaults, with Skills as Double length/fast healing Armor, boosted Arcane, and shorter cool downs so I can cycle Prism Skin. With Prism Skin up, I literally do NOT use up power for Disintegrate.
And all was working fine until I got to Izual.
It turns out that a Prism Skin + 7800 hit points translates as two swings to Izual. Combine with his frost explosions, and I was getting beat over the head.
I had to swap in a lot of vitality items to get my HP to nearly 12k, and my DPS went from 2800 down to 1800. I was REALLY lucky to find a hammer that was 178 DPS vs my 2h staff of 186, and I grabbed a shield with an Int bonus to help block stuff. I changed Prism armor to the double hit point version, hydra to lightning, offensive power to the Numbing Cold Ray, and my whole game plan was basically run around the pits in the room and try to stay alive while slowing him down with damage occasionally, trying to survive being hit if caught in frost burst, blasting the helpers he brought in, and trying really, really hard not to die.
It took me seven times. Man, my Demon Hunter is going to have a real problem unless she gets level 50 gear.
I then had the experience of meeting invincible elites. For your edification, I present to you Vampiric Frozen Elite fallen angels, 4 of them, when you have Tyreal. Even after dismissing the templar, they'd just swarm him for a few seconds and be back to full health. I could sit there and blast them and their health would NOT go down.
I had the choice of trying to run away from them into uncharted territory or start the section over. I started over, forgetting I'd have to go through Izual again...but this time, I managed to kill Izual JUST as he killed me, so I didn't have to replay it. Phew.
And then I made it to Diablo.
More Ugh.
It quickly became apparant I'd have to use the same tactics, except Diablo can teleport. Happily, he has the two healing wells there which give you some relief, you can blast him from across the openings.
It took me ten tries to beat him. I kept getting killed in the nightmare realm when my double would pop up, hit me with three Arcane orbs one after another, and I'd bite it. That sucked.
Ended up giving up Magic Weapon for Teleport so I could at least flee when I had to, and run around until my health regened to a decent point.
Then I died in the second half with Diablo when that multi-colored flame sweep would come up and grind right through my health. Teleport, Prism Armor, Potions and those healing wells finally kept me alive long enough, in between the occasional frost ray slowing down his charges, to kill him.
Ugh. On to Hell level!
Leaping fast uniques and elites on Hell level suck. They tend to evade damage with hits and runs, they have too much life, and they last longer then my prism skin.
Maybe I'll have to start going full time with a shield instead of a power item off hand. That would suck...I'm finally up over 3k DPS, and that would drop it back down to 2200 or so. Makes a huge difference when Disintegrating stuff. I've been waffling on what to use for damage...ARcane Orbs can do a lot of damage, but they chew through mana, are slow, and miss a lot...although they AoE. Disintegrate just seems to be all around the most useful, especially the Nexus since it targets stuff close by. Biggest problems are targeting the main beam on elites and the lack of range.
I've had to give up the magic weapon to keep Teleport on my bar as a fleeing tool, it's the only way out of being jailed or mobbed for my wizard.
Oh, and turns out you get almost no xp killing things on Hell level. I went through the first few quests to get a feel for everything, and just about all xp comes from quest completions, not from monsters. Ugh.
I did finally get the staff thing off Izual, now I just have to go back and play through the Acts to get the components to make the Staff of Herding. Ugh again. Heh.
I did level up the blacksmith for the heck of it once I got five tomes, but was not impressed with what I made. Hrm. Well, I got my first square gem in loot, and now it's just to level up the jeweller and get better jewels...
==Aelryinth
I'm also playing through Nightmare with a Wizard, though in Act 2.
I open with Blizzard/extra Slow instead of Hydra, and enjoy using the corpse explosion rune for Disintegrate; 395% weapon damage AoE explosions beat an extra 40% beam when tee-ing off on packs of mooks (and it pulls double duty for softening up the rare/unique monsters). Not sure how it'll work against bosses, but both the Butcher and Maegdha were a joke with that setup.
In general, I tend to lean more heavily toward Vitality than you seem to - with the corresponding loss in DPS, of course. At 40/41, I'm at 8000hp and 1500 dps and Nightmare has been, on average, easier than Normal. It probably helps to finally be getting some decent drops, though - my average item level against Normal Diablo was like 17-20 so I died an infuriating number of times.
What is your stat prioritization when choosing between items to equip?
That's an interesting question. One of the problems with my wizard is that I don't want to skimp on damage because she's already using gear 5-10 levels lower. DPS went down to 1800 when I got HP over 11k. I'm trying to find INt/Vit items in tandem, with sockets as kickers, but since I don't buy stuff on the auction house...and I just got my first square gem as loot, haven't found enough tomes to level the jeweller yet.
The blizzard setup sounds useful, I may look at that. COrpse explosion sounds like a good mook thing, I'll look at that, too. It won't do for boss mobs that don't spawn critters, however, or at least ones that aren't close by. I was wondering if there was another direct damage effect that would scale better. Frost beam is default 215% vs 155 for disin, but Disin arcane damage just seems to kill faster. Frost beam is basically free to cast, but Disin piercing through everything in the beam is just nice.
I played my DH through Act III Nightmare last night, but she had almost the same gear level as my wizard, and was doing pretty good. She also has Dex/Vit +possible INt stuff everywhere. Her hit points are now almost 16k! She has no invulnerability, so she needs them...the problem is again the lack of healing options/timers. I had to switch to Preparation/Healing for emergencies. 16k Hit points also takes a looooong time to fast heal back. Smokescreen is VERY good for getting out of locks, including frosted locks, so that's a major plus when planning for Izual.
I noticed an interesting effect between a crossbow and hand crossbow...the latter TEARS through my Hatred on autofire, and the former does not...I can do over 20 seconds of sustained fire with a crossbow vs the HC, which is under ten seconds. The HC can adminster a lot more status effects, sure enough...and this is with the Bat familiar.
I'm using Entangling shot because it slows stuff down, but it seems to have less effect on elites, being more useful with slowing down mobs by slowing down the ones in front, which piles up the ones behind. For Azmodan I went back to Hungering Shot, since it basically auto-hits and the pierces are the same as hitting him multiple times, and didn't use Hate. Still, Azmodan basically died to the Sentry Rocket fire as I ran around and tried to avoid his fireballs, AoE's and zones of Hellfire on the floor. I used the skill to double the time of hte sentry turrets to keep up the pressure on him, and my damn spider kept coming back to escort me instead of whaling on the bastard.
I might have to give up the familiar entirely for boss fights, as it just isn't that useful unless it keeps putting out damage. I don't know. The ability to vault/backflip and get away from something sounds extremely useful to me, if I've got room to do it, especially for boss fights.
We'll see how many times Izual kills me.
===Aelryinth
The Auction House is terrible anyways. I could enumerate its many failings, but suffice to say functionality is effectively non-existant. Whether buying or selling, I honestly can't decide which is more of a PITA.
I got pwnd hard by several groups of converging rare/unique monsters last night. Hydra would have been a much better spell to have on my bar, which just goes to show that every ability has a time and place!
I really enjoyed my Witch Doctor, level 33 at the end of the Normal run-through. Upgraded gear right before Azmodan (got lucky with crafting, admittedly, with helpful stats), and that fight was a joke. I think luck had a lot to do with it, but basically I spammed Spirit Barrage (is that what it's called?), and he was down to a sliver of a health bar when I was out of mana, and he started spawning those large areas of damage, so that delayed his death. I think if I tried it again, I might be able to take him down before he does that, by not running and just dealing the last couple blasts needed for the kill.
Diablo would have been a complete cakewalk if I wasn't stupid and kept being slow to avoid the cages, so several super potions helped there. I didn't figure the pattern on that, whether it was a damage threshold, or a timer. My guess is damage threshold. But anyway, zombie dogs were next to useless there, except for the explosions, but I might have been better served changing those skills out for others.
My standard skill load-out was (I might be mixing up the sources of abilities): 1) zombie dogs with absorb 10% damage rune, or sometimes the poison damage rune 2) sacrifice zombie dogs, with rune for 35% chance to come back at full health, 3) Spirit Barrage, with rune for mana return on hit, 4) Gargantuan, with cleave rune, but the enrage rune for bosses (because I imagine that otherwise that would activate constantly and uncontrollably), LMB) Poison darts, rune for x3 at 60%, RMB) Acid cloud, rune for extended range. Passives: 20% damage reduction, +1 zombie dog and enhanced health for minions.
Working on Wizard now, but I feel so... alone. No NPC yet, no minions... I really enjoyed the Witch Doctor's entourage. So I'll play some nightmare occasionally when bored with the Wizard. I haven't thoroughly looked through all the upcoming abilities, but it's pretty much all runes now, so no real significant changes to style, probably.
The gold auction house is not so bad. I have friends that swear by it, to get good gear, but I really don't like the user interface, and I'd rather play the game than go through item lists. I did pick up a really good weapon for damage, and sold a couple items, but that's about it.
Did you collect some good gear for your wizard while adventuring as a witch docter?
Let me tell you, getting level appropriate gear makes a huge level of difference. You're five to ten levels ahead in damage of your first character.
Of course, I also didn't realize that a wizard's damage was based on whatever weapon was in her hand, and not just a wand. That didn't help my initial run through.
Now, I've got a pack mule DH running around with optimized level 7 gear. Owie. he was doing more then my default DH was at 12.
I let my minions kill Diablo, I just shot him with acid pops...dogs and zombies did almost all the damage. It wasn't even a contest. Blew the dogs as the finisher.
The cages are less a timing issue then a choice, and can generally be avoided. Like the tunnel worms, the ground blackens where they are about to pop up, giving you time to move out of their area. Now, avoiding his rainbow flame sweep is a tad harder...
For the wizard, you're going to be tanking him with Prism skin and some form of offensive spell, usually disintegrate, but YMMV. If your witch docter can get a level 30 weapon to your wizard, it won't be much of a fight, even!
I've got a set of swords that has now passed through the hands of 4 characters levelling them up in normal :P. Actually, I think one of them the Templar has now used five times...
==Aelryinth
I was pretty short-sighted with respect to keeping useful gear for future characters. Then again, I wasn't sure which class I'd want to move to. But no big deal, I'll just pay more attention this time around. I do have the blacksmith leveled pretty far, so at least that can fill a few gaps.
The Diablo cage thing was more of my inability to pay attention :P At my best, I dodged a few, and thinking I was in the clear, got snagged by later ones. Still didn't kill me, though. Not trying to be cocky, but I'm hoping the later difficulties really do ramp it up, and isn't just the same stuff with higher level numbers. I should have lost for mistakes like that, but that might be offset by the fact I didn't neglect vitality.
I really want to try all the classes, but, oh, it's gonna take a while!
It turns out that a Prism Skin + 7800 hit points translates as two swings to Izual.
Barely 8,000 health by the end of Nightmare? o.O
I think my witch doctor had something like 24,000 health by that time. And it still didn't feel like enough. :)
Yeah, well, remember it's my wizard, with sublevel gear. She's not finding the nice Int+Vitality stuff...I had to GIVE UP Int, and damage, to get more HP. Sucked.
also, DH gets 2 Vit a level, Wiz gets 1. Rotter!
Stazamos, I haven't yet done the Witch Docter in Nightmare, but OH BOY is there a difference in fighting elites in Nightmare.
1) You can't just kill them as they come at you. They've got too many hit points. They are fast, or teleport, or leap at you. They do incredible damage. They are molten, they spin vortexes and drag you into them, they are chained and fry you, they spurt out arcane axis to kill you...
Diablo with every character was basically a slaughter on normal, once my wizard did it. Good gear + decent tactics and I basically tore through everything. Diablo couldn't deal damage faster then the 20% my barb got back with frenzied blows, couldn't get past the armor and self-healing of my monk, and couldn't reach me with my Witch Docter's pets ripping him apart. My DH basically stood back with webbing shots and Rapid Fire'd him to death.
In contrast, last night it took me an hour and a half to get the right equipment configuration to beat him on Nightmare. I was pleasantly suprised how well my DH did against Izual, but I had to tweak things.
1) hand crossbows blew through my hatred too fast. If you're going to snipe off single shots, you want higher damage. So, I ended up using a 2h crossbow instead of a hand crossbow or bow.
2) I had 19000 life at the end there on Nightmare, and I still couldn't tank him. There are very important limits on self-healing for most of the classes. Even with a crossbow that was giving me back 91 life every time I hit him with rapid fire, I couldn't heal fast enough...and of course that ran through hatred like a sieve.
3) The dream realm is an absolute killer, because you have no healing capability other then what you bring with you. That is EXTREMELY dangerous...damage avoidance becomes very key, because your recovery is extremely hard to do. It's worse when your nightmare double pops up when you are at low HP, and smacks you with ranged attacks. Basically, you've got 5 seconds to kill them, or you're gonna die...or have to put up with dream Diablo AND your terror. There are no healing wells (that regen) and precious few health globes get dropped. I was watching my Preparation timer and potion timers like a hawk.
I actually BOUGHT Resplendent potions, because I needed the extra 2000 health they gave. I used up about 30 in multiple runs.
My Diablo fights have been all about running around and letting fixed damage dealers do the killing...my Hydra and my Sentry. My wizard would occasionally get her Prism+ Disintegrate and try to tank, but all that did was speed up the process. Seriously, trying to tank is a fool's game.
4) I grabbed Teleport on my wizard because I needed the damage avoidance. Gave up magic weapon.
5) The armor buff that extends duration and gives you fast healing saved my bacon. If I could run around long enough, I could regen life without resorting to a potion on timer. My Wizard had basically no other way to get life back. Ugh.
6) Got rid of Smoke Screen. Diablo has no 'locks' you can escape from, and unless you are at full health, getting caught in the prison, ESPECIALLY on the dream level, is lethal. that's guaranteed damage you almost cannot recover from.
If he cages you on normal, he can immediately follow up with his rainbow flame arc, and unless you can get some distance and lateral movement, you are guaranteed dead. I accidentally leapt in a straight line away from him, the blast followed and ate me right up.
7) Pets are of dubious value because pets follow you around...they don't always attack him. This gets even worse when he can teleport, and they have to chase after him. I'm thinking the zombie horde might have problems with Nightmare Diablo, because I'm pretty sure any AoE he throws out will wipe the lot of them, and those are long regen timers.
8) So, I had to radically alter my set up. I had to switch back to a heavy crossbow from a hand; moved to Brooding so I could regain at least some health while running around and trying not to die; got rid of Smoke Screen and started Vaulting to gain distance all the time; got rid of AoE's and went to Rapid Fire and Impale/Stun...the latter saved my bacon against my doubles, as four Impales would wipe her, and definitely stun her and stop her from killing me while doing it. Impale would also interrupt Diablo's attack animations, and set me up for at least a couple seconds worth of Rapid Fire. I ditched the Spider because it was always running away with me instead of beating on him, went back to the bat for the fast Hatred regen, a constant effect.
Hell, I ditched ARCHERY for the double-duration sentry turrets.
In short, Impale saved my bacon, Vault let me avoid better, and Sentry killed him.
That was Very much not what happened on Normal difficulty.
So, yeah, play through Nightmare. Cringe at how powerful the elites are. Die a lot.
Ran into my first Horde elite - wait for it - going over the bridge. In the small garrison room dungeon off to the side.
Yeah, that's right. In tight quarters, with nowhere to run, you can't kill the big guy until all his weenies are dead. I got backed up against the dungeon entrance, died twice, and had to keep pulling out and going back in once health regen'd.
And fighting some of those creatures with extra health? Try holding down your rapid fire for twenty long seconds to get rid of ONE of the things. Wow. I'd hit the sucker and couldn't even see his life bar MOVE.
Heh.
==Aelryinth
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Guys, the elites in Inferno are absolutely stupid. Invulnerable Minions/Shielding/Molten/Vortex is an example I hit earlier today. I mean, good god. My DPS is around 15k, and thats about the only saving grace I have... in Wrath of the Berserker form, I can occasionally spike one down before they kill me.
But yeah. I'd love to run into Nightmare level enemies right now. Mark my words, Inferno is insane.
hey, hey, I'm not even seriously into Hell level yet. Quit trying to demoralize me!:)
Instead of trying to make the end run to 60 and collect uber gear, I had fun playing all the classes through normal, and I'll probably be switching time even as my wizard slowly claws her way through Hell.
I'm hoping that I can go back through lower difficulties and just own the bastages that gave me a hard time at higher levels, hehe. Vengeance shall be mine!
==Aelryinth
MMkay, my barb is about halfway through ACT 3 on nightmare.
I could immediately tell when his gear became sub level...it started taking two swings to kill stuff. Which, of course, gives them twice the chances to kill me.
Wrath of the Berserker helps bunches in elite fights. Combined with the Ancients, I murdered Belial and Gorm in one massive bloodletting. Pity the cooldown timers on those are two whole damn minutes.
The barb's lack of healing ability is even more profound then that of my DH. He's so totally reliant on hacking on enemies and coughing up health orbs it's not funny.
The lack of buttons is also killing me. I want eight abilities on tap, not four. I want to be able to leap...I want a rage powered smash, I want my two buff-ups to generate quick wrath, I want my ranged attack, I want my AoE, and I want Berzerker and Ancients. In addition to my Cleave and Frenzy rote attacks.
Gah. So many times I'm getting caught without the right ability on tap. It is EXTREMELY annoying.
Barb also has a major problem in that when you die you start with 0 rage. Now, if you have the templar, or the right item, you start generating it, but otherwise you have to hope you run across something to kill on the way back to the elites who caught you with your timers down and wasted you. Somehow, you have to get the Rage needed to get off Berzerker adn the Ancients. Gah.
But let me tell you, that combination is absolutely incredible when it goes off. I took the double damage one, and when you are Berzerk with Frenzy's going off and stacking, everything around you just dies and coughs up health orbs.
I'm thinking I'm gonna have to take the skill for more health orbs and double life from them, especially as I start orienting to vitality to get more hit points. He's at 11k and even with damage reduction from shield and being a barb, he goes through it fast.
And I HATE THE HERALDS in Act 3. Those damn acid pools of theirs at range suck my life away like nobody's business. I've found the best way to deal with them is move at them laterally, do a stun stomp, and then kill them. In melee range, not so dangerous. At a distance...well, I don't have my distance option now, do I?
I've been trying to play the Scoundrel through Nightmare, as he's more entertaining to keep around then the Templar, but might have to bite the bullet. The double regens of the Templar just make for more synergy, and his stun can be at least as nice as the Scoundrel's blinding.
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New dungeons:
I got an Explorer of Arreat badge, presumably for entering my xth dungeon or something...Ice caves in Act3 populated with new mites, bloated, and savage beasts. I learned once again that I hate Elite Swarms, because I never know they are elite until they are in my face, surrounding me, and I can't move.
I bought Wirt's bell, but I still haven't run across the other items needed to make the Staff of Herding. Grrr.
And are those pages from the Black Ship in the desert in Act2 supposed to mean something?
By god, Leah does have a journal in Act 2. I only saw it once, but it jumped to entry 14. Meaning I missed a lot of entries, or they just aren't available?
First time in the Foundry from Act3. I've been through Act3 8 times now and I'm still finding new places...or are they actually adding new content?
I get the feeling that to get all the parts of the Staff of Herding I'm going to have to keep replaying certain dungeons until they cough it up.
I've heard there is a trick that allows you to enter the portal that the Treasure Goblins throw up. Is it true?
==Aelryinth
I encountered my first desecrator, jailor, arcane enchanted elite jerk-face hero monster today. What. A. PAIN. WOW.
BRUTAL.
Just be glad it didn't also have invulnerable minions.
By invulnerable, you mean Shielded? Yeah, those suck when they turn on. All you can do is sit there and whale on them until the shielding goes down.
Jailor can be broken by leap,teleport, and Smokescreen style effects.
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Lair of the Lacuna was new this run through with my 6th character...levelling him up mostly just to store stuff, and then go back through and run dungeons, probably.
It's remarkable how easy it is to see when your weapon gets 3+ levels behind. Your one-shot kills just start going away en masse. I'm taking this guy through with a good weapon basically every 3 levels, and he'll be going up against Diablo with a level 31 socketed bow. I killed Diablo with a shot of withering fire that literally only took half my hatred. I don't think that will work with Diablo, but still...it was impressive!
I really should play my wizard and get my jeweller levelled up, heh.
I made seven level 25 belts with the smith and all of them sucked. I am seriously irritated with what I'm supposed to be doing with him.
==Aelryinth
By invulnerable, you mean Shielded? Yeah, those suck when they turn on. All you can do is sit there and whale on them until the shielding goes down.
Invulnerable minions are minions that, as the name suggest, cannot take damage. They are (generally) linked to an elite creature and die when said elite is killed. Of course, there's the happy issue that their "die when the boss does" ability has a range, so if you manage to separate the boss and the minions (to avoid getting two-shotted by a horde of minions you can't hurt :p), the minions might stick around (and still be invulnerable) after their boss dies.
What exactly does the Horde special ability do? All damage to the main is given to his minions, so he automatically dies last?
Taking a 2nd DH through with proper gear. Fought Gorm last night. Spider, Scoundrel, Sentry, level 26 bow, withering fire.
Didn't even run out of hatred. The scoundrel actually does some impressive damage if the target is big enough that all three arrows are hitting it!
I'm going to have to start trying out more elemental arrows instead of rapid fire. Need more AoE, and need to try out some of the different abilities DH's get. I should probably see how useful grenades are...
==Aelryinth
really? there's like 3 or 4 strikes monks can use that heal them, I would've thought you just alternate with them...or are the timers too odious?
==Aelryinth
really? there's like 3 or 4 strikes monks can use that heal them, I would've thought you just alternate with them...or are the timers too odious?
==Aelryinth
I think the problem monks face, late-game, is that healing abilities just doesn't scale with your health, to the point of eventually becoming near-pointless. Any damage mitigation based on self-healing you might have (which monks have a lot of) become weaker and weaker the more health you accumulate.
My Witch Doctor is having the same issue, though I'm nowhere near as reliant on self-heals.
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really? there's like 3 or 4 strikes monks can use that heal them, I would've thought you just alternate with them...or are the timers too odious?
==Aelryinth
I think the problem monks face, late-game, is that healing abilities just doesn't scale with your health, to the point of eventually becoming near-pointless. Any damage mitigation based on self-healing you might have (which monks have a lot of) become weaker and weaker the more health you accumulate.
My Witch Doctor is having the same issue, though I'm nowhere near as reliant on self-heals.
Yup, the self heal helps, but it's not enough on its own.
Life on hit is only going to work well with a fast attacking character. My mage has a spear with 91 Life on Hit and it doesn't do much good for her, all things considered.
==Aelryinth