Season 3 progress report
#1
Heck, I didn't even post one for Season 2...guess it went by too fast to notice.

Power creep in Diablo 3 is a myth. It's not "creep"; it's "rocket."

For Season 3 I decided to play a Roland's Crusader. It's been a lot of fun, and I've progressed further than with any other character. I've managed to complete a level 37 Greater solo, and last night I was in a good group (support monk and WW barb) that cleared a 43 in about 7 minutes. My screen DPS is just over 1MM, and with all the buffs from monk and barb my Toughness reached 120MM (as long as I was standing in Inner Sanctuary). I also reached Paragon 349; my goal for S3 was 400.

I'm running the cookie cutter Roland's build, with the exception of keeping Horse on my bar instead of Iron Skin. There's just too many times in Hardcore mode where I need to move RIGHT NOW and I typically want to go through monsters to get where I need to be. Go Horse! Other skills are Punish, Shield Glare, Laws of Valor, and Akarat's Champion. The main damage from the build is Shield Bash; I've seen critical hits as high as 1.8B. (I suspect I've hit harder than that, but that's the highest one I've visually confirmed.)

The gear is the 6-piece Roland's set along with Focus and Restraint rings. If I'm solo, I change out the rings to Unity + Convention of the Elements. Drakon's Lesson bracers and a well-rolled Ouroboros amulet round out my armor. While I’ve yet to find an ancient BiS weapon, I’ve got a pretty good 2-handed mace with an extra affix. I used a Ramaladni’s Gift to add 10% elite damage. Legumes are standard issue Esoteric, Wildebeest, and Bane of the Trapped; I’ve got them leveled to nearly 40.

I’m spending all of my Blood Shards to acquire an Angel Hair Braid belt (Punish gains all runes). It’s pretty rare, so I’ll likely be at it for awhile. And if an ancient Furnace drops along the way, so much the better. One of the Season Conquests is a solo clear of a Greater 40. I think I’m in range of that and will probably try for it soon.

Anyone else still stomping around Sanctuary?
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#2
I second a lot of what you've said above.

I've been playing a Furious Charge Barbarian this season. It's the first time I've played a Barbarian past 50ish and the first time I've ever played one outside of Hardcore. It's definitely the most powerful character I've ever played and I routinely clear GR 40 with reasonably decent gear.

I know the new hotness is the WW Barb but I am always on the back end of the curve in picking up new builds. Plus I just really like Furious Charge. I also love that if I screw up my charges I can get myself into serious trouble.

Generally speaking, my goal for seasons so far has been to pick the most underwhelming set available to a class and see how far I can get with it. Season 1 I played a Helltooth WD and was able to clear GR30. Season 2 I played the Roland Crusader and could only complete around GR26-27 if I recall (Lord was that set broken before season 3). Season 3 is the first time I feel like I could play any set available and still clear 40+. The Barbarian is in a good place.

Now they just need to tone down the WW effects so that you can actually see the stuff that is about to kill you. Dodgy
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#3
I play with a couple of WW barbs, and they usually kill 90% of the white monsters while I trail along behind them. I'll clean up stragglers and then pop elites and the rift Guardian. I love it when we get an Act 2 sewers rift...all those little tornadoes hit monsters multiple times. Sure, I can't see anything but the tornadoes, but it sure makes for fast clears. As you alluded to, it is interesting that things like pets and sentries have had the graphics toned down, but other things-like barb WW effects-still function as screen spam.

WD is supposed to get a new set next season, but I also hope they buff Helltooth Mantle. Kind of like Roland's-not technically a new set for S3, but it's now on par (if not surpassing) Akkhan's. Have you played the most underwhelming set for any class-Invoker? Tongue

Let me know if you want to dip your toe into HC again but don't want to do the 1-70 grind. Power levels only take 60-90 minutes these days.
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#4
I leveled up a barbarian and used a hybrid furious charge / whirlwind build while leveling and when I initially hit 70. Once I got 6 pieces for the whirlwind set, I gave up charge and went full on whirlwind (cleared up to GR43). It's definitely been a lot of fun to play with though my time is limited. I'd love to get a second Unity so that I can actually use the double unity with un-killable follower combo for once (I've never had two unities at once, before). I guess at worst when the season ends I can pair up the Unity I found this season with the one I found in the first season!
-TheDragoon
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#5
I can sort of relate to that. In Season 2 I found zero Unities, despite gaining 391 Paragon levels. Fortunately I found a couple in S3 before P300. I use the Unity/Convention of Elements combo for solo Grifting. Finished a 41 last night, which was good enough for #187 on the Seasonal leaderboard. But, wow, the incoming damage is scary-even with double Unity. I finally gambled an Angel Hair Braid belt last night, just not sure it will be worth dropping the String of Ears for. More testing needed!

Here’s a more long-winded version of those events, if you’re bored at work (like me):

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/threa...30/page-12
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#6
Barely have any time to play this season.
Have not even looked into the uber builds, I never seem to find the neat stuff.
Nothing much going on, just meandering about in HC with a wiz, barb, or monk when I get a bit of spare time.
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#7
(05-05-2015, 06:22 PM)Aahzmadius Wrote: Power creep in Diablo 3 is a myth. It's not "creep"; it's "rocket."

This is putting it mildly. Wiz is my toon of choice. I already had fire, cold and electricity focused wizards. I got a couple pieces of the wiz slow time set so decided to add an arcane. I got to 6 piece on the set and am using magic missile, arcane orb, hydra and slow time. I'm not joking when I say I'm a pretty sucky player. I doubt I'd make it much past lvl 2 if I tried hard core. And yet, I regularly solo mid to high 30s level GRs. With everything charged up, and mobs under the dome, I've seen crits in the tens of billions. It is insane. I've one shot rift bosses. Damage out is zero concern anymore. If I wasn't so bad at avoiding the monstrous incoming damage (geez, I hate exorcists!), there would be almost no limit what the toon could do. At this point, the only reason to not call him finished, and move on, is that I'm trying to ancient-ize several slots yet.
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#8
I took a lengthy hiatus from D3 last summer, but have returned in the last month or so. I found a few interesting pieces, including an Ancient Serpent Sparker with 3k damage on it and Ancient Nulfurs Boast boots with pretty nice rolls. The term power creep is indeed very understated - when I left last summer, T6 was the measuring stick of how strong your char was. Now, it is a complete joke. It seems Greater Rifts are the only way to challenge yourself now, but there are still some problems it seems.

The first is that they scale infinitely, which is just insane to me. I think an infinite difficulty system is poor design to begin with, since the object (at least in past Diablo games) was to make a powerful char that could faceroll endgame content. But with infinite scaling, this becomes impossible and it will give you the sense, that once you hit that brick wall, you are no longer accomplishing anything. I guess one could argue this would also be true if you found BIS gear in a system that has a cap, and you faceroll everything, but at least on the way there you know there is indeed a cap. Its the journey that counts.

Also, rifts have become too monotone and boring because they are the only aspect of the game that offers any potential rewards that might be significant. Doing bounties or story mode has no fulfilling rewards, and this just doesn't make sense to me. Rewards should be evenly distributed regardless of what it is you are doing, provided all of it is on the same difficulty.

I kind of miss "going out in the world" and running certain areas to find certain items, now its just rifts, rifts, and more rifts.

Kind of mixed on Ancient set items. They make your char much more powerful, but at the same time it just adds another layer of RNG in already too-RNG intensive based game. I think the introduction of these just was a band-aid for a much deeper problem, and thats lack of a coherent endgame, and people being funneled into a very specific build for their class due to a very small select items being viable on the highest content.

I think GR need to have a cap of sorts, otherwise the numbers and scaling are just going to keep rising with every patch and expansion. They are already laughable. I think already at GR 50+ monsters can have health in the TRILLIONS, and chars are doing damage in the 10's of billions sometimes. This will lead to another power creep when more and better items are introduced, and render yet more items obsolete in the process. The cycle will just keep repeating itself.

There has to be a cap on difficulty, and more content so that GR's arent the only thing to do as they are now :/

My wiz has soloed GR 42, though 40+ usually is at least one death for me, and its just frustrating phishing for the right monsters and having to do trial rifts for that; all the while T6 just gets curb stomped. I try to avoid most Act 5 monsters since they are extremely tedious to face, in particular Winged Assassins, Bogin Trappers, and Punishers. Even the white versions of these monsters are OP (let alone as elites), and giving them the nerfbat would probably be justified.
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#9
A grind, it is.
Haven't had enough time to get to 70 yet, D3 is beer and pretzles for a few quick rifts and then off to do things around the house.
(Well, son has me playing Hearthstone ... which is nice because each game is shorter. And Heroes of the Storm, which as a brawler takes less time than LoL).
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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