Diablo III: Don't Forget To Eat Today

[Legoshrimp]

using wormhole doesn't reduce your damage by 20%, using a legendary weapon that is okay at best does.

[Karoht]

That sounds cool, but it is literally never going to be useful since clear speed is more valuable then short bursts of movement.

Every time I hear someone say this, I remind them that being dead is never going to be more useful. Teleport is the 'save your bacon' skill in addition to any movement benefits it confers to clear speed.

[Legoshrimp]

Every time I hear someone say this, I remind them that being dead is never going to be more useful. Teleport is the 'save your bacon' skill in addition to any movement benefits it confers to clear speed.

I guess you can more safely run a lower torment... and you already get free nearly no cd TPs with illusionist, when you really need to use tp to not die.

[vhfforever]

After adjusting things up to Hard difficulty I noticed a few little differences. Mobs take a few seconds longer to blast through, and I actually quaffed a healing potion once against Belial. It hasn't made the game hard by any stretch, but it has made me take notice of a few things and swap around a few skills I had been using. All-in-all, a good choice to have made.

Current Build (Level 37 if not mistaken)

Spoiler

Show

Justice (Burst), Fist of the Heavens (Divine Well), Consecration (Frozen Ground), Steed Charge (Nightmare), Laws of Justice (Faith’s Armor), Heaven’s Fury (Ascendancy)

Fervor, Lord Commander, Indestructible

So yeah, that cutscene that ends Act 3/opens Act 4? That was pretty well done, imo.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I guess you can more safely run a lower torment... and you already get free nearly no cd TPs with illusionist, when you really need to use tp to not die.

Or you can use the wand and not need Illusionist, meaning you get to use one of the other passives, which can mean a significant boost in DPS or survivability, depending on the passive you swap it out with.

[NineThePuma]

Or you could be manly and not play a caster.

JUMP ON THEIR FACES AND PUNCH THEM IN THE HEAD!

[huttj509]

Or you could be manly and not play a caster.

JUMP ON THEIR FACES AND PUNCH THEM IN THE HEAD!

Hah, magic? That's not man-omg fire's raining on my face, my faaaaace!

[Psyren]

Or you can use the wand and not need Illusionist, meaning you get to use one of the other passives, which can mean a significant boost in DPS or survivability, depending on the passive you swap it out with.

40 AP per use is a lot though. I honestly think this will result in more of a dps hit than the passive swap would compensate for, because you'd be forced to either stop DPS for longer periods (slightly less with Astral Presence) or use Prodigy to refill. And even if you already have Prodigy, it means more chipping away with your weaker primary instead of the meatier nukes.

[Chen]

Unlimited teleport (presumably with wormhole) would be for getting around the map quickly. You wouldn't be needing to use it all that often in combat, in its unlimited form. I think people underestimate how much time is spent running around NOT killing things. Speeding that up can reduce clear speed by a fair bit. Whether its worth ditching something like a Furnace for, probably not. But being able to swap it in and move until you hit more enemies would be useful for regular rift runs (clearly not doable in greater rifts).

[Anxe]

Unlimited teleport (presumably with wormhole) would be for getting around the map quickly. You wouldn't be needing to use it all that often in combat, in its unlimited form. I think people underestimate how much time is spent running around NOT killing things. Speeding that up can reduce clear speed by a fair bit. Whether its worth ditching something like a Furnace for, probably not. But being able to swap it in and move until you hit more enemies would be useful for regular rift runs (clearly not doable in greater rifts).

It'd definitely be useful for key warden runs wouldn't it?

[HMS Invincible]

Teleport cost 25 and cost reduction applies. I'm was they nerfed gearswapping though.

[Legoshrimp]

Being able to use a weapon that doesn't suck is way more valuable then a passive. Wizard doesn't really have 4 passives to run in most situations.

It has a use as a utility weapon but most of the time it doesn't matter. Since with all of the changes to cache drop rate you won't actually be doing those as much, and with the buffing of monster density there isn't as much running around time. There still is some but you can't use it in Grifts and having to open your inventory to switch items gets pretty annoying.

Edit: I am not saying the item has no value, just it has no value as a main weapon. And that it certainly isn't worth releveling and regearing just to get a utility weapon that you won't use for most of the content.

[Psyren]

Not to mention you will have to deal with the lower drop rates to try and find it until you're geared again.

Yeah they didn't do nearly enough to justify ladder this time around. D2 Runewords, absolutely, but this stuff? I'd be surprised if they don't either scrap seasons or buff them considerably.

The achievement-hounds have a lot of benefit here though, since you can earn all the standard ones all over again plus several unique ones.

(Ironically, if they brought back oskills/runewords now, they would actually be balanced. Say you gave every class a way to get teleport - it wouldn't feel nearly as mandatory as it did in D2.)

[Legoshrimp]

Not to mention you will have to deal with the lower drop rates to try and find it until you're geared again.

Yeah they didn't do nearly enough to justify ladder this time around. D2 Runewords, absolutely, but this stuff? I'd be surprised if they don't either scrap seasons or buff them considerably.

The achievement-hounds have a lot of benefit here though, since you can earn all the standard ones all over again plus several unique ones.

(Ironically, if they brought back oskills/runewords now, they would actually be balanced. Say you gave every class a way to get teleport - it wouldn't feel nearly as mandatory as it did in D2.)

That is probably because teleport sucks. At least compared to d2 teleport...

[Psyren]

That is probably because teleport sucks. At least compared to d2 teleport...

Exactly - it was nerfed (as it should have been), and so giving it to other classes would no longer be the gamechanger it was in D2 1.10. And thanks to Rifts, there is also no need to skip trash anymore since you have to kill X mobs to make the real loot piñata appear anyway.

There are, I would imagine, many skills you could mix and match between classes without unbalancing the game now, especially if doing so required the destination class to give up one of their existing mappings.

[The_Jackal]

The only reason DII teleport was stupidly useful was because of how all the loot was tied up in the the Act Bosses and static encounters, so your rate of income was directly tied to how quickly you could get to Mephisto's courtyard. Which is one of the reasons Grifts are so genius: You have an incentive (indeed a mandate) to actually hit trash mobs, instead of just sprinting to the loot-piñata.

[Gnoman]

I haven't spent much time in rifts, but my strategy's been to ignore anything not elite. Granted, I get most of the non-elite stuff via collateral damage anyway, but is that not the best way to do it?

[HMS Invincible]

I haven't spent much time in rifts, but my strategy's been to ignore anything not elite. Granted, I get most of the non-elite stuff via collateral damage anyway, but is that not the best way to do it?

In grift this is the correct strategy. The only caveat is how dangerous or difficult it is to kill

[Derjuin]

In grift this is the correct strategy. The only caveat is how dangerous or difficult it is to kill

Now I know why it always takes me so long to get through them. I really need to find a SoJ worth using.

[vhfforever]

Well, moved the difficulty up to Hard and finished the game today in a 5 hour play-a-thon I rarely ever get a chance to do anymore. I finally died, too. I was getting overconfident against Malthael and not bothering to dodge anything...just relying on healing from my X Health per Wrath spent. I hadn't used a healing potion...ever...and completely forgot they had a cooldown, so he got me.

Wrapped things up, started over on Master and wow, the change is significant. Finished all the 1st Act bounties and such, and overall am enjoying the game a LOT more now that I have to put some thought into things and think tactically.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Got my first piece of Firebirds today. Also got an amulet that makes me immune to arcane damage. Considering arcane mobs have been the bane of my existence for a while, trapping me with the spinning purple lasers of doom with waller/prison/frozen, this makes me a happy panda. Also got a socket on it. Might not be the last amulet I use, but it's being very nice for now.

[Derjuin]

Got my first piece of Firebirds today. Also got an amulet that makes me immune to arcane damage. Considering arcane mobs have been the bane of my existence for a while, trapping me with the spinning purple lasers of doom with waller/prison/frozen, this makes me a happy panda. Also got a socket on it. Might not be the last amulet I use, but it's being very nice for now.

That amulet, the Xephirian one (lightning dmg absorb) and the Star of Azkaranth (fire dmg absorb) are basically the top amulet choices, next to Hellfire if you can get a ridiculously awesome roll (like scoring a DH one with crit/critdmg/socket and free Archery or Awareness passive). Getting a socket in it is awesome, as it can hold legendary gems too.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

That amulet, the Xephirian one (lightning dmg absorb) and the Star of Azkaranth (fire dmg absorb) are basically the top amulet choices, next to Hellfire if you can get a ridiculously awesome roll (like scoring a DH one with crit/critdmg/socket and free Archery or Awareness passive). Getting a socket in it is awesome, as it can hold legendary gems too.

The amulet's other stats are... not as awesome. On the one hand, there's Fire Damage + 19% (all my skills are already fire-spec'd), and reduce resource cost 6% (not... horrible, I guess), but the rest are pretty worthless with Thorns and Attack Speed (worthless for a Wizard). Even less impressive, no Int, no Vit, no Resistances... so your core bread-and-butter stats are missing. So yea, at some point, I'm probably going to end up upgrading out of this.

I also don't have any legendary gems, so the socket slot is pretty worthless to me.

[Derjuin]

The amulet's other stats are... not as awesome. On the one hand, there's Fire Damage + 19% (all my skills are already fire-spec'd), and reduce resource cost 6% (not... horrible, I guess), but the rest are pretty worthless with Thorns and Attack Speed (worthless for a Wizard). Even less impressive, no Int, no Vit, no Resistances... so your core bread-and-butter stats are missing. So yea, at some point, I'm probably going to end up upgrading out of this.

I also don't have any legendary gems, so the socket slot is pretty worthless to me.

Ouch, yeah, I tend to not use an amulet if it doesn't have two of (crit chance/crit dmg/attack speed/socket), or a stat that can be rerolled into a socket. Not sure how yours rolled without Int, I guess it's possible though.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Ouch, yeah, I tend to not use an amulet if it doesn't have two of (crit chance/crit dmg/attack speed/socket), or a stat that can be rerolled into a socket. Not sure how yours rolled without Int, I guess it's possible though.

I'm not sure either, but it really sucked. I'm still using it simply because it makes arcane mobs my personal healbots, but it's a royal PITA.

Attack Speed is... umm... how useful is it really? I use Blizzard (Apocalypse) and Black Hole (Blazar) as my primary weapons, neither of which are really affected by Attack Speed.

[Derjuin]

I'm not sure either, but it really sucked. I'm still using it simply because it makes arcane mobs my personal healbots, but it's a royal PITA.

Attack Speed is... umm... how useful is it really? I use Blizzard (Apocalypse) and Black Hole (Blazar) as my primary weapons, neither of which are really affected by Attack Speed.

For me - very. For you - probably not as much. I'm pretty sure Blizzard's tick speed is sped up by attack speed, but I have no idea about Black Hole. Can anyone else confirm/deny?

For me, attack speed influences not just my own attacks, but also those of my pets and sentries, so it speeds EVERYTHING up a great deal.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

For me - very. For you - probably not as much. I'm pretty sure Blizzard's tick speed is sped up by attack speed, but I have no idea about Black Hole. Can anyone else confirm/deny?

For me, attack speed influences not just my own attacks, but also those of my pets and sentries, so it speeds EVERYTHING up a great deal.

The only thing attack speed does for Blizzard is the actual casting graphic, it has zero effect on the tick speed or damage output.

Maybe I should change up my skills. Blizzard doesn't seem to be all that effective as an energy dump. Maybe I should go back to Disintegrate?

[Derjuin]

The only thing attack speed does for Blizzard is the actual casting graphic, it has zero effect on the tick speed or damage output.

Maybe I should change up my skills. Blizzard doesn't seem to be all that effective as an energy dump. Maybe I should go back to Disintegrate?

Fire Blizzard/Black Hole/MM is actually a higher end build that works much better once you get your 6 piece bonus from Firebird's. Before then it's kind of subpar, because there's no mega-DoT being stacked up by all three skills. I'd recommend some combination of whatever works for now - I know I used Frozen Orb and Electrocute for a while, with energy armor/familiar/magic weapon and teleport.

[Kerrin]

Got my first piece of Firebirds today. Also got an amulet that makes me immune to arcane damage. Considering arcane mobs have been the bane of my existence for a while, trapping me with the spinning purple lasers of doom with waller/prison/frozen, this makes me a happy panda. Also got a socket on it. Might not be the last amulet I use, but it's being very nice for now.

This sounds like the amulet my son recently found that his barbarian is now wearing - makes wading into the middle of arcane enchanted a tickle-fest for him now!

One thing that always confuses me when reading forum discussions about Diablo III (we have Reaper of Souls) is that we play on the PlayStation 3 locally (not online) and I often wonder when I don't understand something in a forum discussion if it's because the offline/online games are somehow different from each other. For example, what is a "rift"? I've never heard of anything referred to as a "rift" in the game, or maybe its another name for something I do know?

[Anxe]

Rifts show up in adventure mode of Reaper of souls which is unlocked after killing the act V boss. Not sure how you'd access that on menus from The PS version. There must be some guide on Youtube though.