Diablo III:3 Kanai Fix It?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I'd suggest new follower, but that wouldn't make sense with a male/female. But I agree. If there was going to be class that could come forward, it would be the Amazon, to have the niche of being able to either melee or range.

Edit; Necro mconfirmed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vx_5bKlSuw

I am a disappoint.

I don't see how he will be able to differentiate himself from WD. In D2, Necro primarily used wands and shrunken heads... wands are now used by Wizards, shrunken heads by WD's. Pet class with some AE blasting ability and debuffing... that pretty much describes WD right there.

This feels like a straight-up cop-out, trying to bring up usage through nostalgia. Unfortunately, it's a blatant nostalgia-rip, which is likely to produce exactly the opposite effect.

[The Glyphstone]

I am a disappoint.

I don't see how he will be able to differentiate himself from WD. In D2, Necro primarily used wands and shrunken heads... wands are now used by Wizards, shrunken heads by WD's. Pet class with some AE blasting ability and debuffing... that pretty much describes WD right there.

This feels like a straight-up cop-out, trying to bring up usage through nostalgia. Unfortunately, it's a blatant nostalgia-rip, which is likely to produce exactly the opposite effect.

They're differentiated mechanically, not by the visuals of their gear.

From what I read on Blizzard Watch, one of the big differences is that Necromancer minions are a bigger part of their gameplay than WDs, whose pets are entirely passive with no management outside of that one skill that lets you blow your own zombie dogs up.

5:26: It’s time for the Necromancer!

5:27: When we recreated the Necromancer, we had to ask just what the Necromancer was — and it’s years of player experience. We brainstormed different art styles for the character: the Necromancer as king of the dead, as a crypt-keeper, as taking trophies from the dead. Wound up with the Necromancer as a commander of the dead — it’s a rockstar with an entourage of the dead.

5:32: What is a Necromancer?

A pet/ranged magic class with a dark theme
Darkest class ever, leading an army of the dead — dead things and almost dead things
Magic involves blood, bone, and reanimation
Curses

5:34: Pet and ranged magic class… isn’t that the Witch Doctor? How are they different? It’s about theme. Witch Doctors are dark, but they’re also kind of light-hearted. The Necromancer has a darker, grittier take on the undead vibe. It’s a class that’s deadly serious; not a lot of humor. If you were thinking of swinging by the necropolis after work, happy hour is not a thing.

5:35: Witch Doctor pets are entirely passive. They run off and do their thing. Necromancer pets are “active/passive.” You get a passive benefit from each pet, but when you activate it you get an active ability. For example:

Command Skeletons: You get an army of 10 skeletons. But activate the skill to get them to focus on a target and increase their damage. This makes them a very effective single-target takedown skill.

5:37: The Necromancer has two resources: essence (which doesn’t regenerate in time) and corpses (which you generate by killing monsters). When a monster dies by any means (whether you kill it or someone else does), there’s going to be a little bit of extra corpse material left behind that only the Necromancer can see — and they use them to power their skills. Some skill examples:

Corpse Explosion, which works exactly as you’d expect, turning corpses into a big red explosion. Blow up as many as 10 corpses at once.
Bone Spear: Works exactly like it did in Diablo 2. It’s a piercing projectile, powered by Essence.
Decrepify: Our first curse. Curse a broad area and reduces movement speed and damage.
Siphon Blood: a single-target channel spell that lets you recover both life and Essence from your enemies.
Blood Rush: Necromancers throw off their skin and other stuff and throw their blood forward… yuck. Works similar to Wizard’s teleport.
Blood Golem: Golems are back as Necromancer pets!
Army of the Dead: A hundred plus skeletons obeying your command and attacking an area. You’re a real commander of the dead.

It's GRIM and DARK and GRITTY. It probably CUTS ITSELF at night because NO ONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT ITS GOING THROUGH. But I have full hopes it'll distinguish itself play-wise from the Witch Doctor, as much as the WD distinguishes itself from the Wiz or DH.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

They're differentiated mechanically, not by the visuals of their gear.

From what I read on Blizzard Watch, one of the big differences is that Necromancer minions are a bigger part of their gameplay than WDs, whose pets are entirely passive with no management outside of that one skill that lets you blow your own zombie dogs up.

I'll believe it when I see it. Personally, not convinced. WD's pets are already a pretty huge part of his gameplay, complete with a set which boosts pets significantly. Persistent fetishes, tons of dogs, Little Man's Finger, Tasker and Hutch... the pets don't need to be active, they just roflstomp everything, with the occasional area effect debuff or DoT to liven things up.

It's GRIM and DARK and GRITTY. It probably CUTS ITSELF at night because NO ONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT ITS GOING THROUGH. But I have full hopes it'll distinguish itself play-wise from the Witch Doctor, as much as the WD distinguishes itself from the Wiz or DH.

Not even a Picard Double Facepalm is sufficient for this.

[Vaz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX91aiiTWq4&t=0s

Quin's overview. Boys!

Seems to be a Shield and Single Hander Class. Plus maybe a new class of weapons, unless the Scythe is considered to be a 1H Axe.

[Neftren]

Just to chip in on the Necro/WD discussion: I tried the Necro on both PC and console at BlizzCon today (and yesterday). The skeletons are controllable with the skeleton ability, which is in many ways, much cooler than the passive WD (or DH) pets. You can rack up a ton of damage by spamming the command-skeleton-to-attack-target ability, which I don't think the description or preview video conveyed well. Corpse explosion felt much more satisfying on the console, which was quite a surprise. The aim-assist mechanics must help there or something.

The piercing bone attack felt like the weakest of the bunch. I pretty much never used it, because most of the time you end up spamming the drain attack to regain essence, and then mashing corpse explosion again and again ... and again, aaaand again. The greater rift felt a little too easy though; I'm guessing it was tuned to be that way (or Necro is OP ... go figure?).

[Inarius]

I am interested to see in how the Necro plays out compared to the WD, but I have to say the Diablo 1 remake being only an annual event is kind of lame.

[The Glyphstone]

I'll believe it when I see it. Personally, not convinced. WD's pets are already a pretty huge part of his gameplay, complete with a set which boosts pets significantly. Persistent fetishes, tons of dogs, Little Man's Finger, Tasker and Hutch... the pets don't need to be active, they just roflstomp everything, with the occasional area effect debuff or DoT to liven things up.

WD pets are a huge part of his DPS, but that doesn't make them a big part of gameplay. You summon them and then just fall asleep at your keyboard while they murder everything for you...nice for rifts, but it's hardly interactive or interesting aside from farming the gear to passively make them more powerful. A Necro's pets are going to be an active part of his toolkit.

Not even a Picard Double Facepalm is sufficient for this.

Captain, I am sensing great snarkiness aboard the enemy vessel. Shall we open hailing frequencies?

[Vaz]

Tbh, can't you say that about most except for the Monk, maybe Demon Hunter?

Tbh, last time I did anything of real "fun" for me was with the Thorns Crusader, which is about as close as you can get to easy mode as you need. Stack CDR and wait for every 24th second when you can trigger every physical damage buff you can from the Convention of Elements, double Barrage, Reflective Skin etc. Every 24 seconds, things just melt as you do something like 5 attacks a second with Thorns dealing ~190% it's normal damage.

[Psyren]

I've been following the D3 Twitter account and there's a heck of a lot more to talk about than simply the Necro. For example:

- The D1 remaster free patch event in January (Darkening of Tristram)
- The new Material Stash (think of the mats bank in WoW), and Kanai's Cube can pull needed mats from it directly.
- Challenge Rifts (think Set Dungeons and GRs got drunk and had rough sex in the breakroom)
- Wardrobe / Armory (freaking finally)
- New class-specific legs for every class next patch
- Flawless Victory GR award (finish the GR without dying and your gem upgrade chance is increased)
- GRs are being overhauled with better density, more interesting enemies, and safer entrances
- Two brand new zones being added to Adventure Mode
- Seasons coming to consoles

I'd suggest new follower, but that wouldn't make sense with a male/female. But I agree. If there was going to be class that could come forward, it would be the Amazon, to have the niche of being able to either melee or range.

"Meleemancer" is niche enough that I could see them making that one of their class sets. Though even then I'd see it being "melee" in a sense similar to Vyr's set, where what you're really using is a ranged skill that detonates close to your character, rather than a true melee attack.

I'll believe it when I see it. Personally, not convinced. WD's pets are already a pretty huge part of his gameplay, complete with a set which boosts pets significantly. Persistent fetishes, tons of dogs, Little Man's Finger, Tasker and Hutch... the pets don't need to be active, they just roflstomp everything, with the occasional area effect debuff or DoT to liven things up.

Eh, you can do petless WD pretty easily, and even several of the builds that do keep the dogs around use them as Lifelink + Sacrifice fodder rather than actual pets.

As for the Necro, at least from what we've seen the pets are even less central to their playstyle than they are for the WD. They get tighter control it looks like, but the tradeoff for that seems to be fewer numbers. Maybe there's yet another class set that will give them a Zunimassa-esque horde.

The greater rift felt a little too easy though; I'm guessing it was tuned to be that way (or Necro is OP ... go figure?).

What GR# was it?

[The Glyphstone]

If the 'Army of the Dead' skill that summons a hundred skeletons for a short time makes it anywhere near live play, the Necromancer will mostly be killing people's framerates if they're not running top-end machines.

[Spinach]

I'm pretty excited for Necro. I wish it was coming out sooner, but late 2017 is better than nothing.

I don't have a high expectation for the class either, just viability even if it's only for solo playing. I only ever do solo GR anyway.

[Vaz]

Turns out there's a D1 "remake".

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainme...D3-Necromancer

[Psyren]

Turns out there's a D1 "remake".

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainme...D3-Necromancer

Yeah I mentioned that

It's a mini-event that will be contained in the January patch as a free addition to the game. In addition to the retro filters, our movement is also going to be restricted to 8-axis.

[Starwulf]

I was totally underwhelmed and disappointed with what they announced. A Pay for new class. That's lame as hell as far as I'm concerned. Adding in D1...also fairly lame. Two new zones, wow really, that's all?

Honestly the only way I was going to be happy with D3 news was if they were going to announce an entirely new x-pac. That would have gotten me excited. As far as I'm concerned, this is nothing more then a lame cash grab, with a few minor extra's to entice people to come back. Not working on me though. Guess I'll just wait for Diablo 4 at this point :-(.

[Neftren]

What GR# was it?

No idea. Most of the menus were disabled.

[Icewraith]

I never played the original Diablo so I'm interested in seeing how this all started.

Also got some playing in, up around GR55ish. I got an Ancient Natalya Hand Crossbow with some good rolls (9% damage, +25 skill, meh dex), a middling damage roll, and a socket. So I rerolled the damage instead of leaving it alone, praying for a Gift, and rerolling the socket at that point.

Of course, I saw a Gift drop later that day. But I probably never would have been clearing at that difficulty at that speed if I hadn't rerolled the damage from "middling" to "wow". So now I've got like 5 Gifts and haven't seen a whole lot of hand xbows dropping, never mind more Ancient Natalyas. It's a good thing I did the whole Sage's DB thing for a while because it took a number of tries to cube a Dawn. I haven't seen a second Dawn to feed to the cube. The only thing I think I hadn't seen beore the Dawn showed up is Calamity. I think I'd rather have an Ancient weapon with great damage and no extra set of stats than an Ancient weapon with middling damage and control over one of the other rolled stats.

Of course, I say that as I'm short just enough cooldown reduction for a moment of vulnerability before I get Vengeance back up.

The last place I was really hurting was rings, but between cubing and Kadala I eventually ended up with F+R and second CoE and worked my way up to my present position. After Kadala coughed up the elusive Skull Grasp for me last season I vowed to use all methods at my disposal to generate ring drops if I've got my other slots filled. Also, it's a savings on gems since I didn't need to craft yellows for the cube, I just had to not salvage some of the yellows from Kadala.

[Vaz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA7F3KD1B3U

This is somehow worse than I ever imagined.

[Pendulous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA7F3KD1B3U

This is somehow worse than I ever imagined.

I watched for two minutes and got bored. Is there anything about it that is actually Diablo 1?

[Psyren]

I watched for two minutes and got bored. Is there anything about it that is actually Diablo 1?

You can get familiar blues like Godly Plate of the Whale and Archmage's Staff of Apocalypse. Despite being blues, these carry 6 affixes. Otherwise though, I agree it's pretty dull and I beat it in a single night on the PTR.

The main reasons to do it:

1) There are retro transmogs down there like Harlequin's Crest, Leoric's Crown, and Butcher's Cleaver
2) Cow pet, zomg
3) Beating Diablo gives you a new legendary gem. Unfortunately, it's a helm slot, so it's going to be competing with your requisite diamond/amethyst/topaz. It does however also come with a transmog, namely your hapless hero having shoved a soulstone into their forehead. The ability it grants is fairly underwhelming, and gets worse the higher you raise your paragon since it triggers less often.

Other than that stuff though, yeah it's pretty pointless. The 8-way movement definitely captured D1's jerky/clunky feel, but it didn't take long for me to get tired of it and the grainy filter and just want to get back to the game proper. Part of that's on me; I took my Raiment monk down there, which is a very movement-focused build (flash step through enemies to kill them) and so the already clunky movement was emphasized even further.

[Vaz]

Be interesting to see how the Steed Charge on the 'sader will look. Horrific most likely.

I'll be looking forward to release (although I'm now in Aus, and everything is on Europe, yay ¬_¬) to pick up the transmogs. Which tbh is the only reason I play. I play this game to play dress up, I've come to the realisation.

[Icewraith]

After all that effort UE still just blows Natalya's out of the water when it comes to clear speed. I don't even have an ancient Yang's.

[Psyren]

I play this game to play dress up, I've come to the realisation.

I am VERY MUCH looking forward to the wardrobe/armory so that I can more easily swap loadouts and fashion on the fly.

[Krazzman]

After all that effort UE still just blows Natalya's out of the water when it comes to clear speed. I don't even have an ancient Yang's.

Managed to play a bit yesterday... Paragon 148. It's just not funny how much faster every other DH seems... got 2 ancient parts for UE... both shoulder, got Helmet and Trousers too... I am currently farming for the Rings and Amulets but so far had no luck...

[Icewraith]

Managed to play a bit yesterday... Paragon 148. It's just not funny how much faster every other DH seems... got 2 ancient parts for UE... both shoulder, got Helmet and Trousers too... I am currently farming for the Rings and Amulets but so far had no luck...

Amulet-wise, go craft a Hellfire. Gamble rings, hang on to some of the yellows and upgrade them with the cube.

I have burned so many shards looking for Ancient UE shoulders with no luck. I have an Ancient UE Helm and Chest.... but they both rolled with life % and.... something REALLY crappy like life regen so for now I'm stuck with the life % on Ancient pieces. I need to find another good Ancient worth using Caldensann's on for the season journey.

[Lord Torath]

I've lost two hardcore characters to the microwave! Urg!

For whatever reason, our microwave interferes with our WiFi. When the microwave turns on, the WiFi gets patchy. It's bad enough when I lose a Greater Rift because of it, but losing high level (Paragon 140) hardcore characters is REALLY frustrating!

Anyone else have similar problems?

[Psyren]

I've lost two hardcore characters to the microwave! Urg!

For whatever reason, our microwave interferes with our WiFi. When the microwave turns on, the WiFi gets patchy. It's bad enough when I lose a Greater Rift because of it, but losing high level (Paragon 140) hardcore characters is REALLY frustrating!

Anyone else have similar problems?

Eh, I refuse to play hardcore in a game where I can die due to reasons beyond my control. I especially would not play hardcore characters over wifi, personally, but even on a wired connection there's just too many opportunities for things to go sour.

[Derjuin]

I've lost two hardcore characters to the microwave! Urg!

For whatever reason, our microwave interferes with our WiFi. When the microwave turns on, the WiFi gets patchy. It's bad enough when I lose a Greater Rift because of it, but losing high level (Paragon 140) hardcore characters is REALLY frustrating!

Anyone else have similar problems?

Something similar, yeah. The door between me and the router is an outside-type of door, so it's got like copper plating going through it. Immediately turns my signal from excellent to poor when it closes. I lost a level 83 hardcore assassin in Diablo 2 to the door shutting halfway because the family dog bumped into it. I was on Hell Diablo. Not the kind of fight you can survive with lag...

I don't play Diablo 3 on HC, but I wish you better luck on your next character

[Icewraith]

I've lost two hardcore characters to the microwave! Urg!

For whatever reason, our microwave interferes with our WiFi. When the microwave turns on, the WiFi gets patchy. It's bad enough when I lose a Greater Rift because of it, but losing high level (Paragon 140) hardcore characters is REALLY frustrating!

Anyone else have similar problems?

Eh, I refuse to play hardcore in a game where I can die due to reasons beyond my control. I especially would not play hardcore characters over wifi, personally, but even on a wired connection there's just too many opportunities for things to go sour.

Exactly how I feel.

But.

If you must play HC, unplug the microwave first. Or... maybe it's time for a new microwave? Alternatively, with some aluminum foil, you could construct a shield in the direction of the router from your microwave and connect that to a ground. Or get one of those signal extenders that creates a separate, stronger network on a separate frequency band.

[Psyren]

Don't the paragon levels transfer in Hardcore? Like, any HC characters you make would share that Paragon 140 right? Plus having access to anything in the dead toon's stash (but not on their person), assuming the backup was made while the primary was still alive?

[Lord Torath]

Yes, the paragon levels and cache carry over. Makes leveling up the next sacrifice to the microwave gods a bit easier, assuming you kept enough low-level gear to assist. A real benefit would be having a rank 25 Gem of Ease, but it's not usually a priority for greater rift gem leveling.