f13.net

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7155880/Patch_105_Sneak_Peek-9_13_2012

I'm extremely wary of the "defensive skill changes"

I think that means we can kiss the barb resist shout goodbye.

Not just that.  The wizard rune that boosts resists on, I think, energy shield, plus the monk passive one with everything.  All of them are probably in line for nerfing.

The question though is: Is it really a "nerf" if the changes to incoming damage make the abilities less of a "MUST HAVE OR I DIE" and more of a "Having it is a nice quality of life / survivability improvement, but I can acttually build a viable build without it now and still do fairly well" kind of difference.

It isn't, but that won't stop people perceiving it like it is and whining about it.

Most all monks use "one with everything" and stack a single resist so if they change it both the builds and the gear could be rendered obsolete.  It would have to be a pretty huge nerf to incoming damage to do the same job as one with everything.

They posted the specifics of the nerfs/buffs.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7155884/Dev_Journal_Defensive_Bonuses_and_Monster_Damage-9_14_2012

effing a-holes, here they go trying to balance stuff again.  Why don't they just do the damage reduction and leave the buffs alone, if you don't need them to survive you wont use them.

Actually, I'd wager there will be broad barb changes.  According to this page (http://diablo.somepage.com/popular/barbarian), nearly 19% of softcore barbarian builds are a variant of:

Bash - Instigation
Wrath of the Berserker - Thrive on Chaos
War Cry - Impunity
Whirlwind - Hurricane
Battle Rage - Into the Fray
Sprint - Run Like the Wind

Ruthless
Nerves of Steel
Weapons Master

I'm fine with them breaking whirlwind sprint barbs because it's a really dumb spec. All you're doing is chain sprinting around like a jackass while your tornados kill everything.

They need to add all resistance to the paragon buff, maybe some ac too. maybe 1ar and 5ac per level.

They are assholes. A wizard with 6000 armor and 800 resists isn't fucking using energy armor in the first place.

The sentence RIGHT BEFORE that one.


Cherry picking quotes for the win?

But why pick a rediculously high number to base your balance mechanics around, I stand by the a-hole comment as it stands up when reading the article as a whole just as well as it does with just the quote.

The math is all there and seems pretty straightforward. They're balancing "around" the high defense numbers because the % benefit from the defensive skills is higher there. It should only get better (for the player) with lower defensive numbers.

Nobody here is going to convince me that they aren't just a bunch of assholes that still are convinced everyone would have more fun if they just played the way they think is the right way to play. Diablo is not fucking WoW. They need to gut the AH, and care less if some people are having fun doing ridiculous shit.

Blizzard: <makes Inferno easier>
Audience: STOP NERFING THINGS BLIZZARD

A happy demon hunter am I! Turrets might just be useful now!

What? This change is making it easier for everyone, reducing the need to take all the defensive skills and allowing MORE choices on how to spec & play.

I popped back in to D3 the other day to see what had changed. My barb who was getting 2-shot in Act 2 Inferno strolled through and got to Act 3 with only minor difficulty. Yellows rained from the sky, got several upgrades and several AH-sellables. While browsing the AH I discovered that gear prices had dropped considerably and kitted him out in an almost entire new set for under 2m gold.

It's taken them some time but they are finally making this game accessible and more fun.

Now that you have spent 2m upgrading try and upgrade again then tell me prices are cheap.

You could say that at any point of upgrade, it's meaningless.

I'm comparing the prices of the gear I just bought with prices for the same level of gear when I stopped playing before, which was a couple of months ago? Guessing there. Previously I'd have needed something like 50m to upgrade to the gear I just spent 2m on. I consider that an improvement.

No idea how long I'll carry on playing this time, probably until I hit whatever the next/current brick wall is, my point is that the wall is moving and that if you stopped playing before because of it then it may be worth another look now.

If they are smart, they will nerf Guild Wars 2, Torchlight 2, and Borderlands 2.

Patch Notes Bitches!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6572970237#1

I kind of hope the first thing that happens when you build the Infernal Machine is that Duriel just one-shots you out of nowhere when you go through the portal.

Some assembly required? Well, I guess we should be thankful we don't have to post to our Facebook feed to get the parts. #whimsyville

After over a month of not logging in I get convinced to try the game again.  So I empty out my gold and B.net balance re-gearing my Barbarian with what seems to be the recommended standard sprint/ww build.  Don't even play it for a week and apparently it's being nerfed hard.  So much for getting back into it.   :uhrr:

That gear will still work fine.

They didn't get this done before a better game came out.

Nope, and I gave up a while ago trying to wait them out. I'll probably get back into it in 6 months when the xpac in WoW gets old.

I even think Diablo 3 is a good game, but I haven't loaded it up in a month.  These days there are just too many amazing titles coming out to make room for something I'm not super into at any given moment.  I'll inevitably come back to it at some point, but I'm starting to wonder just how much of my obsession with certain games a decade+ back had to do with the fact that the selection of exceptional games was just quite low by comparison.

That's the problem, isn't it?  In a vacuum, D3 is a decent game.  Unfortunately, it is not as good as Borderlands 2, Torchlight 2, or Diablo 2.  Even Guild Wars 2 almost has an equal footing in terms of loot drops, and beats it in other categories.

Does /Player 8 mean we can now have groups of 8?

I don't think that is literal.  It's just another bandaid over the AH problem.  Which maybe isn't a huge problem anymore, not sure since it got way out of my ability to participate after about four weeks into it.

I don't think it has a lot to do with the AH, except perhaps indirectly. Mostly it is there to shut up the people who whine every time they make something easier in the endgame, I suspect.

So, its just a difficulty modifier?

Essentially. Not sure if you ever played Diablo 2, they eventually added a slash command that would set the monsters to have hp, etc., as if there were X players in the game even if you were alone (up to 8). This is basically the same thing, that is what they're referring to with the /players 8 stuff.

Yes, indirectly, much the way a touchy uncle is indirectly responsible for someone becoming a porn actor.  The drop rates were so low, I assume, because China.  Now drops are being increased greatly.  I don't know how well the cash-AH is going, but if it is "poorly" then they might be thinking they need to increase loot volume.

I made enough money on RMAH to purchase my Mists, put money into my paypal account, break even and move on with my life. Two to three weeks ago I realized the market was getting out of hand and I sold all my gold for like $1.12 a million. I have no idea what it's at now.

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/85916/ralph_wiggum_i_dont_know.jpg)

What's it at?  :awesome_for_real:

EDIT: I may start trading again if it's up.

I'm sure it's higher, but that's nearly SOJ territory, as far as I'm concerned.  Since gold is pretty much just for AH trading.

$0.80 last I checked (a couple days ago after reading your post).

I checked. It's selling for $0.62 per million today.  :why_so_serious:

This just in. (PTR)

Somewhere, Jay Wilson is having chest pains.

You caused me to go a-googling and I wound up discovering Brevik is working on Marvel Heroes.  I find this incredibly fascinating.

Also the Jay Wilson meme pics are fascinating. :why_so_serious:

Fuck that loser.

Still not the patch that I'm waiting for.

The patch that I'm waiting for puts the graphics engine onto Diablo 2, has none of this online only/AH bullshit and doesn't have a pack of useless devs trying to "balance" characters. Being a little OP is fun. Diablo 3 is a stinking turd and will never be recognised the way its predecessors were.

Did they not get the memo about games being fun? Oh hang on :Jay Wilson:

Isn't he a slime in UO?

I think that was John Wilson.

Some of them made me laugh out loud.  So, D3 isn't a total loss.

Played 1.0.5 on the PTR a bit. 

First off, the base difficulty of Inferno is way down.  It should definitely be doable by everyone at this point, giving everyone a shot at high end loot.  Second, the fact that level 63 affixes can now roll onto level 61 and 62 items means there are going to be a lot more "good" items out there.  All items which drop in Inferno are at least ilvl 58 now, so no more utter shit that wasn't even useful to you 10 levels ago.  So the volume of high or at least decent quality rares that drop is going to go up pretty significantly, and the fact that Inferno is easier means you're going to get more chances at more drops

Monster Power

Sadly you can't change this mid stream and you have to choose a number (1-10) before you start your game.  I won't reshash the entire feature, but the long and short of it is higher MP = better loot, harder monsters.  You can do it in any game at all, so for those who want better stuff and a bit more challenge while leveling might like it.  For inferno it has the effect of leveling out all the acts, which I find to be the most interesting thing. If I recall back towards the beginning of the year Inferno was supposed to be a flat power curve, and they changed it.  But with MP in you can farm any act in Inferno for the same shots at loot, which allows you to play whichever act your prefer. 

The other thing this does, when combined with the fact that the base difficulty of Inferno is down, is makes the end game closer to Diablo 2, with top end loot being accessible through some easier content (think, Nightmare Mephisto having a small chance to drop high end uniques and sets) and allows people who want the really hard content with higher chances at top end loot have it.  It also means there will be more "lower end" top end loot (for example, good uniques and sets with only mediocre rolls on their affixes), while the perfectly rolled stuff is still out there for the people who like to keep hunting.

 I only did one act 3 run on MP 0 (or off, as it where), and was able to breeze through and get some decent ilvl 62 rares with no problem, while in 1.0.4 I still have a lot of trouble with the same area for the same or worse loot.  Then I did some Act 1 with MP 1 just to test it out and it was very doable and was dropping ilvl 61 and 62 rares regularly.  I haven't tried anything harder than that yet - but there were plenty of people in chat saying that MP10 is crazy.  What is obvious right away is that at this rate, it is going to be a lot easier to find upgrades than having to rely on buying them, particularly before ramping up the monster power (after which you might legitimately need gear that is quite rare and might require AH/trading).  Buying them might still be faster, I don't know exactly how the economy is going to shake out, but those of you who like to use loot you find on principle should be happier.
 

I have to say that I am pretty excited about this patch after playing on the PTR.  It goes a long way to making the end game feel more like Diablo 2, even after just a couple of runs.   A few qualifications:

1) If you didn't like the gameplay, it doesn't drastically change it.  They are rebalancing some skills, so more builds should be viable (combined with easier Inferno base difficulty), but more or less it plays the same.

2) Aside from the fact that you can farm whichever acts you want given MP 1 or higher, the game still doesn't have the feel of variety in levels/areas that Diablo 2 did to me.

3) The AH is still there obviously, so even though drop rates are up, and loot quality is also up, you are still going to have that dangling nice loot there on the AH, which I realize takes away some of the enjoyment away from some people here.

When's the release? Have the forums agreed on any estimates?

No announcement.  I suspect it is still going to be a while, but I haven't been keeping track of speculation.

It sounds like something that would get me to start playing again a little (I quit on Inferno 3 post-fartguy).

However, if it's going to be another month or so, that's fine since WoW leveling takes priority atm.

Yeah that sounds like it might bring me back in too, at least for some occasional sessions.

Being able to turn the difficulty up for leveling content is total win. At this point all they need to do is add some lower level sets and I have zero issues with the game at all. (Not that I had a ton before.)

Does it level the acts in regards to difficulty of completion or quality of drops?  If you are talking about quality of drops, I am fairly certain that currently Act 1 can only drop legendaries up to iLvl 61 and Act 2 can only drop legendaries up to iLvl 62, do you know if this limit is removed by using monster power in 1.05?

It levels it in regards to difficulty AND drop quality.

oh, this wasnt launched yet?  That explains why I got face murdered.

Some more information, curtesy of Diablofans


Looks good.  I've spent a little time on the PTR and for a character that is able to struggle through farming Act 3 on the live servers, I am able to have a roughly even time on Monster level 2.  3 and higher I will need better gear.  I really like that I will be able to farm Act 1 post patch!

I think i'll take a break until this hits live, I am at a point where I farmed act3 for a bit over 100m in loot (should have been over 200m but I was a bit hasty selling my best drop).  Unfortunately the upgrades I want total up to 800m+ or so and even with that I am not convinced the upgrades I want right now will be the same upgrades I will want post 1.05.

Monster Power info from Blizz. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7540457/Monster_Power_More_Guts_More_Glory-10_11_2012 (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7540457/Monster_Power_More_Guts_More_Glory-10_11_2012)

Edit: The chance of double drops is a neat feature, and makes playing at higher settings seem like it actually might be a bit more worthwhile.

This goes live today (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6893719940#1), well, tomorrow morning for us Europeans.

Servers are down as we speak, should be for about another 5 hours, but I am already downloading the patch.  I have this evening free, so I play on playing a bit.  I'll report back, I'm very much looking forward to trying out some new builds.

The final patch notes and new systems are too much to paste here, so I'll just link to this post on DiabloFans, which has all the info: http://www.diablofans.com/news/1384-new-event-the-infernal-machine/

So bump mp and run warriors rest until you suicide will be one of the more viable legendary farming tactics?

That's what I was thinking too.

If you're like me and went where the hell are all the power monsters, you have to turn it on like elective mode in the options menu.

Yes, you can't turn it on when in the game itself, you have to be at the Quest Selection screen.

Oh, and "Search for similar" in the AH is awesome.

If you are like me, and had reading comprehension problems, here is a little 1.0.5 primer.

1) To turn on MP, you need to open up the options screen and enable monster power.  After that you will see the MP selector on the quest selection screen.

2) Monster Power
- MP0 is the same game as before with monsters nerfed.  Monster power per act is A1 < A2 < A3/4
- MP1+ is a different game.  Monster power is A1 = A2 = A3/4.

If you were able to run inferno A1 but not A2+, congrats, you will be able to run A1 faster.  You might be able to run A2.

I thought this patch was for me, but I was mistaken.

Pretty sure this patch was aimed at people currently farming act 3, you would thnk they would aim a patch at people currently not playing at all.  I wonder though at the upped loot quality on killing bosses for the 1st time, I am hesitant to kill any myself until I have more info and/or can kill them at a higher monster power.  I did 50 or so WR runs last night (mostly on mp 2 but some 3 and some 0) and I am pretty sure I will not be continuing down that route.  No items below 58 dropping is nice but 99% of items are still total crap.

I don't really agree, at least not in full. They certainly added some stuff for end game people (Infernal Machine).  But overall it seems like there is a lot of stuff to make people who aren't playing interested to try it again.

1) Monster Power - a lot of people loved this in Diablo 2.  This isn't just an end game feature, you can use this while leveling to make the game a bit more chellenging and to give yourself a better chance at loot drops.

2) Nerfed Inferno damage - Inferno is WAY more accessible now.  Lots of people quit when they realized how long they would have to farm Inferno Act 1.  The game is now wide open to these types of people who have a level 60, but felt hemmed in.  They can now progress AND they have better chance at loot along the way.  Act 3 monster power 0 is basically the "easy" end game which people had in Diablo 2.  

3) Rebalanced defensive skills.  For the average player the damage/defensive skill changes are a nice thing, as the game is now less focused around damage mitigation and more on damage dealing - this is more fun to most people.   At higher end MP, yes, defensive builds are probably still going to matter more, but we are specifically talking about people who might want to come back to the game.

3) Higher percentage chance drops on Sets and Legendaries mean more shinies for everyone.

Obviously there are some ultra high-end late game additions here, but they also addressed some major reasons people left the game, but this patch gives people a reason to at least give the game another try as it addresses several of the major issues which I've heard here (and elsewhere).

As for me personally, I just did a couple runs last night.  I had already played on the PTR so I knew more or less what I was getting into.  My DH who was able to slog through Act 3 before the patch was able to do MP 2 without much difficulty, and the loot WAS noticeably better.  I have 3 fresh 60s, and I found about 4 upgrades for those characters in about 2 hours of play.  The fact that level 63 monsters allow level 63 affixes on all item drops is noticeable.   I got some level 61-62 items which had very nice stats for a new level 60.

Lastly, 99% of items being total crap is how Diablo has always been.  The thing they needed to address was how loot drops *felt.*  A lot of people felt like they were slogging through overly difficult content for a tiny chance at something that was 1/2 way decent, let alone good.  Now they are going to be able to do easier content, much faster, for a better chance.  It *does* feel different, even if the vast majority of items you find are still going to be vendored.

Totally agree Malakili.

I've not played for months, this has brought me back, along with 2 of my friends who'd also stopped. Remains to be seen how long we'll stay but even if all we do is a couple of group runs every now and again it's more than not playing at all.

I spent an hour today playing my lvl 50 wizard on MP3. 4 levels in 1 hour, one legendary drop and enough rares that I made about 1m gold from the AH. Was also a nice challenge. At the start of the hour MP3 was easy (Act 1 Hell). By the end of the hour (late Act 2 Hell) MP3 was starting to feel really tough. Instead of just thinking that I had to go farm the AH I just turned MP down to 2 and it felt good again.

I think we're playing TF2 later but if not then I'll fire this up again and have a go in Inferno and see how it is.

I'm loving 1.0.5 because it gives me some purpose while farming. I would go so far as to say it doesn't even feel like farming. More like running heroics in wow to gear up. I have a specific destination, for a specific boss that drops a specific item i need. All the while amassing paragon XP, gold, and loot.

Things I'm currently loving:
- "search for similar" in the ah
- resplendent chests and events awarding NV stacks
- the entire Hellfire Ring process
- the new monster health based difficulty system (feels more solid and defense/offense balanced)

Things I'm not digging:
- no MP in public games (forces people back to chat channels to organize runs, which isn't bad, but feels like a step backwards)

I have a feeling they are still trying to dev a solution for MP in public games. I'm hoping they drop the quest based matchmaking in favor of Act based matchmaking.

This game 20 bucks yet?

If they would just allow people to create games with names that are listed publicly (like in Diablo 2) it would sidestep the entire problem.  "Act 3 MP3 runs!" for example.  I really hope they allow this eventually, but I, sadly, don't expect it. (Off topic, but I wish they would do that with Starcraft 2 also - whatever Battle.net 2.0 design principles they were going for have been largely a failure - pretty much across the board everyone prefers Batte.net from Diablo 2/Starcraft 1/Warcraft 3).

They nerfed a bunch of the Inferno stuff already in 1.0.4 I think it was, most people who were struggling should already have been unblocked by that. I know I was.

It would be insane if they weren't working on it. I think it's just one of those things that got pushed to the next patch. I seem to remember reading a blue post saying they were working on it.

In the meantime if anyone wants to group hit me up at Vanberg#1132

LOL

<insert "It is!  Buy Torchlight 2" reference here>

Maybe v1.06 will have fishing.

So Monster Power 1 evens out the loot curve so that Act 1 MP1 gives the same loot as Act 3 would? In terms of iL63 stuff dropping?

Once you turn MP on to any level at all, it evens out all the Acts on Inferno difficulty.  So, turn on MP and farm wherever you want.

Hit 60 on my 2nd Wiz this morning, went to do the Happy 60th shopping trip and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the gold AH was far better than the RMAH. 100x more items at both top and bottom ends. Sure, gold prices for the top stuff were ludicrous but that stuff wasn't even on the RMAH at all.

This is the GBP RMAH though, may be a different story on the Euro/USD ones.

My follower is mocking me. Open a chest and she says "That treasure could be useful to us!"

(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31210803/d3_Screenshot040.jpg)

 :oh_i_see:

Did a run up to Skeleton King with MP set to 1, the loot is abundant and better than anything I've seen before - got some nice set boots, loads of rares with resist all, etc. Seems like a really good patch.

Yeah, I'm still on MP0 with my new wiz (elite packs hurt me bad on MP1 or above) but there is loot raining out of the sky. Got 3 legendaries since the patch, one of which (http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/item/sun-keeper) I'm holding in my hand in that pic up there.

Finally got a good legendary to drop, hooray.  Nice Meepo of Twilight! 

I think the fact that all rares can roll stats based on monster level (which will always be 63 when MP is turned on) is the unsung hero of this patch.  All of those level 61-62 rares that used to drop and be worthless can now roll really nice stats, found ilvl 62 pants yesterday with ~150 dex/vit, 2 sockets and 17% MF.  Would have been impossible before the patch.

MP3 feels about right for # of kills vs. time to kill each elite pack.  Still only one legendary over the last two days, though.  A wizard wand with the last property being "This wand finds your death humorous."

Wonder if it actually does anything  :oh_i_see:

It literally just plays a deep/evil laugh when you die.

I think that want is decent though, depending on how well it rolled.

Been playing MP1 with my DH.  I haven't gotten squat.  No good items.  No legendaries.  No set items.

Patch blows.

GAH prices are down, but I'm not playing to buy form the AH.  Itemization still blows (item attributes/specials is what I'm talking about).  Probably I should be a bit more charitable that they are moving in the right direction, but it took them all that time for this?

Random loot is random.

I did a couple of MP1 Act 3 runs earlier and picked up another 2 legendaries (which are banked for if I get the urge to play my DH) and a rare that sold for 1.5m two mins after I put it on the AH.

MP 1 is about right.  Not sure it is any more fun, although I was excited that I sold something on the AH for more than 5000 gold for once.

The one bad part about my alt playing is that I have a 60 of each class, which makes me hesistant to sell almost any good loot.  But it is probably more efficient in the long run to gear up one character as well as I can first.

So yeah, those set boots sold for ~80 million after AH cut. Major upgrades for Mr. Witch Doctor incoming.

Is Diablo 3 enjoyable now without perusing the AH or are you still SOL if you want to ignore that particular part of the game?

I don't think there is any way we can answer this for you.  I can save I've found a lot of upgrades since this patch, but I have also used the AH some.  Your best bet is just to play some and see if it is more to your liking.  Drops are certainly a lot better, particularly in Inferno difficulty.

Does this game have an offline mode yet ?

No ?

Ok then.

Oh SNA... <disconnected>

Sure, but your gearing and progress will be much slower. If you avoid the AH then 99.9% of your drops will be completely useless to you, just like Diablo 2. If you use the AH then every single drop you get is useful to you, even if it's just vendor trash because that 700g is incremental progress towards buying some gear.

Of course you can always craft stuff, which is the D3 equivalent of Gheed gambling, but again it'll be a lot, lot slower (and more expensive) than using the AH, but the option is there.

I feel like I could have avoided the AH entirely and be better equipped than I am now if I had chosen a DH.  I have had some well rolled DH set pants, a dex based Vile Ward, a decent Dannetta's xbow, thousands of quivers to choose from and it seems like dex is frequently the highest rolled core stat on most of the yellow drops I have.

Was this just an accident? I got more DH drops than any other class on my monk and WD. Ridiculously more.

If you want to avoid the AH, play Torchlight II. Plenty o' useable drops and no auction house.

I'm only to 58, but most of the yellow drops I've gotten have been for DH as well.  And all three legendaries were DH or generics with lots of dex. Enough that if I start another toon, it'll be a DH

Which is what I'm doing at the moment. I just asked because I thought I might get some more enjoyable gameplay out of my 60 dollar purchase. I guess not.

At the very highest levels of the game, you are going to need to use the AH or trade to some degree.  I've got level 60 of each class right now. My "main" - the demon hunter - has extensively used the AH.  Every other character is largely geared without it, or maybe the occasional piece I happen to pick up when looking for something else that was just too good a deal to pass up.  Since the 1.0.5, Inferno is quite doable even with less than optimal gear, so you should feel less pressure to use the AH in that case.  Anything pre-inferno absolutely doesn't require it, and depending on what you like you can turn on Monster Power while leveling to up your experience gain and magic find chances. 

1.0.5 is a big enough change that I think anyone who is interested at all should check it out.

You want enjoyable? Didn't you get the memo that as a consumer you don't know what enjoyable/fun is?

Fun is using the AH

There's no "need" to use the AH. Although I question why anyone would really mind selling a pair of boots for $40.  :-P

Still hoping for a ladder.   Now that they fixed the game it needs a wipe.

Are you suggesting they wipe all the items people have purchased on the RMAH? If so I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

What this game needs more Diablo 3!  Seriously an expansion to raise the level cap introduce a new currency and devalue all current items would level the playing field as well as a wipe and piss far less people off.  Just make sure there are money/item sinks in the expansion that will actually work towards keeping the economy stable.

Nah, a ladder would just mean making new characters, not wiping existing ones.

I'm having fun again in this.

Maybe I'm just going through a Diablo cycle (as we all have over the past 12 years), but the MP, the greatly improved drop rates and general badassness of the barb are causing me joy.

It's still a game about farming items, but I've actually found a few useful pieces, and sold a bunch more.

For me, the actual gameplay is just so much better than the alternative, too. When I hit someone in this game, it really feels like I hit someone. In TL2 I click on guys and they fall over but there's far less of a feeling of interactivity. I just like the skills in this game so much better, too.

If everyone moved to the ladder it would completely devalue the characters who purchased items. I don't see blizzard killing the chicken that's laying their golden eggs.

This MMO talk is how we got in this situation to begin with.  Since we are here already, though, sure.  Why not? :why_so_serious:

Speaking of MMO's instead of craptastic my little pony land the "secret level" should have been a WoW instance.  In further news the legendary item drops are almost too streaky to be random, I think day before yesterday I did 4 runs and accumulated 5 legendaries and 2 set items, yesterday I did 6 runs and got nada. 

Random is random.

Looking for meaning in a sample size that small is pointless.

Quick thought, isn't the Paragon system going to make raising the level cap problematic?

I mean what do you do? Keep Paragon levels as a tacked-on thing regardless of character level? Wipe them and make you re-grind Paragon at level nuCap? Create ParagonSchparagon, a separate set of extra Paragon levels?

I would wipe them, and have them provide your characters with an permanent xp buff for the new leveling content of 1% for every paragon level you gained.

I don't see them raising the level cap.

I don't see a problem, leave it there and alone, make it so that you can only earn paragon exp while at max level.  New levels means new abilities while paragon is just a stat boost.

I wouldn't expect any level cap boosts. A hard gear reset like that would piss Blizzard's RMAH base off. Expect some new classes and zones, like other Diablo incarnations.
Oh and, most importantly, slow mudflation. Mudflation will allow them to obsolete old gear and keep the RMAH purchase cycle going without people freaking out. We have seen this in 1.04 with the legendary buffs, and 1.05 with the massively increased ilvl63 drops.

And if Blizzard really cares, an endless dungeon.  :heart:

It sure is.  I have raised two chars (DH and Barb) from paragon 1 to paragon 5 and haven't gotten a single legendary drop.  Haven't kept a single item.  Not pleased, but at the same time I don't suspect consipiracy or non-streaking or any of that other bullshit.  Random is random, and I'm really, really, really tired of it fucking me up the ass.

Well it has been a long grind but my DPS is finally at a point where this game feels like diablo, why they required a 400 hour grind to get to that point is beyond me.  It should have been at most a 40 hour grind and I would be happily working on character #10 right now.

They should add rest MF too.

Every day you don't log in provides a bonus 10% MF up to 100% MF for an hour when you do?

What's the RMAH and AH looking like these days? Are things selling?

The reason I quit a couple months ago was because I couldn't sell anything anymore, and I couldn't get drops to upgrade myself on my own. Nature of the beast is that I need to be able to trade to get the gold to get the upgrades.

Very high end items have gone up in price, but mid range but still good items have gone down in price.  A lot of stuff that would have been good 4 months ago won't even sell now though.  I've managed to gear up quite a bit just between my friend and I finding stuff post patch though, and filling in with some moderately priced legendaries (in the 2-3 million a pop range).  You're still best off if you get lucky with one really nice drop that will get you a few 10s of million to get you rolling though, I've yet to find anything like that.  Nonetheless, I've still cobbled together a respectable set of gear.

The bar keeps getting raised on "what is sellable" this works in your favor as you can build a set of gear that will allow you to at least have a shot at farming MP-1 sellable drops for pretty cheap.  I do somewhat hate that after shelling out 60m for a high end piece of gear it will be almost unsellable by the time I upgrade it.

I've got a dh and barb up to 60,  managed to get a few drops, and spent about 200k in the ah to outfit the dh for mp1 farming. Nothing  cheap on the ah for the barb though, in hoping for some drops, but having fun with the dh.

I haven't had trouble selling what drops for me for the most part. It does seem like if your goal is cash, sell for gold, then sell the gold is the path, despite the AH fees. That may be different at very, very high item qualities.

Actually it is more true at higher levels, because the dollar amount maxes at $250, but you can sell for gold levels which far exceed that.  I saw, for example, a guy who sold an amulet for the equivalent of ~$600 a couple of weeks ago.  Even with the fees, you come out way ahead.

I can safely say that adding a ladder system would inject a lot more people back into the game.

And what golden egg is being laid at this point? It's not like Blizzard is staying afloat from the piddly amount of RMAH money transactions they are scraping off the top.

Maybe ladder seasons would help get people back at the start, but inevitably people would get out paced again, so I wonder if it would get people back into the game long term.  I actually like the idea of ladder seasons, I just don't know that it actually solves the problem.

I'm shocked, but with MP10 this game is somewhat fun even on lower difficulties. And once in a while there even drops an item that would be an upgrade.

Hadn't even thought of that!  Makes me want to start leveling up some other guys.

I'm still enjoying this game.

hmmm MP10 farming Leorics Signet?

I tried this for the first time last night.

Holy shit, inferno on regular doesn't suck ass anymore. Huzzah!

This patch brought what I expected to get a few months back.

Tons more fun and finally getting loot stuff.  Found a couple legendaries over the weekend with about 5 hours played.

MP1 4tw right now.  Tentatively excited about next patch, also!