Patch 2.2.0/Season 3

[Stewie]

So patch 2.2 is in. the Natalya set is pretty  Especially with this
Season 3 starts this friday. I plan on starting with a Crusader this go around.

If any of you are planning on jumping in to season 3 send me a friend request: Stinkfist#1403

[Stewie]

sooo, no one playing season 3?

[Malakili]

I started a barbarian that  I am leveling in 30 minute here and there chunks.  Definitely not as all in as I was in Season 2.

[Hutch]

I started a Demon Hunter, haven't reached level 20 yet.

I'm having too much fun with my Wizard. The change to Tal Rasha turned me into a meteor dropping god (I have been stuck at 2 pieces forever).

[Selby]

My video card still overheats and shuts down the computer unless I run a very odd configuration that I have to specifically boot the computer into.  Makes it difficult to play anymore as it crashes every 15-20 minutes, so I gave up.

[Ingmar]

2 piece Jade Harvester is so good now.

[Ginaz]

I got a DH to 70 and now I'm working on a Monk (around 50 atm).

[Stewie]

I ended up going barb, I'm around paragon ~100 having trouble getting past t3/4 I cannot find any decent gear and am broke. 2 more pieces of the wrath of the wastes set or IK though and i'm good to go!

[Setanta]

Playing a monk and am at paragon 41 after 3 nights work on it :) Gearing up is blindingly fast and a lot of fun. I played through the campaign on master level as it had been over 12 months since I last played. I'm running through Torment 2 solo and ran Diablo solo on Torment 4 for the achievement. The game was a polished turd on release but it's an absolute gem now.

I managed to not die at all levelling the monk, I'm now thinking I'll take a shot at hardcore with one seeing as I've never tried it before.

[Ingmar]

Given that they took out the story achievments on season mode this season, there seems to be less reason than ever to run anything but Adventure Mode for seasons.

[amiable]

I just got back into this game and have leveled up a witchdoctor in HC seasonal to about level  55 in a day and a half of on and of play.  I haven't played since the fist 4 months of vanilla. A few observations:

1.  Wow they really fixed drop rates.  I had never even seen a legendary after hundreds of hours of play, in the past 8 hours I've gotten at least a dozen.

2.  WTf are rifts?  I've just been running Act 1 bounty missions and increasing the difficulty (now up to master) as my gear improved.  I'm basically running the exact same build from my old days (fetish sycphants/rain of toads/pets galore).  

3. Also how does one acquire gear?  just keep running stuff?  Does gear like legendary gems on ly drop in a certain place?  where do I get the crafting thingmaobs to level my jeweler and blacksmith past 10?

[SurfD]

I just got back into this game and have leveled up a witchdoctor in HC seasonal to about level  55 in a day and a half of on and of play.  I haven't played since the fist 4 months of vanilla. A few observations:

1.  Wow they really fixed drop rates.  I had never even seen a legendary after hundreds of hours of play, in the past 8 hours I've gotten at least a dozen.

2.  WTf are rifts?  I've just been running Act 1 bounty missions and increasing the difficulty (now up to master) as my gear improved.  I'm basically running the exact same build from my old days (fetish sycphants/rain of toads/pets galore).  

3. Also how does one acquire gear?  just keep running stuff?  Does gear like legendary gems on ly drop in a certain place?  where do I get the crafting thingmaobs to level my jeweler and blacksmith past 10?

2:  Rifts are max level content (at least I am pretty certain that you only start getting the key fragments once you are max level).

3: Legendary Gems only drop off of rift end bosses.  As for the crafting mats, the level 10+ mats start dropping once you level up past 60 (as they are associated with the 10 levels added with the Reaper of Souls expantion). All the level 61 and up gear disenchants into new mats / and new rare ingredient drops start occuring.

[Malakili]

You can run rifts at any time.  Rifts are randomized dungeons with a boss at the end, the faster you kill things, the faster you get to the boss. They scale to your level/difficulty  Rifts are a good place to get loot, and you can get GREATER rift keys as well.

Greater Rifts are similar to rifts except that 1) all the loot for the entire dungeon is backloaded onto to the boss 2) If you complete it within 15 minutes you get a key for a higher level rift that is harder. 3) High legendary drop rates from the boss.  This is also where you get legendary gems.  I think Greater Rifts are level 70 only. Greater Rifts don't scale to your level/difficulty, they have their own number (clearly indicated on the key you use to open it) that determines how hard it is.

Running rifts is the best place to get gear, particularly greater rifts when you are max level.  Act 1 bounties are also worth running, at least until you get a Royal Ring of Grandeur out of the Horadric Cache you get for completing all the Act 1 bounties.  It is an essential piece of gear and worth farming for.  Also, you will earn Blood Shards as you do bounties and rifts.  These can be spent at the merchant Kadala, who hands out near the Nephalem monument thing in town (where you open the rifts).  She is the Diablo 3 version of the gambling merchant.

[SurfD]

Right, I forgot that it is the greater rifts that are max level only.

[amiable]

Does anyone know what the breakpoint is for going up in rift level?  I am running T3 rifts right now with my WD and I feel pretty safe with 13 mill toughness but my 300k dps means it takes me forever to kill things, rifts tend to take 20-25 minutes.  I still have a lot of upgrades I am hunting for, would it be more efficient to run lower level rifts quicker or do the higher level rifts for the higher drop rates?

Playing hardcore, so I tend to prioritize defense over offense.

[Ingmar]

Wow that's a lot of toughness. I do Torment VI rifts pretty easily with this setup, and GR 30ish Greater Rifts with some pain and suffering (deaths):

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Thorgrim-1313/hero/589774

I wouldn't push that hard on hardcore but I would think you could at least go to IV? I don't want to be responsible for advice that gets you killed though!

If you're looking to farm drops I would think GRs are your best bet, though, not regular rifts. Get a key, port out of the trial so you start at GR1 and then go up from there, pausing if it looks like you'll finish the rift faster than 10:30 so you don't skip ahead. You should be able to get upgraded fairly quickly that way. Once the GRs start feeling grindy bail out by taking too long to finish, upgrade a couple gems, then repeat.

[Ginaz]

Things are so much easier once you get a few pieces of set gear that you need.  Having 3 pieces of the Marauder's set on my DH has been a game changer.  I was barely able to go through T2 on my own now I'm able to do T6.

[Malakili]

Things are so much easier once you get a few pieces of set gear that you need.  Having 3 pieces of the Marauder's set on my DH has been a game changer.  I was barely able to go through T2 on my own now I'm able to do T6.

This is one of the good and bad things.  They have done a good job making gear matter more than "oh, this has .5% more crit chance" that it used to be.  On the other hand, it is still quite constraining.  They have tried to add more unique abilities on legendary items, but by and large they do not compete with the set bonuses.  They clearly want to encourage some quirkier builds by having legendary items buff certain abilities, but it isn't quite working right now.

[amiable]

Things are so much easier once you get a few pieces of set gear that you need.  Having 3 pieces of the Marauder's set on my DH has been a game changer.  I was barely able to go through T2 on my own now I'm able to do T6.

I noticed this as soon as I got 4 piece zuni's, I am running through T4 now and T5 is doable.  Haven't tried T6 because I am super cautious but I could probably swing it.  running through the campaign tight now to get season cheevos.

[Xanthippe]

How long does a season last?

[Malakili]

They said season 3 will last about four months.  It began on April 10th. Unfortunately they have not announced the exact end date and the first two seasons weren't the same length so it's hard to know exactly.

[Paelos]

Do they do any kind of discounts on the xpac? I'd pay $25 for it but not $40.

[Malakili]

Do they do any kind of discounts on the xpac? I'd pay $25 for it but not $40.

I know my friend picked it up at Wal-Mart for something like $20 bucks at some point.  I think I've seen sales on the battle.net store before, but they don't seem frequent.

[Paelos]

Yeah I've heard about them but never actually seen one in person. Like a Manatee.

I'll probably have to check with my Blizzard friend.

[Xanthippe]

Yeah I've heard about them but never actually seen one in person. Like a Manatee.

I'll probably have to check with my Blizzard friend.

Amazon has it for $29.49 (If you have Prime, it'll arrive Monday).

[Paelos]

Hmmm. Interesting. Wonder why it's so much less.

[Malakili]

Gamestop currently has a sale for $19.99 http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/diablo-iii-reaper-of-souls/113384

[Paelos]

Sold! Thanks.

[Senses]

I started playing season 3 for kicks.  Ran into a rainbow leprechaun portal and had this exciting adventure through some care bear unicorn area.  I was pretty excited till I found another one a couple minutes later.   Is it rainbow leprechaun weekend or something?

[Setanta]

Cow based rifts are fun and they have a neat mini-boss event - I had more fun with that than smashing teddies and my little ponies.

[Paelos]

The music of the whimsyshire levels is what bothers me the most. It's so awful and they intended it to be discordant and awful. Which isn't fun.

I wish they'd just take that part out. We get it, you made it as a bunch of butthurt devs from way back when that people thought the game was too shiny. Now? It makes no sense.

[Hutch]

The music of the whimsyshire levels is what bothers me the most. It's so awful and they intended it to be discordant and awful. Which isn't fun.

I wish they'd just take that part out. We get it, you made it as a bunch of butthurt devs from way back when that people thought the game was too shiny. Now? It makes no sense.

Wait, is that really why that level is in there? Because of all the grimdark whining that took place pre-release?

I didn't know that. I thought it was just Blizzard being Blizzard.
Also, I get a kick out of slaughtering the teddy bears and unicorns 

[Hawkbit]

Wait, is that really why that level is in there? Because of all the grimdark whining that took place pre-release?

I kinda like it. It's a reminder that the original dev crew started the whole shitshow of the first year with the inability to accept criticism in a rational manner.

[Malakili]

It used to be a huge pain to farm the stupid staff of herding to get to whimsyshire and I farmed one up when the game first came out because I assumed it would be the next "cow level" when it came to farming the end game. 

The real problem with the whimsydale goblins is that the place isn't really worth stopping whatever you were doing to clear.  I guess it has some novelty value the first time, but they should really make it worth your time.

[Paelos]

I'd hate it less if they changed the music.