Diablo III

[Sir_NutS]

Well to be fair, averaging out the DPS instead of combining it is pretty dumb

I guess I'll be keeping an eye out for quivers.

It depends on your attack speed. Your dps isn't averaged. You do 1 attack with one hand and 1 attack with the other, this plus the 15% attack speed makes it almost even. You deal more damage if your attack speed is very high.

This is how it should work for Dual wielding barbarians, you get 30% attack speed from dual wield, then you get 30% from a 5 stack of frenzy, that's 45% faster attacks , more with speed affixes affixes and it yields more dps than 1h and shield.

Edited June 3, 2012 by Sir_NutS

[eternal Zero]

Yeah at the moment my offhand 1 hand crossbow, even though it does half the dps of my main hand has enough stats on top of the 15% IAS to be better than most quivers I've found.

Tensei, do you like 2h Xbow or the 1h? I'm personally torn. I do intend on switching to quiver once I find a nice one I like.

[Level 99]

With barb I'm finding interesting tradeoffs between dw and 1h shield, especially whenever shield has vit str boosts. It's been somewhat difficult finding good 1h weaps that give stat boosts relevant to that class, but then again I only just started hell.

[Tensei]

I use a 2-hander because of the 50% bonus crit damage from the Archery passive, combined with Sharpshooter. I find that I stagger my attacks a lot anyway with all the kiting, so attack speed isn't all that important for me compared to having slower attacks with high crits.

Keep in mind that quivers can be equipped with any kind of bow, not just 1-handed crossbows.

[Hemophiliac]

Ok, I got the game and am installing now...horray!

[eternal Zero]

Well, yeah, Tensei I knew I could equip an offhand even with a 2H bow or xbow. It's a matter of deciding whether or not I want the attack speed for when I have guys tanking for me or if I just want to go harder hits.

Also I'm really debating setting up for doing Inferno Whimsyshire runs cause it'd be so easy with a group and/or solo as a ranged but I don't know what acts the drops are equivalent to. Some sources say A4 others say A2. Any thoughts?

Edited June 4, 2012 by eternal Zero

[zircon]

Unless people are all highly geared I feel like grouping in Inferno makes things harder. Every player increases monster HP by 110% and damage by 15%. I'm up to the Zoltan Kulle blood gathering quest now as solo, and I still die fairly frequently (usually to combos like Fire Chains + Illusionist... really anything with Illusionist and mobility). Adding more damage seems like it would be unmanageable unless someone is giving me 30k DPS or more.

[Tensei]

Pretty sure Whimsyshire would be the equivalent of Act 4 drops unless it's somehow different from previous difficulties. It's also nice that none of the monsters have any ranged attack or special abilities, but farming up 1 mil for the staff can be a pain.

Also, I feel like I'd have to team up to be able to do Inferno Belial at all due to the way the first phase of the fight is set up, which is murder for a DH (or any Ranged, really). Dying on Inferno isn't really an issue, even if your gear is up to par, it's more of a problem when you simply can't get past a certain group of elites.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Tensei

[eternal Zero]

Zircon and I are pretty much the best. :bro fist: Took Belial down in only like five attempts.

I'm quite proud of this considering the only gear I've dropped any kind of gold on are my gloves and my crossbow. As I find/upgrade further I'll only get even more sick.

Also I've dropped Sharpshooter now for Numbing Traps. Makes survival much easier when they're not only snared for 2 seconds but if they were in attack range they're doing significantly less damage.

This was the Belial setup: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#WRYXkV!YeV!bcZZcc

And this is the normal setup for now...I'm really going back and forth on what my primary shot is and what takes up my 3rd slot on my bar.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#bRYXTV!YeV!YcZZZc

[zircon]

Yep, that was awesome. I wasn't sure if we'd be able to do it.

I was able to solo just about all of Act 2 otherwise; no gimmicks, only had to restart or kite elites a couple of times. My gear is worth <3 million total. Ended up with about 17k dps, 28k HP, 900 resists and 5000 armor (8000 buffed).

[eternal Zero]

Does having a follower make enemies harder? I can't really tell because I went back to do a Butcher run and it was much easier than I remember and I didn't have a dude but that could be because of my gear or improved tactics or any number of things.

Edit: Also yeah I also soloed a majority of Act 2 before hopping into your game. I was only half a chapter behind you.

Edited June 4, 2012 by eternal Zero

[zircon]

No, Followers don't make anything harder - that's one reason why soloing is sometimes easier than grouping. Also, it's pretty easy to find really good follower equipment. A good 2h enchantress weapon to put her DPS at like 1500-2000 and add 100vit is maybe 30-40k gold. Follower items, rings and amulets with int/str/vit are also usually very cheap. My Enchantress now has something like 46k HP. Between that and the mystic ally, she has saved me a number of times.

[Sir_NutS]

well, I couldn't take any more psychological punishment so I switched my beloved offhand for a lame ass shield.

Killed a few champs already, steadily progressing.

The Bul-Kathos looked down on me in disgust as he shed a tear today.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Sir_NutS

[suzumebachi]

so is there like an elitistjerks for diablo 3 yet where i can read up on how stats and shit really work cuz i literally have no idea and it is not very intuitive.

for instance, what the hell does physical resistance do as opposed to armor? how is spell damage actually calculated? how does +attack speed affect casting? why do i get more DPS (according to the damage stat on my character screen) from +10 dmg than +100 int? what are the stat weights for each class? etc.

also, is there some trick to not dying 10 times on every pack of elites? i just started out hell (level 52 witchdoctor) and while i could at least snare and kite elites in nightmare, in hell they're just too god damn fast and they're all up on me before i can even cast anything and i die in 2 seconds. glass cannon ftl.

[Tensei]

Armor and Resistances are all seperate instances of damage reduction. Armor reduces all damage, while Physical resistance will only affect physical attacks. Aside from that, certain spells or passives will give an additional % reduction (like WDs Jungle Fortitude), and there are also items that give bonuses like reducing melee damage or damage from elites by a certain percentage.

That said, Resistances are generally the cheapest way to boost your survivability quickly.

Attack Speed also boosts your cast rate for every spell, which means it works well to up the DPS on cheap spammy attacks like poison darts, but it doesn't really affect any damage over time spells, and it will cause you to run out of mana quicker if you use a lot of mana-hungry spells compared to other ways of boosting your damage (cause you're casting the spell more often for smaller amounts of damage versus casting it slower for larger amounts of damage)

Intelligence, just as any other primary stat for a class, will boost your damage by 1% per point. 100 Intelligence means a 100% increase to your damage. This is why minor damage boosts, like a ring that adds maybe 12-24 damage, can suddenly make a huge difference when you're getting like 1200% extra damage from your stats.

WD has a lot of ways of dealing with Elites. Probably the least thing you want to do is to start using Spirit Walk because it lets you get out of a lot of messy situations unharmed. I like it with the Spirit Vessel passive because it lowers cooldown and gives you another safety net in case you die.

Snares and CC in general get diminished as you go up in difficulties, but Wall of Zombies always remains crazy strong for blocking powerful enemies. Hex is another great spell that affects every elite and even certain sub-bosses. Fetish Army is a good oh shit button because it does significant damage even later on, and draws away a lot of aggro. Offensively, stuff like Haunt or Swarm of Locusts is probably the most efficient if youre kiting a lot because of the damage over time component, so you can spend more time running.

Edited June 5, 2012 by Tensei

[Bahamut]

I've found some useful information over at the Battle.net D3 class forums. At least, it has definitely allowed me to handle almost anything in Act 1 Inferno as a wizard minus super crappy champion/elite mods + speedy enemies (unless my laptop lags, which happens enough since I'm running a web development environment with Rails). I've been able to solo farm the Butcher which has been nice, although I hear that Belial is really tough unless you go full glass cannon, and even then there is the risk of dying to the snake minions if you don't output enough damage.

Also when MaxFrost and I were playing on Sunday, this dropped for me: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/andariels-visage

My first legendary and what a sweet legendary it is, boosting my dps to over 20k. Seems like my stats for it are pretty good (283 armor, +34 poison resist, +117 intel, 13% IAS, level requirement reduced by 2 - I forget the regeneration mod, think it's +94)

[Sir_NutS]

so is there like an elitistjerks for diablo 3 yet where i can read up on how stats and shit really work cuz i literally have no idea and it is not very intuitive.

for instance, what the hell does physical resistance do as opposed to armor? how is spell damage actually calculated? how does +attack speed affect casting? why do i get more DPS (according to the damage stat on my character screen) from +10 dmg than +100 int? what are the stat weights for each class? etc.

also, is there some trick to not dying 10 times on every pack of elites? i just started out hell (level 52 witchdoctor) and while i could at least snare and kite elites in nightmare, in hell they're just too god damn fast and they're all up on me before i can even cast anything and i die in 2 seconds. glass cannon ftl.

You want to check the diablofans.com Forums.

Here's a tip to getting through hell quicker: go to the AH, and get new weapons and armor. Since you're a witch doctor set the filter for intelligence and vitality, and the buyout amount to 5k-10k I assure you will find awesome gear for your character for less than 5k at that level that will be an upgrade for anything you brought from nigthmare, and it will help you faceroll Hell. I pimped up my wizard for less than 20k and I'm facerolling act 2.

Also, here's a spreadsheet for comparing items for witch doctors courtesy of diablofans:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AtSFZM2UJ5OJdGFnWXVLTTRocDJFZk8tanduOHlBVXc&toomany=true#gid=0

If you really want to know the inner workings of your class or what specs are viable you should really visit those forums and read up a bit.

[Level 99]

You want to check the diablofans.com Forums.

Here's a tip to getting through hell quicker: go to the AH, and get new weapons and armor. Since you're a witch doctor set the filter for intelligence and vitality, and the buyout amount to 5k-10k I assure you will find awesome gear for your character for less than 5k at that level that will be an upgrade for anything you brought from nigthmare, and it will help you faceroll Hell. I pimped up my wizard for less than 20k and I'm facerolling act 2.

Also, here's a spreadsheet for comparing items for witch doctors courtesy of diablofans:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AtSFZM2UJ5OJdGFnWXVLTTRocDJFZk8tanduOHlBVXc&toomany=true#gid=0

If you really want to know the inner workings of your class or what specs are viable you should really visit those forums and read up a bit.

Pretty much this. SirNuts gave me the same tip. Now I don't die as much by a factor of 10 billion.

I jumped in suzu's game after he had frustrations with Rakanoth on Nightmare, and I think I felt the vibrations of the clunk of his jaw hitting the floor when we were able to take him down without suzu taking very much damage and me staying above 50% health the whole time.

I'm about half way through Act 1 Hell and have only had two champ/elite mobs that I was not able to take down solo. Current skills http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhYVik!Zdb!abZabb

[Sir_NutS]

I'm about half way through Act 1 Hell and have only had two champ/elite mobs that I was not able to take down solo. Current skills http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bhYVik!Zdb!abZabb

Enjoy Cleave and WW while you can bro. It won't last much longer.

[relyanCe]

My current DH build for soloing Nightmare

I only have trouble with Mortar and Fast elites right now. Mortar is dealt with easily with a few vaults and spiketraps, but those GODDAMN FAST ELITES DON'T STOP CHASING ME AAAAAARGHdumb

how is this build gonna stack up to Hell and beyond, those with experience therein?

EDIT: fixed runes and passives. dunno what happened with the last one -,-

Edited June 5, 2012 by relyanCe

[eternal Zero]

You don't have any runes or passives set so I can't say how well you'll scale.

But! General DH knowledge and practice is:

For primary you're either using Hungering Arrow or Entangling Arrow with whatever rune you feel like or if you have access to Acid Strike for Bola Shot that's the one exception I've seen again and again.

Secondary is Elemental Arrow [ball Lightning] or [Nether Tentacles] for damage and [Frost Arrow] for utility. Multishot [Fire At Will] or [broadside] is also popular.

Your bar consists of Smoke Screen [Lingering Fog] and Preparation [battle Scars] or [backup Plan] for pretty much any build. The other two are up to you.

Popular choices are:

Animal Companion [Ferrets] or [bat]

Spike Traps [Long Fuse], [scatter], [bandolier]

Caltrops [Hooked Spines], [Tortuous Ground]

Impale [Chemical Burn], [Grievous Wound]

Rain of Vengeance [stampede]

Shadow Form [Gloom]

Vault [Rattling Roll], [Tumble]

And passives most people go: Archery and Steady Aim by default. Main 3rd slot choices are Sharpshooter, Tactical Advantage, and Night Stalker.

Needless to say you have a ton of options as a DH and outside of the core there's plenty of room to be effective at what we do while having your own style to it.

I've personally tried everything but I always go back to Caltrops [Torturous Ground] (kite forever AND trap treasure goblins in place) and having either my bat (near infinite Hatred) or my ferrets ($$$). Stampede is also really nice for groups but not so great for killing bosses or elites. Also Impale is really great for single target damage for small enemies but Ball Lightning and Nether Tentacles just do so much damage it's hard to justify spending hatred on anything else.

Edit: In other news I have a new melee wizard build I've been using on my level 52 wizard and I do quite like it. I can't wait until I actually have real gear for it and all the right runes I want. Should be a good alternative to my DH style of kite and fight.

This is what I eventually want.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#bROSYX!gaV!cbccYa

or this

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#WROSYX!gab!YbccYa

Edited June 5, 2012 by eternal Zero

[zircon]

Act 3 Inferno is insanely brutal. I can kill champ/elites maybe... 25% of the time, and white (trash) mobs are easily as strong as Act 1 elites. I've had my gear totally wrecked several times and I have yet to complete the first quest. Very very very brutal for a Monk. So far I've been using my very defensive build which, although possessing a respectable 19k DPS, is just not enough to tank like I did in the earlier acts. Fallen Shaman are also a huge problem since they sit in back and run away, making me wade through tons of lethal mobs in the process.

At the moment I'm trying an attack speed build with more emphasis on offense and dodge, in the hopes that I can just kill stuff before it kills me. My overall DPS is down but in return I'm getting way more spirit regeneration and some life on hit. If that doesn't work either, I might just have to gear up further...

[Bahamut]

Living Lightning is kinda bad from my experience - it moves so slow and has a relatively not long range. It's not effective for standing and firing off a quick one and going on the move IMO. Also hydra on the right click has a distinct disadvantage I found - you have to have a target with the click to cast hydra, whereas with a number key you could cast it wherever you want to your heart's content. I guess you could shift + right click, but it's just something else to think about.

I'm currently running this: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#blRYSP!YdU!bbbcYZ

Although I'm probably going to change it to this: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#blRYSO!YXU!bbbcYc

Been slowly gearing up - up to 39k hp and 21k dps with ~200 resist. Seems like some of the most geared wizards have ~1200 all resists, 100% movespeed, and like 60k+ dps. That type of gear sounds so expensive .

Edited June 5, 2012 by Bahamut

[eternal Zero]

It's a melee wizard build. It's not meant for running. Living lightning is meant to maximize the number of hits for a stun proc. Also you 100% don't need a target to right click to place a hydra.

I played through a majority of the game with Hydra on left click as well because I don't like wizard primary abilities very much and you simply have to use shift+click to force a cast over a wall into fog.

Edit: Also Baha you may way to do some reading on general wizard builds and also read exactly what your skills do. Your builds seem haphazard. I'm not trying to be mean. Just pointing it out.

Temporal Flux only works with Arcane damage not a skill that uses Arcane power. Your build does only cold, poison and lightning damage. Also if you want to do the run and gun then your best bet is to keep Temporal Flux and change to the Arcane Hydra because it hits in an AoE and will allow you to kite much easier. Also Venom Hydra works best when the enemy isn't moving so that's why I wanted to make the stand and deliver melee build because otherwise it's wasted on everything that isn't a very slow moving boss.

Edited June 5, 2012 by eternal Zero

[Tensei]

There's also a Wizard build focused around Living Lightning that makes use of the amount of times it hits combined with high crit ratio and the Critical Mass passive that reduces your cooldowns each time you crit, which in turn increases the uptime you have on the likes of Diamond Skin and other survivability spells.

E: I actually just rolled a Wizard cause I wanted to try this build out, and I'm kinda burnt out on Inferno difficulty at the moment with my 3 level 60s

Edited June 5, 2012 by Tensei