Diablo III - It's official

[AlphaWolf]

Greater Rifts aren't necessarily harder, there is a range of difficulty from very easy to much harder than torment 6. A level 25 greater rift is about equal to a torment 6 rift. A level 1 rift is quite easy, easier than torment 1. I'd highly recommend doing some greater rifts just for a few gems. Even without leveling them they can be a nice boost in dps. There is a 100% chance of getting a gem at the completion of a greater rift.

Someone did a test comparing torment 6 to level 25 greater rifts and found that the torment 6 rift gave about double the xp, but drops were higher in the greater rifts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LHi5KNlVcI

 

[Cyan]

Greater Rifts aren't necessarily harder, there is a range of difficulty from very easy to much harder than torment 6. A level 25 greater rift is about equal to a torment 6 rift. A level 1 rift is quite easy, easier than torment 1. I'd highly recommend doing some greater rifts just for a few gems. Even without leveling them they can be a nice boost in dps. There is a 100% chance of getting a gem at the completion of a greater rift.

Someone did a test comparing torment 6 to level 25 greater rifts and found that the torment 6 rift gave about double the xp, but drops were higher in the greater rifts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LHi5KNlVcI

Thanks for your post. It encouraged me to try the Greater Rifts. Still I had to pass the Trials.

My first one, the game sent me to a level 8 Greater Rift. I made it in time! So I got a gem. Them I decided to upgrade a Gem to see how it worked, out of curiosity, instead of getting a key to a Greater Rift 9.

So I insisted and by being persistent the game gave me the chance to try a Greater Rift 13.

And there I failed miserably. I got to the Greater Rift boss with 1 minute 45 seconds left to go.

But Elites made my DH's life very hard before, especially the Nightmarish ones, as they slow you down horribly!!

I got a few Nightmarish packs in the way and my damage is not so great at Greater Rifts 13, so in between interruptions and my own damage being so so at that level, time is never enough.

It took me 2 extra minutes over the standardised timer to defeat the Greater Rift 13 boss.

Still... this game is fascinating. -my RRoG is making my life easier 'cos I have two items from the Natalya's set, and in game terms it is as if I have 3, which adds some nice bonuses-.

Gotta say that I didn't get more legendary or set items in those Greater Rifts runs, all I seemed to find was some kind of purple orbs which I am not sure what the point is.

I also noticed in the video you shared that the guy has another video of a map hack working on Diablo 3, but I am not sure that's even possible tbh.

 

[PenguinJim]

No drops means faster killing and less ALT-ing to look for stuff to pick up! Just peg it through. The purple orbs add to the yellow Kill Counter to bring you closer to the Greater Rift (grift)... errr... wotsisface. Guardian? Captain? Manager?

I've done about ten and I think a legendary gem has dropped every time, one of which has been good (2000% weapon damage as poison) - I'm now ranking that gem up as the secondary effect looks pleasant as well. I think my grift limit is around 12/13 as well (it's not affected by Torment Level from what I can see).

I also think the Grift Manager has a higher chance to drop legendaries? I'm with you on the Rares, so playing a rift for 50 Rares and 1-2 Legendaries vs playing a grift for 2 Rares, 1-2 Legendaries and a Legendary Gem makes the latter slightly more appealing.

I had fun with my Wizard and Witch Doctor (the latter being more effective, the former being more "fun" for me), but the must-play-compulsion has gone for me now. I'm relegating Diablo 3 to 40 minutes in my lunch break every day, but I'm looking forward to a Crusader playthrough in the future.

(Tried a Barbarian, improved significantly when Whirlwind unlocked, but still couldn't find the "fun" at level 25 so abandoned her)

 

[Cyan]

Greater Rifts aren't necessarily harder, there is a range of difficulty from very easy to much harder than torment 6. A level 25 greater rift is about equal to a torment 6 rift. A level 1 rift is quite easy, easier than torment 1. I'd highly recommend doing some greater rifts just for a few gems. Even without leveling them they can be a nice boost in dps. There is a 100% chance of getting a gem at the completion of a greater rift.

Someone did a test comparing torment 6 to level 25 greater rifts and found that the torment 6 rift gave about double the xp, but drops were higher in the greater rifts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LHi5KNlVcI

Well, I've played a few Greater Rifts and I don't understand the numbers the creator of the video is getting. There is no money in Greater Rifts and only the guardian drops items.

Playing Nephalem Rifts I've found a bit of this and a bit of that, something that doesn't happen often on Greater Rifts.

Today I got a Digger Depths -legendary pants-. It's great, it increases the damage of my primary skill that regenerates a resource -Evasive Fire- but 91%. --my DH had rare pants with 2 sockets before.

My max damage with Evasive Fire went from something like 3,000.000+ to 6,200.000 in some cases. :O

Back into Greater Rifts, I have a gem that at level 3 it increases the damage of my DH primary skills by a 27%. Not bad.

Another gem which increases damage by 2600% -poison damage-. Not bad, although I socketed the gem into a Squirts amulet.

 

[Cyan]

No drops means faster killing and less ALT-ing to look for stuff to pick up! Just peg it through. The purple orbs add to the yellow Kill Counter to bring you closer to the Greater Rift (grift)... errr... wotsisface. Guardian? Captain? Manager?

I've done about ten and I think a legendary gem has dropped every time, one of which has been good (2000% weapon damage as poison) - I'm now ranking that gem up as the secondary effect looks pleasant as well. I think my grift limit is around 12/13 as well (it's not affected by Torment Level from what I can see).

I also think the Grift Manager has a higher chance to drop legendaries? I'm with you on the Rares, so playing a rift for 50 Rares and 1-2 Legendaries vs playing a grift for 2 Rares, 1-2 Legendaries and a Legendary Gem makes the latter slightly more appealing.

I had fun with my Wizard and Witch Doctor (the latter being more effective, the former being more "fun" for me), but the must-play-compulsion has gone for me now. I'm relegating Diablo 3 to 40 minutes in my lunch break every day, but I'm looking forward to a Crusader playthrough in the future.

(Tried a Barbarian, improved significantly when Whirlwind unlocked, but still couldn't find the "fun" at level 25 so abandoned her)

Thanks for sharing your numbers. I am torn between Greater Rifts and Nepahlem Rifts to find cool stuff, although I also like bounties for that --but I had more than 100 unused Rifts keystones so....

The Witch Doctor and The Wizard are my 2nd most appealing characters of the game, although I started with a monk back in 2012 in the PC version, and I created a Crusader first in the Xbox One version.

As for you relegating the game...

Well, my opinion is that the game just "might" be more fun on consoles -with the controls working perfectly for a console, and other stuff like the double damage orbs (not overpowered at all, they are temporary and hard to keep going on) and so on. :smile:

Another thing that helps is focusing only on one character. It helps in my case because to me the Demon Hunter is like the most fun character ever created on a RPG.

It can be very fast, you can break a lot of items from a distance (my record is 50) 'cos of the speed bonus, and it's very strategic, especially in the initial levels of development.

I am just playing with my DH thus increasing the rewards and my knowledge of the character faster than building additional characters from scratch.

The idea is to have several mules and stuff for other characters too, and since I don't mind playing ONLY this one character for a long time because it is soooooo FUN, I could achieve the Paragon level Alphawolf's character has over time, and have lots of fun in the process.

Even if I complement it with other games such as Powerstar Golf and the future Halo The Master Chief Collection, doing a run like in the good ol' times is always welcome, especially when it can take less than 15 minutes to complete a Nephalem Rift.

In Diablo 2 my favourite character was the Werewolf druid, but I built other characters and ended up overwhelmed, so to me it's a good thing that I really prefer and favour the Demon Hunter, so I can focus on getting more items and improving my Paragon levels --hence helping everyone out at the same time.

 

[PenguinJim]

I've just gone back to the Wizard and find it compelling again. Got a second piece of Vyr today! Very exciting. I don't want to abandon the Witch Doctor, but... I think I'm abandoning the Witch Doctor. Made it to about... 67? I just find the Wizard to be oodles of arcane fun - teleporting around with a frost magic missile for keeping mobs on my fire hydra's flames while an overpowered disintegration rips everything apart... and then Archon pops and I just womp everything. (Vyr's 4-piece bonus enables every Archon rune simultaneously )

I'm looking forward to the Demon Hunter, but only after a Crusader. I do want a meleeer next, and fiddling with shields might be fun. We'll see.

 

[Malo]

Wow, I want that Vyr 4-piece bonus. Archon is already insanely powerful.

 

[PenguinJim]

I'm now doing an Act One adventure Horadric cube grabbage every evening (to try and get that ring that lowers set piece requirements by one (e.g. 3 pieces of Vyr = 4-piece set bonus)) and a couple of grifts every lunch break to level a legendary gem and hopefully get a third Vyr piece.

I appreciate having a game with a sort've persistency to it, where an hour's play can really make a difference to the game you own (instead of just advancing you 60 minutes through the story, for example). It's something I like about MMOs, but there aren't any MMOs for me at the moment. So this'll do.

 

[Pressure]

Finally got a Ring of Royal Grandeur the other night, so now running around with a decent Marauder but I really miss being immune to Desecrator, Molten and Plagued monster effects with the set pieces of Blackthorne's.

 

[Cyan]

Finally got a Ring of Royal Grandeur the other night, so now running around with a decent Marauder but I really miss being immune to Desecrator, Molten and Plagued monster effects with the set pieces of Blackthorne's.

he he, you missed it, because you got used to it. But you will get accustomed to your new items, so no worries.

I've always had to deal with Molten, Desecrator, Plagued, and similar flavours of evil variety and it was part of the game, 'cos I didn't have an item like the one you had, so... it's all a matter of perspective.

 

[PenguinJim]

I've found Wizard's teleport to be excellent at getting me out of those hazards, and I've got an excellent Legendary off-hand Evil Eye that reduces the cooldown to 8 seconds and gives an 18% chance to reset the cooldown entirely when hit. I'm going to miss that one most of all if it gets replaced.

Just did a couple of T2 rifts (can shift my passives to damage instead of defense and clear T2 solo much faster than defensive T3s), and got a socketed ring at about 1% lower stats than a non-socketed I had equipped - (almost) perfect for that insane poison Legendary Gem I've been idly upgrading! Then went to get rid of my overflowing blood shards and Vyr's Gloves dropped!

Good lunch break! \o/

Now I just need Pressure's Ring of Royal Grandeur...

 

[Malo]

Yes maneuverability is very important for certain classes and/or skill setups. Pretty much every character I play has the means to escape from deadly situations quickly.

 

[Cyan]

Yes maneuverability is very important for certain classes and/or skill setups. Pretty much every character I play has the means to escape from deadly situations quickly.

heheh, I am all about Vault with my DH, with the first rune where several knifes are thrown to the baddies and always grant a critical hit, for increased aggravation of the devil hordes.

Plus using it you travel really fast, and with the knives thing you break different objects of the scenario, and it's fun, you don't have to be actually close to that decorative furniture.

 

[PenguinJim]

Yikes, I played again on the 25th and was lobbing my overflowing blood shards at Kadaladala, and Vyr's Boots showed up! My first full set, all from drops/Kadladlad!

Needless to say, I'm having the last laugh. Explode when I become Archon. Slow field around Archon. Increased Archon damage and decreased cooldown. Teleporting Archon. Something something Archon. It's all very nice! AND one of those "put a socket anywhere oo-err" items dropped. I'm saving it for that Grandeur Ring so I can plop a Legendary Gem in that too (I hope that works!).

Since the 24th I've jumped from soloing T2 and Grift 14s to T4 and Grift 18 (or 19?)s! Vyr nice!

 

[Grall]

Found a RROG with my wizard. No socket, of course... Anyway, I don't really have any awesome set stuff to pair up with it, what's the recommended getup for some kickass demon destruction?


Also, when identifying unidentifying leg and set gear, how does that really work? I tested to identify stuff I've had drop with my wiz on my DH, and the legs got dex on them and the set item got int, plus set bonuses for wiz. Is that how it always works - no point in stashing set gear for a different class, but you can do it for legs?

 

[John Reynolds]

I rediscovered the joys of being a witch doctor this weekend. I've ignored this toon for weeks, so much so I had over 100 paragon pts to assign her. Unfortunately I ignored her so much all the Int-based gear was on my wizard, so she had maybe a hat (Jeram, 84% boost to my pet dmg), a dagger, and a source. Over the weekend I got a RoRG for her, and two more Zunimassa pieces, so permanent fetishes FTW. I just had to add the fetish sycophants after that, so now she runs with a small army of the little Zulu bastards blowing poison darts at everything in sight. That along with 5 dogs runed to heal me (might change this to something that adds to their dmg) and a Frankenstein and she basically sits back throwing pirana waves and raining toads down from a safe distance. Which is good, since her toughness is a measley 6m. I also had tasker gloves I'd forgotten about in my stash that increase pet speed by 44%, which explains why I decided on such a pet-centric build for her.

At T2-3 enemies, even elites, simply melt if I have a large pool of fetishes built up (rain of toads seems really good at spawning the sycophants). Currently working on upgrading two gems for her: the one that poisons all enemies hit and the one that boosts pet dmg.

Edit: my favorite change/tweak is that the fetishes now have a # counter at the top of the screen. I'm so anal I used to stop and try to count them, but the little bastards would move around too much to get an easy, accurate count.

 

[Malo]

It's all very nice! AND one of those "put a socket anywhere oo-err" items dropped. I'm saving it for that Grandeur Ring so I can plop a Legendary Gem in that too (I hope that works!).

That can only be put on a weapon.

Also, when identifying unidentifying leg and set gear, how does that really work? I tested to identify stuff I've had drop with my wiz on my DH, and the legs got dex on them and the set item got int, plus set bonuses for wiz. Is that how it always works - no point in stashing set gear for a different class, but you can do it for legs?

Smart loot is based on the character who had the item drop, not who is currently identifying the item. On rare occassion you'll get an item with stats and bonuses for a different class.

 

[John Reynolds]

That can only be put on a weapon.

And if the weapon already has a socket, go to the mystic and reroll that into something useful and then apply Ramaladni's Gift.

I've gotten five so far since they were added, two over this past weekend after three dropping in the first month of availability. Then weeks and weeks of not seeing one.

 

[Malo]

And if the weapon already has a socket, go to the mystic and reroll that into something useful and then apply Ramaladni's Gift.

I've gotten five so far since they were added, two over this past weekend after three dropping in the first month of availability. Then weeks and weeks of not seeing one.

I've never gotten one I can't wait to reroll a socket on a few of my weapons.

 

[John Reynolds]

I've never gotten one I can't wait to reroll a socket on a few of my weapons.

That's no fun. Hey, I think I might've accidentally scrubbed you off my friend's list (either that or you treated me like an ex-girlfriend). I was going through deleting the "hey, I did a public group once and sent an invite" that I get all the time from people, but hate to decline since I figure they're just being friendly. But, anyways, I haven't seen you online in weeks and just realized it after these last posts.