Diablo 3: An Item Shop's Tale

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

I got good at Paladin, in that, in Hell, I had 85 Resist all, and so much life steal that I could solo anything. I had such an incredible attack speed that, with the Lightsabre, it never animated the actual blow. The sword would never reach the enemy, it looked like I was just flailing it around above my head, like some sort of glow stick. It was great.

I avoided Act 4 because ONE Iron Maiden would kill me instantly. I did, like, 3 times my health per swing.

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

Oh shit, I just remembered. Just so we're clear, everyone here knows it's now impossible to go hostile on other players and that all PvP is going to happen in special arenas, right? Crow, you were talking about PKing back in D2. Did you mean voluntary PvP with other PvPers, or going out and murdering people in the woods? Because the latter isn't an option this time around.

Voluntary pvp, I'd would join PK rooms.

The odd time it wasn't in PK rooms was because a friend of mine would be getting harassed and I would show up to end the griefers.


I'm sticking with Wizard because there's no Amazon option this time around. Going to name my wizard:

[Frosthawkwhat is this. what is this SHIT]

I had such an incredible attack speed that, with the Lightsabre, it never animated the actual blow. The sword would never reach the enemy, it looked like I was just flailing it around above my head, like some sort of glow stick. It was great.

Like the world's deadliest rave!

I'm sticking with Wizard because there's no Amazon option this time around. Going to name my wizard:

Then I'm going with because only she can defeat an Ursa Minor.

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

I'm always right. But if I weren't in this case, it would be because:

1. The barbarian is either a grizzled old man or one of the few legitimately muscular ladies in all popular media. They're both jacked as hell and it's cool seeing female barb tower over most of the NPCs.
2. The SA thread has a lot of posts about how the barb is the most satisfying class to play. I'll at least agree that it looks like the most visceral. There are similar posts for every other class as well, of course, but I know I saw the most for the barbarian.
3. This is just theorycrafting, but he/she appears to have some of the best passives in the game. "Superstition: Reduce all nonphysical damage taken by 20%, and, when you're hit by a ranged or elemental attack, you have a chance to gain 3 fury." Look at that! That's +20% to all resists, except it doesn't appear to count against the cap, and then sometimes you get a bit of free fury. "Brawler" will never not be on, so it's basically a straight +30% to damage. "Relentless" makes every skill free and halves all damage taken when you're at less than 20% life, and, considering how hard the barb can tank, that's probably a very long way from dead; there will certainly be builds revolving around abusing Relentless by staying permanently at 20%.
4. I played a lot of sorceresses in D2, and one thing that always bothered me is that most of the weapons were none of her business. Axes, swords, maces, all the melee weapons were just sort of irrelevant to me. In D3 it'll be a little different in that weapon damage will at least boost damage for all classes, but there is exactly one class that actually swings the damn things. Even the monk puts his/her weapon away when he/she does most of his/her attacks. If you want to hit someone with an axe instead of holding it while doing other things, you pretty much have to play barb.
5. The other day, Jay Wilson said that the key to Inferno is going to be high single-target DPS. The wizard doesn't come by this very easily. The barbarian has it in spades. Also the wizard is made of glass.
6. [Other stuff I didn't even think of, because this isn't my class of choice for reasons that are completely arational, so the strongest draws here may be pretty opaque to me]
7. Dress like Sauron.

Wait. Why do you support the wizard then? I dunno, because it seems like if the Wizard isn't Inferno-viable, then my initial plans for my Wizard character will be dashed.

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

You can expect a whole lot of balance patches in the first few weeks.

If blizzard is known for something, it's definitely caving in to whining about PvE balancing.

Then I'm going with because only she can defeat an Ursa Minor.

A Trixie-Crow will be able to.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

Wait. Why do you support the wizard then? I dunno, because it seems like if the Wizard isn't Inferno-viable, then my initial plans for my Wizard character will be dashed.

Short answer: I'd rather be dying every ten feet in hell with a wizard than blowing through inferno with a barb. Long answer can best be written as a series of responses to the seven things I wrote up there.

1. I really do think the barbs both look cool, but the female wizard giggles like a psycho periodically and she's voiced by Grey DeLisle. I prefer that to the Noble Savage shtick.
2. Like I said, every class has a bunch of people who think it's the best one, and I love glass cannon-type characters with great AoE.
3. Don't care.
4. Okay, but the wizard can read a fucking book. The wizard isn't swinging her weapon because she's not even looking.
5. I will make it work. And what does that guy know? No one at Blizzard has even beaten Inferno yet. Blizzard, meteor, disintegrate, slow time, ancient guardian, magic weapon, magic defense spell to taste. There, that's like 1500% weapon damage over three seconds to a group of enemies. With up to five slow effects depending on runes.
6. What the hell does that even mean.
7. Sauron looks stupid.

I'm gonna play a Monk, because I'm a Paladin at heart.

I don't know if a Monk can be a fast, tanky Zeal Pally replacement or not. But that is my destiny.
I look forward to playing with all of you. I wuv you all.

Zeal --> way of the hundred fists. The aura that gives weapon speed only gives 8% and thorns, so you may have to settle for either a 12-24% damage increase aura (sorry, "mantra") or the new equivalent to holy freeze. Blocking is probably going to get replaced with dodge, which caps at (I think) 50%. On the other hand, you've got some good AoE's.

Voluntary pvp, I'd would join PK rooms.

The odd time it wasn't in PK rooms was because a friend of mine would be getting harassed and I would show up to end the griefers.


I'm sticking with Wizard because there's no Amazon option this time around. Going to name my wizard:

Oh cool, I was worried that they took out your favorite part.

e: Relentless build, just for fun. I could probably get its highest requirements down to lvl 30, which is the beginning of nightmare.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/b ... bUc!ZcZccZ
... It would probably need monk backup in inferno.


e2: 5 days, and they just added an achievement for having been invited to the closed beta. The community is having some kind of meltdown because now there's an achievement that some people will never, never get.

[JaceNVTo save one from a mistake is a gift of paradise]

I thought it might be helpful to have a list for PonyGoons who are playing Diablo 3 and want to find others to play with. So I made a list.

You put your forum name and battletag in the form here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/vie ... bjZrc0E6MQ

Which gets added to the list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... HZQbjZrc0E

The list is semi-public. Only people with the link can see it.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

I thought it might be helpful to have a list for PonyGoons who are playing Diablo 3 and want to find others to play with. So I made a list.

You put your forum name and battletag in the form here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/vie ... bjZrc0E6MQ

Which gets added to the list here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... HZQbjZrc0E

The list is semi-public. Only people with the link can see it.

On one hand, this was clearly my responsibility and I didn't do it; on the other hand, I wouldn't have thought of doing it this way in the first place. Sorry and thanks.

[Frosthawkwhat is this. what is this SHIT]

I don't have a Battlenet account I don't think, but I will make one for this purpose.

E: Done!

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

We should add each other over Real ID (will D3 support that? WoW and SC2 do.) so we can cross-platform chat.
And so I know all of your real names and I can make fun of them!

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

Game is available tonight, yes?

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

You wish. Midnight, tomorrow.
http://hardcashd3.com/D3countdown.html

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

Bleh, I thought it was out monday.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

I'm getting this delicious rush of schadenfreude from all the cyber-wailing about the release date not being right this second. Yeah, I have to wait another two months, but tons of people are currently miserable and that's what counts.

vvv Done.

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

Oh hey Ragnar, you should toss the BattleTag list on the first post at the top, just so everyone can find it faster.

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

I...uh...think I forgot mine. Little help?

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

I...uh...think I forgot mine. Little help?

You can log into your battle.net account and get it off the account page.

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

Done, thanks!

[Val HelmetheadDamn it, fire hose doesn't work that way!]

Gonna make so much real life money selling packets of data on the internet, people are going to think I knocked over a Bitcoin bank.

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

Gonna make so much real life money selling packets of data on the internet, people are going to think I knocked over a Bitcoin bank.

This is what I plan to do as well!


That reminds me....Ponygoons going HARDCORE MODE?! or Regular? I'm probably going to play both modes.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

24 hours left, and I'll start in softcore. Sooner or later I'll probably migrate to hardcore, especially if you people have done the same by then.

[Frosthawkwhat is this. what is this SHIT]

I'm definitely going to start in softcore because I'm a big ol' softie.

[Perpetual]

Out in less than 24 hours, hol-eee shit. Finally, having tues/wed as my weekend pays off for once

Based on what I saw in the beta, I suspect the AH is going to be a chaotic mess for a while. Without proper item levels or stat budgets like in WoW it's going to be really tricky for the average player to determine how much gear is worth. The variance in how much stat you can get on a piece of gear is huge, so even within tiers we're going to see a large disparity in value. I'm kinda thinking I might start off putting stuff up with no buyout to take advantage of the massive numbers of people who will be looking for gear in the first rush, but we'll see.

As for softcore/hardcore, definitely starting on softcore, I'd hate to get 50 levels in and then run into an elite with that walling or jailing modifier (or both, or worse) and be left with nothing to show for all that time spent

Also -

The in your sig is in just the right spot that I can't help but think of it as a reaction shot to the punchline in that comic

[Perpetual]

Gonna make so much real life money selling packets of data on the internet, people are going to think I knocked over a Bitcoin bank.

The RMAH won't be up until a week after launch, just so you guys are aware.

Also, yes, Real ID is in there Aramek, they had it up and running in the beta.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

I will not be playing Hardcore mode as, if it is the same in D2, it doesn't add anything positive to the gaming experience. There are only foreseeable negatives.

The in your sig is in just the right spot that I can't help but think of it as a reaction shot to the punchline in that comic

It's a hell of a punchline too.

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

I can be awfully derpy sometimes. Softcore.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

I can be awfully derpy sometimes. Softcore.

"Wow, you know what really adds to the fun of playing a game that takes forever to level to max, that requires a lot of online teamwork and (optionally) a real-money investment in its equipment? Losing everything when you die, and having to start all over again! Because sudden lag spikes never occur when in the middle of a boss fight or something. That is some knee-slapping fun right there!"

Softcore. Softcore forever.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

Ooh, we'd better address this before tomorrow, are there more than one server? If so, we'd better all be on board with what server we spawn on, so we can play with each other. :quagmire:

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

Well, I move constantly between SD and Greencastle....so not sure if I'd be on West or East.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

West or East what? I'm pretty sure the Americas (and Australia) are all one server.

There are only three servers altogether, in fact. Americas, Asia, Europe.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/status

[ArtificerGoes well with All Natural Milk Naturally Flavored with Natural Flavors.]

Coast, but okay.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

Back in D2 you picked West Coast or East coast servers. Good to know we're all one server! All of you pick America's server. I don't care that you're Russian.

[Rainbow Crash]

I'll definitely go through the game on softcore first, but then it's right to hardcore.

There's no way I'm doing inferno in hardcore, though. From what I've seen, inferno is totally insane.

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

Hardcore Inferno's going to be a real gamble. You could end up with some serious money if you find the right thing in Hardcore Inferno.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

Anyone else not going to touch the RMAH? I don't want a Paypal account, and a pretty sizable percentage gets taken out before transferring the money to your bank. This is going to go out the window if I find something worth more than $10, of course.

[AramekYour MRI results have shown total infection to now be approximately one fifth of the full mass of the tissue."So you're saying..."Your brain is about 20% tumor.]

I don't see myself as ever buying anything from it. So far, in every "freemium" game I've played, I've been immune to buying extra stuff. League, WoT, haven't paid a cent.

[The great MPinke Torte das Pony.---]

I may end up selling stuff if I find valuable items, but I'll never buy items. That's pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

[Crow.Why, of course!I'm clearly insane! .]

I may end up selling stuff if I find valuable items, but I'll never buy items. That's pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

I'm on this boat as well.

I'm only going to play Wizard, and look forward to selling everything for other classes.

[RagnarWhat's older? Unicorns, or stars?]

My class playing order:
Wizard
Monk
Witch Doctor
the others I guess

By then that broke-ass WD passive should be fixed, so it won't be mandatory anymore. I don't know where in this list I'll start hardcore mode. By the way, since money, shared stash content, and merchant levels are all going to be shared across all hardcore accounts, it's not like a dead hardcore character will have nothing to show for it. Your major loss is what you were wearing and carrying when you died. And your character, of course, but that's something you can get back with time. I think hardcore is going to extend the game's lifespan considerably for me, because I love leveling characters. Outside of the act 3 jungles of D2, anyway. I can't count how many characters I have that I dropped at act 3 normal or nightmare.

If I take a hardcore character into inferno at all, I'm not moving past the first area and I'm going to use every tank tool possible. Then again, what's the point of an alive hardcore character that you're done with? I may have to think about this.