Diablo III Catch-All 2.0

Hahaha, thanks I feel dirty. Never had luck that good with Diablo. Calling it a night now. Played for 15 hours today and managed to get GR85 cleared in just over 4 mins. I'd say 100 will be achievable tomorrow.

Prediction: my free primal will be Blackthorne's Notched Belt

So I made a seasonal character (male Demon Hunter) and am being pretty laid back about it, not being in a huge rush, and so so started him in the campaign first (yes, I know, but I still have many campaign challenges to complete!). So long before going to kill the Skeleton King, I get the gold beam of light for a unique helm and what do you know, but it was Leoric's Crown. Then of course I get another Leoric's Crown after killing the King.

Now maybe that isn't quite so fascinating except you might want to learn what happened to the non-seasonal Necromancer I was playing right after starting a new game on the Switch. So of course he gets a Leoric's Crown when killing the Skeleton King back when he started, and then what was the very last unique that dropped when killing you-know-who in Act V?

You betcha! A level 60 Leoric's Crown! LOL

Leoric's crown, the alpha and omega of uniques.

So there will be many crowns going into that cube thing whenever I get it.

How are you guys hitting 70 and doing GR in the first day? Are you getting power-leveled up or did something change and you guys are all just gaming beasts?!

If you are efficient (and lucky with Kadela/crafting) it takes less than 2 hours to level.

Trying HC for the first time in years, so taking it quite slowly, but got to GRift 70 yesterday. Not a fan of the risk of losing your character, but not a fan of the complete lack of consequences in normal either. HC at least makes combat more engaging.

The latter
But seriously, I just started a fresh seasonal wizard and got her to 70 solo in ~5 hours and that is without any RNG luck in finding a Leoric's Crown. (%50-75 xp with the right gem crafting during leveling)

Running bounties on act bosses will jump start you on getting enough gold to train your blacksmith, enchanter and Jeweler. Upgrading your weapon every few levels is mandatory for leveling on master difficulty in adventure mode.

Another key is as soon as you are able to craft level 60 weapons, craft one and re roll it at the enchanter until you get decent - level requirement on it. Then as soon as you are level 61, use your first death breath to raise the blacksmith to create level 70 weapons with -level requirement.

My favorite leveling areas for monster density are Temple of the First Born and ruins of Corvus. But Arreat leading up to Azmodan is great as well. (especially is if you also have the bounty to kill Azmodan on top)

Wizard + ray of frost and then disintegrate when you get it is hands down the fastest way to 70 for fresh season solo characters. You really don't need much other than the biggest 2 handed damage you can find and some int and those 2 skills. (+ frost nova for utility and times when you think you bit off more than you can chew)

Also for leveling my favorite disintegrate rune is the one that explodes on kill. The damage reduction passive and the 2 damage increase passives with the arcane power regen passive are my go to choices.

Haunt witch doctor and bone pillar + corpse explosion necro are my other favorites. Demon hunters need to be geared right so they aren't my favorite 1-70 but their 70+ growth is outstanding (the best). Melee classes are great but they are slow or much slower unless supported by a trained up blacksmith, hellfire ring and leoric's crown with a nice ruby inside. (or weapon with gem of ease...)

A big (and relatively new) thing is doing the Weekly Challenge thing. It gives a ton of gold and materials, for crafting a lvl 70 weapon with lvl reduce - skipping the lvl 60 weapon. I still didnt get more than -16 lvl, but you can get it down to lvl 40 req with enough luck.

Shadout wrote:

A big (and relatively new) thing is doing the Weekly Challenge thing. It gives a ton of gold and materials, for crafting a lvl 70 weapon with lvl reduce - skipping the lvl 60 weapon. I still didnt get more than -16 lvl, but you can get it down to lvl 40 req with enough luck.

Yeah this. The max result for item level reduction is 30. If you're clever about which property you reroll you get reasonable odds of hitting Level Reduction (take a 70 rare with ' on hit' like Stun and roll the other property next to it, the odds of hitting Level Reduction are much better since the pool of available properties is much smaller).

If you do the weekly challenge before starting the character you have the mats to upgrade the Blacksmith to max level immediately. So this means at level 40, with ridiculous luck, you can get a level 70 weapon. I've gotten them down to 42 and 46 on 2 of my characters.

If you have a level 70 weapon in hand, you can then turn the difficulty way up, like Torment 1, and with a nice ruby in Leoric's crown you can rocket your way from 40 to 70.

How people go to GR70 so quickly after that is more mysterious to me. Free season set power?

I hat level 70 in about 2.5 hours with my group. Then I got lucky with the RNG and got Nat boots plus my 2 piece haedrigs so I had the 4 piece bonus really quick. Other guy in my group did the same so we had an easy time and were clearing t6 quite quick. Did the other pieces and got 6 pieces. Then got Marauders and used N6M4 to clear really quick. Pushed and farmed and got gr70 in about 8 hours from launch.

Cleared GR 99 yesterday with Multishot. Could have did the 100, but kinda want to save it a little Farming pieces for Impale now and I think I used all my RNG luck on my Bow. Can't get a decently rolled Holy Point Shot. MORE FARMING!

Did the challenge rift, that was fun

As for the level 70 weapon, I'm guessing I just can't craft one yet. I'm still level 14 so have some time to go before that's an issue anyway I guess

Dear game, stop giving me firebats stuff. I don't care if it's the strongest build. It's boring.

DeThroned wrote:

Did the challenge rift, that was fun

As for the level 70 weapon, I'm guessing I just can't craft one yet. I'm still level 14 so have some time to go before that's an issue anyway I guess

The blacksmith needs to be level 12 to craft level 70 weapons. Level 11 requires one Deaths Breath which normally don’t drop until you are 61, but it sounds like you can get a DB from the challenge rift to get there sooner (though still no point in it before level 40)

If you are also RNG lucky, you can get a Hack legendary axe which adds your thorns to your weapon attack. The marquee topaz adds crazy thorns damage. (8000 or 16ooo)
That will get you a long way towards 70 with as low as a level 15 weapon.

GR 100 is busted in a little over 10 mins. Paragon 800+ and still got crappy endless walk set. Much to farm, but pretty happy with the progress for the first couple of days. This game is so damn fun sometimes.

If anyone is on PS4 I'm starting a seasonal monk now. Feel free to join!

I got my barb up to 70 because I wanted to test Immortal King and permanent ancients. Many was that disappointing! I am glad I didn't waste the other haedrigs bags on that set.

fangblackbone wrote:

I got my barb up to 70 because I wanted to test Immortal King and permanent ancients. Many was that disappointing! I am glad I didn't waste the other haedrigs bags on that set.

IK by itself is has a pretty low multiplier, but it mixes really well with other sets due to having off-items like belt and weapon. E.g. if you stack IK 6p and the charge set's 4p, now you're stacking a 4000% bonus and a 1000% bonus, which adds up to real damage...

And of course you can add IK 2p or 4p into pretty much any set, which may or may not be endgame viable but is definitely solid to use while waiting for other offset drops.

Got my 3rd piece of Mauraders last night for my DH, now running 3 piece Maruaders/5 piece Natayala's. Using Icy Veins build for it. Just need to get better items in my cube. Haven't been able to test yet how high I can go, but the last GR I did solo was GR40.

So I got my 5th piece of the bloody Necromancer set (which unlocks the 6 piece bonus this season) and I'm actually kind of disappointed with how powerful it is, in a way. Diablo has been this way for years, I'm sure, I'm just now getting to it at this level, but here's the annoying bit. Its SO much more powerful than what I'm doing that what I was doing and building toward is pointless.

It signals that the SET as an entity is the most important thing in the game. Get the set and adapt to it. Dont like it? Get this other set. I realize another set is more beneficial to my existing build its just the magnitude of that last set bonus is just stupefying. It basically makes up the entire gap between GR 20 and GR 70, so its taking me for this ride; I'm not playing I'm observing.

I'd probably be less annoyed if I was playing a Blood Necromancer the whole time (but why would I on Hardcore, seems like suicide!)

It's been a lot of fun coming back to the game. Working toward tal rasha Meteor build. Currently using disintegrate and archon and doing pretty well although I've been scared to do anything above Torment 1

Now my issue is juggling D3 and Overwatch. I definitely need more time in the day.

Finally got my seasonal Monk to 70 yesterday, and immediately managed to grab a fifth piece of Uliana from the blood shard merchant. I've never played monk seriously, even when I was on PS3/4, but exploding giant crowds of enemies is very addictive, similar to my Condemn Crusader, but the explosions seem bigger.

Question meant to be non-snarky; does anyone care about the story?

As someone who did the story 6 years ago when it launched, no I dont even have a concept of what is going on anymore. Even when I was forced to do Campaign mode again for Hardcore I was just wanting to get through as fast as possible. A friend was recently trying to talk about the story with my recently and I couldnt even follow. Im just thinking 'how do you know this?!'

The story was kindof a driving force in D1 and D2. I think they've lost that though and trying to maintain one is probably delaying progress on future games.

jrralls wrote:

Question meant to be non-snarky; does anyone care about the story?

I am playing through the Campaign again right now. I have played through it 2-3 times before but it has been probably three years since the last time and trying the game on the Switch got me in the mood to run through it on PC. Also trying hardcore mode for the first time to put a little more at stake in the game.

Any recommendations for hardcore? I am just playing on normal because it is hardcore but I am about level 30 now and haven't come close to dying once. Not sure if I should continue on normal because of later Acts, or if I should increase it to hard. I am playing a crusader with weapon + shield if it matters.

Go ahead and bump it to Hard if you're feeling confident and if your main goal is to get to 70 relatively quickly. Seems like you're in good shape playing defensively. Make sure to watch out for unlocking your class's Passive skill that basically gives you a 2nd chance. They all have one. Crusader's is at 25 (Indestructible)

As a Crusader with probably lots of life and armor you'll get the chance to watch your health go down, so its likely you'll know if that skill activates. It can be hard to tell on squishier classes, which can lead to proper death if you didnt realize you just got 1 shotted and saved.

There are cool elements to it (discovering Tyrael falling from the heavens, Leah's journey at the start)
There are some dumb elements to it (killing off Deckard Cain)
There are some really bad elements to it (Adria's turn/Leah's transformation)
All the rest is mediocre. I feel like a lot of the boss designs are good but wasted with the blase' narrative around it.
The Reaper of Souls story is much better but I don't think anyone cares about that either. But as was mentioned before, the game came out in 2012. There aren't many game stories that hold up that long anyways.

edit: what polypusher said, there is no reason not to bump the difficulty to hard with hard core characters

Definitely increase to hard. And when/if you get a lvl 60/70 weapon (make sure it has vitality on it) with lvl reduce (so lvl 40+), you can easily jump to torment 1 for a while for some fast lvling - as long as you have the 'cheat death' passive on. Then at lvl 60 or so, it might be time to reduce difficulty again.

Thanks all. I am not in a huge rush to level up but good to know I can bump it to hard and not be surprised later, in the past I have played on hard just because normal is just too easy. I did take Indestructible when it came up in the passive list, it seemed like good insurance for a hardcore play through.

jrralls wrote:

Question meant to be non-snarky; does anyone care about the story?

I'm playing through the campaign right now with my seasonal Demon Hunter. Currently at the beginning of Act II. Also just recently completed the campaign with a non-seasonal Necromancer. There are parts of the storyline I do enjoy and also have numerous campaign challenges to complete, so even though at some point I'll do adventure mode, I'll keep coming back to the campaign, probably at least once per character.

I have a question concerning multiplayer. I know in the past that if someone who was just starting out grouped with someone else who had loads of paragon points, the new person would suddenly have a bunch of paragon points whether they wanted them or not. Did they ever fix this issue? I may try a bit of multiplayer at some point in the future, but I really don't want to be accidentally powerleveled as I tend to like to like to earn things on my own.