Quotes from the D3 Dev AMA

[NuurAbSaal]

1.0.3 is coming `this month'.

This brought fond memories of that Amazon Basin thread on patch 1.10 for D2. The one with the hilarious photoshopped movie posters. Anybody has that saved somewhere?

take care
Tarabulus

[Lissa]

1.0.3 is coming `this month'. Probably not as early as Tuesday, is my guess. I believe they commented somewhere that Tome costs would be reduced on high-end Blacksmith crafts.

The term is: Soon™

[Concillian]

You can believe what you want, but if you are melee, then w/o extensive use of the AH, you will be going nowhere past Act1 Inferno, if you are soloing.

How are hardcore people playing in Act 2 then? Yeah, they're using the AH, but they aren't using the AH like softcore people are (buying items from people in Act III/IV to prepare themselves for Act II).

They are playing there by not being melee.

You don't play in Act II hardcore unless you can survive there. If you're cowering in a corner hoping your partner can do everything for you, you're eventually going to attract attention and get killed if you can't hold your own.

People are soloing and progressing on hardcore melee toons, and the melee are at the front of the line. As far as I know, all the hardcore 1st kills in inferno have been made by melee. Watch the streams or youtube; you'll see they are playing very much as melee.

[MongoJerry]

How's your progress been, MJ? Don't think I've seen any updates from you in awhile.

I gain about one act per death at this point. Just got gibbed by Rakanoth in Act IV hell. I was feeling pretty good about my gear progression and was getting ready to do some heavy farming before trying Inferno, but Rakanoth took care of me. As noted in the other thread on the subject, I think it was just a matter of me not understanding his AI. I have a couple ideas now that I can try out more safely in normal and nightmare before I tackle him again in hell.

Come to think of it, I need to know a bit more about Izzy's AI, too. He's also a boss who I haven't died to, yet, but it's always been a hairy fight.

[ViralSpiral]

Do you keep using mostly the same build each time, or is switching things up between attempts being done?

[MongoJerry]

Do you keep using mostly the same build each time, or is switching things up between attempts being done?

I make minor adjustments to the build as I learn more -- and dying forces definitely forces me to learn more. For example, Frag finally convinced me to switch from the Wormhole teleport rune (allows basically a spammable Teleport for one second) to the Fracture Rune (creates two mirror images on reappearance with 25% of your health). I have to hand it to him, he was right. It has allowed me to stay in the middle of fights longer, making teleport now a defensive/offensive spell instead of just being a purely defensive spell.

But I don't do wholesale swaps to a completely different playstyle. I'll wait for that until after I beat Diablo on Inferno first.

[ViralSpiral]

Funny, that's the same rune I tossed on my hypothetical build. The whole "spam Temporal Flux snare while making 22 copies of myself, half of which stun when they blow up and if I actually take hits the cooldowns on my cloning vanish" build. Yeah, or maybe just "Refractormage." Heh. Narutowannabemage? Something like that.

[BellaStrega]

For a bit I was using mirror image and fracture. Made for interesting play, but since that meant no diamond skin I eventually gave up on mirror image and kept fracture.

[MongoJerry]

For a bit I was using mirror image and fracture. Made for interesting play, but since that meant no diamond skin I eventually gave up on mirror image and kept fracture.

Yeah, I'd be scared not to have Diamond Skin as well. However, I can see a point coming where maybe Mirror Image might be better. The problem with Diamond Skin is that it only scales with level and not gear. So, I've been finding it less and less useful as I've gone along. It's still useful now, mind you, but as I get better level 60 gear, that might not be the case. At that point, Mirror Image, which does scale with gear, might become more appealing. Maybe.

[Chesspiece_face]

Yeah, I'd be scared not to have Diamond Skin as well. However, I can see a point coming where maybe Mirror Image might be better. The problem with Diamond Skin is that it only scales with level and not gear. So, I've been finding it less and less useful as I've gone along. It's still useful now, mind you, but as I get better level 60 gear, that might not be the case. At that point, Mirror Image, which does scale with gear, might become more appealing. Maybe.

Long ago when I swapped in Tele/Fracture I loved it so much I attempted to swap Mirror Image in instead of Diamond Skin. Unfortunately it just doesn't work as a quality defensive skill. Tele/Fracture works so well because, as you said, it has both defensive and offensive traits allowing you to use it for different reasons. Mirror Images without the utility movement of Teleport just don't end up working the same way. Often times even after Mirror shifting all of the mobs will still focus you and without the benefit of the added distance that Teleport offers it is nearly impossible to get them to shift attention to the Mirrors. I've yet to find a consistent use for them after a fight has been initiated and thus they will never have as much use as Diamond Skin from what I can tell.

Now I suppose you could use Tele/Wormhole and Mirror image together and that would work well. But you are essentially wasting two skill slots to get a slightly better benefit than you would if you were to just use Tele/Fracture.

[BellaStrega]

Yeah, I'm still in Hell right now, although I just equipped a level 60 weapon* on my level 54 wizard and everything melts away fast. I really only have to worry about boss packs and diamond skin is still good for that.

Conceptually I would much prefer to have teleport/fracture along with mirror image, however. I love running around with duplicates.

* 419 dps is not great for such a weapon, but it's really good in Hell difficulty.

[Roland]

The problem with Diamond Skin is that it only scales with level and not gear.

Are you sure about that? Do we know if Diamond Skin is affected by things like Armor, Resistances, etc.? If it is, that makes it much more viable and doesn't require it to scale as a percentage of your life instead (which would probably be OP). With my current gear on my Demon Hunter, adding 21k life (essentially 620 Vitality) would give me an additional 82.4k Effective Health, which is quite a huge sum. Now, if Diamon Skin does not take damage mitigation into effect I could see it being less useful, but still - 21.7k life is a big bonus, even in Inferno. That could easily mean the difference between life and death in all sorts of situations, especially if I'm pinned down and can't move.

[MongoJerry]

Are you sure about that? Do we know if Diamond Skin is affected by things like Armor, Resistances, etc.? If it is, that makes it much more viable and doesn't require it to scale as a percentage of your life instead (which would probably be OP). With my current gear on my Demon Hunter, adding 21k life (essentially 620 Vitality) would give me an additional 82.4k Effective Health, which is quite a huge sum. Now, if Diamon Skin does not take damage mitigation into effect I could see it being less useful, but still - 21.7k life is a big bonus, even in Inferno. That could easily mean the difference between life and death in all sorts of situations, especially if I'm pinned down and can't move.

It, of course, takes into consideration your armor, resistances, etc. I mean that it doesn't scale with your maximum health, which would not be overpowered. Instead, it would make it consistent with most other skills in the game -- just as offensive skills are based on your weapon damage and many defensive skills (like say Mirror Image) are based on a fraction of your health and use your current armor, resistances, block, etc.

To understand my point, let's take an extreme but not really absurd case. Let's say Blizzard releases some new gear in an upcoming content patch, and we start walking around with 200k health. Diamond Skin will seem like absolutely nothing. As it is, Diamond Skin/Crystal Shell has gone from being equal to 100% to 50% to 30% of my maximum health as I've leveled up and geared up over time.

[Quark]

Long ago when I swapped in Tele/Fracture I loved it so much I attempted to swap Mirror Image in instead of Diamond Skin. Unfortunately it just doesn't work as a quality defensive skill. Tele/Fracture works so well because, as you said, it has both defensive and offensive traits allowing you to use it for different reasons. Mirror Images without the utility movement of Teleport just don't end up working the same way. Often times even after Mirror shifting all of the mobs will still focus you and without the benefit of the added distance that Teleport offers it is nearly impossible to get them to shift attention to the Mirrors. I've yet to find a consistent use for them after a fight has been initiated and thus they will never have as much use as Diamond Skin from what I can tell.

Mirror Image used standard defensively requires a different mindset, and acknowledging their AI strangeness. I've only really used the +2 Images rune. The images will end up behind you, unless they engage a target. How they engage seems to be based off primary skill. Certain skills they cast (Arcane Orb), others they melee instead (Disintegrate). I can get up close, then run back, and the images will all be attacking targets and distracting them. Doorways are amazing for this. Illusionist adds more to the cycle. Oh, he still hit me? Okay, try again. It's finicky, but as I spend more time practicing it I'm getting more reliable at the images working for me. Also, I've used it to decent effect for distracting the enemies from coop players sometimes. Blocking projectiles with images is also very fun.

Beyond the standard "this helps me kite", certain mods on bosses also make Mirror Images really attractive, and this is why I've kept them.

Waller: Teleport's great, but sometimes a waller champ pack goes nuts. Add more targets to take less hits while escaping.
Electrified: They eat lightning!
Mortar: If you're kiting mortar, they'll end up in between you and the enemy, and will get targeted first giving you more breathing room. If you're staying in the dead zone, more targets to lower chance of being hit.
Vortex: Cast just after a vortex, to reduce incoming hits.

Jailer: Save the best for last. Mirror Images breaks jailer. I have seen some amazing boss combos involving Jailer. Vortex/Jailer/Arcane/Plagued, for instance. Basically when I see Jailer and I have Mirror Images, I think "this fight would be a lot harder without MI".

So with the way I use it, there's really two caveats to Mirror Image. First, you have to be able to take a hit or two. If you are you can greatly increase the chance of the images attacking on their own and distracting the enemy. Second, which side you end up on is random. Yes, this has killed me. I grew accustomed to using Mirror Image to block The Butcher's chain grab. One time MI put me closer to it, instead of further away with an image blocking the way.

There are some things I miss Diamond Skin for - #1 being reflect damage and #2 being certain "whelp, this is gonna hit me" times (mostly Butcher). Mainly I think it's two different playstyles, though: do you want to take a hit for zero damage, not move, and kill something fast. Or do you want to take some hits occasionally, get away, and distract something.

[BellaStrega]

When I fought jailer on my wizard, I'd hit "mirror image" and immediately be jailed again.

[Quark]

When I fought jailer on my wizard, I'd hit "mirror image" and immediately be jailed again.

Jailer on a champ pack - each monster has its own cooldown. This is why Jailer/Frozen/Arcane/Vortex are all worse on champ packs than an elite+minions. This is why I run Mirror Image + Teleport + Illusionist. If the first two fail, a single hit of +15% damage will bring them both back up. I'm getting away.

[MongoJerry]

Blizzard just posted the full AMAA transcript from the chat from a couple weeks ago. There were a few more questions answered than I saw in its original version, and I thought others here might appreciate the straight-forward Q&A cleaned up version like I did:

Full AMAA Transcript

One of the questions I missed was this one:

strom69: I'm curious what dps is expected as the game progresses when you need to do something like a 100k hit to get comparable health with a max (3%) life steal weapon, to a decent 600 Life on Hit weapon.

Wyatt Cheng: It depends on what skill you're using and how many targets you're hitting. Life On Hit uses our proc coefficients, and I've seen people measure out all the proc coefficients (nice work btw!).

Proc coefficients, btw, are used for a lot of the "On Hit" effects. If you ever see "X has a chance to Y on critical hit," it's using the exact same proc coefficients as Life on Hit. The Wizard skill Critical Mass that reduces cooldowns by 1 second is a good example. People test this and say "Oh wait, it only works with single target skills." That's not actually true. Single targets kills generally have a proc scalar of 1. Skills that hit 6x as fast (like rapid fire) have a reduced proc scalar to normalize out the proc effects. Frenzy has a 0.75 proc scalar, which affects the Life on Hit, but if it were a Wizard skill would also have a 75% chance to trigger Critical Mass on crits.

But, back to your question. Life on Hit is proc scalared down for certain skills, whereas Life Steal is not affected by the proc scalar at all. So, if you Seismic Slam or Whirlwind a large number of targets, it will surpass Life On Hit faster than for Frenzy. Of course, on single targets, Life on Hit will generally always be better. In terms of where the breakpoint is, I think what you'd want to look at is breakpoints for various DPS levels for different skills for different numbers of expected targets.

Does anyone have a link to proc chances for various skills?

[swirly]

Does anyone have a link to proc chances for various skills?

http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d3/forums/...-by-skill/

I believe that thread has Wizard, Demon Hunter, and Monk numbers in it.

[Trevan]

Blizzard just posted the full AMAA transcript from the chat from a couple weeks ago. There were a few more questions answered than I saw in its original version, and I thought others here might appreciate the straight-forward Q&A cleaned up version like I did:

Full AMAA Transcript

One of the questions I missed was this one:

strom69: I'm curious what dps is expected as the game progresses when you need to do something like a 100k hit to get comparable health with a max (3%) life steal weapon, to a decent 600 Life on Hit weapon.

Wyatt Cheng: It depends on what skill you're using and how many targets you're hitting. Life On Hit uses our proc coefficients, and I've seen people measure out all the proc coefficients (nice work btw!).

Proc coefficients, btw, are used for a lot of the "On Hit" effects. If you ever see "X has a chance to Y on critical hit," it's using the exact same proc coefficients as Life on Hit. The Wizard skill Critical Mass that reduces cooldowns by 1 second is a good example. People test this and say "Oh wait, it only works with single target skills." That's not actually true. Single targets kills generally have a proc scalar of 1. Skills that hit 6x as fast (like rapid fire) have a reduced proc scalar to normalize out the proc effects. Frenzy has a 0.75 proc scalar, which affects the Life on Hit, but if it were a Wizard skill would also have a 75% chance to trigger Critical Mass on crits.

But, back to your question. Life on Hit is proc scalared down for certain skills, whereas Life Steal is not affected by the proc scalar at all. So, if you Seismic Slam or Whirlwind a large number of targets, it will surpass Life On Hit faster than for Frenzy. Of course, on single targets, Life on Hit will generally always be better. In terms of where the breakpoint is, I think what you'd want to look at is breakpoints for various DPS levels for different skills for different numbers of expected targets.

Does anyone have a link to proc chances for various skills?

Wizard
https://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/...265?page=1

Demon Hunter
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?...utput=html

Barbarian
http://i.imgur.com/cHHcG.png

Monk
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?...utput=html

These are for life on hit, but they work for all those skills and anything that's "on hit". I haven't run across witch doctor yet.

[Kevin]

Wizard
https://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/...265?page=1

Demon Hunter
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?...utput=html

Barbarian
http://i.imgur.com/cHHcG.png

Monk
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?...utput=html

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5271499223
is what I've seen for witch doctor.