Patch 1.05 Preview

[BellaStrega]

The monk should still be taking less damage post-nerf than pre-nerf. If that's not the case, Blizzard needs to adjust the numbers for Seize the Initiative again.

[FoxBat]

I'll bet Mr. Elite player is trying to push towards MP10 though. Seemed like Barbarians were always better than Monks at the upper eschelons of gear and farming, and cranking up the difficulty may be what has really drawn that out, moreso than just a sieze the initiative nerf.

[Archon_Wing]

I wouldn't mind taking more damage if I could exchange it for a useful passive, maybe one to increase offense or something.

Oh wait, no. There's nothing to switch to, since most Monk passives are trash. If anything, most of the monks that aren't godly need STI and resolve even MORE if they don't want to slum MP0 forever. I guess umm beacon of Y'tar or guardian's path.

The fact that fleet footed is popular enough to be used, and mostly by those that heavily outgear an act is very telling. With a few exceptions monk skills and passives are simply awful, having abilities that are complete jokes where the rune is better than the skill (Breath of Heaven--lol unscaled healing) and most monk builds revolve around picking the least crappy of these abilities-- which are getting nerfed because they are getting used too much. Hah. Well, the spirit generators are actually good, but spenders are another story. Besides sweeping wind and blinding flash, every skill is stupidly overpriced and the monk is gimped the heaviest in resource regeneration. Even with the massive buff, Wave of Light is still too expensive for its own good.

Oh and Monks are dex classes. Having evade as your primary mitgation stats tends to suck since your survival is RNG based in a game that loves its spike damage and unlike DHs, they lack range. But speaking of DH's, I guess they can't survive either since gloom is less effective next patch and sup ToC nerf. And now since reflect damage can't be dodged, Dhs and monks are going to have a harder time mitigating that damage.

So monks often try to put their hard earned dex into STI so that dex can save them. I guess not anymore. It just annoys me that they got the difficulty right in 1.04, and then have to go through this convoluted balance nerfing. Why not just have Monster Power 1 as status quo, and lower monster damage by 10% in 0 as an easy mode?

So let's see what we get (enchantress nerf included). There's a one paragon level difference between PTR and the server but the difference is marginal it won't really matter.

Now: 71.29 reduction from armor, 77.74 from resists,
Thus, .2871*.2226= 0.06390846
75% dmg due resolve= 0.047931345
PTR: 65.89% reduction, let's make it 66 to simplify matters and account for the extra level, 77.74% from resists
.34*.2226= 0.075684
80% dmg due resolve= 0.0605472
0.0605472/0.047931345= 1.26320678045

I'm gonna take 26% more damage?

Dear lord, I hope my math is wrong

[Aahzmadius]

FoxBat, I'm sure you're correct.

Archon, your math is indeed depressing-but thanks for working it out. I've been more interested in working on paragon levels than testing PTR. Maybe 1.05 will get me to switch back to my witch doctor for solo farming.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzmadius-1570/

[MongoJerry]

I've actually swapped to the Scoundrel a while back on my Witch Doctor. With decent attack speed on him and a reasonable %knockback Windfury he's got some good control abilities (he's saved my butt countless times from errant Fantatics). And the 10% damage buff with upwards of 50% up-time is HUGE. Adding his buff on top of my other WD buffs equates to an additional 10k damage.

Are you talking about the Windforce bow? Are you using his multishot skill?

[Archon_Wing]

Yea, he is.

Scoundrel multishot + some form of CC+ high attack speed is a strong combo.

It's quite pricey for a follower weapon, especially if you play hardcore.

[Chesspiece_face]

Are you talking about the Windforce bow? Are you using his multishot skill?

Yeah, that's what I meant. Derp.

I've not been using the Multishot skill, but it's definitely an option. I've found that for my WD's playstyle the secondary shots don't tend to hit anything.

In softcore you can nab a decent Windforce for around 1 mil. Doubt you'd be able to get that kind of price on the hardcore market however.

[MonTy]

Patch is tomorrow :) http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6893719940#1

And Chesspiece, yea there's only four Windforce for sale and they're 8-40mil. Equipping a scoundrel with one does sound awesome though :P

[LochnarITB]

Patch is tomorrow http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6893719940#1

Fingers and toes are crossed hoping this patch will dump the solo inactivity disconnect. It doesn't even work to just not pause and sit in town anymore. I so prefer to be playing D3 over TL2 but I can leave TL2 for more than a half hour, or even quit, and come back to zero loss of cleared fog. I have so many toon levels gained in D3 from reclearing areas (all fog of war must die! ). Life just doesn't always cooperate when I get pulled away from my game to tend to its demands.

[Concillian]

And Chesspiece, yea there's only four Windforce for sale and they're 8-40mil. Equipping a scoundrel with one does sound awesome though

This is a "thing" on some forums.

Give him windforce and a level ~30 amulet that chills on hit (Eye of Etlich I think)

Then 2 rings that have increased attack speed.

CC buddy.

[BellaStrega]

1.05 is live tomorrow.

[MonTy]

Fingers and toes are crossed hoping this patch will dump the solo inactivity disconnect.

Agreed, but even if it doesn't the patch is filled to the brim with good changes.

But hey, you're the person who is using self-found/crafted gear only, right? I've started a softcore character following that play style and I'm having a lot of fun. Not even using merchants/twinking and it's actually semi-challenging in normal/nightmare. Funny that item drops are around my level as well (since I'm not doing full clear).

I've thought about Monster Power, and at first I was interested in using it from the start, but then I remembered how little skills you have available. Will probably just continue playing the above style with new characters and use Monster Power as a way to advance in end game.

The more I develop my Wizard in Hardcore the more I'm enjoying him, so just knowing one day he'll most likely die is making me want to play Softcore more, but using self-found/crafted gear only. Let's see how this goes :) This is my first time playing Hardcore so it's really been interesting, but I'll be devastated when I lose him :P

Anyhow, I look forward to the patch and the changes coming with it.

[Archon_Wing]

Patch is tomorrow http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6893719940#1

And Chesspiece, yea there's only four Windforce for sale and they're 8-40mil. Equipping a scoundrel with one does sound awesome though

8 million gold's reasonable, but on spending that much gear on a follower in hc is extremely risky to say the least. :p

[Chesspiece_face]

After playing about 3 hours in the new patch a few things are clear for me.

First, Monster Power 4 isn't nearly as tough as it was when I played on the PTR. Now I may have upgraded a piece of gear since then, but MP4 on live for me doesn't feel any greater in difficulty than normal pre-patch. I could probably easily up my normal play to MP5 or 6 with little problem for act 3 farming.

Second, during this 3 hours or so I played I was able to full clear from the breached keep up to Azmodan and the end of the act. In that time I came out with 1 million gold. Gold output is HUGELY increased. Now this will be effected by the individuals Paragon levels (mine hit 37 during this play session) and it will also be effected by what Monster Power you can comfortably play, but the greatest increase of monetary gain after the patch comes from the items that are dropping. The change to how items are rolled means that as long as you are playing on an upgraded Monster level all of the items you sell will go for 1.5 - 2k gold. No more will you be getting low ilvl items that only sell for 500g. It's all going to sell for vastly more than you were getting prior to the patch.

It's hard to say how the increase in legendary/set items will impact things overall. In this play session I found 2 Legendaries within 25 minutes of logging in. RNG is RNG though and it will have hot streaks and cold streaks. I've found 3 legendary and set pieces before in one play session of about an hour. This isn't anything out of the ordinary but over time and over vast amounts of players the market will probably shift over the next few weeks.

[Aahzmadius]

Yes, I found 3 level 63 legendaries tonight (2 Storm Crow wizard hats and 1 barb belt). Seemed like lots of items were dropping, but maybe I just imagined it. I struggled a bit with MP2; this was with my magic find witch doctor. I tried the skills that were tweaked (one game with Fetish passive, another with a spirit build). Both were use-able, but seemed a tad under-powered. Maybe I'll compare to the "standard" zombie bear build next time. I had a ton of fun; so far I give it two thumbs up.

[MongoJerry]

After losing a hardcore character to a lag wipe last week, I've been releveling up a character from scratch. After downloading the 1.0.5 patch today, I ran the last half of Act II and III in nightmare and I really liked the skill changes and the functionality. My gear was a bit overpowered for Act II, so I went ahead and put the game on MP5, which doubled my exp gain while running through those zones. I felt a bit less confident about my gear in Act III, so I've been using MP2 just to be safe. It's really nice. It'll make leveling up to 60 so much faster and as challenging as I want.

Also, I was getting rares off nightmare bosses! Woohoo! Man, that should've been there from the beginning.

I liked some of the skill changes I notice. For example, I used Storm Armor in Act II, and it was fun to see the lightning striking mobs all around. I then switched to Ice Armor - Chilling Armor (chills mobs in about a 10-15 yard radius) combined with Cold Blooded for some extra dps and defense. I really liked that combination, too. I think it'll work really well when I get in my 50's and start using the meteor/Critical Mass combination.

I also got surprised by one of the new keywardens (or whatever they're called) on the ramparts in Act III. Since I was only half paying attention while leveling up (and listening to a podcast in the background), it took me by surprise and took me to a sliver of life before I managed to escape and regroup. Luckily, I did escape, healed up in town, and took him out easily since I was expecting him this time.

I like these changes and think the game should have been this way from the beginning. I think the "lessons learned" takeaway from Diablo III is that you have to pay attention to your "end game" from the beginning. You can't release something and expect to come up with an end game later.

[LochnarITB]

Fingers and toes are crossed hoping this patch will dump the solo inactivity disconnect.

Nope. Ah, well, I didn't really think they would get rid of it. Those of us that have complained are a really tiny squeak compared to the wheels they've been trying to grease.

[Athenau]

I found the most ridiculous ring 20 minutes into my first 1.05 play session.

84 str, 40 fire resist, 72 resist all, 5.0% crit chance, 222 LOH, +253 armor

Literally every mod is either good or amazing. The affix change is really a huge deal when it comes to the chance of rolling a useful rare.

[Spangles]

Monster Power 4 isn't nearly as tough as it was when I played on the PTR. Now I may have upgraded a piece of gear since then, but MP4 on live for me doesn't feel any greater in difficulty than normal pre-patch. I could probably easily up my normal play to MP5 or 6 with little problem for act 3 farming.

My CM wizard had the same experience. MP4 seemed so much easier than on the PTR that I farmed an Inferno Machine in MP5, with no problems. Other than the Keywarden in Stonefort, who I think is a bit overtuned.

I switched to MP6 in Act 3 Keeps but the reflected damage was so bad I decided to stay at MP5 for the time being. My index for health stability is whether I gain Mystic Potions from pickups or hold at steady state. If my potion supply drops I'm at the wrong MP level. I fell 10 pots behind in 30 minutes, which called for retreat.

Gold output is HUGELY increased... I found 2 Legendaries within 25 minutes of logging in. RNG is RNG though and it will have hot streaks and cold streaks.

My finding also. I cleared 300 - 400K gold farming an Inferno Machine. An hour into the session I found a high dps socketed Skorn! the best legendary I ever found. With STR as the main stat, so I can't use it. I was running with about 400% GF, more than ever before in live, cause & effect.

Give (the Scoundrel) a windforce and a level ~30 amulet that chills on hit (Eye of Etlich I think)... Then 2 rings that have increased attack speed.

My Scoundrel uses a Windforce and I lent him my SOJ. The combination of knockback and slow (chill?) was very helpful. That and the fear from Echoing Fury kept elite attacks out of phase so I could deal with pack members individually instead of simultaneously. Tanks may not appreciate fear and knockback, but I am not a tank.

[MongoJerry]

Gold output is HUGELY increased... I found 2 Legendaries within 25 minutes of logging in. RNG is RNG though and it will have hot streaks and cold streaks.

More gold = inflationary. More items = deflationary. This means prices for items should stay roughly the same.

However, more likely what will happen is that items we used to think were pretty good will be considered "junk" and probably won't sell at all. Items we used to think were really good will drop in price and end up at the same price we use to pay for items we considered "pretty good." Meanwhile, the new really really good stuff will go for hundreds of millions.