I feel like the Monk can be built for pure damage mitigation a lot easier than the Barbarian. I mean, I think the Barbarian may be overall more durable, but I feel like that durability comes with a lot of opportunity costs. Not so with the Monk. This guy only needs a few abilities to maximize elusiveness. Here's what I'm thinking:
You should look into a monk build specced for healing. The monk has a lot of ways to boost damage (either the damage he deals or the damage enemies take) and on top of that, Breath of Heaven has a rune that increases your damage by 15% for 45 seconds whenever you heal yourself or someone else, and the Guiding Light passive increases damage by 16% for 15 seconds.
I'm pretty sure an awesome monk build can focus on 1) high personal damage 2) buffing group damage and 3) high defense through frequent and powerful heals.
It's the build I'm going to be trying to perfect I think, because I like both group utility and beating the shit out of things.
That sounds awesome, yeah. I definitely think Breath of Heaven is an amazing skill. Blazing Wrath is a great Rune, too.
I think I'll end up using something like Sweeping Wind, Lashing Tail Kick, Blinding Flash, Dashing Strike, Breath of Heaven, and Mantra of Evasion? Something like that.
Crippling Wave/Breaking Wave rune - increases damage taken by 10%
Wave of Light/Explosive Light - aoe damage
Breath of Heaven/Blazing Wrath - healing/increases damage by 15% for 45 seconds after use
Exploding Palm/The Flesh is Weak - enemies take 12% more damage for 3 seconds
Cyclone Strike/Soothing Breeze - rune heals you and all allies w/in 24 yards for 1240
Mantra of Conviction/Overawe - enemies take 24% more damage/48% more damage within first 3 seconds of casting
Passives
Guardian's Path (use a daibo for +spirit gen)
Guiding Light - use a direct heal skill on another player, increase your and that player's damage by 16% for 15 seconds
Beacon of Ytar - reduce cooldowns by 15%
So almost everything increases damage dealt/received, plus you have two direct heal skills from Breath of Heaven and the runed Cyclone Strike, and Mantra of Conviction gives you a shitload of bonus damage for 3 minutes, and you can cast it at the beginning of a rough fight for some serious nastiness.
Obviously all of this is theorcrafting and subject to actual testing, but I think it could be neat.
we killed the player characters in D2, right? Rogue = Blood Raven, Sorcerer = Summoner, Warrior = Wanderer, who I assumed died at the end of vanilla D2.
I would really like to see at least a little more about Blood Raven and the Summoner. Or even the characters in Diablo 2 (though the classes available would make that hard). I'm not expecting it though.
Blizzard was originally intending the male Barbarian to be the same Barbarian from Diablo 2, but I think they decided to shelf that idea.
I think they're still sticking to it, but the reveal trailer for him seems like the lore can go either way. I'd also like to know more back story about the original trio. I know you can get Blood Raven's bow in Diablo 3 though, which is kind of neat.
we killed the player characters in D2, right? Rogue = Blood Raven, Sorcerer = Summoner, Warrior = Wanderer, who I assumed died at the end of vanilla D2.
I would really like to see at least a little more about Blood Raven and the Summoner. Or even the characters in Diablo 2 (though the classes available would make that hard). I'm not expecting it though.
Blizzard was originally intending the male Barbarian to be the same Barbarian from Diablo 2, but I think they decided to shelf that idea.
I think they're still sticking to it, but the reveal trailer for him seems like the lore can go either way. I'd also like to know more back story about the original trio. I know you can get Blood Raven's bow in Diablo 3 though, which is kind of neat.
Nice, though knowing my luck, I doubt I'll ever see it. I'd forgotten that Barbarian was a class in Diablo 2 as well, the only one they retained over. Well, it's something.
we killed the player characters in D2, right? Rogue = Blood Raven, Sorcerer = Summoner, Warrior = Wanderer, who I assumed died at the end of vanilla D2.
I would really like to see at least a little more about Blood Raven and the Summoner. Or even the characters in Diablo 2 (though the classes available would make that hard). I'm not expecting it though.
Blizzard was originally intending the male Barbarian to be the same Barbarian from Diablo 2, but I think they decided to shelf that idea.
I think they're still sticking to it, but the reveal trailer for him seems like the lore can go either way. I'd also like to know more back story about the original trio. I know you can get Blood Raven's bow in Diablo 3 though, which is kind of neat.
Nice, though knowing my luck, I doubt I'll ever see it. I'd forgotten that Barbarian was a class in Diablo 2 as well, the only one they retained over. Well, it's something.
WTB Necromancer. Enough of that witch doctor stuff, needs my real poisons.
Using that build calculator, I noticed that they've changed a lot of the skills, at least compared to the stuff I've read on the Diablo Wiki. That's fine, I just needed to make a few adjustments. Here's what the Monk build looks like now.
we killed the player characters in D2, right? Rogue = Blood Raven, Sorcerer = Summoner, Warrior = Wanderer, who I assumed died at the end of vanilla D2.
I would really like to see at least a little more about Blood Raven and the Summoner. Or even the characters in Diablo 2 (though the classes available would make that hard). I'm not expecting it though.
Blizzard was originally intending the male Barbarian to be the same Barbarian from Diablo 2, but I think they decided to shelf that idea.
I think they're still sticking to it, but the reveal trailer for him seems like the lore can go either way. I'd also like to know more back story about the original trio. I know you can get Blood Raven's bow in Diablo 3 though, which is kind of neat.
Nice, though knowing my luck, I doubt I'll ever see it. I'd forgotten that Barbarian was a class in Diablo 2 as well, the only one they retained over. Well, it's something.
WTB Necromancer. Enough of that witch doctor stuff, needs my real poisons.
Frankly I'm not sure what is better: blowing up corpses or sending your minions into a pack of enemies and detonating them.
we killed the player characters in D2, right? Rogue = Blood Raven, Sorcerer = Summoner, Warrior = Wanderer, who I assumed died at the end of vanilla D2.
I would really like to see at least a little more about Blood Raven and the Summoner. Or even the characters in Diablo 2 (though the classes available would make that hard). I'm not expecting it though.
Blizzard was originally intending the male Barbarian to be the same Barbarian from Diablo 2, but I think they decided to shelf that idea.
I think they're still sticking to it, but the reveal trailer for him seems like the lore can go either way. I'd also like to know more back story about the original trio. I know you can get Blood Raven's bow in Diablo 3 though, which is kind of neat.
Nice, though knowing my luck, I doubt I'll ever see it. I'd forgotten that Barbarian was a class in Diablo 2 as well, the only one they retained over. Well, it's something.
Speaking of Uniques (why are they called legendaries now, that's silly) I hope they keep the ability to upgrade Uniques from normal to exceptional to elite.
Also: I started playing D2 again to tide me over till D3's release. nostalgia++ and my characters from last year haven't been deleted yet so that's nice. I want nothing more out of d3 variants than the ability to create a lightning amazon analogue.
Using that build calculator, I noticed that they've changed a lot of the skills, at least compared to the stuff I've read on the Diablo Wiki. That's fine, I just needed to make a few adjustments. Here's what the Monk build looks like now.
Not bad, has a very Aura-din feel to it. Looking at the Breath of Heaven skill, it says it heals from 6k-7k life and is unlocked at level 8.... Does that seem like a bit much to anyone else? I think I had 400-500 life on my DH at level 12 last weekend.
Using that build calculator, I noticed that they've changed a lot of the skills, at least compared to the stuff I've read on the Diablo Wiki. That's fine, I just needed to make a few adjustments. Here's what the Monk build looks like now.
Not bad, has a very Aura-din feel to it. Looking at the Breath of Heaven skill, it says it heals from 6k-7k life and is unlocked at level 8.... Does that seem like a bit much to anyone else? I think I had 400-500 life on my DH at level 12 last weekend.
Yeah, that seems like a lot. Maybe it's just adjusting the amount healed so it lines up with the level the build gets completed? No idea, but it does seem like an awful lot of healing.
KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
I'm looking through some of the items, and they have some genius easter egg stuff brewing. Check out this homage to Underworld, I hope it makes my DH look like a death dealer.
I'm looking through some of the items, and they have some genius easter egg stuff brewing. Check out this homage to Underworld, I hope it makes my DH look like a death dealer.
You should be careful. Couple of the weapons spoil one of the bosses.
0
Options
KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
I'm looking through some of the items, and they have some genius easter egg stuff brewing. Check out this homage to Underworld, I hope it makes my DH look like a death dealer.
You should be careful. Couple of the weapons spoil one of the bosses.
Yeah I know, but I really can't help it. Some of these just sound awesome. Hammer time!
I'm looking through some of the items, and they have some genius easter egg stuff brewing. Check out this homage to Underworld, I hope it makes my DH look like a death dealer.
You should be careful. Couple of the weapons spoil one of the bosses.
Yeah I know, but I really can't help it. Some of these just sound awesome. Hammer time!
That is indeed awesome.
I hope they have a passive chance to phase through enemies and a big boost to your chance to dodge attacks.
Using that build calculator, I noticed that they've changed a lot of the skills, at least compared to the stuff I've read on the Diablo Wiki. That's fine, I just needed to make a few adjustments. Here's what the Monk build looks like now.
Not bad, has a very Aura-din feel to it. Looking at the Breath of Heaven skill, it says it heals from 6k-7k life and is unlocked at level 8.... Does that seem like a bit much to anyone else? I think I had 400-500 life on my DH at level 12 last weekend.
Yeah, that seems like a lot. Maybe it's just adjusting the amount healed so it lines up with the level the build gets completed? No idea, but it does seem like an awful lot of healing.
OK, I think I figured out what's going on with Spider Jar and why people had such a different impression of it during the stress test. I looked at the D3 skills page, and it's currently listed with a mana cost of 5. That's about 10% of the cost it had a patch or two ago. No wonder people said they could spam it infinitely. Not to rain on any spider parades, but I have to think that the current mana cost is a mistake and it's going to be bumped back up by retail, because I don't think the design of the WD is to have any "cheap as free" spells unless they're constrained by a cooldown. Almost all of the spammable WD spells have a non-negligible mana cost.
I have a hardware question. My computer is a few years old, and it is capable of running D3 but it doesn't look too great. I'm wondering if I can do a cheap upgrade (like video card/RAM) without a complete overhaul, that will make a difference.
Here's what I have:
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 Ghz
2 Gigs of RAM
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS
Any hardware smart people on here that could suggest where my best bet would be in terms of performace:dollars? In the beta I could get decent performance out of running at the lowest 16:10 resolution with minimized graphics settings. With vsync on, I would be at 60fps while walking through empty hallways and 30fps during combat.
If I were to upgrade the video card, would it matter? Or do I have a processor and/or RAM bottleneck?
For consumer purposes outside of rendering/encoding video there is pretty much nothing in the world that is processor-bound anymore.
An AMD 7770 and 8GB of RAM will set you back roughly $200 and vastly improve your performance.
That's not true. Granted Diablo is not CPU intensive but go play Battlefield on an older core 2 duo then switch to a quad core i5 and with everything else the same you can double or triple your FPS.
And you're way off on the price there. 8GB of DDR2 (Core 2 Duo remember) is expensive (150+). Another 2GB would be fine here and only about $40. The 7770 would be a good card but is slightly overpriced compared to a 6850 or 6870 that would perform better. Honestly, I think if you just put a 6670 or 6770 in that machine even with 2GB of RAM you could play at 1080 on medium with no AA with no problems. Plus the final release will be optimized even more so than the beta. It's not going to take a lot of horse power to get this game looking good.
Those prices were lifted directly off NewEgg (RAM,video card.) 6770 would probably be fine but is only $20 or so cheaper.
LGA775-based boards mostly run DDR3 if he bought it in the last three years or so (likely.)
OK, I think I figured out what's going on with Spider Jar and why people had such a different impression of it during the stress test. I looked at the D3 skills page, and it's currently listed with a mana cost of 5. That's about 10% of the cost it had a patch or two ago. No wonder people said they could spam it infinitely. Not to rain on any spider parades, but I have to think that the current mana cost is a mistake and it's going to be bumped back up by retail, because I don't think the design of the WD is to have any "cheap as free" spells unless they're constrained by a cooldown. Almost all of the spammable DH spells have a non-negligible mana cost.
Yes. In the CBT a while back, my Witch Doctor would most certainly be out of mana after a handful of jars. The damage is per spider, so it could do stupid amounts of damage if you got a small army up, but it was constricted by decent mana costs.
I'm almost positive that this is not the intended use of the ability as it is now.
OK, I think I figured out what's going on with Spider Jar and why people had such a different impression of it during the stress test. I looked at the D3 skills page, and it's currently listed with a mana cost of 5. That's about 10% of the cost it had a patch or two ago. No wonder people said they could spam it infinitely. Not to rain on any spider parades, but I have to think that the current mana cost is a mistake and it's going to be bumped back up by retail, because I don't think the design of the WD is to have any "cheap as free" spells unless they're constrained by a cooldown. Almost all of the spammable DH spells have a non-negligible mana cost.
It was changed much longer than just a patch or two ago. It isn't like its a bug, it was an intentional change. I'd be really really surprised if they changed it.
0
Options
KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
Hmm, I forgot about titles. I wonder if they're going to keep those in addition to the new banner details to show what difficulty a character has reached.
Spider Jar mana cost is just where it's intended to be. It is now one of the spammable, bread and butter Witch Doctor abilities. It used to be more like Firebats in its usage (more damage, higher mana cost) but now it's a primary skill, which means that by default it's assigned to left click and costs no resource or very little resource. In fact, WD is the only class whose primaries still cost something, but the costs are so negligible that they're basically free.
I'm pretty sure it's intentional. All classes have abilities they can still spam even if they drain their resources. They probably don't want anyone to end up in a situation where they can't use any abilities.
Also I just want to say that I love that you can hold down CTRL and mouse over things on the ground and it will show you its stats without having to pick it up.
OK, I think I figured out what's going on with Spider Jar and why people had such a different impression of it during the stress test. I looked at the D3 skills page, and it's currently listed with a mana cost of 5. That's about 10% of the cost it had a patch or two ago. No wonder people said they could spam it infinitely. Not to rain on any spider parades, but I have to think that the current mana cost is a mistake and it's going to be bumped back up by retail, because I don't think the design of the WD is to have any "cheap as free" spells unless they're constrained by a cooldown. Almost all of the spammable DH spells have a non-negligible mana cost.
It was changed much longer than just a patch or two ago. It isn't like its a bug, it was an intentional change. I'd be really really surprised if they changed it.
Much longer? I wouldn't say so. I played WD again in March and it was something like 50 or 70 mana.
OK, I think I figured out what's going on with Spider Jar and why people had such a different impression of it during the stress test. I looked at the D3 skills page, and it's currently listed with a mana cost of 5. That's about 10% of the cost it had a patch or two ago. No wonder people said they could spam it infinitely. Not to rain on any spider parades, but I have to think that the current mana cost is a mistake and it's going to be bumped back up by retail, because I don't think the design of the WD is to have any "cheap as free" spells unless they're constrained by a cooldown. Almost all of the spammable DH spells have a non-negligible mana cost.
It was changed much longer than just a patch or two ago. It isn't like its a bug, it was an intentional change. I'd be really really surprised if they changed it.
Much longer? I wouldn't say so. I played WD again in March and it was something like 50 or 70 mana.
I was more referring to you saying it was a patch or two ago, making it sound like it was a super recent change, when it was more like 4 or 5 patches ago. Doesn't really matter. Point was that it wasn't THAT recent, that's all.
Skab on
0
Options
Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
I really hope there's a Harry Potter easter egg wand in there somewhere.
WHY IS THIS GAME SO FAR AWAY?!
Hey, I named my wizard HARRYPOTTER when I played over the weekend.
And of course, Vanhelsing DH and Monk...monk. I was really surprised the helsing and potter names weren't already taken. But, I guess there aren't billions of people with characters yet.
Anyone else think the monk will be super beastly with lots of IAS? The faster and more often you get a third hit in your combo the more often you get the effect for the third hit?
Be careful. Your productivity will drop if you click this link.
I really hope there's a Harry Potter easter egg wand in there somewhere.
WHY IS THIS GAME SO FAR AWAY?!
Hey, I named my wizard HARRYPOTTER when I played over the weekend.
And of course, Vanhelsing DH and Monk...monk. I was really surprised the helsing and potter names weren't already taken. But, I guess there aren't billions of people with characters yet.
Names are not unique. On screen your name shows as "Vanhelsing" but if someone looks it up your full character name is Vanhelsing.BattleTag#xxxx
Sceptre: Penny Arcade, where you get starcraft AND marriage advice.
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
0
Options
Custom SpecialI know I am, I'm sure I am,I'm Sounders 'til I die!Registered Userregular
I passed on CE last time Amazon had them up. I figured $40 wasn't worth it since I really only want the art book and soundtrack. But then again, it's $40 for those things and you can't get them anywhere else (and I'm sure if you even tried to get those on eBay it would cost more than that).
Anyone not want their art book or soundtrack from their CE?
Posts
This is where I'm at right now
us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WeXVfk!dfV!cZbaca
Crippling Wave/Breaking Wave rune - increases damage taken by 10%
Wave of Light/Explosive Light - aoe damage
Breath of Heaven/Blazing Wrath - healing/increases damage by 15% for 45 seconds after use
Exploding Palm/The Flesh is Weak - enemies take 12% more damage for 3 seconds
Cyclone Strike/Soothing Breeze - rune heals you and all allies w/in 24 yards for 1240
Mantra of Conviction/Overawe - enemies take 24% more damage/48% more damage within first 3 seconds of casting
Passives
Guardian's Path (use a daibo for +spirit gen)
Guiding Light - use a direct heal skill on another player, increase your and that player's damage by 16% for 15 seconds
Beacon of Ytar - reduce cooldowns by 15%
So almost everything increases damage dealt/received, plus you have two direct heal skills from Breath of Heaven and the runed Cyclone Strike, and Mantra of Conviction gives you a shitload of bonus damage for 3 minutes, and you can cast it at the beginning of a rough fight for some serious nastiness.
Obviously all of this is theorcrafting and subject to actual testing, but I think it could be neat.
I think they're still sticking to it, but the reveal trailer for him seems like the lore can go either way. I'd also like to know more back story about the original trio. I know you can get Blood Raven's bow in Diablo 3 though, which is kind of neat.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Nice, though knowing my luck, I doubt I'll ever see it. I'd forgotten that Barbarian was a class in Diablo 2 as well, the only one they retained over. Well, it's something.
WTB Necromancer. Enough of that witch doctor stuff, needs my real poisons.
Frankly I'm not sure what is better: blowing up corpses or sending your minions into a pack of enemies and detonating them.
Speaking of Uniques (why are they called legendaries now, that's silly) I hope they keep the ability to upgrade Uniques from normal to exceptional to elite.
Also: I started playing D2 again to tide me over till D3's release. nostalgia++ and my characters from last year haven't been deleted yet so that's nice. I want nothing more out of d3 variants than the ability to create a lightning amazon analogue.
It was the gentleman's class.
Not bad, has a very Aura-din feel to it. Looking at the Breath of Heaven skill, it says it heals from 6k-7k life and is unlocked at level 8.... Does that seem like a bit much to anyone else? I think I had 400-500 life on my DH at level 12 last weekend.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Yeah, that seems like a lot. Maybe it's just adjusting the amount healed so it lines up with the level the build gets completed? No idea, but it does seem like an awful lot of healing.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
You should be careful. Couple of the weapons spoil one of the bosses.
Yeah I know, but I really can't help it. Some of these just sound awesome. Hammer time!
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
That is indeed awesome.
I hope they have a passive chance to phase through enemies and a big boost to your chance to dodge attacks.
Can't touch this.
WHY IS THIS GAME SO FAR AWAY?!
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Rainbow unicorn and candy secret level?
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Edit: Wrong class abbreviation!
Those prices were lifted directly off NewEgg (RAM, video card.) 6770 would probably be fine but is only $20 or so cheaper.
LGA775-based boards mostly run DDR3 if he bought it in the last three years or so (likely.)
Yes. In the CBT a while back, my Witch Doctor would most certainly be out of mana after a handful of jars. The damage is per spider, so it could do stupid amounts of damage if you got a small army up, but it was constricted by decent mana costs.
I'm almost positive that this is not the intended use of the ability as it is now.
[Element] Immunes are fucking stupid, but at least Lister went down like a little bitch. Ancients were honestly harder than WSK.
Now to run Pindle a bunch before diving into Hell.
It was changed much longer than just a patch or two ago. It isn't like its a bug, it was an intentional change. I'd be really really surprised if they changed it.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
I wonder why they waited so long into development to change their philosophy on the WD's spells.
There's an interview somewhere with Jay, and he explains how they felt about WD and why they changed it. Not sure where it is though.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
I was more referring to you saying it was a patch or two ago, making it sound like it was a super recent change, when it was more like 4 or 5 patches ago. Doesn't really matter. Point was that it wasn't THAT recent, that's all.
Hey, I named my wizard HARRYPOTTER when I played over the weekend.
And of course, Vanhelsing DH and Monk...monk. I was really surprised the helsing and potter names weren't already taken. But, I guess there aren't billions of people with characters yet.
Names are not unique. On screen your name shows as "Vanhelsing" but if someone looks it up your full character name is Vanhelsing.BattleTag#xxxx
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
Anyone not want their art book or soundtrack from their CE?