one life to live
The night Hardcore lived up to its name, left comrades dead and my nerves in shreds.
monster density in 1.0.8
Observations on changes coming in 1.0.8 and the effect of an increased monster density

Latest Diablo 3 News

Improved Diablo 3 Farming: v1.08 Levels


5
Posted 18 May 2013 by Flux at 00:29 GMT

A fan brought up an issue I’ve been talking about with friends of late; the best Diablo 3 Farming spots in Act One (and Two) in v1.08.

Fields of Misery Caves

Make sure you guys are clearing out them caves, Scavengers Den, The Lost Mines etc. It is packed with mobs.
Grimiku: I was in the habit of skipping these as well, but a couple of group members suggested we clear them out the other day. I was pleasantly surprised with the results, and now I try not to miss them. I like the variety, and exploration aspect they add. I’ve got to agree with some of the other posters in this thread, though, the Decaying Crypt in the Fields of Misery is particularly awesome.

Anyone have a fun farming route that incorporates side dungeons? What about a favorite side dungeon you’re always on the lookout for?

I’m becoming more and more of a sucker for the Act 4 Hell Rifts. Talk about packed with mobs!
Grimiku: I keep hearing that these are a lot of fun, but I haven’t been to them since patch 1.0.8. Maybe I’ll try to do an Act IV run tonight, and see for myself.

Yeah give us back the watch tower please. Always full of packs (3-7). Very sad it got nerfed to the groud because we were having so much fun in there.
Grimiku: We’ll pass along the feedback, thanks!

I’ll expand on the OP… almost *all* the caves in Act One/Two are worth doing now. The other surface areas in Act One that have like, Goat caves and such. Go in. They are wall-to-wall with dudes. This was especially true of Act Two caves/dungeons when v1.08 was early on the DiabloWikiPTR, and I exulted over the Act Two potential since the surface deserts were pretty good, but the dungeons below them, and elsewhere in the act, were off the proverbial hook.

Something for you, I am making.

Something for you, I am making.

Sadly, I’ve come to realize over the past week+ of v1.08 being live… that those Act Two dungeons were all nerfed in monster density. They’re still pretty good, but the density is far less than it was early in the PTR. As a result I think Act One is better than Act Two (at this point) in terms of having more fun areas with high monster density that can be profitably farmed.

Another related issue… the (arguably) best area in Act One and in Act Two, is the area with the Keywarden in it. (Imagine if DiabloWikiXah’Rith the Keywarden was in say, the Fields of Slaughter, or the Keep Level 2?) These v1.08 Act One and Act Two keywarden area buffs are awesome if you went to DiabloWikiStonefort enough to store up a bunch of DiabloWikiKeys of Terror back in the “farm Act Three endlessly” days of v1.07, since now you can accumulate DiabloWikiKeys of Hate and DiabloWikiKeys of Destruction almost by accident. Even if you’re doing it on a low DiabloWikiMP level. And that’s cool since after all… can you ever really have too many DiabloWikiHellfire Rings? (Not in Hardcore, you can’t.)

Tagged As: | Categories: End Game, Experience, Grimiku | 5 Comments

Latest Diablo 3 News

The Diablo 3 Podcast #93: Year One Patches and Difficulty Nerfs


10
Posted 17 May 2013 by Flux at 06:45 GMT

Flux, Xanth, and Aahz discuss the numerous patches and difficulty changes (nerfs) we saw during the first year of Diablo 3, which made the game easier, characters stronger, and much improved the game.

Approximate segment starting times:

  • 0:20 — Recent play adventures. Xanth’s freshly-dead P71 Monk, and more.
  • 4:45 — Diablo 3 patches relived. Many nerfs over time have made the game much easier and much more fun, showing the lie of our pre-game “we want it harder” claims.
    • DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.3, June 19, 2012. Huge reductions in gem upgrade prices and Inferno-nerfed by huge boosts to the odds of high level items dropping.
    • DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.4, August 21, 2012. Paragon system, skill tweaks, lots of inferno nerfs. Also, sparkles added to Legendaries! (That video is guaranteed to amaze in retrosepct.)
    • DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.5, October 16th. Tons of skill changes/buffs, big Inferno nerf, Monster Power and Infernal Machine enabled.
  • 22:00 — Mage issues. Flux explains why he regrettably has no use for the Diablo III Wizard, after mages were amongst his fave classes in previous Diablo titles.
  • 25:50 — Vote kick fixed and useful crafting (that worked like crafting did during the beta) reintroduced. More patch coverage!
    • DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.7, February 13, 2013. PvP brawling enabled, to universal disinterest. No Inferno nerf for a change, but mega-improved crafting recipes.
    • DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.8, May 8, 2013. Monster density adjustment leads to rejoicing. Also minor skill tweaks and major social feature improvements.
  • 30:50 — We’ve got at least a year until D3X; what can we look forward to before then? Will we ever again see new content in a patch?
  • 35:20 — DiabloWikiWhimsyshire! Memories of Diablo III’s secret level.

The Diablo 3 Podcast Episode Guide in DiabloWiki.net provides links to every show, plus quick summaries.

  • Listen and subscribe through iTunes.
  • View video versions of all The Diablo Podcasts on You Tube, via our all-encompassing Diablo3Inc channel.
  • Get the Podcast RSS feed

    • Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:04 — 37.6MB)

    Tagged As: | Categories: Diablo 3 Patches, Podcasts, The Diablo 3 Podcast, Wizard | 10 Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Wyatt Cheng Diablo 3 Interview via Live Stream


    75
    Posted 16 May 2013 by Flux at 19:26 GMT

    Yesterday, Wyatt Cheng spent an hour chatting on a fan via a Diablo 3 stream. It’s more of a casual chat than an interview, but there are some good nuggets of info, which I’m transcribing below.

    The transcript below is *not* word for word, since it was a long conversation with a lot of chat and digression. I therefore tried to distill and abbreviate Wyatt’s comments into more direct, discrete points.

    0:30 –
    Can we see some sort of self found play mode?
    Wyatt: We’ve given it a lot of thought. Right now I’m playing some self found Hardcore; alternating time on that and my higher level Paragon softcore characters. We like the idea of self-found, and of course players can just do it themselves, but ideally there would be some kind of recognition or insignia to denote self found characters.

    An issue is trying to do it without cluttering up the UI. There’s a balance between giving expert players the options they want while not complicating things for other players. (Such as with Elective Mode and advanced tool tips.) Do we want another check box on the character creation screen?

    I do think it’s a very cool way to play, but we don’t want to force it on people who don’t want to play that way. I know we’re non-committal about things a lot and some of the fans get frustrated, and I apologize for that. But our development process is super-iterative, and we’re always changing things around as we tested them out. And I don’t want to promise anything we might eventually test internally and then decide not to implement.

    We’ve talked about making some kind of self-found insignia that would be on every character by default. So you’d create a character and they’d be self found until you traded or used the Auction House.

    Gold sharing is another issue. Playing self found requires you to note how much gold you have to start with, so you don’t accidentally spend more than your character accumulates. We’d like to put in something that would let players show each character’s gold individually, but there’s no ETA on that.

    Could we see some sort of self-found ladder?
    Travis: Maybe. Again, sorry to be so non-committal, as they often are. It would be cool, and it’s come up internal discussions, but he can’t say more than that.

    Nice that Wyatt replied with interest, but this desperately needed a follow up question. The entire point of a self found, Ironborn mode is that the characters are separate. It MUST work like Hardcore, to create an ecology of characters who can play together (but not trade) who are following the same rules. If you are in there growing chest hair by surviving with an Ironborn, you can’t be in a game with a character who has 10x your DPS and EHP from Auction House goods. It’s unfair, and would taint the entire experience since your “self found” drops wouldn’t really be self found, since someone else did all the work. So pity Wyatt didn’t mention that, and the streamer didn’t ask for clarification.

    Click through for coverage of the hour Wyatt Cheng spent in the chat, with interesting info about upcoming itemization changes, overall skill balancing, lots of Auction House theorizing, and much more.

    read more

    Tagged As: | Categories: Auction House, Items, Multiplayer Issues, Wyatt Cheng | 75 Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Blizzard discuss the Playstation 4 Control System of Diablo 3 in new Developer Video


    9
    Posted 16 May 2013 by Rushster at 18:54 GMT

    In a new video from Blizzard which was posted on the Playstation Youtube channel, the development team discuss the challenges they face with the control system doe the Playstation 4 Diablo 3 version. Does it look easy to you?

    Tagged As: , , | Categories: Console | 9 Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Diablo Fan Art Watch #193: The Anniversary Part II – Villains


    0
    Posted 16 May 2013 by Holyknight3000 at 15:00 GMT

      
    Welcome everyone to the second part of this special Diablo Fan Art Watch. This time I have collected my favorite pieces of artwork for Diablo and his minions.

    Here’s to many, many more pieces of artwork in the next year and years to come.

    Artwork by SeungHwan Jang, Liyao Yang, Peter Stapleton, Rafael Grassetti, and Justin Bechtold.

      

    Click the thumbnails to see larger versions of all these images.

    If you enjoy Fan art and want to contribute to this growing community, please stop by the Fan Creations Forum. Many artists visit frequently, posting works in progress looking for feedback and conversation. You don’t have to be “arty” to join in. If you have any questions, comments or have some fan art related news on the web please send me a PM and I’ll get back to you.

    Tagged As: , , | Categories: Fan Art, Fan Stuff | No Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    The Diablo 3 Podcast #92: D3 Year One — The Diablo Community


    19
    Posted 15 May 2013 by Flux at 20:48 GMT

    Flux, Neinball, and Wolfpaq discuss the Diablo community and speculate on why passions often run so high, and why so many self-professed “haters” stick around to complain and troll, rather than moving on with their lives.

    This is the second half of the show begun with TDP #91, but you need not listen to that one first since the topics are entirely separate between the shows.

    Approximate segment starting times:

    • 0:10 — Intro and Diablo 3 community overview.
    • 4:40 — Is the Diablo 3 community really that much more negative than other gaming communities? Why do people who claim not to like Diablo 3 stick around to troll people who do play it and to say that every other upcoming ARPG will be 10x better? Why does this not occur with WoW and Starcraft, even in the downtimes for those games? Is it a testimony to the enduring enjoyment (and rose-tinted glasses) of Diablo 2?
    • 12:00 — Diablo 3 didn’t live up to impossibly-high expectations? Would Diablo 2.5 have been more popular? An update rather than a full sequel?
    • 20:10 — Expectations for upcoming changes to Diablo 3? Anything big coming up before the expansion adds massive content and changes everything?
    • 25:00 — Creepy unicorn sound effects.

    The Diablo 3 Podcast Episode Guide in DiabloWiki.net provides links to every show, plus quick summaries.

  • Listen and subscribe through iTunes.
  • View video versions of all The Diablo Podcasts on You Tube, via our all-encompassing Diablo3Inc channel.
  • Get the Podcast RSS feed

    • Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:30 — 24.3MB)

    We have a quick 1 year anniversary vote for our Facebook fans that’s asking How long have you been playing Diablo 3? There are five options from “since release” all the way to “stopped playing” – select your option.

    Tagged As: , | Categories: Community Relations, Podcasts | 19 Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Happy Diablo 3 Anniversary: Bonus Magic Find and Experience


    28
    Posted 15 May 2013 by Flux at 18:33 GMT

    The datamined Anniversary Day special has been activated, and all characters in Diablo 3 are now rolling with a bonus to their Magic Find and Experience. These bonuses are exactly as if you had a permanent DiabloWikiFortune Shrine and DiabloWikiEnlightened Shrine, adding 25% bonus to both stats.

    d3-anniversary-iconThe Magic Find bonus is 25% added to your total, and since it works like a Fortune Shrine it can exceed the 300% hard cap from Paragon + item bonuses. My Monk was running 425% in an MP1 farming game once I was fully stacked, when the usual max on MP1 is 400%. And I found eleventeen legendaries! (IMHO 25% is a pretty meek bonus. We’ve been waiting all year. Why not 100 or 200%?)

    The experience bonus is better. Just like an Enlightened Shrine it’s granted on the Nephalem Valor + Multiplayer side of the newly-multiplicative equation, which and it adds to those and multiplies all of your EXP bonus from Monster Power and equipment.

    The screens below show a brand new Wizard I made to test. She was sitting at 25% to Exp and MF on MP0, but when I restarted the game on MP10 she was at 25% MF and all the way up to +275% Exp, thanks to the 1.25% x 200% for the Monster Power setting. (I dinged to level 2 at the start of the zombie fight outside the town gates, and dinged to level 3 after killing two of the zombies in the Inn, putting her already a full level ahead of normal MP0 pace.)

    Your character does not show a shrine bonus, just the special buff icon, so presumably you could double either or both bonuses by hitting the appropriate shrines. And then zoom zoom for two minutes of bliss.

    Update: Blizzard has updated about this bonus, and there’s good news; it runs until next Tuesday, so you don’t have to sit up playing all night in a mad quest for Paragon 100. Quote:

    One year ago today, the gates of the Burning Hells opened and Diablo III was unleashed onto the world. Since then, millions of heroes have been created, billions of hours have been spent in games, and trillions of demons have been slaughtered without mercy. We’ve grown and improved a lot since release, both as a game team and as a community, and thanks to your feedback, passion, and unquenchable bloodlust, we expect the next year to be even more epic.

    To celebrate this milestone and the community that made it possible, we’re giving away free buffs! (Who doesn’t like free buffs?) Players who log in to defend Sanctuary between May 15 and May 21 will receive a 25% boost to their Magic Find and +EXP stats. The buff is only available while logged in to the game, but it will apply to all characters as well as stack with other similar bonuses — the +EXP bonus will stack multiplicatively and the Magic Find bonus will stack above the 300% cap!

    Tagged As: , | Categories: Blue Posts, Experience, Magic Find | 28 Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Blizzard on Diablo 3 Monster Density


    16
    Posted 15 May 2013 by Flux at 14:18 GMT

    A couple of informative Blue posts about the increased Diablo 3 Monster Density monster density that all decent people are enjoying in v1.08.

    But if I use MP10, will that grant me MORE density than MP5?
    Vaeflare: In patch 1.0.8 we adjusted the monster density of various areas of the game for players playing on Inferno on Monster Power 1 through MP10. While Monster Power offers some added perks to those willing to tackle the challenge of playing on higher MP levels, the monster density of areas does not scale upwards as you increase your MP level.

    Leveling up a new character is one of the most boring parts of this game. So much time spent running through dead zones. Why did they only apply this change to Inferno? I was planning on leveling up some of my other champs after 1.08, but now I don’t know.
    Lylirra: The reason we didn’t apply monster density changes to Normal, Nightmare, and Hell difficulties is because we felt this would be detrimental to the new player experience. Players who are just entering Sanctuary for the very first time have different needs and less skills and tools at their disposal, and they require the opportunity to get their feet wet before being assaulted with the additional challenges that higher monster density offers. At the same time, we also agree that this isn’t ideal for players who have already gone through the game and are looking to start up new characters and are ready to take on additional challenges and faster pacing from the get-go.

    Along these lines, we’ve considered ideas such as enabling the higher density for MP1 and higher, or simply making higher density a checkbox option. We’re currently working on some other concrete ideas, but we don’t have anything to share just yet, but this is definitely an aspect of Diablo III that we’d like to improve in the long-term.

    As we’ve talked about on the Year One podcasts this week, Diablo 3 was really hard in the early days. That was mostly because the game was nerfed quite a bit in DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.4 and DiabloWikiPatch 1.0.5, but the fact that we were all noobs who were using horrible builds and strategies was certainly a contributing factor. If the v1.08 Increased Monster Density had been in place last May and June, it would have been traumatic. Not to mention unbalanced, since characters would have leveled well above the designed experience curve. (As most of us do intentionally these days, via +experience gear and Monster Power.)

    Perhaps the IMD could be a check box a bit like Hardcore. It’s reasonable to keep a brand new player from enabling it since they’ll just hurt themselves, but once you know what you’re doing you should be able to choose your own poison.

    Tagged As: | Categories: Experience, Inferno, Monster Power, Monsters | 16 Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Diablo III Wallpaper Watch #128: Diablo 3, Year One


    0
    Posted 15 May 2013 by Flux at 08:59 GMT

    Along with the “Best of” Fan Art posts Holyknight is honoring us with this week, I thought we should offer a selection of the year’s best Diablo III wallpapers. We may yet, but today we’ve got some new pieces.

    Holyknight unlimbered his Photoshop skillz and created a new wallpaper for the anniversary occasion. I think it’s one of his better creations, with a cool wagon spokes format as the characters face off against the loot sacks monsters. For a second I thought I saw Magda in there, but then I remembered that we’d all agreed to feign collective, selective amnesia about her and the unfortunate plot events she led to. You know, like how diehard Star Wars fans give a twitch and shake their heads, then look at you blankly if you mention JarJar Binks.

    The Blizzard anniversary pieces are nice as well, featuring new artwork stamped with a very minimal logo. It’s great art and a a welcome departure from their usual, rigidly-traditional rectangular box formatting. Click any of the thumbs to see the images in super desktop size via our Diablo 3 Wallpaper gallery, which holds more than 500 desktop options, if none of these quite float your proverbial boat.

    Tagged As: , | Categories: Artwork, Fan Stuff, Wallpapers | No Comments

    Latest Diablo 3 News

    Diablo III Patch 1.0.8a Notes


    34
    Posted 14 May 2013 by Flux at 20:14 GMT

    This week’s regularly-scheduled maintenance has concluded and a new small patch was included at no extra charge. Here are the Diablo III Patch 1.0.8a notes. There are some potentially huge market ramifications from the change to the Auction House gold listing price, so see below for comments on that.

    Diablo III Patch 1.0.8a – v.1.0.8.16603

    General
    * Made improvements to address “rubberbanding” issues encountered when using movement-based abilities like Tempest Rush, Strafe, and Whirlwind

    Auction House
    * The stack size of gold on the real-money auction house has been increased again to 10 million (up from 1 million)

    Classes
    * Barbarian
    * * Passive Skills
    * * * DiabloWikiInspiring Presence
    * * * * Will once again be displayed under Life per Second on the character sheet

    User Interface

    Bug Fixes
    * Fixed an issue introduced in Patch 1.0.8 that prevented Item Label Display preferences from being saved

    Bug Fixes

    * Fixed an issue introduced in Patch 1.0.8 causing dungeon exits to sometimes be placed in abnormally close proximity to the entrance

    * Fixed an issue introduced in Patch 1.0.8 that prevented players with Starter Edition accounts from being upgraded when playing in an IGR.

    A bug in the code for the 1m > 10m RMAH change was what caused the gold dupe bug last week. I think we can assume that bug won’t reappear today, but it’s going to be interesting to see what happens with the prices in the softcore Auction House. In theory this should lead to a major shift in prices, since gold is probably going to start selling for much less in the RMAH. For example, 100m gold previously cost $25.00, while it could now sell for as little as $2.50.

    Furthermore, there has *not* been an adjustment to the maximum price (two billion gold) an item can be listed for on the GAH, which might drive all top end item sales to the RMAH. Why? The RMAH has a max price of $250. Previously, a player could purchase about 1 billion gold for $250, which meant that an item selling for 2 billion was worth about $500, or double the price cap on the RMAH. Thus it made no sense to sell a top end item on the RMAH at the $250 cap when a player could sell that item for gold on the GAH, then sell that gold for more $. (Ignoring transaction fees and the fact that gold was not selling well via the RMAH, since it was much cheaper via third party sites.)

    Now that gold can be sold for 1/10th the previous price, a billion gold may drop in value to as low as $25. At that value, a top end item listed for the GAH max of 2 billion gold is selling for the equivalent of $50 in gold. And a top end item selling for $250 on the RMAH is worth the equivalent of 10 billion gold.

    That’s all ignoring transaction fees for the sake of simplicity and because math is hard. It’s also assuming that gold actually will start selling at 10m = $0.25. It might not drop that far, at least not any time soon, and thus prices might not shoot up 10x. If you notice any big market price fluctuations, in the RMAH or GAH, do drop a note in comments. I’m curious how this will play out, and I’m sure other players are as well.

    Tagged As: | Categories: Diablo 3 Patches, Economy, Real Money Trading | 34 Comments

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