Selffound players only - show us your best weapon(s)

[krovak]

Needless to say, in D3, the weapon is by far the most important part of anyone's gear. Wizard swing their two-handed maces to cast missiles, while witch doctors need weighty weapons clinging on their belts to be able to shoot their blowguns more fiercely. In untwinked play, it is almost impossible to progress to later acts in inferno without finding the right weapon first. However, before 1.03 comes out, it can be quite difficult to find one - the good ones begin to drop in the areas you can't reach. I was quite lucky myself, finding a ~500 dmg goedendag not long after entering inferno, which allowed me to farm the first act quite efficiently and equip myself better before proceeding to act 2. Today I learned the hard way that the difference between acts 1 and 2 was indeed huge, and I will have to find some better gear before I proceed farther.

At this moment I am using a 630 DPS wand, which I found in the caverns of aranae, and for quite some time I was unable to upgrade it, so far. This is quite funny considering the fact that I could just go and buy a better weapon for 5000 gold (which I earn in a few minutes of gameplay) on the auction house. But this is, in my opinion, the perfect example which shows how much is the AH devastating the game. Without it, we can just play and hope that the next drop will improve our gear a little bit, which allows us to progress a step farther and so on, all the way from A1 normal to the end of inferno.

I have started this thread because I am curious what are the other selffound people using right now (also mentioning where is currently their most advanced character). Please, don't post if you purchased your weapon (or anything which helped you finding one) on the AH.

Here is the wand my (~120 hours old) wizard currently uses:
wand.jpg

I am looking forward to seeing yours!

[Grisu]

Here is the wand my (~120 hours old) wizard currently uses:

I am looking forward to seeing yours!

Must ... not ... post ... childish ... comment ...

Nice wand! And even a wizard-type weapon so you don't have to be one of the axe-wielding wizards Really don't have anything to compare to...my HC Monk is level 36 and uses a 64dps weapon in NM act I...

[Painman]

No AH for me either... I like being selffound even if it means being a bit ragtag, but I'm getting by OK.

DH weapon (lvl 56, just about to explore highlands above Wortham in Hell act 1):

Socketed Scorpion of Malice
- 269.5 DPS
- 1.10 APS
- +61 min/+50 max damage
- Socketed (with a square Ruby, +13 to min/max damage)

Wizard (same lvl and location as DH):

Bloody Wrecker of Infinity (yeah, I know)
- 288.9 DPS
- 0.9 APS
- +60-131 Arcane Damage
- 18.2% chance to inflict Bleed for 14-34 dmg over 5 seconds

Barbarian (lvl 16, lust arrived @ Leoric's Manor in act 1 Normal):

Masterwork Carver
- 18.8 DPS
- 1.30 APS
- +5 max damage

[Shagsbeard]

I'm playing through the game at an embarassingly slow pace. My best weapon is an axe with about 47 dps on a level 27 HC barb. Got him through act II... one more character, the wiz, needs to finish it before all 10 characters begin Act III.

[SnickerSnack]

I know this is not really a mechanics discussion thread, but do you think there could be some mechanism that might allow player like yourself (krovak) to use the AH? Maybe a "tax" based on character level or "gold picked up"? Just curious. Maybe there should be a thread to discuss this idea (not that blizz cares, since it would be a nuisance to most, but just for the fun of it)?

[krovak]

Four replies out of 185 views - seems like we (selffound) are indeed an insignificant minority here. Well, I guess that's what Blizzard wanted.

Grisu: You have my respect for not giving up. After a few deaths, I would probably be tempted to go softcore. Unlike D2, I am dying a lot here, and I am considering myself quite competent player. I believe that finishing hell on HC untwinked is more than possible, but inferno... Maybe I will change my opinion a little when I try some other character classes.

SnickerSnack: I am somehow missing your point here. Did you mean something like "if I make the AH expensive enough for me, it's OK to use it"? I don't feel that would help me feel better - in terms of D2, using the AH is like buying a BoTD or any other high-end runeword for a couple of Pgems. From my point of view this is not very far from cheating, i.e. making the game substantially easier with minimum effort. If I wanted the game to be easy, I would be at the same time giving up the challenge it provides. So if you are considering a "tax" or something that would make the AH less attractive, it would not be impossible but the tax would have to be very high, hardly definable and I still can't see any benefits of such solution.

[Shagsbeard]

The only thing I could see using the AH for is to replace a legendary that you have already found, but had to sell due to the small stash size. HC has concerns that SC doesn't when it comes to stash. I plan on dying, and having to replay each class, which means I save a few nice items for each class twinking. SC doesn't need to do that.

[inthayne]

Witch Doc here. 302dps dagger got me through hell. I caved in and started using the AH for inferno tho. Its more than a brick wall, rather akin to running naked, but equipped with the gear you just trounced the previous act with. Unfortunately, Blizz has almost made the AH mandatory for inferno as the items you need to survive are not attainable until an act you can not enter. This has been somewhat remedied in patch 1.03. I must say I had every intention of not continuing if I couldn't do it self-found, but have found the AH to be large amounts of fun. In fact, as my DH leveled up through Hell, she was more excited not to see what new skill runes she had unlocked, but what new treasures were available for her level on the AH.

@Shagsbeard - Legendaries can be vastly different as to the affixes associated with them. They might as well just be named rares, with maybe 2 affixes in common. One legendary might be worthless for a lvl 10 character, but the same named legendary could be an end game slot filler to the same character.

[SnickerSnack]

SnickerSnack: I am somehow missing your point here. Did you mean something like "if I make the AH expensive enough for me, it's OK to use it"? I don't feel that would help me feel better - in terms of D2, using the AH is like buying a BoTD or any other high-end runeword for a couple of Pgems. From my point of view this is not very far from cheating, i.e. making the game substantially easier with minimum effort. If I wanted the game to be easy, I would be at the same time giving up the challenge it provides. So if you are considering a "tax" or something that would make the AH less attractive, it would not be impossible but the tax would have to be very high, hardly definable and I still can't see any benefits of such solution.

A tax, or any mechanic, really. It seems like the AH can be really useful, but the ease with which it sucks the fun out of the game for some players leads those players to avoid it. Every player who chooses to go self-found does so for different reasons, and some do it only for the challenge and don't trade at all. I guess I was just curious as to whether any avoided the AH for the reason I gave (or similar) and if there was some variation on it that might work better for them.

[SincereX13]

Here is my best SF weapon so far, it is fun right now in Act1 Hell but I don't think I'll be able to progress too far with a 2h weapon.

Weapon.jpg