Diablo 3 Blog Guide

Inferno Butcher Witchdoctor Farming submitted by jammer292.

Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#YfUdPT!ZVU!ZccZYZ

Here is my variation of the witch doctor zombie bear build that let's me easily solo the butcher in about 30 seconds, sometimes quicker.

I know it's not the most impressive time but it's pretty quick none-the-less. I can also kill nearly any champion mob in act 1 to get my 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor.

Video of me doing it in ~35 seconds: 




I'll probably get criticized for having zombie dogs, but I find they distract the mobs just enough to get my bears going, and also the 1 minute cooldown makes it easy to always have 4 skills on cooldown for vision quest mana regen.

This lets me spam bears for longer. With decent gear, as my video shows, farming the butcher in inferno with your witch doctor can be very easy and rewarding. Hope this helps!

Here are is an album with screenshots of my stats and all my gear: http://imgur.com/a/McqRI#0

Monk Inferno Guide submitted by tong.

A few days ago I managed to solo all of Inferno and since then I have been getting spammed with with questions from fellow monk friends. Thus, I have decided to make a brief guide to help other monks through inferno.

Part 1 - Resists

Resists are the key to any monk build as most of you know. Melee in general have an extreme disadvantage right now because skilled ranged classes can kite all day and don't need near the amount of resist we do.

To put things into perspective, I had almost 1200 resist to all when soloing Diablo. Which leads to my next topic-how monks should gear and spec to maximize their resistance.

The key to resistances as a monk is using the passive One of Everything. This passive will allow you to get your resistances fairly high. The passive allows all your resistances to be equal to your highest one. Thus when gearing to abuse this passive, try to pick one element you want to stack (probably easiest if you pick the element you are already highest with) and look for gear that has resistance to that element on it and resist to all elements.

So for instance, if fire resistance is your highest, if you get gear with 50 resistance to fire and 50 resistance to all elements, you are actually adding 100 resistance to all elements. As you can see for yourself, abusing this can really add up.

The next step to maximizing your resistance is using Mantra of Healing with the rune Time of Need. This will boost your resistance by 20%, which can be a very large number as your resistances get higher.

Part 2 - Builds

The two builds I used for soloing are:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WYjXgQ!ZYU!ZacYYc
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bZjXgQ!aYU!aZcYYc

Guide continued after the page break..

The first one is only for if you have your resists at a decent mark. It allows you to be in melee range and take hits. It is meant to reduce the amount of damage you take to a minimum. Please note though, even though we are a melee class, there is no amount of resist I have found that will let you continuously sit in melee range. You going to have to kite sometimes until your cooldowns come back up.

My usual rotation against high level inferno mobs is to open with a blind-> serenity ->breath of heaven (to get your spirit back and heal) ->spam mantra of healing ->repeat. Also make sure to always have your ally up. For bosses this rotation is similar however I tend to save my blind and serenity to stop or avoid boss mechanics. Blind is also great if you need to get your ally back up.

The second spec is meant for people who are struggling with resist. This is a kite build. The idea is to have your ally up and use deadly reach to get hits in while running. If mobs get too close, use your lashing tail kick to peel and slow them down. This is also a great spec for most of the bosses in inferno.

As you can see I use ally in both builds. I think the ally is crucial because it takes aggro away from you, thus minimizing damage on you. Also the 10% HP boost is pretty nice.

Part 3 - Gear


The order of stats you should focus on is:


1) Resists
2) Vitality
3) Dexterity
4) Attack Speed

I can not stress enough to focus on resists before anything else. When I soloed I only had 12k dps. DPS is not going to keep you alive. Once you have decent stats, my biggest suggestion to you is maximizing attack speed without sacrificing resists.

When weapon shopping look for fists or daggers only which have a attack speed bonus on them. This is because the faster you attack, the faster you generate spirit. With an excess of spirit you will always have enough spirit to use your crucial skills when needed and be able to spam mantra of healing.

That is pretty much all the tips I have. The only other tip I have is that in regards to groups, I find that grouping with a barb is very beneficial. Ask him to use his resistance shout. When stacked with your mantra your resistances will get to absurd amount (2k to all resistances is doable).

Since both of you will have low dps, ask him to go earthquake (and beserker too if has decent gear). With this combo you can pull whole zones and he can earthquake them down. If you have any questions or would like to add to this guide please feel free to post.

Wizard Inferno Guide submitted by Arktem.

My experience includes Diablo 2 Hardcore for 5+ year. WoW Hardmode Raiding for 5+ Years, US 4th). And currently Act 4 Inferno on Diablo.

For those wanting a Video of how this works, or just want to chill and watch a stream, my stream page is located below.

www.twitch.tv/ArkD3/

Keep in mind as you are reading this that things CHANGE depending on if you are with a group or if you're solo. Many strategies, gear choices, and specs are far more viable in a group environment.

I wrote this all very quickly and probably missed a lot of stuff. I'll be happy to edit more/Fix some if people find it useful. If people get butthurt about "Mathcraft" for any of my recommendations below I will be happy to include numbers to support any of my claims.

Build

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#alQSOR!XYT!cYYZYb

Basic build, that is useful for any and all situations. Some people prefer to replace Blizzard with Arcane Orb + Temporal Flux. Both are 100% viable, and both have their pros and cons.

Blizzard gives you a lot more control over mobs, basically it's the "Safe Route".

Arcane Orb gives you more Damage, but you have to be much more careful.

Everything else should basically stay the same in nearly all situations. Diamond skin, while very strong early on, loses a lot of it's usefulness simply because it does not scale. The only time it can be useful is for Reflect Damage mobs, which can easily be dealt with by having a few extra pieces with + Life on Hit (Note, this isn't % Life Steal), and swapping to them when the need arises.

Gear

Boots - Every single boot you buy should have 12% movement speed. Nothing else matters.

Weapons -

2h - Two Handed weapons are superior damage over 1h/oh Combo, but they have the disadvantage of being much slower animations.

1h - have the advantage of having much faster attack animations, which in a kite spec is extremely important.

Please note if you are not using a signature spell, which I don't personally recommend, then you should always go with a strong 2h if you can get your hands on one.

Guide continued after the page break..

Stats

Vitality - Get 30k, maybe a bit more, then focus on other stats.

All Resist - Your number 1 defensive stat. Far more important than Vitality, assuming you have around the 30k mark.

IAS (Increased Attack Speed) - Far from useless as others seem to say. Anyone who has done testing with it knows the value of it. If you are not running a Signature Spell then IAS loses much of it's value, but again there really is no reason not to have a signature spell.

With a signature spell, and more specifically a kite solo spec, IAS is a god send. Being able to cast spells while kiting, and not lose any movement time, is absolutely amazing. I would highly recommend this stat to anyone who primarily does Solo Kite strategies.

INT - More damage is always good, but it also has an increased advantage of giving us All Resist which is HIGHLY valuable.

Crit Chance - Now that the Critical Mass build has been nerfed crit has lost much of it's appeal. With that said, once you reach about 15% crit, which isn't very difficult, it has the bonus of making Crit Damage Highly valuable.

Crit Damage - With a semi decent Crit chance, 10-15% crit damage is a very good stat to have. With 15% crit the value of having an Emerald (+70% crit damage) greatly outweighs the DPS value of a single Ruby (Bonus damage).

Magic Find - Do not have any magic find stats on your main gear. Assuming of course you don't have something better. Instead get together a strong Magic find set to keep in your bags at all times. When a boss/Last mob is about to die, swap really fast to your magic set.

Farming Spots


*Save yourself some time and pain and just skip act 2.*

Act 1 - I personally skipped all of act 1 and went straight to act 3. I just don't find the loot to be of any use, especially considering the AH. With that said many people choose to farm "The imprisoned Angel" and work their way towards Butcher.

Act 3 - Siege-breaker runs. First start a game on "Kill the Siege-breaker" and then teleport to the Bridge. This will give you "Tyrael" as a companion. Once you have him teleport to the Bridge of Korsikk. The mobs in this location are very easy to kite, as well as generally not having many "Bad Combos". This is by far my favorite place to farm. Once you reach a 5 stack kill Siege-breaker.

Inferno Farming Tips / Guide submitted by mvtsc2.

This is my guide for Act I or II Inferno Farming. I myself run these as a Barbarian but these runs work for any class.

First some tips:

Diablo III Patch 1.0.2a – v.1.0.2.9858 (5/31/2012)

General

Tooltips for the following class abilities have been updated to reflect changes made in patch 1.0.2 and previous hotfixes:

Demon Hunter

Smoke Screen (Skill Rune – Lingering Fog)

Monk

Fists of Thunder (Skill Rune – Quickening)

Mantra of Healing (Skill Rune – Boon of Inspiration)

Wizard

Energy Armor (Skill Rune – Force Armor)

Nigel Cutthroat has recently fallen on hard times and will now drop lower quality items when slain

Gold and quest experience rewards for replaying "Heart of Sin: Get the Soul of Azmodan" have been reduced

Gold and quest experience rewards for replaying "Heart of Sin: Go to the Keep" have been removed

Auction House

The maximum duration for posted auctions has been reduced from 48 hours to 36 hours

Diablo 3 Core of Areat Gold Farming Guide submitted by adalon.

So if you don't mind really repetitive easy fights, there's a decent farm for gold as a monk (you could easily do this as other class, but I did it as a monk). Pulls approximately 300k/H with potential for more (I only have 190 GF).

You do this on nightmare since you can clear it crazy fast and the difficulty:gold ratio doesn't scale that much better in Hell.

This is the build set-up I use: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aeXjik!abY!aZbbZc

It's all about stacking massive damage/AoE

You just start at the core and run to the end and you'll hit a checkpoint, but don't go into Azmodan's lair.
Stack GF and Pickup Radius as well as get some movespeed boots. If you can get your damage high enough, you basically 1hit everything in the area and 2 hit champs.

Start at one end, clear to the other end but don't pick up anything. The items that drop won't be good enough to justify it. Just keep running. The pickup radius will continue to grab gold while you run by and save you time. Open the chests and run. You don't even have to wait for it to hit the ground if you have ~40 increased pickup radius.

You should be able to clear it in about 80 seconds + 10 seconds to leave the game. It easily pulled me 5-6k a run.

I'm sure there are other areas that can do this, but The Core is a straight line and easy enough with very easy enemies when you're lvl 50+. There's probably better item/gold farm somewhere else, but this is mindless and can help grab you that 950dps weapon to start farming A1i more efficiently.

Treasure Goblin / Pygmy / Bandit / Seeker Drop Rate Spreadsheet Submitted by Pyrophobiac.

Over the past three days I've killed hundreds of treasure midgets, and discovered there are 4 types, Bandits which are black/white, Seekers which are red, Goblins which are gold, and Pygmys that are blue.

We noticed that the drops tended to be slightly different for each so we decided to get some data to confirm our suspicions.

Data for about 35 kills are below:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnQSTGSAQofVdGhaM1pZQWQ5S0xRTy1FaW1mRnZJd3c#gid=0

Since the data sizes are relatively small, we can't draw too many conclusions, but two things that are obvious are this.

First, Seekers have a high tendency to drop gems, but as a result tend to drop slightly less gold and items.
Second, Bandits tend to drop more tomes, but as a result drop less gold and items.

In our data set, pygmys and Goblins are indistinguishable, but over the next day or so I'll take more data points.

TLDNR: Four types of treasure midgets: Bandits which are black and white and tend to drop more tomes, Seekers which are red and tend to drop more gems, Goblins which are gold and tend to drop items and gold, and Pygmys which are blue and tend to drop more items and gold.

Wizard Farming Guide submitted by UkiyaEJL.

• Port to Royal Crypts, get +GF gear (200 is optimal) and use Ice Armor runed with Frozen Storm Rune, use said skill to break pots.  And also get +pickup radius.

Video:

Thanks to Breenns for submitting this small Witch Doctor tip on pets scaling beyond Nightmare.

For those who think the Witch Doctor pets don't scale well after Nightmare, I'm still using them super effectively in Hell and Inferno. It took some messing with stats.

Pets don't scale with vitality or dex. But they do scale with armor (str), physical resistance, and of course life regen with the right passive.

Shifting away from vitality towards those stats as well as getting an appropriate shield really made them worth while for me in hell.

As for Inferno, I Shifted to Res + Str in Act 1 Inferno and it's going alright...

Gargantuan is tanky enough to keep me alive.

Comprehensive Diablo 3 Barbarian Guide submitted by Daith.

Note: Make sure to check out Version 2.0 of this guide as well.

I wrote this guide for all of the Barbarians out there who love the class, but are struggling through certain parts of the game. 

This guide is meant to carry you through Inferno and beyond! I will review the benefits and drawbacks of certain skills and I will also review the itemization system. Welcome, fellow Children of Arreat!

Most Importantly, I must stress that Barbarians are very gear-dependent! If you find yourself unable to progress through Inferno, don't hesitate to go back and farm Act IV of Hell for cash and a few item upgrades!

There is no shame in this and you must assume that the natural flow of the game is going to be repetition of each Act in Inferno until it is on farm status then you can progress to the next Act.

General Leveling as a Barbarian includes getting up close and personal with entire groups of enemies. One build I would recommend for leveling with assorted rune variants based on your level is: 

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#bQVYXk!ZcV!aZZZab 

This build got me through every difficulty. It uses no Fury and does immense damage! Initiate with leap, yank everything to you with Ground Stomp, and AoE like mad! Swap out Cleave for Frenzy during Bosses. Focus on Strength and Vitality and anything that increases your damage output beyond that. Start saving your pennies early though because late Hell and Inferno require you to make some major item purchases.

I must say that there IS such a thing as a cookie-cutter build in Diablo 3, simply because of the difficulty of Inferno. Some skills are just too vital to substitute for anything else. That said, the build I have used is still incredibly fun and has carried me through Inferno. (Not easily, but nonetheless) I will discuss why I chose each skill and passive as well as options for different play styles. 

NOTE: You NEVER want to switch out your skills or runes just for a specific fight because you lose all of your Nephalem Valor stacks. The goal of any build is that it is viable in all situations, whether it's trash mobs, elites, champions, or bosses.

My current build is as follows: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WVRikP!ZbV!acbacZ

Guide continued after the page break..

NOTE: I use this as a Sword and Board build, but it is viable for any weapon setup.

Frenzy + Sidearm- This is the true core of the build. This damage output of this ability can't be matched by any other class. You will be amazed at the speed that bosses drop even in Inferno difficulty. Sidearm is an incredible skill for AoE damage and hitting those pesky back-line ranged mobs. It also does very solid damage to bosses. The only drawback of Sidearm that I have noticed is the random selection of any target within range, including destructible barrels, ashes and such. 

The other drawback can be a bit infuriating. You engage a group of enemies, watch a random axe fly off screen, finish your pack and collect the loot and as you move in the direction that the axe flew you notice a trail of gold and catch up just in time to see the Treasure Goblin go through it's portal. 

This has happened to me on several occasions and can be quite frustrating, but if you are attentive to your surroundings, you will be just fine. Some would argue that Maniac is a better rune or that Cleave + Broad Sweep is a better Fury builder, but after testing both, I strongly disagree. As mentioned before, the goal is to NEVER have to swap out your skills and Frenzy + Maniac is only good for single target fights while Cleave + Broad Sweep is only good for AoE packs. Sidearm makes clearing trash mobs incredibly easy and fast, while not sacrificing damage against a single target foe. 

Revenge + Provocation- This is a staple for any Barbarian in Inferno mode because of the high AoE damage and Life Return. Since Life Steal is nerfed to 20% in Inferno mode, you must rely on other methods for sustainability and Revenge is just the thing. (Note: As of 5/26/2012 the proc rate seems to have been slightly reduced as I am not having the constant chain proc anymore)

** Since the changes made to Revenge, this skill can be replaced by either Overpower + Revel (Much smaller AoE range), or Furious Charge + Dreadnaught to give you an escape skill as well.**

Ignore Pain + Ignorance is Bliss- Until you are in supreme gear, this skill is a MUST to survive against most Champion and Elite packs. Ignorance is Bliss is great for sustainability even with Inferno reducing it to 4% of Damage Dealt, it is still enough to restore you to full heath for it's duration. There are some options here if you don't need the sustainability. Iron Hide gives you a bit more mitigation in those crucial spots while Mob Rule is great for co-op play. Eventually, this skill can be replaced when your gear alone is enough to sustain you.

Battle Rage + Marauder's Rage- This skill gives you a brutal damage boost across the board and should be sustained at all times.

War Cry + Impunity- Another core of the Barbarian for obvious reasons. The Armor and Resistance bonuses are invaluable and this should always be kept active.

Wrath of the Berserker + Insanity- This is the Trump Card you play when you encounter and Elite or Champion pack. Not only does this more than double your damage output, but it gives you a bit of survivability with the Dodge bonus. I love this ability and even with stable enough gear for Elites and Bosses, it's still incredible to use. However, the long cooldown can be a real pain when you can't kill an Elite/Champion pack without it. This skill can also be replaced once you acquire enough gear to kill Elites without it.

Ruthless- I am a big fan of passives that give multiple benefits, and the damage from this one is too much to pass up! You will end up stacking Critical Chance and Critical damage with your gear and this will just amplify your damage further.

Tough as Nails- Again, a skill with two benefits. While granting a huge armor bonus, this skill actually increases your damage output by a substantial amount if you are wearing 3-4 pieces of Thorns gear doing a base 700-800 damage each. However, you will not be going out of your way to find Thorns gear during Itemization.

Nerves of Steel- Personally, I am not a big fan of this skill as it is only one benefit and doesn't grant as much armor as Tough as Nails. While it is necessary to reduce the damage you are taking when you first get to Inferno since most of it is Physical, you will eventually outgrow the benefit of this. I consider this the Optional passive slot. Consider other passives such as Weapon Master, Berserker Rage, or Relentless based on your personal preference towards offensive or defensive play.

NOT Superstition- While many may be tempted to take this skill for the static 20% reduction to all non-physical damage and a little Fury generation, I will explain why there are far better options. Throughout Inferno, 90% of the damage you will take in melee will be Physical. Also, most of the Non-Physical damage in the game can be easily avoided with movement and player skill. (i.e. Pools, Arcane Sentries, Projectiles, etc.)

Now that we have the core build established, lets take a look at the itemization and what to look for as a Barbarian. NOTE: All of the following stats are what you want to look for in RARE quality items. Many Legendary and Set Items will have unique stats that normally cannot appear on items in that slot.

These stats are the core of the Barbarian and you should try to have them on EVERY item:
Strength
Vitality (You can afford to stop stacking Vitality when you reach around 50-55K Health)
All Resistance (Does not appear on Weapons, MOST IMPORTANT CORE STAT)

Once you find an item that has all of the above stats on it, take a look at the other stats on it to determine whether it will fully benefit you as a Barbarian. NOTE: Many items in Diablo 3 have exclusive stats that only appear on specific item slots. (Ex. Life Steal appears only on Rare Weapons and Belts)

The following is a list of crucial stats that appear only on specific item slots:

Weapon- Attack Speed, Critical Hit Damage, Life on Hit
Shield- Block, Critical Hit Chance, Life %
Helm- Critical Hit Chance, Life %
Shoulders- Life %
Amulet- Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, Life %, Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged
Chest- Life %, Reduced Damage from Elites/Melee/Ranged
Gloves- Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage
Bracers- Critical Hit Chance, Reduced Damage from Melee/Ranged
Belt- Barbarian Skill Bonus: Frenzy/Revenge
Ring- Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage, Life %
Pants- No Noteworthy Stats (See Inna's Glory for MANY unique beneficial stats)
Boots- Movement Speed

After some toying around with the Life Steal mechanic in Inferno, even with both a weapon and belt at 3% life steal each, I am still only getting 300-400 health back per normal swing. This concludes that Life Steal is simply not worth it in Inferno and you are better off with Life on Hit or Life Regeneration.

Other Stats to Consider:

• Physical Resistance
• Armor
• Life on Hit
• Has Sockets
• Life Regeneration
• Magic Find
• Chance on Hit Procs (ex. Freeze, Stun, etc.
• Physical Damage to Attacker
• Crowd Control Reduction (PvP)

With the combination of these stats, you will find yourself decimating even the mightiest adversaries in Inferno. If you find an item with all of the core stats (Str, Vit, AR) in addition to slot specific stats, consider it a real treasure!

The first item you want to upgrade is your weapon! Ideally, you want something around 500-600 DPS for a 1H, and 700-800 for a 2H for Inferno Act I. After that, ALWAYS upgrade your weakest item first! "You are only as strong as your weakest link... of chainmail."

As far as gems go, you will want to focus on the following:
Helm: Amethyst
Weapon: Emerald
Other: Amethyst or Ruby based on whichever overall stat is lower between Strength and Vitality.

For followers, I have used the Enchantress with Forceful Push, Powered Armor, Erosion, and Focused Mind, and Frighteningly, she can take out entire groups in Inferno.

The following are the stats to aim for with each Act of Inferno:
Act I- 30k Health, 12k Damage, 300 Unbuffed All Resist, 8k Armor
Act II- 38k Health, 18k Damage, 450 Unbuffed All Resist, 9k Armor
Act III- 40k Health, 20k Damage, 500 Unbuffed All Resist, 9.5k Armor
Act IV- 45k Health, 22k Damage, 550 Unbuffed All Resist, 10k Armor

Thank you all for reading and I hope this helps alleviate some of the anger at the Barbarian class in the later difficulties. It is far and away the mightiest of the classes available in Diablo 3, but the Journey lies in the acquisition of those all-important items to make you invincible! It is one of the most fun, rewarding classes in all of Sanctuary!

Miscellaneous Notes:
It helps to have one item to increase your gold and health globe pickup radius. It saves you a little time and grief throughout the game.

99% of your survival rate is going to rely on you learning the abilities of each individual enemy you encounter. This will better prepare you for times when you encounter an Elite or Champion pack that has some annoying, non-listed ability that they use.

Blizzard Blue Tracker:

Auction House Error 31073
Players will sometimes receive "Error 31073" when attempting to create a new auction. This is an intentional measure to help improve auction house stability by throttling the number of auctions that can be created at any given time. To that end we plan on updating the messaging that accompanies this error in a future patch to better describe why players are receiving it. If you receive this error message when attempting to list an auction you should wait a few moments and try again. While we understand this is an inconvenience, our goal is to ensure a more stable auction house experience for everyone.

Here are some blue posts regarding Legendary Items, item drops and the Auction House.

Buffing Legendaries:

Hopefully they give about 30-50% "damage per second" buff for Legendaries to return that nice feel of legendary drops.

Maybe not in a manner such as this but in a future patch, most likely the one to include PvP, we are planning to outright buff legendary items :) We also want to over time expand the current affix diversity as well as the unique bonuses of legendary items, we are looking to share more details regarding this after the PvP patch.


In addition to all of this we will be exposing the item levels (ilvl) of all 60+ items in patch 1.0.3 to increase the clarity of stat distribution on items. This will help indicate as to why in some occasions an ilvl 60 Legendary might not be as strong as an ilvl 63 Magic item.

They said they wont convert the old items, the changes will apply to the new drops only.

Exactly as is stated by Puttokany. The buff to legendary items will not be retroactive, it will only apply to items found after the changes have been implemented.

Even in the face of us confirming players comparing vastly different item stats as equal due to player level requirement and not stat budget, AND that Legendary items (despite your personal feelings) are not intended to be the best of the best and only the best items in the game? Seems like dropping the ball about talking about balls being dropped without ball dropping context.

Who doesn't want Legendary items to be the best items in the game?

Players shouldn't, really. I mean if you want all end-game characters to look the same and have on the exact same items by having a single #1 best item in the game, it's a good way to get there. It's a lot easier, to be sure, to just chase a single BiS item, but we really don't believe it should be a lot easier. It should be difficult to find and judge and compare and build characters out of a mix of randomized items, not just go after a tier set.

Bash, have you even read some of the Legendary Item descriptions? The GrandFather for instance, has a crappy 700-800 dps for a 2h sword and it's supposed to be the "most revered" sword in the game? Lmao? Whoever made the Legendary Items was smoking a pipe.

Have you read the article I linked to where we said we'll be buffing them? :) Also The Grandfather is actually ilvl 61, so an ilvl 62 or 63 blue could beat it out on straight DPS.
Technically the Warmonger is the best 2h legendary sword.

But that's not the issue here, the issue here is the legendaries are worse than rares and blues. And that should not be. Please accept that THIS is what players want. For once in my life I am VERY comfortable speaking for everyone. We're accustomed to the term "Legendary" actually MEANING something.

And we've stated we plan to buff them and add more unique affixes.
What do you want to talk about now?

Of course no one here expects a level 30ish legendary to be worthwhile at level 45. That's simply splitting hairs, or obfuscation. But at level 60, a legendary from say, Hell mode, ought to be better than most everything in Hell mode ( or insert advanced mode here).

I don't think anyone with basic common sense believes it is in the best interest of the game to undervalue the rarest drops in the game. We realize you guys are still laying the foundation, it's going to take some time. That's understood. But also be cognizant of the fact that we, as players, don't dig the treatment that the legendaries are getting as of right now. Stand back and count the dollars, but ignore the sentiment at your own risk. This isn't WoW. I'm not on the hook for 15 bucks next month. /wink

Hah. Well, no one is standing back, every designer is in the thick of it working on future updates, patches, hotfixes, etc. I think it really comes down to a perception issue that color quality differentiation and name have made. If the items were called Uniques, as they were in Diablo II, would you assume they were the best items in the game? Maybe, if they're the hardest to find. But I think the point is that the hardest to find items are not in fact Legendaries, but perfect Rare items. It's less intuitive to not have clear separations of item power through name and color, and that's tripping people up to be sure.

I don't know ... we're looking to buff them. Whether we guarantee a blue item dropping in the same difficulty/Act can't have higher DPS than a Legendary is still a judgment call we've yet to make. It'd sure make more sense to people who are stuck on item colors telling them which should be better, but whether it's the best for game's itemization I think is still up in the air. Giving players a clear 'best item' is not necessarily the best decision for the game and itemization landscape.

Hey Bashiok, Are you able to get/contact the "blue" that is in charge of updating the estimated server status updates? I would really appreciate a heads-up on what the night is looking like, so i can see if I should find something constructive to do with my time. I know this isn't the right forum; but the other ones don't have a "Blue paroling them atm. Plz and thank you!

Well, servers are back up. We don't anticipate any further downtime, but we didn't anticipate this downtime, so it's a bit tough to predict the future. Knock on wood everything is good from here on.

Are they going to add unique affixes in the way that D2 did? Instead of just buffing the current stats (taking the strength and doubling it) are they going to add INTERESTING affixes that support 'quirky' builds.

I'm fine with perfectly rolled, or well rolled rares having a better overall dps/stats, but make the legendary items good enough that they can compete with the damage/armor of great rares, but other interesting affixes that would have players think about it.

Yup, that's mentioned in the article.

Everyone is looking at the front page, right? Game Design Update

Current Legendaries being buffed and new and more unique affixes aren't currently estimated to arrive in the same patch, though.


Item Drops and the Auction House


i have ZERO chance to find a legendary, because the server has now adjusted the rates on the fly, because others have already found it.

That's not what was said or implied at all, sorry if it was confusing. The AH doesn't have any affect on the literal drop rates of items depending on what's available.

What I said, and what is true, is that with far more players and an increased proliferation of item trade, we have to factor in how many items are being found by players and how quickly a player can gear up by 'sourcing' items from others through trade and the convenience of the gold auction house.

If we say "a player should have X power in Y amount of time through drops" and completely ignore that the time factor can be reduced by simply having access to more drops through trading and the auction house, players would be gearing up far quicker than we've determined they should. It has nothing to do with the auction house per se, but the general ease at which players have access to more items than they would without it and us needing to keep that in mind while balancing drops. It would be rather poorly thought out if we balanced drops completely ignoring all of the ways players can gear up, and trading is certainly one of them.

Obviously everyone wants the best gear possible as quickly as possible, and us attempting to mediate that through design that takes all factors into account is not always going to be a popular notion.


Blue Post Tracker


Continuing After Normal

Believe me, the game suddenly shifts up a gear or two when you try it on the next level of difficulty. Enemies have many more skills and nasty things to throw at you, gear becomes much more important, and so do your skill choices. It's much more of a challenge!
As others have said though, trying another class is also an option, as is teaming up with friends, which sometimes means skill swapping to be most efficient on harder difficulties :)

First legendaries

I got The Witching Hour when I was about level 20, which was a huge upgrade for me (WD) and then I found a Fletcher's Pride and gave it to Kaivax. Nothing since. I'm worried I wasted all my good luck too early. 

Sets

Yup, just pick an armor type and then click the Set filter button: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/

Example, set pants: http://us.battle.net...pants/#type=set 

Auction House and Items
The drops you get will be determined by the current stock of the AH. If the market is flooded with good items, you won't see as many drop in the game.

I specifically clarified the exact opposite of that in the text you quoted.

No, you did not. You just added sugar, sprinkles, and your shiny blue text to the fact that you made a mistake and revealed what is actually true. Well done by the way, most people bought it.

Alert Chris Carter. This sounds like a case for Mullen and Skulder!

I dont care about the the conspiricy theory, what I dont get is that having the auction be a core part of the game and necessary to even get through hell, detracts from over long term playability of the game. Instead of playing the game I go to the auction and by my stuff, now look there is no point in playing the game. HMM DID THIS NOT OCCUR TO YOU.


Use of the AH isn't necessary. You can go to the Trade forum and get items direct from other players if you want. Or you can just find upgrades yourself - it's just going to take longer. It would be very poor judgment to not include all factors when balancing drop percentages. 

Monk Inferno Build submitted by Unknown.

Decided to make a build of how I'm going through inferno with Monk(act 3 currently). Many of my friends are rushing through inferno with WD, DH and Wiz, but not many Monks or Barb. I play Monk only so here's the build I find quite useful.

First off, I'm using this build:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#aWgYiQ!YgX!aZYcYc

My notable stats:
 
Dex - 1400
Vit - 800
All resist - ~600
HP - 40000
Armor - 6000
Damage -16000
AS-2.4 (I know it's part of DPS. Showing since it affects rate of spirit regen)
Spirit regen per sec - 6
Life per spirit (without transcendence) - 62

I use fist of thunder with concussion for the use of teleport. It's very useful for treasure pygmies/bandits/goblins and far as battling goes, it's very useful for kiting against super creeps that have charging attacks(the types that 1-hit ko you) or plague or molten type buffs. It's also useful since it gives a knockback with the third attack. This knockback only works on non-super creeps and is useful for stopping charged attacks as well as kiting.

Crippling wave with concussion will be helpful for a number of reasons as well. First the rune will reduce the damage of those pesky bugs in act2 as well as help you survive the more stronger creeps. The third attack will slow movespeed/attackspeed of creeps which will help you kite, as well as stun/knockback to interrupt attacks.

As far as my active spells go, Serenity is the best possible skill IMO. 4 second invulnerability is really over-powered and should be used since Monk is sorely under powered. I use serenity as a last-means of escape. When i am stunned with Frozen orbs or put in Jail or vortexed towards the creeps. In combination with combination strike and the damage buff from Blinding Flash, my damage will increase at least 50%(sometimes combination strike bugs and gives nearly 100%). That is a huge boost for monks, since a lot of us don't carry 1k DPS weapons.

As for as healing mantra goes, I use the rune "time of need" to increase my resistances. This helps me get 4-5 shot by creeps instead of 2-3 shot. It's important to note that once activation Mantra of healing increases your regen greatly for 3 seconds(inversely exponential). Using this to maximize your healing with your spirit and healing mantra is crucial as well.

I think the passive skills are self-explanatory though I do want to note something about "combination strike". After a couple days of testing with combination strike, i find that it is a skill worth using. AND it is not necessary for one to use 3 primary skills. Pre-(today's)patch, sweeping wind gave the 8% bonus for spirit generating. I believed at first it was when the sweeping wind was at max, but even at the activation of the skill gave the attack bonus(given that I've used my other 2 primary skills within seconds). With this one can get a 24% I use blinding flash.

As far as sweeping winds go, sweeping wind deals extra damage(and looks extra cool) with crit strikes. With the rune, it will give me an extra 3-spirit per second when at max and with high-crit the DPS is high and the charges come fast. One of my biggest DPS for big mobs, as well as super-creep fights. Also, the buff lasts longer then 3 seconds IF you are using a primary skill before the 3 seconds is up. It's not necessary for you to mix in two primaries at this point if you're lazy, just using fist of thunder continually(without resting) will keep the damage boost up indefinitely.

Some useful techniques I've been using for monk**

When fighting super creeps or regular creeps that don't get knocked back by the third strike of fist of thunder, I switch out the third hit for a crippling strike. So in succession it will be left click left click right click, so on and so forth. Diablo3 is made so that it's quite simple to do this. you dont have to actually click each time, you can drag your left click mouse until the 2 hits have gone through and before the third, just tap the right click(all the while your left finger hasn't left the button!). 

This will proxy the damage reduction, ms/as reduction, AND at a faster ate since fist of thunder as a much faster attack speed. It takes an hour or two getting used to but once you start doing so, kiting and killing creeps become ALOT easier. I hope this helps. I decided to make it since D3 is down. Still so for another 26 minutes....

Here are the Diablo III Patch 1.0.2 - v.1.0.2.9749 Notes for May 29, 2012. The patch contains various bug fixes.

Classes

• Monk
  • Active Skills
    • Serenity
      • Skill Rune - Tranquility
        • Duration of immunity granted to nearby allies from crowd control effects reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second

• General
  • Players should no longer receive an "Error 14009" when logging in
  • The "Select a Hero" menu will now also display the difficulty level for each character
  • Several speed improvements have been made to the streaming downloader
• Achievements
  • All players in a party should now receive "Till Death Do Us Part" even if they don’t have Haedrig Eamon as their active follower
• Acts
  • Act IV
    • Witch Doctors should no longer receive an error if they kill a Shadow Clone with a Damage-Over-Time (DoT) skill after it's launched a Firebomb but before it's reached its target
    •  
• Auction House
  • The auction log in the Completed tab will now display a player's activity (bids, buyouts, sales, etc) in the proper order
  • When placing a new bid over a previous bid on the same auction, players will now be provided with the correct warning message: "Raising your maximum bid on an Auction you are already winning raises your current bid to just above your previous maximum bid. Are you sure you want to continue?"
  • Players will now receive an error message if they attempt to purchase an item after the 50 item limit has been reached in the Completed tab
  • The "Physical Damage" Preferred Stats option for rings has been renamed to "Bonus Minimum Physical Damage"
  • The "All Damage" Preferred Stats option for weapons and armor has been removed and replaced with bonuses of specific damage types
  • Items which have been purchased from a vendor and equipped by the player can now be sold on the Auction House
  • Listing items on the Auction House from a different character than the one currently selected should no longer cause item display issues
• Battle.net
  • The public chat list will now sort alphabetically
• Classes
  • Witch Doctor
    • Spirit Vessel (Passive) no longer clears debuffs when using waypoints or changing equipment