Patch 1.0.3

Well patch 1.0.3 for Diablo 3 is up. There are a lot of changes here and there and I have a mixed feeling about this update. Basically this is a short summary of the patch and my personal thumbs up or thumbs down with regards to the changes.


+ crafting costs reduced (this actually made crafting weapons/armors slightly viable rather than just a forgotten aspect of the game)
+/- monster damage reduction (well I don't really have any problems here since I am able to survive inferno but for everyone out there having a hard time, this is just good for everyone but it also screws the challenge that inferno brings)
+monster damage would not scale when in a party (this would probably be helpful for melee classes, as ranged classes would not mind the damage if they cannot be attacked)
- attack speed nerf (though I don't really use attack speed items that much for my character, I think this would be bad for other classes)
- no more items from vases, destructible objects and such (this is probably to prevent all those vase and chest farmers and frankly I'm  quite disappointed in this. Even in Diablo 2, everyone with just a bit of a small luck can come across a legendary item dropped from an urn or vase and that was just the epic moment of joy)
- repair costs (seriously ridiculous especially if the player dies quite a lot which happens when they overextend in places where they are undergeared)

(edit, I realized that I have never  published this at the time of patch 1.0.3 release, lol)

Diablo 3 Wizard Inferno skill build

Since I rolled my first class as a Wizard, things have been great even in inferno mode. Some skills that were hotfixed here and there (force armor) kinda slowed my pace in inferno since I had to fix my gear and stats in order to cope with the changes. As such, I barely had the time to make wizard inferno skill build. But things have been stable as of late and now I can give it out for all wizards who are having a hard time in inferno. Perhaps the build I will post might be overused and overheard already but nonetheless here is the skill build that I use.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#ZlXROQ!dWX!bbabYY

Basically as a wizard in inferno, without twinked gear from the AH, blizzard and venom hydra would be the way to go. As stated in numerous posts in forums, they are pretty much the best skill choices if the wizard does not have a very big amount of damage or health pool and high resistances. In the build that I use, I have two defensive skills which are generally all purpose so most if not all of the monsters in the game would have a little rougher time trying to get the wizard killed. Basically I have diamond skin with crystal shell rune as the lifesaver skill when the teleport skill is on cooldown or when the character actually gets stucked (yes that happens quite a lot with those waller + desecrator  monsters and damage over time does not trigger teleport to be instantly be on cooldown). Most of the time, if the wizard gets hit, the cooldown of teleport will be reset thanks to illusionist passive  and hopefully the player has enough arcane power to teleport away. As such the teleport skill with fracture rune will basically be the bread and butter escape skill. Some may have noticed that I took the fracture rune despite the decoys having little effect on the monster AI. True enough though, most monsters just ignore the decoy and still chase the player but these decoys provide a little collision area for the monsters to slow them down and the chance of them being attacked instead of the real player, that alone makes it quite okay to use. If fracture rune is not to your liking, it would be okay to replace it with other runes as it is the teleport that you really want and the rune is like icing on the cake. For another skill slot, I have energy armor with force armor rune (even after the nerf). Force armor is still a beast even after the nerf, the wizard just now needs to have a bit of health pool to make force armor work. Now for the primary left click skill, I took ray of frost as a personal preference. Most of the time, I just use blizzard and venom hydra to clear normal monsters, but some tough monsters like those mallet lords, fallen overseers and the like tend to survive, so an additional damage over time would bring them down before they get a chance to get close to me. Clearly some may prefer other skills such as magic missile with seeker rune and that would be really up to the player, but I suggest trying out ray of frost as it has worked out for me with no big issues on resource management. For the passive skills, I have illusionist which would help cope with the long cooldown of teleport (to reset it when needed, this has probably saved me millions of times), cold blooded over glass cannon for two reasons, one is that I have two cold spells in my arsenal (blizzard and ray of frost), two is that sometimes that extra 10% damage taken would be bad for a wizard without good gears but if you plan to change ray of frost for the primary left click skill, I would probably take glass cannon instead of cold blooded. For the last passive I have astral presence for resource regen and better management.

The general playstyle of this wizard build is kiting. It would be quite impossible if the wizard would not kite, unless you have about 100,000 DPS and 1000 all resist in which case the player need not read this as he would not have any troubles with playing inferno mode except maybe those soul lashers in act 3 or charging monsters in act 4.  If there are any questions regarding kiting, I have a previous article which covers it here on my blog.

That's all for the skill build, and hopefully it has helped you out in inferno mode and keep playing Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 Inferno Equipment Check

Playing in Diablo 3 inferno mode can be a quite a challenge and possibly frustrating. However, as a rule of a thumb, the difficulty and frustration levels increase drastically when the player progresses too far while being underequipped. It is important for players to stop and farm a bit more gold or items in order to equip themselves better to prepare them for the next act or arc of the act. Here are five essentials that players need to consider in their equipment especially when they are playing in inferno:

1) Weapon Damage / DPS

Without a decent and hefty damage, players would probably struggle here and there. Killing mobs or elites would be a pain if they take around thirty minutes to kill rather than just five. The longer the battle drags on, the more chances the player makes a mistake and eventually leads to his/her demise.  

2) Vitality

More vitality means more hitpoints. As the game suggests, lose all of it and the player is dead. In inferno, a vast majority of monsters deal very strong damage, without decent vitality (i.e. 20k~30k hitpoints for ranged or  40k~60k for melee) the player would get one-shotted by these monsters. Aside from vitality, the player should have some form of resistance in order to fully negate being one-shotted (discussed in #3).

3) All Resistance

The all resistance stat is pretty much one of the most important stats to have on armors in addition to vitality as they improve not only the player’s resistance to elements but also physical resistance. Having a tremendous amount of vitality without resistance would simply be a waste as the damage the monsters deal increase exponentially through acts.

4) Armor

This is one of the seriously underestimated stats in the game that actually helps quite a lot in inferno. Increasing the armor of the player would reduce damages coming from all sources. In reality, I personally believe it would be impossible to dodge all attacks even with a ranged class, hence increasing armor would be the next best thing to all resistance and vitality.

5) Critical Hit Chance

Increasing critical hit chances enable the player to deal burst damage to monsters which usually helps during elites, act bosses or that significantly annoying room with 99999 monsters. Though critical hits are chance based, increasing the chances would significantly boost damage output which makes killing monsters easier.

 There are other notable stats for equipment that can be valuable such as movespeed, resource regeneration, increased max resource, and the like which I did not really include as this is a general equipment check in inferno.

General Tips for harder difficulties part 2

If you are having a hard time in Diablo 3 past normal mode, here are some tips that you can follow:

1) Try playing in a party

Despite increasing the damage, and health of monsters, playing in a party has a lot of benefits. In a party, I find it easier to play through the levels and somehow manage to survive longer or not even die at all. This is probably because of the skills of each class working together bringing down tough elite packs instead of the usual kiting or running and dying when skills are all on cooldown. In addition, playing in a party allows players to resurrect each other hence giving another chance for all those mistakes, misclicks or just plain bad luck that could happen versus act bosses such as Belial in hell and inferno.

2) Repeat farming areas that are easy to do

If the player is having a hard time progressing especially in inferno, it is best to farm on the easier places to gear up and get more gold. For example, inferno act 2 is way more difficult than inferno act 1, so it might be a good idea to run a few skeleton kings rather than trying to progress to act 2 where all of the monsters simply hurt the player a lot and take a lot of time killing. This is a Diablo game, so much of the end game content revolves around farming for good items and perhaps PVP when it is implemented.

3) Skip monsters or elites that are very difficult to kill (in time the player will have his/her revenge)

People say that experience is the best teacher, and true enough I have had quite a lot of crazy elite fights that feel next to impossible to do. For instance, I have faced a bat boss with molten, plagued, vortex, invulnerable minions, horde. They were literally all over the place; it became next to impossible to target the main elite while trying to avoid lava trails and poison pools and getting sucked right next to them. I do like a challenge and so after more than 10 deaths, the boss finally died. However, I believe this is cost ineffective as the time it took me to kill the boss and the gold lost due to repairs compared to the mediocre loot that the boss dropped was totally not worth it. The only saving grace was the fact that I have beaten a crazy ass boss, and that is all. If the player has unlimited supply of gold, then by all means go ahead, but for everyone else, it would be best to skip them or try to run past them, if not just reset the game. I believe once the player has better or top of the line gear, then they could possibly beat all these near impossible combinations without much struggle.

4) Be wary of the surroundings

In Diablo 3, there are a lot of traps and nasty surprises that await the player at every corner. It is best for the player to slowly proceed through the map or move carefully rather than running at full speed and recklessly setting off traps or luring more unseen monsters like burrowing leapers or imps. Believe me, nothing is more annoying than dying to a nasty trap or environmental trap such as the slime spewer found in act 2 caves. I probably have died countless number of times to that in inferno where it usually 1-hit kills my wizard.

5) Save up on gold

Sometimes players tend to forget their gold is limited. They tend to splurge over items that are not really too important or buying a lot of crafting materials that they do not even need yet. Surely, it would not be a bad idea if the player has a lot of gold but more often than not, they do not. Always remember to have spare gold for repairs, crafting, removal of gems or that great deal that can be found at the auction house (I actually found quite a lot of great items at the auction house, but I could not afford it as their prices were around 200,000 and above but very cheap for their worth).

Thanks for spending time to read this post and have fun playing Diablo 3.

General Tips for harder difficulties

As Blizzard have said, the real game or Diablo 3 experience starts to begin on the higher difficulties after normal mode. In line with it, here are some general tips to follow:

1) Do not rush in the act (unless the player is already level 60 or have a plan like Azmodan farming*)

After completing normal mode, many players just tend to go berserk and rush into everything as they think their new goal is to reach inferno as fast as possible. As such, they all try to skip enemies, run through the act without really killing anything. Rushing through an act lets players lose a handful of experience, gold, possibly good items and achievements. I believe it would be in the players' best interest to hit level 60 faster for unlocking all skills and passives, have more gold and items rather than not.

2) Check each champion/elite monster group's abilities before engaging them

Players should be more cautious in higher difficulties when engaging champion and elite monster groups. They are now a significant threat rather than just another easy kill found in the dungeon or map. Often times I see players just rolling through the dungeon and not being cautious of the elite attributes and suddenly they die because they failed to check that the champion pack was vortex, waller, plagued, and frozen. Dying sets the players back with gold and time, and I can testify that everyone will spend a lot of their gold and time dying in inferno difficulty.

3) Increase the levels of the jeweler and blacksmith artisans

This is a good investment for higher difficulties as most of the gems and equipment that the player would have will come here. There is really no disadvantage of leveling these artisans other than losing gold and some pages, tomes (used for higher artisan levels) which are all easily obtainable again. As an additional note, I believe all characters of the same type (hardcore or softcore) made in an account share the same blacksmith and jeweler levels so it is kind of like a one time investment.

4) Use the auction house

This is probably one of the best tips I can give for players who are already at the higher difficulties. Using the auction house allows the players to get more items for themselves, find good bargains, and sell their unwanted items for more gold. All it takes is just to familiarize themselves with how the auction house works and spend a little time in the auction house.

5) Strike a balance between defensive and offensive skills

I cannot really give everyone the best skill build for each class as there are numerous viable builds in higher difficulties. Striking a balance between offensive an defensive skills would be the best way to go for higher difficulties as it allows the players to survive and do good damage output as well. It would be best for the players to find out what builds they like and how they plan to mix and match skills.

*azmodan farming is running azmodan and going to act 4 in nightmare difficulty and resetting that quest again and again as it provides a good amount of experience.

These are all the tips for now. I will continue these general tips in another post. Readers and viewers can submit their tips also at the comments below. Have fun playing Diablo 3.

Kiting 101

No matter how much hitpoints you have or high damage you do, I believe that kiting monsters especially champion packs become an invaluable skill to be learned by ranged classes. If you don’t have the slightest idea of what I’m talking about, then reading this post will give you the answer.

Kiting is basically a hit-and-run technique used by players who are more often than not ranged classes. One basically hits the monster once, maybe twice or as many times so long as the monster is still at a distance. When the monster starts closing the gap between it and the player, the player simply walks away again and repeats the process. The advantage of using this technique against champion mobs is that it allows the ranged character class to minimize the damage the champion mobs and minions to do them while still dealing damage and eventually killing the whole monster group without really taking lethal hits or deaths.

In Diablo 3, all monsters can be kited (yes even ranged monsters can be although it would be more challenging since you need to dodge projectiles while kiting). As such it is advantageous for ranged classes especially those who are in higher difficulties (nightmare, hell, inferno) to learn kiting as they naturally have lower survivability in terms of total hitpoints and armor.

In order to kite successfully, there are five things that you would probably want to consider or need in the battle against the hordes of monsters from the burning hells.

 1 – Movement impairing ability (i.e. traps for demon hunters)

Movement impairing abilities can help ranged classes kite easier because the slower the enemy moves; the easier it is to hit and run away from them. This is especially true for mobs that don’t have the fast affix. 

2 – Distance widening ability (i.e. teleport for wizards)

Distance widening abilities can make kiting more successful as they instantly widen the gap between the monsters and the ranged class, as such when something goes wrong (even internet connection issues), the player can still kite like a boss. Combining distance widening abilities and movement impairing abilities will make kiting definitely easy for newbies and veterans a like.

3 – Movement speed increase from equipment or skills (i.e. spirit walk for witch doctors)

If the player moves faster than the enemy, hit and running would be easier.

4 – Obstacles (i.e. rock formations)

If the player is kiting monsters especially those that move quite fast, finding obstacles would allow the ranged classes to temporarily slow the enemy for a second or so and this is all the time you need to run farther. Since monsters generally chase you in a straight line, having obstacles breaks this pathing hence making them a bit slow. Sometimes going around obstacles again and again would help against fast monsters. Take a little care and caution when using obstacles in kiting as they can potentially work against the player too.

5 – Awareness (i.e. kiting monsters to “safe” places)

Having awareness is important when kiting as the player does not want to go in bad places such as dead ends or areas that are not yet explored. Getting stuck in a corner or drawing more monster aggression to the player while kiting will more or less make matters worse for the player and could ultimately lead to their deaths. 

Note that the first four things can be optional to some, but for many if not all, it would be a requirement to kite easier, safer and more successfully. Do share other tips with regards to kiting in the comments below. Have fun and happy kiting.

General Tips for dealing with Monster Affixes

In this post, I will try to give out few general tips that players can try when fighting with monsters with certain affixes. These tips can easily help those that are having problems in higher difficulties as monsters spawn with multiple affixes.

Arcane Enchanted – One of the easiest ways to defeat these kinds of monsters is to simply lure them away from their sentries. Once they place their sentries, the player can simply move a bit out of range of the rotating sentries and you can continue to attack them. Without their sentries, they are simply monsters with more arcane resistance and damage. It is also important to consider that some obstacles such as rock formations block the rotating beams completely. It could be advantageous for the player to use these obstacles so that you do not need to run away from the sentries frequently.

Avenger – For those that are having trouble dealing with avenger type monsters, I suggest lowering all of the monsters hitpoints down to a very low amount before finishing them off. As such, their increased damage after one of the monsters died will only last for a very short while.

Desecrator – Quite similar to arcane enchanted monsters, desecrator types of monsters only become difficult if the player does not move around. Once they have casted their reddish void, the player can simply move to another spot without it and continue fighting. A thing to note though is that the void takes around 1 or 2 seconds before the player starts taking damage.

Electrified – This type of monster affix  back in Diablo 2 was a bane to all classes both ranged and melee alike, but in Diablo 3, the bolts move quite a bit slower and can easily be dodged from a safe distance. As for melee classes, there is not anything much that the player can do but to absorb some of the bolts and maybe use a potion or two in between fighting. I believe all classes have some form of damage mitigating skill and it would be best to use it against electrified monsters so the player does not really need to mind all of the charged bolts that get discharged. Having a higher lightning resistance will also prove useful in dealing with these monsters.

Extra Health – These monsters are not really a problem, but they can start getting frustrating with other affixes the monsters can spawn with (i.e. extra health, shielding). As such, two easy ways in dealing with these types of monsters would be dealing more damage with skills or equipment and moving to a safe distance in order to wait for skill cooldowns. There is no shame in running away from the monster for a short time in order to wait for the cooldown of skills, I believe all classes would require such a tactic especially on higher difficulties as the monsters start to become tougher.   

Fast – These monsters are a bane to ranged classes as they render the ability of ranged classes to kite useless unless they are naturally a slow moving monster (i.e. mallet lord, zombies). The best way to deal with these kinds of monsters would be to stun them and do enough damage to them while they are stunned. If the player does not have stun skills, the next best thing to do is to use the environment to your advantage. For example, the player can simply lead these fast monsters to a narrow doorway and stop in front of it thereby only allowing one or two of the monsters to attack at the same time.

Fire Chains – Fire chained monsters start to get frustrating when pair with the fast affix. I believe all classes who get tagged by the fire chains will suffer severe damage over time in the span of seconds. It would be best to try and disable one of the monsters or kill one of them in order to reduce the effectiveness of the fire chains. After killing all but one of the monsters with fire chains, the affix becomes useless.

Frozen – Having an escape skill or an invulnerability skill is a very handy way to deal with monsters that spawn with frozen affix as it simply allows the player to avoid getting frozen and damaged by the orbs that explode. If the player does not have an escape skill, it is important to note that the orbs explode at around 3 seconds from the time they were placed and they have a radius of around 10 yards. In addition, some skills such as the Wizard’s diamond skin will prevent damage from these orbs but will not prevent the player from being frozen.

Health Link – Since monsters with health link share the damage dealt to one monster to the others, it is best to focus all of the attacks on one of the monsters. Usually when done right, all of them will die once the player defeats one of the monsters with health link.  

Horde – When dealing with this affix, the player should be aware of where he/she is going as to avoid getting trapped by these monsters or stuck in a bad position. The player can also use obstacles like the doorways to try and reduce the number of monsters that can attack them simultaneously.

Illusionist – Dealing with illusionists can be a pain at times, the only best way to deal with them is to use a good crowd control skill or some forms of attacks that can hit multiple targets. If that is not an option, obstacles and narrow pathways will greatly decrease the damage the player takes from the illusions. I believe the illusions are unable to use other skills such as fire chains, molten and plague which could make it easy for players to pick off the real one unless they do not spawn with other affixes.

Invulnerable Minions – There is only one way to defeat these kinds of monsters and that is to kill their leader swiftly. As many may have mentioned, it is best to skip such monsters as the time it takes to defeat this group and the amount of gold lost due to player deaths is not worth it. Alternatively, when playing in a party, it is possible for someone to lure away the invulnerable minions while the other players defeat the leader. I have done this quite a lot of times in inferno along with my friends where I took the bait and they continued to defeat the leader.

Jailer – When facing monsters with jailer affix, it would be best for players to have damage mitigation skills or escape skills. This would act like the player’s “get out of jail card” in case things do not turn out as expected. It would also be helpful to equip certain items with the ability to reduce controlling effects would decrease the time getting jailed.

Knockback – When dealing with monsters with knockback affix, the players should be wary of where their backs are facing. This is to avoid getting knocked into corners where the monsters can permanently get the player stuck with their attacks. It is important to note that the knockback effect pushes the players and leaves a 2 second slow after the player has been knocked backwards. Some skills such as the Witch Doctor’s spirit walk will remove this slow effect after being knocked back.

Missile Dampening – Monsters with missile dampening affix are not really a threat to melee classes however, a lot of the ranged attacks have missiles and as such they are severely hindered by this ability. One way of beat this monster is to try and get near it as such, the missile projectile of the ranged attacks travel a short distance, thereby hitting the monster. However, in cases where the player cannot get near the monster as it would prove to be dangerous, certain spells or attacks which can track or home in to the enemy can be used in order to hit the monster with ease.  

Molten – When dealing with monsters with molten affix, avoid stepping on the lava trails that they leave. In higher difficulties, these lava pools will drain the player’s hitpoints very fast. It would be best to keep the monsters still for some time in order to give time for the lava trails to disappear or run around in big circles (especially useful when kiting). Finally, always remember that these monsters will leave a timed explosion when they die and often times these explosions would be lethal especially in inferno.

Mortar - Monsters with mortar affix are generally long ranged grenadiers and each mortar bomb deals quite a lot of damage if they manage to hit the player. These mortar bombs have a minimum range hence staying near the monsters would allow the player to avoid all of these mortar bombs. However, it is also viable for ranged class players to stay away from the bomb’s maximum range especially if the monster moves slowly. Note that some forms of obstacles may block mortar attacks like solid walls and this would be advantageous to use if applicable.

Nightmarish – Quite similar to knockback, player should be wary of their backs. Players should make sure that there are no potential hazards behind them such as environmental traps, arcane sentries, poison pools etc… A player can also reduce the amount of time getting feared with equipment that can reduce controlling effects. Lastly, it would be important to note that the player is unable to cast skills when they are feared.

Plagued – Monsters with plagued affix are particularly dangerous towards melee classes as they lay poison pools on the spot where the monster is standing from time to time. When facing plagued monsters, always be wary of their actions as it will indicate whether or not they will place poison pools. Usually when the monster stops for a second, it is the signal that they will place poison pools. Hopefully this will be enough time for the player to move out of the way. Note that more often than not, it would be best to lure plagued monsters to more open fields when the situation allows it so that their poison pools would not be in the way.

  

Reflect Damage – When facing reflect damage monsters, there is little that the player can do as all skills both physical and magical are reflected. A good way to counter the damage reflected is to have a good amount of life regeneration from equipment. Without good life regeneration from equipment, a damage absorbing skill or potions would be the next best thing to use.

Shielding – These types of monsters can be quite bothersome to deal with as their shields grant them immunity to damage for a few seconds. The best way to beat them is to move away when they start shielding up and start attacking them again when the shield is dispersed. I believe some skills with snare can bypass shield slowing down the monsters for a short time but will not do damage. Increasing the player’s damage output can ensure that battles with shielding monsters do not drag out too long.

Teleporter –  Monsters with teleporter affix can be quite a nasty surprise on players who are trying to run away. There is little that can be done to stop monsters from teleporting but perhaps slowing them down would decrease their attack speed and will likely not land an attack once they teleport right beside the player.  

Waller – When facing waller types of monsters, there are quite a lot of things that could happen and most of them are not ranged class friendly. The first scenario would be that the player gets stuck or blocked with walls with nowhere to escape. If the player gets stuck or blocked with walls, having an escape skill or a damage mitigating skill ready will help this would probably be the best time to use them. The second possible scenario is that the monster gets blocked by its own walls. As such, the player just needs to wait for the walls to crumble and attack the monster again. Finally the last scenario is that the player gets blocked with walls but there are holes or places where the player can move out to. It would advantageous for ranged classes to exit the walls by running out of it instead of using their escape skills like the Wizard’s teleport. It is important to remember that the earthen walls made by monsters with the waller affix can block most ranged attacks. However, area of effect attacks will still hit the monsters even if they block themselves with walls.

Vampiric – Increasing the player’s damage or armor rating will be the best way to deal with vampiric monsters. Having more damage would allow the player to quickly finish the battle ensuring that vampiric monsters do not gain a lot of life. Alternatively having more armor decreases the damage the monsters will do which also reduces life they gain from attacking the player.  

Vortex  - Monsters that spawn with vortex affix can be a nightmare to ranged classes as most ranged classes do not want to get near or right beside monsters. One of the most effective ways that the player can do to defeat vortex monsters is to use the environment. Often times, vortex does not completely suck the player in if there is a wall, obstacle or some form of doodad in between the player and the monster. The player can also use the corners of an intersection to stop the monster from pulling the player in completely.  If none of these are available, try to lead monsters into less open areas as vortex works well when there are no obstacles.

I believe there are other tips that players can use out there that I have failed to list down, feel free to place them in the comments below.