I'm playing my Crusader now, on Expert. I am only at Paragon 85, but I did use my points... Crusader seems great in the early levels.

Maybe the crusaders taper off in power in the 60-70 range, but it seems like a solid class so far (15? Expert level, could probably do Master or possibly Torment really without slowing down a ton).

Also, nerf wizards. j/k. My Barb was lucky to finish Act 5 with 270k dps, my drop luck in D3 continues to be horrible.

Krovven wrote on Mar 26, 2014, 05:56:
So right after making my last post I logged in and played. Still on Torment 1, and was going through the area after Blood Marshes...up to the Ram. I first got a Rare 2h that was about 2500dps with 1000+ Int, no socket. Was an upgrade over my lvl 60 offhand and 1600dps wand with socket. Not long after I got a M...Reaver 2h axe, no socket that was 2600+ dps, with int and vit. I used that and 10min later I got a Scourge 2h sword, 2600+ dps, lots of int, has socket, 3000+ life on hit and an effect of 20% chance to trigger a demonic rage. Freaking sweet weapon. The thing explodes with this awesome green effect constantly annihilating everything within about 5-10 yards.

Wow -- RNG is being much kinder to you than it is to me. So far the only Legendaries I have found were not upgrades -- only one weapon, which was only a minor dps upgrade, but since mine has a nice proc, I haven't replaced it.

The expansion does seem significantly tougher than the game was previously. I started the expansion with my Wizard at T1, an hour in I shifted down to Master -- at the first "major" boss after 3 failed attempts, I shifted down to Expert.

One clear problem -- Phantasms are clearly busted. I'm glad I was not playing Hardcore. They sometimes have some kind of life steal skill which takes 20% health at range and apparently does not have a cooldown. I was killed by them several times before I even knew what was doing it. Blizzard has already said they need to be adjusted but it will take a patch apparently.

However, that aside -- I have really been enjoying the game and I'm looking forward to starting a Crusader once I've finished Act V for the first time.

So right after making my last post I logged in and played. Still on Torment 1, and was going through the area after Blood Marshes...up to the Ram. I first got a Rare 2h that was about 2500dps with 1000+ Int, no socket. Was an upgrade over my lvl 60 offhand and 1600dps wand with socket. Not long after I got a M...Reaver 2h axe, no socket that was 2600+ dps, with int and vit. I used that and 10min later I got a Scourge 2h sword, 2600+ dps, lots of int, has socket, 3000+ life on hit and an effect of 20% chance to trigger a demonic rage. Freaking sweet weapon. The thing explodes with this awesome green effect constantly anhilatating everything within about 5-10 yards.

Upgraded my Bracer with a rare, upgraded my belt with a new legendary (dps loss, but was huge toughness increase). Think I upgraded my shoulders with a rare too...now I have 600+ dps, forget latest # as I upgraded a few gems right before logging out, and about 3.5 mil toughness.

Good times. Hopefully will have time to finish Act V to
tomorrow.

Krovven wrote on Mar 26, 2014, 01:11:
I hit lvl 70 this afternoon in Path of the Drowned (Blood Marshes) and still playing Torment 1 as a Wiz. I'll keep it on T1 until I simply can't progress without dying repeatedly. It's only been mini-bosses giving me a tough time. Elites/Champs and Rare mobs have not been an issue.

I gave up Torment 1 at the second or third miniboss, then dropped from Master down to Expert at the somewhat interesting miniboss(close quarters!) and finished the game at Expert. My gear did get better though, I was just doing Adventure Mode on Master and one shotting people (Barbarian still), so it may be time to bump it back up to Torment 1. Game just crashed to desktop from a Rift.

Solo, level 70, Torment 1, mini-boss hp: 545million, I was unable to dodge long enough to kill her. Defeated.

I hit lvl 70 this afternoon in Path of the Drowned (Blood Marshes) and still playing Torment 1 as a Wiz. I'll keep it on T1 until I simply can't progress without dying repeatedly. It's only been mini-bosses giving me a tough time. Elites/Champs and Rare mobs have not been an issue.

MoreLuckThanSkill I think everyone feels weak right now. Nobody in my guild is playing on Torment below 70. One of my friends was wiping the floor in Torment 5 and even he is playing Expert lol.

I for one am happy to see the difficulty. We all know D3 was super easy until it go so hard you couldn't possibly play it until you spent a quarter billion gold (or $) on the AH. I relish the challenge and look forward to when it takes a great set of gear (that I found myself), a solid build and intimate knowledge of my class to be able to handle Torment 6 again.

I haven't had any real issues with the servers so far, just a little bit of lag here and there that's probably on my isp's end.

However, the HP scaling in Torment 1+ seems to be completely insane. Torment 1, fighting a certain miniboss, my Barbarian was level 65 at the time, and the boss had over 330million hp, according to the health bar readout. That fight easily took 15 minutes on my admittedly lower-end dps barb( about 150k at that time, bad luck finding weapons).

Also, Act 5 seems to be AoE or go home. Every other creature spawns 4-10 of smaller creatures, and there are a few chain spawner scenarios where you can end up with dozens of trash mobs running around, soaking up damage. On the plus side I do see a couple exp farming strategies in the future, when you have some decent gear.

Got to level 69 before I had to take a break and go get some exercise and dinner, DPS is up to around 260k now with 2 socketed 1handers(rares, no good legendaries yet). My drop luck seems to be even worse than 1.08 so far.

Easily the most dangerous affix seems to be those homing Ice shards, that not only start doing damage instantly when you are in the radius, but they also slow then freeze you even as you start running. Those + vortex + waller or jailer = usually a death for my Barb, even with 280k hp, 800 all res, 78% armor reduction. Not sure if the damage portion of the ice is bugged or what, but it's way higher than the poison/fire damage affixes by far.

The maps so far have been pretty good, packed with creatures once you get past the very first act 5 zone. There seems to be a lot of side areas/mini-quests available too, I've been going for a complete clear of Act 5, but you can definitely speed through to the mini-bosses/boss if you wanted to.

Barbarian definitely feels weaker in the expansion than vanilla D3, but that's partially due to my generally shitty equipment as I level. Avalanche is beastly though.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 11:34:
How come no one is talking about how flawless this was?

I would have thought the complete lack of complaint is the most glowing recommendation the game can have around here... =)

Verno wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 10:46:

Pigeon wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 10:35:
I'm going to wait on grabbing this, having fun leveling paragon and grabbing loot atm. It's shocking, I kill things and loot drops that I actually have to think about as a viable replacement to current gear. Also changed up to an Archon/Beam of doom build and finding killing things much easier.

Yeah same here, gonna wait and see how people feel after the honeymoon period is over. I like the changes they made in 2.0 but a few of the reviews I read this morning said that Adventure mode is kind of a letdown compared to rifts. I hear a lot of mixed stuff about the Crusader too. Hopefully some owners can weigh in on these things.

Taking a break after playing all day. I have the Crusader at Lv 54 right now. I like the Crusader, and its a great support class. but its not an overly powerful class either. But this might be because we are playing on Torment lv 1 so everything is pretty tough and another reason why we have leveled up so quickly.

The Crusader has been fun so far, he has some really nice abilities. Again, this char is a support class for the other classes. Something that the Paladin has always been in the past.

Since we started we have had a combined 11 Legendries drop. all of which have been upgrades for us. I'm playing with one other person also leveling up a Crusader.

I think you guys will like the Crusader, I've been enjoying him a lot.

My brother just finished the game about an hour ago. He played his Wiz and it took them about 7 hours to finish the Add-on. He said some of the regular mobs on Torment lv 1 were very tough.

The last Boss drop 2 legendries guaranteed, one an item, the other a plan.

If you guys have an specific question, ask away. I'm on line to and in Blues News Group. so you can find me there too.

Hope that helps you guys.

I wonder what is the purpose of the DVD delivered with this expansion. Its contents are identical to the original Diablo III DVD. All new content has already been delivered by installing the patch.

One thing I have to give Diablo, is I still like the flavour of the game best of any ARPG. Games like Torchlight are too stylized for my tastes, and something is just missing in games like Van Helsing.

NegaDeath wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 15:03:
Ohhhhh Yeaaaaah!

Btw I think someone mentioned there was a Blues Diablo3 group. If an admin sees this might a lowly level 30 newb partake?
ColKlink#1186

Added you, I will help ya out. Krovven runs a group that a lot of us are on.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 11:34:
How come no one is talking about how flawless this was?

It should have been. This is like their 4th try at getting this game right. It's been out for a few coon's ages now. Oh yes, impressed.

Btw for those that haven't gotten to it yet, Spoilers: the templars quest is full on ass-raping on T1-3. At the start it's 8-10:3, with each guy hitting for 20-45k/pop. In the second phase it's the same thing except they can crit for 150k, and the inquisitor can crit for 450k. Also the "king" event, is along the same lines. At each 1/4 or 1/3 he'll get an invulnerability shield. But even if you kill all his minions they'll just keep respawning during the entire event. They'll hit for 10-20k/pop.

Ohhhhh Yeaaaaah!

Btw I think someone mentioned there was a Blues Diablo3 group. If an admin sees this might a lowly level 30 newb partake?
ColKlink#1186

Logged on when I got home from work, a couple hours after launch and had no queue or lag issues.

Started up Act V campaign on Torment 3, a friend joined and we did up to the Cemetery before he had to log. The mini-bosses dps output is insane compared to everything else. We had zero problem with trash and elites, then got destroyed many times over by Drygha. We dropped to T2 and finished him off. Once I was playing solo, again having no probs with trash and elites, then the next mini-boss (similar to Drygha) was a PITA again. Now down to T1, I did Lord Wyndmere (sp?) (forget his name) and that was another bullshit fight with respawning trash mobs, 2 mages channeling a shield on the Lord (that respawn) and the Lord would 1 or 2 shot me. I moved on and cleared to Urzael and he was easy compared to the mini-bosses. I was barely hit and never died, killed first try easily.

Methinks some balancing issues need to be taken care of.

Overall, loving the new act and the follower side quests and all the events that were in Westmarch. Wrapped up before starting Blood Marshes and I was lvl 68 already.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 11:34:
How come no one is talking about how flawless this was?

Going by the official forums it wasn't flawless but regardless it's an expansion launch by a big company so it should just sort of be assumed that they can do it properly. Conditioning from previous poor launches and companies like EA has established a poor norm.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Mar 25, 2014, 11:34:
How come no one is talking about how flawless this was?

Because thats how its supposed to be??

I was impressed by that -- in the game, and then without a hitch or burp or having to log out and back in I'm able to start Act V. Was very well done.