Haven't played since first major Patch - need knowledge update

[Moos 6]

Hey,

I was a huge Diablo fan, until the release of DIII. I played DIII for a while after release, but with no viable legendaries, a completely disfunctional economy and no long term goal I ended up selling all my stuff (for ~300€, yay) in the real money AH and quit playing ever since.

The withdrawal symptoms are becoming stronger though and I'm craving for hoarding legendaries once more (I heard there are legendaries in D3 now, right!?).

After all the disappointment I suffered with D3, I will surely not buy any extensions though, so my first question is: Is the game playable and enjoyable without buying extensions?

Also: How is D3 actually played nowadays? In D2 I did Boss runs over-and-over. In D3 I farmed whole acts until defeating certain bosses to farm rares to use or sell on the Real-$-AH. Is farming now the whole deal or do you gain anything from leveling (I heard there is a paragon thing, levels that you gain after reaching max level?). Is there still an AH in the game or do you trade in forums? Is there a cow level?

[Moos 6]

Nostalgia (used this when selling my equipment at time when I quit):

 

[Moos 6]

Oh wow...I just logged in and check the "What's New" screen...so many changes...I felt overwhelmed and logged out again. :-|

Seems like playing without RoS makes no sense, huh?

[Shine 144]

On 1/9/2017 at 8:13 PM, Moos said:

Oh wow...I just logged in and check the "What's New" screen...so many changes...I felt overwhelmed and logged out again. :-|

Seems like playing without RoS makes no sense, huh?

RoS improved the game for the better. If you're into the lore I advise you to do the campaign at least once. the story is very good and it's one of the last things chris metzen worked on before leaving blizzard (if you don't know who chris metzen is, he's the man behind the story for almost all blizzard games. just look him up). Besides the story you will want to start doing rifts and bounties (both available in adventure mode). Level isn't everything, you will want to grind paragon levels (is there even any cap to those?) but most of all you will need sets. If you want to go quickly you're best off just asking for boosts through greater rifts.

I am by no account a very good or experienced player so you may take these words with a grain of salt (I do play it almost solely for the story ^^)

 

Hope this answers some

Shine

[Moos 6]

Thanks mate, I bought RoS yesterday and started a Crusader in Season mode and chose to complete the campaign. I guess I will learn the new stuff while playing, just can't find the real money auctionhouse... xD

I know Chris Metzen and I totally play for the story aswell. :)

[Arkpit 101]

1 hour ago, Moos said:

Thanks mate, I bought RoS yesterday and started a Crusader in Season mode and chose to complete the campaign. I guess I will learn the new stuff while playing.

Welcome back!

You mentioned there were no viable legendaries back when you played and it's basically the opposite in the game today where legendary effects is everything. You play around the legendary effects that you have and  fit it into the sets which you really can't play without (not counting Litany builds).

Sets make such an insane boost to your damage these days you can't play without them at any higher content and even with the sets you are fairly limited in difficulties which is where the legendary effects come in, you need the synergy to get higher up.

Legendary gems are incredibly important as well since for example, "Bane of the Trapped", very popular gem, will increase your damage multiplicative after all calculations so a rank 70 Trapped gem will give all your dmg an additional 35% multiplicative dmg.

Use your new cube, level the legendary gems in Greater Rifts and search for those kickass legendary effects! ;)

[wardal 5]

i personally wouldnt recommend playing without the expansion as the game improved sooo much with it imo. i would recommend doing the main campaign once just to play through it, and then get someone to powerlevel you to 70 (unless u enjoy leveling). the real fun and endless gear grinding starts at 70. in the community window you can search for powerleveling communities and get to 70 in 15 min or level yourself in a few hours if fresh account

 

now there is so much to grind. i hated the game at release and love it now. once u hit 70 u can continue to "level" basically forever (some stats have a cap) with paragon points you can put into bonus stats. most stats cap out at 50 points (1 point per "level") except vitality and your main stat (str, dex, int) which i believe can go on forever

 

you can do adventure mode which is bounties for clearing parts of acts and killing bosses for bonus chests. you can do rifts which are grinding mobs and elities to unlock a boss for loot and keys for greater rifts which are similar with even better loot. along the way you will get blood shards to gamble for loot, most is trash and once in a while you will get a sick piece. there are tons of legendaries and sets of gear which are legendary quality with bonuses for equiping multiple pieces. you can use the cube to upgrade gear and reroll gear, giving you an endless grind to perfect your gear. you can also use the enchanted to transmog your gear or reroll 1 stat on your gear to something else (its random from a small list of avalible choices) 

 

you can also find legendary gems which can be used in jewelry sockets and those gems can also be leveled.

 

i would recommend starting a season character. each season lasts a few months and is a feesh start with new stash and no paragon points (which is no big deal for u). this season just started a week or two ago.

 

if u complete the season objectives you get a full set of gear which is a pretty good start. can only do this once on one char so make sure its one u want to play when u accept the gear. at the end of the season, the characters get converted ton regular characters and you can continue to play them or start over next season 

 

if u want some starter guides and builds and info check out my replies in this post

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2017 by wardal

[Moos 6]

Thanks Arkpit and wadal for your answers. :)

I have already progressed quite a bit now, playing a season wizard (Firebird Archon Setup - following the guide from icy-veins). I cleared GR 50 today and feel I can go even further.

 

I have a few more specific questions now:

1. Can Followers benefit from Set Boni?

2.Can Followers use those legendary item procs that can be cubed? I got this ring which summons a goblin, but my follower doesn't do it..

3. I have more then 1k of the yellow and blue crafting ressource, what can I use them for? Is it worth to craft anything at the blacksmith?

4. What should I farm besides GRs? Bounties or Rifts or both?

 

[wardal 5]

1 and 2 - I don't believe so for either.

3. use them in the cube. you can pull up the recipe page in the cube to see what they are used for. even if you have set pieces and legondaries, you can try to get better rolls and ancients. upgrading a rare to a legendary/set piece is a good sink. using 50 of all 3 crafting resources and 25 death breaths. once you have the piece you want, dont stop trying to get duplicates of that piece, you can always get better rolls... plus if you want to reroll a legendary/set piece for better rolls and a possible ancient in the cube, you dont want to risk it with the piece you are wearing if possible, as you may end up with a downgrade.

4. I would recommend focusing on Greater Rifts... just farm rifts for keys to GR, and farming GR for gear, gems and legendary gems, and upgrading legendary gems... not only will you get dropped gear, but you can gain additional gear by using blood shards for gambling on gear, and use resources to reroll and upgrade gear. I wouldn't bother with bounties unless you need the legandary resources for the cube, or if you are farming a particular legendary that drops from a cache (for example the Ring of Royal Grandeur that drops from act 1 caches that lowers the set pieces required for set bonuses by 1)

Edited January 16, 2017 by wardal

[phreezepeach 3]

On 1/14/2017 at 3:33 PM, Moos said:

2.Can Followers use those legendary item procs that can be cubed? I got this ring which summons a goblin, but my follower doesn't do it..

 

that ring that summons a goblin ... is it a "Puzzle Ring?" .. that ring in particular doesn't work on your followers .. but other rings do.

 

now .. take that puzzle ring and drop it in kanai's kube .. nothing else added, and hit transmute ... enjoy!! ... oh, and wear any gold find equipment you might have before stepping into the portal (without gimping your Wiz)

Edited January 19, 2017 by phreezepeach

[Moos 6]

Thanks guys. I found out about the Puzzle Ring after I already salvaged about 5 of them. xD

[Poppadopey 0]

Hi guys and forgive me if this is not the right place to post this.

My plight is similar to Moos' since I quit playing over a year ago. The 20th anniversary quest brought me back and I realized I had missed playing the game.

It was so long ago, I didn't have Kanai's Cube but I do now.

I picked up my old Monk that is my favorite and noticed he is so outdated equipment wise it isn't funny. I can still do Torment 5 and possibly 6 but am not sure about GRs and how far I can go there. My primary goal right now is to complete a Sunwuko set since I am wearing 3 pieces already.

Any thoughts on the best way to complete that set and what else I should get to supplement it? Not sure this is a valid question but are some places better than others to obtain a specific type of set?

Thanks for any input.

 

[phreezepeach 3]

I believe the current season "gift" set for monk is sunwuko's set ... so ..

... 1) .. create a NEW "seasonal" Monk character ..

... 2) .. complete seasonal content up to chapter 4 .. (you get 2 pcs of set at chapter 2, 3, 4 .. and a 'pet')

... 3) .. when the season ends you get all of that equipment merged back into your non-season stuff, and you can pick which monk you wish to continue with .. or keep them both (one for a different build)

season 9 info ... http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20407576

season 9 tasks ... http://d3resource.com/journey/

 

there are groups and individuals in-game that are willing to help folks complete tasks .. if you're familiar with using chat

 

addendum:

at season end .. your stuff is mailed to you ... look for the envelope in the bottom left corner of the screen .. you have 30 days to claim everything in the mail from the day you first open the envelope .. so, if you keep ancients or alternate equips for other chars you can compare stats and keep the better piece ... all equips that you "extract powers" into kanai's kube will be merged into your non-season kanai listings

the only thing you 'lose' is the XP you gained from level 1-70 .. everything else is transfered .. paragon, gold, equips .. etc

 

you need the Reaper of Souls expansion .. and you need to play in 'adventure' mode .. (do bounties and rifts)

Edited February 5, 2017 by phreezepeach
addendum

[Poppadopey 0]

Thank you Phreeze.

Is seasonal similar to campaign or are they different. I know it is not the same thing just wondering if it is set up the same way as the acts in campaign. I will give it a try.

Again, thanks for the input.

 

[phreezepeach 3]

adventure mode (and seasonal is played in adventure mode) is totally freeform..go where you want // do what you want .. no story mode.  If you want to run a nephalim rift first thing, you can

keep in mind .. if a chapter one task says "complete a Normal difficulty N-Rift" .. and a chapter three task says "complete a Master difficulty N-Rift" .. doing the chapter three task will auto-complete the chapter 1, 2, and 3 tasks for Nephalim Rifts (normal, expert, master) ...

you will be completing higher chapter tasks in the normal course of doing your business, they will be done when you get there

 

[Poppadopey 0]

Great.

I wasn't looking forward to trudging through something like Act2 again.

Once again thanks for you help.