Diablo III Options

[Crushinator]

I was suprised we don't have a thread for this yet, but I guess since blizzard is so stingy with the news its not unexpected.

Anyways, straight outta GamesCom we have details on the crafting system!



Looks fast, slick, and unobtrusive. I love how you can break down the "big loot" into crafting shit so you don't have to TP to town constantly to sell big things like armor.

Update with some details on the caravan:

Diablo III Caravan FAQ
Q: What is the caravan?
A: The caravan is a persistent group that follows the heroes across Sanctuary, providing a centralized hub for players to find quest givers, crafters, and other important NPCs. As your character moves through the world so too will your loyal band, setting up in specific locations to remain close by should you need them.

Q: Who are the artisans?
A: In order to access the professions in Diablo III, you’ll need to gain the loyalty of various artisans through your travels in Sanctuary. The blacksmith, mystic, and jeweler will each provide unique services over the course of the game.

Q: What do the artisans offer?
A: Skilling up your artisans will unlock unique recipes, granting your character access to benefits that may not be found anywhere else in the world. The blacksmith crafts weapons and armor, and can add sockets to some items. The mystic creates scrolls, potions, magical weapons, spell runes, and charms, and can also enchant items. The jeweler crafts gems , amulets, and rings. The jeweler can also remove gems from socketed items and can combine gems to improve their quality.

Q: How do I find the artisans?
A: Finding the artisans will be part of the main quest. Each artisan has been fleshed out to include their own story and quest line.

Q: How do I use the artisans?
A: You’ll collect loot as a reward for slaughtering the forces of the Burning Hells. Unwanted items can be salvaged in your inventory, converting these goods into raw crafting materials—higher-level items are salvaged into higher-level materials. You’ll then take those raw materials and hand them over to the artisans, putting them to work crafting or enchanting for you. Upon returning to the caravan after a lengthy foray, you may also find that the artisans have been hard at work plying their trade for your benefit.

Q: How do I salvage my items?
A: Players will find an item while progressing through the main quest that will allow them to convert unwanted gear into crafting materials from the inventory. This item will not take up any inventory space. This should be a more satisfying option for offloading unwanted loot than the alternative—dropping things on the ground or making frequent trips to a vendor.

Q: Why are you including crafting professions in an action game?
A: Professions add depth to the item collection gameplay that drives the action of Diablo III. We want to provide players with an alternative way to acquire gear, potions, and other randomly found items. We also want to provide additional forms of customization for players—adding jewels, enchants, or sockets to existing gear allows players to further tailor their characters. Many rare crafting recipes and materials are only found as world drops, enhancing the item acquisition process by increasing the diversity of items dropped by monsters.

[Scan_Man]

So what do I think about Inferno so far?

First off, if one can beat ACTS III and IV Hell, one can beat ACT I Inferno with some persistence. ACT I is very tough, but with some time investment it's easy to get on farm.

I know a couple people who are where I am at in Inferno, but cleared ACT I Inferno a week before me. I have discussed Inferno with them and read on some forums about what others are thinking. Me and others tend to agree Inferno ACT I and II sucks; but for different reasons.

ACT I Inferno is a nice challenge and you feel accomplished when you finally beat the Butcher (you have 3 minutes to beat him before he enrages). The Butcher is not hard, just can't make mistakes on the first attempt because DPS will be barely there, or one may make mistakes like getting chained.

Now the reason why ACT I Inferno sucks is the loot table is too wide and level 60 ACT I items are underpowered. Like drops from late Nightmare (level 48-49), but the majority is early Hell to late Hell (51-59). Nothing wrong with that in a random loot system on its own, but in combination with the latter it is.

It becomes problematic when the average rare level 60 items does not have the stat budget to fulfill the requirements to get you through ACT II if you roll the stats you need. One needs an insane amount resistance on gear and a ton of HP and hope it does not gimp your DPS. Even with perfect all resist, on the 11 pieces that can have it, from ACT I inferno gear, that is still getting you to 660. One needs about 700 resistance and over 45k HP to not get one-hit-killed in ACT II. You can't get that high off ACT I gear with perfect stats. Not to mention rolling for perfect stats for all resist, vitality, and damage would take years. Even so one will still get one-shotted and monsters will enrage because the DPS is not there.


If the plan is to try and clear the thing without skipping (like I am doing) a ton of monsters, buying some ACT III and IV gear is mandatory. Usually the advice ACT III and IV farmers are saying is just find someone to give you the ACT III checkpoint. Well I want to do it myself.

But yeah ACT II is on a whole other level. It sucks hard. You will get one-hit-killed right from the gate of the first quest. Normal monsters. It's very very miserable to play through if you are not so much into buying items off the Auction House. There is nothing fun about being one-shotted because something jumped on you from off-screen. Many situation there is no chance no matter how skilled or geared because one can die before an ability can be used. The ramp up in damage and difficulty is absurd.

Blizzard says they are going to nerf the spiky damage in a coming patch. So they acknowledge something is wrong here. They also said you should look at the Auction House to pick upgrades and that is factored into drop rates. . . I been using the Auction House minimally because it takes time away from playing. But, the general strategy most people are saying to do is to do Quest 9 (Cursed Hold) Butcher runs to farm gold to buy items so you can do ACT II. From what I have done in ACT II that is not a bad idea.

I've been farming ACT I Quest 9 for gold and for blacksmith and jeweler plans. I actually found a set piece Amulet that was a nice upgrade. I have a couple spots in ACT II I am farming, though it is not efficient. Found a couple lengendaries, one of which I use for a magic find set for ACT I farming. I am brick walled atm on ACT II, but I am happy to farm easier stuff to relax.

Likely going to try to finish ACT II this weekend.