I decided to try and get a better idea of the Paragon experience gains in this patch since my prior try was just a really casual run. I did this only on the PTR since I decided to stop play testing on closed beta for reasons mentioned below.
Because I really haven’t put much time into my PTR characters (except for the leveling test I did), that particular character which has all loot 2.0 items, has fairly decent eHP, but really bad sheet damage. And while sheet damage isn’t everything in 2.0.x, the 72k sheet damage it does have, is only useful for handling Master difficulty.
Thus I used my main wizard which initially had eHP worse than my loot 2.0 geared wizard, and did several run throughs at Torment III (still slow going but playing at this higher setting, gets me used to what the limits of my character are); I eventually got a decent weapon; a mace which raised my toughness by almost 200k. The key things I lost from my Chantodo’s was the attack speed and APoC. I also finally found enough flawless diamonds to craft a star, which I socketed into the loot 2.0 Tal Rasha amulet that I previously found. My unbuffed damage is 196k, my unbuffed toughness is 825k, and my healing 2.2k.
This eHP allows me to run Shocking Aspect instead of Prismatic Armor. For my test run, I used Act I instead (Act II actually yields me higher overall experience, but I’m not sure where all the Cursed Events are – the XP from these are valuable just like bounties and rifts), and played at Torment I. I also already had 10 stacks of Pools of Reflection build up from the above. Basically, Paragon leveling is now a whole lot faster even at Paragon 100+. I basically got 7 levels, in less than 5 hours of play (on live, just getting to the next Paragon level from 82 solo, is taking awhile just to notch one bar at the speed that I’m getting one level in patch 2.0). 2 of those levels came at a much slower pace on Torment III (thus skewing the actual time to the higher end).
On my final test run, I went from Paragon 106 to 107 in around 42 minutes (173 million XP). I filled out the remainder 18 minutes and managed to garner 80 million XP; thus I was able to do 250 million XP an hour with only the bonus XP from Torment I and the 25% bonus from Pools of Reflection. As mentioned in my other post, the experience gains basically makes leveling on live, useless unless you do co-op MP10 crypt runs. Better geared characters, Hellfire Ring and/or Leoric’s Signet, ruby in helmet, as well as doing this at level 70+bounties/rifts will yield even higher experience gains though which basically means only a very small percentage, will still benefit from leveling on live right now. So yes, I can understand why those who did the Paragon grind before, feel like it was a waste of time. From a Paragon points view, there is still some advantage for those heading into patch 2.0/expansion, with high Paragon levels. It’s actually somewhat of a compromise, though I originally thought that those who did get at least P100 character, would get some bonus Paragon points (there are rumors that folks who do achieve at least one P100 on live, will get a Feat of Strength when the pre-expansion patch is launched; that isn’t enough to motivate me to grind from my current highest Paragon which is 82).
How exactly do I feel about the current curve? It basically feels right to me from a solo perspective (which is around 95% of how I usually play). Plus in recent times, I usually play no more than 2 hours (and that has normally been maybe 1 or 2 times per month). I know there are some folks asking that the current rate, be nerfed a bit. I have to disagree since right now, seeing the bar move, is about the only thing that made even doing this test, feel remotely rewarding. And because there isn’t much in the way of character development, this XP is about the only motivating thing (given that the loot is still mostly bad at end game).
My plans of course when the pre-expansion pack goes live is to re-roll my softcore wizard and monk so that their eHP is patch 2.0 ready (this is important; sheet damage isn’t everything in 2.0.1). Thus I expect to be playing more often during that week before Reaper of Souls (since it is pretty much a no-brainer that the patch will roll out with the closing of the auction houses).
Since I cancelled my Digital Deluxe, I’m not sure when I’ll begin playing the expansion (I still have all the digital content though on PTR as I haven’t done a re-copy). I’ve also decided to stay off the closed beta unless play testing is needed for key issues/focus areas. The way this closed beta has gone, it has already tainted/given me a jaded view of what to expect for the game. Thus I don’t want to spoil it any further. Because the core systems in the game have already been on lockdown, providing feedback on issues that are a result of core system deficiencies, would be futile at this juncture. There’s a ton of bugs outside of that which needs to be fixed (my client still crashes too often and I’m still seeing these movement speed anomalies). I just believe they are in over their heads at this point.
The following is the video of the above (with some of the downtime edited out). It’s basically boring but it gives an idea of the overall pace without much pieces of loot 2.0 items.
