Loot 2.0 Character

This is my work-in-progress loot 2.0 wizard.  Toughness wise, it’s almost at my target (trying to hit 1.5 million before Reaper of Souls goes live).  Sheet damage wise, I’m far off (getting really crappy weapon drops and I do not want to resort to using any of legacy weapons).  I’m also missing key “increases skill damage” and elemental damage bonuses on some of my items.

While I do have 4 pieces of the Tal Rasha set, they aren’t the best rolls.  As a matter of fact, most of the rolls aren’t the best.  But that is to be expected on a 30 hour (22 of it at level 60) character.  If we’re only talking about vanilla, it would take additional grinding to see upgrades (but with Reaper of Souls, all of this stuff will quickly be obsoleted).

The following is my original (1.0.x) secondary wizard that I re-geared with excess loot 2.0 items that weren’t upgrades over the above.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/LordMurasama-1950/hero/12426031

There actually isn’t that huge of a difference compared to the above.  The bad part (and this is from my experience in PTR/beta) is that actual upgrades at this current level cap, is going to be far/fewer between because I need RNG to be in my favor when it comes to the type of item that I want to drop, and then the rolls on them.  In the beginning, all I was getting were 2-handed weapons (the ones without any special effects) before more of the targeted stuff began dropping.

What’s interesting is that initially, some of the Tal Rasha pieces were dropping while playing my legacy geared wizard.  Naturally, they weren’t upgrades over my legacy items, but were over the rares that I had equipped on my loot 2.0 character.  But it helped kick start seeing better quality drops while playing my new loot 2.0 wizard.

But right now (as of this post),  I’m hitting a dry patch; I’ve been getting legendary drops that I have no use for, and aren’t upgrades by a mile.  Like I’ve gotten 3 Denial shields that I’m basically just throwing on the Templar for each character.  Weapons have also been extremely lacking.  I’m once again building up Brimstones, that will eventually be useless in less than 10 days.  Originally, I had a pretty decent Arreat’s Law that served well until a Fragment of Destiny wand dropped.  After that, my weapon upgrades became non-existent to where I needed to resort to crafting weapons from the Hallowed Defenders plan (which I had fortunately found pre-2.0; these were buffed with patch 2.0.3).   That’s pretty bad since not only am I killing monsters, I’m also destroying destructibles and opening all chests.  2 slots also aren’t dropping for me; I’ve yet to get a legendary boot and helmet/hat.

And it’s not like I didn’t know this would happen; I hit these points during PTR/beta as well (I just hit the level 60 wall much faster on live and want to see if the same happens at level 70).  Basically, I’ve already hit the point where vanilla 2.0 game play is beginning to feel unrewarding; and it’s not even a hundred hours in as far as game play on a particular class is concerned.  Reaper of Souls (without any form of end game challenge modes) represents around an additional 60-80 game play  hours per character class to hit the above point at level 70 (and there are absolutely no guarantees that the items you want, will drop).

The method the developers have gone with in terms of trying to increase the longevity of the game (to stall for time in order to implement end game content), is one of the many goals of the soul bound items.     You eventually reach the point where you have to grind for those items because there is no alternative (like I’ve never gotten a Witching Hour to drop in 1.0.x and finally got a Mempo after around 800 game play hours across all character classes).

Because legendary/set item trading is limited, you are forced to play in a group to increase the chances that an item you are looking for, may drop for someone else who is willing to trade it.  Basically, there’s a point where the game play in general, will no longer feel rewarding.  I know for myself, I’ll just stop putting any more time into the game at that point without interesting end game content.  Ubers in Diablo III were never end game content to me; they were just recycled content subjected to large amounts of RNG where the time invested, was not worth the reward.

Note that with Reaper of Souls, this upper end wall is going to become compressed with the use of the Mystic.  Gambling with Kadala is going to be one of the systems used for gearing in between 61-70 (most all of that is going to be transient gear anyway) for slots that don’t drop.  Nothing is going to change though in terms of increasing the chances of finding those items that you want; it’s all a matter of luck and RNG.  Like while I completed the Tal Rasha’s set at level 60, I may potentially never even complete it or any other set at level 70.  There’s quite a lot of items that I would like to see drop in order to try them out, but it may take hundreds or even thousands of hours, to finally see one drop (as is the case with my 1.0.x Mempo of Twilight).

Diablo III and by extension, any expansions built for it, was not designed for longevity (it lacks a challenge system; brawling does not count).  While I’ve been pretty much ambivalent/neutral regarding soul binding, what I do know is that once I hit the drop systems walls, I basically don’t plan to put in a lot more time trying to grind (the same content in either Campaign or Adventure mode over and over again) for that chance of those items dropping for me.  The game needs to provide other interesting challenge modes that puts my actual character, to the test.  Only then can I see playing the game that way to hopefully get stuff that will be purposeful towards those challenges.