Self-found experience (Asia Region Server) – Updates

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9478777889#5

Just thought I’d update my progress. I managed to clear Act 3 at around P(6). I did most of my gear farming in Arreat Crater 1 and Core of Arreat until P(10) where my only upgrades were a better demi lich source and another trifecta amulet (this one had a socket and +321 armor). This got me to 40k damage (where I usually prefer to be with a wizard in order to deal with Act 4).

I switched to farming Act 1 MP1 (Festering Woods, Crypts, Cathedral 3 and 4, Leorics Manor, Halls of Agony 3, Cursed Hold, Weeping Hollow, Fields of Misery). P(10)-(17), my main upgrades were shoulder, helmet, pants (more of main stat, all resist, vitality on each of these). At P(18), I finally got a weapon upgrade with my current desolator wand (this one rolled 100% crit damage plus an open socket). All of these got me to 50k damage, so I switched to farming Act 1 MP2. This turned out to be fruitful in the drops department.

It was like a loot pinata for legendaries. There was the usual stuff like Wizardspike, Empyrean Messenger, Dawn, etc which might normally be considered garbage for my mostly AH-geared heroes. I also got a Butcher’s Sickle, Devils Tongue, Azurewrath (on my follower), and Triumvirate (had lower average damage than my demi lich though). Stashed them all away for potential use on future characters. At P(20), the following were from one back-to-back run (Sky Splitter and Skorn dropped within 5 minutes of each other).

The relevant ding was the Chantodo’s Force which dropped in the run I did after just before the server went down for scheduled maintenance. It turned out to have really decent average damage and represented a substantial upgrade; this got me to my current 60k damage mark. The last 5 plvl’s hasn’t netted me much useful items though aside from some nice reduced level gear that will be handy for future leveling (some made it easier to get my witch doctor through the final stretch of Hell Act 4 and finally, level 60).

Note, I picked up every rare drop (those I missed, I went back with a Hoover vacuum cleaner). Unsurprising, the numbers haven’t been very pretty. Every rare Inferno boot to date has had no movement speed on them. Majority of armor pieces lack all resist (some of the archon chest pieces were nice; like 800 armor – but it lacked everything else like no main stats, vitality, resists, sockets). The weapons which had some very nice properties, rolled under 500 weapon damage. Thus while RNG has been nice to me in some areas (like rings and amulets), it’s been mostly salvaged or vendored.

One plus; most of the stuff on my witch doctor is much better starter Inferno gear than what I had for my wizard. The only hand me downs are the amulet, ring, helmet, and boots (I used those Boj Anglers on my wizard before those Firewalkers). I finally got recipes for int gloves and bracers (though everything I crafted weren’t upgrades, but were much better than the items I had saved for my witch doctor).

As for my wizard, the stats were mostly where I wanted them to be to finish out Act 4 so I completed it this weekend.

I’ll admit; while it’s been fun trying to see how far I could get, it now feels anti-climatic since I didn’t expect to even see anything over 50k damage for awhile (let alone getting any sort of decent legendary/set piece), and thus didn’t envision being able to do low level farming for a long time. What I have now is good enough to archon farm MP3 (not as fast as I’d like it to be so I suppose there is still a long way to go to find gear good enough to start doing MP7+). But archon is also not how I enjoy playing the class.

I do realize there will be that inflection point where SF won’t feel any different (especially when there are more level 60’s + Paragon playing through Inferno) without a full account reset. The point I’m trying to express is how we’ve been conditioned towards very poor quality loot (and that is amplified playing self-found). This is one reason I stopped playing my mains back in March (hoping that itemization would be around 6-9 months away). I’d like to build and play around skills that aren’t as diametrically opposed when it comes to viability versus farming efficiency like how it is now.

Using my dormant wizard as an example, I thought it would be cool if I could one day, find a Chantodo’s Will which had a random property that would convert a specific arcane orb rune into an actual frozen orb (ala D2 sorceress), or a Chantodo’s Force that would take something like Mammoth Hydra, and turn it into the ability to cast Firewall instead (and that would scale with the fire damage on the wand and other gear). I’d really like the ability one day to build an actual fire/ice mage in D3 or builds that don’t completely sacrifice farming efficiency like the way it does now with just a few builds.

August 3, 2013 Update:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9478777889#8

Sorry to hear about your loss lucid over on EU…. I can sympathize with you since MahoTsukai’s journey has also now come to an end (unfortunately from a disconnect).

Yes, the solo part was important because part of this whole thing was to see how far I could get playing the way I play this class without pissing anyone else off in the process. My game play from Inferno progression through farming was deliberately slowed especially with the latter; I went back and picked up every rare item (else I would have missed some of the pieces that I had equipped).

I previously did have plans to do self-found over on EU depending on how far I got on Asia. Re-experiencing the grind from the start was refreshing but at this juncture, I think I’m going to preserve EU until loot 2.0 hits. That way, I can start off fresh and with whatever itemization and game changes have been implemented to go through it all over again. Thanks for the info about latency there though!

But as mentioned, having played through the increased latency on Asia, it will make my game play here on the America’s region even better since I’m used to the feel when it hits 500+ms and can play through it. My disconnect death was therefore a bit of a buzz killer since I was on a roll in terms of progression.

When I was farming today (Fields of Misery MP2), and I saw my archon beam suddenly disappear, I played through it as usual; but when the situation didn’t change after 30 seconds, I knew this was more than a lag spike. After 1 minute passed, there wasn’t much I could do until the client popped up the dialog (not the network disconnect one which completely boots you from Battle.net – the other one which is indicative of an issue between the client and game server; “The game connection has been lost: your client has been disconnected from the server”).

I even got trolled a bit when it kicked me back to the main screen; it showed my wizard alive for just a second or two before it switched to the ghostly image. I mentioned that after clearing Inferno, it felt somewhat anti-climatic. That feeling is enhanced now with dying this way. But, it is somewhat offset knowing that I actually got further than I originally expected. So in that regards, it was still an interesting experience which I take away, valuable information.

I re-rolled a new wizard, but then I stopped and asked myself if I wanted to waste time leveling another back to 60 (it would be easier since I have a mule full of leveling gear), re-progressing through Inferno again, and then re-grinding the game as it it currently exists. I decided to stop and hold off that re-leveling until loot 2.0 exists.

Snacks, true, one thing I found playing this way is it reminded me of the kind of gear I had on my softcore wizard at Inferno 1.0.2. I knew of early on about many of the game mechanics and bugs that were being exploited which allowed some of the within the first week clears of Inferno; wizard has been a really buggy class in that respect (Living Lightning proccing CM on every multi-hit allowing non-APoC permafreezing, 0 vit force armor wizard, archon teleport invulnerable wizard which didn’t get patched until July) butI refused to play the game that way (totally would defeat the purpose of playing). So yeah, I also didn’t care about quickly clearing Inferno back then too. It was a painful process but a lot of that experience was actually helpful with how I ended up playing my hardcore wizards (I detested playing a kiting spec Inferno 1.0.2-1.0.3 on my softcore wizard, but ironically, that is what I enjoyed playing on hardcore — go figure!).

With respect to gear, basically, the quality is around the same (with itemization all over the map) though the rolls have been tweaked a little better (especially legendaries). The biggest change however have been the nerfs to Inferno. It’s made the progression curve with respect to self-found drops, more manageable and achievable. The key though is picking everything up (which when it comes to farming mode, an efficiency killer for many).

I agree, the AH in its current form, makes it way too easy to see exactly what is out there. And from an instant gratification point of view, a heck of a lot easier to hit certain metrics when it comes to stats. The quality is all relative though. The irony is that the stats I had weren’t that different compared to my hardcore wizard on my other account (image below); most of the slots are equipped with legendary/set items that were previously on my America region wizard on this account. Thus I knew that with the gear quality I had, this one had a lot of room to grow because main stat wise, I still hadn’t hit 2000 intelligence.

I now can look at my currently dormant wizard, and think, this one has it really easy. In many respects, the one I was playing over on Asia, had managed to surpass it in its own way.