While I started Nightmare on MP10, I completed it on MP5. And while I started Hell on MP5, once I engaged my first pack of elites, my gear was not up to mitigating that level of incoming damage. So I turned off MP and managed to quest through without much issues until Act 3. Normally, playing Normal, Nightmare, and Hell on MP10, I would hit level 60 somewhere in the middle of Act 2 (and thus have Inferno level gearing for the remainder of the difficulty). Regardless, I usually try to have at least 200 all resist for Act 3 onwards but at this point, I was sitting at around 120ish at level 57.
Thus this final stretch to 60 was quite an interesting experience because the probability of dying just short of both level 60 and Inferno was quite high. Level 60 and Inferno also looks so tantalizing close at this juncture such that there is the temptation to try and play it safe these last few levels. In this case though, it’s not like level 60 offered any real advantages from the point of gearing since I had no Inferno level items to partake of once I hit it. Welcome to the reality of your first fully self-found 60.
The term visceral comes up often and in this case, I could really feel the difficulty mounting using in-game drops that does not trivialize the content you are playing. It all leads to a very entertaining experience of anticipation mixed in with lots of memorable moments. Clearing Hell with only the junk that you found is just a precursor though.
I managed to get to Inferno around 2.5 weeks ago and having been playing through it since. While I did have some level 58 items with level 60 required to equip, most of my gear was laughable for starting Inferno. Unsurprisingly, this was partly rectified as I began questing through Act 1. Still, the RNG is strong because a lot of armor pieces lack all resist and every rare Inferno level boot I’ve found to date has lacked movement speed.
Once I found some upgrades, most of the items I had were reminiscent of the kind of gear I had on my softcore wizard during 1.0.2 (the following is what it looked like just previous to 1.0.3; I forgot to take a screenshot of my Asia hardcore wizard but my stats (damage and armor) were slightly worse than this part of the way through Act 1.
Inferno MP0 is far easier compared to old Inferno though such that most of Act 1 was unsurprisingly trivial with my craptastic gear (big difference compared to my try with the abovementioned AH-less softcore barbarian). The main things I needed to be careful around were trees, savage beasts, and dark berserkers. Questing through Act 1 did eventually provide me items that were more fitting of starter Inferno gear. Recipe-wise for crafting, the only thing that dropped was a jewel design (flawless star emerald).
Act 2 was much better at providing items that increased everything critical to being able to progress through the game. Magdha actually dropped me some very usable rares (my bracers are from this as was the dagger I was using before my current weapon).
This was also the first time in awhile that I had to fight Belial on a wizard with sub-40k character sheet damage. The last time was pre-1.0.4 Inferno on my softcore wiz and that wasn’t memorable in a good way (died trying many times). Like then, I had to buff my damage using an active skill. This time though, it was do or die. I even made the effort to search for protection and frenzied shrines which I could get to quickly just before entering the boss chamber, such that I would at least get some benefits part way through the encounter.
As of this post, I’m currently on the tail end stretch of Act 3. I almost lost her last weekend while going through the Tower of the Damned when I hit a extra health + waller + molten + shielding phase beast pack (the AI was very effective in blocking me off from my normal kiting routine since right after them were trash mobs of succubi/fallen grunts, and the health globes that dropped were tantalizingly out of reach/in the path of the main champion). I plan on attempting to complete Act 3 and plan to farm a bit before attempting Act 4.
My best armor piece so far is my helmet and I’m having decent luck with jewelry (how I wish I cold drill some sockets into them though). My only Inferno level legendary so far has been non-armor+ Firewalkers. These would be something most of us brimstone right away but when these dropped, it finally felt like xmas had arrived. I normally play my wizards with nothing less than 19% movement speed (responsiveness with regards to positioning is sort of key for how I normally play; these are better than nothing though and I’ve adjusted my play accordingly).
My enchantress usually would be sporting a Maximus (for the demon’s crowd control) by the time she hit level 60, but the equipped staff has one awesome thing on it; chance to freeze. That particular stat has been something I’ve pretty much overlooked before; it has been very useful when it does proc.
In a nutshell, my above play experience hasn’t been surprising. Self-found obviously doesn’t address the underlying fundamental issues with itemization. What it does do though is that it extends the life of the game since it can take time to find the sort of items necessary for progressing when the objective is to clear Inferno completely. And that will naturally extend to getting to points where one can farm a particular MP level efficiently (and/or just being able to clear higher level of Monster Power if they are interested in the challenge aspect).
Even with my current experience, I can’t say whether or not I’m in favor of an actual separate mode that highlights that ones character is self-found. It might make sense if it is implemented in a really simplified fashion. But that is actually more challenging from a design aspect than just simply providing a checkbox on the character creation screen. Right now, there are many flexible ways to do self-found including being able to share items between ones own characters and even other players. And in my opinion, there is no right or wrong way to play games like this; since I believe it should be about what one finds fun (and that is highly subjective for each individual).
The Diablo franchise has always been about being able to trade though which is why the AH is such a conundrum. The AH does help to easily facilitate trade but its current implementation makes it way too easy to acquire items which begins to trivialize the content (even ones that would be considered trash when looked at relative to ones self-found items). Self-found’s meaning would also seem contradictory to this sharing aspect though such that implementing a mode where it makes all drops BoA, restrictive for those who want to play and share cooperatively (would Bind on Equip thus make more sense?). Thus self-found isn’t a silver bullet because there are varying levels of granularity involved when it comes to implementation (which therefore makes something that is supposed to be simple, more complex).
But I do see the appeal aspect for those who would like to see some sort of acknowledgement for their self-found characters. For myself, I’m finding that it’s just something else to do (time sink) when it comes to slaying demons (I’ve really gotten my moneys worth out of my collectors edition account). I’m not into Paragon leveling nor twinking out characters as opposed to seeing how far I can get.
Thus, from my solo experience so far, it has been a mix of everything from interesting, fun, refreshing, frustrating, challenging, and entertaining. Just like hardcore mode though, I can see how it wouldn’t be for everyone. But from my own playthrough, it is something I would suggest one try if they want a different sort of challenge and time sink.
