My Level 70 Crusader

I've been playing Diablo 3 almost exclusively with a Crusader ever since I got Reaper of Souls. I like it a lot. It is without a doubt the most powerful character in the game. I think Blizzard pretty much admitted it as such. I like feeling powerful in a game so I'm really enjoying this a lot.

Fellow player Jonas Diego did mention that this character has a weird dissonance in that his fearsome posture and demeanor seem at odds with an almost swashbuckling dialogue. I tend to agree. But I think that's apparent mostly in Campaign mode, but not at all noticeable in Adventure Mode. I've never played Campaign ever since I beat Act V. I've been playing exclusively on Adventure Mode since then. I've never really looked back.

I like playing in Adventure mode because it allows me a complete gaming experience in a relatively short amount of time. For instance. If I only have time to play for like 15 minutes I can do so in Adventure mode and within that time I would have completed tasks that's both satisfying and rewarding.

I'm currently Level 70, Paragon Level 116. My gear:

Yellow

Yes. Yellow is my favorite color. After finding a rare merchant that sold the yellow dye, I bought tons of it just in case I don't see him again for a while.

Right now I've pretty much finished ACT V, and I'm simply doing bounties and rifts via Adventure mode. It's a lot of fun, and it's got lots of rewards. I think my upper limit right now in terms of difficulty in this mode is Expert. I will slowly inch up to Master and then finally to Torment as soon as I get better gear.

Transmogrified!

Went ahead and jumped to ACT V, but damn, I had to dial back the difficulty down to EXPERT because I was dying left and right to elites in Torment, even Master. Yes, I'm so crap at this. I'm already up to Level 67 and I finally encountered the new artisan, the Mystic. It wasn't so expensive to train her up to her highest level so I maxed her out immediately.

One fun thing about the Mystic is that she can "transmogrify" your armor, meaning she can change the look of your armor according to what you want. Place your, for example, helmet in the transmogrify window and you will be given several choices as to how you want it to look. It's so cool. That's my old Barbarian up there, fully transmogrified!

Reaper of Souls First Impression

I noticed a vast improvement in latency on the Americas server so I decided to continue playing my Barbarian there.

There was a big patch a while back, Patch 2.0 which upgraded the game and has in fact changed the log in screen to "Reaper of Souls". It came with an adjusted loot system (which is awesome), additions to the game like "Pools of Reflection" which allowed you to level up faster. But it wasn't until March 25 did the expansion "Reaper of Souls" was finally activated.

It comes with a new act, Act V, raising the level cap to 70, allowing more powerful items into the game.

Before the launch, I made it to Act 1 of Torment 3, Paragon Level 74. Torment 1 didn't seem all that hard, and the only thing that made Torment 2 slightly more difficult was that it took such a long time to kill monsters.

I thought I'd start over the game on Torment 2 after the launch, and just level up my character from there. What I noticed was the game had suddenly become more difficult, much more difficult than Torment 2 was before the launch. That's probably because the monsters are now leveling up the same time as me. Now that I'm up to Level 65, the monsters have leveled up to 65 as well. In fact, it's become so difficult that I've lowered the difficulty to Torment 1 and the monsters...just mobs and not even elites are STILL KICKING MY ASS. Holy crap. They seem to have a much higher damage this time around.

The joy in all this is that I've started to get much more powerful items, although I've noticed I haven't gotten much legendaries as I used to. Leveling up from 60 to 65 I only got ONE legendary item, but it's a really good one and it's now my primary weapon:

Additionally, the default gem that drops now is the "Marquise" gem, which automatically made all my other gems that I've been keeping and upgrading quite useless. I don't mind though. It's levels higher than the previous default gem which was I think "Flawless". As long as it makes my items much more powerful, I won't complain!

I've yet to see Act V or encounter the new artisan. But I'll get there eventually!

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

"The lords of hell rage within the Black Soulstone, their souls screaming for vengeance and release. Before the artifact can be sealed away forever, Malthael - Angel of Death - manifests in the mortal realms with a deadly new purpose: to steal the Black Soulstone and bend its infernal power to his will.

So begins the end of all things..."

Reaper of Souls is the expansion for Diablo III coming in 2014 according to the official website.

It features a new bad-ass character class: The Crusader packing "impenetrable armor, gleaming weapons, and heavy damage" which really sounds like the Barbarian to me only with more armor.

He's described by Blizzard as a "natural walking tank."

If it means more ass-kicking however, who am I to complain?

There's also a new act (Act V) featuring the sprawling streets of Westmarch and the ancient walls of the Pandemonium Fortress where you will battle with a host of deadly new enemies.

Reaper of Souls increases Diablo III's level cap to 70 (thank goodness), plus new spells and abilities for existing Barbarian, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, Wizard, and Monk characters.

But wait...there's more!

There's two new game modes: Loot Runs and Nephalem Trials, which are "designed to provide players with a highly replayable (and highly rewarding) end-game experience."

Check out the cinematic for Reaper of Souls below: