Playing Patch 2.12 on the PTR

I couldn't wait for the patch to go live so I tried it on Blizzard's Public Beta Testing System, PTR. I've had to redownload the game, but it was worth it! To fully test the system, they allowed ridiculous boosts to the bonus features:

And because of this, look at this! The inventory below is the result of just ONE Nephalem Rift on Torment 3:

Holy crap, right? I mean, sure...my character and all these items will be deleted when the patch goes live but, in the meantime, I'm having LOTS of fun!

The Vault is the Gift that Keeps on Giving

A nice little Legendary Gem I got after killing Greed from The Vault is this "Boon of the Hoarder". At rank 12, it gives 43% chance on killing an enemy to cause an explosion of gold. At first it didn't seem like much, but when I tried it, it was amazing. When it said "explosion of gold" it wasn't kidding! At 43%, nearly half of monsters I kill give up an incredible amount of gold.

Here's what gold I got from simply finishing a cursed chest bounty:

I got around 650 thousand gold from this!

A typical Torment 1 run on a Nephalem Rift gives me anywhere from 1-3 million gold!

Paragon Level 282-284

I've been busy as of late but managed to level up to Paragon Level 284. I hope to be able to play in Torment VI mode before the year ends without dying in the first five minutes.

Adventuring in Public

I've been playing in adventure mode in public games for the past few weeks or so and it's just crazy!

I stayed at Torment Level III play ground and only just recently went up to Torment Level IV. I level up every 20-30 minutes of playing though it's mostly my party mates who do most of the killing, to be quite frank. I'm already at Paragon Level 211 but most of the guys and gals I get teamed up with are already at the 300-400 mark which is insane.

I just do my best but with all the action happening I can't even tell where everything is!

On other news, my Crusader has already overtake my Barbarian in terms of damage capability so it looks like he's going to replace the old man as my main character for Adventure Mode soon.

How're you guys doing with your builds so far?

Barbarian Level 70, Paragon Level 191

I've been thoroughly enjoying Reaper of Souls, so much so that I've skipped posting here for some time (sorry, guys) and just concentrated on leveling-up my barbarian character. As you can see from the screenshot below, I've been spending quite some time transmogrifying and buying up dyes making sure everything's coordinated and shit.

Right now my barbarian is the most powerful (i.e., the one able to dish out the most damage) among my characters but I have a feeling that my crusader is going to overtake him really fast (at least until he levels up to 70 - just 2 more levels to go). Also, he's the sugar daddy of the bunch, the one tasked to make the most money for spending by the group.

I've given him some rest in the last couple of weeks however, preferring to adventure with my crusader and exploring his different abilities. I'll be getting him back on track soon enough though as the barbarian is my favorite class. I'm currently playing at Torment II but I hope to progress to Torment III as soon as I reach Paragon Level 200 or perfect my gems, whichever comes first.

How're you guys doing with your characters so far?

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:

Back to My Monk

I went back to my old Monk and see what it has in store in Reaper of Souls. I found I enjoy the Monk much much more this time around. I leveled up quickly to Level 70, and since Paragon levels are shared between characters, this one is already up at Paragon Level 88. With better weapons and armor, the Monk has become much more powerful than I remember it. In fact, I enjoy this character now more than my old Barb. I think I'll be sticking with this one for a while.

I leveled up this Monk from Level 60 to 70 exclusively through Adventure Mode, doing bounties and rifts at the Master Level. It seems to be holding up pretty well at that difficulty level, more more than my old Barb. After a few more Paragon levels I think I will try and go back again to Torment.

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!

Paragon Level 101

Going to get started with Torment Level III next week.

Belial's Defeat

Finally defeated Belial at the end of Act II (Torment II) but it took the combined might of Gerry and I to bring the bastard down. Gerry's been having problems defeating the Lord of Lies himself for a few days now, same as me. He messaged me earlier and asked if I'm up to ganging up on Belial and, of course, I was raring to go.

The beasts between the gates and the Imperial Palace were easy enough. I'm a Paragon Level 97 Barbarian and Gerry's a Paragon Level 71 by this time.

Battling the minions were relatively easy (we were in no danger of dying) as well as Belial's initial form.

The killer really was Belial's ultimate form.

We actually died the first time around. Truth be told we still died at our second attempt but with his dying breath Gerry managed to land the killing blow (I was already dead at this point...my Barbarian's high on damage but relatively low on hitpoints, Gerry's is the opposite I think).

It was such a surprise that I forgot to take screencaps. Oh well!

On to Act III!