Random Diablo 3 Things

Looked around for current D3 info.

Random notes:

• Seems to be released no sooner then February, possibly later if there will be no announcement soon.

• Precision is considered to be bad stat overall by theorycrafters. Crit-based builds are unlikely to work without supporting +crit% passives or +crit% runes/skills, as well as decent +crit damage%.

Preliminary conclusion: Any items with precision (including gems) should be dumped immediately as "newbie trap". Builds that rely on crits should not be considered for anything but "fun" (might work for some barbarian builds though). Best stat to stack for faster kills is +attack. Seems to be still valid. +attack items should be in high demand for long time.

• +XP on kills is additive, and does not apply level xp penalty (or bonus) as long as enemies are no lower then within 5 levels of your character level. Outside of 5 levels they don't work and are completely useless.

Open Possibility: It might be more efficient to level using many +XP items and running through lower level areas repeatedly - especially while you might still use any items drops for crafting materials or AH. Just 5 level difference limit, however, makes it fairly niche stat. Watch out for items with no level restrictions though - should be highly desirable for alts.
Unconfirmed: No data available on drop rate changes with outleveling low level areas. I consider existence of such changes unlikely, since just having lower level drops and xp cutoff is technically enough of penalty, but some confirmation might be nice to have. But hard to produce. Maybe some blue post.

• Monsters gain health with more party members (1 - 100%, 2 - 175%, 3 - 250%, 4 - 325%). Drop rate of items and gold remains same as solo for each party member.

Preliminary conclusion: Having dead weights in game can be outright harmful for your farming/killing. Expect many closed games and swift kicks for AFK or being generally useless. Multiboxing only worthwhile as long as you can control all characters to add enough damage.

Blizzcon News

Now that Blizzcon info is more or less finalized, it's time to see what I think about news we're given.

1. Pandas - I don't consider pandas childish and am perfectly ok with panda-themed expansion. I guess they are saving Emerald Dream for next one.

2. Monk - makes sense with pandas. One more tank class to level, always fun. At least it's something new, and is likely to be op for a while.

3. Minipetmon - neutral. It might be fun, or it might be not, and since it's unlikely to be given enough focus to make it perfect, and i don't remember any Pokemon-like games by Blizzard to draw upon previous experience, it has high chance of being vaporware like Path of Titans, or activity that quickly falls by wayside like Archaeology.

4. Dungeon Challenge Modes - putting a number on arbitrary activity that i do enjoy is unlikely to make it more fun long-term, but it might help grouping with like-minded individuals. And there are definite problems with some bits of information that they presented about how it would work - while gear or monster scaling is OK, arbitrary -5% damage/healing/tanking debuffs for next attempt to increase challenge will either fragment LFD way too much (if everyone has to be on same stage of debuff) or hamstring some groups too much (by having people with higher debuff in mostly low-debuff groups). And they would need separate "max time" for each stage of debuff if they want to keep that leaderboard, otherwise it will be utterly meaningless.

5. Annual Pass - thought about it for a bit:
- I do feel signs of interest loss
- D3 was definite "buy" from me
- I will definitely stick around long enough to enjoy 4.3
- and I just had my 6 month subscription renewed in September, so a bit less then half of subscription is already paid out.
So i went and signed up. Definite "impulse buy", but it's not like i'm losing much anyway even in worst case. WoW is pretty cheap "per hour of actual fun" overall.

6. Talent overhaul - this doesn't look good at all to me. The preview talents for some classes seem to be really... uninspired. Way too much "work in progress". But even from that you can see some directions, and i don't like them at all.

In case of Paladins, they are giving a choice between snare (finally!) that lowers your dps (ugh) and crowd control - one that is currently baseline, and the other being reworked Ret ability that would still be required for Ret to function in pvp, even with snare available. This feels like a choice that shouldn't be there at all, not a valid "interesting decision". More like mockery - "Here is hammer, nails, board, choose ONE to fix that hole in the wall!"

In case of Rogues, they are making shadowstep/prep a CHOICE, when it's staple of current rogue pvp. Actually, whole rogue package feels like something that was whipped up quickly by ripping abilities out of talent trees and/or not given much thought at all. Paralytic Poison? On same DR as Kidney Shot? Or maybe it's that old "random stun" separate DR category? Random stuns were problem before, and they removed pretty much all of them in balancing efforts, i don't see what exactly changed now.

It would all make sense it they are totally overhauling melee gameplay, but nothing else points that way so far.