I am back to playing Diablo 3. I quit about 6 months after the expansion with about 275 hours of play time. I hated everything about the game when I decided to ragequit. How could you farm for that many hours, and still have horrible, horrible, horrible gear? I heard about the expansion months ago, and I never even really paid attention to it until a friend sent me a link to a Youtube video.
I decided to give it another try. I reinstalled it, and it had been so long I forgot my password which used an authenticator to my phone. Unfortunately I changed phone numbers. Luckily I finally figured out my password, and was able to download the game again.
I logged in the first time, and was just overwhelmed for some reason. I just couldn't get past leaving the town. I felt like I forgot everything about my Barbarian. I just didn't feel like learning it all over again. I posted on social media my feelings, and was told to give it another chance. The next day I logged in, and after running through the all four acts on normal I felt like I had a hang of it again.
It was pretty enticing. The Loot 2.0 was patched in earlier than the release, and I found more legendaries in one run through of the game than I did playing 275 hours prior. It was hooking me fast. I still felt way behind the equipment curve, but at least I was able to get upgrades now that the auction house was removed from the game.
Blizzard gave me a little carrot on a stick. They were giving a 100% bonus paragon xp. It was like I was able to make up lost time. I basically almost doubled my paragon levels in about a week. I just made paragon level 50 yesterday. I have a long way to go to catch up with the hardcore players that stuck the game out, and started the expansion pack with 200 paragon levels which used to be the cap, but now there is no cap.
Well the expansion release came, and I thought I would put it on normal. I thought it was going to be like when I first started the game, and hard at the normal level. I basically breezed through Act V in record time. I killed Maltheal in about 30 seconds.
There are two really cool things I like in Act V. There is this elite hound mob that puts you in his mouth, and shakes you like a rag doll. I just love it. I heard if you die to it than it takes a leak on you. I also think the siege ram was really cool at the keep.
The whole act seemed pretty cool, and nothing like how I hated every Act in the original except for Act I.
I decided to farm Act V again in Master difficulty. It was much harder, and took quite a while to actually get through the whole act. It don't know how long exactly but probably a good 4-5 hours. It may have been less than that because I didn't keep track, but it seemed like forever. I think the Mal fight lasted a good twenty minutes. I was a little disappointed at the final fight. Most of the boss fights are still click till they die. He had a few stages, but nothing that was hard, but just time consuming running around avoiding stuff instead of clicking to kill. Basically you avoid this gas bubbles, or clouds of some sort, and than later he fires these fireballs, but they can be easily avoided by standing between the grates, or on the seams of the floor. The drops were nothing spectacular for the end game.
There are a few new things in the game like Transmogify. I personally find this a waste, but I guess some people are infatuated with the way they look. I could care less. I only care about stats, and I could try the enchanting to change one random stat on an item, but doesn't seem like it is worth the risk to me. I most likely will never be using the Mystic.
You can get more gems now too. My mind is drawing a blank right now, but you have basically two upgrades that I have seen so far. The highest I have seen is Imperial gems.
My Barbarian got a few new skills, but I haven't found Avalanche useful along with the three new passive skills.
Farming is a thing of the past once you reach level 70, and finish the campaign. Well, sort of. You can now use Adventure Mode. It basically gives you bounties to complete five different things in one of the acts. Usually it is quick things that doesn't require clearing the zone, and than you earn millions of xp. You can't beat that, plus if you finish all five bounties you get a special horidom chest that gives you crafting mats, and drops. It is sort of a bummer though. You now just have a mindset to complete the bounty, and not so much in killing mobs. Of course some bounties require kills, but I find myself taking the shortest route from point A to point B.
Rifts are also new, and you have to do bounties to earn the rift fragments to be able to do them. They are really worth it. If you are tired of the same old zones these rifts put a new twist to the zones. The zone will be a little familiar, but changed up to add a little spice to the old boring zones you already farmed a million times. The rewards for the rift are unbelievable. I just completed one on Master, and received 13 million xp for basically 30 minutes of work. It may have been longer than that, but time flies when you are having fun.
I am really enjoying the game again, and now it just feels that my time being put in is reaping me rewards. Honestly that is all I ever wanted. I would really recommend picking up the expansion pack.
Here are some screenshots of some of the things in the expansion. Unfortunately I never really took any screenshots of Act V, but I am sure there are plenty of those already floating around on the internet.
I decided to give it another try. I reinstalled it, and it had been so long I forgot my password which used an authenticator to my phone. Unfortunately I changed phone numbers. Luckily I finally figured out my password, and was able to download the game again.
I logged in the first time, and was just overwhelmed for some reason. I just couldn't get past leaving the town. I felt like I forgot everything about my Barbarian. I just didn't feel like learning it all over again. I posted on social media my feelings, and was told to give it another chance. The next day I logged in, and after running through the all four acts on normal I felt like I had a hang of it again.
It was pretty enticing. The Loot 2.0 was patched in earlier than the release, and I found more legendaries in one run through of the game than I did playing 275 hours prior. It was hooking me fast. I still felt way behind the equipment curve, but at least I was able to get upgrades now that the auction house was removed from the game.
Blizzard gave me a little carrot on a stick. They were giving a 100% bonus paragon xp. It was like I was able to make up lost time. I basically almost doubled my paragon levels in about a week. I just made paragon level 50 yesterday. I have a long way to go to catch up with the hardcore players that stuck the game out, and started the expansion pack with 200 paragon levels which used to be the cap, but now there is no cap.
Well the expansion release came, and I thought I would put it on normal. I thought it was going to be like when I first started the game, and hard at the normal level. I basically breezed through Act V in record time. I killed Maltheal in about 30 seconds.
There are two really cool things I like in Act V. There is this elite hound mob that puts you in his mouth, and shakes you like a rag doll. I just love it. I heard if you die to it than it takes a leak on you. I also think the siege ram was really cool at the keep.
The whole act seemed pretty cool, and nothing like how I hated every Act in the original except for Act I.
I decided to farm Act V again in Master difficulty. It was much harder, and took quite a while to actually get through the whole act. It don't know how long exactly but probably a good 4-5 hours. It may have been less than that because I didn't keep track, but it seemed like forever. I think the Mal fight lasted a good twenty minutes. I was a little disappointed at the final fight. Most of the boss fights are still click till they die. He had a few stages, but nothing that was hard, but just time consuming running around avoiding stuff instead of clicking to kill. Basically you avoid this gas bubbles, or clouds of some sort, and than later he fires these fireballs, but they can be easily avoided by standing between the grates, or on the seams of the floor. The drops were nothing spectacular for the end game.
There are a few new things in the game like Transmogify. I personally find this a waste, but I guess some people are infatuated with the way they look. I could care less. I only care about stats, and I could try the enchanting to change one random stat on an item, but doesn't seem like it is worth the risk to me. I most likely will never be using the Mystic.
You can get more gems now too. My mind is drawing a blank right now, but you have basically two upgrades that I have seen so far. The highest I have seen is Imperial gems.
My Barbarian got a few new skills, but I haven't found Avalanche useful along with the three new passive skills.
Farming is a thing of the past once you reach level 70, and finish the campaign. Well, sort of. You can now use Adventure Mode. It basically gives you bounties to complete five different things in one of the acts. Usually it is quick things that doesn't require clearing the zone, and than you earn millions of xp. You can't beat that, plus if you finish all five bounties you get a special horidom chest that gives you crafting mats, and drops. It is sort of a bummer though. You now just have a mindset to complete the bounty, and not so much in killing mobs. Of course some bounties require kills, but I find myself taking the shortest route from point A to point B.
Rifts are also new, and you have to do bounties to earn the rift fragments to be able to do them. They are really worth it. If you are tired of the same old zones these rifts put a new twist to the zones. The zone will be a little familiar, but changed up to add a little spice to the old boring zones you already farmed a million times. The rewards for the rift are unbelievable. I just completed one on Master, and received 13 million xp for basically 30 minutes of work. It may have been longer than that, but time flies when you are having fun.
I am really enjoying the game again, and now it just feels that my time being put in is reaping me rewards. Honestly that is all I ever wanted. I would really recommend picking up the expansion pack.
Here are some screenshots of some of the things in the expansion. Unfortunately I never really took any screenshots of Act V, but I am sure there are plenty of those already floating around on the internet.
