When Diablo III version 2.0, more specifically, patch 2.0.1, was rolled out, many people wondered if D3 had finally returned to its roots to truly offer fans of the franchise what they’ve been craving for the last 10 years.
Now, it’s been 2 weeks since the D3 2.0 patch was released and we are on patch 2.0.3. Our core group has played D3 nearly every day since the new update.
New life has been breathed into this hellish hack n’ slash. I wish that were only an overused Diablo pun. It is, however, a description of how people viewed the state of itemization, replayability, and the auction house.
I have long since wondered whether the changes to Diablo 3 would incentivize Reaper of Souls sales. After all, Blizzard teased us with changes to itemization, the paragon leveling system, new affixes, and class skills.
After 2 solid weeks of testing, we can say the outlook is positive. Morale on the forums has improved, and general chat is crammed once again. Players are linking legendaries, crafting plans, and crafting materials in various forms of chat.
In the words of a Templar, everything is “Glorious.” An interesting side note – there are many fresh players in general chat. The new people are asking questions anyone who has played Diablo 3 for a month would know. And you know what? It’s a great thing to see.
Now, I would like to list some quick points on what is great about the new patch and what is lacking:
Table of Contents
Diablo III v2.0 Pros
- More wells. Pools of reflection are amazing. The experience buff is great and the tension of trying to stay alive to keep the buff is just as nice. I would like to see more utility wells in the future but this is excellent for now.
- The paragon leveling system. Extra levels are always a good thing, and now, with the new account-wide paragon leveling system, we can modify the bonus stats of our characters as we see fit. In addition, playing other classes is now more fun than ever!
- Legendary gear. For the first time in Diablo 3 history, I actually get excited when a legendary item drops. There is no point in having a tiered item system if you feel rare items should be better than legendary items most of the time. Many legendary items change how classes are played by adding different spell effects. This is a most welcome change.
- Itemization in general. The completely random nature of itemization before this patch was highly dull, no matter how the D3 developers tried to defend it. Crossbows with strength and Spirit stones with intelligence were extremely irritating to find. I find the smart loot drops refreshing and rewarding to play with when running farm routes.
- New monster affixes. Even though affixes like Thunderstorm and Frozen Pulse are incredibly annoying, I love the new elite affix combinations that can be produced now.
- Reset quests feature. If you want your players to play your game your way, the best way to do so is rewarding your player base for doing so. If I get bored and want more experience and a guaranteed legendary drop, I will definitely use this feature.
- Clans and groups. Just looking at my community group’s roster makes me feel nostalgic. The roster displays characters similarly to the Diablo 2 channel system. Social features are always a good thing.
- Curse chest events. Random encounters are always a good thing. Diablo games are very repetitive. Offering additional ways to engage the player is a plus in my book.
- Legendary crafting plan drops. These have increased significantly. I had about 700 hours put into D3 before the patch, and I’ve never had a legendary plan drop. I found 2 in 1 day already.
- Class retooling. I know people have different opinions on this topic depending on which class they play. I happened to main a wizard with the most boring passives in the game. I very much welcome the addition of elemental skills and different higher difficulty viable build options.
- Breakables, corpses, and weapon racks. I was greatly disappointed when jars and other breakables had their drops removed prior to the patch. I very much welcome the occasional explosion of gold from breakables and sometimes finding a legendary item from chests and weapon racks.
- Resurrection options. You can now resurrect by yourself from corpse, checkpoint, and town. I love the freedom of choice.
- Skipping all dialogue option. Massive cutscenes and extremely long dialogue got on everyone’s nerves. This shouldn’t be a problem in the upcoming Adventure mode, but this is a welcome change nonetheless.
- Diamonds. When Diablo 3 was released, I asked, “Where are the diamonds, sapphires, skulls, jewels, and runes?” I’m happy to see at least one of them and hope to see the rest in the future.
- Revamped difficulty system. As much as it pains me to see the difficulties of Normal, Nightmare, and Hell go away, I love the new tiered system and the rewards for being brave enough to play in them. I also welcome the change to dynamic leveling of the monsters and selecting any difficulty without beating the game 4 times.
Diablo III v2.0 Cons
- High latency and server lag. Even with the auction house closure, Blizzard insists on an always on connection for “social features.” I would be okay with this if my ping wasn’t regularly over 130ms and experiencing rubber-banding, timeouts, and various connection issues. My connection is more than adequate. Now that Diablo 3 is popular again, how about we improve the speed of the servers somehow?
- Clickable area size of linked items. Whenever an item is linked it takes a few attempts to bring up the item’s window. If I’m in a game, this means my character will start running to the bottom left until I find the small clickable area of the item link. Please make items easier to click.
- Make 2-handed weapons worth the trade off. The bug for 2-handed weapons rolling 1-handed weapon stats has been fixed. However, I’ve been hard pressed to find a 2-handed replacement for 2 weapons, a 1-hander, and a shield, even with a higher rolled 2-handed weapon.
Previous Diablo III Game Plan
In January earlier this year, my plan for preparing for Reaper of Souls was to level all my alts. This includes all 5 playable classes on both normal and hardcore. Take a peek at this guide and see if it also helps.
Update: This level fast road map for Diablo 3 is way outdated by now, especially since the release of version 2.0 and, ultimately, the release of Reaper of Souls. However, this guide will stay up for archival purposes.
| Level | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Equip 12+ DPS weapon | |
| 6 | Equip damage rings | Keen Ring of Wounding 2-4 damage and 3% attack speed increase |
| 8 | Equip 16+ DPS weapon | |
| 10 | Equip empty slots with recommended gear | Gear with class stat, vitality, and bonus experience for monster kills |
| 15 | Equip a socketed weapon with a ruby. Weapon with ruby should be 45+ DPS | Act 1 should be completed around this level |
| 16 | Equip a Broken Crown and gem it with a ruby | You can farm Arreat 1 runs, farm Keep Depth runs, or just finish the whole Normal difficulty to level 30. |
| 23 | Equip 3 piece Cain Set | Try to get a socketed Cain’s helm, the legs, and the boots. It’s good to get movement speed early and you can equip regular gloves for a DPS increase over the Cain’s gloves and still get the 3 piece set bonus. |
| 25 | Replace gear other than Cain’s Set and weapon as needed | You should be in Act 3 around this level |
| 30 | Equip a socketed weapon with useful stats. The weapon should be 65+ DPS with ruby. | You will now be ready for Nightmare difficulty. Farm Nightmare Crypt of the Ancients until level 38 or regularly play through Nightmare difficulty. |
| 38 | Equip a socketed weapon with a ruby. Weapon with ruby should be 100+ DPS | Do Soulstone Vault of the Assassin until level 45, do Keep Depth runs, or regularly play through Nightmare difficulty. |
| 42-46 | Equip a weapon with 300+ DPS with reduced level requirement, or get a socketed weapon around this level and gem it with a ruby | Hit up Arreat 1, do Keep Depth runs, or simply play through Nightmare difficulty until level 50. |
| 50 | Start replacing low level gear with high armor, primary stat, vitality, resist all, etc. | You will now be ready for Hell difficulty. Level to 54 at the Crypt of the Ancients in Festering Woods or regularly play through Hell difficulty. |
| 54 | Replace Cain’s Set with appropriate gear. Gem your replacement helm with the highest ruby possible. | Do Rampart/Stonefort runs, Keep Depth Runs, or continue through Hell difficulty until you are level 60. |
Need motivation to paragon level? Here’s a reminder of what the paragon portraits look like:
