Diablo III

^ what's kind of interesting there is that the wind is slightly taken out of the article's sails by the fact that it came out a few days after the announcement of the arrival of the PTR for the next patch, the first in a year.

The patch is two main parts:

A new season gimmick - after 'double treasure goblins' and 'double horadric chests', this one is just that you're always under the effect of a Ring of Royal Grandeur, meaning you only need 2 pieces of a set for a 3-pieces bonus, 3 for a 4, etc. I like this one a lot, because it by itself would mix up the existing meta game, which has been pretty steady for the last four seasons: https://d3resource.com/seasons/index.php.

Also buffs of all of the sets that aren't currently in the meta: "The (2) Set bonus has been increased from 1200% to 6000%" is roughly representative. This will hopefully move stuff around a bit - it's been nice to see some of the Youtubers who've been reheating the same guides for the last year get back into being interested in what can be done with forgotten builds (though as far as I know none of the mechanics have changed that much apart from the Grandeur mentioned above).

The previous carrot for seasons has been removed as well - you used to get one more stash tab (70 more squares) each season if you complete the 'journey', but you'll get them all up to the full 10 automatically with 2.6.4.

I completed the journey on the Strength characters, Crusader & Barbarian (as well as clearing up some old Achievements for those classes) when the current season started in September. And then I decided to come back and try to squeeze in the Dexterity classes, Monk and Demon Hunter, a few weeks back - it doesn't take much to get you up to speed if you've already got a well-progressed character - I didn't even have any remaining gear on the characters, but a few Legendaries from Kanai's Cube can kick-start a build pretty quickly.

In short this game is still fun, either for mindless killing shit and getting loot (both Monk and Demon Hunter have builds that can just clear the screen on the highest Torment levels) and for tougher fun that you sadly have to pay attention to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFVcjkQ1uDg

I have no idea why a) who is the target for this video* or b) why they'd be reading this thread, but it is a pretty solid 13 minutes of why it's fun to play Diablo now.

*basically a podcast and an attract screen.

I think I'm the target? I've never played Diablo, and still can't tell what the hell is going on when I watch videos. All I know of it is that people like it.

Oh, wait, this is primarily online multiplayer? Eh.

Ilxor Diablo crew? I’d be down

I appreciate that they made the seasons the most appealing way to play, rather than perpetually grinding the same character forever. The downside is that I end up being pretty much done playing for a while before the season ends, never clean up my stash, and then when it's all dumped back to my main account I end up losing crap.

Not that it matters if all I care about is the seasons, but w/e

Ilxor Diablo crew? I’d be down

I started an ILX clan, called simply 'ILX.'

Oh ok. Anyone ever play? Any interest in setting a date / time to play MP?

It's entirely online, Josh, even when you're playing singleplayer - a brutal but effective way prevent people hacking their characters to a trillion gold and all the gear.

I think the console versions allow offline play, but they're on a different set of servers and have some other variations

D3 has been an effective heatwave/quarantine killer this week. Say hi if you're around.

I'm burnt out on it and prefer Grim Dawn anyway but Reaper of Souls rules.