Diablo III: Not even death can save you from me

[Kal]

Well, I recently spent the last of my gold on the Blacksmith, but now I have the Blacksmith, Jewelcrafter, and Stash fully upgraded, so I might get some MF gear next. Not absolutely certain, since I'm still waiting to see what is the most efficient way to gear up, but if MF gear is cheap I guess there's no reason not to get it.

Speaking of Jewelcrafting, once the Auction House gets fixed, I'm going to save up for the remaining Jewelcrafter recipes. Once I've got the recipes, if anyone wants those L14 gems, I'd be happy to craft them at cost. They're pretty pricey, though. I guess, if you've got enough for one Radiant Star gem, then you've got enough to fully upgrade your Jewelcrafter, so maybe this is a superfluous offer.

I'd be happy to do the same with Blacksmith stuff, but I don't think that's going to be worth the money for a long time.

 

[Hylian]

Just beat Belial legit on inferno. Last time I tried we wiped for two hours lol. Did it on our 3rd try this time, much more fun when you are geared properly.

 

[Kal]

Impressive. I couldn't get past the first wave of enemies, since everything one-shots me. I should really just suck it up and farm for better gear. T_T

 

[Hylian]

Impressive. I couldn't get past the first wave of enemies, since everything one-shots me. I should really just suck it up and farm for better gear. T_T

That is the hardest part of the fight honestly, the second phase was where we died twice, we died the 3rd time because we were dumb on 3rd phase but 4th time went smoothly. Did monk/barb and 2 DHs.

 

[Kal]

I can probably get past the second and third phase with cheese. I saw a strategy where Belial just dances in place because of some line of sight glitch during the second phase. There are two spots which you can alternate between in the third phase which really trivializes the fight. We'll see how well this works when I actually put it into practice, though.

 

[Divinokage]

Im getting really scared now, I'm just about to do Belial on nightmare HC. I can't even imagine after and hell difficulty where you only have one shot at every boss. You can't choke whatsoever.. lol

 

[Kal]

Good luck Kage.

 

[Asdioh]

I'm never playing hardcore, especially when it's online only >=(
too much stress and stupid **** could happen.

 

[Divinokage]

Just like I just died to lag, restart!!

 

[rokimomi]

This is the Barbarian embodied into a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcxNLQYvrbg

 

[Kal]

Yeah, I might give Hardcore a try when strategies improve, but currently, with online-only, I'll stick to Normal.

 

[Leacero]

I just did Belial on inferno last night too with my brother. I was running a tanky/CC Wiz and he was DH.

 

[bassem6]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6018173

Blizzard discusses changes in soon-to-come patches and balance stuff.

 

[Kal]

"The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal"

Oh Blizzard, you're so cute. Like a little fascist penguin.

To anyone planning on crafting the Staff of Herding, beware that there is a glitch where the staff disappears from your inventory or stash. I lost a Nightmarish Staff of Herding this way. Lots of discussion on this here. There are rumors that it will be patched, so I would wait for an official announcement before spending 150,000 gold to craft the staff.

 

[Turazrok]

I am on nightmare

SO GOOD.

 

[Player-3]

I already have my staff it better not dissapear

 

[Kal]

I've heard that leaving the staff with the Enchantress will prevent it from disappearing, but I have not tested it myself.

 

[Wave⁂]

Reduced level requirement gear if you're not level 60 is ****ing amazing. Just doubled my DPS for 250k.

 

[O D I N]

Reduced level requirement gear if you're not level 60 is ****ing amazing. Just doubled my DPS for 250k.

DAMMIT. Now I need to save money to get one of those.

 

[rokimomi]

Been using level reduced since 30, works wonders and well worth the hunt for random good deals.

 

[Lovage]

first pack in act 2 inferno jailer bee's that mortor for 50k hehehe

 

[Asdioh]

What is reduced level req gear? O_o

 

[Ignatius]

It has a lower level required to wear it. So there could be something like a 550 dps 1 hander with 10 level requirement lowered so you can wear it at 50.

It starts to appear on items at around level 30 or 35, forget which.

 

[GwJ]

ODIN, your monk loadout that you posted is BRILLIANT. Its my new main loadout.

 

[Kal]

Not sure if people are aware about the whole account-security issue, but there are rumors that accounts have been getting hacked in a way that bypasses password and authenticator protection. My little brother's account has been hacked recently, despite having an authenticator, but he only lost about 100,000 gold (he hasn't gotten past Nightmare yet). Blizzard is not admitting to any sort of server-side security breach, but they would not admit to it even if it obviously existed, so I wouldn't take that as word-of-god.

Obviously, people should get some form of anti-virus software. Microsoft Security Essentials is very high-rated, and surprisingly one of the best pieces of anti-virus software out there. It is free as long as you own a "legit" copy of Windows. As for Macs, I'm not familiar with any anti-virus software, sorry. And I don't think anybody who's able to get this game functioning in Linux needs any advice from me on anti-virus software. Anyway, be sure to regularly scan your computer with this software. Make sure your password is not something stupidly obvious (though keep in mind that, with Blizzard, you'll want a longer password since they, in all their wisdom, decided passwords cannot be case-sensitive).

Finally, you may want to consider getting an authenticator. Blizzard sells a physical FOB keychain (like one for a car) which is very safe. Currently, the only known way to bypass this security is with a man in the middle attack (which is exactly what it sounds like). You can acquire the physical authenticator at the Blizzard Store. However, if you don't want to pay $6 for the authenticator (which is understandable, because you've already shelled out money for the game, and it's arguably unfair for Blizzard to expect you to shell out more so that a product entirely in their control can be better secured), there is an app for the iOS and Android devices, which is accessible on the respective app-markets (iTunes store for iOS and Play Store for Android). There is also the Dial-In Authenticator, but this currently does not support Starcraft II or Diablo III. Finally, there is winauth, which runs directly from your computer.

However, a few remarks: the phone apps and winauth are less secure than the FOB device, simply because the encrypted keys used to generate the authenticator code can be cloned. This is especially true if you have a jailbroken iOS device or a rooted Android device. I am also not able to personally attest to the safety of winauth, but it is open source so you can look at the source code yourself and, if it appears secure, compile it and use it. It is obviously the least safe of the three methods.

 

[GwJ]

I've been running AVG for years now without much trouble, but I constantly hear people praise MSE on various sites, so I'll install it now that someone's gone through the trouble of giving me a link to it. Ain't I the motivated one?

As a side note, here are my Monk's info:

 

[Kal]

GwJumpman, I would suggest uninstalling AVG first. At the very least, be sure to avoid having both programs running at the same time.

 

[Leacero]

Yeah my friend got hacked the other day, and I trust him to be the sort to not fall for any phishing scams/be susceptible to virii. I'm betting it's something in the game itself.

I use MSE, it's great. I hardly know it's there, but its always running in the background.

 

[Kal]

Yeah, for something produced by Micro$haft, it's surprisingly light-weight and unobtrusive.

 

[ArcNatural]

Yeah I just got hacked sometime over the weekend :/ only level 38 WD, and I don't do anything in terms of even looking up stuff for the game. Pretty lame.

 

[Kal]

Arc, what did you lose? I would file a ticket with Blizzard, but I wouldn't bother with an account restore if the loss was small. If it was something under 100,000 gold I can refund you.

 

[Turazrok]

Similar to my monk loadout :O

Blizzard said something about the % dmg aura being good but honestly I can't see room to run it Thoughts?

 

[bassem6]

Seems like everywhere I look people are talking about how they got hacked. Prolly gonna get an authenticator on my iPod touch ASAP.

What kind of Authenticator did your bro have kal?

 

[Kal]

He has one on his Android phone. It's not rooted, so I don't think the key was cloned. In my opinion, the problem is on Blizzard's side.

I have a FOB authenticator. It's definitely the safest, but for the most part I think the difference in safety between it and any digital authenticator is negligible, at least practically. If you do regular scans on your computer, avoid overtly risky sites, choose a good password, and have any authenticator, you should be pretty safe.

Spoiler

At least once Blizzard fixes its security problem. inb4 kal quit complaining

 

[GwJ]

Kal, quit complaining.

 

[Kal]

The Azmodan nerf was bull **** and you know it!

 

[Divinokage]

Complaining about D3 on a smash forums.. mmm... it doesn't really serve much purpose except venting about it and even if you do complain on blizzard forums you get deleted.. gg your opinions I guess. =P

 

[GwJ]

Got this from an elite pack of extra health, vortex, somethings (The really huge spikey guys that just tank the **** out of you)

Feels so good.

 

[Turazrok]

Real pros run scoundrel

 

[Hylian]

Using adblocker can help as well, as it can stop scripts from running on webpages that can lead to viruses.

Also, I'm almost positive blizzard is legally obligated to tell people if their security has been breached(much like the PSN ordeal) so I'm not sure what to think about that. Maybe they aren't legally obligated until they have the RMAH and that's why it's being delayed? Dunno just speculating.


I don't have an authenticator and haven't been hacked, but I've seen a lot of people say they are getting hacked. I'm a very safe browser, always use adblock and I run malwarebytes at least once a week.

In addition to what kal posted, this is a very good program that will make sure your computer is clean and is completely free: http://www.malwarebytes.org/. I suggest a full scan if you've never used it before and after that a quick scan once a month or so just to be safe is great.