Post 'em if you got 'em.

Here is what I use currently (85 Ranger) starting Hell, much more in bank for other classes:





I have other gloves as well, but I switch these ones in when needed. I haven't upgraded any of these yet as (1) I am lazy, and (2) I haven't found any duplicates and I don't wanna risk it. Coincidentally, my weapons names since level 8 have all expressed animosity towards the sky =P

lol, nice finds! Post em up when you find an elite. I was wondering what the first elite find might be. I don't have a database table set up to track this stuff, but ... I will one day when the real accounts go live.

Yes I realized that shortly after posting, lol. I have elites too so I guess I will replace those when I get unlazy =/

Am I doing this right?



Seriously though, are elite/excep items supposed to have better stat modifiers, or just higher Armor/Weapon Damage? Because I'm not seeing much extra in the way of stats, and I'm wondering how casters are supposed to compete with the weapons that melee get as gear levels increase. I get another +50 Int, my Bone Spirit damage goes up by an average of 14. With cast time and mob resists, thats like 3-4 dps...for about a 20% increase in stats. At the same time, I've seen elite 2H weapons with 35+ damage on them - wtf can my necro get to compete with that? Going from 25 to 30 weapon damage seems like a pretty sizable jump, and that is essentially just given to a weapon when it hits elite status. How much Int does a caster need to get that equivalent of a jump, and how much does being elite help with that?

Looking at it another way - there are 5 casters in the top 50 on the leaderboard, everyone else is a melee/hybrid. Are the magical classes just that much worse than the physical ones, or is there something else to blame?

From the elites I have seen, all the armor gets an automatic increase in ac and the weapons get a increase in damage. The other stats may have a possible higher top end value, but there is no automatic increase for them like ac and damage.

This just means you missed a chance at this item being unique AND elite. It missed its unique roll.

I'd say the top things to look for as a caster are +% spell damage of whatever kind or +% all, casting haste, crit, and anything that increases your casting skills would be the best things to look for. Intelligence has more effect on your mana pool than damage.

But that's my point. Casters have to get a huge pile of stats to compare with an elite weapon, but melee get similar stats AND the weapon as well. And as a necro, the only thing that helps out of those stats for the majority of my spells is the +all damage. There's only 3 of my abilities that can crit, and 2 of those have 30sec cooldowns, so crit is largely worthless. Spell skills (conj, evo, etc) dont have much of a noticeable impact, I move some gear to trade 14 int for 15 conj, my DoT damage goes up 4 per tick. And casting haste really just means that I can apply my DoT's in 8 seconds instead of 10, but its not going to make them do any more damage.

The only spell this stuff all applies is Bone Spirit, and it doesn't seem like very fun gameplay to spam my level 1 nuke repeatedly. Plus, if I get more casting haste so that I can spam it faster, that ultimately means it'll drain my mana quicker and I'll spend more time sitting. Whereas a melee can just go for +skill haste and spam their free attacks faster, to repeatedly apply that elite weapon damage.

Maybe I'm just not that lucky with drops, maybe its more of a niche problem with necros, but all of the power that I felt leveling up from 1-50 has just all been drained away in Nightmare. And if I can actually make it through the bosses and get to Hell, I'll probably just quit that char and re-roll a ranger or something.

Hang in there, my friend. Talents are going to be a total game-changer.

Sure you could be the 10th ranger to crack hell difficulty, but there are no bragging rights there. If you really want street cred, take a human enchanter to level 99!

Challenge accepted!

Oh god why did I take this challenge?

Bro, I promise enchanters are secret God tier later on

Casters definitely need a huge boost. I've been playing this game like nonstop for the past week and have quite a bit of experience with multiple classes and caster power is just far below melee/hybrid. For example, my Magician having a pet that is 16 levels higher than her should be doing some serious damage, but it simply doesn't. My Ranger's Fire DD does nearly the same damage as my Mage's Lava Bolt at the same level, wut? Casters can't do much when there is no skill cap increases and the itemization isn't there to help them grow stronger. I thought my Mage and Necro were strong until I tried a few melee classes and then I realized they were pretty bad and would struggle in nightmare and beyond. So I agree with the above.

Yep. Seems to be the case. It will be addressed.

It's like I put a shit ton of effort into collecting massive amounts of +Conjuration items and having a separate set of gear I swap in to get a badass pet. i merchant shopped for hours, farmed Vox all night, etc to get my pet to be so high level and I feel like it made little difference. Putting so much effort into my class should feel rewarding and powerful. But I know you're working on it, thanks again for the hard work and for listening to feedback, still having loads of fun, just can't wait for a bigger bank or something as I'm a hoarder.

My first elite item!

Doesn't count

I've noticed a much more generous drop rate on elite uniques, I've got about 5 or 6 on me right now. Will get to posting that. Also I've gotten a pair of boots for like every class, I've got a mule just for elite boots =/