You were pretty unequivocal here, you added more later.
Debatable. Depends on the enjoyment of the person doing said thing.
If I enjoy mountain climbing, my time might be better spent than knitting someone a sweater, because I do not enjoy knitting, and may lower my net contributions to the world based on my personal wellbeing, more than a sweater would improve someone’s life, even though my mountain climbing may not add to the economy anything of use.
Enjoyment is a large part of what makes what we do as humans important.
A simple food garden may not fulfill that need for some, as is evidence by the many Trillions we put into other types of entertainment every year.
I’m more than happy to counter argue all your points, however, Blizzard gets a little too ban happy when I do (I have years of experience on the matter). So, I wholeheartedly disagree and will say, ban the bots, to keep me on the topic of Diablo!
I only intend on playing in the first D2R ladder, if I buy D2R, because I just don’t have the time to play in ladders, especially if they go ahead and make the D2R ladders just 3 months long. After that, it’ll be non-ladder always for me.
I still hope though they increase drop rates for HR’s further, because as someone expecting to only play around 5, sometimes perhaps 10 hours a week, on current drop rates I’d imagine I’d be many years away from an Enigma say.
If you’re efficient, 5-10 hours a week should be plenty of time to get enigma within a year.
RNG obiously being RNG, you never know, but it shouldn’t be “many years”.
Jah 1: 1321
Ber 1: 1475
these are the chances to find each rune when Runes17 is rolled, which on average I do several times an hour, not even playing optimized, and within days of ladder start.
Basically, I’m old, and won’t be able to play that much either, but I really hope they don’t change the droprates. Farm efficiently and things get a lot better.
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Unless I’m mistaken - and I may well be mistaken - but, on /players8, Diablo has about a 1 in 50 chance of dropping a rune, which has about a 1 in 83,000 chance of being a Zod, though it’s about a 1 in 632 of being anything Ist or higher.
That means, on average, in an 8 player game, I could expect an Ist+ about every 31,000 Baal kills, but, now I still need to pick up that rune, so figure I have only a 1 in 8 chance of that and I’m back to around there being a four in a million chance of me getting an Ist+ from Baal.
Still seems mighty low to me, if those numbers are anything close to correct.
Edit: Those are numbers coming from the Diablo Wiki, so not simply pulled out of thin air, but if the numbers are off, I’d be happy to hear how (and by how much). I’m not pretending to by any measure to be a worlds expert on D2/LOD rune drop chances.
Act bosses are terrible rune droppers.
Clear the pit or Chaos sanc.
Trash mobs are best@dropping HRs/min. Every time a rune drops, it has a 1:148 chance of Vex or higher.
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Again, I feel like people are misinterpreting what ladder is supposed to be about. A six month season, where you start from zero isn’t about maxing out with the highest level possible and a complete set of the highest gear possible. That’s what single-player and online open, where you can grind the same character for years is about.
Ladder is about having to play the game under scarce conditions. Not ending up with the maxed-out everything. People on here who want to say that if bots are banned, players won’t be able to find a massive amount of high runes are missing the entire point of the game mode. And are essentially trying to homogenize the gameplay options for D2.
False. Ladder is exactly what you said it isn’t. What ladder was not meant to be is an economy on 3rd party websites. There is a reason there is a ‘Ladder’ button to monitor who’s at the top, as well, there is a reason there are ladder only Rune Words and once Unique items. Ladder gear makes for more powerful characters, more powerful characters kill Diablo, Nihl and Baal faster, whom are the only monsters that provide valid experience after clvl 95
Right, the game mode that forces all players to start with zero gear and at level one every six months isn’t about scarcity. Got it.
Many high-end runewords are not ladder-only – Enigma, CoH, BotD, HoTO, CtA.
Yeah, gear is so scarce players kill hell Baal in the first 12 hours with junk gear and 99 in less than 30 days. Those rune words you mentioned do not change the fact of what the ladder is for. You have no argument, you have an opinion that reflects a lack of experience. Especially considering you think it takes years to 99 on single player. 5-10 hours a week and you’ll 99 in less than 6 months if you know what you’re doing.
Yeah, you don’t seem to be interested in what I’m saying.
Nowhere did I say that you cannot achieve level 99 in a six month season. I merely was arguing that not everyone should feel entitled to get there. Above there are several folks arguing in favor of bots by saying that you would never be able to hit 99 or key gear benchmarks without them.
I don’t agree that ladder is about hitting key gear benchmarks. Nor do I even think ladder is about hitting level 99 for most of the folks who end up participating in it. If you’re not willing to devote the time to hit 99, I think that’s perfectly fine. But no one should also feel entitled to having the realm flooded with ways to make that easy. Part of the appeal of D2 after all these years is that the game has immense depth in some regards. And that, without cheats and bots, it continues to provide rewards to players even after they’ve logged hundreds of hours.
You seem to be interested in making some assertion about your own superiority here, instead of having a reasonable discussion where you read what others have said.
Just a final note, but there’s actually more diversity in gear set ups and character builds when you don’t have the expectation of for sure having Infinity, Enigma, etc. That’s part of the potential beauty of six-month ladder seasons that’s being stolen by bots flooding the realm with access to a large amount of high runes and other top gear.
You’re wrong. That is exactly what leveling a character is all about. Even for turtle players such as yourself. You have goals and benchmarks, just like every other experienced player.
You’re wrong. Your scarcity of starting out a character whether single player, bnet, or ladder is all same but, if you don’t cheat, is the most scarce on single player, as you have no way to trade. Yes, solo self found, isn’t just on ladder.
That is literally what the Diablo franchise and arpgs are all about.
I completely agree. It is what the game is all about. When a high rune drops I fist pump, because it’s a step toward making my character more powerful. Everyone thinks this way when they drop, including you. You said yourself you literally farm nm countess for runes, you’re not farming to get low runes, you’re farming her to get Amn and Sol. Your words. Those runes are a benchmark, specific goals. You keep farming her because you ‘desire’ those runes because, they are a benchmark you use to traverse further in the game.
Again, that’s every new character on single player.
I agree with you about bots, I’m on your side, I just think you’re countering their argument with incorrect information.
No one feels entitled, botters do it not because they ‘think’ they are entitled, they do it because they are either black market item sellers, bad at the game, or they are selfish and don’t care about the spirit of the ladder - people enjoy hurting others.
It is literally the foundation of the game. If one person’s end goal is to just kill hell Baal, or lvl to 83, 88, 93, 97 or 99, these are all done with gear goals.
Really? After I told you I admire your game style, yesterday?
Since Ladder seasons will be shortened in D2: R(3-4 months most likely) then 99 shouldn’t be achievable! They call it Ladder for a reason. Sometimes in a Ladder it’s not meant to get a completely geared full setup character, but to use alternative items that makes more build diversity in Ladder. But, most of us try our best to get fully geared, and that’s where trading comes into play because you can trade item/items you don’t need/want for an item/items you’re missing for your character you’re trying to get fully geared. As long as they can keep bots to a minimum then Ladder should be mainly legit! Some of you might say, “Well, what about the people who share accounts, and can switch on and off playing a character to work their way to level 99?” Well, if you are a parent/guardian you may permit one minor child to use your account, but you may not share your account or password with anyone else.
"Only you are allowed to access an account registered in your name. We don’t recognize the transfer of accounts between individuals. Activities performed on your account are your liability.
You may not share your account or password with anyone, except if you are a parent or guardian, in which case you may permit one minor child to use your account. You may not use your account at the same time, and you are liable for activities conducted by the minor child.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and the use of your user name and password. You are responsible for all uses of your information, even if you don’t authorize them. Security of your account is your responsibility."
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The first season of D2:R there will be minimum of 300 99s on US East, even if it’s only 3 months long. I don’t think you really appreciate the motivation of a ladder feature that permanently records the top players. “See Bobby, this is Grandpas 99 from 35 years ago. I was a great gamer in my day.”
A character with all bis gear is something one works toward. At it’s core it’s a 3rd of the foundation of character development. The only reason’s this wouldn’t be the case is the player simply doesn’t know what the bis gear is for their particular build.
If your goal is only to get to clvl 88, you still need the best gear possible to get you there. How long it takes you is dependent on the quality of your gear, that is, if you’re play and not just leeching.
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Well of course you’d give admins the ability to view closed, passworded games and enter them freely to spectate them unseen. And if they spot bots they can delete them and perma ban the accounts. This will quickly stop the botters kind of cheaters.
As for discussion of drop rates of the best runes or items, I personally don’t really see the issue. If everyone’s legit, some of the top items may be super rare or unseen on a ladder season. That’s fine. Besides, in my opinion there is a lot of OP items since 1.10. You also don’t need to hit 99, it’s a race to the top of the ladder you might be at the top without being 99.
I wouldn’t actually mind if drop rates for like HRs were a bit different, but I’m not a fan of 1.10 OP items (i think they reduce the difficulty of the game way too much and also create item builds imbalance and cause further issues in pvp too).
So I mean my ideal D2R would run 1.09 and without cheats. But I understand 1.10 exists etc… So I’ll just say well deal with cheaters and delete all the bots, make it legit, or I won’t play or buy D2R.
There is absolutely no chance of Blizzard spending the dough to pay people to manually monitor games. That’s just never going to happen.
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Yea, some people’s end goals are strictly leveling to get to 99. I remember back in the day before I had a job, etc. I would play all day, and night and sleep less. Main goal was always to try to maintain top 10 on Ladder. Did it a few times, but bots ruined the legit way of playing! I do appreciate the motivation of a Ladder because I love to try to get as high level as possible as I can, but mainly play for fun as well because D2 is a very fun game! 
Yes, I always love to try and get all BiS gear for my Barb to work toward getting max level 57 BO with Battle Command + Skill Shrine! Do I always get it, not necessarily! If I don’t get a +6BO Magic Helm, I’ll have to use a +5BO Rare Helm!
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For me this is what ladder is all about. The idea of no bots on the first season of D2:R has me wanting to buy the game and fighting to have my name permanently at the top of the first hc Barbarian ladder.
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