PC Gaming Thread

[bantx]

But i guess a 200 dollar vid card couldnt hurt

[vidae]

Alls I'm sayin is I have never spent more on a mobo than a video card.

[bantx]

Any recommendations?

[nepg]

Tomshardware.com always has up to date rankings on parts and reviews for the best parts for each price range. that is always where I start before building a machine.

[bantx]

my last build was 6-7 years ago i should go on that site and check out some stuff hah

But my gaming won't be too heavy it'd be mostly Starcraft 2 and possibly D3 later

But I'm mainly going to doing some photo/video editing on there

[nepg]

Originally Posted by bantx

my last build was 6-7 years ago i should go on that site and check out some stuff hah

But my gaming won't be too heavy it'd be mostly Starcraft 2 and possibly D3 later

But I'm mainly going to doing some photo/video editing on there

They usually have various budget builds

[bantx]

I'd be willing to spend up to 1k on it, but I wanted to pick up a 27inch monitor along with it so it might clash with my budget lol

[nepg]

Originally Posted by bantx

I'd be willing to spend up to 1k on it, but I wanted to pick up a 27inch monitor along with it so it might clash with my budget lol

Your budget is pretty large. I was looking at upgrading and recycling my box into another machine recently and I was at like $750

[bantx]

My old machine all of it is pretty outdated only thing I'll be stripping from it is the HD and CD/DVD drive.

[gsorace]

Originally Posted by nepg

They dumbed down the game and made the atmosphere much less dark and actually pretty cartoony. They give you the illusion of options with skills when leveling when before you chose your stats and had tough choices to make with your skill tree points.

In D3, you don't get to distribute stats, and the "skill tree" is an afterthought since you can pick whatever skills you want to carry at any given point in the game.

Is it still a solid game and pretty fun? Yes. But it's still a massive let-down and I refuse to associate it with either of the previous titles.

Have you even played past act 1 in d3?

In d2 stat points didn't matter anyway, you put just enough points into strength to meet the requirements of end game gear and the rest of your points would go into vita unless you wanted to max block or you played an amazon.

Just about everybody used the same cookie cutter builds too. Almost all sorcs were blizz, almost all pallys were hammerdins all necros used BS all druids used tornado...ect. There were exceptions, especially if you pvped but for the most part everybody would use the same builds with the same gear.

[bantx]

pulled the trigger and just bought my part today. This is what I got from newegg

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Corsair-Fo...Drive/17490144
SSD

http://www.walmart.com/ip/XFX-AMD-Ra...-Card/20701018
Video Card

http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0354588
Processor

I will post pics of build once everything is done :D

[Crickett]

Originally Posted by gsorace

In d2 stat points didn't matter anyway, you put just enough points into strength to meet the requirements of end game gear and the rest of your points would go into vita unless you wanted to max block or you played an amazon.

Sure they did, because it was a trade off of what end of game gear you wanted vs. what you wanted to invest in str.

Light Plate, Mage Plate, Archon Plate, each step up required a bit more of a strength investment but had a much higher defensive boost. You could actually get away without investing ANYTHING in strength if you had the right items and wanted to actually do that. But do you want the lidless wall or Spirit Monarch which is significantly better but requires 156 str to lidlesses 58? Light Plate Enigma or Archon plate that had 400+ more defense?

Yes, stat points do matter.

Originally Posted by gsorace

Just about everybody used the same cookie cutter builds too. Almost all sorcs were blizz, almost all pallys were hammerdins all necros used BS all druids used tornado...ect. There were exceptions, especially if you pvped but for the most part everybody would use the same builds with the same gear.

Paladins are hammerdins, smiters, chargers, auradins, zealers and fohers (fist of heavens). What else are paladins supposed to base themselves around, resist cold?

Sorcs are blizz, orbers, meteorbers, fireballers, lightning sorcs, nova sorcs and enchantresses (yeah, enchantresses are very uncommon). Again, what else are sorcs supposed to base themselves around? Static? Fire wall?

My main necromancer in D2 is a summoner and it's strong enough to harvest organ sets easily. If you want I can give you the list of what I use, build shortcomings, alternate options that could be tried if I ever bothered to. I do have a bone necro, but it has been a grave disappointment. But other than poison, bone or summons or some combination, what skills would a summoner use to kill things?

I generally only use druids as trade characters, but shapeshift is pretty common. Druid summoners aren't, but that's because they're so weak.

And barb, I never finished my barb, but there's so many different combinations of great weapons you could use on barbs. (note: the prefix e denotes "ethereal" a suffix z stands for the item being made in a bezerker axe and cb stands for the item being made in a colossus blade).
Doomz
Ebotdz
Edeathz
Beastz
Ebotdcb
Edeathcb
Azurewrath
Faminez
Battle Hammer Famine
Immortal King Set
Some kind of ethereal Oath sword.
Hojz (Hand of Justice)
And a bunch of these open up very different possibilities. From the damage for breath of the dying and death to the auras hand of justice (hoj) and doom provide. And I havent even mentioned most two handed weapons.

I could go on and on and on like this, but simply put, your claims of their being only one or two cookie cutter builds don't hold water. You could argue that all of the ones I listed are cookie cutter, but you'd have to relax the definition of that term to the point where any build that maxes a skill is cookie cutter.

Certainly a lot of gear is common place. Anyone who isn't a sorc and wants to teleport is going to use enigma. Anyone who can afford one is going to have a merc with a fortitude to triple it's damage.

If you're a fire or a lite sorc, it's common to kind near perfect eschutas or occuluses. Or a cold faceted death's fathom for a cold sorc. Everyone who has an elemental based character other than auradin is going to have an infinity merc (if they can afford it). That's simply because its the best gear for the job.

And yes, after all that, my main pvm build is a hammerdin. I use it because it can survive hell difficulty going strict magic find other than weapon and shield allowing for better loot drops.

Now, you have your diablo game and I'm sure I'll be buying it in a few weeks or a few months when all of the bugs have been sorted out, but please don't besmirch other diablo games.

Thank you very much.

This wall of text has been brought to you by....

[ImBrotherCain]

I am reading through the Diablo lore again and I just got really excited... I forgot how much I loved these games. Even if it does bastardize certain elements of the series I have to give it a play through.

I am picking it up on lunch.

[gsorace]

Originally Posted by Crickett

Paladins are hammerdins, smiters, chargers, auradins, zealers and fohers (fist of heavens). What else are paladins supposed to base themselves around, resist cold?

Sorcs are blizz, orbers, meteorbers, fireballers, lightning sorcs, nova sorcs and enchantresses (yeah, enchantresses are very uncommon). Again, what else are sorcs supposed to base themselves around? Static? Fire wall?

My main necromancer in D2 is a summoner and it's strong enough to harvest organ sets easily. If you want I can give you the list of what I use, build shortcomings, alternate options that could be tried if I ever bothered to. I do have a bone necro, but it has been a grave disappointment. But other than poison, bone or summons or some combination, what skills would a summoner use to kill things?

I generally only use druids as trade characters, but shapeshift is pretty common. Druid summoners aren't, but that's because they're so weak.

And barb, I never finished my barb, but there's so many different combinations of great weapons you could use on barbs. (note: the prefix e denotes "ethereal" a suffix z stands for the item being made in a bezerker axe and cb stands for the item being made in a colossus blade).
Doomz
Ebotdz
Edeathz
Beastz
Ebotdcb
Edeathcb
Azurewrath
Faminez
Battle Hammer Famine
Immortal King Set
Some kind of ethereal Oath sword.
Hojz (Hand of Justice)
And a bunch of these open up very different possibilities. From the damage for breath of the dying and death to the auras hand of justice (hoj) and doom provide. And I havent even mentioned most two handed weapons.

I could go on and on and on like this, but simply put, your claims of their being only one or two cookie cutter builds don't hold water. You could argue that all of the ones I listed are cookie cutter, but you'd have to relax the definition of that term to the point where any build that maxes a skill is cookie cutter.

Certainly a lot of gear is common place. Anyone who isn't a sorc and wants to teleport is going to use enigma. Anyone who can afford one is going to have a merc with a fortitude to triple it's damage.

If you're a fire or a lite sorc, it's common to kind near perfect eschutas or occuluses. Or a cold faceted death's fathom for a cold sorc. Everyone who has an elemental based character other than auradin is going to have an infinity merc (if they can afford it). That's simply because its the best gear for the job.

And yes, after all that, my main pvm build is a hammerdin. I use it because it can survive hell difficulty going strict magic find other than weapon and shield allowing for better loot drops.

Now, you have your diablo game and I'm sure I'll be buying it in a few weeks or a few months when all of the bugs have been sorted out, but please don't besmirch other diablo games.

Not going to lie, I haven't really played much since 1.10 and my D2 "glory days" were back in 1.09 before any of the good runewords were around. The last time a saw a zealer was back in 1.09 but then again I never pvped much. I'd see fohadins and charge/smiters once in a while but around 90% of pallys I played with were hammerdins.

Sorcs weren't as bad after 1.10, but before that they were ALL orbers and before that, yes they did use firewall. And once upon a time the only viable barb build was WW.

I'm not knocking d2, I LOVED d2. Its what got me into pc gaming, it pretty much destroyed my childhood, and the countless hours of sitting my old POS office chair are the source of my back problems today. My main point was before calling D3 "dumbed down" you should at least play it once through.

[ImBrotherCain]

Would love to add some people to my Blizzard friends list. If you want PM me your email or battle tag

[nepg]

Originally Posted by gsorace

Not going to lie, I haven't really played much since 1.10 and my D2 "glory days" were back in 1.09 before any of the good runewords were around. The last time a saw a zealer was back in 1.09 but then again I never pvped much. I'd see fohadins and charge/smiters once in a while but around 90% of pallys I played with were hammerdins.

Sorcs weren't as bad after 1.10, but before that they were ALL orbers and before that, yes they did use firewall. And once upon a time the only viable barb build was WW.

I'm not knocking d2, I LOVED d2. Its what got me into pc gaming, it pretty much destroyed my childhood, and the countless hours of sitting my old POS office chair are the source of my back problems today. My main point was before calling D3 "dumbed down" you should at least play it once through.

I am playing it through, and it is dumbed down.

I don't care that there are cookie cutter builds. People that play online/multiplayer are in the minority. I rarely play with other people, I never look up Diablo 2 character builds, and I just lost 99% of the fun of Diablo when all of the character development choices were chosen for me.

[bantx]

Originally Posted by ImBrotherCain

Would love to add some people to my Blizzard friends list. If you want PM me your email or battle tag

My Blizz name is BanZiii

Mainly playing sc2 right now, but once my computer build is finished I'm picking up D3 from a friend that he got for free so yay

[wogitalia]

Is it good or bad that I still remember how awesome the Necromancer was in the first few patches of D2 before just being nerfed to the point of being no fun to play. Corpse Explosion and Blood Golem/IM for the win! The maggot lair with Corpse Explosion may still be the funnest that game got!

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by wogitalia

Is it good or bad that I still remember how awesome the Necromancer was in the first few patches of D2 before just being nerfed to the point of being no fun to play. Corpse Explosion and Blood Golem/IM for the win! The maggot lair with Corpse Explosion may still be the funnest that game got!

I always loved playing as a druid.

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by bantx

My Blizz name is BanZiii

Mainly playing sc2 right now, but once my computer build is finished I'm picking up D3 from a friend that he got for free so yay

That isn't the tag I guess? I am not used to Blizzards new system yet.

[nepg]

Originally Posted by nepg

I am playing it through, and it is dumbed down.

I don't care that there are cookie cutter builds. People that play online/multiplayer are in the minority. I rarely play with other people, I never look up Diablo 2 character builds, and I just lost 99% of the fun of Diablo when all of the character development choices were chosen for me.

I just wanted to expand on this a bit because gsorace's line of thought is just so terrible.

Yes, people figured out the best builds for D2. After lots and lots of theory crafting and play-testing, the best builds for each class were discovered. And if you're lazy and just look to the internet to tell you how to play a game, then you used those "class best" builds.

For people who actually had to theory craft (and enjoy doing so - like myself) and test a bunch of different builds and ways to play a class, D3 ******* sucks. It took all of that away.

So if you're a drone who just uses the class that the internet tells you to, you're good with D3 because they took out the step where you have to wait for everyone else to do the work to find the best class out and you can just play without "fear" of "screwing up" your build. When the potential to screw up a build was 99% of the fun with characters in D1 & D2. I had like 3 different Barbarians in D2. You know how many of any class I'll have in D3? 1. Because there's no point in having any more than that.

It's like defending a game that just runs through the entire game for you straight to the end "because people just look at the strategy guide anyway."

And the whole "well you still have to pick the right skills to use later" is bunk because you still had to do that with D2 skill trees. So... how is D3 NOT dumbed down?

(coming from someone who is having fun playing D3 and enjoying the game despite being disappointed by almost every element of the game)

[Forenci]

Originally Posted by nepg

I just wanted to expand on this a bit because gsorace's line of thought is just so terrible.

Yes, people figured out the best builds for D2. After lots and lots of theory crafting and play-testing, the best builds for each class were discovered. And if you're lazy and just look to the internet to tell you how to play a game, then you used those "class best" builds.

For people who actually had to theory craft (and enjoy doing so - like myself) and test a bunch of different builds and ways to play a class, D3 ******* sucks. It took all of that away.

So if you're a drone who just uses the class that the internet tells you to, you're good with D3 because they took out the step where you have to wait for everyone else to do the work to find the best class out and you can just play without "fear" of "screwing up" your build. When the potential to screw up a build was 99% of the fun with characters in D1 & D2. I had like 3 different Barbarians in D2. You know how many of any class I'll have in D3? 1. Because there's no point in having any more than that.

It's like defending a game that just runs through the entire game for you straight to the end "because people just look at the strategy guide anyway."

And the whole "well you still have to pick the right skills to use later" is bunk because you still had to do that with D2 skill trees. So... how is D3 NOT dumbed down?

I mean, that's fine, but I'm pretty sure not everyone felt that way. Like I personally never had more than one type of character. And I personally don't find screwing up a build to be very fun after I've put a crap load of work into it.

[nepg]

Originally Posted by Forenci

I mean, that's fine, but I'm pretty sure not everyone felt that way. Like I personally never had more than one type of character. And I personally don't find screwing up a build to be very fun after I've put a crap load of work into it.

So that's when you look to the internet for advice. I, for one, just like playing the game. If I screw up the build, it's fun because it's more difficult. I prefer games where I can lose if I don't use my head.

[ImBrotherCain]

Originally Posted by Forenci

I mean, that's fine, but I'm pretty sure not everyone felt that way. Like I personally never had more than one type of character. And I personally don't find screwing up a build to be very fun after I've put a crap load of work into it.

Whats your Blizz tag buddy!?

[Forenci]

Originally Posted by nepg

So that's when you look to the internet for advice. I, for one, just like playing the game. If I screw up the build, it's fun because it's more difficult. I prefer games where I can lose if I don't use my head.

No, I never looked to the internet for advice. I still did my own thing, which made it upsetting when I did make a mistake and was unable to change it.

I mean, I don't know about you, but the reason I played Diablo II was because of the loot system. At the end of the day the loot you had played just as much of a factor in the success of a character as the skills and stats you chose.

Oh and Cain, my battletag is: forenci#1336