Well, in the absence of any usable loot drops at all since A3Normal.

That's... Odd. My character in nightmare is reliably getting Legendary drops every few minutes, and quite a number of them trump the best auction house gear from normal mode. I'm curious how pimped out your gear must have been to not be matched yet in nightmare...

Rune unlocks: I like the ones I have. Arcane Torrent + Disruption, Chain Lightning, Magic Weapon, Familiar+Sparkflint, Wave of Force (or Fus Ro Dah, as I like to call it), and the ubiquitous Diamond Skin that every Wizard has to take. (Wait, tell me again how we won't be required to take any one spell, but can choose whatever spells we want?)[/quote]
You are playing a stand-and-channel mage, but taking 2 melee skills? You're doing it wrong ;)

I don't get why anyone takes Diamond Skin, unless they are tanking. It's a waste of a skill-slot - sure, it's an escape mechanic, but it doesn't deal any damage (ditto for teleport). You are generally better off taking Frost Nova or Wave of Force with knockback - they offer about the same ability to mitigate damage, plus they deal damage themselves.

I'm now in Hell act 1 and haven't seen a single Legendary drop. Only rares.

Frost Nova or Wave of Force with knockback

My wizard isn't into Nightmare territory yet, but has both of these (and the decrease cooldown trait). Very happy with 'em.

(and the decrease cooldown trait)

Glass Cannon FTW. Between Magic Weapon, Sparkflint Familiar, and Glass Cannon, the damage bonuses are insane.

And if stand-and-deliver isn't your thing, drop an Arcane Hydra on the field, and kite around while it kills stuff - it's possible to win full boss fights doing just that.

[quote name='Telastyn' timestamp='1337783893' post='4942565']
(and the decrease cooldown trait)

Glass Cannon FTW. Between Magic Weapon, Sparkflint Familiar, and Glass Cannon, the damage bonuses are insane.

And if stand-and-deliver isn't your thing, drop an Arcane Hydra on the field, and kite around while it kills stuff - it's possible to win full boss fights doing just that.
[/quote]

Interesting. I didn't go with the Glass Cannon myself because I don't have good/cheap AoE spells yet and my wizard has the unfortunate habit of being teamed up with dimwits so often times is being attacked by more than one enemy.

[quote name='JTippetts' timestamp='1337768914' post='4942493']
Well, in the absence of any usable loot drops at all since A3Normal.

That's... Odd. My character in nightmare is reliably getting Legendary drops every few minutes, and quite a number of them trump the best auction house gear from normal mode. I'm curious how pimped out your gear must have been to not be matched yet in nightmare...
[/quote]

Not odd at all. RNG. I get drops, but they tend to be bad stats or unusable. Mighty weapons, barbarian belts, stuff like that. I did finally upgrade my weapon in Act 3 this morning. (To a big-ass sword. *sigh*) and my amulet to something with pretty good Int and MF. But the vast majority (ie, everything but sword and ammy) are all sub-L27 equipment.

What I find odd is your curious claim that you get Legendaries every few minutes. Very odd. Either the RNG gods have a weird, stalky crush on you, you have god-like MF, or you're exaggerating. Greatly exaggerating, based on what I've seen of posts on the forums about the frequency of legendary drops.

Rune unlocks: I like the ones I have. Arcane Torrent + Disruption, Chain Lightning, Magic Weapon, Familiar+Sparkflint, Wave of Force (or Fus Ro Dah, as I like to call it), and the ubiquitous Diamond Skin that every Wizard has to take. (Wait, tell me again how we won't be required to take any one spell, but can choose whatever spells we want?)[/quote]
You are playing a stand-and-channel mage, but taking 2 melee skills? You're doing it wrong ;)

[/quote]

I'm trying to understand this statement, but I can't. Which ones are melee skills again? The Chain Lightning, perhaps? You know, the crackly stuff that arcs all the way across the screen. Maybe it's the Arcane torrent? You know, the other one that I have that arcs across the screen? Surely you don't mean Magic Weapon or Sparkflint; those are pure damage increases. Perhaps it's the Wave of Force (the skill you so helpfully suggested I take just a couple sentences later). So, I reckon you think it's Diamond Skin I shouldn't take. You know, the one that helpfully lets me stand and channel while soaking hits from mortar mobs. Yep, sure that's a melee-only skill. Wait, exactly what is the difference between melee (stand and swing) and arcane torrent (stand and channel) again? Maybe I'm a baddie, but I just don't understand exactly what you're criticizing me for, here. Diamond Skin soaks damage; for a guy that wants to stand in one spot and channel Arcane Torrent, I'm having a hard time understanding exactly why you would have a problem with that.

I could conceivably see using Frost Nova in lieu of Diamond Skin, but to me it's apples and oranges; the rate of killing isn't any different. And having Diamond Skin on my toolbar gives me a good oh shit button against mortars who might be out of range of nova when the stuff hits the fan.

Still, that's one skill that arguably might be best for a melee. Still not sure what you meant by two.

At any rate, it's all an academic exercise anyway. I uninstalled the client at lunch today. I won't be asking for a refund or anything, though. It just might happen that Blizzard eventually patches this thing and gets it out of beta state, at which point I'll give it a second chance. But as it stand now, Act 3 Nightmare is my ending spot. It's for the best anyway; it's been cutting into my Goblinson Crusoe development.

Not odd at all. RNG. I get drops, but they tend to be bad stats or unusable. Mighty weapons, barbarian belts, stuff like that. I did finally upgrade my weapon in Act 3 this morning. (To a big-ass sword. *sigh*) and my amulet to something with pretty good Int and MF. But the vast majority (ie, everything but sword and ammy) are all sub-L27 equipment.

I know you uninstalled, but what level were you to not have any upgrades since Act 3 normal? And I also guess, what have you been going after in terms of stats? I'm starting to regret my path with all +xp and +magic gear finding as I just hit Act 2 in Nightmare, and having a hard time survivng without major kiting. But then again, having +83% find magic gear probably has helped me get a constant stream of upgrades.

I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to play this, as one of my friends apparently calculated that you'd need a minimum of 20 playthroughs of the game in order to unlock all the achievements. (And to make matters worse, you don't have enough character slots to keep all the necessary characters).

I refuse to buy D3, the lack of offline mode is a COMPLETE turn off for me. I'm waiting for Torchlight 2 which will have the game play D3 should have.

[quote name='JTippetts' timestamp='1337816093' post='4942726']
Not odd at all. RNG. I get drops, but they tend to be bad stats or unusable. Mighty weapons, barbarian belts, stuff like that. I did finally upgrade my weapon in Act 3 this morning. (To a big-ass sword. *sigh*) and my amulet to something with pretty good Int and MF. But the vast majority (ie, everything but sword and ammy) are all sub-L27 equipment.

I know you uninstalled, but what level were you to not have any upgrades since Act 3 normal? And I also guess, what have you been going after in terms of stats? I'm starting to regret my path with all +xp and +magic gear finding as I just hit Act 2 in Nightmare, and having a hard time survivng without major kiting. But then again, having +83% find magic gear probably has helped me get a constant stream of upgrades.

I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to play this, as one of my friends apparently calculated that you'd need a minimum of 20 playthroughs of the game in order to unlock all the achievements. (And to make matters worse, you don't have enough character slots to keep all the necessary characters).
[/quote]

I was L43 at uninstall, all my eq except sword and ammy were still pre L27 stuff, sword was L33 ammy was ( I think) 31. I was going for DPS on weap (obviously), Int and Vit. After those three, Magic Find. I was up to probably 900 dps after the sword upgrade, about 3800 life, and had maybe 26% MF. Mind you, I was doing okay. Really, really okay. In the entirety of Normal, I died a single time (it was a lag bump). In Nightmare, I never died. Never had to retreat from anything; a bit of kiting, maybe, but if I saw a pack I took it down and moved on. I was clearing maps through Normal; through Nightmare I wasn't fully exploring but I was hitting most optional branches.

Now that I'm thinking about it, though, that fact right there should have bothered me as well. Why was I clearing Nightmare so smoothly in such sub-par gear? Is gear really not necessary at all, and that's why I wasn't getting anything?

One (somewhat disconcerting) side effect of this D3 interlude has been a resurgence of interest in the ARPG branch of Goblinson Crusoe. Not sure how I like that, but there we are...