Hello Travellers,
I’m curious as to what people are thinking of playing for Launch? I only really want to play Hardcore and 100% going CoF, the thing is, I’ve been absent from this game for around a year perhaps? So I’m just wondering what are some good HC viable builds? Also, I’d like to hear what everyone else is leaning towards for their Cycle starters.
With the information currently available, I have no incentive to create a cycle character, so I’ll probably just continue with my existing ones.
Given that MG and CoF aren’t exclusive, I figure I’ll try both, but I’ll likely start with MG.
I’m doing it just for the fun of starting a new Cycle tbh. Much like in Diablo 2 I’ve seen everything, but still get excited when a new Ladder comes around. As for MG / CoF, no they’re not exclusive but you have to be in one or the other to use certain items that drop. So if you get a really good item in CoF you literally have to unequip it to switch over to MG. just keep that in mind if you are planning on switching between MG / CoF on a single character
I used to run ladders in D2 as well, but that was mostly for the fresh economy. However, 1.0 has the same blank economy start for both. Other than leaderboards, there isn’t any difference between cycle and legacy at launch, so I prefer to just stay with my legacy characters.
I’m also a bit busy at work, so I won’t have time to play a lot. That also matters in deciding what to choose.
Yes, I’m aware of that. However, MG and CoF ranks are account wide, so for the standard realm it should be reasonably easy to get top rank with both. I expect I’ll join CoF for undergeared characters and then switch to MG so I can sell drops.
Slight correction for your statement. All current online characters will be in legacy with no wipe. Only the new characters participating in cycle will fresh economy.
There is no market yet. So legacy characters will also start with a fresh economy. The only difference is that legacy characters have stuff in their stash that they can start selling immediately and cycle characters will have to find it first.
I will be Softcore Circle of Fortune for my first character, so I can play with some friends.
After that my 2nd character will definitely be SC Solo Found CoF, so I can build that without any advantages from Gold/Crafting Mats.
First Char will most likely be a Warlock, just because it’s new.
Second character will be Crit Lich Harvest for sure. I didn’t created a unique for that Archetype to not put it to use 
. Cycle, definitely. I love starting with an empty stash and, more importantly, without mountains of gold and shards.
. I hate dying, I usually stop playing any character after one death, so most likely Hardcore.
. Like I did in 0.9, then in 0.9.2, I will first try online, then quickly switch to offline if it is still a better experience.
. Totally CoF.
. Most likely a Falconer. If I don’t enjoy it I will go back to my favourite class, Primalist. But I never decide on a build beforehand, I start playing and the uniques I find give me ideas for the next build. Never, ever, start with a precise project and chase specific uniques.
A bigger difference than stash is a lot of gold and near unlimited supplies of shards.
At least in terms of gameplay, this is what you feel most when playing solo.
I assume it would also influence the economy, being able to buy anything as soon as it appears and craft it freely.
That’s true. But the appeal of a fresh economy alone isn’t a reason for me to do seasons anymore. If cycles and legacy will be the exact same except for fresh economy/fresh start and leaderboards, that isn’t enough reason for me to join a cycle.
I might do that once in a long while just to experience the fresh start, but it will be rare.
So barring any other incentives for cycles, I’ll stick with legacy.
If it were 20 years ago, though, I would jump on cycles and maybe even try a run for the leaderboards. Although it seems LE leaderboards are only about arena waves, and I find arenas extremely boring, so not that either 
It is insane how different people play the same game 
I am literally the polar opposite.
I choose the exact theme of the character before even creating it. I kinda set myself some “Cornerstones” that I will fulfill to the best of my abilities and only if something really doesn’t work make some compromises.
Some examples for this would be:
Lightning DoT
Glyph of Dominion needs to be the Primary Skill
Disintegrate for Support Single Target Dmg
No lightning Blast
That’s roughly how much I lay out my builds before even creating a character
Ah ah, sehr richtig!
Mind you, deciding which skills you are going to use is fine.
The mistake, in my eyes, is to go for a build requiring uniques or idols you don’t have yet. It can only lead to frustration (and funny legends like, “PoE is not playable in SSF”).
I will go SC, but GoF 100%.
Most probably a hand-rolled Necro build, a time travelling Necro sounds just TOO good as a class fantasy. 
Yup, me too. Not sure whether I’ll start a CoF or MG first though.
You might find that a bit more challenging, since a lot of the drops while CoF will be tagged CoF meaning when you swap over to MG you won’t be able to use them.
Once they’ve reached the appropriate ranks & that’s not going to be immediate.
Not sure whether I’ll go Warlock of 2h melee Rogue…
I’m aware of that. What I meant is that a strategy might be to use CoF to get your gear in order, then switch to MG and start farming. Drops from that point on will be eligible to trade and I won’t have as much need to gear up so I can afford the drop rate drop (yes, those words actually make sense 
).
Then again, I won’t be playing hours and hours on end, will mosly keep it casual for now. I’m not really worried about having to get it right on day 1. I’ll wait until you guys make the mistakes and figure out the best things to do 
What Llama was trying to say, I think, is that if you get your gear with CoF, you will have to unequip everything when switching to MG.
Because you won’t meet the requirement anymore.
At least that’s how I understand it.
That seems annoying. I would have assumed that you need to have the rank to use it, not that you need to be currently aligned with that faction to use the gear.
In that case I suppose I will start with MG right away. Although I can always keep one char as CoF and the others as MG. Maybe if it was a fresh start I’d use CoF to farm for gear and gold and then create a new character for MG.
I suppose it makes sense that you need to be aligned with the faction to use it. Otherwise you could have half of your gear from CoF and the rest from MG and I’m sure that’s not what the devs intended.
Yup…
Yup. If it weren’t the case then you could just lvl up to a high rank then swap freely &/or use whatever you want. Your choice would hve no “weight”.
Starting off as MG, buying good gear then farming enough gear to be able to swap over to CoF with the farmed gear is probably going to be a thing.