Riding the Walrus

Diablo III has become a chill out game for me. Whether I am working or simply doing nothing, alt-tabbing in to kill some demons is a great way to ponder the universe and attempt to understand what it is I am doing regarding my PhD research. However, Diablo III is many things for many people. For some it was an utter disappointment, a narrative letdown (something I will never understand) that did not fill the shoes that Diablo II left. For others, it is a travesty of always online DRM (something I do understand), and should have offered an offline mode straight out of the box. Whatever the case may be, I feel it would be hard to argue against what Diablo III gets right. In my opinion that is its raw game play mechanics.

Never have I played a game where so much investment, research and physical execution and ability are required to make certain things work. Sure, you can slap a whole heap of spells on your toolbar and faceroll your way through the early game content merry as can be. But come late game content, you should be asking yourself both whether this is efficient and if you can possibly make this process better.

The most successful and efficient builds come in the form of ones that eliminate the need to run a primary resource generator. For the inexperienced, this would seem like heresy. "How on in the hell am I supposed to use ANY abilities if I don't have a way of generating resource?"one may say. "Easily!", would be my response. You just have to actually look at the spells/passives you are using and work out how they can best synergise with others. Observe:

In the video I am using two handed builds typically to show how they can work with the much more difficult gearing path compared to dual wielding (i.e. no bonus 15% attack speed). Usually this requires more crit chance or lifesteal to make up for the less frequent sustain you maintain.