Seems like a complete waste of time. I have farmed way more loot vs trash/chests/barrels than elite mobs now. I did a few runs on higher torments and just skipped all the elite packs and came away with a much bigger haul in terms of exp/loot than on runs where I actually fought the packs.
What is the point of Elite Packs now?
- Thread starter Golbez2
- Start date
Disciple of Erebos
Diabloii.Net Member
I'd agree that packs need to drop slightly more, or have a higher chance of dropping legendaries, and they really don't drop much of value anymore. That said, I personally play mostly for the fun, and I find that packs are usually the most fun, simply because other enemies die too quickly unless I jump up to too high of a Torment level, in which case they one/two-shot me.
TheNix
Diabloii.Net Member
Fun? It's about efficiency not fun!
Steven Hazani
Diabloii.Net Member
The point is to nearly kill you, they're doing a good job of that (damn poison enchanted).
Disciple of Erebos
Diabloii.Net Member
I've only gotten one drop from Elites, as opposed to about 3 from trash mobs and about 6 from chests/dead people. On the other hand, none of the legendaries dropped by dead soldiers were any good, so I suppose their crappy legendaries didn't do a good job saving them.
It is so sad that we have this exact same topic one month after D3V launched where chest and jars gives better loot compared to elites or bosses. Blizzard then decided to nerf every breakable into dropping only whites. Now we are facing the exact same thing? Do you really want all chest to drop only whites or blues?
I think the problem is that the new system is short sighted due to the removal of NV stacks.
I guess the question is, what are the long-term goals for elite packs? This is an ARPG, efficiency is king and will always be king. Players aren't going to kill elite packs if they're just a waste of time while offering very little rewards.
I don't think they should nerf chests, corpses, destructables.
I do think there is no point in killing elites under the current system before RoS launches.
HardRock
Diabloii.Net Member
I think there's a few things you may not have considered:
1) Looking at enemies individually, Elites quite clearly have the best chance of dropping a Legendary. However, when you're pushing the limits of you character on a high difficulty setting it's very possible that killing Elites indeed becomes inefficient in terms of loot. Dropping the difficulty 1 or 2 levels should solve this issue and your drop rates should improve overall. Playing on the highest difficulty you can handle is never the most efficient choice if you're solely looking for items.
However, if you can safely play on T1 you should stick with it. This will be especially true in the expansion. I think Elites are absolutely worth slaying if you can do it in less than 20-30 seconds.
2) Playing in a party makes killing Elites much more efficient. Enemy HP scaling in parties aren't in parity with the additional damage more players bring, even without party-wide buffs. Play in a party of 4, where you have one WD with Big Bad Voodoo / Slam Dance and watch Elites melt away in seconds.
3) Only Unique Elites (the ones with purple names) may drop monster specific Legendary crafting components. These are used to craft level 61+ Legendaries and Sets in Reaper of Souls. Here's a list of all these materials: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?850970-The-RoS-Legendary-Crafting-Material-Challenge
1) Looking at enemies individually, Elites quite clearly have the best chance of dropping a Legendary. However, when you're pushing the limits of you character on a high difficulty setting it's very possible that killing Elites indeed becomes inefficient in terms of loot. Dropping the difficulty 1 or 2 levels should solve this issue and your drop rates should improve overall. Playing on the highest difficulty you can handle is never the most efficient choice if you're solely looking for items.
However, if you can safely play on T1 you should stick with it. This will be especially true in the expansion. I think Elites are absolutely worth slaying if you can do it in less than 20-30 seconds.
2) Playing in a party makes killing Elites much more efficient. Enemy HP scaling in parties aren't in parity with the additional damage more players bring, even without party-wide buffs. Play in a party of 4, where you have one WD with Big Bad Voodoo / Slam Dance and watch Elites melt away in seconds.
3) Only Unique Elites (the ones with purple names) may drop monster specific Legendary crafting components. These are used to craft level 61+ Legendaries and Sets in Reaper of Souls. Here's a list of all these materials: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?850970-The-RoS-Legendary-Crafting-Material-Challenge
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Sulle
Diabloii.Net Member
I saw, that the new visage of giyua summons a fetish army after you kill 2 elites, and although it´s only one item, that doesn´t mean that there couldn´t be anymore like this in some future patches.
This would certainly give you the incentive needed to kill elites, and so I definitely think they are on the right track with ideas like that.
Raesene
Diabloii.Net Member
I don't think killing elites is "useless", but the sustainable NV buff was kinda neat. It promoted survival, sticking with skills over a whole play session, and had a nice ramp up effect.
I think they should put something like it back, even if they do scale down the bonus a lot.
I think they should put something like it back, even if they do scale down the bonus a lot.
Steven Hazani
Diabloii.Net Member
They already do. Element and specific skill bonuses. Eventually your equipment will be based around whatever your skillset is and changing it will mean sucking until you get a new gearset. That's more a time investment than 5 stacks even in the early days where you could seriously lose stacks due to time expiring.