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[Captain_Frisk]

Dang. The Diablo 3 thread is going to have me finally starting to learn Twilight Struggle...

If you want to learn, there are plenty here who would be willing to show you the ropes.  If you are ever motivated and interested enough, just PM me.  SO fun.

Oh yes!  I would absolutely love to play your first game with you WW.  I'll even let you play US.  Don't bother reading any of the cards first, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it quickly enough... and some friendly tips, put lots of influence in France and Japan early.

[WanderingWinder]

Hahaha, my sister's boyfriend has it. So immediately after he bought it, I already read through the rulebook, and read all the cards. That was a few months ago though. So US has an advantage, huh? Anyway, where do you guys play online?

[Captain_Frisk]

Hahaha, my sister's boyfriend has it. So immediately after he bought it, I already read through the rulebook, and read all the cards. That was a few months ago though. So US has an advantage, huh? Anyway, where do you guys play online?

Theory will disagree with me, but I believe the general consensus is that USSR is slightly more powerful, and you should bid 1 influence to be USSR.

And France and Japan are both bad places to put influence, because Japan is nearly unassailable as USSR (due to some event card that I can't remember), and France is a bad place due to the DeGalle Leads France card.

I just wanted to have joy of whipping up on you before you own that game like you do this one.

As for places to play online, I've played once or twice on War Game Room, which has a big clunky java client.  Honestly, even if it means I will never have the skill at TS that I do in Dominion, I don't like to play online.  Instead of a quick 5 minute diversion, its a 90+ minute investment.... and you can't ignore your opponents turns, which (with autocount on) you can sometimes do in dominion.  The interface isn't great... having a nice big 3 foot map really helps.

Twilight Struggle is like a fine wine, or a few fingers of single malt scotch... best enjoyed face to face, instead of alone in the dark with your computer monitor.

[theory]

Playing USSR and playing US is experiencing the game from two very different perspectives.  US must play for the late game, while USSR is about never letting go of the initiative and pressuring the US early on. 

I recommend beginners play US, because the early game is dictated by the USSR.  Learning how that works is pretty important for both sides.  I don't believe there's a big advantage one way or the other by the time you reach expert level.  I prefer playing US, for example.

There are two or three "big traps", in that there are some cards that are really devastating if you don't know about them.  I don't really consider France to be one of them.  Japan and Romania are really the biggest dangers for either side, because events will come out that basically grant them to the US and USSR, respectively.

[Captain_Frisk]

There are two or three "big traps", in that there are some cards that are really devastating if you don't know about them.  I don't really consider France to be one of them.  Japan and Romania are really the biggest dangers for either side, because events will come out that basically grant them to the US and USSR, respectively.

Fine fine... it's not that big of a trap... its just slightly more pithy than say... "Play all of your big cards first, you never really want to be holding on to cards with 3 or more ops toward the end of your turn" (to pay for Blockade)

I think that's one of the only of the only cards that I explicitly call out when teaching someone the game... because if you don't know about that... its just brutal.  http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/511878/discussing-blockade

[paddyodoors]

Playing USSR and playing US is experiencing the game from two very different perspectives.  US must play for the late game, while USSR is about never letting go of the initiative and pressuring the US early on. 

I recommend beginners play US, because the early game is dictated by the USSR.  Learning how that works is pretty important for both sides.  I don't believe there's a big advantage one way or the other by the time you reach expert level.  I prefer playing US, for example.

There are two or three "big traps", in that there are some cards that are really devastating if you don't know about them.  I don't really consider France to be one of them.  Japan and Romania are really the biggest dangers for either side, because events will come out that basically grant them to the US and USSR, respectively.

Having come to Dominion via Twilight Struggle, am 100% confident that theory hits the ball squarely here in his response.  When you are inexperienced, play the US.  Being steamrolled by the USSR player a few times will help you learn much about a) how to play a good defensive US game in the early war and b) what a good, aggressive Soviet ought to be doing.

As for online play, the wargameroom.com interface/system does seem a bit cumbersome at first.  However, once you are used to it, it really is quite nice.  I thoroughly enjoy playing TS there.  It supports many, many other games (mostly from the same Card-Driven genre as TS), but the lobby is almost always populated with people looking for a TS game.  It is their most popular game by far, as it is quick and easy to play.  I like Captain_Frisk, but with all due respect, he is missing out if he thinks online play is anything less than a stellar time.  It is no isotropic, that's for sure -- but that is because the game isn't Dominion.  We're not talking quick-and-clean Euro here, this is a wargame, and one of the shorter ones, too.

Anyways, there is my advice, WW.  Take it for what it is worth.  I've taught the game many times (even using the wargameroom interface), so if you're interested in my assistance, feel free to say so.  If you would prefer a different tutor, I know many capital gents who would also be great tutors.  Having never played theory in TS, I cannot speak from experience that he would be a good tutor -- but knowing him in other contexts, my instincts tell me he would be great.

[Ozle]

Which Act do I have to get too in Diablo to choose whether I am USSR or US?

[paddyodoors]

Which Act do I have to get too in Diablo to choose whether I am USSR or US?

Act VI

[Ozle]

Argh, got all the snacks in for an afternoon/evening of Diablo and the server is completely down for unscheduled maintenance!
Damn you Blizzard!

[Insomniac]

Not sure it's relevant now but I have Diablo 3 and have been playing it since release.

Im half way through nightmare with my demon hunter at level 41, beat normal at level 33.

I have also played a witch doctor (WHY IS THIS NOT A NECROMANCER [with more necromancy based spells and less silly witch doctor crap]) to level 23

and a wizard to level 8

[Deadlock39]

Captain Frisk said this in the Mafia I quicktopic, and my response got long, so I thought I would put it here instead of there.

Not to derail - but how are you liking D3?

I've got a 52ish wizard - and I'm feeling a little mixed. I think that the Auction house is actually really bad for the game.

I'm at about 43 with my main solo DH getting close to the end of act 2 NM.  I have a Wizard at 36 that I am playing Coop with a friend, and a 30ish Barbarian that I sprinted through normal with.  I am liking everything pretty well so far, but have mostly avoided the Auction House. 

I'm mixed on the Auction House.  When I was playing D2, I really wanted a currency for more than the best most expensive items (high runes).  It felt like it was impossible to trade up into the higher tiers because no one was going to trade you a top tier item for a pile of useful but mid tier items.  The item system in D3 just feels to muddy to me for it to work the right way right now, but I think that has more to do with my unfamiliarity with the item system so far than anything.  It is also matters less to me right now because I haven't reached the end game yet, and none of the equipment I have now will be useful in 5 more levels.

I like the idea of not letting legendaries be best in slot for every character, which prevents having to farm for them endlessly, but it has made gearing up feel like a crap shoot.  I just look at all the items I find and swap gear as I find things that are better.  I don't feel like I am striving for anything in particular at this point.  The game has also seemed pretty super easy to this point, but it would appear that my understanding of mechanics and general ability is above average after playing coop with some friends of mine other than my buddy I played a ton of D2 with. 

I wanted the Auction House badly in D2 because there were so many uniques that I needed, but you were always at the mercy of the RNG to find the thing you needed.  I would find a lot of good stuff that I didn't need, and trading was a nightmare.  I guess I feel like the AH will still serve the purpose that I wanted it for in D2 once I actually know what I am looking for.  It is so frustrating to be farming endlessly for an item you need and finding item after item that has similar value to what you need, but for a different character.  The AH, in theory, lets you sell those items and buy the one you need instead of going back to the wall and hitting your head against it one more time.

I don't think the auction house is great as it stands right now.  My impression of it so far is it is just a quick fix for my noob friends that don't know how to gear their character.  They can just go buy a super high dps weapon and patch most of their issues there.  I haven't touched the AH, and I am just crushing the game through the first half of NM so far (not trying to say that is impressive), and I still have more dps than my friends that went out to the AH and spend a bunch of gold on a weapon.

As a side note, my account actually got hacked into the in the middle of the day Sunday.  I lost about 140,000 gold and a few crafting pages, but luckily they didn't strip any gear (not that it was any good on characters running in normal), or didn't have time to before I recovered my account and changed my password.

I'd like to hear more about why you think the AH is bad for the game.  I think it is just being used as a crutch for bad players right now, but I don't know if that is a bad thing.  I do think it will be good once the economy stabilizes and more of the players learn what they need and what they don't.

[Captain_Frisk]

All right!  Discussion!

Granted, I'm still not end end game, but I'm now about 1/2 through Hell difficulty.

My feeling is this:

When you play a $diablo game for the first time - single player, there's an expected difficulty curve.  You're at the mercy of the RNG for your drops, maybe you buy some vendor trash if you go a long time without being able to upgrade your gear.

When you play the 2nd time, the game is alot faster - because you've probably twinked some leftover good gear for your next character.

When you play in a party or with friends - you're faster still, you guys can share loot and make sure that the if gear for a wizard drops, the wizard gets it, etc.

The auction house basically makes it so you're playing in a party with the entire region.  If you find something decent - but not for you, you can sell it on the auction house.  Because its not amazing, you'll probably dump it cheaply (because the vendor gives you approximately 0 dollars for any items).  It's trivial to hop on the auction house and search for a piece of gear that's an upgrade - especially since you really only care about 3 things.... the armor / DPS of the piece, and then how much vitality and primary attribute it gives you.  Basically, it makes sure that any semi - viable piece of gear finds a home, rather than being flushed out of the system as it would have in D2. 

Higher level folks are raiding vendors from their location and purchasing the blue armor pieces that have the best +primary / + vitality stats, and then posting them on the auction house.

Any of the gear that you find your self is going to be a few item levels beneath what you'd be qualified to buy from the AH - so you rarely find any upgrades - which really takes the shine off of looting, and because anything that you find is not likely to be end game viable, there's no reason (other than purity of spirit) not to use the AH gear to help get closer to end game.

The end result is that I pop in for an hour, find a piece or two that might be worth putting on the AH for someone who's 5 levels below me, and gain 1/2 a level.  Hell is HARD without gear, but buying the gear to make it viable makes the item hunt experience boring.

There are also numerous oddities that the AH causes:

Gem Upgrades - the vendor charges at least $500 and 3 gems of lower level to upgrade - meaning that a flawed gem in theory is worth $500 - even if chipped gems have no value.... but from the auction house (before they disabled it), Perfect gems were selling for about $200.  For this reason - you should absolutely not use the gem vendor until you get to the point where you can no longer find the gems naturally.  You also shouldn't bother un-socketing the gems, unless you actually want to put a better gem in the same item.

Salvaging - blue items salvage 1-2 pieces of crafting material - or can sell for $100 - $300 at the vendor.  You can buy stacks of crafting material for $20 per item - so you should always sell your items, and buy the crafting supplies.

Crafting - why bother paying the blacksmith to craft your items, when you can just buy crafted items from the AH that someone else didn't want?  Almost always cheaper than endlessly re-rolling hoping for the stats you want.... faster too!

I'm also generally in agreement with the complainers regarding legendary items.  I've found exactly 1 in 40 hours of play... and it sucked.  If they made the design decision to make perfectly rolled rares more powerful than legendary / sets, then make the drop rates of legendary items better so that at least we can have the joy of finding them.... If you're going to make them super super super difficult to find, then let me have some joy of playing with them!

[Deadlock39]

Starting a bit backwards. 

I agree 100% on legendaries.  If they aren't going to be the best items, (not even close to the best items) they should be way more common.  If they are going to be good enough to spec your whole character in and crush the end game like D2, then I think the absurdly low drop rate they have implemented would be good because no one except the most dedicated folks would manage to get them all (and even that would take a long time using the AH since most people would not be selling the very few they find).

Artisans... you are totally right, but this is not a problem with the AH.  This is a problem with the artisans sucking and being way too expensive.  (I guess the AH makes them suck more by relativity, but even without it they would suck.)  Blizzard has already basically admitted that they are bad and are making changes.  There is a post about changes coming (which probably won't be drastic enough, but that is beside the point).  The Jeweler is a different issue.  Because gems drop up to level 8, the AH will always be flooded with level 8 gems (or at least 7s/6s) that just drop off of mobs.  This means that those gems will have a market price that they settle at and every lower gem has to be worth less (and exponentially less because of how they combine).  I don't honestly think the lowest tiers of gems can legitimately cost more than nothing to combine.  Maybe gold prices will inflate enough to make the Jeweler costs make sense, but I highly doubt it.

Regarding crafting components costing less than you can sell the items for to vendors...  O.o  ...I wasn't aware of that, but I don't think that is a problem with the AH either.  I think that is a problem with idiots.  Given time, I would expect that to settle out to a logical place.  For the short term just be happy that you found a market error that could be exploited.   But... exploited to what end?  You also discovered that the Blacksmith is simply useless.

On that note, I feel was the blacksmith just implemented very poorly.  Now, I haven't touched it or upgraded him at all since I decided he was worthless, so maybe there is something I am missing, but from what I have heard there isn't.  You are right that the AH makes the blacksmith irrelevant.  I don't understand why they made the blacksmith the way they did even if there wasn't an AH.  Pretend it wasn't there... people wouldn't trade as much gear as they do on the AH, but trading would still exist.  It still wouldn't make sense to salvage 10s of crappy items to roll another item that is probably just going to be crappy too.  (At least at the gold to materials rate that exists now.)  Removing the AH here just takes you back to the frustrating rip-off artist filled ad hoc trading that we had in D2.  It wouldn't fix the blacksmith, it would just make trading suck, potentially elevating the blacksmith to the less sucky of the two sucky choices.

So my opinion on the blacksmith is that he needs to provide something that is different from random drops off of mobs.  If all he can do is grind random drops into more random drops with the only incentive being getting to pick the base item, I can just go kill more mobs for random drops.  Trading exists no matter how hard they make it so getting more drops and finding something to trade will always be better than wasting time and money on grinding trash into more trash. 

I played a Diablo 2 full conversion mod called MedianXL for quite a while a few years ago, and the crafting system that was implemented there made way more sense.  Now crafting there was intended to be the ultimate end game gear, but I think the concept works even if that isn't the goal.  In Median, you used different crafting materials to generate items with guaranteed stat types on an item.  These bonuses were small, but they were consistent, and were generated on top of a "rare" item.  If you got lucky enough to roll amazing base rare stats, with the auto-mods on top, you could get an item that was better than any rare that could drop.  This was a system that worked.  It gives crafting a purpose, consistency, and that slim chance to get something you can't get anywhere else (incentive).  Sadly the D3 blacksmith as he exists right now seems to just be a gold sink for people who don't know any better.

Wow... I still haven't said anything about your main AH comments.  Ugh.

I think you make good points about finding gear for the players 5 levels below you, selling it and buying your upgrades from the AH.  I can see how that takes away the satisfaction of finding shiny new loot.  I guess my own intentional avoidance of the AH has shielded me from this so far.  I guess maybe this is an issue of not actually being able to find the gear that you need *right now* to survive in the area you are in, but if you could find that gear, the game would probably be too easy. (Perhaps it is since you can find it on the AH.) But if you can't find it, and you take away the AH, then what is left other than a grind fest.  I guess you just get by with the gear you have like we did in D2, but hell in D2 was always incredibly frustrating until I managed to grind a sorceress up to where she was strong enough to run hell Mephisto for decent loot.  I'm not sure where I was going with that point.  I guess, I see that the AH makes some of the loot finding less fun than D2, but I think taking it away would just bring back some of the incredibly annoying aspects of D2.  Then again, it is possible they added a feature D2 needed to a game they designed to not need it.

Holy Rambling Batman.  I think I repeated the same thing a few too many times, but I need to wrap up I guess.

[Captain_Frisk]

You're just about getting to the point where I found the difficulty ramped significantly.  I'm curious as to how you feel about finding the items you need to progress as you hit late nightmare and hell.

I still enjoy the game... and there are a lot of things I like about it.  Chasing after treasure goblins, I found a timed dungeon today in Act II Hell that I had never seen before, and I think that the idea of the skill system is a good one vs. hard and fast skill trees - for many of the reasons that theory's personal hero David Sirlin pointed out: http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/5/3/diablo-3s-ability-system.html

I saw their posts on upcoming balance changes, and I look forward to them, I'm confident they will treat the game right.

[Ozle]

Im not quite at that point yet, but the problem I see with the AH is that it totally negates upgrading gear yourself.

I dont think I have ever worn a single piece of item I have found since about level 20. When you can buy much better pieces from the AH for not very much money, and im talking seriously much better.

Its the same with the Blacksmithing. You get no skill points for actually making stuff, just for spending money. And the gear is sub AH and too randomly distributed. So even if you want a top end blacksmith your better off selling all your gear and saving up till you can farm the cash needed at the end and then levelling. Why it doesnt go by use I have no idea!

And legendaries are stupid, not only are they stupidly rare, they have AWFUL stats, I have not seen one yet where it wasnt really easy to be a better blue or yellow off the AH for a fraction of the price. They should be stupidly rare, but they also should be stupidly good for that rarity to mean something. As they are now they are most just trophies.

Overall though I'm really enjoying it, but I doubt ill ever do all the replayability stuff, i have been exploring every nook and cranny on the way through the first couple of difficulty levels and I dont think i would want to do it again, just to get a tiny bit better item.

[Captain_Frisk]

Im not quite at that point yet, but the problem I see with the AH is that it totally negates upgrading gear yourself.

I dont think I have ever worn a single piece of item I have found since about level 20. When you can buy much better pieces from the AH for not very much money, and im talking seriously much better.

Its the same with the Blacksmithing. You get no skill points for actually making stuff, just for spending money. And the gear is sub AH and too randomly distributed. So even if you want a top end blacksmith your better off selling all your gear and saving up till you can farm the cash needed at the end and then levelling. Why it doesnt go by use I have no idea!

And legendaries are stupid, not only are they stupidly rare, they have AWFUL stats, I have not seen one yet where it wasnt really easy to be a better blue or yellow off the AH for a fraction of the price. They should be stupidly rare, but they also should be stupidly good for that rarity to mean something. As they are now they are most just trophies.

Overall though I'm really enjoying it, but I doubt ill ever do all the replayability stuff, i have been exploring every nook and cranny on the way through the first couple of difficulty levels and I dont think i would want to do it again, just to get a tiny bit better item.

I'm hoping that the nooks and crannies will be more commonly explored during inferno where progression is difficult.  I fully explored everything during my first normal run - and then its been rush rush rush ever since.  There is 0 incentive to explore when your real goal is to get to a later act faster - where you level faster, get more gold, and find better items.

[Deadlock39]

I know this is mostly beside the point, but I want to make the point that visiting the AH is not required.  I have been ignoring the AH completely so far other than to poke around with it a couple of times to see how it works.  This is partially because I know I will have more fun finding my own gear during the leveling part of the game, and partially because I can't stand spending money on things that I know I will ditch later.  My characters are all wearing 100% gear that I found while playing (maybe one or two pieces that dropped for my buddy when we were playing coop).  I've probably been exploring around a bit more than the average player, but I don't clear every map 100%.  I haven't had any trouble with not having good enough gear.  My Demon Hunter is almost to the end of Act 3 Nightmare and still crushing just about everything I encounter.

I guess my main point is, if buying all your gear and not finding your own gear is reducing your enjoyment of the game, then I recommend skipping the AH and forcing yourself to find your own gear.  Maybe this just doesn't work because I'm super lucky, not far enough into the game yet, or just picked an OP class to start out with... I don't know.

[Ozle]

I know this is mostly beside the point, but I want to make the point that visiting the AH is not required.  I have been ignoring the AH completely so far other than to poke around with it a couple of times to see how it works.  This is partially because I know I will have more fun finding my own gear during the leveling part of the game, and partially because I can't stand spending money on things that I know I will ditch later.  My characters are all wearing 100% gear that I found while playing (maybe one or two pieces that dropped for my buddy when we were playing coop).  I've probably been exploring around a bit more than the average player, but I don't clear every map 100%.  I haven't had any trouble with not having good enough gear.  My Demon Hunter is almost to the end of Act 3 Nightmare and still crushing just about everything I encounter.

I guess my main point is, if buying all your gear and not finding your own gear is reducing your enjoyment of the game, then I recommend skipping the AH and forcing yourself to find your own gear.  Maybe this just doesn't work because I'm super lucky, not far enough into the game yet, or just picked an OP class to start out with... I don't know.

It doesnt ruin my enjoyment of the game, it just makes one part of the game a bit obselete, the only reason I pick stuff up is to sell.

And it definately depends on how far into the game you are, I dont think it really gets difficult until Hell apparently (ive not got that far) but I have breezed through. And then your found gear just wont cut it, unless you have spent hundreds of hours farming (which to me might as well play Idle Quest!)

The only time I actually died so far was when I got hacked and I ran through dungeons looking for any old gear to wear to build myself back up to fighting strength, and then i died loads!

[Kirian]

I'm at Level 47 and about halfway through Act 3 Nightmare.  I've also been gearing via the AH, but I don't see it as so much of a problem--most of the time that stuff will get sold down the line to someone else.  I've also picked up a number of blues and a couple rares that have been worth selling either to other classes or because they were below my level... but yeah, only very few of my pickups get worn.  And yeah... no point to salvaging except in specific instances.

I rather like playing around with different builds, which as I understand was impossible in D2 without re-leveling.  It also makes it possible to have separate builds for solo and group play--as a wizard, kiting versus pure nuking.  And I've been exploring a good amount just for fun, but not so much on Nightmare of course.

It's been fun, I've gotten my $0 out of it, but I suspect I'll get bored before Mists hits.

[Deadlock39]

It doesnt ruin my enjoyment of the game, it just makes one part of the game a bit obselete, the only reason I pick stuff up is to sell.

And it definately depends on how far into the game you are, I dont think it really gets difficult until Hell apparently (ive not got that far) but I have breezed through. And then your found gear just wont cut it, unless you have spent hundreds of hours farming (which to me might as well play Idle Quest!)

The only time I actually died so far was when I got hacked and I ran through dungeons looking for any old gear to wear to build myself back up to fighting strength, and then i died loads!

It does make a part of the game a bit obsolete, but I suspect that is a part of the game that many people don't enjoy, so perhaps it is an improvement.  People like myself who prefer to grind a little and find our own stuff can choose to avoid the auction house.  I'm happy that if/when get to a point where do need to grind for gear, I can do that for a bit, and if I get bored before
I have found what I need, I can go to the AH then.

[Captain_Frisk]

I'm not the biggest CAD fan - but its on my rss reader, so it gets read.

This post: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20120606/#n2305 ended up summing up my current feeling on the game pretty well. 

Right now, based on comparisons to other forumers, I have gear that is acceptable for A1 inferno (30k life, 250-300 resists, 11K dps) - and inferno is workable, but not fun. Champs / Elites are kitefests.

Act IV hell feels fun to me.  Nephalim Valor buff rocks.  I still get killed, but its enjoyable.  I don't want to play in Hell/IV though because I know that the only thing that I'm really doing is griding for money to go to the auction house... but I can find money / items so much faster there than I can slow kiting packs of monsters in Inferno/I.

That said, the 1.03 patch preview looks promising, and the recent Reddit AMA makes me think that they are working to make the game better... I just hope they find a clever way to keep the game interesting, as it really only took a few weeks to get to lvl 60, and now I'm not nearly as excited about logging in.

[Insomniac]

I'm not the biggest CAD fan - but its on my rss reader, so it gets read.

This post: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20120606/#n2305 ended up summing up my current feeling on the game pretty well. 

Right now, based on comparisons to other forumers, I have gear that is acceptable for A1 inferno (30k life, 250-300 resists, 11K dps) - and inferno is workable, but not fun. Champs / Elites are kitefests.

Act IV hell feels fun to me.  Nephalim Valor buff rocks.  I still get killed, but its enjoyable.  I don't want to play in Hell/IV though because I know that the only thing that I'm really doing is griding for money to go to the auction house... but I can find money / items so much faster there than I can slow kiting packs of monsters in Inferno/I.

That said, the 1.03 patch preview looks promising, and the recent Reddit AMA makes me think that they are working to make the game better... I just hope they find a clever way to keep the game interesting, as it really only took a few weeks to get to lvl 60, and now I'm not nearly as excited about logging in.

I'm at level 52 on my monk and 54 on my DH, my monk is a solo character so I got stuck at the kharza staff quest after the first spider boss (Queen aranae) my Demon hunter is a co-op character on act 2. Both are in hell

[Captain_Frisk]

I'm at level 52 on my monk and 54 on my DH, my monk is a solo character so I got stuck at the kharza staff quest after the first spider boss (Queen aranae) my Demon hunter is a co-op character on act 2. Both are in hell

I could see those big trees and their poison as a real problem.  My main is a wizard, so I don't have the same issues... my problems are fast jailing mortar packs.

Oh - and invulnerable minions....

[Insomniac]

I'm at level 52 on my monk and 54 on my DH, my monk is a solo character so I got stuck at the kharza staff quest after the first spider boss (Queen aranae) my Demon hunter is a co-op character on act 2. Both are in hell

I could see those big trees and their poison as a real problem.  My main is a wizard, so I don't have the same issues... my problems are fast jailing mortar packs.

Oh - and invulnerable minions....

Invulnerable minions are the WORST for everyone just ruins your day.

My DH hates Fast mortar so I hear that, the jailing isn't as big an issue for the DH. as it is for the monk (no range)

and yea it's the trees mixed in with chargers and a large pack of kharza minions and an elite or a rare pack that hurt the monks play through

[Dave970]

Aside from the obvious (don't stand in the poison), your monk needs an escape move.  Try using Tempest Rush.  It allows you to bulldoze through mobs to get away/through (ignores collision) and into safer positions.  Won't help if you're jailed, of course, but your Serenity can be saved for that.  Chain CC will still be an issue, so try to pull as little as possible for any given fight.  Caves are the worst (you run out of places to run), and they actually highlight the issue mentioned in the CAD blog.

The point is to stack NV, then go boss hunting.  But what do you do when you're on a melee character and the entrance has a pack of Jailer Frozen ArcaneEnchanted Vortex FireChains mobs?  Did I mention they were naturally fast, too, like bats or something?  Well, you die.  Then you decide: can I skip this cave, or do I have to reset the game, losing my NV stack?  Sucks when that cave is your progression, not optional.

I guess that's partially why I have a 60 mage, barb, and monk.  Each of them gets frustrating at times, so I need to switch around if I want to keep my interest in the game, given all the guaranteed instant-and-repeated death that gets thrown out of the randomizer.  I get the most success out of kiting with the mage, but that's also the least interesting method to play, to me.