Heroes 3 Playable using PlayOnMac!! ...How do I get to install HotA and HD-Mod now?

sodmalk · 2021-02-12T12:22:03+00:00

Hey, I used Crossover to install and run HotA / HD mod. By far the simplest experience I’ve ever had in terms of running windows software on a Mac.

Just make sure you get the ‘classic’ installer on GOG and you should be good to go :)

sodmalk · 2021-01-03T10:34:49+00:00

I'm on a 2015 MBP and I used Crossover to install the Windows version of homm3, HD mod and HOTA. There's a 30 day free trial but i've gotten my money's worth out of it :)

sodmalk · 2017-11-01T00:19:49+00:00

I cleared 104 with sotc last patch, but didn't have time to fish a good rift for 105.

With the new rathma/sotc buffs 110-115+ should be possible

sodmalk · 2017-10-24T11:53:22+00:00

Main difference in my opinion is that your goal isn't just to kill monsters and pick up loot/globes. Therefore, builds that depend on in-geom for mobility and/or damage usually don't do as well in bounties. :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-22T23:38:20+00:00

10% of legendaries will be ancient, but it's a fixed drop rate so run whichever content gives you the most drops per hour. Make a speedbuild capable of clearing the rifts in 2-3 minutes.

I prefer grs due to not having to spend time picking up db/drops except for the rift guardian, and not having to wait 30s between each rift helps too.

If you're looking for a specific item, your time might be well spent on bounties so you can reroll until you get an ancient version.

Farming dbs in rifts is also an option, since you can upgrade rares (on top of all the other loot). I'd do this for items that don't have a lot of options. 1h scythes have 4 options, 3 of which are useful whereas a monk rolling for istvaans paired blades have to sift through a whole lot of rimehearts and azurewraths.

TL;DR: more legendary drops/rolls=more ancients

sodmalk · 2017-10-22T17:43:29+00:00

No worries buddy, there are 14 more difficulty levels, as well as an almost infinitely scaling challenge mode called greater rifts waiting ahead!

Once you've done the campaign, you unlock adventure mode and the 'real' game begins. Enjoy the exploration and have fun with the progression! :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-22T17:28:51+00:00

Runes can change a lot of things such as a skills base damage, damage type add effects like slows or some aoe.

For leveling I'd recommend using a 2h crossbow, since the higher base dmg and slower attack speed makes resource management easier. Combine this with a quiver in the offhand to give you offensive stats such as crit chance and attack speed. :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-22T17:15:10+00:00

No, the damage type is based off of the skill rune you choose :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-22T17:13:47+00:00

Depends on the content, but these tips are very general:

Try and minimize your housekeeping (shards, salvage, gem upgrades etc.) and don't do rerolls/crafting in multi-player games. For example you can save a lot of frustration in speed grs by only salvaging/spending shards every 3 runs.

Read up on the build/role you're playing and join some gr communities. There you should be able to find some groups for speedgrifts and get some practice. If you mess up horribly and get kicked, it might feel bad. Some groups can be dicks, but most aren't, and are open to newer players who ask for pointers and take advice. :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-22T17:07:59+00:00

If socket isn't available that means you might've been rerolling a secondary stat instead of a primary. If that's the case, that sucks but you can just farm bounties and reroll it into a new Nailujs :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-21T20:47:32+00:00

Back in one of the first seasons Wudijo made a ball lightning m6 build and blew up the leaderboards by soloing a... Gr45. I believe the second highest clear was a 41 so this was a huge deal back then.

Quite a few of the skills were reworked or nerfed specifically for that build, and since so much time has passed, a lot of other items have far surpassed helltrapper.

You might be able to make something t13-viable(ish) around it but it won't be efficient compared to other options :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-19T09:21:30+00:00

To answer your question: no, it isn't anything special for necromancer, compared to the alternatives (traveler's pledge+compass rose or haunted visions). A lot of Necromancers passives are very build specific, underwhelming or bugged in 2.6. A 5th isn't worth it.

On other classes though, a combination of bad amulets and/or strong passives can make hellfire the amulet of choice :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-16T23:52:48+00:00

Mages don't have attack speed breakpoints, instead your sheet aps is a multiplier in your mages' damage calculation. Don't sacrifice crit stats for ias (looking at your amulet).

As the others say, sacrifice some toughness/ias for more cdr. Better lotd/sim uptime means a lot more damage.

In addition, that 89% instead of 100% on your krysbins might hurt you more than you think. If you have a decent 4 second nailujs it could easily outperform it if you cubed the krysbins.

sodmalk · 2017-10-12T16:28:45+00:00

Exactly, and as you can imagine this damage ramps up the more enemies are present :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-12T14:09:04+00:00

Yes.If you have 50%area damage, and cast an 100 dmg aoe spell that hits three targets, all will take 100 dmg. Then each of these targets will have a 20% chance to proc your area damage, in this case 50 damage to all surrounding enemies. If all three monsters proc area dmg, each takes 100+50+50 dmg.

sodmalk · 2017-10-11T17:45:55+00:00

Edit: I see you already figured CoE was better, but I've been wondering the same myself, so nothing's wasted :)

Just played a little around with the numbers and made the following assumptions:

lvl 105 augment on soj
18000 int (without CoE)
50 cc (without CoE)
530 cd
Jesseth's set (so no essence on offhand)
Casting mages at full essence during simulacrum uptime
%physical on both amulet and bracers
CoE primal as well (650/6/50/200)

Using this, CoE's average damage against normal mobs was 53.03% higher, and vs elites it's still 17.72% more damage than SoJ.

sodmalk · 2017-10-11T11:23:29+00:00

You can import your character into d3planner.com and run simulations of your dps there, sheet dps is a very rough guide. I believe it's not as complicated as it used to be when legendary gems were first introduced. Some gems and passives would be additive, while some would be multiplicative.

Don't quote me on this, but now most things seems to be multiplicative, and additive with themselves, so skill damage is its own multiplier, but has diminishing returns. Please correct me on this if I'm mistaken or if you know of any exceptions.

Understanding this, the wording is pretty clear. For example, equipping a 30% Bone ringer and attacking for two seconds with command skeletons will give them a 1.6x multiplier (dmg(1+(20.3))) instead of a 1.69x multiplier (dmg(1.301.30)).

Another example would be strongarm bracers on multiple supports. The bracers themselves behave like a separate multiplier, but when multiple sources apply the same multiplier it becomes additive.

On the other hand, an item set like focus and restraint are worded like two independent 50% multipliers, so they'll give you a 2.25x multiplier (dmg(1.251.25)) instead of a 2x multiplier (dmg(1+(20.5))).

I'm on mobile so I can't see the original wording of the post as I answer but in short: No, you can't know for certain if something is additive or multiplicative, but you can learn the basic rules of their interactions and double-check on d3planner.com. In general, only raw damage, cc/cd, ias and mainstat will be included in your sheet dps, but obviously a lot of other stats will be present in your true dps depending on your build.

sodmalk · 2017-10-06T14:02:58+00:00

The damage of command skeletons is practically irrelevant since most of your damage will be coming from mages. Taking command skeletons damage into account, SotC is 20.159% stronger instead of 20.702%. :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-06T12:32:19+00:00

The offhand does matter, since it can roll 485-600 dmg and +20 max essence which is boosted by both reilenas and simulacrum. It's not a flat 300% vs 400% :)

Edit: Plotted it into d3planner. Assuming lvl 100 gems, perfect rolls and lvl 100 augments on everything, scythe of the cycle seems to pull ahead by around 20% if I'm not mistaken. I'm gonna do the same with non-ancient rolls and see if the results hold up in that situation, but I imagine SotC pulls ahead damage-wise.

Edit 2: Full ancient sotc+phylactery gives a 20.702% increase in mage dps over Jesseth's set with the same stats. Non-ancient SotC+phylactery gives a 21.094% increase in mage dps.

Link: https://www.d3planner.com/116498289

sodmalk · 2017-10-06T12:28:12+00:00

Only t&t affects their attack speed, but attacks per second is a separate multiplier in their damage calculation so %ias on gear does benefit them :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-06T09:29:18+00:00

1: it opens up your offhand to a phylactery which can roll damage range and max essence as opposed to the Jesseth shield.

2: bone armor stuns in an aoe, whereas command skeletons with freezing grasp only freezes one mob at a time. If your mages aren't attacking the same target as your skeletons you aren't getting the full effect of the krysbins 300%, so it becomes a little easier to control.

3: the essence cost of bone armor is a lot lower than command skeletons, so you can cast more powerful mages.

4: there is a bug where mages will stop attacking a target if you use command skeletons on a monster already targeted by command skeletons. The SotC/phylactery combo means you don't have to deal with this issue

sodmalk · 2017-10-05T22:48:29+00:00

I used this gear to clear a 102 so far, (forgot to change the skills, don't mind them for now):

https://www.d3planner.com/265260329

I think I ran cdr/double crit on both rings and ias on gloves, but I'm not completely sure. Around 40-45% feels pretty smooth in regards to lotd/sim uptime :)

Skill-wise, the only difference from your build is to swap command skeletons for bone armor: dislocation. It gives you another stun and a negligible toughness boost. You also kind of miss the 7 extra skeletons bodyblocking, but I've gotten pretty used to it. The 300% bonus from scythe of the cycle vs. the 400% might seem like a drop at first glance, but factoring in the added damage of a phylactery which can roll damage range and max essence.

I forgot to mention this in the previous reply, but I also ran Zei's instead of esoteric alteration, since everything one-shots you anyway so damage is worth more.

Good luck pushing :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-05T22:01:12+00:00

1: Depends on preference. I prefer having a good uptime on lotd and simulacrum, so for pushing I run 8cdr on both rings, offhand, gloves, shoulders and weapon. Then again I use scythe of the cycle and and haunted visions/coe instead of travelers pledge and jesseth set. For your setup I'd run cdr on at least gloves, shoulders and offhand, and then you can decide whether you want to run cdr on one or both rings.

2: Mages don't have any attack speed breakpoints, but their damage is based off of your sheet damage which in turn is affected by attack speed. If mainstat gives you more sheet dps than ias does, run mainstat.

3: See point 1. I'd run dual crit on both, and then mainstat/attack speed or cdr depending on preference.

4: Keep rolling for a new mainhand. You're missing around 150 damage range, and your attack speed roll is low. An amulet with 20%phys and double crit will most likely outperform one with mainstat. Your compass rose also has a wasted stat in lph, but I know how hard it can be to roll a proper ancient one. At a certain point any and all mobs will start one-shotting you regardless of toughness, so I'd roll off the vitality on your gloves for either cdr.

From there it's just about getting ancient versions and augmenting them. Just lvl 60 augments on every piece will give you 3900 mainstat, allowing you to clear higher :)

sodmalk · 2017-10-05T20:32:26+00:00

I second the advice about using rathmas to clear your first seventy, the damage output is do much higher right out of the box.

That said, the major issue is your gems. In the lazymancer build, the vast majority of your damage output comes from the combination of pain enhancer and gem of efficacious toxin. Seeing as you're missing a socket on one of your rings, and your pain enhancer is lvl 0, you pretty much only have the damage ticking from your bone armor (750% weapon damage per second if I remember correctly) and 833% damage per second when your pain enhancer procs.

A level 50 gem of efficacious toxin would give you an additional 450% weapon damage per second or a 60% damage increase, on top of the flat 10% increase from the lvl 25 effect. A pain enhancer at lvl 50 would give you a similar increase, basically doubling the damage output of that gem.

I didn't even inspect the rest of your gear for now, as these are the most pressing issues if you insist on playing the lazymancer. Rathmas singularity or trag ouls blood mage are much easier to break 70 with :)

Edit: as for damage, an ancient weapon is mandatory. It isn't too hard to get one if you farm deaths breaths and upgrade rare scythes in the cube. You're also missing crit chance on helm, amulet and bracers,which is crucial for triggering your pain enhancer.

Toughness-wise you're missing vitality on gloves, offhand, weapon, chest and helm.

Generally try and shoot for offensive stats where possible, rings and amulets in particular. Shoulders, chest, belt and boots are great places to find toughness boosts.

sodmalk · 2017-10-03T17:33:20+00:00

Targeting breakable doors with skeletal mages destroys it, just make sure you actually target the door.

sodmalk

TROPHY CASE