Supposedly, patch 1.7 was going to be a pretty big patch, especially after the tiny 1.6 patch that was slipped in and forgotten a while back. The main aspects introduced were the so-called PVP parts, new account bound crafting recipes, gem upgrades, changes to XP for monster power and reflect damage nerfs. There were other changes too but I didn’t really consider them as noteworthy.
For myself, I think these changes won’t affect my play by that much. The only thing I can see different for myself is switching my Act 3 farming route so that I include Ghom as I chase after recipes. The reflect damage nerf to me really wasn’t much of a nerf outside of the pet damage part (which is nice). As a demon hunter, I just blow my Gloom or Shadow Power and take the hit. Also, I have some life on hit gear, which mitigates the damage debuff from reflect damage. I’ll have to check with my monk and see if he can survive since I didn’t do too well with a Tempest Rush build. I suspect that his resistances were just far too low to be able to handle inferno.
The XP bonus from monster power is okay but it still doesn’t provide that much of an incentive to push beyond 1-2. I’m more focused on finding better gear and my amulet takes me down a bit in terms of damage and other stats while boosting my magic find by 40%. I think as long as your gear is insufficient, there’s not a lot of good reasons to farm high monster powers regardless of the XP bonus.
I haven’t tried the PVP part and probably won’t. It looks like a clusterfuck and is mostly there to placate PVPers. Although I have a reasonably well geared demon hunter, I just don’t feel motivated to participate in that aspect of the game.
For the crafting gear, I have mixed feelings. I would like to farm out the recipes just to see what I can make (not to mention giving me a new goal in the game). However, in crafting two items thus far I found just junk. The 150k price really isn’t justified and I feel you’re better off just saving gold or looking for better items.
The gems on the other hand look good. That’s something I would want to put some effort into since they’re clearly an upgrade. Again though, the major issue is just cost of crafting.
That said, I haven’t felt that much of a change in the game. I haven’t seen as many reflect damage mobs as I used to and the mobs I have been dealing with just feel more annoying by comparison. So I don’t know if they boosted other abilities (beyond molten and pestilence) or worked out better combinations to harass players. I have been finding a lot of Demonic Essences but lack the gold to really do much with them. I’m pretty much just crafting one item per run since I can only make around 1 million gold for a near clear of Act 3. Since I’ve been out of the game for a while, my funds are much shorter, especially after gearing my monk. I did manage to find three legendaries last night, one of which was actually decent. I already converted one to a brimstone so I might do that to make room in my inventory, especially considering that the new amulets require brimstones as part of the materials.
Anyway, I’ll probably mix D3 with World of Warcraft. Both have my attention and I’m starting to feel a little more burnt out on World of Warcraft by comparison.