Diablo III:3 Kanai Fix It? [Archive] - Page 4 - Giant in the Playground Forums

Psyren

2017-01-31, 04:49 PM

Life on Hit has far more significant effect on gameplay than a small-ish increase in damage, at least for some builds. For instance, my LoN LTK monk's main issue atm (aside from a lack of Ancient Rivera Dancers) is no LoH on either of his weapons. Incidental damage from hazards and projectiles builds up over time instead of getting healed off, resulting in more frequent potion usage/death when potion is not available/standing around waiting for potion to come off cd.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't reroll LoH unless I really, REALLY needed to hit a CDR breakpoint or something.

Not the perfect example I agree, though I will point out that for multiple builds (including LTK) that Life on Hit is actually pretty far down the priority list for weapons per Icy Veins, and nonexistent on every other slot. So swap %damage for %area damage and my point stands.

Icewraith

2017-01-31, 05:26 PM

Not the perfect example I agree, though I will point out that for multiple builds (including LTK) that Life on Hit is actually pretty far down the priority list for weapons per Icy Veins, and nonexistent on every other slot. So swap %damage for %area damage and my point stands.

That Life on Hit or similar is on there at all usually speaks volumes as to its importance. The top three are usually socket, Main Stat, and Weapon Damage in some order.

Psyren

2017-01-31, 05:37 PM

That Life on Hit or similar is on there at all usually speaks volumes as to its importance. The top three are usually socket, Main Stat, and Weapon Damage in some order.

For LTK, sure. However, it seems to vary by build, which is another thing I said. LoH is 5th place on LTK weapons, whereas it doesn't even show up on UE Yang's, on which % damage does place instead (4th) (3rd.) So evidently it's not as small as you think, it's just smaller for LTK in particular.

In any event, my original point (and your original question) was how you can tell when to reroll something. That advice/point hasn't changed - use d3planner and see how far off your damage range is from max, then consider rerolling something else instead and seeing where the numbers go. Or plug your values into a calculator of some kind.

Vaz

2017-02-03, 09:23 PM

What's the opinion on the Ancient Primals? I'm torn between Power Bloat for the Power Bloat god, but then again, what am I playing thus game for otherwise?

Derjuin

2017-02-04, 01:35 AM

What's the opinion on the Ancient Primals? I'm torn between Power Bloat for the Power Bloat god, but then again, what am I playing thus game for otherwise?

A resounding meh. It's power creep fueled by RNG in a way that doesn't sate my personal palate. Even though it basically leads to the same thing, I'm of the mind that runewords like D2:LOD's (essentially, assembling a powerful crafted item with rare drops) would make the game more interesting, but I don't really trust the devs to do them justice. On the flip side, I'm not sure how to introduce them into the current game's gameplay, either. Diablo 2 was just structured way differently.

That said, I'm not strictly against it. I don't play with other people 90% of the time, so I don't really care about leaderboards or max GR clears or anything. I get to around 55-60 GR/T13 and basically stop playing until the new season hits; even extra stash tabs don't really interest me, and the rewards for the achievements aren't particularly alluring. If other people want a new tier of item to aim for, so they can grind new max GRs, then more power to 'em, it's not hurting my game any :smalltongue:

Psyren

2017-02-04, 04:12 AM

Bringing Runewords back is a horrible idea. At least with Primal Ancients, all you're getting are bigger numbers to climb into higher GRs with - none of those change existing builds. Runewords meanwhile unlock entirely new ways to play, much like legendaries and sets themselves do - like a teleporting minionmancer who can drop all his pets on top of an enemy, or a barbarian who gets auras, or an amazon with curses, or a werewolf with shouts. When entire playstyles are gated behind grinding like that, there might be a unique one that is perfect for a given set of players (Enigma in particular is guilty of this) but whose drop rate those players have absolutely no control over.

Having said that, I'm not excited about Primal Ancients either; the most likely result is just going to be power creep. Speedfarming the highest non-GR difficulty (T13) is easy enough as it is now, so the only logical answer to more dakka is going to be more Torment levels - even when half of our torrments practically go unused anyway. 13 sounds like a nice evil number but we're badly in need of a power crunch.

I'm actually in favor of "super ancients" as a concept, and they did the right thing in making them have an immensely low drop rate. What they should have then done though is to make it a little easier to get a full ancient set for LoN builds, now that ancients are no longer the be-all and end-all. Maybe add a cube recipe that lets you sacrifice multiple ancients and leveled gems to make one item guaranteed ancient - or a different recipe that lets you reroll an ancient without the risk of losing its ancient quality.

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-04, 07:39 PM

Bringing Runewords back is a horrible idea. At least with Primal Ancients, all you're getting are bigger numbers to climb into higher GRs with - none of those change existing builds. Runewords meanwhile unlock entirely new ways to play, much like legendaries and sets themselves do - like a teleporting minionmancer who can drop all his pets on top of an enemy, or a barbarian who gets auras, or an amazon with curses, or a werewolf with shouts. When entire playstyles are gated behind grinding like that, there might be a unique one that is perfect for a given set of players (Enigma in particular is guilty of this) but whose drop rate those players have absolutely no control over.
Holy Freeze Aura Act II Merc with Insight Polearm springs forcefully to mind. Four very low-tier runes, for super mana-regen that doesn't even take up inventory on your slot, since it is on your minion.

Honestly? Starting to not much care anymore about the 'end tier' stuff since I don't feel like putting in the hours to grind it out. Grinding out sets is bad enough (easier if you bother with Seasons, I suppose). Grinding out something like this? Not going to bother.

Derjuin

2017-02-05, 04:00 AM

Holy Freeze Aura Act II Merc with Insight Polearm springs forcefully to mind. Four very low-tier runes, for super mana-regen that doesn't even take up inventory on your slot, since it is on your minion.

Honestly? Starting to not much care anymore about the 'end tier' stuff since I don't feel like putting in the hours to grind it out. Grinding out sets is bad enough (easier if you bother with Seasons, I suppose). Grinding out something like this? Not going to bother.

Could alternatively use it on a Prayer merc, since the weapon and their aura would synergize with each other and provide more bonuses. :smalltongue:

========

I never had a problem with how runewords operated in Diablo 2, including having specific playstyles gated behind having them. Those playstyles are, 90% of the time, post-endgame builds meant to speedrun hell mode; there's plenty to do in between, including speedrunning hell mode using moderate rarity runewords and high-end uniques. Diablo 3 has almost the same thing, with the existence of LoN builds.

Regardless, I don't really care to debate it when the other party is so vehemently opposed to the idea, so we'll have to agree to disagree.

Psyren

2017-02-05, 09:48 PM

Holy Freeze Aura Act II Merc with Insight Polearm springs forcefully to mind. Four very low-tier runes, for super mana-regen that doesn't even take up inventory on your slot, since it is on your minion.

I'm not sure why you brought up Insight; I never once said that the only useful playstyle-altering runewords are the hard-to-get ones. But enough of them are, so that your only recourse is to endlessly grind for them or cheat via duped runes, and that is still rotten design.

Honestly? Starting to not much care anymore about the 'end tier' stuff since I don't feel like putting in the hours to grind it out. Grinding out sets is bad enough (easier if you bother with Seasons, I suppose). Grinding out something like this? Not going to bother.

For the record, I don't care about Primal Ancients either. They exist purely to give the GR100+ people something new to shoot for, and I'm not one of them.

I do care about regular ancients, but that's only because Legacy of Nightmares exists; LoN gives us a way to experiment with max-difficulty-viable builds again without being shackled to the class sets. That tinkering/expression is perhaps my primary form of engagement in an ARPG; even if whatever kooky build I come up with isn't able to get past GR70, I'd still be happy since that's well above the difficulty threshold I've set for myself (aka T13/GR60.)

Given that Primals are now there just to give the completionists/pushers something to shoot for, my hope is that they make regular ancients a little easier to lay hands on, such that the folks like me who just want to experiment with max-torment LoN builds and don't care about leaderboards can do that.

lord_khaine

2017-02-06, 08:26 AM

Psyren

2017-02-06, 10:44 AM

I am kinda looking forward to the next diablo, and hopefully some sort of reigning in on the power bloat. I felt it grew out of control that last update where all the set items suddenly got an insane power boost. And i think its a little annoying when clever tinkering with different uniques are now secundary to strapping on a full class set.

Agreed - I'm hoping they take the lessons learned from this into D4 (and find a way for us to actually trade/auction items in that game without the drop rates being absolute crap, or without flooding the market with dupes. They managed to keep people from using the AH to dupe/cheat in WoW, and they've even involved real money with it now via selling time tokens, why can't they do the same with Diablo?)

Also - for the record, I don't mind class sets being ahead of wearing a hodge-podge of uniques. Just not to the vast degree they are now; without LoN, set bonuses (and the 6pc bonus in particular) are so powerful/necessary that it makes experimentation nigh-impossible. There was once a time when two 4pc bonuses could actually rival a 6pc. Not any more - the damage buff from completing a 6pc set is just too good to pass up, and T13 is balanced around hitting that. There needs to be a power and difficulty crunch.

I would do the following:

Crunch all 6pc bonuses down to 4. (2pc bonus, 3pc, 4pc.) For balance, make it impossible to mix them (either explicitly or have them just take up all the same 4 slots) - except for 2/4 combinations with the likes of IK and Tals that get 5 each.
Reduce us to 3 Torment levels. These would cover the 3-9 span from today.
Reduce our power such that T3 is crazy difficult. T6 should then be the bleeding edge top-end GR, much like GR100 is today.
Reduce us to 3 difficulty levels pre-Torment, called Easy (today's "Normal" and "Hard"), Normal (Today's "Expert" and "Master"), and Hard (today's T1-T3.) Torment-only legendaries (including ancients) can drop on "Hard", but class sets and primals can only drop in actual Torment.
Add some kind of extremely expensive recipe (e.g. 1000 souls/breaths/etc.) that either guarantees or gives you a high chance of ancients and primal ancients. That way you'll always feel like you're progressing instead of just battling the RNG.

lord_khaine

2017-02-06, 01:05 PM

Also - for the record, I don't mind class sets being ahead of wearing a hodge-podge of uniques. Just not to the vast degree they are now; without LoN, set bonuses (and the 6pc bonus in particular) are so powerful/necessary that it makes experimentation nigh-impossible. There was once a time when two 4pc bonuses could actually rival a 6pc. Not any more - the damage buff from completing a 6pc set is just too good to pass up, and T13 is balanced around hitting that. There needs to be a power and difficulty crunch.

Yeah! it was what killed my interest in the game last time. After getting a completed set from doing the challenges i realised I could newer use any other skills besides the ones augumented by the set. They had just become to strong compared to anything else i had available. And i realised The only thing i could replace that set with would be another set.

Its also what made me decide to do a new game without using any class Set. Even before i knew there were a LoN.

Icewraith

2017-02-06, 05:01 PM

Tal's in theory does better by simply restricting you to elements, but you still end up with a limited pool of viable skills.

Psyren

2017-02-06, 06:26 PM

Tal's in theory does better by simply restricting you to elements, but you still end up with a limited pool of viable skills.

Don't get me wrong, some sets do give you room for experimentation. You mentioned Tals, and Firebirds too doesn't care which fire skills you use; nearly every Wizard skill has a fire rune on it. (Well, not Ray of Frost, but you get the idea.) There are a number of builds for both sets that can do top difficulty.

Others are far more restrictive. For example, there is exactly one Hammersader build (especially post-Faithful Memory), and for that matter, any deviations from Uliana's result in a dps or toughness plummet too.

Gamer

2017-02-09, 02:51 AM

Diablo 3 was good but sadly is take too short time before finish the game

Icewraith

2017-02-09, 11:14 AM

Diablo 3 was good but sadly is take too short time before finish the game

What would you define "finishing the game" to be?

A certain GR? Acquiring a certain level of gear?

If all you did was beat the campaign on normal, what you're doing is like going to a world-class waterpark, hanging out in the kiddie pool, leaving, and then complaining there was nothing to do.

If you've cleared GR 90 solo and you think the game was too short... well, you do you.

Psyren

2017-02-09, 05:06 PM

What would you define "finishing the game" to be?

A certain GR? Acquiring a certain level of gear?

If all you did was beat the campaign on normal, what you're doing is like going to a world-class waterpark, hanging out in the kiddie pool, leaving, and then complaining there was nothing to do.

If you've cleared GR 90 solo and you think the game was too short... well, you do you.

I can see both sides. If you're after a more narrative sort of ARPG then this definitely isn't it; I'd probably steer such folks towards things like Grim Dawn instead, if I didn't just tell them to chuck the ARPG genre into the bin altogether.

The core engagements (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepAJ-rqJKA) of D3 - and I would argue, most ARPGs - are:

Challenge (overcoming arbitrary obstacles within the game - difficulty levels and season journey objectives),
Abnegation (the zen-like trance of grinding for gear or mats),
Discovery (experimenting with various skill, gear and rune combinations)
Expression (coming up with a build that appeals to you aesthetically.)

Some players replace that last one with Competition (expressing dominance over fellow players - Leaderboards and Brawling) - after all, they don't mind hitting up Icy Veins and using the exact same "best in slot gear" with the same "best rolls" as everyone else, if it means actually making it to the first few pages on the leaderboard or reliably crushing their foes.

If the play experience someone is looking for doesn't fall into those four - if, for example, they want more of a Narrative engagement or more of a Sense Pleasure engagement - Diablo likely won't satisfy. That's perfectly fine of course, there are other games.

Alent

2017-02-09, 05:09 PM

Psyren

2017-02-09, 06:03 PM

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, you're replying to a Spam Intern. He's here to advertise a mobile game, and did 10 of these posts in rapid succession so he could post links.

Ha! Clever (https://xkcd.com/810/)

lord_khaine

2017-02-13, 02:43 PM

So, originally i did not want anything to do with the new class sets because they kinda locked you in a specific build. And i actually disenchanted all the pieces i found until got a part of the Inna's set. my god that set it is awesome. It just buff all of your statistics equally. And dam the synergy it has with the boots who double your Mystic ally is almost brokenly good. It more or less double the effect of the 6 piece bonus, since its dependent on the number of mystic allies you got. And also gives you 4 times the regular bonus of each single mystic ally. Since the set increase that bonus by 100%, and you got 2 of them.

Anyway, so that leads to, whats some of the popular gem choices for the higher rift difficulty?
I just hit 40 for the first time ever, and that were with about ½ the time to spare.

Lord Torath

2017-02-13, 03:57 PM

Generally (emphasis on generally) the gems that increase your damage by a percentage are the most useful. So Bane of the Powerful for Rifts, Bane of the Trapped for crowd control, Bane of the Stricken for elites. Zei's Stone of Vengeance is good for ranged builds. Gems that do x% of your Weapon Damage generally under-perform compared to the above gems.

A lot of it depends on your specific build.

What are the opinions on the defensive gems? Wildebeast's Gizzard (Life per second), Mutilation Guard (reduce physical damage), and I Forget the Name (non-physical damage reduction)? How about the gem that spreads the damage you take out over time?

When I first got to legendary gems, I loved the Gem of Efficacious Poison and Wreath of Lightning. My wife likes the Wreath and Ice Blink. That and the gem that increases the attack speed of your pets (She plays a Demon Hunter)

Anyone know of a site that evaluates each of the legendary gems individually?

Psyren

2017-02-13, 05:30 PM

For pet builds like Innas, Enforcer is a good third choice. Stricken won't beat it until very high up in the GRs (when you're taking dozens of hits to kill things anyway.)

For the defensive gems, the only one I've actually seen used seriously is Esoteric Alteration (the non-physical one.) Especially now that Bane of the Powerful also counts as a toughness gem.

lord_khaine

2017-02-13, 08:53 PM

Psyren

2017-02-13, 09:24 PM

I guess bonus damage along with reduced damage from elites are very hard to beat. Though on the defensive gems, what about the one that smears 35% of the damage you takes? It sounds like a rather solid pick since the chance to clear the damage should proc rather regularly?

It clears on kill rather than hit (and has a low chance to boot) so that makes it nearly useless for elites and bosses. It works well on trash - but you generally don't need help fighting them anyway (and if you do, it usually means the bosses will have cleaned your clock regardless.)

Also, what is the way to get a specific item in ancient version. How many reforgings do you need to go though on average?

It is a 10% shot so, on average, 10 each. In practice though, you will be cursing the RNG gods right alongside the rest of us.

lord_khaine

2017-02-14, 08:29 AM

It clears on kill rather than hit (and has a low chance to boot) so that makes it nearly useless for elites and bosses. It works well on trash - but you generally don't need help fighting them anyway (and if you do, it usually means the bosses will have cleaned your clock regardless.)

Alright i guess its my relatively low rift number speaking then, since i though a 20 % chance on kill would be defence enough with all the trash i pull in along with the elites.

It is a 10% shot so, on average, 10 each. In practice though, you will be cursing the RNG gods right alongside the rest of us.

I feared as much. At this point the only item not locked in place is my weapon. Everything else either provides a set bonus, multipliers a set bonus, or is a hellfire amulet. Så feels like the only thing to improve now is skill&gem selection. As well as upgrades to ancient versions.

Psyren

2017-02-14, 11:32 AM

I feared as much. At this point the only item not locked in place is my weapon. Everything else either provides a set bonus, multipliers a set bonus, or is a hellfire amulet. Så feels like the only thing to improve now is skill&gem selection. As well as upgrades to ancient versions.

If you have a full 6 piece and BiS items, you should be higher than GR 40 - that's only T9. One good thing about the sets is that all of them have T13-capable builds (i.e.GR 60) without needing ancients.

lord_khaine

2017-02-14, 02:29 PM

Well.. at least i guess they are BIS items? And it does of course not include my weapon that im still trying to upgrade. But got full Inna, with Focus/restraint a hellfire amulet and that neutral set that provides 15% damage against elites.

I guess it could take higher than level 40 rifts, i got a little cautious since i blew up in a fight, but it might of course just have been me overlooking a elite going nova.

Psyren

2017-02-14, 02:48 PM

Could you link to your setup? There are two main Inna Builds - Inna Exploding Palm and Inna Pets. The latter is generally easier to gear for because it relies on fewer specific items, but both are definitely viable into the 80s. I can't tell which one you're going for (or which one would be easier to go for) until I can see what you're working with.

Concerning Moratorium - it's not that it's bad, per se - rather, it's that other defensive gems are better (especially Esoteric Alteration), and going full offense is best of all. In softcore, the only drawback to death is slower clear time, which makes it an easy calculation - is the time you spend dead or progressing more cautiously making you move through the GR more slowly than the time you spend kiling things more slowly due to lower dps in your gems? Usually the latter (going full offense) gets you more speed, especially if you have multiple sources of big DR (Spirit Guards, Inner Sanctuary, Unity etc.)

lord_khaine

2017-02-14, 03:42 PM

F*** that was stupidly lucky! First reroll gets my Inna ancient. With both a socket and dex. It might have slightly inferior stats to my previous weapon. But you should not be greedy.

Else, im not certain how to actually link my set, But at the moment im using 6 pieces of Inna's reach, Focus&Restraint, The Crudest boots, A hellfire amulet and 2 pieces of Aughilds authority.
From the Cube im adding the weapon ability that increase sweeping wind stacks to 10, the armor that gives 50% damage reduction as long as im above 90% main resource, and the ring of royal something for the set bonuses.

Right now i got the freedom to replace 1 single item of Inna's with something else. And im still pondering what it should be. Im experimenting with a sweeping wind build since i can stack the already insane damage even further with focus/restraint+mystical rythm.

Psyren

2017-02-14, 06:02 PM

I assume the two pieces of Aughild's you're using are shoulders and wrists?

The shoulder you really want on Inna's is Lefebvre's Soliloquy. (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/lefebvres-soliloquy) In the wrist slot, you instead want Spirit Guards. (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/spirit-guards) Combined these items will nearly quadruple your damage reduction, and do so more reliably than Aquila Cuirass, thus getting you out of the 40s. Then in the cube you want Bindings of Lesser Gods. (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/bindings-of-the-lesser-gods) (You can swap these two depending on which one rolls better.)

Sweeping Wind unfortunately isn't really worth it outside of Sunwuko or LoN.

lord_khaine

2017-02-14, 07:44 PM

Hmm.. actually got those two items in the bank, and i can see how they stack up some insane damage reduction, even more so than the damage reduction i got from Augilds.
The damage reduction i get from Aquila Curass is rather reliable though. When my damage comes from Sweeping wind and my spirit regen is above 20 from Inna's then its easy to stay above 90 %.

Though why do you mean Sweeping wind is not worth it outside of those builds? The constant damage from it is insane as far as i can calculate.
10 stacks of Sweeping wind with Bladestorm is 1450 % weapon damage. * 2.11 for Sweeping wind damage increase from Kyoshiro's soul. * 12.8 from generic damage increases (assorted bonuses like Inna's, Fire Ally*4, focus&restraint ect).

Hmm.. but what would it then look for mystic ally?
10 times 140 % attacks for 1400 % weapon damage *2.3 from Mystic ally damage increase with Inna's reach * 11 or so from generic damage increases, since i cant line it all up at once constantly. Hmm alright though, its then * an additional 3 because takes increased damage is added multiplicatively instead of addictively.

Alright i can see how Mystic allies are insane damage towards a single targed with this. And im not going to factor in trying to calculate the effect of area damage.

But i guess this means that the poison gem, that makes enemies take 10% increased damage is insanely powerful? At least as well as my messy damage calculation counts it.

Psyren

2017-02-15, 10:34 AM

+skill damage (like on your belt) is additive actually, not multiplicative; so is Fire Ally.

The problem isn't that Sweeping Wind itself is bad, it's that you need the belt to avoid it constantly falling off between packs and the damage plummeting, and you also need that fist weapon to increase the stacks to relevant levels. Whether they're on your person or in your cube, the opportunity cost is high. It's the reason none of the main Innas builds actually use Sweeping Wind.

And to be clear, I'm not here to tell you not to have fun with the skills you want to have fun with - but by tweaking your loadout we could easily and quickly get you into much higher GRs. What skills are you using?

Psyren

2017-02-15, 05:40 PM

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-15, 06:43 PM

Sorry to double post but we have fantastic news on the PTR: Primal Ancients have been completely reworked. Now they are exciting to get without causing even more power-creep / difficulty dilation.

Primal Ancients are no longer straight-buff versions of regular Ancients - instead, they will be just like regular Ancients, but guaranteed to have perfect rolls in every stat they drop with. Furthermore, if you reroll a stat on a Primal Ancient to something else, the new stat will also be guaranteed perfection. On top of that, next patch salvaging ancients will get you 3 souls instead of one, while salvaging Primals will get you 15 souls instead of one, which will help with the rerolls needed to get them.

This means that if you already farmed your butt off for a perfectly-rolled ancient (or even just a near-perfect one), that you don't have to scrap it and try to farm even more for that primal version; statwise, they will be identical. It'll also make having "perfect" gear in every slot actually attainable.

Finally, there have also been substantial buffs to the following sets: Might of Earth, Zunimassa, Inna's, Shadow, Rolands, and Delsere.

Oohhhh, now that actually sounds interesting. How do you end up with Primals, just like Ancient, only more grindy? Eh, I can work with that.

Buffs to Deslere interest me. My second wizard is going to want that. Basically, I've got one that is a firebirds build, pretty classical. My next one is going to be more... out of the box. Basically, using Light of Grace and Frost Ray as primary attack, and Frozen Sphere and Blizzard as spenders, using using the channeling wrists and shoulders, much like my firebirds build, but with cold rather than fire damage. And slow fall to make it all mesh and work together.

Psyren

2017-02-15, 08:16 PM

Oohhhh, now that actually sounds interesting. How do you end up with Primals, just like Ancient, only more grindy? Eh, I can work with that.

More or less. RNG from farming or reroll ~100 times. But with ancients and primals now able to get us extra souls, rerolling up to the ancients/primals we want may not be quite as painful, and it also means that when we do find one it has one less layer of RNG on it to make it worthwhile. It also means that even finding that crappy Primal Nagelring in a rift, getting a Primal Irontoe from Kadala or pulling that Primal Deaths Bargain from a bounty bag are alll going to be exciting events rather than frustrating ones.

Buffs to Deslere interest me. My second wizard is going to want that. Basically, I've got one that is a firebirds build, pretty classical. My next one is going to be more... out of the box. Basically, using Light of Grace and Frost Ray as primary attack, and Frozen Sphere and Blizzard as spenders, using using the channeling wrists and shoulders, much like my firebirds build, but with cold rather than fire damage. And slow fall to make it all mesh and work together.

Did you mean "slow time" there? Also, why Ray of Frost in a Delsere build? LoN might be a better fit for this one.

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-15, 08:45 PM

More or less. RNG from farming or reroll ~100 times. But with ancients and primals now able to get us extra souls, rerolling up to the ancients/primals we want may not be quite as painful, and it also means that when we do find one it has one less layer of RNG on it to make it worthwhile. It also means that even finding that crappy Primal Nagelring in a rift, getting a Primal Irontoe from Kadala or pulling that Primal Deaths Bargain from a bounty bag are alll going to be exciting events rather than frustrating ones.

Did you mean "slow time" there? Also, why Ray of Frost in a Delsere build? LoN might be a better fit for this one.

Well, the thought was using Ray of Frost with the source that causes spenders to proc when channeling to spam Frozen Orbs which do stupid damage in the Slow Time field, even if the procs don't reduce the cooldown timer because you're technically not the one casting them. Which is a shame, I'd love to see what happens if the orb procs from the channeling effect DID count as casting them for reducing cooldown of Slow Time, then spamming them via Ray of Frost for all kinds of temporal shenanigans.

But you are right, this may be one where you just go with a bunch of appropriate legendaries and use that one that gives bonuses for not using sets

Psyren

2017-02-16, 02:24 AM

lord_khaine

2017-02-16, 03:04 AM

+skill damage (like on your belt) is additive actually, not multiplicative; so is Fire Ally.

Really certain about this? :smallconfused:
The damage guide i found here says its not so.
http://diablo.blizzpro.com/2014/05/17/basic-theorycrafting-damage-formula/
from what i can read there each type of damage increase is calculated seperatly. So the biggest gain would come from spreading out and getting as many bonuses as possible.
Its also why im going to test the poison gem. It made me realise how powerful % damage recieves is.

The problem isn't that Sweeping Wind itself is bad, it's that you need the belt to avoid it constantly falling off between packs and the damage plummeting, and you also need that fist weapon to increase the stacks to relevant levels. Whether they're on your person or in your cube, the opportunity cost is high. It's the reason none of the main Innas builds actually use Sweeping Wind.

And to be clear, I'm not here to tell you not to have fun with the skills you want to have fun with - but by tweaking your loadout we could easily and quickly get you into much higher GRs. What skills are you using?

Well.. the belt does also buff the damage of sweeping wind by 100 %, so i dont think its to big of a cost, even if i also need to devote my weapon cube bonus for it.
But i do welcome the chance to test out what builds i can manage on my own against the ones from the hive mind. Currently im on Rift level 53 while not having reached a hard limit yet. I still finish each mission with several minuttes to spare.

Skills are not something thats set in stone either. Whats fixed are sweeping wind and sweeping strike. And im testing out Cyclone strike, exploding palm, the mantra rune that gives 10% increased attack speed to everyone and tempest rush.

Finally, there have also been substantial buffs to the following sets: Might of Earth, Zunimassa, Inna's, Shadow, Rolands, and Delsere.

That is some cool news. when will the change hit? before the season ends?

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-16, 04:14 AM

Channeling wrists? I'm not familiar, which ones are those?

The bigger issue is - well, if you're using Etched Sigil and Light of Grace, you're not also using Triumvirate. And if you're using the channeling shoulders, you're either using them in the cube (losing Primus) or you're wearing them and you need RRoG to keep your set bonus, which in turn means losing either CoE or Halo. So it's not so much that you can't combine these two builds; it's that your items are at their best going with one or the other.

Why would I want Triumvirate when I am not using Signature spells?

Primus is worn on head, there's no helm for Deslere's so there's no competition on that slot. Channeling shoulders versus Deslere's is a good point, I had just assumed I'd be using RRoG. Not much point in not doing so.

But you have a point, the build is too busy, trying to do too many things. It's probably best for no sets at all and use that one piece that gives massive bonuses for doing so. Granted, it'll be hard slapping my wrists to keep me from doing something like Aughild's just for the elite bonuses, but I'd get far more simply not doing the sets.

Derjuin

2017-02-16, 05:42 AM

Why would I want Triumvirate when I am not using Signature spells?

Primus is worn on head, there's no helm for Deslere's so there's no competition on that slot. Channeling shoulders versus Deslere's is a good point, I had just assumed I'd be using RRoG. Not much point in not doing so.

But you have a point, the build is too busy, trying to do too many things. It's probably best for no sets at all and use that one piece that gives massive bonuses for doing so. Granted, it'll be hard slapping my wrists to keep me from doing something like Aughild's just for the elite bonuses, but I'd get far more simply not doing the sets.

Delsere's does indeed have a hat (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/shrouded-mask).

From what I have tested, Sigil builds are best suited to Firebird's or LoN. It doesn't interact very well with Delsere's as the casts don't reduce Slow Time cooldown and that's a major part of your damage, and there are better weapons than the Gesture for dps (double explosion wand for orb, twisted sword for twisters, deathwish for generic channeling).

Still, though, it's no reason not to play it if you enjoy it. I just found it very clunky and it didn't go nearly as high as LoN arcane twister channeling/delsere with orbs did.

Psyren

2017-02-16, 09:52 AM

Why would I want Triumvirate when I am not using Signature spells?

Without it your orbs are much weaker, was my point. The legendary power from Triumvirate is multiplicative; without it, your orbs are 1/6 strength compared to a build that uses it. Etched Sigil would have a hard time making up the difference.

Primus is worn on head, there's no helm for Deslere's so there's no competition on that slot. Channeling shoulders versus Deslere's is a good point, I had just assumed I'd be using RRoG. Not much point in not doing so.

As noted by Derjuin, Delsere's does have a head slot, and only 6 pieces.

As I said to khaine, not trying to dictate your build at all, but you do need a goal in mind. For me personally, I consider a build successful when I can clear GR70+ with it; this is nowhere near the top-end game, but it still eliminates many combinations from my viability consideration. Something like Aughild's for instance is likely taking up too much valuable real estate at that level of play.

But you have a point, the build is too busy, trying to do too many things. It's probably best for no sets at all and use that one piece that gives massive bonuses for doing so. Granted, it'll be hard slapping my wrists to keep me from doing something like Aughild's just for the elite bonuses, but I'd get far more simply not doing the sets.

Not to worry - if you have the necessary ancients for LoN you won't miss Aughild's at all. It doesn't even come close.

Hell, even with two generic ancients instead of 2pc Aughild you're getting +200% damage to everything instead of just +15% to elites!

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-16, 03:00 PM

Not to worry - if you have the necessary ancients for LoN you won't miss Aughild's at all. It doesn't even come close.

Hell, even with two generic ancients instead of 2pc Aughild you're getting +200% damage to everything instead of just +15% to elites!

Yea, kinda what I thought. So basically the new build would look something like this (http://www.d3planner.com/354322514) perhaps? Granted, I'm probably missing more than a few things, and I know that getting Sparkflint would give me two frost hydras that then do the frost nova, so it's by no means optimal, but something I came up with on the spot.

Any suggestions?

Psyren

2017-02-16, 03:37 PM

Yea, kinda what I thought. So basically the new build would look something like this (http://www.d3planner.com/354322514) perhaps? Granted, I'm probably missing more than a few things, and I know that getting Sparkflint would give me two frost hydras that then do the frost nova, so it's by no means optimal, but something I came up with on the spot.

Any suggestions?

Looks good, just a few:

- I would recommend Meteor (Ice rune) rather than Blizzard - Your sigil will layer them on top of each other and multiple Blizzards in the same area don't increase its dps, whereas multiple Meteors do. You can then swap out the Ice Climbers for Nilfurs (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/nilfurs-boast) for an even bigger damage boost, particularly against bosses.

- Astral Presence is overkill with Hergbrash's Binding - you should have no problem staying at max AP even without that. I'd swap it out for Power Hungry or Galvanizing Ward, depending on whether you want more damage or toughness. (Probably the latter to go with your Blood Bracer, but you shouldn't be in too much danger with this build either way.)

- For the armor slot in your cube, instead of Boots of Disregard I would consider running the blood bracer in there and wearing a Nemesis.

- I'd recommend against Hydra - because it has no cooldown, your Etched Sigil is going to keep spamming/moving it between meteors, which can actually prevent it from locking onto enemies and firing (especially since without Sparker you only have the one, so it will get moved repeatedly.) It also interferes with your meteor spam whenever it gets repositioned. Instead, I'd go with Black Hole -> Absolute Zero to create density right along the path of your ice beam, bunching the enemies up just in time to eat a meteor to the face, and also boost the damage of all your other ice moves.

- With Hydra gone your helm is freed up; Leoric's Crown with an amethyst is a good replacement there, or alternatively you can use Dark Mage's Shade.

- Since Skelon's is crafted, you'll probably have an easier time finding an ancient or primal one, letting it edge out Pox Faulds slightly (unless you've already got an ancient one of those.)

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-16, 04:57 PM

Looks good, just a few:

- I would recommend Meteor (Ice rune) rather than Blizzard - Your sigil will layer them on top of each other and multiple Blizzards in the same area don't increase its dps, whereas multiple Meteors do. You can then swap out the Ice Climbers for Nilfurs (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/nilfurs-boast) for an even bigger damage boost, particularly against bosses.Okay, that makes a lot of sense.

- Astral Presence is overkill with Hergbrash's Binding - you should have no problem staying at max AP even without that. I'd swap it out for Power Hungry or Galvanizing Ward, depending on whether you want more damage or toughness. (Probably the latter to go with your Blood Bracer, but you shouldn't be in too much danger with this build either way.)Galvanizing Ward is in the HFAmulet already, wasn't sure if all the spending from black hole/meteor would be needed to be offset, but you have a valid point here.

- For the armor slot in your cube, instead of Boots of Disregard I would consider running the blood bracer in there and wearing a Nemesis.Blood Bracer only affects shields... she's using a source, not a shield. Unless I am reading that incorrectly? Not sure why Nemesis would be a help. I mean, okay, sure, a couple of extra DB's here and there, but honestly bracers are a pretty underwhelming lot. Boots of Disregard give stupid amounts of healing when standing still. This build is going to be channeling quite frequently... i.e. standing still. Ice Climbers is purely defensive. Immunity to freezing and immobilization. No matter what happens, I can always teleport out of trouble.

- I'd recommend against Hydra - because it has no cooldown, your Etched Sigil is going to keep spamming/moving it between meteors, which can actually prevent it from locking onto enemies and firing (especially since without Sparker you only have the one, so it will get moved repeatedly.) It also interferes with your meteor spam whenever it gets repositioned. Instead, I'd go with Black Hole -> Absolute Zero to create density right along the path of your ice beam, bunching the enemies up just in time to eat a meteor to the face, and also boost the damage of all your other ice moves.I like it, I love it, I want some more of it. It's like the effect from that staff that sucks mobs into the meteor, only way better.

- With Hydra gone your helm is freed up; Leoric's Crown with an amethyst is a good replacement there, or alternatively you can use Dark Mage's Shade.I'll go with Dark Mage's Shade, it's basically another 'get out of death' card.

- Since Skelon's is crafted, you'll probably have an easier time finding an ancient or primal one, letting it edge out Pox Faulds slightly (unless you've already got an ancient one of those.)Well, I already have a Pox Faulds, I suppose I can re-roll it until it hits Ancient? I mean, the effect is kinda underwhelming, but it beats no effect.

Also, for the legendary gems... Taeguk, Bane of the Powerful, and Iceblink sound like a good combo here? Also, best gem for the weapon: emerald or diamond?

Icewraith

2017-02-16, 05:26 PM

Okay, that makes a lot of sense.

Galvanizing Ward is in the HFAmulet already, wasn't sure if all the spending from black hole/meteor would be needed to be offset, but you have a valid point here.

Blood Bracer only affects shields... she's using a source, not a shield. Unless I am reading that incorrectly? Not sure why Nemesis would be a help. I mean, okay, sure, a couple of extra DB's here and there, but honestly bracers are a pretty underwhelming lot. Boots of Disregard give stupid amounts of healing when standing still. This build is going to be channeling quite frequently... i.e. standing still. Ice Climbers is purely defensive. Immunity to freezing and immobilization. No matter what happens, I can always teleport out of trouble.

I like it, I love it, I want some more of it. It's like the effect from that staff that sucks mobs into the meteor, only way better.

I'll go with Dark Mage's Shade, it's basically another 'get out of death' card.

Well, I already have a Pox Faulds, I suppose I can re-roll it until it hits Ancient? I mean, the effect is kinda underwhelming, but it beats no effect.

Also, for the legendary gems... Taeguk, Bane of the Powerful, and Iceblink sound like a good combo here? Also, best gem for the weapon: emerald or diamond?

"Shields" as in absorb bubbles. So if you use the force weapon:deflection rune you get an 8% shield when you attack instead of 4%. It also doubles the shield you get from the Galvanizing Ward passive, the one you get when the Wizard cheat death procs, and the one from Dominance.

Nemesis is a great bracer for rifts because the extra elite it spawns still drops globes that advance your progress bar.

If you are going to reroll something, reroll something with an effect you actually want. Granted... in LoN, is the Pox Faulds damage significant enough to notice?

Psyren

2017-02-16, 05:46 PM

Galvanizing Ward is in the HFAmulet already, wasn't sure if all the spending from black hole/meteor would be needed to be offset, but you have a valid point here.

Are you sure? From the link you provided I'm seeing Unstable Anomaly on the amulet, not Galvanizing Ward. (You generally want both if you're pushing anyway.)

Blood Bracer only affects shields... she's using a source, not a shield. Unless I am reading that incorrectly? Not sure why Nemesis would be a help. I mean, okay, sure, a couple of extra DB's here and there, but honestly bracers are a pretty underwhelming lot. Boots of Disregard give stupid amounts of healing when standing still. This build is going to be channeling quite frequently... i.e. standing still. Ice Climbers is purely defensive. Immunity to freezing and immobilization. No matter what happens, I can always teleport out of trouble.

Icewraith covered both of these. It will do a lot more for your clear speed, especially since the additional elites help maintain uptime on your Bane of the Powerful.

Well, I already have a Pox Faulds, I suppose I can re-roll it until it hits Ancient? I mean, the effect is kinda underwhelming, but it beats no effect.

Not necessarily - that effect is actually replacing a secondary affix. Usually you're better off that way because the secondaries , but if your build makes it so the orange text is never relevant (i.e. you're always at long range, which you should be) then something like health globe radius or life per kill may actually help you more despite being less relevant than primary affixes.

And as Icewraith mentioned... rerolling Pox Faulds is an extravagance/waste; I'd save the mats for an alt before that. Whereas crafting a ton of Skelon's until you get an ancient one is much cheaper and also faster.

Also, for the legendary gems... Taeguk, Bane of the Powerful, and Iceblink sound like a good combo here? Also, best gem for the weapon: emerald or diamond?

Replace Iceblink with Bane of the Trapped - the additional snare Iceblink gives is weak and also subject to diminishing returns, whereas Trapped's damage buff is far more potent and combos beautifully with ice moves.

You want an Emerald in your weapon. Diamond is better on your follower (their crit damage is capped so emeralds usually do nothing for them, plus their crit chance sucks anyway.)

Icewraith

2017-02-16, 05:49 PM

Quite frankly, WRT Pants- any Ancient, even a set (as long as you're not wearing another piece of the set) is fine for pants to get the LoN build going. If you don't have any Ancient Set pants Kadala will spit out ancients at a reasonable rate, and Blood Shards are a lot easier to farm than bounty mats for rerolls.

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-16, 06:04 PM

Are you sure? From the link you provided I'm seeing Unstable Anomaly on the amulet, not Galvanizing Ward. (You generally want both if you're pushing anyway.)Ahh, right. Galvanizing Ward it is

Icewraith covered both of these. It will do a lot more for your clear speed, especially since the additional elites help maintain uptime on your Bane of the Powerful. Hmmm... yea. You have a point.

Not necessarily - that effect is actually replacing a secondary affix. Usually you're better off that way because the secondaries , but if your build makes it so the orange text is never relevant (i.e. you're always at long range, which you should be) then something like health globe radius or life per kill may actually help you more despite being less relevant than primary affixes.

And as Icewraith mentioned... rerolling Pox Faulds is an extravagance/waste; I'd save the mats for an alt before that. Whereas crafting a ton of Skelon's until you get an ancient one is much cheaper and also faster.I don't like relying on 'I should be at range', because with the lack of mobility of my build (sure, I have Teleport, but I also have channeling as my focus), I can't depend on it. However, you've got a point on how much easier it would be to get an ancient crafted.

Replace Iceblink with Bane of the Trapped - the additional snare Iceblink gives is weak and also subject to diminishing returns, whereas Trapped's damage buff is far more potent and combos beautifully with ice moves.Additional snare is icing on the cake, bonus crit is why I picked it up. Plus everything being guaranteed chill has synergies with Cold Blooded passive. I really like that word 'guaranteed', when it comes to applying more damage. But you have a point that 20+% bonus damage to everything is going to be stronger than 10% crit chance.

You want an Emerald in your weapon. Diamond is better on your follower (their crit damage is capped so emeralds usually do nothing for them, plus their crit chance sucks anyway.)That's what I figured, but wanted to confirm that.

Lord Torath

2017-02-16, 06:10 PM

Hydra does have a cooldown as far as Etched Sigil is concerned. The "cooldown" is equal to the normal life of the hydra, or 15 seconds. Etched won't summon another hydra until the last one has timed out.

I still favor the Blizzard - Frozen Solid skill over Comet, just for its ability to lock down mobs.

But then, I've never cleared anything more than a GR65, and that with a Crusader Hammer build.

Psyren

2017-02-16, 09:39 PM

Hydra does have a cooldown as far as Etched Sigil is concerned. The "cooldown" is equal to the normal life of the hydra, or 15 seconds. Etched won't summon another hydra until the last one has timed out.

I tried this just to check and you're right. They must have fixed this since the very first time I tried it.

The issue though is that now, unlike Blizzard and Meteor, you can't use your beam to reposition the Hydra to new foes if the old ones die early. So if the mobs where you first placed it die, you either you stop channeling to manually move it (dps loss) or you leave it up on top of your dead foes doing nothing (dps loss.)

I still favor the Blizzard - Frozen Solid skill over Comet, just for its ability to lock down mobs.

Comet has a guaranteed freeze too, that's why I like it so much. It's shorter than the FS Blizzard one, but with Nilfurs giving you such ungodly burst you generally don't need it to be longer anyway. (Blizzard does 1045% over 6 seconds, while Comet + Nilfurs does [740% * 3 = 2220%], and over twice that to a single target, per meteor.)

I don't like relying on 'I should be at range', because with the lack of mobility of my build (sure, I have Teleport, but I also have channeling as my focus), I can't depend on it. However, you've got a point on how much easier it would be to get an ancient crafted.

It's not easy for every class - but in this build, all your abilities snare, plus you have freeze and vacuum built-in. You can definitely keep your distance if you want to!

(Not that it matters if you're not running Power Hungry after all.)

Additional snare is icing on the cake, bonus crit is why I picked it up. Plus everything being guaranteed chill has synergies with Cold Blooded passive. I really like that word 'guaranteed', when it comes to applying more damage. But you have a point that 20+% bonus damage to everything is going to be stronger than 10% crit chance.

Yep - and unlike Iceblink, Trapped is uncapped :smallcool:

Lord Torath

2017-02-17, 03:05 PM

Psyren

2017-02-17, 03:40 PM

Torath, if you're looking for suggestions, can you link your whole build? It's really hard to grok reading about it piecemeal like that. The Battlenet profile should be fine if you don't want to go to the trouble of a d3planner import.

Anyone else finding Ramaladni's Gifts exceptionally rare this season? I think I've found 1 so far.

I didn't find any at all, but I completed the Journey without one.

lord_khaine

2017-02-17, 04:34 PM

arrg! the one who designed the set dungeons were beings of pure malice and missery! :smallmad:

Psyren

2017-02-17, 04:44 PM

arrg! the one who designed the set dungeons were beings of pure malice and missery! :smallmad:

If you're having trouble, enlist a friend or ask help from the Season Journey community in-game. They can be difficult alone but with another person tend to be very easy.

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-02-17, 08:06 PM

Okay, I switch Meteor Swarm to Comet, which lets me switch Blizzard to Explosive Blast - Unleashed. That means I no longer need Teleport-Calamity to trigger the Arcane damage, so I can switch it to Wormhole. This also lets me lose my arcane Familiar (used for triggering arcane meteors via Tal Rasha), replacing it with Energy Armor for a toughness boost. Problem: Explosive Blast is short range, and the rest of the build is about staying far away. I could swap it out for Black Hole, which will slow/trap enemies, getting a boost from Bane of the Trapped. But Black hole has a 12-scond cool-down. I could use Arcane Hydra, which, combined with Temporal Flux, will slow and BotT enemies, but that does require a passive slot. I could also switch to Energy Twister.

Anyone else finding Ramaladni's Gifts exceptionally rare this season? I think I've found 1 so far.

When I'm doing a Tal Rasha build, I typically go Explosive Blast: Chain Reaction for my fire damage, Teleport: Calamity for my Arcane damage, Frost Nova for my cold, and Lightning Armor for my electric. Then I just teleport up to things, and exterminate with Area-Effect extreme prejeduce. Helps if you've got the thing that triples your boom from your Explosive Blast (gives you nine shots with Chain reaction) and the thing that gives you damage boost stacks for hitting things with EB.

Lord Torath

2017-02-17, 11:41 PM

Torath, if you're looking for suggestions, can you link your whole build? It's really hard to grok reading about it piecemeal like that. The Battlenet profile should be fine if you don't want to go to the trouble of a d3planner import.I was going to ask for help with a Tal Rasha build. Then I got careless in a T8 Rift. So now I'm asking for help with a LoN build*. Here's what I've got so far: HC Wizard (http://www.d3planner.com/733796949). The helm, rings, and pants are not Ancient. I do have Ancient pants, but they're Deaths Bargain, and I really like my Life per Second (46k with this set-up). I also have Ancient Iron Toe Mudsputters and Ancient Illusory Boots. Of my ancient gear, only the amulet has been Enchanted (to have a socket).

Not shown:
Bane of the Powerful Rank 5
Bane of the Stricken Rank 5
Molten Wildebeast Gizzard Rank 15
All other legendary gems Rank 0

I have a fair selection of Kanai's Cube powers, and 396 paragon levels.

I'm leaning toward a Disintegrate/Etched Sigil build, and I'd really like to avoid Archon Form. Just don't like it much. Thanks for your help!

* I have a level 70 Light of Grace, Firebird's helm and shoulders, and an Ancient Pig Sticker all set to Level 1 through Ease of Use gems and Kanai's Cube, which helped me regain level 70 in about 90 minutes.

Edit: Nevermind. I really hate Cold Snap.

Icewraith

2017-02-22, 12:46 PM

I was going to ask for help with a Tal Rasha build. Then I got careless in a T8 Rift. So now I'm asking for help with a LoN build*. Here's what I've got so far: HC Wizard (http://www.d3planner.com/733796949). The helm, rings, and pants are not Ancient. I do have Ancient pants, but they're Deaths Bargain, and I really like my Life per Second (46k with this set-up). I also have Ancient Iron Toe Mudsputters and Ancient Illusory Boots. Of my ancient gear, only the amulet has been Enchanted (to have a socket).

Not shown:
Bane of the Powerful Rank 5
Bane of the Stricken Rank 5
Molten Wildebeast Gizzard Rank 15
All other legendary gems Rank 0

I have a fair selection of Kanai's Cube powers, and 396 paragon levels.

I'm leaning toward a Disintegrate/Etched Sigil build, and I'd really like to avoid Archon Form. Just don't like it much. Thanks for your help!

* I have a level 70 Light of Grace, Firebird's helm and shoulders, and an Ancient Pig Sticker all set to Level 1 through Ease of Use gems and Kanai's Cube, which helped me regain level 70 in about 90 minutes.

Edit: Nevermind. I really hate Cold Snap.

*Plays "Taps"*

This is why I don't like HC, right here.

Psyren

2017-02-22, 01:56 PM

In fairness to HC, there are some unique cosmetic rewards for completing various achievements/milestones in that mode. So I can sort of see the appeal in trying.

But given that (a) Wizard is squishy and has no pets to divert enemy fire, and (b) ancients are a pain to amass even when dying doesn't mean you lose everything you were carrying, I'd require significant self-inflicted blunt force trauma before I would decide a LoN build is the way to go in that mode. At least sets are fairly easy to replace, and a backup set can be Eased pretty quickly.

Lord Torath

2017-02-22, 02:36 PM

Psyren

2017-02-22, 05:55 PM

Luckily (I guess) I was in a Greater Rift 34 (trying to get my Bane of the Trapped to 25) so my Boon of the Hoarder(rank 35) was safe in my stash.

Trying to work up some enthusiasm now for my non HC wizard and Crusader. I've got most of the parts for the Firebird, Tal Rasha, Vyr, and Delsere sets. Now I just need a fun build that can get me to GR60 and doesn't involve Archon Form. I'm currently running Firebird's with Etched Sigil (Disintegrate, Electrocute, Energy Twister, Meteor, Familiar and Magic Weapon - all Fire Rune), but I'm topping out at about GR30 or so. Some of the problem is gear - I've only got two tabs to store stuff for my non-hardcore wizard, so I don't have a huge selection (two more for my crusader, two more for materials, gems, and follower gear). The other problem is that I've been focusing on my HC wizard (401 paragons), and splitting the remaining time between my seasonal wizard and seasonal crusader (350 paragons), compounding my gear problem.

That's weird - when I rolled HC for the first time, all the bonus tabs I had won in SC carried over; Both my HC and SC characters have the full complement of 10 tabs. Are you saying that the reverse is not true?

Anyway, both of my wizards currently are not using Archon, and they are T13 / GR60-capable with little fuss. One is Etched Sigil Disintegrate (http://www.d3planner.com/762938251) and the other is Lightning-ball Delsere (http://www.d3planner.com/160154879). That second one will be even better after the buffs next patch, so I can't wait!

Lord Torath

2017-02-22, 06:50 PM

That's weird - when I rolled HC for the first time, all the bonus tabs I had won in SC carried over; Both my HC and SC characters have the full complement of 10 tabs. Are you saying that the reverse is not true? Oh! No. I have 6 tabs total. In both Hardcore and regular, 2 tabs are reserved for gems, materials, followers gear, potions, etc. In my hardcore stash, my wizard is entitled to the other four tabs. In my non-hardcore, my wizard and crusader have to split the four tabs, for two each.

Anyway, both of my wizards currently are not using Archon, and they are T13 / GR60-capable with little fuss. One is Etched Sigil Disintegrate (http://www.d3planner.com/762938251) and the other is Lightning-ball Delsere (http://www.d3planner.com/160154879). That second one will be even better after the buffs next patch, so I can't wait!Hmm. I'll have to give those a try. I haven't used Delsere's since they got rid of the "enemies in your Slow Time take 2000% weapon damage per second" clear back at the beginning of last year. I have the full set, though. As for the Firebird setup, I think I even have the Twisted Sword sitting in my stash. I'll have to give them a try. I will need to complete the Endless Walk, though. And find a non-Ancient Deathwish to burn and an Etched Sigil to carry.

Thanks!

Edit: How often do you use Unstable Anomaly, considering you already have the Firebird Cheat Death Meteor?

Psyren

2017-02-22, 09:24 PM

Oh! No. I have 6 tabs total. In both Hardcore and regular, 2 tabs are reserved for gems, materials, followers gear, potions, etc. In my hardcore stash, my wizard is entitled to the other four tabs. In my non-hardcore, my wizard and crusader have to split the four tabs, for two each.

Ah gotcha, when you said you had 2 tabs for your wizard I boggled for a minute :smalleek:

As for me, I have as mentioned 10 tabs, but I also have 2 of every class (1 per gender) so space is at a premium even then. I'm looking forward to next patch with its crafting mat storage as that will free up a decent chunk of room.

Hmm. I'll have to give those a try. I haven't used Delsere's since they got rid of the "enemies in your Slow Time take 2000% weapon damage per second" clear back at the beginning of last year. I have the full set, though. As for the Firebird setup, I think I even have the Twisted Sword sitting in my stash. I'll have to give them a try. I will need to complete the Endless Walk, though. And find a non-Ancient Deathwish to burn and an Etched Sigil to carry.

Thanks!

If you have an ancient Deathwish, I would wield that and cube the TS instead.

As for Delsere - yeah the change to Slow Time was a bummer but, at the same time, I kinda like its more bursty style.

Edit: How often do you use Unstable Anomaly, considering you already have the Firebird Cheat Death Meteor?

Not often; it has procced in a rift if I get extra careless, but it's definitely rare. I'm so used to it being on my sheet that I haven't really bothered taking it off. I could probably swap it for Conflagration or something without worry, the built-in cheat is enough.

Lord Torath

2017-02-23, 09:26 AM

Until I find a Hergbrash's Binding (come on, Kadala!), I'm swapping Unstable Anomally out for Astral Presence. Taeguk is not that useful if you can't maintain your channeling for 10 seconds. Yeah, I cubed my Twisted Sword. Now I just want a Ramaladni's Gift to put a socket in my Deathwish. Anyone know how to "farm" those?

Psyren

2017-02-23, 10:15 AM

Until I find a Hergbrash's Binding (come on, Kadala!), I'm swapping Unstable Anomally out for Astral Presence.

Do you not have one cubed? And since you're running a generator anyway, I'd probably go with Prodigy instead so that you can top up more quickly, especially if you have a Shame of Delsere lying around. You can go from 0AP to full in a couple of seconds. Presence doesn't give you as much control over your resource, which means less control over your burst periods. (i.e. you want to be guaranteed full power right before the fire cycle on your CoE or right as you click a power pylon etc.

Taeguk is not that useful if you can't maintain your channeling for 10 seconds.

A quick burst while running is all you need to keep it refreshed. Just tap shift every few seconds as you hunt for the next pack.

Now I just want a Ramaladni's Gift to put a socket in my Deathwish. Anyone know how to "farm" those?

If it helps, most of mine have come from GRs rather than regular rifts. No idea if that affects the drop rate or not, just my observation.

Lord Torath

2017-02-23, 12:21 PM

I've got Hergbrash in Hardcore, but not yet in regular. And Kadala's being stubborn. So currently I'm using an Ancient Jang's Envelopment for extra Black Hole fun. I picked up an Ancient Etched Sigil almost immediately after switching my build, though!

Psyren

2017-02-23, 12:59 PM

Grats on the Sigil!

With Jang's you should have an easier time getting mileage out of Bane of the Trapped at range as well.

Lord Torath

2017-02-24, 08:41 PM

Psyren

2017-02-24, 09:18 PM

Are we sure Magic Weapon counts as a skill for Firebird's? I seem to not be setting them ablaze unless I hit with Energy Twister and Black Hole (plus disintegrate). If Magic Weapon counts, I should only need to hit with one of those, right?

I wouldn't actually know - I only use Deflection on my MW, which combos with the Blood Bracer to give you a huge toughness boost.

The playstyle of the build is to go hunt for the nearest elite, 1-2-3 set them on fire, then use your super saiyan buff from doing so to fry all the trash that were chasing you up to that point. Basically once elites are on fire you should pretty much be ignoring them (at least initially) to go kill everything else. Even the Rift Guardian should just be ignited and kited to other packs, unless you're in a GR (where there won't be any.) This is easy to do because the Guardian will teleport to keep up with you, so you can kite it all over the map, at least until it burns to death.

Because you're focused on igniting elites, you should always have a black hole available for the sequence to ensure you get your superbuff - either the skill itself will be off cooldown, or the etched sigil version will.

Istarial

2017-02-25, 05:48 AM

Are we sure Magic Weapon counts as a skill for Firebird's? I seem to not be setting them ablaze unless I hit with Energy Twister and Black Hole (plus disintegrate). If Magic Weapon counts, I should only need to hit with one of those, right?

I was using Magic Weapon-Ignite early in the season before I got my set wand+source for the archon build, and it does work, BUT: You need the ignite itself to proc on the thing you want to get the triple on, and by the time you get past it being chance-based, and the proc coefficients of the skills, it can take a little while to do so.

Lord Torath

2017-02-26, 09:13 AM

The playstyle of the build is to go hunt for the nearest elite, 1-2-3 set them on fire, then use your super saiyan buff from doing so to fry all the trash that were chasing you up to that point. Basically once elites are on fire you should pretty much be ignoring them (at least initially) to go kill everything else. Even the Rift Guardian should just be ignited and kited to other packs, unless you're in a GR (where there won't be any.) This is easy to do because the Guardian will teleport to keep up with you, so you can kite it all over the map, at least until it burns to death.

Because you're focused on igniting elites, you should always have a black hole available for the sequence to ensure you get your superbuff - either the skill itself will be off cooldown, or the etched sigil version will.So not really a build that plays well with others, but good for solo play.

I finally found Hergbrash, and Ramaladni's Gift (from a cursed chest in the High Heavens), pushing my dps up to 1,002,550.

Looks like I've got everything I need for your Lightningball build. I'll have to give that a try.

tyckspoon

2017-02-28, 08:22 PM

Hmm. Opinion/math question: How many Ancient pieces would you consider to be needed to make using LoN better than a class set? For reference on the comparison, I am currently using the Shadow set (most relevant effect: 1200% damage for using a melee weapon, in exchange for being locked out of the all the skills that require a bow.) I would have a total of 6 Ancient items, including the two handbows that have Strafe properties and a Hellfire. The others are legendary affix-less, and would simply be equipped to increase the LoN bonus.

So - 6 Ancients plus ~180% Strafe damage versus 6-piece Shadow set. Intangible: I suspect I'd enjoy the Strafe-centric play more than I am the Impale/non-Bow-skills style recommended/enforced by the Shadow set.

Psyren

2017-02-28, 09:17 PM

tyckspoon

2017-02-28, 11:18 PM

It depends heavily on the set in question - after all, several of them are actually on par with even the best LoN builds (e.g. Uliana EP) and some far exceed it (Firebird Archon and Vyrasha Archon).

Shadow meanwhile is one of the weaker sets, so a LoN DH build won't have to try hard to beat it. Before you give up on it totally though, next patch it's getting a buff via the Holy Point Shot.

Huh. That's interesting. Won't do much unless each of the extra knives qualifies for the huge damage bonus to the first target hit from Shadow.. might be pretty impressive if it does, tho. I don't think I've hit the upper limit of Shadow only yet, and if nothing else I'm still going to need to use it to farm a replacement set/Ancients to use for LoN.. but I'm starting to see why one of the icyvein's guides on this set only takes two pieces for the big damage buff and then mix-and-matches it with other sets and individual legendaries.

Alent

2017-03-01, 12:56 AM

I seem to need some help. :smalleek:

The Anniversary event pulled me into D3 again and I've been working on my season journey to get the extra stash tab, but I'm having a bit of a problem with survival on my Wizard (http://www.d3planner.com/401690845). I can do reasonable damage in T13, but it's very much a "I erase you instantly when all my Manald procs go off or die instantly" scenario where I grumble and wish I had the survival and endurance of a friend's Crusader. In T11 I have no problems and T12 is easy unless I get a bad combination of mob abilities.

I've been working to try to improve my survival without dropping my damage, but I'm just... stumped. Most creatures just seem to instantly blast 1.75m hp off based on how I go from full + shield + full deflection stack to an unstable anomaly proc and an empty HP orb. I've been messing with my legendary gems to try to find a more ideal setup, and dropping Taeguk for Iceblink seems to have helped considerably, I tried quite a few from Mirinae's to the Gizzard. (Now to just get Iceblink caught up to my main gems.)

The Ancient enhancing recipe in the cube is tempting me, but my gut is telling me that I don't have high enough legendary gems to be worth using it on, since I'm guessing whatever Royal gem I stamp into the ancient is permanent and can't be improved upon later? Or can I overwrite the enhancement with a better one when I gain the ability to make higher level legendary gems? I don't have enough ancients or high level gems yet to be worth experimenting with it, but feel like I could stand to add a bit more vitality to my gear.

tyckspoon

2017-03-01, 01:39 AM

I don't think you'll be able to improve your toughness without doing *something* that will reduce your damage (edit - short of farming up Ancient versions of all your stuff/rerolling them in the Cube a lot to get Ancients and/or better stat rolls), but there should be some relatively painless options. The one that stands out to me is Storm Armor; are/were you having Arcane Power problems that this is solving, or is it there to be another method of triggering Paralysis? Swapping to Energy Armor would give you a significant Toughness increase; you could do it with one of the AP-related runes, or Prismatic Armor for even more toughness. I'm a little surprised Iceblink is helping you, since you're already using Bane of the Trapped, but I suppose that makes some sense as you appear to be using your escape ability as an offense instead; the extra slowing is probably helpful in keeping monster packs moving slowly and spread enough to run back out of nasty ground effects. Consider Esoteric Alteration in place of Iceblink, if you haven't hit on that one yet. Taeguk is probably the actual best option, but that requires you to practice (and tolerate playing in that style) stutter-stepping a tap of Arcane Torrent every 1.5 seconds. Effective, sure, but really annoying to keep up.

Changing Storm Armor is probably the biggest toughness increase you'll get without making a really significant change to how you play - that one switch to Energy Armor - Prismatic Armor yields nearly 12 million more sheet toughness. That and just grinding out more Paragon levels and dumping them in your prime stat.

Edit: Yes, Caldesann's can be redone later if you grind up a more highly leveled gem.

Alent

2017-03-01, 04:08 AM

Elucidating-

Storm Armor & Magic weapon: This was Frost Armor/Crystallize and Magic Weapon/Conduit, I had the RoRG in the cube, and an ancient Halo of Arlyse w/ a roll of 54% melee reduction, and I was displeased with my damage output and survival both. I decided to go back to using Manald Heal after doing some critical analysis. (My deaths are usually due to unavoidable Blizzard Floor Vomit (BFV).) I had an ancient RoRG that was better than my Manald heals, so RoRG replaced Arlyse and since Frost Armor wasn't really helping, I looked at Icy Veins, saw Storm Armor was part of the Manald channel build there but it didn't really have much in the way of defensive properties, figured "Well, I am dying ineffectively one way or the other" and set SA/Power of the Storm.

The result after was that I had constant near max AP after setting SA, so I dropped MW/Conduit for MW/Deflection thinking "Well, constant 4% refills that get up to 16% of 1 million HP has to help somehow?" and... no, no it does not. Additionally, Paralysis is proc'd by Arcane Torrent. (Prior to Manald Heal I was using Arcane Torrent/Flame Ward and Taeguk as part of an excessive defense setup that really wasn't doing much but hamstringing my damage ceiling.)

Teleport/Wave of Force: Sort of, I'm actually using a no target or opening cast of it to trigger Tal Rasha (6) - Arcane. Sometimes I blink offensively, but when scary things show up I keep it as an escape unless I'm really sure the Meteor burst will help drop what I'm fighting.

Taeguk: I was using Taeguk, but found that I wasn't getting good uptime because individual encounters didn't last long enough and the Arcane Torrent stutter step was driving me crazy. It doesn't help I run with friends that have really high movement speed and couldn't keep up at all.

Iceblink: Iceblink is helping because of the synergy between Arcane Torrent, Etched Sigil, The Twisted Blade, and Energy Twister/Mistral Breeze. (I think?)

Energy Armor: I really don't understand how Toughness works, how is that much sheet toughness helping me? At your mention of EA/Prismatic armor I was reminded of EA/Force Armor from back at launch. Using Force armor I made it through two solo GR 60s surprisingly well, albeit at a glacial pace. (Died a bit, but to BFV.) I'm tired and will try EA/Prismatic Armor tomorrow.

Anyway, thanks for the input! :smallbiggrin:

Psyren

2017-03-01, 09:51 AM

Some suggestions:

- First, some easy rerolls in case my gearing and skill advice below is unappealing or impossible:

- Amulet - reroll Life on Hit to Vitality
- Orb - reroll Area Damage to Vitality
- Bracer - reroll Cold Damage to Armor (Lightning is almost as big a part of your output as cold so you may as well not focus on one or the other.)

Doing just those three with average values, I was able to raise your base toughness by 37% (36 -> 50) with minimal impact to your damage. Tals will then apply its DR multiplier to that value. Moreover, those buffs increase your Life, which means your shields will also be stronger.

(1) As mentioned, drop Storm Armor for Prismatic Force Armor. Doing this, I bumped your toughness even more (50 -> 67, or a base toughness increase of 82% over your starting value.)

(2) Replace Ranslor's Folly with Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer. You have a bit of vacuum/CC overkill with Folly because you already also have Black Hole, Paralysis and Iceblink. That's four sources of CC on your build. Paralysis of course you need for the big damage shock, so that plus Black Hole should have you all set, especially since you're running a long-range build that will keep you out of the action anyway. Blood Bracer will double the toughness effect of three of your abilities (Deflection, Unstable Anomaly, and Galvanizing Ward, the biggest one) for huge mitigation and recovery - your 120% strength shield will fully heal after 5 seconds of not getting hit, even if it only has 1HP left - that is the equivalent of your entire life orb being replenished in 5 seconds; you can't beat recovery like that.

(3) Speaking of Iceblink - I like the idea of a heavy snare but again, you're rocking black hole, cold tornadoes and paralysis for plenty of CC already. Replacing it with Bane of the Powerful will not only give you more toughness, it will get you increased damage as well.

(4) Bane of the Stricken is good, but not actually necessary until you find that you're taking a long time to kill the Rift Guardian, which should only start to happen as you push into higher rifts. I would replace that with Zei's Stone of Vengeance - again between Paralysis and Black Hole you should have an easy time keeping enemies at the optimal distance to layer on the pain. Alternatively, consider Esoteric Alteration as your third gem - with Powerful's damage buff above, you may find that your clear times increase enough to not need Stricken too, and can fall back on a bit more toughness.

(5) While Deathwish gives you a decent damage bump, if you're not currently having damage issues it might be worthwhile to go for more toughness instead. Consider putting Etched Sigil in the cube and wielding Tal Rasha's Eye - this will free up one of your other Tal slots, notably the armor slot for Aquila Cuirass, which combined with your Hergbrash in the cube will mean a massive toughness increase. This step will impact your damage though, so I would do the above first and see how you do before resorting to this last one.

EDIT: I'd also replace Audacity with Unwavering Will. You'll take a small damage hit against things that get close to you but nothing should be close to you anyway. In exchange, you get a damage increase against things far away, and a big toughness increase too (final value without the Aquila thing: 79,683,358 base, or 117% of your starting toughness value.)

Alent

2017-03-01, 07:36 PM

Won't get to play for a bit, but initial thoughts on your feedback, Psyren:

Rerolls: The two Vitality ones should be easy, done. The Cold damage one I'm less certain about, will hold that as an iterative change.

(1): Storm armor is out, but I am still uncertain as to the value of Prismatic Armor vs Energy Armor. I'm getting the idea that Blizzard seems to have done the same thing to Toughness that they did to Damage where your actual stats do all but nothing aside from apply as feeder stats to make the number they actually use bigger, but I'm uncertain as to how to evaluate that. (Seriously, would it have killed them to just... use the Diablo 2 math? That math actually made sense.)

(2): Under consideration. I don't have an equivalent ancient Ashnagarr's at the moment, but I have two that I planned on reroll leapfrogging at some point. The Ranslor's proc is my primary CC as I can reliably trigger it. Black Hole is basically there not as CC but as "Tal Rasha proc spell with benefits". Also, switched back to MW/Conduit to smooth out my AP regen without Storm armor, as my mana tends to get really spiky when I need to manually tornado to maintain 4 stack.

(3): Under consideration. Again, I like the synergy it has with everything as it gives me my bane of the trapped on things that Paralysis hasn't deigned to stun yet.

(4): Okay, stricken is out. Looking at the gems I have leveled, does Efficacious Toxin make sense as a split the difference damage + DR? I'd forgotten it had 10% damage reduction as well as the damage taken increase, and I have it sitting in my stash at Level 45.

(5): Change held in reserve for if things get desperate. I had considered doing similar, but instead of using Aquila Cuirass, I had thought to cube the sigil and replace the RoRG with a Halo of Karini instead.

Edit: I've toyed with this off and on myself. I'll give it a shot, it sims fine and helps with an issue I have where things tend to end up deadzoned right outside my damage boost.

Other tweaks: I'm going to try to slap some Vit on via Caldesann's. I have a few unused gems that hit 45 because I misunderstood the season journey to need 6 level 45 gems, so some GR pushes will get those to 50 for a quick Vit boost... I guess I'll find out how well the above affects my survival when doing so.

Psyren

2017-03-01, 08:27 PM

(1) Energy Armor is the base skill unruned, did you mean Force Armor here? Or Energy Tap? (I recommend against the latter, see below.)

(2) I'm still totally unclear on why you need AP regen at all. Torrent + Hergbrash is basically free (heck, Disintegrate + Hergbrash is free, and that skill is even more expensive!) The best I can determine is that you're maybe hardcasting Twisters sometimes? you definitely shouldn't be doing that for any reason. Pretty much the only Sigil spender you should even think of hardcasting is Black Hole, and then only to create some quick density while your Sigil is off-cycle. Literally the only way AT should be draining your AP is if your attack speed is through the roof, and I'm talking 100+ Vyr stacks through-the-roof.

(3) You don't need stuns like Paralysis to proc BoT, any snare will do it too - meaning, every single cold spell in the wizard's arsenal. In your case specifically, your tornadoes should be proccing the gem constantly.

(4) I would use the Toxin until you have a Bane of the Powerful leveled. Keep in mind that Powerful will give you 15% DR instead of 10, and 20% damage instead of 10 (35% against elites.) Toxin can't really beat that, which is why Powerful is recommended for so many builds (read: all of them.)

(5) I haven't gotten to find/use a Karini myself so I can't comment on that.

And I have to advise against using Vitality with Caldesann's, that's a waste of good gems. Remember that Int boosts your toughness too - not by as much perhaps, but unlike Vit it also boosts damage. Maybe on hardcore it's worth it, though I'm skeptical even then - you should only be stacking mainstat with that recipe.

Alent

2017-03-01, 10:32 PM

Hmm. On logging in, It seems that d3planner got stupid about some of my equipment. My amulet and orb have Sockets rerolled on them already, so I can't do that. D'oh. Rerolling the helm's arcane twister damage and socket on my orb to Vit got me +748 and +989, bringing me up to 1.45m HP, so there's that.

(1) Energy Armor is the base skill unruned, did you mean Force Armor here? Or Energy Tap? (I recommend against the latter, see below.)
Force armor. I'm constantly getting Energy Armor and Force Armor mixed up since Force Armor was the only thing that even let me play Inferno mode back in the day.

(2) I'm still totally unclear on why you need AP regen at all. Torrent + Hergbrash is basically free (heck, Disintegrate + Hergbrash is free, and that skill is even more expensive!) The best I can determine is that you're maybe hardcasting Twisters sometimes? you definitely shouldn't be doing that for any reason. Pretty much the only Sigil spender you should even think of hardcasting is Black Hole, and then only to create some quick density while your Sigil is off-cycle. Literally the only way AT should be draining your AP is if your attack speed is through the roof, and I'm talking 100+ Vyr stacks through-the-roof.

Is there some glitch or exploit that lets me reach and maintain my Tal Rasha stack without hardcasting AP spenders? You have to hardcast to get the buff and you have to alternate casts to refresh the Elements (6) stack, that means casting Twisters once every 4~5 seconds, and you straight up lose the resists from Elements (4) because those have to be hardcast to refresh them.

(3) You don't need stuns like Paralysis to proc BoT, any snare will do it too - meaning, every single cold spell in the wizard's arsenal. In your case specifically, your tornadoes should be proccing the gem constantly.

I don't recall seeing the tornado chilling things at all prior to socketing the gem- just doing cold damage? (Admittedly it can be hard to tell when it yanks an entire screen on and there's too many bodies in one spot to focus on one.)

(4) I would use the Toxin until you have a Bane of the Powerful leveled. Keep in mind that Powerful will give you 15% DR instead of 10, and 20% damage instead of 10 (35% against elites.) Toxin can't really beat that, which is why Powerful is recommended for so many builds (read: all of them.)

Interesting, I hadn't looked at the lv 25 passive on that gem, that does look nice for my Blizzard Floor Vomit problem. (well, it won't help with flatulent zombies, but still.) Before I started grifting and got used to encountering elites within screens of each other, I had written it off as the primary effect reads "I do nothing until after you don't need me." For Blue mobs, does killing a single one trigger the primary effect, or do I need the entire pack?

And I have to advise against using Vitality with Caldesann's, that's a waste of good gems. Remember that Int boosts your toughness too - not by as much perhaps, but unlike Vit it also boosts damage. Maybe on hardcore it's worth it, though I'm skeptical even then - you should only be stacking mainstat with that recipe.

Hmm. With changes made, but using Eff. Toxin as a temporary stopgap until I can get Bane of the Powerful leveled, I'm looking at 31.4m toughness before casting, and ramping up to all set bonus buffs at full stack size gets me up to 70m... that then drops off to 56 when the teleport and black hole triggered Elements (4) buffs fall off at their 8 second marks. :smallfrown:

Edit: derp, erased a sentence that mattered. "Okay, no Caldesann's vit for now, then."

Still, getting my rear handed to me, but having an extra half second before death prevention procs is nice, I guess.

Edit 2: Okay, Bane of the Powerful is caught up to mainline gems at rank 45, damage output is still solid. The damage reduction is helping a teensy bit on BFV, but the HP increase is definitely helping even more with BFV.

Psyren

2017-03-02, 02:47 AM

Is there some glitch or exploit that lets me reach and maintain my Tal Rasha stack without hardcasting AP spenders? You have to hardcast to get the buff and you have to alternate casts to refresh the Elements (6) stack, that means casting Twisters once every 4~5 seconds, and you straight up lose the resists from Elements (4) because those have to be hardcast to refresh them.

Really? If that's the case I'd probably dump Etched Sigil altogether. I had assumed you were using that setup because the Sigil spells were proccing your set, but if you're actively having to fight against it (i.e. stop channeling and hardcast), then the whole build may need to be scrapped and redone :smallfrown:

It's either that, or start packing a generator and swap the Hergrbash in your cube for something else like Shame of Delsere.

Hmm. On logging in, It seems that d3planner got stupid about some of my equipment. My amulet and orb have Sockets rerolled on them already, so I can't do that. D'oh.

Never socket your orb; consider that a flawless royal amethyst in that socket would only net you +280 Vitality, whereas if you rerolled that socket to Vitality instead you could get up to +1000 (assuming ancient). There's no contest.

The only class that should be socketing an offhand is Crusader, and that's because of their passive that counts how many gems you're running around with.

Force armor. I'm constantly getting Energy Armor and Force Armor mixed up since Force Armor was the only thing that even let me play Inferno mode back in the day.

Force Armor is good if you're getting squashed (which it sounds like you are) but on my builds I get more mileage out of Prismatic personally. Both are fine.

I don't recall seeing the tornado chilling things at all prior to socketing the gem- just doing cold damage? (Admittedly it can be hard to tell when it yanks an entire screen on and there's too many bodies in one spot to focus on one.)

Yes, the chill effect from wizard cold spells procs Trapped. I seem to recall not every class' cold skills do that, but theirs definitely.

Interesting, I hadn't looked at the lv 25 passive on that gem, that does look nice for my Blizzard Floor Vomit problem. (well, it won't help with flatulent zombies, but still.) Before I started grifting and got used to encountering elites within screens of each other, I had written it off as the primary effect reads "I do nothing until after you don't need me." For Blue mobs, does killing a single one trigger the primary effect, or do I need the entire pack?

Er... your what? :smalltongue:

For blues you need to kill the whole pack to trigger it. Basically, watch the chat window - whenever the chat says "you killed Rare Pack / Champion / Boss" is when the game gives you credit and activates or renews your gem's buff.

Alent

2017-03-02, 03:36 AM

Really? If that's the case I'd probably dump Etched Sigil altogether. I had assumed you were using that setup because the Sigil spells were proccing your set, but if you're actively having to fight against it (i.e. stop channeling and hardcast), then the whole build may need to be scrapped and redone :smallfrown:

It's either that, or start packing a generator and swap the Hergrbash in your cube for something else like Shame of Delsere.

Dropping the Sigil, even with the hardcasting, is a substantial damage drop. I could probably compensate for it doing some shenanigans, but I'm uncertain as to how viable it'd be. (My first thought is Focus + Restraint, I have a Hellfire amulet w/ ProdigyArcane Dynamo on it, swap the channeling stuff for Spectral Blades or Electrocute spam, But then I lose either RoRG or Manald and have to start juggling set bonuses.

Still might be better in the long run, but I'm quite fond of my dumb stupid wizard that's a Minigun and hoover at the same time.

I keep wishing there was a way to make Delsere's relevant, because the timestop + spectral blades/thrown blade combo with all the spectral blades speed enhancers looks like it'd be silly fun, but it seems to have an artificial damage ceiling.

Also, yeah, Sigil now has 989 Vit on it. That gem was silly.

Yes, the chill effect from wizard cold spells procs Trapped. I seem to recall not every class' cold skills do that, but theirs definitely.

Googling it some, twister doesn't seem to chill except randomly on the global cold chance... It looks like the random chill is in fact lower chance than any other proc. Hnn.

Er... your what? :smalltongue:

A friend and I started joking in skype about how Blizzard (the company) likes to vomit damage all over the floor. The old WoW joke is "Don't die in the fire"? We were in a level 55 grift and walked downstairs and walked half a screen and found the following combination of floor vomit producers:

Elite A: Arcane waller jailer poison
Elite B: Arcane Wormhole waller other-poison
Elite C: Desecration mortar molten Horde.
Rare pack: Frozen-Orb waller Fire chains
Every zombie in the map: explode in green cloud of poison.
Bloated zombies: exploding corpses.

At first we only saw A, B, and the Rares, and we ran out of the corner we were stuck in... only to encounter C and the Zombies. All at once. We died. The screen was full of what looked like oldschool cartoon vomit- the radioactive glowing green kind. :smallsigh: Most of the floor vomit does just enough damage that if I get stuck in a casting frame or click where a monster is and find myself turning to cast on it... *squish* goes the wizard.

So... yeah. Damage on the floor is Blizzard's Floor Vomit.

Edit: Hmm... On D3planner, Spectral Blades (http://www.d3planner.com/674949398) works out better than I thought it might, given the Tal Rasha Orb in the offhand finishing the set... but I need to reroll my Focus and Restraint. I also need to figure out what I plan on doing with my shoulderpad since the channeling shoulders are technically the best even if I'm not actually using channeling properly. I also need to get myself an Ancient Tal Rasha Offhand to try putting it into practice.

Psyren

2017-03-02, 09:58 AM

Dropping the Sigil, even with the hardcasting, is a substantial damage drop. I could probably compensate for it doing some shenanigans, but I'm uncertain as to how viable it'd be. (My first thought is Focus + Restraint, I have a Hellfire amulet w/ ProdigyArcane Dynamo on it, swap the channeling stuff for Spectral Blades or Electrocute spam, But then I lose either RoRG or Manald and have to start juggling set bonuses.

Still might be better in the long run, but I'm quite fond of my dumb stupid wizard that's a Minigun and hoover at the same time.

Sticking with Endless Walk (even if you're using a generator) is fine, as long as you're not using a build that requires constant motion.

As for dropping Sigil, I was being intentionally harsh - I know it's a damage hit as it currently stands.When I originally saw you were using Sigil + Tals, I was assuming they had made some update to make the combo work together. But if Sigil spenders still don't proc Tals, the two halves of your build are at odds with one another. Currently the only Sigil builds that truly work therefore are Firebirds, LoN, and maybe Vyrs. (Hmm, I just thought of that one, now I'll have to give it a try. (http://www.d3planner.com/243489195)) Basically, if you're going to be hardcasting all the time anyway, there's not much point using a channeled skill at all since you'll need to be interrupting it constantly - especially when doing so means your Taeguk and Deflection buffs will keep falling off (which can get you killed.)

As for Delsere, it's plenty relevant already (80+) and will be even moreso after they buff it next patch. The ranged build is weaker but can still handle T13 just fine.

Googling it some, twister doesn't seem to chill except randomly on the global cold chance... It looks like the random chill is in fact lower chance than any other proc. Hnn.

I'm still almost positive that every wizard cold skill procs the gem. Not other classes unless they say so, but wizards, yes. I'll research more when I'm not at work. Can't boot up my own wizard though as I'm on a business trip and hotel internet is not conducive to gaming.

Even if that's not the case, just swap twister's cold rune with something else's, or use Ray of Frost as your channeler instead of AT.

A friend and I started joking in skype about how Blizzard (the company) likes to vomit damage all over the floor. The old WoW joke is "Don't die in the fire"? We were in a level 55 grift and walked downstairs and walked half a screen and found the following combination of floor vomit producers:

Elite A: Arcane waller jailer poison
Elite B: Arcane Wormhole waller other-poison
Elite C: Desecration mortar molten Horde.
Rare pack: Frozen-Orb waller Fire chains
Every zombie in the map: explode in green cloud of poison.
Bloated zombies: exploding corpses.

At first we only saw A, B, and the Rares, and we ran out of the corner we were stuck in... only to encounter C and the Zombies. All at once. We died. The screen was full of what looked like oldschool cartoon vomit- the radioactive glowing green kind. :smallsigh: Most of the floor vomit does just enough damage that if I get stuck in a casting frame or click where a monster is and find myself turning to cast on it... *squish* goes the wizard.

So... yeah. Damage on the floor is Blizzard's Floor Vomit.

Ah! I understand you now.

That reminds me though - I know your build is tight on passives but Illusionist is a great counter to this kind of thing.

Alent

2017-03-02, 03:36 PM

Sticking with Endless Walk (even if you're using a generator) is fine, as long as you're not using a build that requires constant motion.

Aye, I just like the Focus/Restraint + Arcane Dynamo combo in concept. Endless walk works better in every way for what I've got now. (It doesn't help that Arcane Dynamo needs WeakAuras2 to be useful. :smallfrown:)

As for dropping Sigil, I was being intentionally harsh - I know it's a damage hit as it currently stands.When I originally saw you were using Sigil + Tals, I was assuming they had made some update to make the combo work together. But if Sigil spenders still don't proc Tals, the two halves of your build are at odds with one another. Currently the only Sigil builds that truly work therefore are Firebirds, LoN, and maybe Vyrs. (Hmm, I just thought of that one, now I'll have to give it a try. (http://www.d3planner.com/243489195)) Basically, if you're going to be hardcasting all the time anyway, there's not much point using a channeled skill at all since you'll need to be interrupting it constantly - especially when doing so means your Taeguk and Deflection buffs will keep falling off (which can get you killed.)

Ew, Archon, don't get any of that on me. :smalltongue:

The intentional harshness makes sense, I'm just kinda stumped. The game isn't fun the way I'm doing it since T13 is straight up bloating all the numbers higher than seems reasonable, and the builds I find fun are not compatible with the billions of DPS required for T13/60+grifts. I'd honestly be tempted to do LoN if I had enough ancients to support it, because I'm really tired of how set pieces effectively prevent any kind of build diversity. (If it were up to me set pieces wouldn't be items, they'd be runewords, and the game would go back to giving all high end pieces of gear their 2~5 sockets again so you could use them and a gem or two on almost anything that dropped. Actually, I'd probably just drop "runes" as an item class and have you pay Shen with Forgotten Souls and Death's Breaths to etch runes into the gems you're using, come to think of it.)

As for Delsere, it's plenty relevant already (80+) and will be even moreso after they buff it next patch. The ranged build is weaker but can still handle T13 just fine.

That confuses me. It doesn't support channel... wait a second, that's not true. *tries something in D3planner (http://www.d3planner.com/674949398)* Let me get back to you on that, I need to farm up the rest of the Delsere's set again to go with the two ancient pieces I kept. :smallsigh:

That'll take me a bit, tho', tonight I'm on the hook to DM for my D&D group. :smalltongue:

I'm still almost positive that every wizard cold skill procs the gem. Not other classes unless they say so, but wizards, yes. I'll research more when I'm not at work. Can't boot up my own wizard though as I'm on a business trip and hotel internet is not conducive to gaming.

Even if that's not the case, just swap twister's cold rune with something else's, or use Ray of Frost as your channeler instead of AT.

Ah, I misunderstood- I thought you were saying that every cold skill would chill without the gem, and I commented on global chance to chill without the gem accordingly.

Anyway, hope the rest of your trip goes smooth, taking time out of it to help is appreciated.

Lord Torath

2017-03-02, 04:54 PM

Ew, Archon, don't get any of that on me. :smalltongue:I couldn't agree more! Well, I could, but it would require two of me. :smallamused:

That confuses me. It doesn't support channel... wait a second, that's not true. *tries something in D3planner (http://www.d3planner.com/674949398)* Let me get back to you on that, I need to farm up the rest of the Delsere's set again to go with the two ancient pieces I kept. :smallsigh:I look forward to seeing your build. Don't forget to update your D3Planner link after you change and save your build.

I need to go find some more Illusory Boots. I recycled the last set I got, because I almost never use them. Those, or Nilfur's Boast.

Alent

2017-03-02, 05:06 PM

I look forward to seeing your build. Don't forget to update your D3Planner link after you change and save your build.

I need to go find some more Illusory Boots. I recycled the last set I got, because I almost never use them. Those, or Nilfur's Boast.

It is saved, but I have all three builds saved in one profile for ease of comparison and item management, the "front" is the currently equipped setup. The rough is the one labeled delsere channeling.

Run act 1 and 2 bounty spam with me if you want illusory boots, something about me hosting the game skews the bonus cache RNG. >>;

Psyren

2017-03-02, 05:38 PM

Ew, Archon, don't get any of that on me. :smalltongue:

It's a Vyr's build, not using it would be rather silly :smalltongue:

I get the revulsion though, it's just so bloody pedestrian at this point.

The intentional harshness makes sense, I'm just kinda stumped. The game isn't fun the way I'm doing it since T13 is straight up bloating all the numbers higher than seems reasonable, and the builds I find fun are not compatible with the billions of DPS required for T13/60+grifts. I'd honestly be tempted to do LoN if I had enough ancients to support it, because I'm really tired of how set pieces effectively prevent any kind of build diversity. (If it were up to me set pieces wouldn't be items, they'd be runewords, and the game would go back to giving all high end pieces of gear their 2~5 sockets again so you could use them and a gem or two on almost anything that dropped. Actually, I'd probably just drop "runes" as an item class and have you pay Shen with Forgotten Souls and Death's Breaths to etch runes into the gems you're using, come to think of it.)

I agree that sets have hurt the game's diversity a bit. At the same time though, I think there is plenty of room for experimentation - e.g. the Vyr's build I pulled out of my posterior up there.

As for the rest - no, I have absolutely no desire to go back to runes and runewords. I could see set bonuses using some reform (maybe going to a 2/3/4 setup instead of 2/4/6, or making it so that every set has 7 pieces) - but beyond that, I think the current routes of farming, gambling and upgrading are sufficient, especially once the next patch adds multiple souls from ancient and primal items.

That confuses me. It doesn't support channel... wait a second, that's not true. *tries something in D3planner (http://www.d3planner.com/674949398)* Let me get back to you on that, I need to farm up the rest of the Delsere's set again to go with the two ancient pieces I kept. :smallsigh:

Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't referring to a channeled build at all.

Ah, I misunderstood- I thought you were saying that every cold skill would chill without the gem, and I commented on global chance to chill without the gem accordingly.

That is what I was saying - all Wizard cold skills apply a snare, and thus trigger BoT, unless they changed something of which I'm unaware.

Alent

2017-03-03, 08:12 AM

It's a Vyr's build, not using it would be rather silly :smalltongue:

I get the revulsion though, it's just so bloody pedestrian at this point.

I have no problem with the popularity, it's just I spend time setting up my hotbar and getting the class to play the way I'd like, and then the archon button says "nope" like Tarquin's mask.

I agree that sets have hurt the game's diversity a bit. At the same time though, I think there is plenty of room for experimentation - e.g. the Vyr's build I pulled out of my posterior up there.

There's room for experimentation, I just find so much of it falls flat. I'm getting tired of making changes and hitting things for peanuts. There's a smallish number of optimal solutions and a massive number of suboptimals that lack enough separate multipliers just don't seem to cut it. I mean, I got my 5 pc Delsere setup together and was terribly disappointed by the results- I spaced that Manald wasn't going to get multiplied, so while the Tornados actually hit decently, (at least, sometimes) everything else hit like a fresh 70.

Right now my Blades (http://www.d3planner.com/674949398) build is doing a reasonable job thanks to everyone here, I still need to work out how to replace a few pieces and level a Gogok of Swiftness to replace Iceblink. (I have no better shoulder piece, for example, and that orb finds itself somewhat south of ideal.) I also need to practice getting out of Floor vomit, because I still struggle with that.

Kinda tempted to try setting up the steam controller to take advantage of that build, since it isn't exactly a "click on things" kind of build, and I already have the forced run analog stick worked out.

As for the rest - no, I have absolutely no desire to go back to runes and runewords. I could see set bonuses using some reform (maybe going to a 2/3/4 setup instead of 2/4/6, or making it so that every set has 7 pieces) - but beyond that, I think the current routes of farming, gambling and upgrading are sufficient, especially once the next patch adds multiple souls from ancient and primal items.

I dunno, I'd want Runes to be etched into gems via a tab at the Jeweler. Teach Shen the recipes as they drop from act bounty caches, Slap the right number of flawless royal gems in your Ancient Aquila Cuirass, etch each with the right rune, bam, the Ancient Aquila Cuirass is now your Tal Rasha chestpiece. Less RNG screw, no duping runes for hours to make one word, makes sets more available, and the increased combinations possible should encourage Blizzard to rein in the moonmath that results in half a trillion burst damage.

Doing a 2/3/4 setup would also be nice, too, but I just don't like how the logic behind sets is structured.

Sorry for the confusion, I wasn't referring to a channeled build at all.

Yeah, I'd been trying to make both a Blades and a channel build work, but my primary focus was on channeling and... yeah... the numbers just aren't there no matter how you slice it. I don't know why Tal 6pc does so much more than Delsere's, I mean, I get Manald doesn't benefit from it, but... you'd think the numbers would be comparable, they just... aren't. The damage was so low I wondered if D3 planner was modeling Delsere's wrong until I actually tried it.

I'll have to look closer at the orb build and get a better understanding of how the damage stacking works.

Psyren

2017-03-03, 08:58 AM

I have no problem with the popularity, it's just I spend time setting up my hotbar and getting the class to play the way I'd like, and then the archon button says "nope" like Tarquin's mask.

Maybe I don't mind because Archon's setup mirrors my own. For example, my teleport is on 3 whether in Archon or outside it. So I never find myself cursing muscle memory.

There's room for experimentation, I just find so much of it falls flat. I'm getting tired of making changes and hitting things for peanuts. There's a smallish number of optimal solutions and a massive number of suboptimals that lack enough separate multipliers just don't seem to cut it. I mean, I got my 5 pc Delsere setup together and was terribly disappointed by the results- I spaced that Manald wasn't going to get multiplied, so while the Tornados actually hit decently, (at least, sometimes) everything else hit like a fresh 70.

Right now my Blades (http://www.d3planner.com/674949398) build is doing a reasonable job thanks to everyone here, I still need to work out how to replace a few pieces and level a Gogok of Swiftness to replace Iceblink. (I have no better shoulder piece, for example, and that orb finds itself somewhat south of ideal.) I also need to practice getting out of Floor vomit, because I still struggle with that.

Kinda tempted to try setting up the steam controller to take advantage of that build, since it isn't exactly a "click on things" kind of build, and I already have the forced run analog stick worked out.

I think you still might be doing something wrong then, because DMO Blades can definitely clear into the 80s. It uses the Barrier Blades rune which also gets a boost from Blood Bracer and stacks with Deflection.

May I ask why Gogok? You aren't running anything with a cooldown on it. Explosive Blast maybe, but with Woh + Chain Reaction the cooldown should be up right at the time the explosions stop anyway. For that matter, why Twister when you've dropped Twisted Sword? I'd definitely drop Ranslor for Blood Bracer now.

EDIT: Also, now that you're running Explosive Blast and Blades, you should drop Unwavering Will for Audacity.

I dunno, I'd want Runes to be etched into gems via a tab at the Jeweler. Teach Shen the recipes as they drop from act bounty caches, Slap the right number of flawless royal gems in your Ancient Aquila Cuirass, etch each with the right rune, bam, the Ancient Aquila Cuirass is now your Tal Rasha chestpiece. Less RNG screw, no duping runes for hours to make one word, makes sets more available, and the increased combinations possible should encourage Blizzard to rein in the moonmath that results in half a trillion burst damage.

Doing a 2/3/4 setup would also be nice, too, but I just don't like how the logic behind sets is structured.

Hrm. Runes being craftable might work. I guess I'd have to see it in action.

Yeah, I'd been trying to make both a Blades and a channel build work, but my primary focus was on channeling and... yeah... the numbers just aren't there no matter how you slice it. I don't know why Tal 6pc does so much more than Delsere's, I mean, I get Manald doesn't benefit from it, but... you'd think the numbers would be comparable, they just... aren't. The damage was so low I wondered if D3 planner was modeling Delsere's wrong until I actually tried it.

I'll have to look closer at the orb build and get a better understanding of how the damage stacking works.

Delsere is indeed weaker than Tals at the moment, which is why it's getting buffed next patch. But for where you're/we're at (60s-70s) it shouldn't matter as much anyway.

Alent

2017-03-03, 06:23 PM

I think you still might be doing something wrong then, because DMO Blades can definitely clear into the 80s. It uses the Barrier Blades rune which also gets a boost from Blood Bracer and stacks with Deflection.

It looks like DMO Blades uses Arcane Orb as it's centerpin. Hmm, the Hydra's arcane orbs don't get multiplied, correct? :smallfrown: *looks at Theo and Tasker gloves and the 2 Hydra staff with a hrm*

Actually, I'm really looking forward to trying to find a way to sneak in those next patch, regardless, seeing as how Hydra will proc Manald. (is that without paralysis?)

May I ask why Gogok? You aren't running anything with a cooldown on it. Explosive Blast maybe, but with Woh + Chain Reaction the cooldown should be up right at the time the explosions stop anyway. For that matter, why Twister when you've dropped Twisted Sword? I'd definitely drop Ranslor for Blood Bracer now.

EDIT: Also, now that you're running Explosive Blast and Blades, you should drop Unwavering Will for Audacity.

Good call on Audacity, at least on d3planner that's a spike. As to Gogok... I was just flipping through gems in D3planner and clicking simulate for the results, Gogok's haste by itself seemed to be a nice damage spike. As an outside thought from this morning... perhaps the CD reduction on explosive blast would make the cold rune option more viable? (It actually applies chill and freeze to mobs, which I've never seen Twister do without iceblink...)

Also, I have no decent Ashnagarr's bracers, so if I use it it's in the cube, I have two I intend to reroll, but in turning the Orb of infinite depth ancient last night and reforging stats I ran out of Forgotten Souls. :smallsigh: I still like the hoover effect that the folly gives, tho', that's really nice for exploding blast. Decisions, decisions.

Delsere is indeed weaker than Tals at the moment, which is why it's getting buffed next patch. But for where you're/we're at (60s-70s) it shouldn't matter as much anyway.

Hmm... looking at the PTR changes list, did they remove the restriction that the only spells boosted are the same that drop the Slow time CD, or is that just lazy patchnote writing? Because I really liked the DMO defensive properties, especially muxed with Woh and Ashnagarr's... but unless they open up the spread of viable spells, I don't see it working very well for anything but the orb build it already works with.

Psyren

2017-03-03, 07:15 PM

Alent

2017-03-03, 07:47 PM

AFAIK Delsere only magnifies the actual Orb skill, not other things that only say they are orbs.

They must still proc paralysis. Hydras before were either not proccing paralysis at all or they were but without manald (I forget which), in 2.5 that will be fixed.

D'oh and Yeah, that's what I expected, just the wording made me wonder. Still want to try the Hydra setup if there's damage support for it, I'm quite fond of the skill for how well it assists with my laziness, but it isn't on my bar since casting it doesn't count for Tal Rasha 6pc.

Orb and EB actually - and that's not the set's fault, it's just those two spells are the only ones with legendary support. Wave of Force has nothing helping it, and Twister is too expensive to use without Sigil and Herg. (I'm not sure if Sigil works with DMO.)

From last night's test, sigil Twister does not. A friend said apparently that it came out in an interview that they intentionally designed it such that procs are disallowed from triggering procs. (So silly, if procs trigger procs that trigger procs, that's either a design mistake in the first place or a logical progression of mechanics that players should get to enjoy. Don't just make things that should work... not work. :smallsigh:)

Anyhow, tonight I'll try to push a little more, see if I can get some friends in and try to finish off the current season journey step. Really want that extra stash tab.

Psyren

2017-03-03, 09:10 PM

D'oh and Yeah, that's what I expected, just the wording made me wonder. Still want to try the Hydra setup if there's damage support for it, I'm quite fond of the skill for how well it assists with my laziness, but it isn't on my bar since casting it doesn't count for Tal Rasha 6pc.

That won't be live until the next patch anyway, so if you're trying to finish off your season journey...

From last night's test, sigil Twister does not. A friend said apparently that it came out in an interview that they intentionally designed it such that procs are disallowed from triggering procs. (So silly, if procs trigger procs that trigger procs, that's either a design mistake in the first place or a logical progression of mechanics that players should get to enjoy. Don't just make things that should work... not work. :smallsigh:)

Bummer, I thought as much.

Anyhow, tonight I'll try to push a little more, see if I can get some friends in and try to finish off the current season journey step. Really want that extra stash tab.

Good luck!!

Icewraith

2017-03-06, 03:02 PM

Not sure if it was already mentioned in here, but S9 is ending soon. If you haven't completed the Season Journey and you want to, get cracking.

Lord Torath

2017-03-11, 04:56 PM

Istarial

2017-03-11, 07:44 PM

Less than a week to go. Crunch time.

A couple of questions: What's the easiest Conquest? I'm going to need to complete 2 to get my extra stash tab (which, if I can complete the conquests, I think I have a fair chance of doing). I've done a GR50 solo, and solo-killed Cydea and Asmodan on T13. All I've got left for Destroyer is the Conquest.

The easiest conquest is, IMHO, Avarice- the two good ways of doing it are both a little grindy, though- you either need a lot of bounty caches to open at once (100 T10 caches will do it, just), a steady hand to make sure you don't misclick, no pet out to pickup the gold before you've opened them all, etc, OR you need a near max level boon of the hoarder and a bovine bardiche to run it through not the cow level on a reasonably high torment at a good clear speed. (Ruins of corvus can also work for hoarder, but you need to prep the ruins quite carefully- cow is easier in that respect.)

For the second conquest, that's a bit harder to answer- it's somewhat more dependant on your class. If you have good sustained wide area AOE, definitely the curses conquest should be your second go-to, but you'll need to find the cursed peat event in the blood marsh in act 5- that's the only one that spawns enough mobs to do it. This is probably a bit less grindy than Avarice, but that rather depends on whether the RNG favours you. This can be easier in a group, especially with a good demon hunter.

The other conquests are somewhat trickier- 2 minute rift would require a carry from someone else, probably a group of someone elses- it needs VERY good gear and some luck with the rift map.
Speed racer also requires a group, and is very class-dependant, and also somewhat dependant on the gear, but only on the type of gear in particular- DPS and toughness aren't the issue, raw speed is.
Finally, 45 rift solo is again somewhat dependant on your class- some classes it's pretty easy even with poor gear, others it can be... trickier.

Lord Torath

2017-03-11, 09:23 PM

I've got a rank 50 Boon of the Hoarder. Storage is rather at a premium, just now, so the Bounty Caches probably won't work. On the other hand, it'd get me a LOT of crafting materials. One storage tab has 70 squares, or 35 caches. My inventory has 60 squares, or enough for 30 caches. So I'd need two full tabs and my own inventory emptied. I could maybe create 3 other characters to hold my crap...

I do have a Bovine Bardiche sitting in my stash. So I could give that a try. But I've only got the one... I suppose I'll want to max out my Gold Find, probably have Avarice Band, Golden Girdle, and Kymbo's Gold amulet as well?

I'm a wizard using the Icy-Veins Manald Channeling Build with Tal Rasha Set (http://www.icy-veins.com/d3/wizard-manald-channeling-build-patch-2-4-3-season-9), and I've just beat a GR60 solo with it. I've killed the Skeleton King on T13, but not in the 30 seconds required for the Conqueror level.

Istarial

2017-03-12, 03:52 AM

Avarice band is very useful to keep the streak going, goldwrap is useful if there's even the slightest question of toughness but not required, kymbo's is useful for the gold find, and again, toughness.
Gold find itself is slightly tricky- I favour the cow method, and with my normal goldfind that I happened to have on my gear plus paragon, I reckon there tended to be in the region of 80-120 million gold in the whole cow level (At T13), but obviously that's somewhat RNG dependent. The main help it'll give is to make you need a shorter streak, not to make sure there's enough gold available full stop. Definitely practice some on normal rifts first, I'd suggest, just to make sure your streak is kept up...
Actually, having said that, is the Kanai-Secheron cow level available yet? It's probably not big enough to do the achievement, but it might be a much better place to practice as the density is closer.
I'd say you probably don't want T13 (maybe T10-T11?), but might be best to experiment with the little cow level and see what's the highest torment you can keep the streak up on.

As you're a wizard with manald, the second easiest one might well be the grift 45 solo- I played wizard this season as well, and while I got VERY bad luck with dropping manald, it seemed reasonably easy once I finally had one.

Lord Torath

2017-03-12, 04:59 PM

Just completed the 350+ kills at a cursed chest: Peat Bogs. One of the other guys in the group wanted to try it, so we both completed it. Whoo Hoo!

Now I just need another 20 bounty caches, a group to help me kill good old Leoric, and a gem sacrificed to... probably my Ancient Deathwish. Nearly there!

Edit: You know, 101 Horadric Caches is a LOT of loot to go through! But I've got two completed conquests! Thanks for the suggestions!

Psyren

2017-03-13, 12:44 AM

Lord Torath

2017-03-13, 03:56 PM

The Thrill is probably my favorite conquest because there are so many ways to accomplish it. For Avarice, I'll enjoy it more next season when the bounty bag rewards get increased. (Basically they are folding the bonus bounty bag into the regular one, so you'll get a touch more gold per bag that way and also have more room to hold them.)

Curses is the easiest one in my opinion, especially if your Haedrig's Gift set is one with lots of AoE like Sunwuko or Unhallowed.I am really looking forward to losing the "bonus" cache. That and the materials/gems storage. Although the sight of all the gems lined up in columns in a rainbow on Tab 1 is pretty impressive. But it'll be nice to open up another tab-and-a-half. Will there be dedicated storage for legendary gems?

Psyren

2017-03-13, 04:26 PM

I am really looking forward to losing the "bonus" cache. That and the materials/gems storage. Although the sight of all the gems lined up in columns in a rainbow on Tab 1 is pretty impressive. But it'll be nice to open up another tab-and-a-half. Will there be dedicated storage for legendary gems?

No, leggems still take up space. In fact, I'm pretty sure the regular gems also still take up space, because they're used both to craft and to socket into things.

What we no longer have to track will be bounty materials, salvage materials, and hellfire amulet materials IIRC. (Not sure about Infernal Machines.)

Icewraith

2017-03-14, 12:08 PM

No, leggems still take up space. In fact, I'm pretty sure the regular gems also still take up space, because they're used both to craft and to socket into things.

What we no longer have to track will be bounty materials, salvage materials, and hellfire amulet materials IIRC. (Not sure about Infernal Machines.)

I really, really hope that regular gems go in the stash too. And that anything you pick up goes directly into the stash instead of taking up space in your character's storage. Otherwise you end up with 8 mandatory spaces for the two top level flavors of gems that drop, four spaces for the crafting mats, one for breaths, and one for your legendary potion.

Lord Torath

2017-03-14, 02:33 PM

What are your favorite potions to use? Currently, I'm using the green one, which increases life per hit.

Psyren

2017-03-14, 03:36 PM

I really, really hope that regular gems go in the stash too. And that anything you pick up goes directly into the stash instead of taking up space in your character's storage. Otherwise you end up with 8 mandatory spaces for the two top level flavors of gems that drop, four spaces for the crafting mats, one for breaths, and one for your legendary potion.

On the PTR they don't, but I suppose anything is possible.

I currently keep only Marquise, Imperial, and Flawless Royal gems in storage. Everything else can either be combined to one of the others or is useless.

Gems can go in your stash though, it's not like you actually need them in your bag like you do with, say, potions.

What are your favorite potions to use? Currently, I'm using the green one, which increases life per hit.

Depends on the class:

- Int-based classes have high resists and weak armor, so I tend to use the armor potion on them (BP of the Tower.)
- Str and Dex classes have high armor and low resists, so I tend to use the resists potion there (Diamond.)

If a class feels chewy enough or doesn't take a lot of damage to begin with, I'll go for one of the others:

- On builds that do a lot of automatic damage (pets or dots) I tend to use the life per hit one or the increase healing from all sources one.
- On builds with invincibility frames like SSS or Leapquake I usually use the regen potion.
- On builds that do more damage if enemies stay away (e.g. UE) I might use the fear potion.
- If I'm just goofing around with friends I might run the chaos potion.

The ones I never use are the Life per Kill potion (though that would probably be useful with those death pants) and the resource potion (I don't want my muscle memory to end up relying on it.)

Icewraith

2017-03-14, 06:47 PM

On the PTR they don't, but I suppose anything is possible.

I currently keep only Marquise, Imperial, and Flawless Royal gems in storage. Everything else can either be combined to one of the others or is useless.

Gems can go in your stash though, it's not like you actually need them in your bag like you do with, say, potions.

Depends on the class:

- Int-based classes have high resists and weak armor, so I tend to use the armor potion on them (BP of the Tower.)
- Str and Dex classes have high armor and low resists, so I tend to use the resists potion there (Diamond.)

If a class feels chewy enough or doesn't take a lot of damage to begin with, I'll go for one of the others:

- On builds that do a lot of automatic damage (pets or dots) I tend to use the life per hit one or the increase healing from all sources one.
- On builds with invincibility frames like SSS or Leapquake I usually use the regen potion.
- On builds that do more damage if enemies stay away (e.g. UE) I might use the fear potion.
- If I'm just goofing around with friends I might run the chaos potion.

The ones I never use are the Life per Kill potion (though that would probably be useful with those death pants) and the resource potion (I don't want my muscle memory to end up relying on it.)

I don't need them in my bag, but whenever I'm farming the Marquise/Imperial gems end up taking up the same space in my bag anyways as they drop.

I generally either use the armor or resist all potions depending on the character. However, I have found the chaos potion to be quite handy for melee characters. I used it originally on my WW barb (which I haven't really used since a couple seasons ago, before the Wastes re-work) and prefer it on my monk when I'm using the LoN LTK setup.

For melee builds, if you need to use your potion, "Anywhere but Here" is usually a pretty good place to be. I can think of exactly one instance where the teleport actually made things worse, instead of better or at least neutral.

Psyren

2017-03-14, 10:41 PM

I don't need them in my bag, but whenever I'm farming the Marquise/Imperial gems end up taking up the same space in my bag anyways as they drop.

Well yeah, once you pick them up they're in your bag until you can go to town, but then you... go to town. If not right away, then at least when the rift/vault/etc is done.

I generally either use the armor or resist all potions depending on the character. However, I have found the chaos potion to be quite handy for melee characters. I used it originally on my WW barb (which I haven't really used since a couple seasons ago, before the Wastes re-work) and prefer it on my monk when I'm using the LoN LTK setup.

For melee builds, if you need to use your potion, "Anywhere but Here" is usually a pretty good place to be. I can think of exactly one instance where the teleport actually made things worse, instead of better or at least neutral.

For WW barb and Strafe DH, Kulle Aid isn't bad either - wallers and jailers can be pretty annoying, especially if they interfere with your Taeguk and Hexing Pants.

Traab

2017-03-20, 10:52 AM

Crud, I literally just started playing the game again last night, only to find out the season is over. Thats freaking typical of my luck. How long does it go before the next season starts?

Psyren

2017-03-20, 11:12 AM

Crud, I literally just started playing the game again last night, only to find out the season is over. Thats freaking typical of my luck. How long does it go before the next season starts?

It begins next Friday (not this Friday), 3/31 at 8pm EDT. See here for more. (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20631435/first-look-season-10-3-17-2017) In addition, Season 10 will coincide with Patch 2.5, so read up on those changes here (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20529333/patch-250-ptr-notes-3-10-2017) to help you plan.

I'll definitely be participating to give the new Armory a try. I dunno how far I'll go into it this time around with both Mass Effect and Warframe vying for my attention, especially since I have all the stash tabs now, but that pennant seems like a good stopping point. I'll probably do Barbarian this time as well as that is the one class whose set dungeon masteries I'm missing.

Hunter Noventa

2017-03-20, 11:34 AM

I just got back into this after a long time away. Working on getting my Demon Hunter to 70 finally, and I've also been working on my Crusader, which has been hilarious. I got the Hamma Jammas. You know, the pants that make it so when you shoot hammers with Justice they can turn into blessed hammers when they hit something? And then there's the rune that makes Justice sometimes split into more hammers? And that the Rune for Blesed Hammer that makes them sometimes spawn a new Blessed Hammer works on the hammers spawned by the Hamma Jammas?

Whole lot of hammers going on, is what I'm trying to say here. Walking into any fight and turning it into a huge storm of spinning hammers of death is the best kind of hilarious.

Psyren

2017-03-20, 12:23 PM

I got the Hamma Jammas. You know, the pants that make it so when you shoot hammers with Justice they can turn into blessed hammers when they hit something?

The function you describe comes from a belt actually - Blessed of Haull (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/blessed-of-haull). The pants, Hammer Jammers (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hammer-jammers), do something completely different (and are extremely powerful.)

Hunter Noventa

2017-03-20, 02:17 PM

The function you describe comes from a belt actually - Blessed of Haull (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/blessed-of-haull). The pants, Hammer Jammers (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hammer-jammers), do something completely different (and are extremely powerful.)

Yes right, the belt. Which is falling a little behind in level but seriously. ALL THE HAMMERS. ALL THE TIME.

Psyren

2017-03-20, 02:51 PM

Yes right, the belt. Which is falling a little behind in level but seriously. ALL THE HAMMERS. ALL THE TIME.

You can always cube it to keep it going while wearing something level appropriate if you like :smallsmile:

Alent

2017-03-20, 03:05 PM

Crud, I literally just started playing the game again last night, only to find out the season is over. Thats freaking typical of my luck. How long does it go before the next season starts?

Could be worse, right as I got my character's survivability worked out, the friends I had been working on the journey with all quit the game. One even ragequit spectacularly because his account is just... cursed with a bad random seed. (He lags behind everybody for gear, gets legendaries and sets for other classes, but not his own, etc.)

I'm debating if I want to give the game a break as a result, they'll be back in the mood to play eventually- maybe when necro DLC hits.

Traab

2017-03-20, 04:11 PM

Ah so the necro will not be a free patch? I was kinda hoping he would. I miss my d2 necro and was curious to see how this one would match up.

Psyren

2017-03-20, 05:06 PM

Necro is paid DLC, but I think you'll be able to play it for free on a future PTR (for a while) if you just want to take it for a spin.

Remember, Diablo doesn't have microtransactions like Overwatch to help pay for free DLC like new characters and such (though that could be an interesting monetization model for Diablo 4 now that OW has proven it can succeed.)

Icewraith

2017-03-20, 05:15 PM

Could be worse, right as I got my character's survivability worked out, the friends I had been working on the journey with all quit the game. One even ragequit spectacularly because his account is just... cursed with a bad random seed. (He lags behind everybody for gear, gets legendaries and sets for other classes, but not his own, etc.)

I'm debating if I want to give the game a break as a result, they'll be back in the mood to play eventually- maybe when necro DLC hits.

Everyone is supposed to get stuff for other classes occasionally. The very first ancient I got on my monk this season IIRC was for witch doctors. Slightly frustrating.

NeoVid

2017-03-20, 06:35 PM

Damn. Looks like I'd better get around to getting my account to GRift 70 so I can get Primals next patch.

Lord Torath

2017-03-20, 07:15 PM

Are Primal Ancients limited to seasonal heroes? Or can non-seasonals get them too?

Also: Is the 2.5 patch being implemented before Season 10 starts? Or at the same time as?

Traab

2017-03-20, 07:19 PM

Everyone is supposed to get stuff for other classes occasionally. The very first ancient I got on my monk this season IIRC was for witch doctors. Slightly frustrating.

So far now, twice in a row the same thing has happened to me. I start a new character, loot leorics crown, then get leorics crown again off the skeleton king. Obviously as its higher level the stats are better, but its still very strange.

Istarial

2017-03-20, 07:31 PM

Are Primal Ancients limited to seasonal heroes? Or can non-seasonals get them too?

Also: Is the 2.5 patch being implemented before Season 10 starts? Or at the same time as?

Non-Seasonals can get them, but the GR70 unlock is separate between regular, hardcore, seasonal, and seasonal hardcore.

Psyren

2017-03-20, 11:43 PM

Also: Is the 2.5 patch being implemented before Season 10 starts? Or at the same time as?

The patch usually drops before (i.e. Tuesday, with the Season starting Friday night.) So I would expect 2.5 next week if not tomorrow/today.

So far now, twice in a row the same thing has happened to me. I start a new character, loot leorics crown, then get leorics crown again off the skeleton king. Obviously as its higher level the stats are better, but its still very strange.

There aren't many other legendaries that can drop at those levels, so the pity timer will land on that one more often.

Hunter Noventa

2017-03-21, 06:24 AM

There aren't many other legendaries that can drop at those levels, so the pity timer will land on that one more often.

What's funny is that my Demon Hunter has two Burizas. One is sitting the Scoundrel, and is about 30 levels behind my newer one.

Traab

2017-03-21, 08:53 AM

The patch usually drops before (i.e. Tuesday, with the Season starting Friday night.) So I would expect 2.5 next week if not tomorrow/today.

There aren't many other legendaries that can drop at those levels, so the pity timer will land on that one more often.

Thats true enough. Oh, and amusing factor I almost forgot about. I play a lot of characters, so I have my stash packed to the brim with legendary weapons and jewelry and such for all classes and a wide assortment of level ranges. It means I can easily start a new character and stomp my way through decently high difficulties without having to worry about the rng. Its just funny to say, have a 50 dps mace, with a socket in it that has a high level ruby that quadruples the damage or more. The regular damage of the weapon would be enough, but with the gem? I get some hilarious numbers at low levels. I have been messing about on my crusader, so far the most fun thing is to steed up and charge, leaving fire in my wake that just kills massive swarms of monsters. Or toss a few flaming hammers around myself and clear out a room.

Psyren

2017-03-21, 09:49 AM

I would suggest salvaging the low level gear and instead getting a single max-level ancient weapon with a socket and sticking Gem of Ease in there so that everyone can use it. Then you can use that + yellows and blues to level your alts even faster while also saving a lot of stash space.

In other words, instead of a 50 dps mace with a 200 dps ruby inside it, you could have a 2500 dps sword that every class can use that also gives bonus XP.

Traab

2017-03-21, 11:03 AM

tyckspoon

2017-03-21, 11:36 AM

Sure, just have to get one of those. By those I mean both awesome weapon and a gem of ease. :p In the meantime I will use what I have till better comes along.

Doesn't even really have to be awesome - any higher-level legendary will do. Have the Blacksmith make you one if you don't have a decent one laying around the stash. As for the Gem.. assuming you have at least one level 70 character, all you really have to do is run Greater Rifts until it gets around to it. You're guaranteed to drop a Legendary Gem when you clear one, after all, no matter the level of the Rift; it'll get to Gem of Ease eventually. Suppose it's a bit more work to level it up to actually get the reduces level req to 1 effect, as that's its rank 25 bonus.

If you have a character who can farm them, a moderately decent Hellfire Ring and an Amulet of (preferably) appropriate mainstat can also kickstart a new alt quite well. A good Ruby-or-Ease'd weapon, Ring, and Amulet should be able to get you into the 60's with a little bit of work, and at that point you can craft or buy expansion-tier stuff that'll finish out your leveling.

Icewraith

2017-03-21, 12:33 PM

So far now, twice in a row the same thing has happened to me. I start a new character, loot leorics crown, then get leorics crown again off the skeleton king. Obviously as its higher level the stats are better, but its still very strange.

?
Any class should find Leoric's crown quite useful, especially when leveling. Not the same thing at all.

Psyren

2017-03-21, 01:45 PM

Sure, just have to get one of those. By those I mean both awesome weapon and a gem of ease. :p In the meantime I will use what I have till better comes along.

As mentioned you can just craft one. Doesn't have to be ancient, that just helps.

For getting the gem, as long as you have every other leggem they rest stop dropping entirely, so GoE becomes guaranteed if you run a few GRs. It shouldn't take more than an hour or two altogether.

Alent

2017-03-21, 02:16 PM

Doesn't even really have to be awesome - any higher-level legendary will do. Have the Blacksmith make you one if you don't have a decent one laying around the stash.

Watch for an Ancient Devil Tongue. That sword makes up the disproportionate majority of legendary weapon drops for everyone I know, and is virtually always the first max level legendary I see drop on a new character. Since it drops so much, you're sure to get ancient versions of it in no time flat and can cherrypick the best of the litter for your Gem of Ease.

Dhavaer

2017-03-21, 02:35 PM

So, any tips on how to get to GR70? I'm up to 54 on my wizard and I could probably get to 56 or so if I tried, but fifteen levels up sounds impossible. I'm running a firebird/channelling build.

Psyren

2017-03-21, 02:43 PM

So, any tips on how to get to GR70? I'm up to 54 on my wizard and I could probably get to 56 or so if I tried, but fifteen levels up sounds impossible. I'm running a firebird/channelling build.

Pretty much any speedfarming build will do it - Torment XIII is GR 60, so any build capable of blazing through that is at least 10 GRs higher. Hit up Icy Veins and pick one of the ones that would be easiest to gear for.

We could also tweak your Firebird build if you link it - easy rerolls, gemming advice, items to shoot for, that sort of thing. Firebirds Sigil can do it (albeit not nearly as easily as a Firebird Archon build.)

EDIT: Just don't forget to swap out the usual Goldwrap suggestions, since that item is useless in GRs.

tyckspoon

2017-03-21, 02:45 PM

So, any tips on how to get to GR70? I'm up to 54 on my wizard and I could probably get to 56 or so if I tried, but fifteen levels up sounds impossible. I'm running a firebird/channelling build.

Would have to see your character to give specific advice, but assuming your skill choices are capable of it eventually it's just a numbers game. Reroll any less-useful properties to a better damage or toughness one, depending on what you think you're missing. If you've already got the right kind stats, reroll them to better numbers in that stat. Try to find Ancient versions of any pieces you don't already have. Farm a bunch of stuff for rerolling existing things/upgrading Rares to try for better versions if you didn't get good rolls. Work on getting the gems and legendary gem levels you need to Caldesann's things you're pretty sure you'll be keeping for a while. Build up more Paragon levels to shove into your mainstat (assuming you've already maxed out the usual secondary bonuses like movespeed/crit/whatever else is good for your build.) Lots of things you can do to improve, but probably nothing that is going to be the one aha! change that lets you vault 15 GR levels.

Dhavaer

2017-03-21, 03:33 PM

Found the link: Jihan (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dhavaer-6678/hero/84250200).

Psyren

2017-03-21, 04:03 PM

Found the link: Jihan (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dhavaer-6678/hero/84250200).

*imports*

Okay, your biggest problem (which I'm guessing you've realized too due to the use of Astral Presence and Arcanot) is that you're probably burning through your Arcane Power with this build. This is compounded by your Energy Armor which is lowering your maximum AP. What you really need is a Hergrbrash's Binding (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hergbrashs-binding) to effectively makes your disintegrate free of charge, and frees up both of those skill slots for something better.

Second, I'm not really sure what the 2 piece Tals is doing for you. Even if your Arcane Familiar is dropping an arcane meteor (I can't remember if it does or not), that's still just 2 meteors every 30+ seconds - not really much damage on their own, and you're missing the other set bonuses too (no toughness or damage bump, just a flat meteor drop.) By replacing those two pieces we can buff your damage and toughness considerably (see below.)

The third issue is lack of an escape button (i.e. Teleport.) Illusory Boots help with that, but running away from danger is slower and also more dangerous when there's things like poison grids, fire chains or spinning lasers around you. You probably spend a lot of time repositioning to avoid damage when elites show up and start jumping all over you and spewing affixes everywhere; I'm guessing this is also the reason for your Blur and Dominance passives.

Your rerolls are unfortunately all good - I say unfortunately because it means there's not much you can do to improve your situation but farm better gear. Drop Tals belt and chest and the Illusory Boots, get Hergrash's belt, equip Firebird's boots and Aquila Cuirass, drop RRoG for Convention of Elements, swap out your Lacuni Bracers for Blood Bracers, drop Familiar for Teleport, drop Dominance for Galvanizing Ward, drop Astral Presence for Unwavering Will, and drop Blur for Illusionist, and you'll be in T13 in no time.

Also, great Deathwish, but I would reroll the Vitality to % damage or % elite damage. (When you're able to make the changes above you'll be plenty tough even without that.)

tyckspoon

2017-03-21, 04:36 PM

Psyren has pretty good advice; you might also look at swapping your chest to Cindercoat, and a Stone of Jordan with Fire damage would be a decent option for replacing the Royal Ring if you don't want to deal with Convention of Element's timing cycle.

Lord Torath

2017-03-21, 08:56 PM

I've found I like Energy Twister -Gale Force combined with Ransor's Folly bracers instead of Blizzard Apocalypse. Twisters do lots of damage, and suck the baddies right into you twin beams of disintegrate.

Dhavaer

2017-03-22, 03:43 AM

*imports*

Okay, your biggest problem (which I'm guessing you've realized too due to the use of Astral Presence and Arcanot) is that you're probably burning through your Arcane Power with this build. This is compounded by your Energy Armor which is lowering your maximum AP. What you really need is a Hergrbrash's Binding (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hergbrashs-binding) to effectively makes your disintegrate free of charge, and frees up both of those skill slots for something better.

That's pretty much it; I did have a binding from the season but foolishly cubed it. It's number 1 on my list of items to pick up.

Second, I'm not really sure what the 2 piece Tals is doing for you. Even if your Arcane Familiar is dropping an arcane meteor (I can't remember if it does or not), that's still just 2 meteors every 30+ seconds - not really much damage on their own, and you're missing the other set bonuses too (no toughness or damage bump, just a flat meteor drop.) By replacing those two pieces we can buff your damage and toughness considerably (see below.)

It's not for anything in particular, I was just using a Tal's build before switching to Firebirds and didn't have better gear for the slots.

The third issue is lack of an escape button (i.e. Teleport.) Illusory Boots help with that, but running away from danger is slower and also more dangerous when there's things like poison grids, fire chains or spinning lasers around you. You probably spend a lot of time repositioning to avoid damage when elites show up and start jumping all over you and spewing affixes everywhere; I'm guessing this is also the reason for your Blur and Dominance passives.

Your rerolls are unfortunately all good - I say unfortunately because it means there's not much you can do to improve your situation but farm better gear. Drop Tals belt and chest and the Illusory Boots, get Hergrash's belt, equip Firebird's boots and Aquila Cuirass, drop RRoG for Convention of Elements, swap out your Lacuni Bracers for Blood Bracers, drop Familiar for Teleport, drop Dominance for Galvanizing Ward, drop Astral Presence for Unwavering Will, and drop Blur for Illusionist, and you'll be in T13 in no time.

Also, great Deathwish, but I would reroll the Vitality to % damage or % elite damage. (When you're able to make the changes above you'll be plenty tough even without that.)

I was actually planning to reroll the socket and Ramaladni it, but now I'm considering waiting until I have a primal. Not sure if that's a good idea, though.

Edit: Got up 4 more Grift levels, found a Convention of Elements that looks good but no belt yet. Tried dropping blur for ward and it seems okay so far, maybe a bit swingy. I don't think I'll be able to go any higher until I get more gear. What level gem do you think is the minimum I should use for augmenting?

Psyren

2017-03-22, 09:18 AM

That's pretty much it; I did have a binding from the season but foolishly cubed it. It's number 1 on my list of items to pick up.

Since you cubed it, I'd honestly suggest using that in your cube instead of the Mantle. You're likely losing way more than 25% dps whenever you run out of AP and need to recharge, to say nothing of the slots being occupied by subpar AP regen abilities that could go to other things (i.e. Teleport and Unwavering Will instead of Arcanot and AP.)

It's not for anything in particular, I was just using a Tal's build before switching to Firebirds and didn't have better gear for the slots.

Gotcha. Do you have Firebirds boots stashed? You can run a 6/2 build if you equip those, and you won't even need RRoG. Swapping that out for the Convention you found will be a huge DPS boost, and with teleport you won't need the Illusory Boots anymore.

I was actually planning to reroll the socket and Ramaladni it, but now I'm considering waiting until I have a primal. Not sure if that's a good idea, though.

Oh my bad, I had mistakenly thought you Gifted it already. Then yeah, definitely do that (reroll the socket off and add it back.) Don't worry about wasting your Gift - ancient Deathwish is a good weapon, and by the time you find a Primal you'll likely have another one anyway.

What level gem do you think is the minimum I should use for augmenting?

To be perfectly honest, you should be making it to T13 without augmenting at all (I certainly never did.) So I wouldn't, but if you must, I'd probably go no lower than 50. It'll be pretty quick to get back there anyway.

Hunter Noventa

2017-03-22, 11:22 AM

So are there any tips to be had with the new season coming up? I started playing again at the very tail end of the previous one and I was wondering if anyone had any tips to maximize results?

Psyren

2017-03-22, 11:58 AM

All kinds of guides in the subreddit: Season 10 Megathread (https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/60i075/season_10_megathread/)

The basic guidelines are:

(a) Pick a class you want to be doing the season stuff on, with a Haedrig's Gift that you like. For example, if you like both Monks and Wizards, but you are sick of Inna's set, go with the Wizard. Also, for best results you want to pick a Gift that has a speedfarming build associated with it. So a set like Shadow's Mantle that is designed more for assassinating Rift Guardians and progressing up the ladder isn't a good choice, whereas a set like Unhallowed Essence that's designed to just cartwheel everywhere and blanket the screen in arrows would be.

(b) Get to 70 as fast as possible. Remember you can steal your follower's weapon right at the start for a boost - the leveling guides will have more little tips like that.

(c) Decide on your Journey goal early. Do you want the stash tab? Just the pennant? The portrait frame? Each of these have different levels of commitment.

Icewraith

2017-03-22, 02:28 PM

I'm not sure how much I like the "auto-equip the best gem you have in your stash" thing. That caused some problems switching between characters and gear sets.

On the other hand, if I have all my characters dump their jewelry in the cube and make a habit of doing so before switching characters, I can do a whole bunch of Caldensann's and cut down on the redundant gems. The only problem is that the sets I seem to really like or use (UE, Tal, Sunwuko) I don't have ancients I want to upgrade, but I have a couple sets (Delsere, Shadow, LoN LTK) that are almost full ancient.

Delsere I don't know how I feel about. I get through T13 fine, but it seems like sometimes things just die and other times they stick around for far too long. Could be CoE, but it feels more like there's some kind of lag for when the Slow Time damage boost kicks in, or I'm not moving right to hit things with Arcane Orbit.

note to self: Try Delsere with Frozen Orb, see what happens.

Anyone got a Primal yet?

Derjuin

2017-03-22, 02:50 PM

Oh heeeey, barbarian's getting Raekor's... I might actually do this. I kind of like that set.

Lord Torath

2017-03-22, 03:00 PM

That's right, Delsere's just got a boost, didn't it? I should play around with it a bit. Psyren, does your lightning-ball build still work? Have you made any improvements to it lately?

Psyren

2017-03-22, 03:44 PM

That's right, Delsere's just got a boost, didn't it? I should play around with it a bit. Psyren, does your lightning-ball build still work? Have you made any improvements to it lately?

I've... kinda been playing Mass Effect so I haven't tried it lately :smalltongue:

I see no reason why it wouldn't - but on the other hand, a Frozen Orb build with the new Rimeheart might actually work better than a paralysis build with Manald. Glacial Spike as your generator will proc the full freeze needed.

...And now you've got me tinkering again, well played...

Hunter Noventa

2017-03-22, 06:45 PM

I don't have any sets at all or anythign, well except I think one I can craft which is okay I guess. I'll likely just go with Monk, I've been wanting to use one.

ShneekeyTheLost

2017-03-22, 07:01 PM

After I had to do a wipe and reinstall of my computer, I just haven't found it worth bothering to set up D3 anymore.

It was fun, but I'm just not really into the high-end grinding, and I foresee only an ever-steepening time investment to get any sort of real increase in utility. Plus the blatant sale of a new class instead of packaging it with an actual DLC which I'm still salty about. So... yea, probably not gonna bother reinstalling. So long, and thanks for all the fish. I'll go play Torchlight 2 instead.

Psyren

2017-03-22, 08:08 PM

I don't have any sets at all or anythign, well except I think one I can craft which is okay I guess. I'll likely just go with Monk, I've been wanting to use one.

The Gift this season is Inna's, which has a number of viable builds for it. The other cool thing about it is that it's a 7pc set, so you can run it alongside Sage's for early Breath farming.

Dhavaer

2017-03-23, 05:56 AM

Since you cubed it, I'd honestly suggest using that in your cube instead of the Mantle. You're likely losing way more than 25% dps whenever you run out of AP and need to recharge, to say nothing of the slots being occupied by subpar AP regen abilities that could go to other things (i.e. Teleport and Unwavering Will instead of Arcanot and AP.)

Just tried this; I think the 25% damage reduction was doing a lot for me because I died five times (normally I die once at most). I might switch back to the Mantle until I get another one of either.

Gotcha. Do you have Firebirds boots stashed? You can run a 6/2 build if you equip those, and you won't even need RRoG. Swapping that out for the Convention you found will be a huge DPS boost, and with teleport you won't need the Illusory Boots anymore.

I do, but they aren't ancient. Switching the chest slot and using Convention feels like it's doing a lot more damage, though.

Oh my bad, I had mistakenly thought you Gifted it already. Then yeah, definitely do that (reroll the socket off and add it back.) Don't worry about wasting your Gift - ancient Deathwish is a good weapon, and by the time you find a Primal you'll likely have another one anyway.

Done, got 10% damage pretty quickly.

Psyren

2017-03-23, 09:06 AM

Just tried this; I think the 25% damage reduction was doing a lot for me because I died five times (normally I die once at most). I might switch back to the Mantle until I get another one of either.

Did you also switch to Teleport so you could keep away from bad things? If you didn't, then yeah, the loss of toughness coupled with no escape is going to make things a lot worse. If you did and you're dying anyway, then blinking away from trouble may just be a playstyle issue.

Traab

2017-03-23, 12:21 PM

Icewraith

2017-03-23, 01:46 PM

Im looking for tips on what to pick next season. So far ive been a barb a monk and a crusader. Generally speaking, I like being able to run face first into a fight and survive. I dont like to have to spend a ton of time dodging around avoiding a near instant kill because I cant take a hit without burning defensive skills. If I go witchdoctor, will my pets be strong enough to stand up to high torment elites? Or will they be obliterated quickly?

I believe they buffed Zuni's this patch, which usually means next season the gift will be Zuni's.

Zuni pets are plenty durable. The only real issue with Zunis is getting the two masks and two weapons you need to make the full build really work.

Traab

2017-03-23, 01:55 PM

I believe they buffed Zuni's this patch, which usually means next season the gift will be Zuni's.

Zuni pets are plenty durable. The only real issue with Zunis is getting the two masks and two weapons you need to make the full build really work.

What, so you mean like, wear mask and weapon 1 to say, summon the pets and give them whatever boosts they need, then equip the other mask and weapon to give them the passive bonus? Interesting. I will probably give it a shot. Whats a good speed build for a witchdoctor while grinding for the full gear set? Should I stick with pets and such?

Icewraith

2017-03-23, 02:14 PM

What, so you mean like, wear mask and weapon 1 to say, summon the pets and give them whatever boosts they need, then equip the other mask and weapon to give them the passive bonus? Interesting. I will probably give it a shot. Whats a good speed build for a witchdoctor while grinding for the full gear set? Should I stick with pets and such?

No, you wear one and the other goes in the cube. Carnevil, the helm that makes your fetishes shoot copies of your poison darts, can be a gigantic pain to get-it has a low drop rate. You need the Dagger of Darts to make the poison darts pierce. Mask of Jeram ups your pet damage by a lot, and Starmetal Kukri lets you use Big Bad Voodoo much faster, which speeds up the amount of darts you spew out. Zuni 2 pc makes your fetish army permanent.

Once everything's going, the darts will fly a good screen and a half, dealing huge chunks of damage to anything you've hit with a spender and aggroing everything you haven't hit with a spender (which then moves onto your screen to try to kill you, you hit with a spender, spam some darts, dead). I don't think of Zuni as particularly speedy, it doesn't move like a Tal speedfarming build for instance. In-geom speedfarming builds are like rockets that use elite packs for gas. As long as you keep finding elite packs and nuking them down before your buff wears off, you won't run out of gas... once it takes you longer than 10s to find and kill the next elite pack, things slow way down (also you're quite fragile). Zuni is more like a combination harvester or an avalanche- once you build up some speed, you'll mow everything down.

Traab

2017-03-23, 02:20 PM

Oh ok, that makes better sense. :p Also, flashing back to an earlier comment I made on getting so many leorics crowns. My crusader is right now running rampant through heaven. He has looted over the course of the game no less than three executioners axes. On the other hand, I keep getting all sorts of interesting random shields. One that gives my 2h weapon an extra 10% damage I think, and my latest one that randomly summons a spiritual wolf that does 900% weapon damage as it charges off away from me. So far I have only really looted like 1 shield that boosted my crusader abilities and thatw as an act 1 shield that boosted sweep attack. But then I got some bracers that slap an extra 480% of so to the first target of my tossed shield and I rather enjoy hurling that thing around. It murders stuff quite effectively.

Psyren

2017-03-23, 02:37 PM

The WD Gift is indeed Zuni.

Im looking for tips on what to pick next season. So far ive been a barb a monk and a crusader. Generally speaking, I like being able to run face first into a fight and survive. I dont like to have to spend a ton of time dodging around avoiding a near instant kill because I cant take a hit without burning defensive skills. If I go witchdoctor, will my pets be strong enough to stand up to high torment elites? Or will they be obliterated quickly?

Pet survival is almost never an issue - if you're at a difficulty where your pets are always dying, it generally also means they (and therefore you) are doing far too little damage to make playing on that difficulty worthwhile, and therefore that you should downrank or modify your build.

Oh ok, that makes better sense. :p Also, flashing back to an earlier comment I made on getting so many leorics crowns. My crusader is right now running rampant through heaven. He has looted over the course of the game no less than three executioners axes. On the other hand, I keep getting all sorts of interesting random shields. One that gives my 2h weapon an extra 10% damage I think,

Hellskull (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/hellskull)

and my latest one that randomly summons a spiritual wolf that does 900% weapon damage as it charges off away from me

Defender of Westmarch (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/defender-of-westmarch)

So far I have only really looted like 1 shield that boosted my crusader abilities and thatw as an act 1 shield that boosted sweep attack

Denial (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/denial)

But then I got some bracers that slap an extra 480% of so to the first target of my tossed shield and I rather enjoy hurling that thing around. It murders stuff quite effectively.

Akkhan's Manacles. (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/akkhans-manacles) Despite the name (and the design), most Akkhan builds sadly don't use it. Probably because they screwed up with the Blessed Shield flail.

Dhavaer

2017-03-23, 05:26 PM

Did you also switch to Teleport so you could keep away from bad things? If you didn't, then yeah, the loss of toughness coupled with no escape is going to make things a lot worse. If you did and you're dying anyway, then blinking away from trouble may just be a playstyle issue.

I did, it came in handy occasionally but the monster density was very high so I was generally teleporting from twelve enemies to five enemies rather than safety.

Psyren

2017-03-23, 05:43 PM

If you're dying more often with teleport... well, I'm not sure what to say. Generally that's not what happens, and how you use it can play a role.

Lord Torath

2017-03-23, 08:17 PM

I gave your Lightning Ball Delsere's build another go. I must say, it's much more effective when you remember to actually use Slow Time occasionally. :smallredface:

I'd been playing an Etched Firebird, and got used to not hitting "1". After I died several times, I accidentally used Slow Time, and suddenly I was kicking butt! I've just cleared GR 58.

Do you need to reach GR70 Solo to start getting Primals? Or can it be co-operative?

Psyren

2017-03-23, 10:12 PM

Patch notes say solo. (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20529333/patch-250-ptr-notes-3-10-2017)

On my Etched Firebird, "1" is my Black Hole. I don't hit it as often as I hit Slow Time on DMO or the nova move on Archon, but I need to hit it often enough that the muscle memory stays intact.

Dhavaer

2017-03-24, 06:42 AM

Ancient Blood Bracers and Bindings have gotten me to GR61, with no deaths. I think I'm getting the hang of teleporting too.

Psyren

2017-03-24, 09:57 AM

Is anyone still playing on console? Since seasons have finally arrived there I was curious to see if any console players were giving it a go.

Istarial

2017-03-24, 10:21 AM

Not 100% sure if this has been mentioned here, so just to make sure:
The Kanai's Skorn transmog is available at the moment- grab it this week or wait till next year!
(It's in the chest in the immortal throne area of the ruins of sescheron.)

Psyren

2017-03-24, 10:30 AM

Istarial

2017-03-24, 10:54 AM

It looks exactly like regular Skorn to me, is there a difference?

Same shape, but a more fiery look to it, I think.

Lord Torath

2017-03-24, 08:21 PM

It's a ghostly orange, with the same red star shimmery thing at the blade. The handle is barely visible. Kind of cool looking.

Kanai's Stomping Grounds is kinda fun, too!

NeoVid

2017-03-25, 12:35 AM

So, I dusted off a character I hadn't played in seasons, that had never really worked out for me. Since this was my Wizard, I had the upside that my main is a Witch Doctor, so I had lots of Int gear banked, though no Wizard set gear to use. That meant I had to search my bank for whatever might make a workable build... And I then noticed I had a set of Int Legacy of Nightmares rings in there, so I gave him those and threw on every Ancient item with Int that I had banked.

This wizard ended up with 6 Ancients before I took him into a T6 Rift to see how it worked out. The first legendary that dropped for him was a Manald Heal.

I should have mentioned that the weapon he got out of the bank was an Ancient Rimeheart, so I'd built around the 10,000% damage procs it gives by making a cold/lightning build.

Yeah, you probably see where this is going. In fact, you may have heard me laughing maniacally from wherever you are.

I Cubed the Manald as soon as I got back to town, and it turns out a LoN build that gets piles of 10-14k damage procs constantly is the most hilarious thing ever. It's totally fixed the fact that I shelved my wiz because it wasn't fun, that's for sure!

GolemsVoice

2017-03-25, 09:49 AM

A question: how does +X% damage to a skill work? Say a skill does 300% weapon damage, and I have +10% bonus on that skill. Is the end result 310% damage, or 300% +10% of the resulting damage?

lord_khaine

2017-03-25, 11:56 AM

You will end up doing 330% damage with that skill. And if you had +10 % elemental damage to it you would end up with 363 % damage.

Traab

2017-03-26, 02:26 PM

One thing I find amusing in the game is, how easy the lower difficulty levels are even without effort. As an example, I played the full storyline on whatever level is just under torment. Virtually the only thing I wore that wasnt a standard drop was a stored weapon and I still managed to basically roflstomp my way through everything. Just now I was running a bounty set, closing down some demon gates or whatever. Here I am, with a full screen of enemies packed so tightly I cant even see my own character, and its nothing to me. Absolutely nothing. I just stood there spamming my shield hurling ability, blinding to gain more wrath, and spammed shield hurl some more. Admittedly, I do have an absurd life per hit figure, but even that was pure random chance on my gear drops. Only reason im not running torment right now is, I want to hit 70 first, and the first torment difficulties arent HARD, they just make everything take a few extra hits to kill which slows me down. The only time I even notice my hp dropping is if im standing in a plagued/molten/desecrated spot, while an arcane turret starts hitting me, and the named elites/champs are also attacking me. So I figure I will stay below till im 70, then start working on farming good gear and pushing deeper until the new season starts. See what kinda loot I can nab, what legendary recipes I can get to drop. (So far a couple of those, plus a few good gem ones as well)

NeoVid

2017-03-26, 04:04 PM

I have to point out that the experience gains are so much higher in the Torments that you'll probably hit 70 much sooner if you turn up the difficulty a notch or two. If it takes twice as long to kill things while you're getting triple the XP, you're coming out way ahead.

Traab

2017-03-26, 04:13 PM

Meh, I was 65 by the time I beat the final boss of the storyline and am already at 68, almost 69. Its not a problem. Once I hit 70 I will craft some level 70 gear and start farming torments. I will get it with the next set of bounties I run most likely.

Meta

2017-03-31, 03:03 PM

Got my first primal ancient! Traveler's Pledge. Rerolled armor in to crit chance to have crit damage, int, crit chance, socket. That's probably never getting swapped out. Well until Runic Primal Ancient™ gear comes out.

Do GitPers rift together?

Psyren

2017-03-31, 03:17 PM

Traab

2017-03-31, 04:40 PM

My battletag is in the OP I think.

Hard and Master are mathematically faster than Torment for leveling - you just need a build with lots of AoE so you can rack up huge killstreak multipliers. You're also rushing off to town less often to craft replacement gear.

Just keep in mind that you can't get killstreaks in rifts.

Heh yeah thats gotten me some serious leveling boosts, especially early on. All of a sudden a 72x kill streak or whatever loads up and boom, my exp bar maxxed out and I jumped up a full level.

Meta

2017-03-31, 06:33 PM

My battletag is in the OP I think.

Hard and Master are mathematically faster than Torment for leveling - you just need a build with lots of AoE so you can rack up huge killstreak multipliers. You're also rushing off to town less often to craft replacement gear.

Just keep in mind that you can't get killstreaks in rifts.

Okay cool. I saw those, but didn't know who's active or likes to play multiplayer. I haven't played much MP myself, but I added you.

If anyone is having issues clearing GR 70, I could probably help out at this point. Just let me know.

Hunter Noventa

2017-04-01, 12:39 AM

I started the new season today, and I feel pretty good. I did one round of all the bounties in Hard. Now i've got two set bonuses boosting my xp gain, 3 legendaries and I'm probably ready to move up to Master the next time I play.

But what the heck does the 'Slap!' bonus of The Paddle do? Just make a silly sound?

Psyren

2017-04-01, 01:01 AM

But what the heck does the 'Slap!' bonus of The Paddle do? Just make a silly sound?

Yep, that's all it does

Icewraith

2017-04-03, 01:10 PM

Ugh, Delsere has all its damage stuck in its 6 PC. Hope of Cain popped out an Ancient Slorak, so I'm stuck with that until I get something better. Unstable Scepter dropped late in leveling, so right now it's in the Cube.

4PC, check.

Next step: T1 Bounties. Gamble Blood Shards until Triumvirate and possible Orb of Infinite Depth drop. Hope for some good drops, especially jewelry. Right now I'm wearing a level 65 LoN piece (with 5% Crit on it), a level 50ish Leoric's Signet (it still has 6% crit on it, that's why), and a 65ish Rakoff's Glass of Life (that one I could maybe replace with a yellow 70 amulet).

T4 anything just takes way too long right now.

Major bright spot: I took a risk and gambled belts at Kadala. Last one she dropped before I ran out of shards was Shame of Delsere. Yesssssss.

Lord Torath

2017-04-03, 02:05 PM

Currently at Level 66 Crusader. All I have left for Chapter 2 is to hit 70. All I have left for Chapter 3 is a couple Bosses (at level 70) and a Kanai's Cube extraction. Currently using Slash and Blessed Hammer as my primaries.

What are your favorite Crusader builds?
I really enjoyed a Legacy of Nightmares Captain America (Blessed Shield) build.
I had a fair bit of success with Icy-Veins's "Hammerdin" build.

Psyren

2017-04-03, 02:58 PM

I liked Hammerdin before it was cool. *hipster glasses*

In all seriousness, I'm glad it was buffed to the nines (and doubly glad that Faithful Memory won't show up on my other characters anymore) but i tend to have an aversion to builds that are too effective. It's the same reason I find myself reluctant to play Archon wizards anymore.

OF the Crusader builds though, that one is indeed my favorite. Akkhan has no idea what it wants to be, Thornsader isn't my style, and Roland's is just irritating.

Traab

2017-04-06, 09:44 PM

Heh, so I started up my witchdoctor seasonal and one of the first legendaries I got was the broken crown or whatever its called where every time you loot a gem, another one of the type in the helm is dropped. I figure this will be a quick way to boost up my important gems as I go through the bounties and such. Just gotta remember to switch them out from time to time. Out of curiosity, whats the best generator skill to use? Im currently in my low 20s so keep that in mind. Frogs? Spiders? Darts? Firebombs? Keep in mind I have no legendaries that boost any of them yet. I was using spiders for awhile, they seemed to be effective with the jumping spider rune at forming vast swarms while I drop acid rain and locusts on everything.

Psyren

2017-04-07, 12:41 AM

I am loving what they did to Raekor's. The set itself was buffed considerably since the last time I played it - you can stack up unlimited charge damage boosts now, then unload a bunch of them at once. And they turned Seismic Slam into a fury dump too for those of us who hated Boulder Toss!

Using this set (and a little help from IK) I was able to go from T4 to T10 in a single night.

Heh, so I started up my witchdoctor seasonal and one of the first legendaries I got was the broken crown or whatever its called where every time you loot a gem, another one of the type in the helm is dropped. I figure this will be a quick way to boost up my important gems as I go through the bounties and such. Just gotta remember to switch them out from time to time.

No need for that - the low level gems don't matter, and even if they did, there's a cube recipe that lets you paint 9 of any gem the color. Even if you doubled all the gems you picked up while leveling to 60, it would probably just amount to one extra Marquise, if that - not worth the effort of tracking. Just run your best ruby up there so you can level as fast as possible.

Out of curiosity, whats the best generator skill to use? Im currently in my low 20s so keep that in mind. Frogs? Spiders? Darts? Firebombs? Keep in mind I have no legendaries that boost any of them yet. I was using spiders for awhile, they seemed to be effective with the jumping spider rune at forming vast swarms while I drop acid rain and locusts on everything.

Of the WD generators I think spiders do the most damage overall (certainly to single targets that the spiders can focus fire on), though your goal should be to not use a generator at all.

Vaz

2017-04-09, 03:12 AM

I still kinda hate Hammerdin as a gameplay style. I much prefer the Falling Sword or the Thorns build. Both kinda feel super unique. Only wish is that there was a decent Polearm Transmog useable to make a Dragoon style from Final Fantasy.

Traab

2017-04-09, 10:34 AM

Ok, first, a rant. Why are half my bounty rewards legendary items for classes that arent me?! So far ive looted two crossbows and two shields (the same damn shield in fact) Even my random world legendary drops are at best generic ones like "100% crit rate if target has full health" on a dagger. The best ive looted so far for my witchdoctor is a nice belt that lets haunt hit an extra target. Which is handy, being able to haunt like three at a time (I picked the extra haunt rune) helps to clear a room of the weak trash super fast, but dang, this season refuses to give me much in the way of class specific legendaries.

The second thing is, deaths breath. Do I have to run rifts to get these? Im in my mid to upper 60s, cant recall offhand, and havent had any drop yet. I would kinda like to upgrade my gems and such further to progress through the chapters. Or do I wait till im 70 and they will start dropping then?

Traab

2017-04-09, 12:27 PM

Ok got my deaths breaths was able to max out my artisans and extracted the haunt effect from my belt so I can wear one that isnt level 50ish and still have the effect. Maybe once I hit 70 I will start getting some decent fricking legendaries but so far thats the only one with an effect worth extracting.

Meta

2017-04-09, 02:46 PM

Traab

2017-04-09, 03:27 PM

I believe running rifts and greater rifts will be the fastest way to acquire new gear. Death's Breath would be bounties or non-greater rifts. Alternating rifts and greater rifts is probably the ticket.

Yeah, just dinged 70 so rifts it is. Well, that plus completing the season challenges as I can. Up to chapter 3 now. *EDIT* Beat three, now to work my way up through 4. The jump to torment 4 for the keywardens is going to be ugly, but im liking my fetish army, even before I got the 4 piece bonus I was able to handle maltheiel a LOT faster than I did before. Also, with the fire and forget spirit barrage rune where it floats overhead and nukes everything nearby, I find myself with a speed boost quite frequently. :p Time to see how noticeable the difference is in damage taken with my fetish army out. My pets never really died anyways so its all about my own personal toughness.

Psyren

2017-04-10, 08:52 AM

Mastered two Barbarian set dungeons last night. Immortal King has to be the easiest set dungeon in the game. Got Raekor by the skin of my teeth (2 seconds left.)

I still kinda hate Hammerdin as a gameplay style. I much prefer the Falling Sword or the Thorns build. Both kinda feel super unique. Only wish is that there was a decent Polearm Transmog useable to make a Dragoon style from Final Fantasy.

If you like Falling Sword, why do you hate Hammerdin? They pretty much go together.

Ok, first, a rant. Why are half my bounty rewards legendary items for classes that arent me?! So far ive looted two crossbows and two shields (the same damn shield in fact) Even my random world legendary drops are at best generic ones like "100% crit rate if target has full health" on a dagger. The best ive looted so far for my witchdoctor is a nice belt that lets haunt hit an extra target. Which is handy, being able to haunt like three at a time (I picked the extra haunt rune) helps to clear a room of the weak trash super fast, but dang, this season refuses to give me much in the way of class specific legendaries.

The second thing is, deaths breath. Do I have to run rifts to get these? Im in my mid to upper 60s, cant recall offhand, and havent had any drop yet. I would kinda like to upgrade my gems and such further to progress through the chapters. Or do I wait till im 70 and they will start dropping then?

Sounds like you found some, but for future reference - Breaths start dropping at 60+ and only from elites or goblins. The higher the difficulty the greater your odds, up until you hit 100% and then you start getting a chance for double and then triple breath drops.

As for the bounties... yeah, the legendaries in the caches generally aren't great, with the exception of RRoG and maybe Illusory Boots to help with some of the set dungeons. You have a small chance to get non-cache legendaries from the caches (again, scaling with difficulty) but bounties are not intended to be your main source of gear, so just think of the less useful items as funny-shaped Forgotten Souls. (The caches are an easy source of ancients though if you're looking for filler pieces for a LoN build - or just extra souls, now.)

Traab

2017-04-10, 10:27 AM

Yeah I just made the jump up to torment IV and killed diablo and belial, now to go hunt down some keywardens. Also holy crap do I have to farm a lot of bounties. I need to upgrade a rare to a legendary to complete this chapter? Yeesh. Can someone post a link to a good witchdoctor build for the season set armor? Right now im summoning like 6 zombie dogs, a gargantuan, 8 fetishes, and casting haunt (which hits three targets at a time) and spirit barrage with the rune where it stays above my head and blasts everything around me for 20 seconds. It seems to be working, but im sure its not optimal.

I do like the pets though, it makes me feel like a skellymancer again. Only downside is, when fighting a single mob, not all my pets can join in. On the plus side, in a highly complicated swarm that happens way too damn often for my tastes, I have so many pets that it does a decent job of keeping them off me. So of course half the champs and such have teleportation, or vortex, or other means of making sure I stay right in the middle of their fire chained molten asses. Also, is malthiel supposed to utterly ignore my pets and just keep chasing me? Diablo doesnt do that (diablo is super easy) With him though I spend the whole time running away, recasting haunt and barrage then using the second or two of free time while he ramps up a major attack to spam some spiders on him. Not that big a deal, it just takes longer to kill him because I spend more time running than adding my own extra damage, just curious.

Psyren

2017-04-10, 10:49 AM

Can someone post a link to a good witchdoctor build for the season set armor?

Here's a good starter speedfarm setup. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6OtD6oYVCU)
(Mild language warning, he tends to cuss a bit when he gets excited.)

Don't worry if you don't have all the pieces he does - the basic build still works well at the lower torments you're at. The more powerful variant uses Carnevil instead but that can be hard to find (and plays much differently.)

Traab

2017-04-10, 12:38 PM

Here's a good starter speedfarm setup. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6OtD6oYVCU)
(Mild language warning, he tends to cuss a bit when he gets excited.)

Don't worry if you don't have all the pieces he does - the basic build still works well at the lower torments you're at. The more powerful variant uses Carnevil instead but that can be hard to find (and plays much differently.)

Yeah I did another search myself on icey veins and got what the end result should be with bis and all that stuff. The full set of gear certainly is one synergistic monster of a build if you can get all those legendaries, plus the legendaries you need to extract. I was actually surprised to see its built around NO pets but the fetish army. But then seeing you can get the 8 you initially summon and up to 15 from the passive ability, good god I cant wait to see that mask. All them darts going everywhere, the boosted damage from the full set gear. /sigh #goals. Oh and oops, in my earlier post I was freaking out over the cost to upgrade a yellow to a legendary, I misread the recipe. Thought it was an absurd amount of the various bounty reward drops, not the regular salvage plus deaths breath. Now I just need to kill the keywardens, loot three more breaths so I can upgrade a rare, and get a few more jewelry recipe drops to complete the chapter.

Lord Torath

2017-04-10, 03:37 PM

I've completed Chapter 4, now. I actually got the full Crusader set (Armor of Akkan) while still in chapter 3: set of pants from a random drop, and the chest armor from Kadala. made the Level 20 GR a piece of cake. I think I can do GR 30 solo, but getting up to 34 (to guarantee a successful gem to 25) is going to be trickier. I'm currently using a vaguely hammerdin-ish build, with Blessed Hammer and Falling Sword as my main attacks, and Bombardment (with a Belt of Trove), Shield Glare (uncertainty and @ 360 degrees), Phalanx (archers), and Avatar of Akkan (Prophet) rounding out my skills.

Traab

2017-04-10, 03:42 PM

Im trying to play but the game is having issues apparently. I was finally all set to give the keywarden runs a go only to be noped right out of the login screen. I did get to play with the end game witch doctor build though. Even without the full set my fetish army is pretty powerful. I dont get to do much damage at this point, but spamming the grasp spell to hit as many targets as possible and my darts is good practice for when it becomes the ideal way to play. Out of curiosity, that helm that has my fetish troops fire darts whenever I do, what kind of damage do they do? It just says they shoot off a "powerful" poison dart. *EDIT* Got my 4 keywardens cleared, upgraded a rare into the jade harvester and holy crud is that set powerful! Now I need to do the level 20 grift and get the last 4 jewel recipes.

Psyren

2017-04-10, 04:27 PM

Out of curiosity, that helm that has my fetish troops fire darts whenever I do, what kind of damage do they do? It just says they shoot off a "powerful" poison dart.

You answered your own question :smalltongue: they shoot poison darts.

(Basically they fire the unruned poison dart. I'm not sure if each one is the same as yours, or if they have more damage on them - but I can confirm for what it's worth that Carnassa can do T13 easily.)

Traab

2017-04-10, 05:04 PM

You answered your own question :smalltongue: they shoot poison darts.

(Basically they fire the unruned poison dart. I'm not sure if each one is the same as yours, or if they have more damage on them - but I can confirm for what it's worth that Carnassa can do T13 easily.)

Well I knew it was poison I just wondered what the damage formula for it was. By saying its "powerful" I assumed it was likely different from my standard dart.

Psyren

2017-04-11, 11:47 AM

Well I knew it was poison I just wondered what the damage formula for it was. By saying its "powerful" I assumed it was likely different from my standard dart.

From what I've found on Reddit, it works like the FA Head Hunter rune (the one that summons two additional fetishes that shoot poison darts.) Meaning that each dart shot by a fetish is 130% weapon damage. Multiply that by the number of total fetishes you have out (from both FA and the FS passive/Transcendence belt) and you can see how this build does so much single-target damage.

Traab

2017-04-11, 01:56 PM

Niiiiiice. Is there a certain level of torment I need to be at before its likely to drop? Or is it pure luck whether high torment or low? Right now im casually destroying torment 3 but only to get my last jewel recipe to finish the chapter.

Psyren

2017-04-11, 02:15 PM

Pure luck. But some items are rarer than others (e.g. Carnevil, Wand of Woh, Furnace etc.), so the higher the difficulty the better your chances - the game will have better odds of rolling "Legendary" when the Voodoo Masks table comes up, which means more of those, which means better odds of it being chosen.

Having said that, if raising the difficulty causes you to clear the rift slowly, it makes more sense to drop back down and clear faster.

Lastly - if you're after a Primal Ancient, you need to be able to solo GR 70 (i.e. T15) within the time limit.

Icewraith

2017-04-11, 02:20 PM

Note: It's only the five closest Fetishes to you. It's still a ton of damage because it counts as pet damage for the Zuni set bonus.

The helm can drop in any Torment, but your best bet is probably using Hope of Cain to upgrade yellow WD masks. Higher Torments have a better chance to drop Legendaries in general, so it's more likely Carnevil will drop in a higher Torment than a lower one. If you're tight on mats and want to save your Breaths for the actual upgrade recipe, gamble helms (head slot) from Kadala. About half of those will be masks- save those in your stash instead of crafting masks at the blacksmith. There's a small chance Kadala will just pop out the headpiece you want, but don't count on it.

Also keep your eye out for Mask of Jeram, Zuni wears one and stores the other in the cube.

Psyren

2017-04-11, 02:45 PM

Note: It's only the five closest Fetishes to you. It's still a ton of damage because it counts as pet damage for the Zuni set bonus.

Right, I forgot they changed it. Which means the damage values may have been tweaked to compensate.

Edit: Yep, just checked - the 2.3 patch notes were when they changed Carnevil - restricting it to 5 fetishes, but pumping their damage through the roof (more than double each).

Also keep your eye out for Mask of Jeram, Zuni wears one and stores the other in the cube.

Generally you want Jeram in the cube because the legendary power is variable, while the one on Carnevil is fixed.

Traab

2017-04-11, 04:04 PM

Ah ok, thanks for the clarification. Heh, just got my first greed run. Looted like 4 legendaries, and lord knows how much gold, tons of gems, etc etc etc. Too bad none of the legendaries was all that useful. (Yay, I can make it rain gold when I finish a kill streak)

Traab

2017-04-11, 07:12 PM

So I got my full kit of set gear, decided to jump from torment 3 to 5. I then proceeded to kill adria in under 5 seconds. Perhaps its safe to bump myself up a torment or two? :p I also got a couple nice legendary items I extracted the effects from. Wish i could recall what it was, but the one im using now can sometimes summon a mimic of myself that uses some of my skills? Better than the "rain of gold" which is a really pitiful amount not worth the effort. I also got a ring that when enemies die while feared, they explode for 800% weapon damage and fear everything nearby them. Too bad im not using any fear abilities atm. Still going to hold onto it for now.

Psyren

2017-04-11, 08:55 PM

So I got my full kit of set gear, decided to jump from torment 3 to 5. I then proceeded to kill adria in under 5 seconds. Perhaps its safe to bump myself up a torment or two? :p

That's generally a favorable sign, yes :smalltongue:

Note that every two torment levels (i.e. 10 GRs) the enemies' damage and health double.

I also got a couple nice legendary items I extracted the effects from. Wish i could recall what it was, but the one im using now can sometimes summon a mimic of myself that uses some of my skills?

The Grin Reaper (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-grin-reaper)

Also, Haunt of Vaxo (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/haunt-of-vaxo)

Better than the "rain of gold" which is a really pitiful amount not worth the effort. I also got a ring that when enemies die while feared, they explode for 800% weapon damage and fear everything nearby them. Too bad im not using any fear abilities atm. Still going to hold onto it for now.

Pandemonium Loop (not going to bother linking it, it's trash)

Lord Torath

2017-04-12, 09:49 AM

Pandemonium loop is actively detrimental to your performance. Most builds focus on luring the enemy into compact groups, the better to slam them with Area-of-Effect attacks. Pandemonium Loop scatters the enemy in random directions, making it much harder to kill them all.

I had my Crusader damage up to about 500k. Now it's down to about 250k, but my thorns damage is up to 120k. I'm currently using a Blessed Hammer/Falling Sword build with Bombardment (Barrel of Nails) and the Belt of Trove (random bombardment every 7 seconds). Ultimately I'm aiming for the Bombardment Akkan build, but I'm still missing some key pieces of gear. Is that (Icy-Veins build) the best arrangement for completing/mastering Akkan's Set Dungeon?

tyckspoon

2017-04-12, 11:40 AM

So I got my full kit of set gear, decided to jump from torment 3 to 5. I then proceeded to kill adria in under 5 seconds. Perhaps its safe to bump myself up a torment or two?

All the class sets I've tried so far can do Torment 6 or 7 pretty comfortably. The better ones can push 8, but going higher than that often needs finding some of the key legendaries that improve the playstyle you want or the generic improvements like Endless Walk, Focus/Restraint, or a pair of Unity for solo defense.

Psyren

2017-04-12, 01:49 PM

All the class sets I've tried so far can do Torment 6 or 7 pretty comfortably. The better ones can push 8, but going higher than that often needs finding some of the key legendaries that improve the playstyle you want or the generic improvements like Endless Walk, Focus/Restraint, or a pair of Unity for solo defense.

The general rule of thumb is that every class set piece you find is a torment level, even assuming yellows in every other slot. If you have complementary legendaries (or small synergistic sets like F+R/EW), that number then leapfrogs quickly.

Traab

2017-04-12, 01:49 PM

Just looted a very meh helm, and a surprisingly powerful pair of set pants. Visage of giyua (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/visage-of-giyua) and helltooth leg guards (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/helltooth-leg-guards) Oh the plus side also ran a torment 5 grift like it was nothing. I justw anted to do these things in stages, you know? I think I will jump to torment 7 and run a rift, just to see how it goes. If its still pretty smooth well, lets see if I can get my other legendaries to drop before I get ahead of myself

Meta

2017-04-12, 04:00 PM

I've found Helltooth to be very stable and great for climbing easily until ~80ish GR. If you can put that together, you'll have pretty smooth sailing.

Traab

2017-04-12, 04:16 PM

Yeah if I can get more that would be great. Ok, so I ran a torment 7 rift. I won, but it was ugly, I died once, had my get out of death card activated a few times, but I cleared it. Think i will drop to 6 and farm those for ease and speed. So torment 6 rifts and whatever that amounts to in grifts for loot and profit.

Traab

2017-04-12, 04:32 PM

I got carnevil! Cant wait till my next run to see how much good it does.

Hunter Noventa

2017-04-14, 12:23 AM

Well I got my Monk to 70 and cleared all of teh Chatper 3 stuff for the season. Now I need to work my way up to Torment IV so I can finish the rest.

I've got the 4 peices of my Monk set, and having all 4 mantras for free is amazing. And with Air Ally out, as well as the Spirit Regen and Reduction bonuses I have, and the spirit boost from Blinding Flash and popping Air Ally, I can to an almost infinite Tempest Rush. And my current rare staff boosts Tempest Rush Damage. I can't wait to see how fast I can melt some things. Esepcially demons, since I have 4 pieces of the Demon's HIde set giving me another 15% damage against demons. I just need to find some good legendary effects to extract.

Right now I've got the Genzaniku (Chance to Sumon a Ghostly Fallen Champion on attack) and Gloves of Worship (Shrines last for 10 minutes) extracted.

But I did pick up a few on the way to this point.

Weapons-
Soulsmasher: Enemies explode for X% my life on kill, no longer gain life on kill
Fleshrake: Dashing Strike increases Dashing Strike Damage
Burst of Wrath: Killing enemies and breaking things has a chance to restore 20% spirit

Armor-
Pauldrons of the Skeleton King: 25% chance to avoid deatha nd cause enmeies to flee in fear
Death's Bargain: Deal X% of life per second as PBAoE physical damage, no longer gain life regen
Eye of Peshkov: Reduce Cooldown of Breaht of Heaven
Gyana Nu Kashu: Lashing Tail Kick launches fireball for X% damage
Warezchian Armguards: Every time you destroy an object, gain a burst of speed
Sanguinary Vambraces: Chance to deal 1000% thorn damage to nearby enemies when hit
The Crudest Boots: Mystic Ally summons two mystic allies (Would this stack with the 6-piece bonus and give me ten mystic allies?)
Magefist: Fire skills deal X% increased damage
Razor Strop: Pickign up a health globe explodes for X damage to enemies within 20 yards

Jewelry-
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac: Reduce the cooldown of one of your skills by 1 second when hitting with a resource-spending attack

Okay...i guess I really need to extract that ring for true inifite Tempest Rush...

tyckspoon

2017-04-14, 07:18 AM

Traab

2017-04-14, 09:15 AM

Its funny, ive gotten a few ancient legendary 1h weapons, nice damage and all that, but absolutely none with an effect on them worth extracting. Its the one part of the trio of cubed effects thats still empty. Guess I should splurge my blood shards on 1h weapon attempts for awhile till either something good drops or I get lucky on the gamble (worked for my carnevil helm)

Meta

2017-04-14, 10:20 AM

Icewraith

2017-04-14, 02:21 PM

That's probably a reasonable thing to until you have a sacred harvester anyways.

Zuni's wants Starmetal Kukri + Dagger of Darts last I checked. Dagger of darts is key, since it makes your darts (and the Carnevil darts) pierce (for like a screen and a half, it's nuts). Hope of Cain should get you one or the other fairly quickly. However, a Sacred Harvester would probably be my choice if I couldn't get either of those, especially Ancient.

Kadala is not an efficient way to get weapons, but IME she drops about half class specific weapons and the rest random class valid weapons. If you need yellow Ceremonial Knives for Hope of Cain upgrades or you have nothing else to spend shards on but hunting for Ancients, it's not a terrible way to use your blood shards. Just know that your odds of getting a specific Legendary class-specific weapon from Kadala are about half what they are for any other slot.

Psyren

2017-04-14, 03:59 PM

Yeah, the boots double all of your Mystic Allies. It's a key legendary for Inna's; those are going to go on your boot slot and never move unless you find or reroll a better statted version of them. Most of the rest of those are pretty safe to salvage for Souls unless you want to save them for potentially playing around with a different build. The ring is pretty nice, tho, either for cube or just wear it.. honestly, maybe wear it - if you're going for never stop moving Tempest Rush as your primary attack, you're not going to really benefit from either Focus/Restraint or the Endless Walk set. Probably want to try and find a Mantle of Channeling and cube that power.

Or just wear it - after all, Innas has no shoulder slot.

I agree with cubing OROTZ - its affixes are unfortunately not very good, and it can never roll with a socket or mainstat either so you'd always be choosing one or the other. For rings to wear, you should go with Convention of Elements and RRoG, and a Hellfire. RRoG will allow you to drop another Innas piece and keep the bonus, which will let you wear both Balance and Crudest boots, and cube something else in your armor slot like Hexing Pants. Alternatively, cube CB, wear Inna's boots, and wear a Unity instead of RRoG.

Kadala is not an efficient way to get weapons, but IME she drops about half class specific weapons and the rest random class valid weapons. If you need yellow Ceremonial Knives for Hope of Cain upgrades or you have nothing else to spend shards on but hunting for Ancients, it's not a terrible way to use your blood shards. Just know that your odds of getting a specific Legendary class-specific weapon from Kadala are about half what they are for any other slot.

I wouldn't do this - before long you'll be drowning in crafting mats (bounties are great for this) so you can just make all the yellow weapons you could ever need for Hope of Cain yourself. The better thing to gamble shards with when you're all set on sets (heh) is rings. They're the second cheapest item she has (50 shards, as opposed to 75 for a weapon and 100 for an amulet), there are a ton of good ones out there (I mentioned 5 above) and even after you get all of those, she has a chance of giving you puzzle rings, even one of which will pay for itself several times over depending on the goblins that spawn inside and all the extra scratch you'll get for empowering GRs.

Traab

2017-04-14, 06:55 PM

tyckspoon

2017-04-15, 12:01 AM

So I need to upgrade ceremonial knives to get either the kukiri or the dart dagger? I will keep that in mind.

Easiest way to get a specific weapon legendary, yeah. It guarantees you a legendary, and it guarantees the weapon type (gives you a legendary of the same kind of item you upgraded), so all you have to get lucky on is the RNG picking the one you need out of the shortlist of available legendary ceremonial knives. Compared to random mob-drop looting or Kadala you're way ahead of the game. Only real restriction is how much patience you have for farming Death's Breaths.

Psyren

2017-04-15, 12:33 AM

So I griped about never getting a weapon with a decent ability, then I loot the gidbinn. Yeah its not the best, but another chance to summon a fetish is better than nothing. At least until I get those two daggers mentioned. So I need to upgrade ceremonial knives to get either the kukiri or the dart dagger? I will keep that in mind. I also still need that ring that reduces the number of set items I have to wear still. I know there are more items out there I need to loot to get the full set of gear needed for a maxxed out build.

Gidbinn is bugged* unfortunately - the fetishes it summons do not work with Zunimassa or with Starmetal. They also do next to no damage compared to the fetishes from your army or passive. In short, it's useless.

*Well, I say bugged, but it may have been intentional - in which case, it's merely disappointing that they'd do that.

NeoVid

2017-04-15, 04:02 AM

Does the same apply to the belt that summons fetishes?

Traab

2017-04-15, 09:54 AM

Well feck. Ah well. I will start farming bounties again since im running low on mats in general. I also need to focus on my toughness as on torment 7 I tend to die instantly or close to it. A mallet lord for example is an insta gib when he slams the ground. Ive got such a long list of random items I need to loot to get where I want to go. /sigh. My first try at a hellfire amulet kinda sucked stat wise. It had a decent effect though, gave me one of my better defensive passives for free.

Psyren

2017-04-15, 10:40 AM

Does the same apply to the belt that summons fetishes?

No, that one works fine. It doesn't stack with the Fetish passive though, so you want just one or the other (not both.)

Meta

2017-04-15, 01:54 PM

Traab

2017-04-15, 02:07 PM

I highly recommend the spirit vessel passive if you're not using it. That'll give you a way to cheat death every minute. Great against mallet lords and the like.

Oh I am using that one, its been a life saver (hur hur) Its just at torment 7 and up the damage dealt by elites comes on too fast. Mortars, plagued and molten, tight spaces, large booms, any one of them can kill me, by the time I realize ive taken damage ive died. On the plus side, I can stand on arcane turrets and heal myself rapidly. :p

Meta

2017-04-15, 02:33 PM

Oh I am using that one, its been a life saver (hur hur) Its just at torment 7 and up the damage dealt by elites comes on too fast. Mortars, plagued and molten, tight spaces, large booms, any one of them can kill me, by the time I realize ive taken damage ive died. On the plus side, I can stand on arcane turrets and heal myself rapidly. :p

Hey that's a pretty good ability, those things are a huge pain for me too. Do you want to share your build? I could recommend a few survival tricks and itemizations if that's what is holding you back.

Traab

2017-04-15, 03:13 PM

Hey that's a pretty good ability, those things are a huge pain for me too. Do you want to share your build? I could recommend a few survival tricks and itemizations if that's what is holding you back.

Im doing the icey veins build for the season witch doctor set. There are like, 3-4 legendaries I need to loot to get the full set of gear, and I know I need a few other upgrades to replace some junk, namely my entire set of jewelry sucks and im still wearing yellow bracers and shoulders. Its all a work in progress but I figure I will get there eventually. Farm torment 6 for ease and drops till i can get rid of my crap and hopefully farm up enough mats to straight up buy any of the build specific legendaries I need. I have 678k dps, 5.7mil toughness and 305k recovery

Hunter Noventa

2017-04-15, 05:21 PM

tyckspoon

2017-04-15, 07:22 PM

Well, I was able to take down the T4 keywardens, all I've got left now is GR20 and T4 Belial, I think. I tried the latter and it was not working out for me. Is tehre much I can do besides grind for better weapons and more paragon levels.

For that matter, what should I even be spending those paragon points on? I've been spending them on Dex/Attack Speed/Resist All/Resource Cost.

Core tab : movespeed, then mainstat once maxed. Extra resource cap only if your build can turn it into damage directly (eg, a rune that spends all your resource and gives bonus damage per point or similar.) Your class set or supporting legendary will usually give you a way to handle resource issues.
Offense tab: usually crit hit chance and damage first, but depends on your build and gear.
Defense: whichever of res all or armor you don't get from your mainstat, then +life percentage.
Utility: usually life on hit first. Area Damage if your chosen build/skill is weak on area attacks.

Lord Torath

2017-04-17, 08:10 AM

Anyone know what the easiest Set Dungeon to master is for the Crusader? I've got Akkan's set (the season set), and I've managed to assemble Seeker for the Light. I passed the Seeker for the Light dungeon by avoiding Mortar fire, but I couldn't get even one string of three Falling Swords in 15 seconds. Mastering that one is not going to be easy. I've got three pieces of Thorns of the Invoker, and 8 or 9 of Roland's set (but not a complete set yet). So which set has the easiest Set Dungeon?

Psyren

2017-04-17, 09:32 AM

I think I asked this before but if not - is anyone still playing on console? Has anyone tried the season there? I'm just curious about how it's going.

Well, I was able to take down the T4 keywardens, all I've got left now is GR20 and T4 Belial, I think. I tried the latter and it was not working out for me. Is tehre much I can do besides grind for better weapons and more paragon levels.

For that matter, what should I even be spending those paragon points on? I've been spending them on Dex/Attack Speed/Resist All/Resource Cost.

If you link your profile (or just post your Battletag, e.g. HunterNoventa#12345) we can look at your gear and skills to give a very detailed diagnosis.

Anyone know what the easiest Set Dungeon to master is for the Crusader? I've got Akkan's set (the season set), and I've managed to assemble Seeker for the Light. I passed the Seeker for the Light dungeon by avoiding Mortar fire, but I couldn't get even one string of three Falling Swords in 15 seconds. Mastering that one is not going to be easy. I've got three pieces of Thorns of the Invoker, and 8 or 9 of Roland's set (but not a complete set yet). So which set has the easiest Set Dungeon?

Do you mean that you mastered Akkhan? If so congrats, that is one of the more frustrating ones.

Seeker is by far the easiest if you have the right toys. The way to cheese the Falling Sword Mario objective is to farm for a neat little blade called Cam's Rebuttal (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/cams-rebuttal) - this will give you two Falling Swords back-to-back, then you only to use #3 on cooldown, which you can easily get back up in the remaining 10-12 seconds with your hammers reducing it due to the set bonus. Stack cooldown reduction just to be safe (which has the welcome side-benefit of making you zip through the dungeon faster - more Steed Charges - to clear it that much more quickly.) Put OROTZ in your cube, Gogok of Swiftness in your jewelry, Diamond in your helm, In-Geom in your hand etc. You don't actually need Cam's if you stack your cooldown high enough like this, but it makes the objective so easy that you can do it in your sleep.

As for the mortars, just equip Star of Azkaranth (the fire immunity amulet) and you no longer have to worry about dodging them. Clear the first objective early in the dungeon and then just go ham massacring everything.

Invoker is also pretty easy - you just have to make sure you have the two listed buffs active when you kill elites, and take a few doors spears to the face every time you come across goats. Amethysts in your gear will both keep you alive and increase your damage if you have a Heart of Iron.

Roland's meanwhile is very difficult - the objectives themselves aren't bad with the right gear (there's a specific flail you need...) but the dungeon itself is packed with tons of little imps (those baby demons) that scatter in every direction at top speed the instant you approach. After a dozen tries, I ended up needing to enlist a friend to master this one.

Lord Torath

2017-04-17, 11:40 AM

Do you mean that you mastered Akkhan? If so congrats, that is one of the more frustrating ones.No. I have not even attempted that set dungeon. As soon as I had enough pieces of Seeker of the Light, I switched over.

Seeker is by far the easiest if you have the right toys. The way to cheese the Falling Sword Mario objective is to farm for a neat little blade called Cam's Rebuttal (https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/cams-rebuttal) - this will give you two Falling Swords back-to-back, then you only to use #3 on cooldown, which you can easily get back up in the remaining 10-12 seconds with your hammers reducing it due to the set bonus. Stack cooldown reduction just to be safe (which has the welcome side-benefit of making you zip through the dungeon faster - more Steed Charges - to clear it that much more quickly.) Put OROTZ in your cube, Gogok of Swiftness in your jewelry, Diamond in your helm, In-Geom in your hand etc. You don't actually need Cam's if you stack your cooldown high enough like this, but it makes the objective so easy that you can do it in your sleep.

As for the mortars, just equip Star of Azkaranth (the fire immunity amulet) and you no longer have to worry about dodging them. Clear the first objective early in the dungeon and then just go ham massacring everything.I'll have to keep an eye out for Cam's Rebuttal then. One-handed sword, I presume? I just picked up In Geom, but I have not yet found the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac (OROTZ threw me for a loop for a minute before I deciphered it). I'm also still looking for Johanna's Flail (been upgrading one-handed flails at the Cube to try to get it). Does Immunity to Fire really count for avoiding taking mortar hits in that dungeon?

Invoker is also pretty easy - you just have to make sure you have the two listed buffs active when you kill elites, and take a few doors spears to the face every time you come across goats. Amethysts in your gear will both keep you alive and increase your damage if you have a Heart of Iron.

Roland's meanwhile is very difficult - the objectives themselves aren't bad with the right gear (there's a specific flail you need...) but the dungeon itself is packed with tons of little imps (those baby demons) that scatter in every direction at top speed the instant you approach. After a dozen tries, I ended up needing to enlist a friend to master this one.Invoker was the first set I got (way back in Season 4, I think?), but I had no idea how to make an effective build using it (spawning, I suspect, my hatred of Set Dungeons). If I get the full set this season, I might give it a try. The only set dungeons I have mastered to date are Firebird's Finery and Tal Rasha's Elements.

Psyren

2017-04-17, 12:12 PM

I'll have to keep an eye out for Cam's Rebuttal then. One-handed sword, I presume?

No, it's a 2-hander - hence putting it in the cube. (Did you click on the link I posted?)

Does Immunity to Fire really count for avoiding taking mortar hits in that dungeon?

Yep - just like the arcane immune amulet protects you in the DH Shadow dungeon and the cold immune one protects you in Firebirds. You don't need immunity but it's one less thing to worry about or that can screw you over at the last minute.

I only wish there was a physical immune amulet that I could use for freaking Wastes :smallfurious:

Lord Torath

2017-04-17, 01:36 PM

No, it's a 2-hander - hence putting it in the cube. (Did you click on the link I posted?)Blocked at work.

Yep - just like the arcane immune amulet protects you in the DH Shadow dungeon and the cold immune one protects you in Firebirds. You don't need immunity but it's one less thing to worry about or that can screw you over at the last minute.I'll have to keep an eye out for it then. My wife has it, and plunges into dying "Molten" creatures while I'm running away from them.

I only wish there was a physical immune amulet that I could use for freaking Wastes :smallfurious:I found the flail that makes Blessed Shield cost no Wrath. Still looking for the one that makes Shield Bash free. Which one of us do you think will find our desired item first? :smallamused:

Istarial

2017-04-17, 03:37 PM

I only wish there was a physical immune amulet that I could use for freaking Wastes :smallfurious:

Urgh, Wastes.

You have my sympathies. I went through trying to mastery my barb set dungeons a while ago- I had full ancient wrath of the wastes and it's other bells and whistles and that was STILL an absolute PITA.

Good luck!

Psyren

2017-04-17, 04:14 PM

I'll have to keep an eye out for it then. My wife has it, and plunges into dying "Molten" creatures while I'm running away from them.

Are you still playing HC? The immunity amulets are helpful there - pick your most hated affix and gear against its element. Throw a second in the cube for good measure. Your damage will take a hit but being able to laugh at explosions and lasers might be worthwhile.

I found the flail that makes Blessed Shield cost no Wrath. Still looking for the one that makes Shield Bash free. Which one of us do you think will find our desired item first? :smallamused:

There is no desired item to help me unfortunately :smallfrown: Physical is the one element that lacks a corresponding immunity amulet.

Lord Torath

2017-04-17, 06:12 PM

Are you still playing HC? The immunity amulets are helpful there - pick your most hated affix and gear against its element. Throw a second in the cube for good measure. Your damage will take a hit but being able to laugh at explosions and lasers might be worthwhile.Nope. "Softcore" for now.

There is no desired item to help me unfortunately :smallfrown: Physical is the one element that lacks a corresponding immunity amulet.Same here. No free Shield Bashes. :smallfrown:

Sooo.... looking at the challenges this season, it looks like there's no 50 million gold one. I guess I can stop hoarding these T10 Horadric caches now. :smallannoyed: So, I'm thinking On a Good Day (three gems to 65) and... um... well.... Hrm. Maybe I'll wait until next season to try for another Stash Tab....

Psyren

2017-04-18, 08:40 AM

Years of War is pretty easy - no set dungeon frustration needed, you just need to clear GR 55 with 6 different sets. You and your wife can power level each other's alt in no time, and use Kadala to get them over the initial gearing hump. (I PL'ed my boyfriend's witch doctor in minutes thanks to his Gem of Ease, and he ended up with 4 pcs of two different sets that very night.)

Icewraith

2017-04-18, 12:05 PM

Boss mode isn't bad at all. You just need a couple speedy people to do the running while whoever actually needs the achievement just accepts boss fights (and runs to short fights like Kulle if both runners are on long runs). If you don't have anyone, there's a Season Journey public group that's usually helpful. Just make sure you can kill bosses efficiently in a 4 person group on TX (if you can do t13 at all you're fine).

Lord Torath

2017-04-18, 02:43 PM

Here's a question: Do you gain XP while dead and waiting to resurrect?

Psyren

2017-04-18, 03:32 PM

Here's a question: Do you gain XP while dead and waiting to resurrect?

Yes and no. You will get completion XP while dead (e.g. if the bounty is "Kill Belial" and you keel over during the fight, but your companions valiantly carry the day, you'll get all the rewards and credit that they did when you come back to life.) But regular XP from killing bad guys, and in particular the more lucrative XP reward that comes from killstreaks, will be denied you.

Note that you CAN however gain XP while sitting in town. I'm not totally clear how this part works.

Lord Torath

2017-04-19, 11:00 AM

ArlEammon

2017-04-23, 03:15 PM

What is the male wizard's name in Diablo III?

Dhavaer

2017-04-23, 03:50 PM

What is the male wizard's name in Diablo III?

I'm pretty sure only one gender of a class is 'canon' enough for a name.

ArlEammon

2017-04-23, 04:06 PM

I'm pretty sure only one gender of a class is 'canon' enough for a name.

Ah. . . moving on, what happened to the Souls of the Blood Raven, The Wanderer and The Summoner?

Arcane_Snowman

2017-04-23, 06:47 PM

My wife, after looking at the Conquests this season, wants to try the Speed Racer Route - Acts I-V in 60 minutes.

We are still a good ways off from this (we've both just finished Chapter 5 of the Season Journey (Slayer). I've got roughly 350 Paragons, while she's got about 180.

Update: We made it through Act I in about 30 minutes. :smallfrown: I'm now pushing 400 paragons, while my better half has over 200. The Speed Run achievements require a bit of planning, as you usually have to leap frog between quests (one person doing the quest whilst the other moves ahead towards the next one). I'm not sure how easy it is to do with only 2 people either, but I suppose it should be possible.

Psyren

2017-04-23, 10:47 PM

Update: We made it through Act I in about 30 minutes. :smallfrown: I'm now pushing 400 paragons, while my better half has over 200.

You may want to either follow Icewraith's recommendation of getting help from a season journey completion group, or my suggestion of doing the easier conquest(s) that require more than one character and simply level a gem of ease to get your second one quickly.

Ah. . . moving on, what happened to the Souls of the Blood Raven, The Wanderer and The Summoner?

No further mention of them, it seems they all came to bad ends.

There is little info on the D2 heroes as well, though the Sorceress (or rather, her soul) does play a bigger role in D3.

ArlEammon

2017-04-23, 11:13 PM

Psyren

2017-04-24, 12:57 AM

I thought she was one of the mage's teachers.

Yes, that's what I meant - she taught the D3 wizard, and then was assassinated. If the Wizard is the hero, she helps you unravel Malthael's protection.

Lord Torath

2017-04-25, 09:21 AM

You may want to either follow Icewraith's recommendation of getting help from a season journey completion group, or my suggestion of doing the easier conquest(s) that require more than one character and simply level a gem of ease to get your second one quickly.We talked about it, and what the various conquests are, and decided we'll shoot for the GR55 with 6 different sets (along with three gems to 65). I've already started caching Flawless Royal Emeralds and leveling Marauder gems (her favorite set). I've got Gems of Ease at 30, 5, and 5, and plan on getting more and leveling them all to rank 25 minimum. I've currently got all 4 crusader sets (though I've only really tailored Thorns of the Invoker and Seeker for the Light), as well a couple pieces I've picked up here and there for the Marauder set. Do you need to clear GR55 solo with each set? Or can it be a group effort?

I guess I need to start hanging on to those Demon Hunter legendaries I've been recycling. And clear out a stash tab to store them...

What's the easiest Demon Hunter set dungeon to master? She has fire immunity.