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[sorijealut]

I am salvaging a lot of blues/yellows lately so I have like 200 something Shimmering Essence and 15 or so Lizard Eyes, I have crafting trained up to Illustrious so I can craft L40-something items or I can auction these...I can't seem to figure out which is the better use of the material. Every time I craft I swear I get the worst rolls, like Gold/Health Globes/Movement Speed/plus tiny bit of something like Strength

I don't know if crafting is profitable at lv40 yet, with no PvP.

 

[DTKT]

I am salvaging a lot of blues/yellows lately so I have like 200 something Shimmering Essence and 15 or so Lizard Eyes, I have crafting trained up to Illustrious so I can craft L40-something items or I can auction these...I can't seem to figure out which is the better use of the material. Every time I craft I swear I get the worst rolls, like Gold/Health Globes/Movement Speed/plus tiny bit of something like Strength

crafting under 60 is probably not worth it.

There is no market for anything lower than 55-60. That might change with the PVP system but that might as well be limited to level 60. I doubt that Blizzard will put much work into the mechanic itself.

 

[eek5]

I'm thinking about switching from a monk to a barb.

I was looking at my friends gear. His gear, assuming it was dex, would be 28K dps on my monk, and 40k dps for him with self buffs/passives.

Not only that, I have to worry about an extra affix. There's so many pieces of gear I have to pass up because it's not the right resist.

So, how is inferno survivability and self healing compared to monk?

How do gear prices compare since there's only one strength class and monks are split between 6 resist types?

You can buff the damage you do to enemies by 24% with MoC (48% for 3 sec) and buff your character damage by 15% with BoH/Blazing Wrath, 18% w/ deadly reach/foresight so could be doing buffed 40k too. I think Monk's displayed DPS is incredibly deceiving because all of their spirit generators hit faster than the character's displayed attacks/second and skills like sweeping wind/cyclone can be a huge dps boost as they passively attack things without you needing to do anything.

OWE, in my experience, does complicate the gear search but it also makes it cheaper for the most part. The market is fragmented in so many places and it's hard for sellers to price monk gear because they can't search for 4 stats so a lot of times you'll find underpriced gear. Getting high, unbuffed, resists is not that difficult either and can be done without 2res pieces for the most part (although you will need some).

As far as gearing goes, Barb is probably cheaper if you want to do a WW/sprint build but if you play other builds then Monk is way cheaper to gear imo. My monk's gear is probably 1/10th of what my barb gear costs :lol I think a problem is on the high end barb gear gets incredibly pricy because everyone wants the same stuff. Monk high-end gear is expensive as well, though, mostly because demon hunters want high dex pieces and drive the prices on that up.

 

[Revengeance]

crafting under 60 is probably not worth it.

There is no market for anything lower than 55-60. That might change with the PVP system but that might as well be limited to level 60. I doubt that Blizzard will put much work into the mechanic itself.

I've made about 600k making and selling lvl 34 Pendergrasps (legendary plan dropped for me). They seem shitty to me, but they keep selling, so I keep making them.

600k might not seem like much to you ballers, but for someone who only just entered Hell difficulty, it's more than enough.

 

[zou]

Ask you database admin friend how "easy" it is to search a database of a milion of items when you have thousands of users doing searches all the time.

Hint: Adding a 4th or 5th constraint on a query will in no way perform worse than just using 3 constraints. If anything, it will most likely perform better.

Also in general, trying to scale read heavy applications is fairly simple, as you can always spread out the load by adding a couple of servers. And as the AH is very read intensive, it's considerably easier to scale than a service that has to handle a significant number of writes.

 

[Sax Russel]

A little over a week ago I finally had a breaking point in the trash collection sim. Couldn't take any more of the vendor trash 63s! Finished cashing out my DH on the RMAH today. Feels great!

So, see you later Diablo 3, probably around expansion time. Thanks for the (fully funded) GTX 670 and (most of the way funded) Masterpiece Coronation Starscream though =P

 

[Number45]

This is my build: http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#bYXgjh!ZXU!ZcbYca

I switch to thunderclap when I'm farming act 1 and act 2.

It will usually take longer to kill things in groups regardless unless you have a couple high damage crit-based players in your group.

Thanks, it's a useful reference point - and I can use most of them right away (though I won't bother at the moment with One With Everything because I have virtually no resists right now). I've been looking at Serenity these last few levels, I really need an "Oh Shit!" button.

 

[sorijealut]

I've made about 600k making and selling lvl 34 Pendergrasps (legendary plan dropped for me). They seem shitty to me, but they keep selling, so I keep making them.

600k might not seem like much to you ballers, but for someone who only just entered Hell difficulty, it's more than enough.

That actually sounds like some steady income. As long as they sell. I'm thinking right now about grabbing some plans before the patch, so thanks for the idea.

 

[bs000]

I guess selling stuff with a low starting bid and no buyout is a bad idea unless it's an incredibly good item. Just had a 500k bow go for the minimum bid of 2k and a 1m ring go for 230k. That's what I get for being lazy I suppose

 

[Woo-Fu]

Witch doctor question:

I'm going with my build into rather t

So should i rather go with zombie bears (rather suck with LoH but huge dmg) or Acid rain (for godlike LOH ? )

You don't go either/or, you go both. Acid Rain-Acid Cloud to keep you alive, Zombie Charger-Zombie bears to kill everything. Acid rain by itself takes far too long to kill most things. Zombie Bears by itself can't keep you alive in many encounters. If you really want to go with just one damage spell Rain of Toads is the common choice as it does OK DPS, can stack, and can keep you alive with LoH procs.

Try something like this:

I guess selling stuff with a low starting bid and no buyout is a bad idea unless it's an incredibly good item. Just had a 500k bow go for the minimum bid of 2k and a 1m ring go for 230k. That's what I get for being lazy I suppose

The other way to look at it is that if you'd priced it higher it wouldn't have sold at all. Clearly few---next to nobody, it would seem---people were interested if it sat with no bids until the very end. The only time I'd worry about a low opening bid is if it is something that would be hard to find with the AH's search. Otherwise anything worth buying is going to get bookmark bids on that low opener.

 

[linsivvi]

Thanks, it's a useful reference point - and I can use most of them right away (though I won't bother at the moment with One With Everything because I have virtually no resists right now). I've been looking at Serenity these last few levels, I really need an "Oh Shit!" button.

You might want to use the Peaceful Repose rune with Serenity until you have enough life regen/LOH or you reached a point that the 7K heal won't mean much to you.

 

[CrookedRain]

I've made about 600k making and selling lvl 34 Pendergrasps (legendary plan dropped for me). They seem shitty to me, but they keep selling, so I keep making them.

600k might not seem like much to you ballers, but for someone who only just entered Hell difficulty, it's more than enough.

I never even knew there were plans to find for under level 60 items. I certainly never found any while leveling up two characters to 60.

 

[Fenderputty]

I found two things this weekend. One was a legendary belt that was worth all of 10K. Couldn't even salvage the thing due to it's iLVL. That makes 7 legendaries ... only one of which was valued at over a million.

The second thing I found was this!

Easily my best nab, and also my new weapon. My DPS is now at 30K buffed so not too shabby as a monk. I've progressed to the tower of the damned and have to go to work now though .... tonight I'll push forward and try to get to act 4.

Is there anything I should know about Azmodan?

 

[scy]

Good stuff, that helps a lot in addition to what everyone else already said.

Honestly, I'd suggest just doing whatever for basically Normal - Hell. Inferno really will change playstyles (for the better, to be honest, but I liked the Inferno difficulty spike). Just enjoy the game :x

 

[linsivvi]

Is there anything I should know about Azmodan?

If you can get to that point, you will find him a walk in the park.

Ghom is much, much harder.

 

[RubxQub]

Just enjoy the game :x

No worries there! Thanks again for your help.

 

[RDreamer]

They really need a tooltip on the AH that says how things would change your damage. I missed out on 2 really awesome deals for weapons that would have been insane because I wasn't entirely sure what I'd gain on them. I had to quickly plug them into the calculator, but when I came back they were gone. I guess I feel stupid because the 2nd one I missed I should have known would be awesome...

 

[half a moon]

You can buff the damage you do to enemies by 24% with MoC (48% for 3 sec) and buff your character damage by 15% with BoH/Blazing Wrath, 18% w/ deadly reach/foresight so could be doing buffed 40k too. I think Monk's displayed DPS is incredibly deceiving because all of their spirit generators hit faster than the character's displayed attacks/second and skills like sweeping wind/cyclone can be a huge dps boost as they passively attack things without you needing to do anything.

OWE, in my experience, does complicate the gear search but it also makes it cheaper for the most part. The market is fragmented in so many places and it's hard for sellers to price monk gear because they can't search for 4 stats so a lot of times you'll find underpriced gear. Getting high, unbuffed, resists is not that difficult either and can be done without 2res pieces for the most part (although you will need some).

As far as gearing goes, Barb is probably cheaper if you want to do a WW/sprint build but if you play other builds then Monk is way cheaper to gear imo. My monk's gear is probably 1/10th of what my barb gear costs :lol I think a problem is on the high end barb gear gets incredibly pricy because everyone wants the same stuff. Monk high-end gear is expensive as well, though, mostly because demon hunters want high dex pieces and drive the prices on that up.

Thanks for the info.

lol, I was just looking at your monk and barb gear in game then read what you said before reading who the poster was.

Since you're on busy a lot I sent a PM basically saying if you see me on and green and can do help me kill ghom quick let me know.

 

[RDreamer]

Is there anything I should know about Azmodan?

How about that he's easy as hell? Probably one of the easiest bosses in the entire game, actually. If you can get to him there's no way you're going to lose. I'm not even sure I've died lost to him on any difficulty.

 

[TommyT]

So Rakaroth on Inferno is kicking my butt. Is there a pattern or specific gesture/sound he makes before he does his teleport? The closest I got him to was maybe 20% life remaining and then he one-shot me. Any suggestions? I don't have a screenshot of my stats for my DH, but I'd say I'm at about 3100 Armor, 400 - 450 resists, 25K HP and 67K DPS.

There is. He'll gather some blue-whitish smoke/air around him when he raises up and does his charge. He also does it more often when you're further from him, so try to stay mid range to where he'll want to melee you (in which case you kite him).

What made it rather trivial was using Cluster Arrow with the stun rune. He's stunable. So if you have really high aspd you can cheese him with stun grenades as well.

 

[Fenderputty]

If you can get to that point, you will find him a walk in the park.

Ghom is much, much harder.

How about that he's easy as hell? Probably one of the easiest bosses in the entire game, actually. If you can get to him there's no way you're going to lose. I'm not even sure I've died lost to him on any difficulty.

Thanks! This is what I thought I read, but I wanted to make sure. I thought sigebreaker was also super easy.

EDIT: I have to make it to act 4 before I can buy the inferno plans for the staff of herding corret?

 

[Number45]

I never even knew there were plans to find for under level 60 items. I certainly never found any while leveling up two characters to 60.

Close to getting my fourth to 60 and no sign of any for me either.

 

[Woo-Fu]

EDIT: I have to make it to act 4 before I can buy the inferno plans for the staff of herding corret?

You have to make it the quest to kill diablo for the plans to show up on the vendor.

With the nerf to chests I don't think the staff of herding is worth the effort, IMHO. If you can do whimsyshire for the elite packs you probably aren't going to want to be limited to Act 1 elites leading up to it.

 

[HomShaBom]

I just made my first million. Sold some boots for 1.7M. *tear

 

[Fenderputty]

You have to make it the quest to kill diablo for the plans to show up on the vendor.

With the nerf to chests I don't think the staff of herding is worth the effort, IMHO. If you can do whimsyshire for the elite packs you probably aren't going to want to be limited to Act 1 elites leading up to it.

Meh ... I already have the staff. Just curious ... thanks though! I keep checking that vedor and hoping to see it. Now I can forget about it until I've progressed to Diablo.


For monks running Mantra of Conviction, what's your base level armor and resists? I'm not sure I could give up the dodge for mantra of evasion. I like not being hit very often.

 

[BigBlue1974]

There is. He'll gather some blue-whitish smoke/air around him when he raises up and does his charge. He also does it more often when you're further from him, so try to stay mid range to where he'll want to melee you (in which case you kite him).

What made it rather trivial was using Cluster Arrow with the stun rune. He's stunable. So if you have really high aspd you can cheese him with stun grenades as well.

Great tips, thanks. Didn't know about the stun part so I'll use that as well. In retrospect, I should have probably just loaded the fight up on normal or nightmare so I could better observer the mechanics without the risk.

 

[RDreamer]

Meh ... I already have the staff. Just curious ... thanks though! I keep checking that vedor and hoping to see it. Now I can forget about it until I've progressed to Diablo.


For monks running Mantra of Conviction, what's your base level armor and resists? I'm not sure I could give up the dodge for mantra of evasion. I like not being hit very often.

My armor's 6436 and my resists are at 894. I also have a sacred shield with 14% block, but I doubt that really helps a whole helluva lot (the resists and armor do, though). My dex is at 2000 right now, so I have an innate 40% chance to dodge.

You might be surprised when you switch to MoC. I know I was. After you get up there in dex the benefit it gives you is quite small. The other thing is that I find I don't die so much from getting hit, specifically. I mean there are times when I'm surrounded and get stun locked or something and maybe evasion would help that quite a bit. But for the most part the things that kill me are arcane (most of all probably), desecrators, molten and (now, strangely) reflect damage combined with those. 80% of my deaths probably come from being frozen or jailed in a DOT waiting for serenity's cool down.

Really, in a group setting you should always try and have MoC. I know I didn't live by that code for a while, but the damage it gives your group is insane. It's really a shame not to use it at all. Even if you have to run around like a chicken with your head cut off to survive, if you can keep that mantra up, especially on double time they should kill things WAY faster. 48% more damage for everyone in your group is insane.

 

[Revoh]

I just made my first million. Sold some boots for 1.7M. *tear

Just wait 'till you make your first hundred dollars.
dat feeling

 

[fastford58]

I just made my first million. Sold some boots for 1.7M. *tear

Only 199,000,000 to go before that godly gear upgrade!

 

[Fenderputty]

My armor's 6436 and my resists are at 894. I also have a sacred shield with 14% block, but I doubt that really helps a whole helluva lot (the resists and armor do, though). My dex is at 2000 right now, so I have an innate 40% chance to dodge.

You might be surprised when you switch to MoC. I know I was. After you get up there in dex the benefit it gives you is quite small. The other thing is that I find I don't die so much from getting hit, specifically. I mean there are times when I'm surrounded and get stun locked or something and maybe evasion would help that quite a bit. But for the most part the things that kill me are arcane (most of all probably), desecrators, molten and (now, strangely) reflect damage combined with those. 80% of my deaths probably come from being frozen or jailed in a DOT waiting for serenity's cool down.

Really, in a group setting you should always try and have MoC. I know I didn't live by that code for a while, but the damage it gives your group is insane. It's really a shame not to use it at all. Even if you have to run around like a chicken with your head cut off to survive, if you can keep that mantra up, especially on double time they should kill things WAY faster. 48% more damage for everyone in your group is insane.

I wanted to solo the game before playing in groups. Almost there. That's good to know though. I'm sure I'll have a long post asking questions about group play vs. solo play soon. HAHA

Back to stats:

I have 1800 dex right now and about 5.1K armor unbuffed with 820 resists. I'm running dual wield with MoE > Hard TargeT, Gaurdians path, Fists of Thunder > Lightning Flash.

So I have a lot of Dodge. Moving to MoC feels like I would need to seriously re-tool and include a shield in my build (more armor / dex / resists). I know people are stacking higher crit chance for spirit generation when using slower APS builds though ... which sounds expesnive. HAHA.

How are you generating spirit?

I would like to move to a more DPS focused build honestly. Afting finding that 900 DPS 1H, I'm itching to start shredding some mobs.

 

[RDreamer]

I wanted to solo the game before playing in groups. Almost there. That's good to know though. I'm sure I'll have a long post asking questions about group play vs. solo play soon. HAHA

Back to stats:

I have 1800 dex right now and about 5.1K armor unbuffed with 820 resists. I'm running dual wield with MoE > Hard TargeT, Gaurdians path, Fists of Thunder > Lightning Flash.

So I have a lot of Dodge. Moving to MoC feels like I would need to seriously re-tool and include a shield in my build (more armor / dex / resists). I know people are stacking higher crit chance for spirit generation when using slower APS builds though ... which sounds expesnive. HAHA.

How are you generating spirit?

I would like to move to a more DPS focused build honestly. Afting finding that 900 DPS 1H, I'm itching to start shredding some mobs.

I'm generating spirit by just... attacking I guess? I really rarely feel like I'm low on spirit. I can't have my mantra on double time 100% of the time, but really it's on quite a bit. I'm attacking pretty slowly, too. I actually ditched most of my attack speed stuff recently for crit chance stuff, too, but I'm running with Thunderclap so I don't get extra spirit from crits or anything. I don't use any big spirit thing except sweeping wind. And yeah I run into some times where I have to wait a few seconds to turn it on, but once I get a combo going with it, everything's fine.

I was running a lot of the same skills you were. I had Evasion with Hard Target and I was running lightning flash before I made the switch. I wasn't dual wielding though, since it always seemed to hinder me way more than it was worth. I'd switch to try and it out and get beat to crap even with insane LOH values (one time I think I had over 2000). Probably just had bad luck, though. Anyway, when I switched to conviction with sweeping wind (cyclone) things clicked while soloing. I had to be a bit more careful about spike damage while fighting elites, but I could power through almost anything in Act 3 and 4. Way faster than before. And when I got to an elite I could burst them down a lot better.

Personally I think you should switch guardian's path for resolve. I've not seen anyone that seriously looked at the skills in they game and figured out what's best that ever recommended Guardian's Path. For damage mitigation Resolve is where it's at.

And yeah I hear you about switching to more DPS. That's what I did recently and it's way way more fun. As I said, I was running pure tank with evasion and stuff before. Yeah I could hang with anything, but now with conviction and cyclones everywhere my groups (and solo) can just annihilate things that I had trouble with before. The game's completely different and I'm having a ton of fun with it. Cyclone takes a large amount of crit chance to be worth it, though, and dual wielding it's hard to get there (my shield alone gives me 9 crit chance).

 

[Switftlame]

So Rakaroth on Inferno is kicking my butt. Is there a pattern or specific gesture/sound he makes before he does his teleport? The closest I got him to was maybe 20% life remaining and then he one-shot me. Any suggestions? I don't have a screenshot of my stats for my DH, but I'd say I'm at about 3100 Armor, 400 - 450 resists, 25K HP and 67K DPS.

your hp is low considering your resists and armor

 

[scy]

Personally I think you should switch guardian's path for resolve. I've not seen anyone that seriously looked at the skills in they game and figured out what's best that ever recommended Guardian's Path. For damage mitigation Resolve is where it's at.

I have? It's not a terrible passive by any means, especially for a build using Backlash. Resolve is ultimately better defensively due to the interaction with Sweeping Wind but Guardian's Path for DW isn't exactly the worst passive in their kit defensively.

Edit: Notably, it's better than Resolve when you're not using Sweeping Wind (or any on-demand/persistent area of effect damage). Not that many people do that.

And yeah I hear you about switching to more DPS. That's what I did recently and it's way way more fun. As I said, I was running pure tank with evasion and stuff before. Yeah I could hang with anything, but now with conviction and cyclones everywhere my groups (and solo) can just annihilate things that I had trouble with before. The game's completely different and I'm having a ton of fun with it. Cyclone takes a large amount of crit chance to be worth it, though, and dual wielding it's hard to get there (my shield alone gives me 9 crit chance).

I've been saying it for awhile but damage heavier builds will start to show up because that is the optimal way to be playing. Defensive heavy builds were promoted because people saw the damage spike and overcompensated without thinking things through (and/or they were following advice from the HC side of things).

 

[RDreamer]

I have? It's not a terrible passive by any means, especially for a build using Backlash. Resolve is ultimately better defensively due to the interaction with Sweeping Wind but Guardian's Path for DW isn't exactly the worst passive in their kit defensively.

Sure, if you're doing backlash and need to get your dodge up higher and higher, yeah it would make sense. But the thing is that by now he's got a ton of dodge, especially if he doesn't switch from MoE. That means he's getting a very small percentage bump by using Guardian's Path, whereas he'd get a larger bump overall from resolve (because he's not running any other damage reduction like concussion). But, I suppose that's hinged on him using some sort of AOE type attack in there somewhere, or him circling around hitting everything while he's surrounded. And yeah I'm not saying Guardian's Path is terrible. I'm just saying I think that Resolve is pretty hands down better a lot of the time (not all of the time, but a lot of the time).

Edit: Then again, if he would run backlash then would resolve proc every time? If so then I think resolve is even better there, possibly. Or at least has a really good side to it.

I've been saying it for awhile but damage heavier builds will start to show up because that is the optimal way to be playing. Defensive heavy builds were promoted because people saw the damage spike and overcompensated without thinking things through (and/or they were following advice from the HC side of things).

Well, they'll also start to show up because price on good gear is going down, and people are starting to get good gear. I personally think the best mode of operation is to build for survive while you're progressing. Make sure you can survive things first and foremost. Then once you're there you can start turning things around while not giving up too much defensively. That's what I've been doing and it's been great. Overall with this path you know what hurts you and where you need to change things, whereas I think if you built for DPS first you wouldn't really get a feel for what's really smacking you around and where you should build your defense. That's just my opinion, though.

 

[BigBlue1974]

your hp is low considering your resists and armor

Agreed. I actually have considered removing some emeralds and socketing vitality instead. My DPS is pretty decent and I actually almost never die while farming Act 2. I'm pretty sure he was one shotting me even when my shadow power/gloom was active tho so I'd imagine even if my HP was in the 30s, he'd likely kill me.

 

[scy]

Well, they'll also start to show up because price on good gear is going down, and people are starting to get good gear. I personally think the best mode of operation is to build for survive while you're progressing. Make sure you can survive things first and foremost. Then once you're there you can start turning things around while not giving up too much defensively. That's what I've been doing and it's been great. Overall with this path you know what hurts you and where you need to change things, whereas I think if you built for DPS first you wouldn't really get a feel for what's really smacking you around and where you should build your defense. That's just my opinion, though.

Well, yes, defenses first is the way to go. What I meant was that people were stacking defenses to an obscene level when you'd get far better returns by raising your damage. It's the same argument behind why you get good Armor and Resists rather than stacking one. It's more cost efficient. It maximizes the returns you get.

Stacking defenses to the point of sacrificing nearly all your damage is basically the wrong approach. That's all :x

 

[Fenderputty]

I'm generating spirit by just... attacking I guess? I really rarely feel like I'm low on spirit. I can't have my mantra on double time 100% of the time, but really it's on quite a bit. I'm attacking pretty slowly, too. I actually ditched most of my attack speed stuff recently for crit chance stuff, too, but I'm running with Thunderclap so I don't get extra spirit from crits or anything. I don't use any big spirit thing except sweeping wind. And yeah I run into some times where I have to wait a few seconds to turn it on, but once I get a combo going with it, everything's fine.

I was running a lot of the same skills you were. I had Evasion with Hard Target and I was running lightning flash before I made the switch. I wasn't dual wielding though, since it always seemed to hinder me way more than it was worth. I'd switch to try and it out and get beat to crap even with insane LOH values (one time I think I had over 2000). Probably just had bad luck, though. Anyway, when I switched to conviction with sweeping wind (cyclone) things clicked while soloing. I had to be a bit more careful about spike damage while fighting elites, but I could power through almost anything in Act 3 and 4. Way faster than before. And when I got to an elite I could burst them down a lot better.

Personally I think you should switch guardian's path for resolve. I've not seen anyone that seriously looked at the skills in they game and figured out what's best that ever recommended Guardian's Path. For damage mitigation Resolve is where it's at.

And yeah I hear you about switching to more DPS. That's what I did recently and it's way way more fun. As I said, I was running pure tank with evasion and stuff before. Yeah I could hang with anything, but now with conviction and cyclones everywhere my groups (and solo) can just annihilate things that I had trouble with before. The game's completely different and I'm having a ton of fun with it. Cyclone takes a large amount of crit chance to be worth it, though, and dual wielding it's hard to get there (my shield alone gives me 9 crit chance).

Wow ... I'm not sure why I never considered that. I just figured I'm running a dodge build ... might as well get as much Dodge as possible.

That's good to hear you're not gasping for spirit as I thought you would be. 2+ APS per second has been nice with LOH and spirit regen.

I might make the change. If I don't dual wield though, I only have 660 LOH. You think that would be enough? Are you using any lifesteal? 9% lifesteal with 30K DPS is about 540 LPS in inferno correct? Seems pretty trivial.

It seems like a large re-build, but the weapon I already found so ... the more DPS is just so tempting.

Sure, if you're doing backlash and need to get your dodge up higher and higher, yeah it would make sense. But the thing is that by now he's got a ton of dodge, especially if he doesn't switch from MoE. That means he's getting a very small percentage bump by using Guardian's Path, whereas he'd get a larger bump overall from resolve (because he's not running any other damage reduction like concussion). But, I suppose that's hinged on him using some sort of AOE type attack in there somewhere, or him circling around hitting everything while he's surrounded. And yeah I'm not saying Guardian's Path is terrible. I'm just saying I think that Resolve is pretty hands down better a lot of the time (not all of the time, but a lot of the time).

Edit: Then again, if he would run backlash then would resolve proc every time? If so then I think resolve is even better there, possibly. Or at least has a really good side to it.

I am running sweeping wind for the AOE.

I've been saying it for awhile but damage heavier builds will start to show up because that is the optimal way to be playing. Defensive heavy builds were promoted because people saw the damage spike and overcompensated without thinking things through (and/or they were following advice from the HC side of things).

I think part of it is that defense is easier to build for. Or I should say cheaper. It's the DPS plus the resists and armor that gets costsly.

 

[sorijealut]

A Barb question: is dual WW the "it" build now?
My barb is currently a 1H shield 21k + 30%, 306% critdmg frenzy build. Should I be making the switch?

I think I'm going to post my barb later, I need some guidance maybe...

 

[RDreamer]

Well, yes, defenses first is the way to go. What I meant was that people were stacking defenses to an obscene level when you'd get far better returns by raising your damage. It's the same argument behind why you get good Armor and Resists rather than stacking one. It's more cost efficient. It maximizes the returns you get.

Stacking defenses to the point of sacrificing nearly all your damage is basically the wrong approach. That's all :x

The balanced approach to damage is why I recommend resolve over guardian's path, actually. It's the same sort of thing as getting armor and resists to a good level instead of just one. Your dodge is going to already be very high, and if you're running more dodge skills, then you're just stacking things to a point you probably don't need there. Better to go with another skill that mitigates damage in another way. The other thing is that I believe Resolve helps in group play. The monsters should be doing less damage to both you and everyone else in your party, and I personally play in groups quite a bit, so it might help.

Wow ... I'm not sure why I never considered that. I just figured I'm running a dodge build ... might as well get as much Dodge as possible.

That's good to hear you're not gasping for spirit as I thought you would be. 2+ APS per second has been nice with LOH and spirit regen.

I might make the change. If I don't dual wield though, I only have 660 LOH. You think that would be enough? Are you using any lifesteal? 9% lifesteal with 30K DPS is about 540 LPS in inferno correct? Seems pretty trivial.

It seems like a large re-build, but the weapon I already found so ... the more DPS is just so tempting.

I am running sweeping wind for the AOE.

660 might be a tiny bit low. I currently have about 950. I kind of wish I had more (I just sacrificed about 400 of it over my rebuild), but it's pretty decent. I don't have any life steal. I'd love to see how that does with cyclones, though.

And yeah if you're running sweeping wind I'd try out the switch to resolve. Couldn't hurt to test it out for a bit.

 

[scy]

That's good to hear you're not gasping for spirit as I thought you would be. 2+ APS per second has been nice with LOH and spirit regen.

Spirit is practically a non-issue with your defenses (and damage) improving as you need to spam it less and less.

I might make the change. If I don't dual wield though, I only have 660 LOH. You think that would be enough? Are you using any lifesteal? 9% lifesteal with 30K DPS is about 540 LPS in inferno correct? Seems pretty trivial.

That's really the wrong way to look at it. For one, it ignores the fact that skills scale Life on Hit down and it ignores damage multipliers on your skills for Life Steal%. That said, Monks scale rather well with Life on Hit anyway, at least until you get a really high Crit Chance%/Crit Damage% setup going.

The balanced approach to damage is why I recommend resolve over guardian's path, actually. It's the same sort of thing as getting armor and resists to a good level instead of just one. Your dodge is going to already be very high, and if you're running more dodge skills, then you're just stacking things to a point you probably don't need there. Better to go with another skill that mitigates damage in another way. The other thing is that I believe Resolve helps in group play. The monsters should be doing less damage to both you and everyone else in your party, and I personally play in groups quite a bit, so it might help.

Like I said, Resolve is generally better. I was just saying I've suggested Guardian's Path in the past because it's not exactly terrible and it functions well for what it does. And due to how Evasion itself works, stacking more of it actually does help since it's a chance of nullifying damage. Still, reliable mitigation is, in the end, the better option and Resolve working with Sweeping Wind makes it a more attractive option.

 

[Sophia]

A Barb question: is dual WW the "it" build now?
My barb is currently a 1H shield 21k + 30%, 330% crit frenzy build. Should I be making the switch?

I think I'm going to post my barb later, I need some guidance maybe...

If you've got the life on hit and crit, it sure is.

 

[RDreamer]

There's an item I really want ending in about 15 minutes. No one's made a bid on it yet, and I'm praying no one else does. I'm going to swoop in right at the end and bid pretty much everything I have. It's that good. I'm not sure why it's flown under everyone's radar until now. Wish me luck.

Edit: Fuck, right when I typed that someone bid on it.... Oh man I want this thing....

 

[scy]

There's an item I really want ending in about 15 minutes. No one's made a bid on it yet, and I'm praying no one else does. I'm going to swoop in right at the end and bid pretty much everything I have. It's that good. I'm not sure why it's flown under everyone's radar until now. Wish me luck.

Edit: Fuck, right when I typed that someone bid on it.... Oh man I want this thing....

I do hope you at least share the stats of it after the bidding is done. So curious now...

 

[RDreamer]

I do hope you at least share the stats of it after the bidding is done. So curious now...

It's not godly or anything. I'm just really determined, and this has the stats I want. I missed out twice today on really good deals, so hopefully that wasn't in vain, since I hesitated on them because I also wanted this one.

 

[Fenderputty]

Sure, if you're doing backlash and need to get your dodge up higher and higher, yeah it would make sense. But the thing is that by now he's got a ton of dodge, especially if he doesn't switch from MoE. That means he's getting a very small percentage bump by using Guardian's Path, whereas he'd get a larger bump overall from resolve (because he's not running any other damage reduction like concussion). But, I suppose that's hinged on him using some sort of AOE type attack in there somewhere, or him circling around hitting everything while he's surrounded. And yeah I'm not saying Guardian's Path is terrible. I'm just saying I think that Resolve is pretty hands down better a lot of the time (not all of the time, but a lot of the time).

Edit: Then again, if he would run backlash then would resolve proc every time? If so then I think resolve is even better there, possibly. Or at least has a really good side to it.



Well, they'll also start to show up because price on good gear is going down, and people are starting to get good gear. I personally think the best mode of operation is to build for survive while you're progressing. Make sure you can survive things first and foremost. Then once you're there you can start turning things around while not giving up too much defensively. That's what I've been doing and it's been great. Overall with this path you know what hurts you and where you need to change things, whereas I think if you built for DPS first you wouldn't really get a feel for what's really smacking you around and where you should build your defense. That's just my opinion, though.

The balanced approach to damage is why I recommend resolve over guardian's path, actually. It's the same sort of thing as getting armor and resists to a good level instead of just one. Your dodge is going to already be very high, and if you're running more dodge skills, then you're just stacking things to a point you probably don't need there. Better to go with another skill that mitigates damage in another way. The other thing is that I believe Resolve helps in group play. The monsters should be doing less damage to both you and everyone else in your party, and I personally play in groups quite a bit, so it might help.



660 might be a tiny bit low. I currently have about 950. I kind of wish I had more (I just sacrificed about 400 of it over my rebuild), but it's pretty decent. I don't have any life steal. I'd love to see how that does with cyclones, though.

And yeah if you're running sweeping wind I'd try out the switch to resolve. Couldn't hurt to test it out for a bit.

660 being low is cause for concern. I have my new 900 DPS weapon with 330 and another amulet with 7% IAS and another 330 LOH. If I use a shield, I lose that other 300 LOH from my second weapon.

I'm wondering if my armor / resists are enough when using resolve though. Maybe I don't need MoE > Hard Target with resolve.

Spirit is practically a non-issue with your defenses (and damage) improving as you need to spam it less and less.



That's really the wrong way to look at it. For one, it ignores the fact that skills scale Life on Hit down and it ignores damage multipliers on your skills for Life Steal%. That said, Monks scale rather well with Life on Hit anyway, at least until you get a really high Crit Chance%/Crit Damage% setup going.

That's what I thought. Monk scale better with LOH than any other class. Hmmm ...

decisions decisions ...

I'll start tonight by playing around with resolve as a passive and MoC as my active mantra and see if I need to switch to a 1H with shield, or if I can keep a dual wield going.

 

[garath]

Found a decent weapon in Act I a couple days ago. Don't even think I had any stacks. Don't have a screenshot but the stats are:

Monk 1-h
730ish dps
+80 dex
+45 vit
+150 int
Life on hit 902
Crit damage 50ish
Socket

There's only a couple pages worth of weapons that are even close to it. Really looks like a 20-30m weapon to me. Unfortunately my friend that I co-op with all the time is a monk and I let him use it while we were playing Act II last night and he loved it. I feel bad for selling it but if it could fetch that much it could fund a few upgrades for me. Everything I own is < 1m a piece.

So I put it up for 30m with no buyout. We'll see if I get any hits. Nothing so far ~ 12 hours in.

 

[Fenderputty]

Found a decent weapon in Act I a couple days ago. Don't even think I had any stacks. Don't have a screenshot but the stats are:

Monk 1-h
730ish dps
+80 dex
+45 vit
+150 int
Life on hit 902
Crit damage 50ish
Socket

There's only a couple pages worth of weapons that are even close to it. Really looks like a 20-30m weapon to me. Unfortunately my friend that I co-op with all the time is a monk and I let him use it while we were playing Act II last night and he loved it. I feel bad for selling it but if it could fetch that much it could fund a few upgrades for me. Everything I own is < 1m a piece.

So I put it up for 30m with no buyout. We'll see if I get any hits. Nothing so far ~ 12 hours in.

The native LOH and CRIT w/ another socket is amazing. The downside is that the DPS is rather low. So people that are searching for exspensive weapons will sort by DPS frist.

 

[sorijealut]

If you've got the life on hit and crit, it sure is.

Alright, so it is, I will have to pick up more LOH as my main weapon is 692.
I do not have money, but I think it will be a much quicker way to farm, so now would be a good time to make way towards the switch.

Found a decent weapon in Act I a couple days ago. Don't even think I had any stacks. Don't have a screenshot but the stats are:

Monk 1-h
730ish dps
+80 dex
+45 vit
+150 int
Life on hit 902
Crit damage 50ish
Socket

There's only a couple pages worth of weapons that are even close to it. Really looks like a 20-30m weapon to me. Unfortunately my friend that I co-op with all the time is a monk and I let him use it while we were playing Act II last night and he loved it. I feel bad for selling it but if it could fetch that much it could fund a few upgrades for me. Everything I own is < 1m a piece.

So I put it up for 30m with no buyout. We'll see if I get any hits. Nothing so far ~ 12 hours in.

That looks really good! I know that feeling of being sorry but I'm sure your friend will understand.

If I had to guess it can be even more, 30+?

 

[Zyzyxxz]

omg I actually made real money! Sold this for $50!

 

[RDreamer]

FU:IFUALFJUF:OASJF:IALj

Didn't get it. I was winning until probably 20 seconds left, then the bids went past the money I have to spend.

Fuck I'm pissed. Missed out on 3 good weapons so far today. One on bid and two probably to bots... Goddammit.