-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls |OT3| Tyrael Looted: {[El'druin]}
- Thread starter IceMarker
- Start date
neoism
Member
thats the rings it originally gave you 800% damage boost if you didn't use a set but they lowered it to 100% 800 was probably way too high but I don't know I think 100 is too low
Pyros_Eien
Member
Marauder DH is actually good in 2.4, so that's a buff obviously. They added a new xbow with Cluster Arrow cost reduction on it that even makes Cindercoat unnecessary so you can use any Cluster rune you like and stuff. Looks great, haven't checked GR rankings though.
They buffed Zuni also, and buffed the pet rings. The biggest buff I think to that playstyle though is the fact F+R isn't mandatory anymore, and you can instead use an amulet+ring combo to get 100%increased damage(which is less than F+R, but close enough), which lets you use one of the actual pet rings. That's a big deal since before, neither ring was really usable other than in cube and you had Unity and CoE competing with that, but now it's possible. They also buffed dogs and garg base damage by quite a lot, which with the multipliers from the rings, might actually make them good.
So they did buff them, don't know how competitve they are though. I'll probably hop on PTR and check Zuni with my WD.
Edit: Or I won't. Stupid PTR copied I don't know what state of the game so I don't have half of my WD gear I got in seasons, I had the same issue with my DH not even existing even though I had a T10 rdy one on season 4 so I had to use my old 4pc marauder from S1 to farm PTR with. Don't know if it's good enough though checking quickly with what I had, I forgot how clunky some of the stuff was with Zuni, like the slots it needs(no shoulders zzz), the amount of skills needed(BBV+Fetish+Garg+mana activator+spiritwalk+int/armor buff thing, don't really have room for dogs basically) and the fact you need to waste a legendary gem specifically for it.
Top builds on PTR at the moment (post hotfix patch):
Wizard Firebird (Delsere can do 80 now)
Barbarian Raekor (Earthquake can do 80 now)
Monk Inna Static Charge
Crusader Thorns (so far the strongest in 2.4)
Witch Doctor Jade
Demon Hunter Nat and LoN Strafe build (other sets aren't too far behind but DH in general is pretty weak still)
Most of these top builds are doing mid 80s with potential to break 90s.
Wizard Firebird (Delsere can do 80 now)
Barbarian Raekor (Earthquake can do 80 now)
Monk Inna Static Charge
Crusader Thorns (so far the strongest in 2.4)
Witch Doctor Jade
Demon Hunter Nat and LoN Strafe build (other sets aren't too far behind but DH in general is pretty weak still)
Most of these top builds are doing mid 80s with potential to break 90s.
Are any of the old builds doing 80?
I think Firebird's is probably still slightly ahead of Invoker. There's not a ton of folks pushing GRs in general on PTR, but Firebird is the only set with an 88 clear and the gear requirements to keep up as you get towards 90 will get intense for Invoker. Just because of how the buff works you're probably going to need something like ~1 billion peak Toughness to get the most out of GR fishing that would allow you to keep up with fishing Wizards.
My guess though is that both of these sets actually catch one more small round of nerfs before this PTR cycle is over. R6/IK4 Barb is probably right on the line they are looking for this phase.
My guess though is that both of these sets actually catch one more small round of nerfs before this PTR cycle is over. R6/IK4 Barb is probably right on the line they are looking for this phase.
JohnOfMars
Banned
I got my Focus and my 2nd Unity over the holiday and shot right up to GR50. Feels good. I'm doing WW/Rend and the build is so fun and requires a lot of nuance to really hit top performance.
I really like the combat loop: Furious charge in to proc Strongarm Bracers and Focus, then WW to proc Restraint, then double Rend, WW again to stack Taeduk and heal as needed. Charge again if I need to get Fury up, but being careful to keep Charge up so I can use it for a new pack.
I've made it a personal goal for rifts to keep Taeguk at maximum stacks and to always have FnR up in packs.
It's all great in solo play, but I have a lot of trouble playing it in groups. I'm playing with a Witch Doctor and together we just melt stuff so fast. I get most of my survivability from WW and my Rage from Charging, so when enemies die super fast I don't get healed or any resources. If we push higher to where our kill times are slower then we both get crushed. Any ideas there?
I really like the combat loop: Furious charge in to proc Strongarm Bracers and Focus, then WW to proc Restraint, then double Rend, WW again to stack Taeduk and heal as needed. Charge again if I need to get Fury up, but being careful to keep Charge up so I can use it for a new pack.
I've made it a personal goal for rifts to keep Taeguk at maximum stacks and to always have FnR up in packs.
It's all great in solo play, but I have a lot of trouble playing it in groups. I'm playing with a Witch Doctor and together we just melt stuff so fast. I get most of my survivability from WW and my Rage from Charging, so when enemies die super fast I don't get healed or any resources. If we push higher to where our kill times are slower then we both get crushed. Any ideas there?
Head of Vengarl
Banned
So I take back what I originally said about Demon Hunters. I love my Witch Doctor but now my clan/friends only play seasonal characters, so I haven't been playing him much lately. When I tried DH in vanilla I thought it felt much weaker than the other classes I'd tried, and painfully bad at handling groups/elites. I don't even think I made it to level 10 before giving up and trying another class. But now that I'm in a clan I decided to give DH another shot because I could get quickly powerleveled to 70. I was still lukewarm on him at first, but then I got Yang's Recurve and Dead Man's Legacy, and then 4 pieces of the Marauder set, and now he's awesome! I like my DH even more than my WD now. Dropping sentries and then blasting the fuck out of everything in sight with multishot is so much fun. Plus I also cubed Spines of Seething Hatred so chakram is now my primary generator, and my sentries shoot it too. 
Head of Vengarl
Banned
What are the best legendary gems for a Demon Hunter using a Marauder multishot build? I'm new to all this and I can't decide which ones to use. At the moment I do rather low level rifts (usually T1) and grifts (usually around level 20-25).
I currently have:
Bane of the Powerful
Bane of the Stricken
Boon of the Hoarder
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
Gogok of Swiftness
Iceblink
Pain Enhancer
Simplicitys Strength
Taeguk
Wreath of Lightning
I currently have:
Bane of the Powerful
Bane of the Stricken
Boon of the Hoarder
Gem of Efficacious Toxin
Gogok of Swiftness
Iceblink
Pain Enhancer
Simplicitys Strength
Taeguk
Wreath of Lightning
Stricken is pretty much mandatory for every build, though less so at low tiers, you'll want to at least keep it leveled as you move up because it will massively shorten the RG.
Powerful is pretty solid for lower rifts as you kill enough elites to keep it up constantly.
Trapped is always solid if you have a way to keep mobs snared, which your sentries can iirc, or combo it with Iceblink which is a decent gem too.
Toxin is a solid choice if you just want some extra damage and don't wanna think too much, its just a flat increase.
Wreath itself isn't super great, but the move speed is nice as you start considering how to maximize your clear times.
Gogok and pain ehancer are petty meh I'd think for marauder, you wouldn't need the CDR I'd think? and you want be close enough to take advantage of the aspd unless you're just doing some stricken snapshot shenanigans. Taeguk might be an okay choice as you move up, but I'm not sure how well you can keep it stacked though.
To be honest though, at the level it sounds like you're playing at, pick whatever sounds fun, just the sheer damage from the set bonus will carry you through t1 easy before you even consider min maxing what gems to use.
Head of Vengarl
Banned
Thanks for the info. Going with Bane of the Powerful and Bane of the Stricken for now. Might switch Powerful for Efficacious Toxin though... still undecided.
*Edit - You can ignore this. I'm just posting this link to my profile for future reference:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Luapzors-1881/hero/69720764
*Edit - You can ignore this. I'm just posting this link to my profile for future reference:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Luapzors-1881/hero/69720764
First of all you should run some GRS to complete the Legendary gem collection. You get one every Rift guaranteed until you have all of them.
Bane of the Trapped, Stricken and Powerful are among the more powerful, all purpose gems. Stricken is not that powerful at lower levels so for now avoid it. Bane of the Powerful on the other hand is better at lower levels because you can get the buff for almost the entire rift if you are speed farming.
If you run Cold Marauder Ice Blink is nice combined with Bane of the Trapped and Zwei. Zwei is really strong for ranged classes. Bane of the Trapped is the single strongest gem in the game, everyone uses it.
For lower levels stuff like Pain Enhancer, Holy Mininae, Wreath of Lightning and Toxin gems are pretty strong because the gems proc themselves can kill mobs. Boon of the Hoarder is also a speed farm gem for non GRS as it combined with Goldwrap can make you really fast and damn near immortal.
Most of the other gems are build dependent:
*Golgok is a builds that need CdR and/or attack speed bonuses.
*Taeguk is good for builds that spam spenders non stop. This is not the Marauder.
*Wreath of Lightning is a speed farm gem. Unless you use the Nightmare set in 2.4 then it can become a damage gem.
*Gizzard, Esoteric etc. are defensive gems. At higher tier GRs people tend to run one defensive gem. At lower levels no one runs it, it's all about DPS.
*The Pet gem isn't that good because the damage is additive. Avoid it.
*Simplicity Strength is for generator builds like Static Charge Monk.
*Pain Enhancer is used for builds with lots of procs and ones that benefit from attack speeds.
*Holy Miranae is a powerful proc if you can proc it many times. However builds that could proc it a lot have been nerfed so it sees very little play. Still great for low level speed farming though.
Real issue is that Marauder isn't a good speed farm set. It's a ramp up set. You should look to acquire the Unhallowed Essence set for a superior Multishot build. Marauder will be better in 2.4 though but still not a great speed farm set.
JohnOfMars
Banned
PSA to new players, and to returning ones like me, Icy Veins website has tons of great guides for different builds. Like well-written posts not just on the the gear and skills, but how to effectively use it all.
I just rediscovered it and man, so good.
I just rediscovered it and man, so good.
Well... I still hope Thorns Crusader is a thing when the patch hits live.
It seems to be. I think I was pretty close in my last post, seems like they're trying to pull towards ~81, which Invoker should still easily be able to do.
Wonder if Jade was hit too hard. Don't know a ton about Wizards; Firebirds got clotheslined but it was pretty Shrek-tier so it might be what it needed.
I'm probably going to play LoN Blessed Shield in the upcoming season, with some DH Shadow/LoN stuff on the side. Maybe some LoN WD stuff if I get around to it.
Shuggananas
Banned
Thornsader need more options and some QOL too
Currently there's only like 7 active skills to chose from so you just have to pick which one you don't use and that's about it
Laws also don't offer much choice
Currently there's only like 7 active skills to chose from so you just have to pick which one you don't use and that's about it
Laws also don't offer much choice
Head of Vengarl
Banned
Well... I got 6 pieces of the Natalya set, but it cost me 80 forgotten souls at the Kanai cube. ;_;
It's still far from an ideal setup, but it's a fun set. Much different play style than the Marauder set. I've found that Natalya setup has faster damage, but my Marauder setup is still the king of boss fights (once I have 3 sentries deployed). I only have 1 UE piece so far.
Thank you for the info. I did another grift and got Zwei. Definitely good for DH.
It's still far from an ideal setup, but it's a fun set. Much different play style than the Marauder set. I've found that Natalya setup has faster damage, but my Marauder setup is still the king of boss fights (once I have 3 sentries deployed). I only have 1 UE piece so far.
Thank you for the info. I did another grift and got Zwei. Definitely good for DH.
Blizz hates skills that murder the server? Shocking. It is kinds odd that Raiment hasn't seen any changes really though, kinda weird, but maybe they feel monks are getting enough with innas and SWK changes.
SWK is mechanically garbage. That set shouldn't go live as is.
The initial nerf they did to Static Charge was fine. It shouldn't be procing off of other players which resulted in massive lag. Nerfing damage was also fine as it was out performing other generator specs. The current nerf wasn't needed, it doesn't reduce lag just it's power which isn't even that high.
Monks are probably still going to have some support value. Heal support Monk might still be a thing and so would the EP Support Monk. LoN + the new Fist of Az + Furnace + Gungdo.
As a DPS class they are lacking. U6 isn't strong enough, SWK sucks, R6 sucks and Inna Generator build is probably their strongest set up which is not going to compete against other classss.
I haven't even looked at what SWK does now rofl. I think monks will still have a decent support role for trash clearing at the least, not sure how well their support is compared to others though, support barb will still be really strong as long as they can perma IP the whole party.
What I mostly meant about lag is that if they nerf it to not be the best build, people simply won't use it so they don't actually have to fix the problem.
Pyros_Eien
Member
Groups will still run 2 supports. There's some blind synergy stuff with monk too to help, I don't think monks are going anywhere for their support slot, they just give a ton of things all in one. Barbs are probably staying too because of dmg reduction and what not. I don't think any other class has the same amount of support stuff, WDs have good damage buffs but the rest is meh after the chain CC nerf, crusader are ok for damage from what I understand and might replace barbs possibly, but the only support that heals is monk.
Their balancing seems fairly on point this time around, they're adjusting more often and more stuff every hotfix, I guess not having to push actual patches helped maybe. They're also actually trying to get stuff roughly at the same level, instead of just having the "new" set being OP and leaving the rest to die. It's not perfect, but it seems pretty decent with a decent aim at 70-80 for everything.
Don't know shit about SWK though.
Their balancing seems fairly on point this time around, they're adjusting more often and more stuff every hotfix, I guess not having to push actual patches helped maybe. They're also actually trying to get stuff roughly at the same level, instead of just having the "new" set being OP and leaving the rest to die. It's not perfect, but it seems pretty decent with a decent aim at 70-80 for everything.
Don't know shit about SWK though.
Here's the problem with SWK:
The damage buff only applies if you have a stack of Sweeping Wind to consume. Using a skill consumes a Sweeping Wind stack.
This prevents you from spamming the skill unless you use one of the three runes with a Dot that can re-acquire the stack because of the Dot. Even then you need density to keep the stacks up, against RG you run out of stacks and you can't use your skills. The alternative is to use a generator to build stacks but that lacks in efficiency.
Even then you need that Belt to maintain stacks between fights and you need Vengeful Spirit in order to have the extra stacks to spam the skills. Without these items it becomes hard to actually use your buffed skills.
This creates 3 problems:
*Severely limits item selection because the Belt and weapon have to be used just so you can actually use your skills reliably.
*Because SWK 6 pc occupies an amulet and you need to use RorG with SWK to use the other items for LTK and WoL, you can't use the Compass Rose set or F+R.
*This results in SWK set having less damage mitigation and overall damage because it's very item restrictive.
Furthermore the set is currently bugged where it doesn't give bonuses when using Epiphany.
The mechanics of SWK are extremely clunky and restrictive. You can make a LON set up with those skills that would be less clunky and restrictive.
Not having stacks tied to using your spenders needs to happen. In addition they need to add another armor piece for SWK (like pants) to make it less restrictive.
The damage buff only applies if you have a stack of Sweeping Wind to consume. Using a skill consumes a Sweeping Wind stack.
This prevents you from spamming the skill unless you use one of the three runes with a Dot that can re-acquire the stack because of the Dot. Even then you need density to keep the stacks up, against RG you run out of stacks and you can't use your skills. The alternative is to use a generator to build stacks but that lacks in efficiency.
Even then you need that Belt to maintain stacks between fights and you need Vengeful Spirit in order to have the extra stacks to spam the skills. Without these items it becomes hard to actually use your buffed skills.
This creates 3 problems:
*Severely limits item selection because the Belt and weapon have to be used just so you can actually use your skills reliably.
*Because SWK 6 pc occupies an amulet and you need to use RorG with SWK to use the other items for LTK and WoL, you can't use the Compass Rose set or F+R.
*This results in SWK set having less damage mitigation and overall damage because it's very item restrictive.
Furthermore the set is currently bugged where it doesn't give bonuses when using Epiphany.
The mechanics of SWK are extremely clunky and restrictive. You can make a LON set up with those skills that would be less clunky and restrictive.
Not having stacks tied to using your spenders needs to happen. In addition they need to add another armor piece for SWK (like pants) to make it less restrictive.
After having it for almost a year, I've finally played and finished Diablo 3 RoS campaign on PS4.
I have a few questions now that I'm playing adventure mode.
- I'm playing as a Barbarian. I play only alone. Where can I find good builds for my character?
- What is the best way to get good gear? I thought playing harder difficulties would increase the quality of the drops, but I'm playing Torment 5 now, and haven't really noticed better gear than compared to Torment 1, for instance.
- I guess crafting is pretty important, right? I have barely crafted anything because I didn't want wrongly spend materials. Any good crafting tips?
- Do legendary items such as Gavel of Judgement drop only randomly, or can they be farmed somewhere?
- Can you share any other tips? I've played very casually until now. Now I'd like to know what things could I aim to achieve in this end-game state.
Cheers.
I have a few questions now that I'm playing adventure mode.
- I'm playing as a Barbarian. I play only alone. Where can I find good builds for my character?
- What is the best way to get good gear? I thought playing harder difficulties would increase the quality of the drops, but I'm playing Torment 5 now, and haven't really noticed better gear than compared to Torment 1, for instance.
- I guess crafting is pretty important, right? I have barely crafted anything because I didn't want wrongly spend materials. Any good crafting tips?
- Do legendary items such as Gavel of Judgement drop only randomly, or can they be farmed somewhere?
- Can you share any other tips? I've played very casually until now. Now I'd like to know what things could I aim to achieve in this end-game state.
Cheers.
Check out builds on sites like diablofans or just glance at the leaderboards (if you can on console anyways). There's really only a couple competitive builds at any given time so it shouldn't be hard to find.
Each torment level gives more chance to get legendaries, but the rolls are still just random.
Crafting isn't all that important, most of your mats will go to the mystic to reroll stats, or to kanai's cube to upgrade rares/reroll legendaries.
Random, aside from the legendaries that are specific to the bounty caches, the bring of royal grandeur (act 1) being the most notable one.
Yeah, they completely forgot about WotW for barb as well. Though Barb is now looking pretty nice diversity wise: MotE/Raekor are both at that 80 mark with the nerfs, and with the buffs to SS/HOTA weapons, IK6 Hota/SS should be close behind. Too bad whirlwind is going to suck though.
Also apparently earthquake and the MOTE set in general are completely bugged in that area damage is nonexistant with the two. A barb was testing earthquake damage and AD was at a whopping 0. I remember it was completely bugged and holding HOTA/SS back a few GR's last patch as well. Hilarious how goddam buggy area damage is, I think I'm just going to be on the safe side for most builds and completely ignore it. Too many unknown and known bugs with the stat.
Looks like most classes have been nerfed down to that 80-82 mark (with a thousand paragon levels and ancient gear), so hopefully the patch comes out soon (and they buff the sets they completely forgot about!). I'm still kind of salty they aren't balancing LoN on a per class basis, so instead we're going to be left with a kind of gimped LoN for every class except demon hunters.
Area damage is bugged for a lot of skills still, not at all surprising.
You can't really balance LoN on a per class basis because that would mean actually balancing for skills and items at the base level. That's way, way too much work for Blizzard. They can barely even balanced 6 piece sets as it is.
2) Best way to get gear is to play Rifts a lot. Speed farm Torment X Rifts or whatever Torment you are most comfortable with. You want to do Torment 5 only if you can do it so fast that it isn't too different from doing it in T1 (ie. you one shot everything). When the speed is fast for both, that's when you see the different in loot quantity. On higher Torments you get more Legendaries on average and more chance for them to be Ancients. But don't do higher difficulties if it's taking you like 10 minutes to complete one Rift... you should be aiming for sub 5 minutes clears.
3) You craft through the Kanai Cube now, the crafting through the Blacksmith is weak sauce. In the cube you can convert a Rare item into a Legendary of the same type or re-roll a Legendary into another Legendary completely (this one is more for end game). Many of the craft mats in the Cube require that you play some Bounties though.
4) Everything drops randomly but you can use the Kanai Cube to target farm the Gavel of Judgement. You can use the convert Rare item recipe to convert Rare 2 handed Mighty weapons (I think it's a mighty weapon, you have to look up what the item type for Gavel is) into Legendary Mighty Weapons. It will take a few rolls but it's the easiest way to get what you want. Just remember that some items are rarer than others so don't get frustrated if it takes you like 30 crafts to get a Kridershot for example.
5) Here are some general tips for Diablo 3:
*Play in groups as much as you can especially in groups where there are more people using your class.
*Run Greater Rifts at lower levels until you have every gem type in the game. After that you should level up 3 of your best gems for your character to lvl25. This is a significant power boost right off the bat.
*Complete the 6 piece set of your build. This is a massive power bonus.
*Occasionally play Bounties but do Split bounties with other people. This is the most efficient way to get mats. You want to be at Torment 7 I believe for maximum value.
*Don't full clear Rifts, just teleport back after kill the RG. Early on you want to maximize Blood Shards so you can gamble to get what you want.
*Always pick up Death's Breaths from the ground. You don't really need to pick yellow mats because you will get enough of them from gambling. Do pick up the occasional blue/white mats though.
*Don't bother picking up gold from the ground, the game is very generous with the gold. If the gold is in your path then it's fine to pick it but don't go out of your way to pick up some random pile of gold. It lowers your efficiency.
*Puzzle Ring and Bovine Bardiche can be transmuted in the cube to create portals. Puzzle Ring creates the Vault which is a literal gold mine. Bardiche opens portal to the cow level which has lots of chests and enemies for nice loot and EXP. You want to be doing these at high enough difficulties for maximum reward especially the Bardiche.
*When your gear is good enough you want to start pushing Greater Rifts (preferably with a group) so you can start upgrading your gems and increasing your Blood Shard cap.
*Keeping a Nemesis Bracer in your inventory to equip when touching a Shrine will give you more Elites to clear and give you faster clear times on your regular Rift runs.
*Items like Harrington and Goldwrap are extremely powerful in normal Rifts but completely useless in Greater Rifts.
Other tips you kinda have to be more specific on.
Quin69 makes a video on the SWK set and talks about the faulty mechanics of the set.
LoN is fine for Witch Doctors, Monks and Crusaders. They can do GR70+ with it easily which is in the viable category.
You can't really balance LoN on a per class basis because that would mean actually balancing for skills and items at the base level. That's way, way too much work for Blizzard. They can barely even balanced 6 piece sets as it is.
1) Icyveins and Diablofans are the best places for builds. Icyveins goes in details to explain the top builds and in Diablofan you can find quirkier builds.
2) Best way to get gear is to play Rifts a lot. Speed farm Torment X Rifts or whatever Torment you are most comfortable with. You want to do Torment 5 only if you can do it so fast that it isn't too different from doing it in T1 (ie. you one shot everything). When the speed is fast for both, that's when you see the different in loot quantity. On higher Torments you get more Legendaries on average and more chance for them to be Ancients. But don't do higher difficulties if it's taking you like 10 minutes to complete one Rift... you should be aiming for sub 5 minutes clears.
3) You craft through the Kanai Cube now, the crafting through the Blacksmith is weak sauce. In the cube you can convert a Rare item into a Legendary of the same type or re-roll a Legendary into another Legendary completely (this one is more for end game). Many of the craft mats in the Cube require that you play some Bounties though.
4) Everything drops randomly but you can use the Kanai Cube to target farm the Gavel of Judgement. You can use the convert Rare item recipe to convert Rare 2 handed Mighty weapons (I think it's a mighty weapon, you have to look up what the item type for Gavel is) into Legendary Mighty Weapons. It will take a few rolls but it's the easiest way to get what you want. Just remember that some items are rarer than others so don't get frustrated if it takes you like 30 crafts to get a Kridershot for example.
5) Here are some general tips for Diablo 3:
*Play in groups as much as you can especially in groups where there are more people using your class.
*Run Greater Rifts at lower levels until you have every gem type in the game. After that you should level up 3 of your best gems for your character to lvl25. This is a significant power boost right off the bat.
*Complete the 6 piece set of your build. This is a massive power bonus.
*Occasionally play Bounties but do Split bounties with other people. This is the most efficient way to get mats. You want to be at Torment 7 I believe for maximum value.
*Don't full clear Rifts, just teleport back after kill the RG. Early on you want to maximize Blood Shards so you can gamble to get what you want.
*Always pick up Death's Breaths from the ground. You don't really need to pick yellow mats because you will get enough of them from gambling. Do pick up the occasional blue/white mats though.
*Don't bother picking up gold from the ground, the game is very generous with the gold. If the gold is in your path then it's fine to pick it but don't go out of your way to pick up some random pile of gold. It lowers your efficiency.
*Puzzle Ring and Bovine Bardiche can be transmuted in the cube to create portals. Puzzle Ring creates the Vault which is a literal gold mine. Bardiche opens portal to the cow level which has lots of chests and enemies for nice loot and EXP. You want to be doing these at high enough difficulties for maximum reward especially the Bardiche.
*When your gear is good enough you want to start pushing Greater Rifts (preferably with a group) so you can start upgrading your gems and increasing your Blood Shard cap.
*Keeping a Nemesis Bracer in your inventory to equip when touching a Shrine will give you more Elites to clear and give you faster clear times on your regular Rift runs.
*Items like Harrington and Goldwrap are extremely powerful in normal Rifts but completely useless in Greater Rifts.
Other tips you kinda have to be more specific on.
Quin69 makes a video on the SWK set and talks about the faulty mechanics of the set.
PTR report on top build performances. This guy made a nice post here:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/20042935093
TOP 10 AVERAGES BY CLASS
CRUS - 82.4
DH - 76.2
MONK - 76.1
WIZ - 76.1
BARB - 73.9
WD - 71.8
RANK 1 BUILDS BY CLASS
CRUS - IV6 Thorns
DH - SB6 Impale FoK
MONK - IR4/RT2 WotHF Fists of Fury
WIZ - F6 Disintegrate
BARB - ME6 Leap Quake
WD - LoN Carni Darts
TOP 10 DISTRIBUTION OF BUILDS
Crusader
80% - IV6 Thorns
10% - AK4/IV2/NF2 Steed Thorns
10% - LoN Shield Glare Thorns
Demon Hunter
80% - M6 CA Shooting Stars
10% - SB6 Impale FoK
10% - SB6 Impale
Monk
100% - IR4/RT2 Fists of Fury
Wizard
100% - F6 Disintegrate
Barbarian
100% - ME6 Leap Quake
Witch Doctor
50% - JH6 Soul Harvest DoTs
30% - LoN Carni Darts
10% - HT6 Pets (Dog/Garg)
10% - LoN Pets (Dog Buffer)
While it's showing only one build for Wiz/Monk/Barb... they definitely have more specs that can do that level of GR. U6 Monk is solid, Delsere can do up to 80 GR and someone actually cleared GR76 with a LoN WW Barb.
Though this is a good peak into what the strongest builds/classes are going to be. Seems like a pass on Crusaders and WDs will probably happen.
Nice to see some LoN builds up there as well. That Barb LoN WW build in particular looks pretty fun and interesting.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/20042935093
TOP 10 AVERAGES BY CLASS
CRUS - 82.4
DH - 76.2
MONK - 76.1
WIZ - 76.1
BARB - 73.9
WD - 71.8
RANK 1 BUILDS BY CLASS
CRUS - IV6 Thorns
DH - SB6 Impale FoK
MONK - IR4/RT2 WotHF Fists of Fury
WIZ - F6 Disintegrate
BARB - ME6 Leap Quake
WD - LoN Carni Darts
TOP 10 DISTRIBUTION OF BUILDS
Crusader
80% - IV6 Thorns
10% - AK4/IV2/NF2 Steed Thorns
10% - LoN Shield Glare Thorns
Demon Hunter
80% - M6 CA Shooting Stars
10% - SB6 Impale FoK
10% - SB6 Impale
Monk
100% - IR4/RT2 Fists of Fury
Wizard
100% - F6 Disintegrate
Barbarian
100% - ME6 Leap Quake
Witch Doctor
50% - JH6 Soul Harvest DoTs
30% - LoN Carni Darts
10% - HT6 Pets (Dog/Garg)
10% - LoN Pets (Dog Buffer)
While it's showing only one build for Wiz/Monk/Barb... they definitely have more specs that can do that level of GR. U6 Monk is solid, Delsere can do up to 80 GR and someone actually cleared GR76 with a LoN WW Barb.
Though this is a good peak into what the strongest builds/classes are going to be. Seems like a pass on Crusaders and WDs will probably happen.
Nice to see some LoN builds up there as well. That Barb LoN WW build in particular looks pretty fun and interesting.
I wonder what prompted Jade to get included in the 12/1 ceiling drop, it seemed like it would have been roughly where everyone else's top end wound up without those changes. I suppose it could just be that internally they have evidence that folks weren't pushing WD as hard and it wasn't reflecting how strong the set was. Wouldn't be surprised if they went the other way in the next round of hotfixes and brought Jade back up near where it was before 12/1 and tried to bring up the floor on their other sets a bit more.
On top of that it's worth mentioning that stuff like gloves/shoulders/pants/chests are severely lacking in the neutral Legendary category. They really need to create more general purpose items like Acquila or Hexing Pants.
Pretty much every LoN set is running very similar Legendaries despite being radically different builds.
Yeah I kind of agree with him. It screws over a lot of Kanai's cube stuff too.
He was a bit inarticulate in his video but the main point he was trying to make was that adding generic non-orange "+100% skill damage" to items forces you to use them on your character as opposed to in your cube.
Like maybe I want to use Balance in the cube and use the Istavan set on the character for a fast attack speed Tempest Rush build. I can't do that because I would be losing out on too much damage from the +% Tempest skill damage on Balance.
The reason Blizzard put that in the game is to "soft" balance the skills in the game. Because they have so many generic multipliers in the game they can't really go in and tweak skills anymore.
Like maybe I want to use Balance in the cube and use the Istavan set on the character for a fast attack speed Tempest Rush build. I can't do that because I would be losing out on too much damage from the +% Tempest skill damage on Balance.
The reason Blizzard put that in the game is to "soft" balance the skills in the game. Because they have so many generic multipliers in the game they can't really go in and tweak skills anymore.
Pyros_Eien
Member
Important thing to note on those rankings is it's PTR Season stuff only. He picked Season so it's less skewed by paragon high levels and gems stuff, but it also means it's potentially largely influenced by what people feel like playing and stuff, if there's more or less of a certain class or if the gearing is more annoying for certain classes, you don't see them as high.
The values are quite a bit closer on the non seasonal leaderboards. Like WD are still last it seems, but it's within 1GR average for top10 of a bunch of the other classes(DH, Barb) and within 2 of the rest other than Wizard(which averages 81 with a top GR at 85).
WDs still have a bunch of issues though, which is fairly apparent from the top builds. Other than Jade, which seems to function as intended, LoN darts is better than Zuni darts and Hellfire/LoN pet builts are better than Zuni builds, and that with Zuni being buffed a lot. Zuni design is just pretty bad, Arachyr still seems bad other than running bounties and Hellfire seems only viable if you use garg+dog builds, for which LoN seems to be about equal or better. Oh and the very best build(GR80) is a LoN build, which is pretty telling.
So yeah, probably don't play WD in S5 if you want to have an easier time doing season journey or getting into groups and stuff. Now if you've always dreamed of a dog/garg/fetish army build that's actually viable, this seems to be quite a good build with LoN or Hellfire(LoN variant seems better). And they have a build with Locust Swarm where you just run around killing everything in T10 without pressing any buttons, so that's something too. And still best at farming bounties I think after they change Steed thorns back to something different.
The values are quite a bit closer on the non seasonal leaderboards. Like WD are still last it seems, but it's within 1GR average for top10 of a bunch of the other classes(DH, Barb) and within 2 of the rest other than Wizard(which averages 81 with a top GR at 85).
WDs still have a bunch of issues though, which is fairly apparent from the top builds. Other than Jade, which seems to function as intended, LoN darts is better than Zuni darts and Hellfire/LoN pet builts are better than Zuni builds, and that with Zuni being buffed a lot. Zuni design is just pretty bad, Arachyr still seems bad other than running bounties and Hellfire seems only viable if you use garg+dog builds, for which LoN seems to be about equal or better. Oh and the very best build(GR80) is a LoN build, which is pretty telling.
So yeah, probably don't play WD in S5 if you want to have an easier time doing season journey or getting into groups and stuff. Now if you've always dreamed of a dog/garg/fetish army build that's actually viable, this seems to be quite a good build with LoN or Hellfire(LoN variant seems better). And they have a build with Locust Swarm where you just run around killing everything in T10 without pressing any buttons, so that's something too. And still best at farming bounties I think after they change Steed thorns back to something different.
yeh but on non-season people have 1500 paragon levels and full ancient bis gear that's just completely unrealistic for 99.9% of the playerbase; tho the seasonal sample size and lack of testers probably is a big issue with putting a ton of stock into those statistics
ptr statistics in general are extremely misleading, i remember back in maybe 2.2 or 2.3 (mortick's shenanigans), DHs/Wizards only pushed up to like 52-54 on the GR leaderboard and ended up on top at the end at like GR 62-70 (something like that). blizzard gotta rely on their internal tests but their balance track record in nearly all of their recent games is pretty terrible
ptr statistics in general are extremely misleading, i remember back in maybe 2.2 or 2.3 (mortick's shenanigans), DHs/Wizards only pushed up to like 52-54 on the GR leaderboard and ended up on top at the end at like GR 62-70 (something like that). blizzard gotta rely on their internal tests but their balance track record in nearly all of their recent games is pretty terrible
Pyros_Eien
Member
You have to do 3 conquests for the last step. Conquests on live aren't so bad though. For S5, they look kinda annoying with a couple requiring more than one char with several full sets. I don't think it'll be a big issue for me as I was planning on playing more than one class anyway(probably wizard or wd to go with my main DH).
For current, the easy ones are GR60(which comes for "free" by doing GR60 solo for the last step anyway), GR40 without class sets(focus and restraint, ancient weapon then a bunch of decent legendaries does it pretty easy on most classes) and either all bosses in an hour(very easy on high movement classes like WD) or level 6gems to 50(super easy to do if you do the rest, just kinda tedious).
Nah, they are not separated by normal/hardcore. Actually you have to play hardcore to finish the journey even if you are normal only as one of the steps is to get a max level hardcore character.
Ricerocket
Member
Pretty much agreed with Quinn about itemization in this game for a long time. The reason for all this is to simplify things for the few devs working on D3 patches imo. From the previous itemization interviews, they choose what ability they want to make awesome and then go from there rather than look at the overall picture. They simply add +800-2000% dmg whatever is necessary to an item through the set and offset legendaries and that results in new legendaries to collect. Perfect for seasons without spending much time.