For iskatu, I used Blizzard and Hydra. Blizzards basically dealt with the minions. Disintegration + Hydra did for him, with diamond skin soaking up what the force armor reduced to much less damage. IT was somewhat close, but with the BLizzard freezing him sometimes to slow him down, my wizard squeaked by.
With that force armor reducing attacks to max 1/3, combined with Diamond Skin, wizards can tank incredibly well...it doesn't matter if it's a 1 million attack if it gets reduced down to 8k.
All of the terror demons can one shot kill a DH without good armor and resistance. Really sucks. Shadow power has the 2/3 damage reduction, and the caltrop skill tht reduces damage can also help, but yeah, forced tanking with a DH sucks a lot.
-----------
I got my Witch DOcter through act 4 Hell in 45 minutes. ANd that's clearing every map. Yeah, it was that fast. They weren't ready for 18k DPS.
I then went online and with 3 million gold got some gear. I upgraded my gauntlets with similar ones that finally included a Dex mod, which upped my damage nicely; got a pair of boots with dex, vit, res all, move +12 and gold find; and bought me a Goldskin to basically double my gold drop haul. And then I went out testing the new outfit, and cleared Desolate Sands and Kule's lab, and made a cool 600k. A decent number of the gold drops were over 3k, and I think one hit 4k...it was hard to see, the ferrets were on the job.
There's quite a bit of good stuff available for 1 mil gp or less on the Auction House, so I'm going to avail myself of it and upgrade myself to the point where my non-crit DPS approaches 30k, and where if I go all-out for damage my crits will be 100k+ (I can hit 98k if I use Steady Aim, 78k if something else there).
I need to upgrade my leggings, belt, helm, shoulders, bracers and rings. I probably also need a better crossbow, but I'm addicted to heal on hit. If I dropped that for a socket, and just went looking for damage, I'm sure I'd be pushing in excess of 120k top end right now.
I tried the salvage level 61+ rares and sell on Auction House...it turns out that no, that's not cost effective. Rares of that level sell for 1100 gp to 1600 gp or higher...and the two items on the AH were ~1k and 65 gp. Just sell them, don't salvage them and AH them.
I've also been saving and selling some decent gear for cheap, making some good money...nothing uber, but good combinations will still be bought by people, especially if the price is right.
It's a fact that Barbs probably have the easiest time finding stuff. They aren't competing with anyone for Str gear, while both DH and Monk are going after +dex, and Wiz and Witch are after +Int.
But now I have 5 level 60 characters, only one of which has made it past Diablo...and that was in group play. I've not soloed Hell with any character, although I'm building to that point. If damage is high enough, things become a lot easier, but you can only sacrifice so much, and the really good stuff is all 10 mil+ per peice. I can't farm gold that fast!!!
ANd it also hurts that when I find a really good peice of gear, I DO have someone to put it on! :)
Ael, dreaming of his own Manticore xbow, signing off.
==+Aelryinth
Well, geared out for gold, I made 1.5 million gold in about 7 hours of play. That's not too horrible. I also got a real nice quiver to auction off...I'd be using it if I hadn't bought one that was actually better! Some minor other stuff to sell, and jewelry for upgrading helpers (+180/+120 amulet of dex/vit will be nice for the scoundrel).
Using Hot Pursuit to run around at +27% speed with my new boots, motoring and killing. Killed the butcher in under a minute, so I'm improving. Can't wait to see what happens when I can consistently break 30k on non-crits and 100k+ on normal crits, without going to pure damage.
If the Goldskin hasn't paid for itself, it's at least halfway there. I'm going to get a lot of use out of it hunting for gold, I think. And if I get bored, I just swap back in my old chest armor and my damage actually goes up a bit, along with my armor and resist all.
Start to end, I made over a million playing through Act I, and did it in about 5 hours, going everywhere, killing everything, looting all magic items, gems and potions, selling when I needed to. Got the 5 elites pretty quick for my valor stacks, and then just kept going.
I only died once, and it was jail/desecrate again, which meant my repair bills were grand total under 30k. In Act 3, I sometimes get that when I'm full and go back to sell, and it happens a LOT in group play.
Another nice about gold harvesting the earlier acts...I can kill the damn treasure goblins without fail! heh.
I love the 50% hungering arrow. I get a lot of penetrates, and each of those penetrates has a 20% or so chance to crit. Damage can stack VERY quickly when that happens. I imagine if I was using a hand crossbow starting at 10% I'd be seeing a lot more of them...but I don't have a good hand crossbow yet, so the point is moot.
==Aelryinth
750k cash in two hours...farmed desolate sands and kule's blood, all the way up to Belial, and skipped Belial.
Goldskin very nice for cash harvesting.
Ran my Witch Docter up through Skeleton King (not a challenge) to level up all 3 helpers. Got a ways to go to gear him out, but his basic damage is more then high enough to deal with most of the foes in Act I.
Using the healing dogs really helps the recovery, too, and those dogs last a lot longer in combat, also.
I want a Manticore. Unfortnately, the cheapest of them for sale is 5 mil gold, and I never quite manage to accumulate that much.
On top of that, if I really, really want the highest grade emerald to stick in it, that's another 17 million gold JUST to accomplish that. Yeah.
Looks like I'm going to be gold farming for some time.
On the other side, I read the build notes for the next patch. They are going to be doing some nice things with pets and sentries for the DH, and buffing Vault with an escape feature. Alas, they are truly nerfing the power of cinder trail down. I guess 1500% was deemed a bit excessive. They are giving more resistance/hp/regen buffs to all classes, but especially the DH, which is nice as they have almost no class defensive skills.
I got two legendaries in one run yesterday...the firewalker boots and Gladiator gloves. I promptly sold the boots, as the stats were inferior to a set I bought for a million on the Auction house, and they sold remarkably quickly. We'll see if the glad gloves do, too.
==Aelryinth
two legendaries yesterday.
Bracers, don't remember name, giving some crit chance and dex bonus and stuff...have to take a closer look at them.
and an Ouroborous Amulet centered on Dex.
I kinda laughed at some of the prices being asked for such things...2 mil for something giving less benefit then a routine rare amulet? Especially with primary stat bonuses below 150?
I guess some people think that just because it's 'legendary' it should be overpriced.
Given that auctions have to keep cycling, I wonder how long people are going to keep posting stuff that nobody is going to buy because it's too overpriced.
==Aelryinth
Strongarm Bracers! :) Used them last night...okay, I guess. Tiny bit more damage.
Had one of them 'ugh' experiences last night. Ran a Bastion to Ghom run, and there was a Champion/Minion flying murlok spawn RIGHT at the beginning. Seriously, before you go up those stairs and the horde of Fallen come down...down came the elite murlocks.
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from the fireballs they were spitting.
Oh, and did I mention Reflect Damage? I'm sure I did.
So, before I could clear the very first top of the stair encounter area, I died 4 times and was down 18k. Not the most auspicous of beginnings. I died more times right there then I did the rest of the night.
Also, I seem to be getting my legendary drops in part 2 of Act 3, after you kill the Siegebreaker and are going through Hell and the towers. Not sure if that's important to people.
No keeper loot, either, although I made 400k off the Auction House last night! Now, must keep my finger off the buy button and accumulate more gold. Maybe I will be able to afford a Manticore...
Seriously, I urge everyone to pick up a Goldskin for farming gold. The things are just too nice once you have your Valor stacks going. My biggest gold drop so far was 4276 gp!
Observation: Elites start regularly dropping Uniques/yellows at about +125-150 magic find. I'm at base 96(level 27 x 3 = 81, +15 shoulders), and elites start dropping yellows at 2 Valor Stacks. When I'm at 5 stacks, basically they are majority dropping yellow.
==+Aelryinth
Just so you know, getting Vortexed into an elite with Molten just as it blows up is so bloody unfair. ON Inferno, it's an auto-kill.
:P
And getting perfectly walled, and scissored between 3 arcane sentries in the same half-second? Yeah.
Minor upgrade to chest armor...+150 Dex and Vit with a socket, so +190 Dex. A little more damage, 3k more health. No Resist All, but that's what my other peice of chest armor is for. 77 dex/vit, +78 Res All...which means going from 68% to 72% Resist. mmm.
The only thing I'm wearing without a dex kicker is my helm. I'm probably going to have to break down and find something.
With Steady Aim, I can get my DPS over 111k now. I'm almost impressed with myself. The key to speed and efficiency is naturally enough one shot kills. Hungry Arrow works out to 200% DoT with the multiple hits, plus the chance at crits. But you know, I'd still prefer the triple shot combo of the Witch Hunter at 180% if I could get it. Hungering Arrow can be as impressive as Rapid Fire if it crits and hits multiple times, or it can be terribly frustrating with the 20k plinks.
Oh, and my Witch Docter, going through Hell level, had 121 kills for the soul jar. I was impressed, to say the least. On INferno mode, he only got 81. I chalk the difference up to the pets working off his ramped up weapon damage were far more effective actually killing things.
I was thinking about buying three items of the Natalya's set...cloak, crossbow and ring.
Ugh, the hand crossbow is under 800 damage. and the Dex mod on it is not impressive. Even when you get the Set bonuses, you are probably better off with random loot.
Oh well.
Lowest feasible Manticore on sale....5 mil gp! Ugh. These guys gotta work on their pricing...some are trying to sell a Manticore for 30 mil when the 15 mil one right next to it has better stats.
I'm trying to inch for the 100k damage without Steady Aim. I'm not sure I can actually do it without really dumping my REsist All, or spending a lot of money. Dex mod would have to be closing in on 2500+, I'm thinking. Ugh.
Or, I'd need a better crossbow. (sighs)
==Aelryinth
I see you like my gold skin approach. :)
Never be poor again!
My friend figured out why you see so much over priced crap. Inventory space. You can toss an item into the auction and then when it doesn't sell it just sits in your completed auction list not taking up valuable chest space.
Sometimes I save an invulnerable ability just for those occasions where the game is unfair. Hopefully a few seconds will give me the escape I am looking for. I just soloed the butcher on inferno and got the quick kill achievement for it as well. I can not thank you enough for convincing me to drastically improve my resists.
You're welcome!
Now, just improve your HP to improve your staying power, and then start seriously working on your damage.
MY DH is now level 31, and I just got done Goldskinning my way through Acts 1 and 2, cleared 2 million gp. SOme amulets to raffle off, nothing else. Act I stuff is basically sales bait. I got a legendary...the Skull Helm, level 55 Helm
--
Things have changed a bit in the last couple days. I got another legendary Helm a couple days ago in Act III, sitting out there on a corpse of a Blood Moon warrior. Andariels' Helm.
This Helm gives me 459 AC (it was higher then any other one on the sales page), +164 Dex, +8 Attack speed, +4.5 crit. That is a SIGNIFICANT increase in hitting power. The +17% damage from fire sucks, as does no vit or res all (it has res poison), but it also has a 31% to Poison Nova when someone hits you...which can wipe low level Inferno critters.
My DPS with Steady Aim hit 120k with that thing on. My crit chance starts at 22.5% now, and my Attack speed is 1.42 with a Crossbow!
I also got a 1100 dmg xbow...and it acutally will do more dmg then my 1013 +120 Dex xbow. (sigh) I still use the latter for the Vit, Heal on Hit and I happen to like the crit burst.
I also have a bow on reserve with both life on damage and heal on hit, 828 dmg.
I have now soloed the Skel King in under 15 seconds (wearing Goldskin, not my +160 dex,+150 Vit, +50 Gem socket bp) and the Butcher as well (Cinder Trail in both cases...too bad its getting nerfed). I can reliably kill Ghom with Cinder Trail...takes a bit longer. Spider Lady I can kill before she escapes. The spider Queen in Act I I killed before she ran away. Alas, Maghda goes invulnerable. Azmodan is a bit harder, but I have not died on soloing Azmodan, I just don't try to rush the kill.
Sustained fire from Rapid Fire can kill ANY elite in Act I or II. My average crit on a shot is now 80-90k.
Without sharpshooter juicing crit odds, my DPS is now something like 47k. The game is a LOT easier when crits kill over half the base creatures, and repeated crits wipe just about anything (Penetrating Hungering Arrows critting in succession can wipe a Fallen Overseer easily, and quickly whittle down elites).
Today I soloed Belial without changing my configuration. Turns out when your damage is high enough that crits kill his minions, you don't have to tank and poison cloud...and when you can Cinder Trail him 4 times, he doesn't have time to do damage to you. I just had to survive his poison geysers...which took me three tries (annoying!). Cinder Trail and Rapid Fire got him down to half life very quickly, and once I survived the Geysers, I finished him off.
I'm actually at the point I should be using damage as healing, instead of heal on hit. 2.5% of 40k is 1000, and crits would juice that even higher. I also wouldn't need to fear reflect damage, because I'd be getting healed as they did damage back to me! (Reflect damage from a pack of elites wandering over a Cinder Trail can take my life down VERY quickly).
Buffed Dex is 2036. I still have some room for improvement, mostly on my weapon, but some of my lesser gear, probably shoulders and belt.
BTW, Attack speed is far more powerful on slow weapons then fast ones. What they do is simply add the number to your attacks. So, 8% isn't really 8%...it's +.08 to your att/rd. At 1 at/rd, you go to 1.08. 1.2, a crossbow, goes to 1.28...which is about 7%.
Still, it's a straight 7% increase in damage, which is extremely powerful. That's the equal of getting another +140 Dex out of nowhere.
base crit of 22.5 has major power with the penetrating power of my shots, and when I let loose with Rapid Fire. Sure, Sharpshooter juices crit odds, but that only works if you don't fire. When you are letting out multiple shots, every crit resets back to core. Still, I figure at least 1/3 of my shots are crits. If I was using a hand crossbow, it would be closer to 40%. It's not unusual for me to see a triple crit penetrating shot, and double crits are quite common.
I was going to try Impale/Greivous wounds and see how big a crit I could get with it, but I got annoying with missing with it, and went back to Rapid Fire. I think next group game I play I'll try the rockets instead of web shots...
I can now solo reliably through Azmodan. Now, to get past Ikazu. I can probably do it, and since he's at the beginning of Hell, just switch my config after him. It might just be time to take on Diablo!
I actually haven't done a Diablo kill on Inferno outside a group, and haven't done a group since the one time I kept on dying, way back when. I've now got damage where it should be, I just have to decide on the config.
======
Aranna, thanks for bringing Goldskin to my attention. I've definitely gotten my gold back out of it. You know you can actually track how much gold you've picked up? There's an acheivement for it. Last time I looked, I'd picked up 17mil. The next acheivement is 100 million...
If you are gold hunting, the best place is the desolate sands up through zoltan kule's archives. (actually, go right up to belial, and don't bother with Belial if you don't want to). The rares and items that drop are worth more money, and the gold drops are bigger. There's usually five rares on the landscape and 5-7 of them inside the Assassin's Lair. Just log off inside the lair after clearing the map and go through it again. Just doing the Sands to Belial is an easy 500k+ for me. Just start zoltun kule's archives, and instead of doing the archives, use the disk to go to the start of the desolate sands instead. Head up the stairs and start clearing the map.
Inventory space on the auction house isn't a reason for those prices. Expired auctions shouldn't be showing on the auctions, should they? Maybe someone is just bragging...or maybe there are people out there with 100 mil saved up. It's entirely possible if they are devoted gold farmers. Someone has to be buying those 17 mil gemstones...
Your goal for 'easy' Act II, and 'careful but successful' Act III seems to be the 35-40k mark on DPS. It's a big number to shoot for, especially since you have to keep your defenses intact, and most of it comes down to getting the right weapons. You also need that prime stat to be sitting on 2000, which is a pain to work up to and keep your Resists intact. I did notice that on my monk, wielding two weapons does only marginally more damage then one weapon + Shield with dex/vit buffs...what it gets is a bigger heal on hit/life on damage number.
Hmm, I haven't tried Whimseyville on Inferno level and keep forgetting to try it. Of course, I'd also have to make the inferno level Staff of Herding...
My damage is (1013 x 20.03 +(1013 x 20.03 x .225 x2.28)) x1.42, which seems to be about 43.5k. That's before the damage mods from Hungering Arrow, which works out to about 200% with Penetration, and of course Rapid Fire is 264%, so figure 100k/second when pumping that out.
:) Yay, Demon hunter, on the job!
==Aelryinth
Oh, and most amusing. I'm so used to the Templar standing in poison clouds and desecrations and getting killed that I always take care to keep away from them.
Well, it turns out he's invulnerable to molten elites blowing up. Can stand right there and tank them and they don't do squat to him.
Who knew?
==Aelryinth
wEE. Got a 1100 dmg xbow with +314 dex mod. Adds 14k to my crits, but has no healing function or vit mod, so I die easier.
But yes, it does take down certain things very quickly, indeed!
Took me two tries to solo Yakazu. Basically, he's a creampuff to Cinder Trail. Holy Gods are those a lot of shadow demons helping them...wasn't even trying and set a personal record of 132 kills. I can only imagine what an Archon with that constant beam going could do.
==Aelryinth
Got tired of running the Desolate Sands over and over and over again to try and make money to buy better gear for my monk, so I started a brand new wizard.
Not wanting to gear her up on her own, I decided to get a couple of achievements while farming for suitable gear for her by running my 60(5) monk through Normal as quick as I could.
Equipped him with as much magic find/gold find gear as I could, switched two of his passive skills to the run faster one and the 10 minute mantra one. Switched his mantra to Conviction with the rune that does damage equal to 1/10 weapon damage each second to anything affected by the mantra.
Blitzed through Act I in less than 50 minutes, got some achievements, and some nice yellows for my wizard to grow into. Also earned a cool 75,000 off of gold pickups and selling the yellows I didn't keep for my wizard.
Ran through Acts II and III in the same fashion - what a magnificent way to gear out lower leveled characters! I'm curious to see if all the monsters will instantly explode on Nightmare, though I suspect they'll take a second or two of exposure to my mantra before dying.
What's the best build for a witch doctor?
Skill wise?
Everyone uses the rune that reduces melee damage. Most wind up gettng the health to mana, to magnify how much they can cast.
THen you have to decide if you're going to go ghost and nuke, or handle zombies.
The dogs and gargantua occupy the attention of enemies very, very well. For default you poison dart...everyone uses the 3x60% one, it combines the best parts of precision and penetration, since it wastes little damage if you kill something...the remaining shots go right on thru.
I use the grasping hands to slow down and damage enemies, they can kill stuff easily by themselves. Send in the dogs and snipe from outside. The gargantua can take on elites, I don't think I had all the dogs get killed until Act 4.
For pure damage, the Acid Cloud dumping vomit on the bad guys is an awesome ranged attack, probably the best in the game (the Witch Docter's 3x 'free ability is also the best spam attack). Send in the dogs, dump Acid all over the place, snipe a couple times until you get mana back, lock the toughest one in place.
Granted, I had gems in my gear from Hell level, but the witch docter was by far the easiest class I had to level up. I rarely got meleed, the dogs and gargant took care of that.
Ghost and nuke uses acid cloud, but you use the SPirit Walk ability to get close to stuff, drain their brains for a massive Int boost, and then nuke them with enhanced magic, or just acid cloud them. Most who do that still use the dogs to keep aggro away. I haven't tried playing that way, but I see it in multiplayer. A Witchdocter doing this can get some absolutely insane damage numbers since the boost stacks. I believe a Witch Docter buffed up from this technique did a one-shot kill on Inferno Butcher...yeah, THAT insane. That's a million damage in one shot.
--
I actually have a whole suite of equipment I cycled between all five characters as I levelled them. I found basically max damage weapons by level, and cycled them through each character and the three companions as I levelled. RIngs, armor, shields, weapons...the works. Of course, I first had to find out wizards could use bows and greatswords and maces to really make it work...but that was my problem. These naturally got better as my higher level characters got better gems and passed them down to noobs. An inferno level jewel in a L15 Weapon about triples its damage.
My first character, if you've read this whole thread, was my wizard, basically getting the gear that all my others used to follow her. That naturally made her the hardest one to play, as she never had gear appropriate to her level.
I still have all that stuff on the second set of characters I might take to 60 someday. Of course, this time, when they hit Hell, they'll be using level req-10 stuff, and just sail on through it. I still can't believe how easy it was to take my Witch Docter through with a 668 damage bow.
When I did my speed runs, I used the DH, should probably have used the monk. The monk Wind Ally does AoE damage too. I just had a lot of fun with the Bat making elites explode before I even got to them. You did it in 50 minutes? Rotter. Took me about 100...had to search too long for some dungeons.
One of my big problems is that I have five characters to allocate gear to. This means if I get an awesome peice of gear for another class, I, um, don't have a lot of incentive to sell it. Heh.
--------------
My DH is just shy of 32. I soloed Diablo last night. Took about 8 tries...kept making dumb mistakes, and hitting Esc when I meant to hit 1, and so forth. But I killed him as soon as I got past the shadow realm, being patient and whittling him down, and still had my five stacks and didn't swap out for a sentry.
Bah, he gave me crap.
However, two things did happen. I ran into the Sin Anvil for the first time ever (!!!!!) in Act 3. And the cleric in Tristram throws out this foreshadowing I never noticed.
"Weep, Tristram, weep! Justice must be broken that Wisdom may be reborn!"
I gained exactly one level playing the game all the way through. And that's with a +25% xp gem sitting in my hat. Ouch. Those guys who were 35 last week must do nothing but hunt elites over and over.
I keep forgetting to check, do we actually still get quest xp and xp for killing the main bosses?
Elites in Act 3 are definitely worth a lot more then Act 2. I'm probably going to have to move my farming to Act 3 just to keep a semi-decent speed of levelling, and the gold is okay even without a Goldskin (farming Act 2 for gold is just a lot faster).
Of course, when I'm fully ticked out for damage with Steady Aim and my new xbow, I'm hittng 140k (base 52k or so). That means my routine spam attack is stronger then my Rapid fire used to be, and I can crit for over 100k with my spam attack.
Killing stuff really fast solves a lot of defensive problems. heh. But, Reflect Damage is well and truly lethal with out Life/Heal on hit effect. Bummers!
The price of the highest level of book for emeralds, Radiant star, used to be 1.3 million. It went from there to 3 million, to 5.7 on Saturday, and jumped to 6.1 million on Sunday.
Just as I finally got over 5 mil cash in the bank. SOmeone must realize that people are finally maturing their charactes and have gold to spend. The Rotters.
Of course, I don't have a socketable uber xbow (Manticore, where are you?), but I can dream, can't I?
==+Aelryinth
BTW, Dal, if you want to really start accumulating better loot, do group play in Act 3. You'll die a lot, but you'll have a lot better shot at killing elites, and you get 3x as much level 63 stuff in Act 3 then Act 2. 2 is for easy gold farming. Acts 3 and 4 are for gear.
==Aelryinth
Yeah, I haven't gotten past Act II in Inferno yet. My buddies who I had been playing with two weeks ago have been consumed with the new WoW expansion, and I'm pretty sure I can't solo Belial presently. Really not interested in joining a public game either.
I think once the novelty of the Fog of the Ninja Pandas or whatever it is wears off, I'll have my crew back and I'll start advancing again I think.
In the meantime, there is just something extremely satisfying running through normal with a damaging aura. It's like, my dude is so overwhelmingly powerful and holy that hellspawn can't even approach him without literally exploding.
I've never actually looked at the monk's Ally ability. I'll have to check out the Wind Ally and see if that's enjoyable.
Never used the Ally? Wow. I used it as soon as it opened.
wind ally is wonderful. Destroys all those barrels for you, does AoE damage to get rid of splives, AND does another 25% or so damage for you while drawing some aggro.
I got past Belial the first time by just joining a group game long enough for them to kill it for me (I naturally died). Still flags you, you don't have to solo him. Soloing is just an accomplishment!
=+Aelryinth
Got the Frostburn Gauntlets last night. +5% cold damage,a nd +17% to cold skills.
I was like, mmm. That's like +300-+400 Int to a specific set of skills. And then pickup radius+7, and 500ish Armor.
They're up for sale. I don't know anyone using exclusively cold attacks, they might be workable for those people...
==Aelryinth
Wow - that would make a wizard's frost beam hit like a champ.
Sure, but statistically it's no different then a +170 or so Int bonus, which would apply to all attacks, not just cold ones.
My wizard prefers Disintegration, so I sold them off...and they actually sold, unlike the dozens of overpriced ones on the Auction House that keep getting put up there for too much money.
Statistically, you'd be better off with a Good Int Mod and a +8% to attack speed, and a shot at other kickers.
==Aelryinth
I think they auction stuff to clear inventory space. They make the price ridiculous to prevent the item from selling. When it doesn't sell it doesn't go back to your inventory, the auction house holds it for you to pick up at your convenience.
Well, I just beat Diablo on Inferno with my Wizard. Solo'd the entire Inferno act, up to the big, bad Prime Evil himself. Diablo was pretty tough, but honestly, I had more trouble with other bosses in the game than him. In my order of toughest to easiest fights for Acts 2-4.
1)Ghom
2)Rakanoth
3)Cydaea
4)Belial
5)Diablo
6)Azmodan
7)Zultan Khul
8)Siegebreaker Assault Beast
Feel like I accomplished something big. Now to get my DH to the end (he can't get past Rakanoth) and to try out the Witch Doctor (which I've played a grand total of 30 minutes, to the 300+ hours of the other characters). I love the fact that there's still stuff to do in the game after that amount of playing time.
This game has one of the highest replay values I've had in my possession in a long time.
Can you post your whole build and gear Rakshaka?
It might help me figure out why my wizard can't get very far in inferno.
Well, I just beat Diablo on Inferno with my Wizard. Solo'd the entire Inferno act, up to the big, bad Prime Evil himself. Diablo was pretty tough, but honestly, I had more trouble with other bosses in the game than him. In my order of toughest to easiest fights for Acts 2-4.
1)Ghom
2)Rakanoth
3)Cydaea
4)Belial
5)Diablo
6)Azmodan
7)Zultan Khul
8)Siegebreaker Assault BeastFeel like I accomplished something big. Now to get my DH to the end (he can't get past Rakanoth) and to try out the Witch Doctor (which I've played a grand total of 30 minutes, to the 300+ hours of the other characters). I love the fact that there's still stuff to do in the game after that amount of playing time.
This game has one of the highest replay values I've had in my possession in a long time.
I gather Izual wasn't that difficult?
How well did you handle Ikatzu at the beginning of Hell? It took me two tries. I tried the poison grenades tanking, but that didn't work so well, so I devolved back to cinder trails and keeping out of his way mostly. Gods, when I jumped past him, the entire screen was a blanket of black shadow demons...good thing he died!
Rakanoth took me two tries. I tried the Rapid Fire him down scenario first...that didn't work. I went back to Cinder Trailing him, and lo and behold, it snuffed him before he could start doing teleport charges and snuffing me.
Izual I took out the first time. Standard tactics...shoot him, try not to get frozen, cinder trail him when he's chasing you, wipe the angels and demons that come to reinforce him, and then just wear him down.
In terms of pure frustration level, Belial on INferno was by far the worst boss I've had to fight, right up there with my DH on first play through normal, when I had crap gear and didn't know tactics and didn't have any healing to speak of. I blew over 100k on repair bills trying to take out Belial. I changed my setup a dozen times seeking to find the magic way.
Well, it turns out the magic way is to triple your damage output. Things get a whole lot easier at that point. I can now kill Belial fairly reliably, his serpent soldiers and initial spawn are largely a cakewalk, I just have to stay calm and avoid the poison geysers. Cinder trailing him and long runs of rapid fire at 50k DPS base take his health down very quickly...he hasn't gotten off a second poison geyser since I got my DPS with crit up to 90k, and before, he was getting off 3!
Ghom was pretty much the same thing. I initially tried the tanking thing, but I didn't have the health regen to make it work, and you really need a healing hand crossbow, which I also didn't have.
I devolved back to high damage. The first time I killed him, it was a matter of slow retreats, staying close to existing poison clouds so I didn't blanket the whole map with them, and grinding him down with hit and runs.
The second time I killed him I was coming off the dungeons, and I just multiple cinder trailed him, ran around til discipline regenned, and did it again. He died in under a minute. I can pretty reliably kill him now. When they nerf cinder trail...that'll be a change.
Zoltan Khul was a pain in the ass initially. Again, the problem was my damage output was way too low, half what it is now. When your enemy has mutliple chances to do his kill moves, that stinks. He also has some sort of timer where if you don't kill him fast enough, he just pops up on top of you and kills you.
Now, I can kill his golems by having them walk over my cinder trail once, and I can wipe him in under a minute. I can't tank him, but I don't need to...he dies fast enough. It's more challenging killing an elite spewing mortar fire, walls, and fast movement now.
In terms of how difficult they were 'at the time I did them', I'd rank them as:
1) Belial
2) Zoltan Kule
3) Ghom
4) Cydaea
5) Diablo (because of the Shadow Realm)
6) Ikatsu
7) Rakanoth
8) Azmodan (I've never died soloing Azmodan)
9) Izual (only soloed once, didn't die)
10) Siegebreaker (solo him all the time on the way down to Azmodan and Cydaea)
None of them are significantly dangerous now except if I flub up my discipline, hit wrong keys, go on the wrong area, etc.
This will change when they nerf Cinder Trail, as the amount of damage that it does goes from 1500% to 300%. Ikatsu is noteworthy because I MUST use a different combination of skills to survive the horde of shadow demons until he gets into range for a Cinder Trail assault. All of the others I can make do with my standard load out and don't have to sac Valor Stacks. It's a good thing Ikatzu is at the beginning of Act 4!
Diablo's Shadow Realm is noteworthy because it has no extra healing, and so is extremely punishing if you don't have recovery options. Your double hitting you with impales can also kill you very quickly if you don't take it out. It's generally the Shadow Realm that kills me, not DIablo himself.
My challenge now is going to be taking all my characters solo through INferno! (And without swapping gear). My monk is in Act 2, the others are all still in Act 1...but they look much more impressive after all the loot my DH has been handing over to them.
======
Last night ran with a DH using the sniper format, i.e. a Glass Cannon, running Archery/Sharpshooter/Steady Aim.
He did okay damage, but if anything got on him, he died almost instantly. Still, he said his DPS with Sharpshooter was hitting 190k, and his crossbow was a 1300+ DPS with socket, +90% gem in it, and if his three caltrops crit, they were doing a cumulative million damage blowing off.
It was funny seeing how much he died, however. I just can't take that level of vulnerability, even for the virtual double damage. I feel shatter-prone just getting to the 140k limit I can touch.
He also had +334 magic find, and routinely gets 1-4 legendaries a run through Act 3. He's picked up TWO manticores!
Argh.
==+Aelryinth
Can you post your whole build and gear Rakshaka?
It might help me figure out why my wizard can't get very far in inferno.
Aranna, why don't you post yours?
I'm betting a lot of it is just goign to come down to DPS. It's amazing how much easier things are once you double and triple your damage output. :P
===Aelryinth
I started posting all my gear and stats, then realized it would take forever to copy all of that back and forth from the Diablo screen. Far easier to do this: Go onto the Diablo 3 homepage and look up my Wizard.
I'm Danowan#1539 on the North American server.
I've never had problems with Izual except the first few times I faced him on Hell. For both my DH and Wizard, he's been relatively easy since then. Against Iskatu, I generally used the same strategy you used against him when I faced him on Hell, but he just does too much damage on Inferno for me to survive, or I run out of discipline, get swarmed by his minions, and die. What did finally get him was a combination of traps and cinder trails. The fight took forever, and its not one I'm sure I could do again. Still Rakanoth is the new barrier for my DH. Can't surivive the teleport attack and can't stay close enough to him to deal with his damage output. I don't think my damage output is high enough to flash-fry him like you did, which is a little frustrating because I can't think of another way to get past him and up until now, thought I had a pretty good DPS (about 70K with all the right gear and Sharpshooter).
Who are you using as your follower when you fight him?
Will look at your character.
==Aelryinth
Well, wasn't that a humbling experience I had today, LOL.
Did a Act 3 group run, and for the last part of it a guy named MrChu popped in.
I didn't even look at him til we were halfway through the Tower.
MrChu was level 71.
71!! Lol. I'm like 32. I'm a fairly casual player, but most people I hit in group games are still lower level then I am.
I looked at his profile when we were done. he didn't bother usinig special attacks on Azmodan, he just killed him with normal damage.
His DPS was 302k. LOL.
Dex was 2815. He was using a maxed out Windforce with 1200 base DPS, +13% damage Hungering arrows.
And he had a full set of Inna's Armor (that's the highest level unique monk armor that boosts Dex/vit) with, Get this, Radiant Star Emeralds in every slot. Just FYI, those things cost 17 million gold to MAKE. He had one in his bow, too.
That's 13 Radiant Star Emeralds (3 for each of the 4 set peices).
And a pair of Gaunts with Dex, Vit, Crit Chance, Crit Damage, and Attack Speed.
he died fairly easy because he was using the full damage load out, and had no resist all to speak of.
But everything he hit just kind of exploded. I had never imagined Azmodan could die so fast. LOL. If it didn't kill him fast, it didn't have time to do it again.
I don't think even by level 71 you could find a set of the armor, or gathered up the gold to make those gems (that's 300 million gold, FYI). So he had to have paid cash money for his gear.
Yes, he showed what it meant to be uber. LOL.
And he's not even the highest level character playing the game. I shudder to think how much game play it would take to reach level 71 since paragon came out. he must be at it freaking all day, every day.
==Aelryinth
Oh, and I played through Act 3, and didn't gain a level. 54 mil for this level. :P
Level 71. Eesh!
==Aelryinth
Rakshasa, I'm not sure how to look at your profile without you approving a friend request. I don't see anything on the home site allowing it. Is there a specific page to go to?
Got a 200 dex +65 Crit damage amulet today. Added 20k to my crit. At full load out going for bear glass cannon style, I can now hit 168k.
I've got a magic find set up now, too, which gives me +244 magic find with 5 valor stacks. I think it's having an effect...I'm not getting higher level stuff, but the lower level stuff I'm getting seems to have higher bonuses.
If you're going to hunt loot for money, I'm going to have to recommend magic find over pure gold find. Every blue that upgrades to a yellow is like adding +1000 gp. I had goldskin, and even changing my config partway through, I ended up clearing 1.3 mil with the enhanced magic find set up.
===========
There is a dungeon on the Howling Plateau called the Legendary Vault or somesuch...a timed dungeon where you are racing to the end.
Well. Ahem. I made it to the end...there's one resplen chest there and one normal chest.
In the DUNGEON...there's at least three sets of elites and a goblin.
If you want loot...clear the dungeon and don't die after the timer goes down, or you can't get back in. You CAN town portal out and return...but if you die, you're done.
If you want the three acheivements for running through the place, go for it. Let me tell you...WOW. There's a skill that gives you +30% move for using vault or smokescreen, and there's a Vault that gives you +60% run after a vault.
I Vaulted, and I was moving so fast it was hard to control! Nothing could get even close to keeping up with me. I got to the end of the dungeon in under 90 seconds, despite the wallers trying to contain me, got all three acheivements...and then was quite annoyed at ONE chest being there.
In a group game, one person could go thru at a time, leave someone behind, and recall back to them to 'lock' the dungeon open, and it could be cleared with a little coordination. But if you go into the Vault, you can only go outside...not back into the dungeon itself it clean it out.
I was more then a bit miffed.
Oh, and I don't know if you've all read the dev notes, but Resplendent Chests, and chests in general, do not respond to gold and magic find. That's supposedly getting fixed in the next patch.
And OMG, they are setting up sentry turrets now with over 100% base damage! And you can potentially get three of them out??? Demon Hunters are going to be the absolute kings of damage infliction, even if the things can't crit!
Anyone playing on the test server? The uber people are already making their Hellfire rings multiple times, and then crying about how it was doing five million damage and now it's getting nerfed.
===Aelryinth
Ah thought I had approved you (You show up on mine as a friend). Weird. At any rate, I got my Monk past Ghom (what a chore that was) on Inferno, but am finding that most of the enemies in Act 3 I only only handle in groups of four or less, making the progress in this act extremely slow.
I've given up on Rakanoth with the DH for the time being; I simply don't have the gear to do it. I'm honestly waiting for 1.05, because I know from the changes they have made to enemy damage,that the fight is a lot easier. I tried both my Wizard and DH on Act 4 on the PTR, and was pleased that I only died a few times throughout the act versus the several dozen that is the norm.
On 1.05: I am very pleased with this patch, and wish it would come out already. The issues of overwhelming damage output from enemies is no longer as present as it was, making it so that you don't have to employ crazy gear-driven strategies (like Critical Mass for Wizards or the Life on Hit for the "Immortal Demon Hunter" build). This I felt was driving people from the game; who wants to spend an hour grinding through Inferno only to make it through part of one level?
I'm not sure about the Wizard, but 'Immortal DH' isn't neccessary...once you get your damage high enough. You basically have to hit 100k on crit (i.e. max sharpshooter) and you'll do fine, because DH's crit so much.
I completed Inferno with the same basic loadout...when you can wipe normal stuff in a second on rapid fire, or with a crit or two, and can take down bosses twice as fast as before, it's not so bad.
You may have approved it yesterday, I'll go take a look again.
I'm slightly concerned about Cinder Trail...that's far and away my boss killer with the amount of damage it does. They are taking the damage down to 1/5th what it is now. :o
------------------
I got 3 legendaries last night in group play. 3!
And they all sucked.
I got Sever, which is the demon slayer sword. It has no stat bonus. Does 1025 if used against demons, 884 otherwise. Wahoo.
I got the level 60 Hand Crossbow, balefire something or other. 780 base damage. WTF. Unique appearence, sure, but it sucks.
And I got ANOTHER Echoing Soulfire or whatever, the unique mace. I already have one with a base damage over 1000...this one was 880ish, but had a +224 Dex mod instead of the Int mod of the first one. Owing to its high attack speed, I may give it to my monk to use, because of the high Dex mod and the heal on hit.
But I was not happy. I still haven't gotten any set peices. I've got pretty good gear...upgrading it is going to be a struggle, especially a 'use at all times set' (I miss not having 7 yard gold pickup!) The run last night was with my magic find set up. I made most of the level (I'm 34) and would have levelled with my ruby in there instead of the topaz.
My high damage crossbow is nice, but often a liability. Against Reflect Damage, it just gets me killed faster. It has no Vit mod, so my Health is lower and I die easier. Sure, it does 20% more damage base...but I die twice as often as my old reliable with 725 Heal on Hit and +120 Vit.
Meh!
Such is life.
Oh, it's two days later, and MrChu is 75. LOL.
==Aelryinth
Rakshasa,
I may have been looking at your gold-hunting version, but the problem is apparant there instantly...you've only got 1000 Dex, and 27k DPS AFTER sharpshooter...which means your DPS is like 10k (turn off Sharpshooter to see what your 'real' DPS is when you aren't critting).
Oh, and you've got a much nicer suit of Goldskin then I do, but I Only put mine on when gold farming! :)
You need to get your damage up, and that means increasing your Dex.
Two primary places to do this are your weapon slots. You've got good tanking ability, but since you aren't doing enough damage to kill something fast, you're losing the damage race.
1) Having a second handcrossbow helps you heal, yes, but it doesn't help you do more damage. For DPS, the second xbow is just adding an alternate attack, and giving you +15% attack speed...the exact same as a high level quiver.
So, you need to either get a really nice weapon with a Dex mod and Heal on hit/life drain, or you need to get a really ncie quiver with Dex, Vitality, +15% attack speed, and a couple kicker effects. I think I have one I can give you with a crit chance kicker.
2) You need to have Archery trained at all times. That gives you a base 13% chance to crit...3 seconds ahead of everyone else with Sharpshooter. Basically, you will crit every 4-5 seconds on average. If you want increased speed, buy some boots with +12%, Dex, Vit, Res All, don't use Hot Pursuit...it only works when Hate is full, and you should be using, losing, using Hate all the time.
3) You need to get some stuff that increases your crit chance and crit damage, and/or attack speed. The best helm for that is Andariel's. Mostly it is rings, amulets, and gaunts, + a quiver if you use it. Your goal is to get a Crit chance of 30% or so, and Crit damage of +150% and higher. This basically means you're going to crit every 1-2 seconds for a LOT of damage.
4) Given your rate of fire, FIRE AT WILL on multishot probably would work better for you then Suppression fire, because the cost is cheaper.
5) Greivous Wounds works best when you've a big crit modifier. You don't. I would stick with Rapid Fire - Web Shot. This slows down incoming creatures, and/or makes them stay on top of your Cinder Trail. Simply lay a Cinder Trail down, and when they get on top of it, Web them for five seconds and watch them burn down. Note that you can 'spray' web shot and slow down multiple creatures.
6) As far as I can tell, Spray of teeth does not re-penetrate after the first time (if it did, it could get effectively infinite loops), and all 3 shots don't spin back on the source creature if it's the only one in range. that means you're wasting damage potential. Either use the first shot that penetrates 50% of the time and will happily loop back multiple times on a single target, or use the Cinder Arrow that inflicts 35% burn, but penetrates less. I use the former, because additional penetrations is additional triggers for my heal on hit.
7) You shouldn't need caltrops unless you're trying to tank, and that's not a tank build. Also, caltrops slow you down and cost discipline...discipline you need for your Vaults and your Cinder Trails. Too, you have NO method of fast healing if you truly get down on hit points. You need to have either SHadow Power, the one with the 65% damage suppression, or Preparation, the one with the 60% heal, ready to save your ass before you run away. Shadow Power is gettng a nice buff this coming patch, and can be used multiple times, but it does force you to keep attacking to heal. Preparation is slower, but it's the biggest one shot heal in the game, and you can do it while running away, AND it restores all your discipline, to boot. I tend to die because I'm out of discipline, not out of hatred.
So, here's my recommendations:
I realize that's a loot hunting build you have there. For your 'true' build, you're going to have to drop most loot hunting stuff unless you get lucky. In other words, you want a real bp, not a Goldskin. You should only wear a Goldskin when farming gold.
Hand crossbows suck down Hatred. You should be using the Templar, and have him set up so he's giving you more Hatred/second. This means you can get off an additional Impale or Multishot before you're out of Hatred, and get it all back faster.
Dump multishot or evasive fire. The latter can do a multishot function if it must, but you've already got Vault...why do you have 4 different offensive options? Concentrate on your main 2, and a 3rd for special circumstances (cinder trail). Multishot is stretching your concentration.
In that slot, put Shadow Power or Preparation (blooded).
Drop Caltrops. In that slot, put Animal Companion (Bat). This gives you a huge boost to Hatred Regen, and you'll find you'll be able to keep up your shooting remarkably longer. Also, Animal Companions do damage...only 43% right now, but something is better then nothing! Just be careful around treasure goblins for now, but that's getting fixed with the patch, too.
Impale/grievous wounds looks impressive, but it really isn't. It rocks if you have a high crit chance..you don't. You realize you're only getting the extra effect probably once a batch of hatred? (out of 4 shots?). Plus, it misses, and you're getting 4 shots before you're out of hatred...2 seconds of higher damage.
Rapid Fire 'hoses' stuff, and is easier to aim, and the secondary effect can rock. I use Webbing because it slows stuff down and dovetails with Cinder Trail. If you want pure damage, use the one with Rockets. Even with hand crossbows, you should be able to get 10 seconds of Rapid Fire out, and the damage is the same as Impale! If your Hatred Regen is higher, this could be stretched to 15, even 20 seconds.
Multishot/Fire at Will is less damage, but MUCH cheaper Hatred wise, and your rate of fire and Hatred Regen will make up for it. Consider seriously changing it.
Gear: You need Crit chance, Crit modifier, Dex, Vit, Res All gear. Anything else is a nice extra. You should not accept anything with less then 100 Dex, and 150, then 200 is your target.
For the socket on your helm, I recommend a magic find topaz when loot hunting, or an xp ruby when not. Dex, Vit, Crit chance, Res All on helm.
Finding a good Quiver is easier then finding a good weapon, and it will only raise your DPS. Seriously. You want Dex over 200, Vit over 100, and crit chance, ideally. If it helps Hatred Regen or +9 Discipline or something, great...but that's extra. You should be able to get one for a million.
You should be able to easily find a Ring to replace the Bul Kathos band. Dex 100+, Crit chance, Crit damage. Get your crit damage up! Crits are what drives our DPS!
You need a 1000+ DPS weapon. Period. Just getting to 1000 DPS will be a 20% damage increase. Finding one with 200 dex, 100 Vit, and one of the healer effects might be a little harder, but in the end it doesn't matter if you have a bow, hand crossbow, or crossbow...damage all adds up. I should note that Crossbows eat hatred more slowly and with archery, have massive crits. Bows have higher average damage, with Archery...Hand crossbows crit the most, and will 'heal' you the fastest with highest rate of fire.
Find boots with +12 move that have the other stuff you want, lose Hot Pursuit.
Have Archery and Sharpshooter trained at all times. I like to use Brooding to make sure I'm always close to full hit points...regening 600+/second with the Templar is very useful, and cuts down on my reliance on heal effects and skills. If you want to rely on your weapon, then Steady Aim gives a flat 20% damage boost if no enemies are close to you. 20% is a big boost. Pure Damage builds for DH's always use the trifecta of Archery, Sharpshooter, and Steady Aim.
I should also like to note that if you use Webbing Shot/Rapid Fire, there is a skill that gives a flat 15% damage to slowed enemies, and Webbing shot slows them down...even at point blank range.
Use Cinder Trail offensively. It is your single biggest attack at this time. make trails in front of foes for them to walk over and die. Run away from enemies, turn and web shot them so they keep burning on your trail. Retreat along walls or through narrow openings where they have to move over the cinder trail, and they die.
Oh, and don't 'stack' cinder trails. they don't do additional damage right now if you do that, they just extend the time. Wait until the first one is almost gone before putting another one up...saves Discipline!
=======
Summary:
You're trying to do an Immortal DH self healer, and you shouldn't be.
you need to quadruple your damage output. The way to do that is Dex, Crit Mod/damage, Crit Chance, and Attack Speed, and a better weapon. The first two are the easiest to find, Crit mod especially will dovetail with Sharpshooter and start accelerating your damage magnificently.
Your goal is a Sharpshooter maxed damage of 100k and higher. Rakanoth will not be a problem then, because you'll be killing him 4x faster. it also means your 'normal' damage will be higher then your crit damage is now!
Any questions?
==Aelryinth
I dunno if anyone else noticed, but the price for the books at Radiant Star Emerald took a hike from 2 mil to 4-5 million gold recently.
heh, and I still need the Perfect levels for two colors...
The main problem with the Radiants is that you need 5 perfects...three to make the radiant, and 2 to keep the slots you were using the Perfects for!
It's also really weird how the Radiant Gems are getting priced...less then the cost of three Stars, in some instances. Particularly the emeralds. Not sure what is going on...perhaps people are giving up their emeralds? or are the robo gold farmers agglomerating so much money they are just driving the prices down below net cost?
==Aelryinth
Rakshasa learned something from me!
To wit: If you are going to change your skills, passive or active, TOWN PORTAL.
There is no change timer if you are in town. IF you are in the field, you have to wait for the bloody cool down...that is there to prevent you from changing skills in the middle of a boss fight.
So, Town Portal, change your skills, go back. It's much faster then waiting for a timer.
Figured that out on my own, too. I probably should read a player's guide to Diablo3 someday, but for now, I just find it more interesting to learn the stuff myself.
The main exception was the Staff of Herding. I had no clue how to make that, and broke down and did a Google Search to find out how.
I still haven't done Inferno level whimseyville. I think I'll do that tonight. I've heard it's about as dangerous as Act 3, we'll have to see.
----
Ah, ha. Frustration finally showed me why the power gamers like to pop in at Act 3, part 2, and skip part 1 adn Ghom.
To wit, Dungeons are a pain in the ass. Most of them avoid the icefalls and the barracks, despite 5 elites being in there. Why? Because it's faster and easier to fight stuff outside. The time spent going through the dungeon is better spent outside racing through to the end, killing things, and then running through a second time.
You realize this when you are 90% of the way through a dungeon, die, and the 'shift' in save spot cancels out your old save at the start of the dungeon, but hasn't locked into the new one, yet, and you have to run all the damn way back to the start of the dungeon and THEN run to the end of the dungeon to pick up where you left off.
Damn, I hope they fix that bug.
==Aelryinth
Well, I did Inferno Whimseyville. Not sure if it was worth the million gp, but it gives me something else to hit when going through Act 1 on gold runs.
Whimseyville is, however, as tough as Act 3-4. The ponies were kicking my ass, especially the ones with mortar and reflect damage!
I actually got the Whimseyville zLegendary drop...Spectrum, the rainbow sword! 32.9 damage...with a socket. A nice weapon for your starter noobs. Now, if only you could upgrade it...
helped a barbarian guy out with gear today. I think I dumped like 20 items on him for his barb and his DH...he was amazed I would do that without charging him anything. And then I actually stood there and gave him advice on what to do and what not to do.
Gave me a good feeling just to give away stuff and not AH it and get some minor gold. I even gave away my Sever...not like it's ever going to sell.
I'm looking forwards to Monster Power. By ticking it up to 1, all monsters drop loot in all Acts like they were act 3-4. So you'll be getting great loot through the entire game, instead of just the later Acts. I'll probably experiment with the Powers and what I can handle for combination of time, xp, and gold.
level 38, and moving slowly forwards! heh.
==Aelryinth
Yeah, in a way, I'm waiting for the patch too to before I start grinding again. I almost got Rakanoth down (within 1/10 of his life) but he got me, and every attempt since got worse. I KNOW I can beat him on 1.05 from messing around with the PTR, so I'll wait til then...
I can't believe there's a Legendary drop for Whimsyshire...:p
Look up the sword Spectrum. The things LOOKS real cool...I wish there was a more powerful version of it.
==Aelryinth
I am SO angry with the auction house these days.
It seems there is a bug that lets a bid placed at a specific moment when the auction has less than a minute left will automatically lock that bid in as the winner even if there are still people trying to bid on the item and there are still many seconds left to the auction.
So, how is everyone doing experimenting with Monster Power?
I'm testing out MP4. It does make things a lot tougher, especially in close quarters. However, I'm dropping two sentries and using a much tougher boar for more Resistance and healing, and my damage output has, if not keeeping pace with hit points, at least is at a respectable level.
Going to use Numbing Traps with the damage reduction sentry and see how that works for my tanking. two of them on top of one another should work out to a 60% or so damage reduction!
I also got my first set peice yesterday, fists of somebody or other, a monk. I'll shuffle 'em over to my monk to free up room. I killed mp4 Leoric on the second try, had to be tactical but still got through him.
Cinder Trail has been nerfed into almost useless ness. I figure I may as well use Shadow Stalking to lose a tail, or the cheaper Vault. I'll have to see.
It'll be interesting to see what is possible with four different pets out. Contemplating 3 sentries with the passive skill, even though fights where you drop three are probably going to be rare.
I also wonder what it would be like to have 3 sentries hooked to you with the Line of Fire and actually be able to use the damage against an enemy!
Note: Sentries can't crit anymore, so base damage is more important then crits.
I'll be testing out Wolf or Spider today, and see what it is.
Oh, one VERY annoying thing. on MP4, without a Bat to give me extra Hatred, I can't sustain a burst on a treasure goblin long enough to kill it. I killed exactly 0/5 yesterday. The nerfing to Cinder Trail meant I had no finisher strong enough to do the job.
It's nice that my pets no longer go after it before I can see it, but if I can't kill them, I may have to step down to MP3.
==Aelryinth
I wasn't even aware the patch had come out already - haven't logged in in a while as my interest in D3 tends to move in peaks and valleys. I might take a look again in a couple weeks, but I was just getting bored with running the same things over and over and over for what ultimately amounted to very little reward gear-wise.
The new patch has made this game extremely fun to play again. 30 minutes of playtime and I beat Rakanoth with my DH and got a Legendary Axe (I've grinded multiple sessions and gotten no Legendary drops). Now if I can just tear myself away from X-Com...
Hehe.
I tried the spider and the reduce dmg sentries last night.
First thing, I'm not sure if you all noticed, but Reflect Damage is either redefined or broken. I was shooting elites with Reflect Damage, and taking no damage.
However, I cindertrailed over a group of three of them...and died almost instantly. Literally, zap, pow, completed the jump, dead from full health.
At level 4, it's impossible to tank more then one elite...they do too much damage and die too fast. I have not tried any of this new stuff on skill level 0, however, but I can imagine how fast I'd be tearing through stuff.
No legends last night. sold off some old legendaries for cheap just because they were taking up room (they sold in under a half hour).
The spider was meh. The boar is much more useful overall. I was using the Cull the Weak for a 15% damage bonus to slowed creatures, and while I could tell when it was working, it wasn't worth the hassle.
Going to try the wolf tonight, see how that works. I'm going to see if I can get through the Butcher at MP 4...I can't see myself playing at this level, because it's too much effort, and killing elites takes too long. I'd need a serious damage upgrade for this to be routine (i.e a 1200 dmg high dex weapon crit burst weapon)
That said, being able to drop two sentries and focus on one elite is a death sentence for the enemy. My main problem is that without a bat, I run out of Hatred extremely quickly. It's quite annoying.
If Reflect damage continues to be broken, I'm going to have to drop Cinder Trail entirely, because using it will just kill me.
==Aelryinth
Well, its pure annoyance time.
1) You can only find keywardens in group games or playing MP4+. MP4+ is a total PITA.
a friend online pointed out to me that once you reach 25-30% crits, Sharpshooter doesn't really do anything for you in a fight except guarantee that the first 1-2 shots are crits. Thus, your only 'real' damage is your non-crit damage.
So, I dumped Sharpshooter. Wee, doesn't that tank my damage something fierce. I top out at 67k in full damage mode, but only 32k health. Staying in the 40k health range brings me down to 55k dps.
Turns out attack speed isn't nearly as strong when your base damage is that low. Had to shift my config around to up crit chance, had more effect.
Definitely need to look at my gear again. I figure I'd have to almost double my damage to be viable on MP4, and somehow keep my Resist All up at the same time. My online friend had 120k dps (that's before Sharpshooter) and 55k health...but he was dying 3x as often as I was, because he had no Resist to complement his killing power.
I managed to get two of the same legendary UA in a row yesterday. The first one was a hundred points lower then any of them on the Auction House. The second one was 150 pts LOWER YET.
I traded a Fragment of the Mystic for a Dawn, because I wanted it. So there.
I did get a nice wand yesterday, it popped up as a legend when I was tooling around with +355 magic find. All I can say is, if you want good gear with better mods, try to get your magic find buffed to the moon.
===Aelryinth
So, I've got +385 magic find going.
Boom, kill a treasure goblin on MP1. OMG, there's a crossbow there!
Scoop up everything, finish out the dungeon, head back to town.
Yes, yes, I finally got a Manticore, I...
Pus Spitter? Damage 450? WTF?
*&^)*&(*&( Sold it.
I revise my earlier statement on Sentry Auras not stacking. Standing in overlapping Aid Station sentries, it did indeed add another Regen number per second, instead of stacking on top.
And yesterday was my longest single fight, ever.
Late night, decided to try for a keywarden key, which means MP4 solo. Gotta get your 5 stacks first. So I'm working the desolate forest, and run into a spawn of 3+1 Venom Bat spawn makers.
Those bats take a LOT longer to kill on MP4. I'm sitting there with Lea, Templar, Boar, and two sentry guns, and basically just machine-gunning six bats spawning every 6 seconds while sucking down the life from the Aid Stations.
I think I killed like 254 enemies before it was all done. I only succeeded because Puncturing arrow slid through a few bats on lucky hits and got to one of the spawns, and gradually whittled it down. Once it was down to just 2 active Nests, I could make progress.
==Aelryinth
Last night had an interesting time with a nice level 60 Witch Docter.
He had finagled away to get the respawn timer on his zombie dogs down to 0. Yes, that means he could spawn zombie dogs, blow them up for huge damage, gain 24k life, respawn them again instantly. They were like missiles, seeking out the bad guys, detonating.
There was a LOT of lag. He was nice and always waited for us at the end of the dungeon to catch up to him, and we basically followd him around as he butchered everything. I went to pure magic find and gold gathering mode because I simply wsn't needed to fight anything. Swear Azmodan and Cydea died in under 15 seconds.
I got a Skycutter...have to use it just to see what 'Angelic Aid' is, but other then that the only keeper for the evening was an amulet with +110 Vitality, +22 Magic find, and +9.5% crit. The crit% was actually higher then the damage boost from my +210 Dex +16 Magic find amulet, so I swapped in (yes, Crits are that important).
Definitely the fastest I've ever gone through the Acts. When it was done, I and a mage went back through to all the side dungeons and rooms that had been skipped, so we could pretend that we were impressive. Heh. Scooped up the loot we'd left laying on the floor.
Literally, this guy could go through a dungeon almost as fast as he could run. Only elites or swarms slowed him down. Caused a lot of lag with multiple eruptions, but jeez. That was more impressive then even those WHirlwinding Cyclone Running Berserk barbarians.
==Aelryinth
another whirlwinding barbarian trying to hurry through Act 3 last night, trying to make us keep up with him.
He ended up leaving after the siege breaker. He left at least ten elites on the various maps, because he was just looking for the exits. He should have left earlier. When he did, the rest of us got together, cleared the areas he let go, finished the maps off, and then went down and killed Azmodan together.
:)
And I got yet another Fragment of Destiny. The loot gawds hate me.
==Aelryinth
another burning Axe of Skarnis. Lewt Gawds hate me.
Bought my last two gemology books..price of radiant emerald was half what it was a week ago, heh.
Soloed all the way through Azmodan on MP1, made over a million, it wasn't very hard. Nothing off the Gemwarden, however. I actually killed two packs of elite phase beasts without dying!
Nothing uber or usable for my DH. Ah, well.
==Aelryinth
Now that I've mostly played out X-Com, I've been trying to get pieces of the Key.. and having no luck at all. I've heard the thing about having to play on Monster Power 4 or higher to have it trigger.
According to the sight, every Monster Power rating gives it a 10% of having the key, but you also have to have 5 stacks of Nephelim Valor to have it trigger also. I'm not sure if this is the case, because I've played it numerous times on Monster Power 2 with the give stacks, and still haven't got it. I guess 20% is kind of low, but still..
I hadn't heard about the group game mechanic, but I'd be interested to try it at some point.