You're at a raw 1 mil? better then me. I'm about 800k with my combo. You must have a rocking weapon to get up that high.
What's your weapon, crit mod and bonus damage? Esp with a hand crossbow, that's really impressive!
on t3, I'm staying cashwise ahead of the single gem curve (i.e. I'm making money faster then I'm acquiring emeralds)
Have to start slowly on my rubies and see if I can keep it up. If so, I'll be able to tell everyone that the goal is t3+ if you want to start making real cash.
==Aelryinth
No, that's with Sharpshooter at its max. However, my crit chance without it is about 43%. I know from playing with you you're doing more damage, at least at base dmg.Sswapping an Imperial Emerald for a Royal Ruby on the X-bow is a big part of my extra dmg.
So the theory about not being able to get set pieces isn't accurate. Besides the two Danetta's X-box set, I just picked up Blackthorn's armor last night (I have two amulets for the set), so looking forward to completing that.
Mainly, I've been going after Key-Wardens; once I've beaten all four, I usually finish whatever bounty coincides with any of them that I've killed. Really want to get a new Hellfire ring; I'm curious to see how fast a new character levels up with two of them on torment...
Ah, Sharpshooter. Okay, when you want to see what your damage is, you need to untrain Sharpshooter. Sharpshooter's 'real' effect is +4% to your crit chance, and 'first big shot' power if you go a few seconds without actually shooting something.
Especially with a hand crossbow and the heavy rate of fire, you're going to be critting often and the chance resetting back to +4%. The best use of it is if you've gone ten seconds without shooting something, and want to unload something big...like the big Impale hit that adds +100% to crits. You'll get off two shots at max and then it will reset back to +4%
How is your bonus damage? The power of crits is directly dependent on your bonus damage. To my somewhat amazement, I've found it's easier to get +crit% instead of +crit damage.
I've personally found that the +25% to the 'lone enemy' skill, from level 70, is more broadly useful then Sharpshooter, although Sharpshooter definitely has its place. If you are going for all out max damage with no defenses, it's one of the trifecta.
I was personally weak and when I hit 212, I got totally fed up with the .2% chance to crit you gain every 4 levels (I had maxed out my crit damage). I reset and gave myself the full +5% to crit, and instead am once again increasing my crit damage +1% every 4 levels. It wasn't the best DoT decision (by about 50k, actually), but my base crit chance is now 58.5%. So, 83.5% against lone bosses and 'last enemies' and stuff. I figure the +435% crit damage is enough, and more frequent crits won't hurt me.
I just wish I had another skill slot and could stuff in Ambush. +40% to enemies over 75% health would be awesome for wiping out low health minion types, and big early hits on bosses.
==Aelryinth
Oh, and btw, I just picked up a piece of a DH-oriented set called The Marauder.
6 piece set.
2 pieces ability - +500 Dex.
4 piece ability...when you use companion call ability, summons your companion back to your side.
6 piece ability - Your sentries start firing your Hatred Generator skill.
Yeah. Sentries firing Hungering Arrows. Bolas. Chains. Grenades.
But 6 pieces? Ugh. How many years is that going to take to accumulate??
==Aelryinth
Silly me, I was wrong. It's 6) Sentries use your active Hatred expenditure skill.
So, Sentries Rapid Firing, Impaling, Chakraming, etc. I wonder if they can multishot or cluster bomb...
===Aelryinth
Oh, and btw, if you didn't know this little trick...
We all know taking gems out of something is expensive, right? It's a cool 375k to take an Imperial royal gem out of something, just so you can put it back into something better.
Well, let me be the first to say...if you don't NEED what you're taking it out of, then don't remove the gem.
Take the entire thing over to the smith and salvage it.
Hagrid gives you the gems back, turns the unwanted item into salvage, and it doesn't cost you a dime. Lets you upgrade from old socketed gear that is no longer important without spending cash.
Would you believe I actually got over 31 million gold today? Had to stop and invest some money into rubies. I didn't make any imperials, but the 370ish rubies I have are now 81 less, and I'm still current on emeralds.
Ran a lot of rifts today at Torment1. Lots. Like, between 20-30, maybe more. In a group with clanmates, archmagi and Ikit, mowing down the bad guys and whaling on the guardians.
Ikit got to update his DH. Belt of the Sherpa with its blinding power works awesome for someone with a hand crossbow, and then he pulled down the same helm I have that blinds people, to boot! He got a Natalya's cloak, and if he ever wants to go straight damage, a very nice quiver with both +attack speed and +crit. He has a Cirrus 9 quiver that enhances hungering arrow, and between the two of us we were filling the air with little darts of death.
Good times.
==Aelryinth
Erm, that's up OVER 31 million gold, not earned 31 million gold. And of course I promptly turned and spent it down to 17 million again. Ugh. Need more shinies. That was a week's worth of gaming, all the way up from 8 million.
t3 has been very good on the gold. The monsters seem to drop more gold and more of it. It's definitely a key point...get your gear to the point you want it so you are blowing it wholesale on crafting, and t3 will get you slightly ahead of the curve on gems.
Although I don't know if I'll ever make enough money to do amethysts and diamonds. Heh.
Took the night off from gaming. I think I got in 20 hours of diablo from Friday through Sunday. Needed a break.
==Aelryinth
I managed to craft my first flawless royal yesterday. I've got a few royals already. Good grief, these things cost a lot!
Someone posted you needed 81 marquise gems and 10 million for the highest tier of gem? Not sure. But yeah, the high tier stuff is NOT cheap.
That said, you're going to need a flawless Imperial Emerald for EVERY character you want to play, because there is literally nothing more powerful you can have on any weapon at high levels then a socket with a +130 Crit mod gem stuffed in it.
At LOW levels, there's nothing more powerful then a Flawless Imperial Ruby stuck into a socketed weapon and giving it +200 damage. Stuff just explodes around you.
as soon as the weapon damage starts exceeding what the gem grants, however, emeralds start closing the gap. Once your Crit % x crit dmg is higher then the Ruby, you swap out and use emeralds forever.
I'm finding that once I settle on some key gear and stop the rampant crafting, I accumulate gold a LOT faster, and can spend it on gems. basically now, the only upgrades I'm likely to do are on legendaries, which is basically throwing a million gold away or more...ESPECIALLY if you want to tinker rings or amulets! However, moving from a 300/300 Dex/vit crit %/dmg ring to a 450/450 +%/dmg legendary is probably worth it in the long run.
I just want a Stone of Jordan attuned to Physical now. Oh, elites would really hate me then.
Just to re-affirm: If you want your damage to go up, you MUST get Crit % and/or Crit damage on as much gear as you can, and at the highest levels possible. That's what drives your monster damage.
Bracers and helms only get Crit chance tinkerable, although a couple helms will also boost attack speed. Attack speed is almost NEVER better for damage then Crit chance as soon as your crit damage is over 100%. (a 15% Attack Speed boost is worse then a +6% crit chance if you are at +300% damage!)
The highest crit chance and crit damage come off of Amulets. They go all the way to 10% and +95%.
Gloves can do attack speed, crit % and Crit dmg, they go to +5% Attack, +10% crit, and +50% crit damage. Some rares also do Damage Type.
Rings also do all three types. Attack speed +5%, Crit +6, and Crit damage +50 are the caps.
If you want to get your damage up to where you can kill Torment 3 stuff, crit damage and % is what you chase. Then, you start fine tuning it with attack speed, and possibly focusing on a single damage type.
DH's do superbly with physical and fire, and can do okay with Poison. I do have a cold build (frost elemental arrow is a KILLER), but the lack of good Hatred generating cold attacks hampers things a bit for synergy.
Monks seem to do well with Lightning, Holy and Physical, with Lightning best.
Wizards seem to do best with Arcane for pure damage, although Cold and Fire also work well, Cold extremely good for crowd control.
Crusaders seem to do a mix of Holy or Physical best. A couple of their skills only work with Holy damage.
Barbs do best with physical, with fire coming in second.
Witch doctors do best with Poison, Physical or Fire, a lot of it depending on how you want your pets set up.
==Aelryinth
Key Items:
DH: 9 Cirri Quiver, makes Hungering arrow Pierce +25% more. This is a double or triple damage item, with no-miss damage. Unfortunately, you're basically restricted to Physical damage to maximize it (Puncturing arrow, or Devouring with the right weapon).
Garman cloak: 3 wolf companions? Doing +150% wpn each? Yeah. Oh, and they are all BLOCKERS, too.
Wizard: Mirror Orb. The level 70 gives you three Magic Missiles. Yes, triple damage base attack, adaptable to fire, cold and arcane.
The above stuff is useful on basically ANY build for those two classes. I haven't seen anything similarly awesome for the other classes, but I haven't played them as much, either.
Azurewand is a sword that gives you +20% cold damage. If you want to be a cold user, it's probably the best weapon of its kind, and works for all classes.
Anyone else find some incredibly key items for classes?
==Aelryinth
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There is a super cheesy combo for the crusader if you're using shield throw, which basically lets you toss 7? at a time for 0 wrath. I'm forgetting the names of them right now, but one is a big brown shield that my or may not be Denial (Gave "Removes Wrath cost for Shield Toss" or something), and I can't remember if the other is a belt or shirt, but it gives "+6 shields" when you shield toss.
One thing that I have found invaluable on my crusader is the passive that lets you wield a 2h with a shield. Even decent rolled 1h yellow 70's are -30% damage from whatever I'm swinging with at the time (Maximus currently). Dropping 70K in damage for faster attack speed is just wrong.
Also, from my rifting the other day with Aelryinth and Ikit, I should probably focus focus on + %area damage affixes, because most all of my current build (except the generator which is maybe? using smite) is aoe goodness. Lockdown with Judgement, Run in with Condemn, rain down Heavenly Fire and if my timer has reset, burn my prayer and watch the 3-4M crits explode around me. Bumping that % area damage with crit mods might make me even more dastardly as a walking bomb.
FYI, the chance of getting AoE damage on any one attack is exactly 20% per target.
That means whatever your AoE damage is, it adds to your DPR only 20% of that for a single target.
Granted, that is MUCH more useful if you can get a bunch of things clustered tight (I kill stuff with Devouring Arrow much faster when they are bunched up because of fallout from AoE damage, however minor), but the AoE damage itself, to a single target, is going to be much, much less productive then +crit % or Damage.
Black Hole and Vacuum effects that suck creatures in close would be excellent set-ups for this if you want to do AoE stuff...clustered tight enough, all the extra AoE damage hits a bunch of stuff, which could easily result in a LOT of damage.
But, if you have the option, always go with Crits for raw damage. Unless you can really pack them tight, the crits are always going to be better on single or scattered targets.
The 'ideal' mix of Crit effects is crit damage = 10x crit% chance. You will maximize your DoT, for instance, if your Crit % is 20% and Crit damage is +200%, vs, say, 15% and +250% (do the math).
That being said, if you have effects that proc off a crit, like healing or resource regen, the more the merrier.
But seeing a good AoE build would be interesting. As I said, I've noticed that if badguys cluster up they die REALLY fast, and that's probably from minor AoE damage adding to the stack.
==Aelryinth
Archmagi, how do you handle the movement penalty for using that 2h'er? Got three items and putting points into move to offset it?
==Aelryinth
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No, I'm just as slow as Christmas. I had some boots with a good speed boost, but I'm mostly mitigating it with that paragon bonus pane going to only speed. As I move forward with my 70 gear, though, modding speed up will be one of the focuses. In single player (most of my time) its not really an issue except when I'm trying to kite or get out of a frozen aoe.
You can get move bonuses off lots of boots, armor (Tyrael's BP), Pants (depth diggers, I think), and bracers (Lacuni Prowlers and others). I think there's even a ring which gives a boost.
Just finding 'em and all. It is a hefty penalty, and the fact its on the same screen with your Dex/Vit boost is a bit of a PITA. I usually end up having to devote 1-5% to move to get up to the full 25%.
==Aelryinth
As far as I know, chance to deal area damage is not always 20%.
It's 0.2 x the proc coefficient of the skill. This may reduce it significantly, especially if the skill has a wide area or long duration (they tend to have low proc coefficients, some have zero).
We're not talking about Procs, which affect things like heal on hit and regain power and similar things.
Area Damage states in right in your detail screen. 20% chance of doing X% damage when you hit something.
i.e. it's proc effect IS 20%. Which is yowza nice if you can hit multiple things at once and basically insure it goes off. In one on one fights against a boss monster, not so much. if you can hit more then 5 monsters per second by some means, not so bad to use.
==Aelryinth
Had the weirdest thing happen; a buddy and I (Ellegua) were doing Nephelim Rifts, doing a mirror of Field of Misery. After about three special packs, we get in a battle with two more and a treasure goblin. As I focused on the Goblin, it spawned, cloning into about five different ones. Stranger still, their gold trails weren't 1-100 gp but in the thousands. Anyone else ever have a Treasure Goblin explosion? (their drops got me two legendaries at once)
Nope, can't say I've seen sucha thing. sounds really cool, tho.
I have been having major connectivity issues the last two days. One, I got booted from a rift AFTER I killed the boss, but before I talked to orek (18 mil xp, pfffft!) Last night, I got booted just after I killed a treasure goblin (yeah, 2 emeralds lying on the ground there I couldn't retrieve), and I've had other d/c's happen which just killed me (which cost me my gold bonus pool xp, grrrr!)
3005 and 3007 errors, and they are irritating the piss out of me. I can't complete bounty rounds or rifts because of them.
Anyone else have the same things happening?
==Aelryinth
Absolutely, to the point I had customer service intervene. I was impressed with how responsive they were (they called literally within five minutes of me uploading my computer information). I was having the exact same problems as you (error 3007/3005). Most of what I did was just general maintenance issues on my computer (updating to newest video driver, removing Mal-Ware, cycling my modem, and disabling a fire-wall from McAfee). Last night, I haven't had smoother gameplay. Try some of what I did, and if it persists, give them a call.
Rakshasa, why don't you make an alternate ID for posting here with your ingame name, so I know who you are playing :)
==Aelryinth
Eh, I hate using aliases. I mean, I don't hate people that use them when they're done cleverly (Mythic Evil Lincoln and TOZ are two that come to mind, as are some of the Paizo staff subbing as iconics) but its always struck me as weird to do so.
To be fair, Diablo wouldn't let me use this name for whatever reason, and I feel weird just swapping a name for one thread.
Yay, got my Royal Ring finally. Handy thing that acts as an extra set piece...
Ugh.
have to be at least two other set pieces.
Well, there went partnering up with a tinked Compass Rose and getting +50% to crit damage and +250 Vit!
It lets me get away with 2 Natalya's, but not sure where I'm going from there. I'll have to think about it. It's also not idealized in and of itself (+crit % and Dmg), and will only tink to one or the other, so whatever it grants has to be able to make up for what the ring itself is lacking.
I can swap out my belt, boots and pants without any problem, and probably my shoulders. I don't want to trade my helm, as that's giving me the Blindlock for boss kills, nor my cloak, which gets me two extra doggies.
Well, considering how few set pieces I have that are applicable, I guess I'll just have to start tinkering some up and seeing what they give!
==Aelryinth
Well, I did the routine maintenance suggested...already had the latest video drivers (auto updates), cycled the modem, ran a full Microsoft Essentials sweep.
Got booted last night 99% done with a rift.
Looks like I need to give customer service a call.
And I'll pick up a decent headset, promise!
=+Bob D.
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So last night, I *FINALLY* beat a5 with my wizard (Lvl 52). Did so on normal with my ilvl 70, level req 46 Butcher's Cleaver in hand cause I got tired of doing it legit. After disintegrating Malthael, I went into adventure mode and turned it all the way up to T6. Went out the front gate of Tristram, and was draining an entire Mana pool disintegrating *one* zombie. Died.
Bumped it down to T3, and headed to the Royal Crypts without any benchmark. Got an Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac from a blue mob, and then made my way all the way to Leoric himself (lvl 53). Pretty interesting fight, especially having to move around and manage my HP in a responsible way that I've not really had to do since I started playing again (My Barb has very high hp and my crusader = win). A good five minute fight to disintegrate all that health away, and crap drops.
I figure I'll keep running T3 with the wizard until the damage surplus from my Butcher's Cleaver catches up to actual monster difficulty. I just wish my next five levels would get here so I could frozen orb out and get to 70 so I can toss my Cold SoJ on him.
As an aside, the play on T3 with the wizard is *SO* fun, because I have to actually worry about HP all the time. It feels like D2 again lol. I'm guessing this is what all you Torment difficulty guys go through all day, but my first real solo foray into Torment was tremendously gratifying, even if I did get an 'ok' legendary.
Malwarebytes cleaned off some malware, and I didn't get booted last night. Fingers crossed.
It's nigh impossible to reach level 70 by the time you get to Maltheal without upping the difficulty so you earn more xp, arch.
Most people aren't playing Torment level until they hit 70 and get a very good spread of gear. You don't have access to the necessary damage multipliers to take down the enemies (+crit % and +Crit dmg mod stuff).
I've been playing t2 instead of t3 recently for two reasons.
1) I can play faster. Everything dies quicker, so what I'm losing in xp from t3 per monster I'm making up in time saved.
2) I ALWAYS have a yellow pool up. Unlike ALL your other xp bonuses, the yellow pool goes ON TOP of your xp. So if you'd normally make 300%, you're now making 375%, 25% more. I actually make more xp always having a yellow pool up and not dying then I do fighting without a yellow pool.
And I die on T3. Not often, but generally if I'm rifting, I'll eat it once a night, maybe twice. And I might go a half hour to an hour without finding a yellow pool, because the pace of play is slower and more careful. That's easily costing me 10-25 million xp...like completing a rift and not getting xp from Orek, or not getting anything for doing a bounty or two.
t3 is better Gold "per mission". It also allows you to keep up better with gems, because you're getting more 'gold per gem' then you do on t3. But in pure 'gold/hour', I'm doing better on t2.
I've also learned that generally more Vitality makes for more survivability then more Resist All, once you reach a certain point. I swapped +99 res All for +450 Vit when I swapped a belt, and the resulting +90k life has meant more for keeping me alive then the Res All.
Interestingly enough, the opposite is true with my wizard. Her Res All is incredibly high because of her Int, and adding Blur for reducing damage another sixth means she just gets hit for less. Without a truly uber weapon, she's already cracked 800k base damage, and those triple magic missiles are something!
I'm going to see what happens when I revamp her to fire. I've got some REALLY nice fire boosting stuff, and we'll see what happens. I haven't got much arcane boosting gear, so doing it right could really let my damage take off.
We'll see!
FYI, 500-600k damage will let you do t2 at a reasonably rate, but you need 700-800+ to do the same on t3.If I was going for all out damage I could probably hit 900k on my DH, but t4 would be slooooow going.
==Aelryinth
Yeah, usually, but not all the time. Stinging sands, too. But not all the time. And if I'm in the m idle of a rift, pulling out to chase a yellow pool is annoying.
Especially if I then die again, and I've done a slew of bounties, and all the easy yellow pools are gone, and I slog on looking for yellows and don't find any for a half hour, I get annoyed.
Not a problem in t2. I can move fast enough that I find them quickly, and generally speaking, I don't die. I played t2 with Iki on the weekend for about 4 hours, and died once (8 minion Terror Demons with extra health and volts coming down from above. ugh.)
biggest killer in t3 for me has been frost pulses, the ones that track you and detonate. Some of them pop up right on top of me and I don't even notice them before it's too late, pop, dead.
Walls/arcane/lbolts etc, too, but frost pulses suck.
==Aelryinth
oh, I saw the exploding treasure goblins last night!!!
Unfortunately, they were:
On the other side of prison bars on the prison level of a rift:
The entry to get to them was on the other side...
They spawned in the middle of a fight with an elite group and another spawn...
And trying to chase two of them down triggered two more elite spawns...
So I only ended up killing two of them.
They did leave a lot of gold all over the place, and I got a new Plan out of the one I killed...which was for a low level flail that didn't even make it on to my level 70 Smith crafter's list. Heh! Very cool to see a half-dozen of the little buggers running around, tho!
==Aelryinth
FYI, if you're playing a DH and fighting something with the missile field...
Run right up next to them and shoot them point blank. This works especially well with Hungering Arrows.
They take ALL the Hungering Arrow pierces at one time, no zipping arrows around. Generally, this results in 2-3 x the normal speed in killing them. I can generally kill the keywarden in Act 2 in under ten seconds this way, and keep it blindlocked while I do.
You know, I haven't tried it with the crusader, but I bet the same thing would happen with bouncing shields, too. Have to try it out!
==Aelryinth
Whoa, I didn't know they put Whimsyshire creatures in the rifts... That's gotta be kind of creepy; fighting teddy bears and unicorns under the dark palettes and dissonant music used by some of the rifts.
On another note, is there any reason to do Whismyshire anymore? I've yet to see a bounty or anything like that involved with it, but do remember that at one point, there were some ridiculously funny Legendary Drops that you could before the expansion. I wonder if there's any new goodies.
-Rakshaka/ Danowan1939
The crossbow plan drop component comes out of whimseyshire, Arcane Barb. A legendary teddy bear drops it.
Only worth it for the transmog, really, but still there. I was lucky enough to get it the first time I tried whimsy post-patch.
My crusader now has 62% crit chance, which is higher then my DH. I find that terribly amusing. She uses holy damage and is at about 750k base, but kills things maybe 1/3rd the speed because of gear differences (also, only 5500 str).
I really need to be getting top tier rubies made. Ugh. More gold. I have like 490 rubies that can be raised to higher levels. Been running Torment 1 Act 5 bounties with her casually, for gear and hoping for the shield that gives +5 bounces when thrown. That'll be cool. Long ways to go with her gear, however.
I'd like to get the rainbow sword out of whimseyshire for the Transmog.
Today I got my first double rare drop. A legend (shadow boots, ugh) and a plan, both off a resplen chest.
yesterday, got all the way through a rift, the rift guardian had JUST spawned, and I got a 3007 error and booted. It renewed once to confirm that I had died, and all I could do was kiss my rift look and 30 mil xp good bye. Oh, and go scrounging for a yellow pool.
those pools, btw, go up in xp value as you go up in level. I'm getting over 50 mil out of them. The +25% bonus modifies your current xp total, whereas something like rings and rubies just add to it. SO, yeah, I like having yellow xp all the time, if possible. Over the course of a level, yellow pools save me 150 million xp. That's pretty key.
Made 297 today. Got gold from 6 mil to 13 mil, and drained down to 4 mil catching up on emeralds.
I have decided that the best ring/amulets for followers are +stat, +socket, +weapon damage, +attack speed...mainly because they can't crit for a darn. This (un?) fortunately keeps up continuous demand for high order gems. I try to get sockets on all my follower's weapons...to stick rubies into. The enchantress can do incredibly silly amounts of damage with a good 2h weapon in her hand.
My DH has +900% gold find on Tier3, and does indeed make a lot of dropped gold, esp when hunting on Tier 3. Alas, my needs for such increase much faster then I can seem to gather it.
My wizard, when buffed, exceeds 1 million DOT. I kind of goggled at it when I saw it. My DH, however, still kills stuff faster (dmg around 830 currently).
Still haven't played my Barb or Witch Docter, and have some kewl stuff they can use, too. My demands for gold have been insisting I play my mains. Hrm. Ah well.
==Aelryinth
So, I'm at 302 now.
I spent a lot of time yesterday updating all the level 70s I have, burning some gold on item switches, getting items into the hands of those who need them, and lamenting the fact I need to earn gold at least twice as fast as I am now to have a prayer of keeping up with mods to gear. Cleared a bunch of junk out of my chest and off characters, for instance going down to one set of elemental bracers for all my Dex characters.
Hah. I had to go SCROUNGING and put on sub optimal gear to get the ALL LEGENDARY ITEMS EQUIPPED level 70 Achievement. I just happened to notice I didn't have it, mostly because every character had rings or gloves that were not legendary. Rings and amulets cost so bloody much to tinker, after all (A mil a pop for those gemstones!!).
I tried out the Spray of Teeth Hungering Arrow on my DH...it was useful for clearing easy mobs, but had half the power or less of Devouring Arrows against elites and bosses. I guess I'm not going to physical damage, which is a shame...I really liked dealing 8k crits with Multishot.
For a time I got my DOT on my DH up to 960k. I swapped in a +at, +Crit damage belt, maxed crit damage vs crit chance, and got +6% bracers vs 5%, put on two of the Marauder set items for +500 Dex.
I was too frail and died twice. Plus, I LOVE Illusory Boots that let me move through wallers and creatures as if they aren't there. One of my deaths was due to being wall-trapped. I'll have to wait for another marauder set piece.
As it turns out, the extra crit damage is really only effective on boss types and didn't make much difference on T3, it was kind of overkill. So I'm back down to 830k or so and maxing out my chance to crit, instead of my crit damage. With Hungering Arrows providing so many crit chances, I just figure it's the better play at the moment.
Damage wise, my best Templar is at around 220k, best sorceress 300k, and best Scoundrel 273k. I haven't played my wizardess enough to generate +Int based rings for all my sorceresses yet, and ditto Templars with Str-based rings/amulets.
I also got booted from the game no less then six times yesterday, 'failed connections', and just gave up around 6 PM. Three of them were while I was just tooling around in town swapping gear and crafting stuff.
Meh. AT least I don't miss the riftstones I burn when I get booted from a rift. I still have 140 of them. Running chain bounties with Ikitclaw will build them up fast!
I found out most boots do NOT allow you to get +Resistance on them. That was most unwelcome a surprise.
My effective gold find on my DH is +900% on t3. That is very nice. I have been actually considering swapping in a Goldskin with 3 sockets that I just got for my Cloak of the Garwulf, but I need the high end emeralds to stick into it first to justify doing it. I will miss the extra wolves, but my DH would become THE gold hunter. I just love picking up 6k stacks of gold...and I never have enough. Over 700 on diamonds and still rising. Just keeping pace with emeralds is probably my single biggest cash drain, and I have over 600 rubies that could ALL be put to use on my followers or my Crusader. Anyone got 40 million in gold laying around I can have? I promise not to use any on topazes.
==Aelryinth
Update time!
I've been founding out what works and what doesn't.
For followers: The Ideal Combo for gear is: Main Stat, Socket for Main Stat, +Crit Chance, +Crit %. That's if you have emerald in their weapon, of course. If you don't, the lower crit % means you're actually better off with +Wpn dmg or +Attack speed.
My DH's Rogue is sitting at 313k damage, He's using a Windforce with a Royal Ruby (+270 dmg) in it for about 2850 damage, his crit is about 14%, and bonus is +145%.
Follower tokens are VERY easy to tinker. They only have 1-2 choices. So Tokens should have +Kill Stat, +Vit, +Res All and +Crit chance.
If you have the token where they can't die, Regen and Heal on Hit and Res All actually become sort of superfluous.
Bows are ideal for the Rogue, instead of the crossbow. The higher rate of fire is for them.
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Tinkering Tips:
I'm not sure how many people read this, as there aren't many contributors, but here's a guideline on tinkering.
0) Use Bloodstones to get the armor you want. All armor pieces are 5 bloodstones. Make sure the piece you want has the max of 4 slots; Make sure it has only ONE tink missing. You might get lucky and get a good piece in loot, but most armor that comes from loot is actually going to be LEGENDS.
0.1) You may or may not know this. If you tinker, and you don't like ANY of the choices, don't pick one. Just switch the frame to transmog and back. You're still out the cost, but you didn't lose your +27% Crit damage for +armor or +10% area damage.
1) Helm: You want Main Stat; Vitality; Crit chance (ideally 6%). Anything else is extra. +attack speed is NEVER going to be as useful as bigger crit chance. Generally speaking, you'll have to tinker for crit chance. Don't be afraid to tinker a couple extra times if you get under 5.5 crit chance...just null it if you don't get the prized 6.
2) Bracers: The easiest piece of armor to tink, because the various choices are the fewest. Exactly the same as the Helm...Main Stat, Vit, Crit chance (ideally 6%). If you are building for a +Elemental Damage build, standard loot bracers give +10 to +15% to one element.
3) Gloves: Gloves have 3 ways to raise damage, other then stats: +Attack, +Crit % and +Crit damage. As far as armor goes, they can have the hugest effect on your damage because of this.
Generally speaking, I don't tinker for +Attack speed. +Attack speed is a straight % buff...if you get +6% attack speed, you're getting +6% damage and slightly faster proc effects.
Generally speaking, I want Vitality or Resist All more then I want that +6%.
HOWEVER...sometimes, you just see it, shake your head, and go for it. My current gloves are Gloves of the Master, +20% fire damage, +540 dex, +7% attack speed, +10% Crit, and +50% Crit damage. Yeah. Tinkered for the Crit damage, and rerolled 3 times looking for better then +33 when it settled on the +50%.
4) Belt: Ideally, the Belt is Stat, Vit, Res All, and something else (+% damage to your favorite attack mode?). If your HP is low, a good place to put +life%.
There are belts that give +attack Speed, +damage to elites, and the Witching Hour gives + Bonus damage, too. However, I've found that using these and giving up vitality and res all comes rapidly back to bite me.
There are belts with some excellent secondary effects. The Saffron Wrap I'm using generates a Chaos field that blinds a big area for a few seconds...which stops them from beating on me, blocks others at the far end as they stop moving, and lets me pour damage down on them. Since I shoot so many arrows, it goes off fairly frequently, and it procs off AoE's, so 'Shade' from my DH usually triggers it.
5) Pants: Main Stat, Vit, Res All. Anything else is extra. A Good place to get sockets. Although pricey, sockets mean you can make up Vit or Stat you are missing elsewhere with gems.
6) Breastplate: Main Stat, Vit, Res All. The biggest chaser is usually sockets. Legends will sometimes have +Movement, which is VERY nice.
This is a prime spot for legends, especially set pieces. My Cloak of the Garwulf is probably the single most useful piece of gear I own, since it summons two extra companion wolves.
HOWEVER...I am currently using a Goldskin. Yes, that old thing. Why? Because +100% gold find DOUBLES base gold find, and on top of this, things have a chance to double the amount of gold they spill.
I am easily making a million an hour solo...I can generally clear a million running 5 bounties or a rift. That's in straight gold, not really selling all magic items.
7) Boots: Main Stat, Vitality, Res All, +Movement. MANY BOOTS WILL NOT LET YOU GET VIT AND RES ALL ON THEM AT THE SAME TIME!!!!
Find a pair that does. Tinker them, keep them. I got lucky with my illusory boots, I tinkered away the +Rapid Fire damage for Res All.
Anything else is EXTRA.
8) Shoulders: Again, go for Stat, Vita, Res All. If you can pick a 4th (most rares have all 3), choose Regeneration. IF you want more damage, pick AoE %. Don't get +Damage to an attack...it'll always be a tertiary attack and unimportant.
9) NEVER TINKER SECONDARY ABILITIES. +Elemental Res? Gold Find? Magic find? DON'T WASTE THE TINKER.
EXCEPT...if the item is ideal, and you have a monk using the skill that makes his resist all the same as his highest resist.
My monk wears 3 pieces of the Blackthorn set (and you thought that stuff was just for salvaging!) The pants and boots were Ideal..no tinkering needed. But one was arcane res and the other was poison res.
I tinkered the boots to Arcane Res...which was functionally equal to +200 Res All for him.
So, you can tinker secondary elemental res if you have a monk...and only if you have a monk. Otherwise, never tinker a secondary attribute unless the item is ideal and you've got a specific goal in mind.
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JEWELRY
Amulets and Rings.
Rings:
For PC's, there is no question whatsoever. You generally want Main Stat, +Crit Chance (Ideally 6%) and Crit damage (Ideally 45-50%).
YOU have a choice for the 4th ability (only tinker rings with 4 choices!!!).
YOU can do +Vitality for more hit points.
YOu can do +Attack Speed, +Wpn Damage, or a Socket. These three tend to work out the same in damage %, generally in the 5-7% range. It's worth mentioning that the +Wpn Damage of 60-120 is also about the same range as your main stat. So a Ring with +60-120 Wpn damage will do about the same as a +350 Stat ring. (Which conveniently means its easier to swap between characters).
Amulets
Amulets are more powerful then rings, especially legendary ones...they can actually have up to 6 slots, although 1-2 are usually automatically taken.
YOu want the same as Rings, but the % are higher.
You want 9-10% crit chance.
You want 80-100% +Crit damage.
And then you make the choice on main Stat; Elemental Modifier; or +Wpn damage or attack speed.
Normal rings max at 425 stat. Normal amulets max at 600 Stat.
Legendary rings have a max of 500 in stats. Legendary amulets have a
max of 725.
ELEMENTAL DAMAGE
There is now a reward in the system for those who master one type of element...various items that can boost that damage type.
'Normal' elemental damage boosts comes from three sources - Bracers, Weapons, and Amulets.
However, legendaries exist of all types of items that boost elemental damage. For instance, Hands of the Master and the Cindercoat both boost fire damage. So does the Devastator plan mace. There's a set of pants that boost poison damage, a belt that boost fire damage, and the Helm of Anduriel can potentially boost any damage type. There is a shield you can craft that boost holy damage, and a craftable sword that does the same.
That boost is +10-15% on a normal item, or +16-20% on a legend. Take NOTE!!!- that damage buff is MUCH higher then anything you will get from a +Stat mod, +Wpn damage, or +Attack Speed.
Probably the single best item for pure damage boosts is thus the Stone of Jordan.
The Ring can come in damage buffs for any element; usually has a Main stat; a secondary effect....and ALSO +20-25% damage against Elites.
It's one of the very best Rings you can wear, IF you know the element you are using!!!
Example: I have a choice between a Natalya's Cloak with 3 sockets, the emeralds to fill them (+280 dex each, or +840 Dex), or a Cindercoat with +20% to fire damage.
If I build a fire using DH (not hard, fire and physical are the two main elements for DH's), I'll want the Cindercoat. The +840 Dex looks nice...but it's about an 11% damage boost across the board. If I'm using Fire, I don't NEED across the board...I just need fire.
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Me Currently: I haven't been able to find a good +Cold % amulet that keeps my crit chance up.
I use Devouring arrow as my primary attack, with the crossbow that grants 2 additional Pierces. It's now cold damage instead of physical (grr, I had GREAT physical damage set up). I use a Ring of Jordan (cold) and +Cold bracers (+13%, 6% cri chance). I stick with this relatively low modifier because the above combo is just so freaking awesome.
I've yet to see a bow or crossbow that enhances elemental damage. IT all seems to be melee weapons, go figure.
I use Multishot as my secondary attack (sweep the room), and use Arsenal (Fire) because the Hands of the Master I use give +20% fire damage, making it the best damage type (there's no cold multishot). Previously, I used Broadside, which was physical damage and dovetailed with Hungering Arrow nicely.
My secondary DH is tilted fire. HE also has Hands of the Master (+20%), a Stone of Jordan (+20%), A cindercoat (+20%), Bracers (+18%) and an amulet (+15%). So, he's +93% using fire. He uses triple grenades and withering fire Rapid Fire, and even with worse gear then my main, he does very, very well.
If you need base gear (esp rings, amulets, or armor that I can give you that you tinker), don't hesitate to ask me. They either get salvaged or sold, and I'd much rather someone got some use out of them, so I'm happy to give that kind of stuff away.
==Aelryinth
Follow up:
If you play a Demon Hunter, you want to use a Hand Crossbow or Crossbow, not a bow.
The reason is the Archery skill.
Every DH uses Archery. It's, like, the base skill.
Bows: +8% damage.
Crossbows: +50% crit damage.
H. Crossbows: +5% Crit chance.
Out of the gate, if you are using a bow, it's okay, but a crossbow is better.
But as soon as your Crit Chance is above 16%, or your +Crit damage above +160, you should never use a bow again.
The +8% on the bow is static, never changes. Crit chances and +Crit mods ALWAYS go up.
Lets say your base damage is 100,000.
Your Crit Chance is the base 10%, Crit damage is +50%. Assume attack speed of 1 for ease.
Your DoT is going to be 105,000...10% chance of a +50k crit.
If you use a bow, your base damage is +8 %. So your DoT is going to be about 113,400 with Archery.
With a crossbow or H crossbow, you get 10% of 100k or 15% of 50k. Yeah, that crossbow is +10% to your damage out the gate, the H Crossbow is +7.5%.
Now let's use My character.
My base crit chance is 60%. My base damage is about 250k, but we're going to smooth it out to 100k. My +Crit damage is about 400%.
60x400% is 240%. My DoT is thus 250 +240% of 250, which is 600. 40% x 250 + is 100k, +600 is 700k average damage.
A bow would add 8% to that, or about 68k, for an end result of 756,000 DoT...impressive!
A Hand Crossbow with the same base damage would increase the crit chance to 65%. The +240 is now +260, which is 650. 35% of 250 is 87.5, +650 is 737,500 damage....better then the bow.
A Crossbow would increase the crit mod to 450%. 60% of 450% of 250 is also +675k damage, added to the 40% of 250k, is a nice 925k damage.
The Crossbow OWNS.
All DH's should be trying to get higher damage crossbows because of this effect. It's also one of the reason why you see bows and hand crossbows that have higher damage then many crossbows...the huge crits on the crossbows make up for slightly lower damage.
If you want speed and frequent crits, use a Hand Crossbow. It also helps you get back hatred faster, so if you are throwing out heavy secondary attacks (Afroken and his cluster arrows), it's the better option.
If you want regular high base damage, use a crossbow.
The only bow I can see being incredibly useful at high levels is WIndforce, for the knockback feature that allows you to basically keep enemies at a distance. CLuckeye's 'stun' effect, and Ravenwings birds probably aren't enough to tip the favor, but we shall see otherwise.
==Aelryinth
My biggest thing is getting 2 out of 3 of the Legendary Relics for companions. Both the one for the Templar and the one for the Scoundrel that I picked up have the following suffix: "As long as this is equipped, your follower cannot die." I assume there's one for the Sorceress that does the same as well. They definitely make soloing easier, having everything pile on an indestructible follower.
Oh, also finally got my first Legendary Potion, the one that gives you +5000 life-per-kill for 5 seconds when used.
The other set of Legendary tokens is the one that says "when equipped, Follower gains access to all skills."
All. At the same time. Yeah, baby! FUll healing ability and decent combat ability out of the Templar. Finally.
The Scoundrel benefits most from can't die, as he has no healing and no defenses to speak of...he's all offense. Once he can't die, you can load him up on his offensive stuff without feeling guilty.
The sorceress buffing your combat speed and turning enemies into chickens is pretty cool.
And every Legendary Potion should include the words "you no longer automatically pick up healing potions when this item is equipped." Ugh.
===
So, I've been playing my DH with a 3 socket Goldskin. On t3, that's +1600% gold find. And I've been making pretty decent gold.
On a lark, I went up to T4 again, haven't done that in a while.
I'm pretty sure I saw some 19k piles of gold flash by. I made about a million gold a map or major dungeon, generally about 800k between sell runs.
That's AWESOME...because it means I'm staying ahead of some gems. I am way, way far behind on everything but emeralds (over 800 diamonds, amethysts and topaz, 600-odd rubies). If I dared to play t6, I imagine I'd actually start reversing things.
Buuut, the keywarden in Act 1 was 3 seconds from being dead, I had him blindlocked, he flung out a fireball and one hit me.
Aaaaargh. 430k life wasn't enough?!?
My crusader could probably tank him, but it would be a long, hard slog to kill the bastard. He doesn't do near the damage of my DH, nor have a stunlock.
==Aelryinth
Addendum: If you're playing a DH and using Sharpshooter, you don't know what your actual damage over time is.
Untrain it, and see what the damage is. Sharpshooter gives you +4% crit over that when fighting, because you reset the crit boost back to the beginning once you crit! If you're doing any kind of sustained fire, you're basically at minimum crit 2/3 of the time, and 4% higher the other 3rd.
The only time you're seeing the benefit is when you alpha strike something...and you aren't doing MORE damage then a normal crit, you're just guaranteeing the first one.
That's why I don't use it anymore.
==Aelryinth
Note: having a yellow pool active at all times is pretty important for high level play, as the cost of levels increases rapidly.
There's at least a 50% chance of a yellow pool being available at the very first part of Act 2, even before you get to the walls. While I do occasionally see on in Al Karnas, it's nowhere near as reliable. So, if you get killed and want your yellow back, that's my #1 place to go.
Otherwise, I'm basically running around dungeons.
Oh, and if you get lair of the Lacuni, Act2, Howling plateau, about half the time there's a yellow pool in there, too.
==Aelryinth
Well, find out something new today.
Crits for followers are capped at +150%.
So, like, putting an emerald into their weapons? Totally overkill. You want to put a ruby there.
They have base +50%. Their token + a single ring will generally get them to +150. Then the only thing you want is +crit chance, and your choice of a socket to increase the stat or +attack speed (the socket with a maxed gem will probably be better).
I've been giving them all maxed emeralds, with are +130, and overkilling the whole thing. I should have been staying with maxed rubies.
gah. I've wasted millions.
===Aelryinth
I haven't played lately. Waiting to see what the new content will be like.
New Content? what new content?
The August stuff is just bringing it to console. is there going to be something else at that time? Hadn't seen anything.
==Aelryinth
Patch 2.10, Super Nephalim rifts and other stuff...
Well, I just hit 350.
I've been playing to make gold, mostly. Torment 3 and 4 intermixed. 5 is just a little too difficult with my build...I could do it, but I'd have to go back to use my Garwulf cloak at the very least. Or do a complete reorg for a fire-centered cluster arrow bomber like Ardo uses.
I won't say I'm ahead on tinking jewels, but I'm staying even with drops, and using them up on legendary rings and amulets. Still, have plenty of everything except emeralds (which became much less in demand now that followers won't get 'em!). Basically, just need a few hundred million gold to turn 'em all into flawless Imperials and whatnot.
Haven't seen anything to shake up my build. I've thought of turning it into Theorycraft Thursday as a nice casual build to play, that doesn't rely on massive set pieces to do what needs done.
I have 4 of the marauder set pieces, and a royal ring...one more piece and I can do the t6 build where you drop sentries that shoot endless cluster bombs and so on. If I want to. You know, I've gotten so many of the magical quivers, over and over, but NEVER gotten the one that lets you have a couple additional sentries. Is it a special drop, like the royal ring?
Oh, and for the marauder set, with 4 of them, you get all your pets at once...but only for attacking. You don't get their passives.
The Templar is a much better blocker now that he can't die. At 300k+ DPS, he can do a decent amount of damage, too.
Sitting on 1.05 million DPS using Goldskin, slowly ticking dex and crit damage back up as I work towards 400.
If I played more public games, I'd probably level faster, but them's the breaks when you're hunting for gold.
==Aelryinth
oh, and I finally used 1000 healing wells! (achievement Well Hard). It's one of the new acheivements they put into the game.
Now I won't have to race to be the first to hit the red wells even when I don't need them in a group game! :)
Just because I'm curious...anyone manage to hit 400k damage with a follower?
===Aelryinth
Question for everyone: Have you ever had a bounty set you couldn't complete?
I've had two now.
One was in Westmarch. The mini-dungeon I was supposed to go in and complete in the city was literally nowhere on the map. No arrows to guide me to it even after I explored the whole map trying to find it.
Last night, Level 1 of the Halls of Agony, kill Bludgeonskull. After wiping the whole dungeon, the monster was nowhere on the map, and again no arrows confirmed it. He also didn't spawn on the level above (the manor) or on level 2.
I was a bit miffed, to say the least.
ON the brighter side, however, doing the five bounties, plus clearing the fields of misery, weeping hallows, north and south hunting grounds, and the hallows generated over ten million gold on Tier 4. I couldn't keep a yellow pool bonus long enough to really profit from it, but the base 800% xp on T4 is better then 550%+25% of Tier3, so that's okay.
I got a niiiiice helm last night...Helm of Andariel, with +20% physical damage, +7% attack, and +6% crit, with a Dex mod, of course. No vitality mod, and I don't know how I'd make that up. I managed to tinker it to Fire+18, so if I shift to fire element I'll be all set (Magefist, Cindercoat, +18% bracers, +18% necklace, +18% Helm of Andariel, and +20% Stone of Jordan will make me pretty much rock with fire damage).
I wanted to tinker it to cold damage to complement my current build, but it is not to be.
At this point I'm settling into my DH build and slowly watching damage escalate as I level, accumulating gold which I promptly spend (gems, ugh.)
ANother Question: Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Legend shield you get out of the Horardric Cache's on Act 5 is the one that heals party members with blocked damage, right?
(And if you're doing Act 5 to earn one, don't worry about using a Crusader to get it. It's a crusader shield, and will ONLY pop with a Strength modifier).
My crusader is rolling about 950k DPS, but since she doesn't have one of the triple-damage items, definitely lags my DH in killing power. However, I don't think she's died the last 5 times I've taken her out on T1.
I've oriented her for lightning instead of holy damage. I'm using the Thundergod belt, bracers, necklace and shield for +72% lightning damage...no lightning ring of Jordan yet. Doesn't have any real mass AoE, but is simply extremely hard to kill. I haven't found a 2h weapon that deals holy damage, and the one I'm using that blows up with Poison Nova's is extremely useful when hacking on something close, so I haven't switched in a while (there was a 2h sword that did holy damage, but for some reason it came with an Int modifier...sorceress is using it).
And I'm wearing a Justice Lantern ring for +15% blocking, just because I think it's cool. :)
==Aelryinth
bump!