f13.net

I picked this up again aftre three years and I started a new character. Lots I have to figure out, but one thing I'd like a quick answer to:

Stuff I don't use: sell it for gold or break it for components?

And also, should I level up some crafting, and in some specific order?

Break items after you hit level 60.

Level up all artisans as you can grind out a Ring of Royal Grandeur at 70 and craft Cains and 1 other set to make torment I-IV a bit of a joke.

I ended up with Ancient Set Cains gear on a new 70 from crafting. Stuff melted :D

Thank you very much for the quick answer. Unfortunately, the whole point of being a hypernoob is that you don't understand what a Ring of Royal Grandeur is, or Cains, or Torment I-IV. Not being unappreciative here, just asking for a tiny bit more. But let me see if I got it straight:

- From level 1 to 60, sell everything for money.
- Use said money to level up ALL artisans.
- At level 60 stop selling stuff and start breaking/melting everything instead for materials, to try and craft... "Cains" and Ring of Royal Grandeur?

The ring has a bonus that lets you use 1 less piece of a set to get a set bonus

Eg my monk is wearing the ring and when you mouse over the (green) set items you can see she gets a 2 piece bonus. She wears 2 sets, 3 pieces each (3x Sunwuko and 3x Inna). In the game this registers as a 4 piece bonus for each set with the ring which gives me some very desirable bonuses:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Setanta-1696/hero/60728903

You get the ring by hitting 70 and switching to adventure mode to run bounties. Complete 5 bounties in act 1 without logging out and Tyrael will give you a cache. The cache may drop the ring.

Torment is higher levels. The higher the torment the greater the XP and chance of good item drops. The higher level you do bounties at the better chance of a ring dropping from a cache.

So where does this take you?

This is one of my lower geared characters:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Setanta-1696/hero/63222804

I had already leveled my 3 craftsmen - the priority I use is Blacksmith -> Mystic -> Jewelcrafter.

I already had a spare ring from another character with intelligence on it so a used the Mystic to change the intelligence to strength. For you, if the ring drops it will give you your primary stat (hopefully) so this is not necessary.

I also crafted three partial sets of gear to get their bonuses. You will get recipe drops to make these just by playing at level 70.

2 pieces of Cain's plus the ring gives me 3 piece set item (increased attack speed and more magic find to help nice things drop). 3 pieces of Asheara's Vestments to give me the 4 piecce bonus with ring (resistance to everything and 20% life). 2 pices of Aughild's Authority to give me 3 piece bonus from the ring (damage reduction and most importantly, damage to elites increased).

This gives me a great boost to damage and survivability at Torment 3 to try and get new gear. Later on you can use it to round out a set if you have a great legendary item to replace a set bonus - like I have with my Witch Doctor:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Setanta-1696/hero/63004770

or my (novelty build Demon Hunter) who switches between different sets but I like sentries for fun and use the lesser set:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Setanta-1696/hero/63070958

I use my Mystic to re-roll for good stats that will benefit my character

For crafted blacksmith items I make an item looking for the word "Ancient" to get higher stats than regular items (see my DH's bow)

Finally, I use the Jewelcrafter to make gems to put in my gear to boost stats. Sell any gem that drops under level 60. Use the Jewelcrafter to combine the gems to make them more powerful.

This requires decent gold. Get someone to run you through rifts (a specific set of instances that eventually spawn a boss that you kill). They will drop a greater rift key. Then get them to run you through a Greater Rift. When you kill the boss in a Greater Rift (GRift) they will drop a unique gem that you can level up. Some are great, some are crap but the one I like is the one that causes explosions of gold when you kill a mob. You can run with one of these and gold will never be a problem again.

If you need a hand then let me know. I'm only playing seasonal characters so make one of those or muddle around and have fun, then make a new character as seasonal when the next season starts. I'm Setanta#1696 in game - US servers playing in the Aussie timezone.

Thanks a bunch!

A lot of info to take in, but that sets me on the right path I guess. Not sure I'll ever get to the point where you are as I have a problem with gaming consistency, but at least I won't feel like I'm doing it all too wrong.

Another noob question since I am at it: how do you switch from Story to Adventure mode?

And thanks for the actual help offering too. I am on the EU servers though, I'd imagine we can't play together, right? (Not that I have any character beyond level 35 anyway  :awesome_for_real: )

You switch from Story to Adventure mode in the same screen where you set the other attributes of your game (difficulty etc).
If you don't have the option to switch, you might have to finish the story once, to unlock Adventure mode.

Thanks a lot, it makes sense. I got the option to switch mode on an old character that I picked up again, but I don't get it on new characters. It's confusing, but nothing game breaking. I'll figure it out.

I'm struggling to see the point of seasonal characters.  Wife and I have been running them for a wee while and enjoying playing the game again, but when we hit 70 and nowt changed (and no special items have dropped), I'm wondering what the difference was and why I did it ?

Thoughts ?

Some gear reworks,  flags n wings n shit.

Challenge to gear up again.

Other than that - not much. But seeing as I dumped the game for quite a while, I had fun with S3

Yeah, we did too.  Just wondering if there was 'more'.  But if not, fair enough !

Apparently, there's a bit 'more' for Seasons with 2.3 patch. Not sure what that 'more' is considering I barely know what I am doing, but I read about it in the notes.

Yes they want to make it more alluring. I'm not sure how. I feel like I've hit a wall on my crusader and I'm in T4.

The builds I'm seeing for crusader make no sense to me. Most of them don't even use a primary wrath skill, how in the world do they attack stuff?

That was always my problem with the crusader.  So many of his skills aren't actually about him hitting shit.

With Path 2.3 and Season 4 they are introducing the Season Journey:

http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/patch-2-3-season-journey-new-pet

New Patch 2.3 Preview is up also:

http://us.battle.net//d3/en/blog/19823807

My Crusader does T6 with relative ease. I don't remember what gear I have but I definitely just smack shit for like 50Bn and it dies.

Groups of mobs however, I die immediately. I basically just crush bosses and elites.

Rolands set seems to be the gear I see the most builds around for crusaders.

I deffo have that, but I have some belt or some shit that's absurd.

I just started this game about 3 weeks ago, and my observations so far are:

Levelling up 1-70, I did it in story mode, following the plot, basically.  The game showers you with yellow "rare" equipment, and is quite easy if you keep your gear updated. 

At level 70, you have to change your "gear upgrade" strategy because items you get at 70+ don't give you more and more dex / int / str / vitality, they just have 4-6 properties ("affixes"), legendary items may have an extra "special" affix, and sets of gear have set bonuses.  So instead of more primary stats, you have to match the affixes and set bonuses so they work together as a whole.  As an example, my monk doesn't have the best in slot monk armor sets (they haven't dropped as loot yet, I just reached 70), but I've managed to put together some items that give me +20%, +10%, +15% lightning damage, immunity to some of the boss ground death effects, and crit.  So I've switched all my abilities to the lightning runes, and all of a sudden I'm able to easily do Torment 4 difficulty (up from Expert).

About that RoRG ring, it's quite powerful because "power" at level 70 is all about having as many extra "affixes" from set bonuses, and the ring allows a character to wear 2 or 3 (incomplete) armor sets instead of 1 - 2 (complete) sets, maximizing bonuses.  Blizzard has, I believe, made a lot of other rings powerful to try to get people to use them instead of RoRG.  I don't have it yet; I have a "if you don't crit 5 consecutive hits, you crit for the next 3 seconds", which I found awesome, because monks hit 7 times per second, so I'm critting all the time.

I ignored the Jeweller and Mystic and leveled up the Blacksmith because he has a few useful recipes for gear and weapons for sub-70's.  At 70, once I started getting a lot more money, it was a simple matter to level the Jeweller and Mystic, and then the "rare" recipes for them dropped right away for me.

No, I don't mean that they're not viable or destroy stuff.  It's just that (as far as I play anyway) it's not about slicing or smashing, it's more summoning and calling down retribution from the heavens.

I'm expecting Seasons will eventually be a polished variant of the Path of Exile League system.  GGG was (is?) using them to try out new game modes, not just new equipment.  I can see Bliz running with the idea, but of course time will tell.

Not sure if they ever fixed it, and in  the long run it doesn't matter much, but when you get the Jewlcrafting Plans for new gems in the 60-70 range, learn them immediately.   Nothing annoys me more then getting a drop  for X new Emerald type, and then 5 minutes later getting a second drop for the exact same goddamned gem since the system does not take it off the drop list untill you actually teach it to the gemcrafter.

I never actually used that because my attack speed/crit chance guaranteed crits every second on my monk. I dropped crit back to 37% and she pops stupid numbers that melts mobs up to Greater Rift 32, especially when the flying dragon  Daibo procs to double my attack speed. Best solo rift is 33, only to be exceeded by my DH who hit solo 34 (as a lol-spec Marauder/Sentry build).

Yeah I don't have any of the nice weapons or the monk-specific armor yet, but the ring basically gives me the same thing even though I have "crit chance = 5%" total from gear.  There seems to be plenty of crit chance on the monk-specific gear, so I'll probably phase it out.  I got it at level 39 though, and I've kept it on all the time, through 70.  Re-rolled the measly dex it had to a gem slot, and now has a legendary gem in it, so basically 2 proc effects.

Works well with my abilities; 3-6 basic attacks to generate spirit, activate the ring, and also activate the passive ability for 40% increased damage, then Cyclone them close together and pile on the 7 Sided Strike and/or blow up the weak mobs that have Exploding Palm on, etc., all the big damage abilities that I have.  It's a rhythm (I'm only showing damage for crits, not for regular hits, so it's easy to see when I'm in the 3 seconds).

I can only do Torment 4 though (safely enough for grinding).  I do damage enough for 6, but I just die too fast at 6 (which doesn't matter, thanks to Spaulders of Zakara (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/spaulders-of-zakara)).  Greater Rift 21 is about the best I could get keys for, so that's where I am.

So do the boundary stats on set items/legendaries go up as one goes up in Torment level? Or does better gear simply result from the synergy of the items used together?

I'm at Torment V now, can probably go to T VI. I got to T V fairly quickly, but I suspect the next Ts will go a little more slowly (although I'm guessing).

If you are asking whether gear can roll higher stats at higher torment, the answer is no. Well, mostly. I think you do get a slightly higher chance at Artifact grade legendaries, but I could be wrong on that. Regardless, yes, most of the power to take you upwards will be from mixing set bonuses synergistically .

Yeah, the synergies are what take you places.   Just a bit more stats doesn't really do much compared to the set bonuses, or legendary affixes than let you do totally busted stuff.

But then, I'm one of those people runnning 6 piece Helltooth + Grin Reaper + Jeram's bracers.  :grin:

Going from one difficulty level to the next, there's an increase of approx. 40% in monster HP and approx. 30% in damage they can do to you, and increasing the stats a bit just can't match that.

What does it is, for example, getting the gear that makes you immune to boss ground pools-of-death, immune to stun and freeze effects, if you suffer fire damage you get healed instead of taking the damage, etc.  And also class armor sets that, for example, give double damage on your high damage abilities, guaranteed critical hits, all your pets also apply your damage abilities when you do, double the number of pets, cast the ability for no mana cost, and so on.

Combine as many legendary effects and set bonus effects as you possibly can equip.

EDIT:  Give your companion (Templar, Rogue, Enchantress) legendary items too.  For example, my Templar has a sword that summons an angel whenever he uses it, and I see that angel all the time, even though the Templar doesn't hit with 7 attacks per second like my monk character does.  And of course, the Templar relic that prevents him from dying, which means he can taunt and stun and take some of the heat off me, even though he only has 2 mil toughness and I have 25.

Thanks - that makes a lot of sense.

My barbarian now has the "Wastes" set and is simply ridiculous with whirlwinds. A lot of fun. I went up to T6 pretty quickly but can die super fast if a jailer or arcane beam hits me.  I need more legendaries.

I wonder if the cube recipes stick around after season ends.

I saw a roast turkey mob in a rift yesterday during a marathon play session. Or did I dream it?

Still looking for a mask of Jeram (although I found 3 Carnevils). My chest is running out of space with 2 characters.

They had fucking better....

If by recipes, you mean the legendary powers you have collected, they should get ported over to standard/non-season once the current season ends.

Yes, you will have to get them again in season 4 if you want them in that season.

Aye, that's fine.  I don't mind having to start from scratch every season, but I specifically decided to do all the new 2.3 content on a season character (I have a pet, lol) so that at least it would keep me interested.

To find I lose anything after season end would be.... an annoyance.

You need Countess Julia's Cameo (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/countess-julias-cameo).  It's beautiful.

Oooh, yes I do.

Alternatively you could skill "Ignore pain[Contempt for Weakness]". It gives a quick boost to your HP and frees you of all control impairing effects.
For the Amulet slot I would recommend getting the Hellfire Amulet (http://www.diablowiki.net/Hellfire_Amulet) with a nice passive, farming those is pretty easy if you do some bountyruns from time to time.

Thats what the Cube is for. I slotted the effect from Countess Julias Cameo on it and never looked back.

Does anyone know: Are the organs from Infernal machine bosses 100% drop chance, or are they still a % based on the torment level you are running?  Would kind of suck for them to be double gated behind both the RNG chance of the Keywardens and then also have their own RNG.

They're NOT 100%, I know that much.

The wife has TWO of them on her season Crusader - the poison and the arcane.  Cubed one and wears the other.  She's so fucking annoying at the bosses, just standing there while I have to run around like a dick.

This chart (http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/diablo/images/e/e2/0VNPQw2.png/revision/latest?cb=20150831160142) I'm looking at has footnotes that the latest patch may have changed the percentages, but:

Keywarden Machine drop chance:  25% (T1), 28% (T2), 33%, 38%, 43%, 50% (T6), 55%, 60%, 65%, 70%
Uber Organ drop chance:  50% (T1), 56% (T2), 66%, 74%, 86%, 100% + 25% for a second one (T6), 100% + 50% (T7), 100% x2 + 25% for a third one (T8), 100% x2 + 50%, 100% x2 + 75% (T10)

So yes they are % based.

Ahh, well I am at or around T7 capable on  my Seasonal  Monk, so looks like I should start farming Keys.

Man, I'm confused about how this works now.  I thought the infernal machine (which I don't actually know what is) now came free in the bottom of your cereal box.  Now I see there are still keywardens and the fact that I haven't seen one since 2014 has me worried that I'm once again playing this game incorrectly.

1. Create character
2. Bounties until 70
3. Greater Rifts
4. ???

I'm missing some bullet points.

Back when the max level was 60, you'd do the whole infernal machine, keys, and organs thing to get a Hellfire Ring (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/artisan/jeweler/recipe/hellfire-ring).  The ring gives increased AoE DPS and extra bonus XP.  Anyway, since then they increased the max level to 70, and added a number of versions of Hellfire Amulet that can be obtained with the parts, in addition to the ring.  But basically there are so many more and better legendary and set items available as random drops now, that hellfire rings and amulets are not worth the bother now.

So yeah:

- create character.
- bounties, or go through the acts in story mode at increased difficulty, or be powerlevelled by someone to 70.
- rifts and greater rifts and bounties and use the cube to re-roll and upgrade for legendary and set armor for  your character.
- increase the torment level as you get better gear.

People do the above 4 steps every season (every couple months), from scratch.

You're saying they decided to get the day's eating out of the way all at once?

I'm still trying to get the cube to do anything.  I found a legendary that I felt I could part with, then I figured out that only specific traits are able to be stored.  So I decided I just need to get one of each class to 70 first.

Each slot of cube traits will have 3-4 pages of abilities.  Just check the name of the legendary item you're interested in against the list of traits for that slot to see if you can cube them. 

Hope that helps.

The map has icons now to indicate which areas have a keywarden, and the keywardens now drop infernal machines instead of keys.

Port into the area, run around until you find/kill the warden.  It's still not a guaranteed drop, but if it doesn't it's pretty fast to quit and restart for another go at it.

In some ways a good immunity amulet is better, depending on whether there's enough passive abilities that work with your build to be worth it.  It's easy to get an amulet, but getting one with a useful passive AND good amulet stats is tough.

Hell fire amulets are often the best legendary amulet for many builds, so don't dismiss them.  Gaining a 5th passive skill slot is pretty damn nice.

But yeah, as Polysorbate80 said, Keywardens spawn 100% of the time.  Its just the drop rate for the machines that depends on difficulty.  I've already built 4 amulets without a ton of effort.

That is useful, except it turns out I have two legendaries of the same name that don't have the ability listed for that piece.  I probably need to reevaluate what loot I pick up and what to do with it once I have it.


Do tell.

In each of the first four acts, the Keywarden is always in the same zone, and the icon on the map looks like an old-timey key.
There might even be a tooltip.

For some reason none of the map screenshots I can see on the internet show the key icons, but here is an example (https://www.google.com/search?q=keywarden+map+icons&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&tbm=isch&imgil=pFbrri5MO-ZbUM%253A%253BHxp1wA-1bCMITM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fdiablo.blizzplanet.com%25252Fblog%25252Fcomments%25252Fauthor%25252Fmedievaldragon%25252Fpage%25252F8&source=iu&pf=m&fir=pFbrri5MO-ZbUM%253A%252CHxp1wA-1bCMITM%252C_&biw=1920&bih=1001&usg=__qxmuAlmXxyhRMqDeMBHqRK4zDDA%3D&ved=0CDEQyjdqFQoTCJfegqmyjsgCFYErPgod_6IAUg&ei=50ADVtfOL4HX-AH_xYKQBQ#tbm=isch&q=diablo+3+reaper+of+souls+map&imgrc=6sui0QVNWIUU0M%3A)...  locations with a yellow ! have a bounty, red demon head = there's a boss there, and little icon of a key = there is a keywarden there.

EDIT:  As far as the cube, you collect legendary weapons and armor that have orange text abilities listed in the stats.  And you also have to do bounties for each act to collect mats from each act.  And some Death's Breath mats from killing elite packs.  You put the legendary item + all mats in the cube and the cube will basically learn that item's orange text ability, allowing you to activate it without having to equip the item.

Because it requires mats, people typically cube up the good stuff first:  immunity to arcane, fire, cold, etc. amulets, ring of royal grandeur, boots that make you immune to stun, etc.  You have to find these things first, as drops, but if your stash is full of saved legendary items, you can cube them up.

The cube has the recipes built in - just click the book icon on the lower right corner of the cube interface.

1. I don't see any key icons in the linked pic.  But I'm tired.
2. You make it sound like... I... don't have to... wear the item?

Yeah that's what the cube does.  You build a database of abilities and then pick 3 (one weapon, one armor, one jewelry) to be active on your character without having to wear those items.  You can switch which ones at will when you're in town.  The database you build applies to all your characters in the same category (normal, seasonal, hardcore (dead-is-dead), and seasonal-hardcore).  So you can make a level 1 alt and immediately grant him a RORG, boots of no stun (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/ice-climbers), and the proc from some weapon (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/stalgards-decimator).  What powers you pick in the cube can be different for each character, just the overall database is shared on the account.

EDIT:  Also, you can put in a level 70 yellow item, such as a ring, and some mats (a bit expensive), and get a guaranteed legendary or set ring (or whatever kind of item you put in), which increases your chances to get the item you want to much better than gambling with Kadala.  It doesn't seem to be completely random; I've had it give me exactly the pieces of monk armor sets that I needed, I believe it looks in your stash to see what you may need.

Negatory...I've rolled 4 duplicate Shenlong's Spirit... once back to back, all with one in my stash.  One of the 4 was Ancient, so at least an upgrade.  But a single piece of that set is mostly useless.

It does tooltip it:

(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r614/Polysorbate80/Screenshot%20crop.jpg)

Yeg is making me feel both better and worse about my Diablo knowledge.

I have to drop information to make room for new information, and my new job has a lot of new information.

I didn't even think about putting a Ring of Royal Grandeur in the cube.  That's a "duh" moment if ever there was one.

Actually, it's a fucking problem because the rorg is so fundamentally awesome that it pretty much invalidates a lot of other bits of tat you'd put in the Kube.

Still pretty much have to farm one RoRG per character, but one is definitely cubed.  Right now I'm wearing one while using the Fire Immunity from the cube.  But once I complete ring sets, it is probably cube RoRG depending on build.

I'm only GR28, and it seems that a lot of later builds just wear all 6 pieces... so maybe its an early/mid-game issue.  But yeah, right now RoRG is about as "fun" as "Inventory Management"

So, for seasonal characters, do you need to clear the story first before you dive into bounties?  It's been a while. 

What's the least click intensive character right now that's still relatively fun?  I don't like spammy builds.

No, you don't.

Ummmmmmmm.  Diablo is clicks.

I try to minimize the arm rape.

I think they all play about the same when it comes to clicks - intensive.

One nice thing is that it's an easy game to play for 10 minutes at a time.

YouTube

Pet Doctor isn't that clicky if you don't want to....

I guess.

Is D3 less clicky on PS4?

One difference between the PC and the console versions is that consoles have an auto-targeting feature that kinda locks you onto an enemy; that may result in less spastic button pressing.  I know that for me, on the PC, my mouse cursor actually disappears in all the explosions and brightly colored monsters around me (the cursor is always rendered on top, I just fail to see it), and that just drives me to click like mad.  A click can mean "attack" if the mouse happens to be on a monster, or "move" if I'm clicking the ground or clicking a monster that's far away.  And again, monk gameplay is you get buried under 20-30 monsters and then BOOM they all blow up with Exploding Palm.  I have no clue where my mouse is during all this.  I'm clicking like crazy.

If you're clicking in combat you're doing it wrong. LMB on my Demon Hunter is always Turret or Companion or something that doesn't get spammed. Main abilities are on ASDF. Spacebar is move.

Clicking to attack is dumb anyway since it's harder to be precise with the mouse when you're mashing LMB. I'd do it even if all the tissue in my arm and shoulder wasn't about to fall apart.

Maybe I am doing it wrong. (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/ajax34i-1238/hero/63658004)  Right mouse button is Lashing Tail Kick, enhanced to Exploding Palm proportions by both the Sunwuko and Inna sets and the boots, and crits from spamming it (courtesy of the Broken Promises ring) give me a ton of Sweeping Wind vortices.  So I right-click a lot.  Although, I'm trying to slow down because "1.15 attacks per second" is, basically, a global cooldown, and clicking more than ~once per second does nothing.

You've lost me.  How do you perform the main attack?

He presses a key.

Wildly different from clicking.

 :oh_i_see:

He hits ASDF or right mouse.  I think he's over-estimating how precise you need to be in this game and/or really got his shorts in a bunch because he wanted to move but ended up attacking and it got him killed.  Also, if you hold shift down you fire at the mouse regardless of what is under it.

Don't let the "doing it wrong!" sway you, just another strong opinion on the internets.

I've been on the internet for almost a week and I think I know what to expect.

In the monk department, everyone gets some Exploding Palm and whoever dies first is the winner.  So I'm pressing some 2 and LMB a lot.  Is this loser talk?  Please rate me.

WTF, you didn't say, "noob", "doing it wrong" or "fail".  F

This is exactly what I'm doing.  I forget to use the other buttons sometimes.  It's literally punch and palm.  Everything dies.

Hey, stop being sensible when I'm trying to start a holy war.

But yeah, I just mean that if clicking a lot bothers you there's nothing stopping you from assigning your spammier abilities to the keyboard. Then you have to assign random buffs/cooldowns to the mouse buttons (since the game won't let you remap your primary/secondary skillslots to keyboard keys), which is sort of weird but you get used to it quickly.

I actually do this in shooters sometimes too, which is where the mouse precision becomes more important.

Somehow while I was extracting powers using the cube, I accidently changed my RoRG to something else. No wonder yesterday was so difficult. My build depends upon my 6th power from my set, and I am only wearing 5 pieces.  :headscratch:

You lack Discipline.

You guys also realize you don't need to spam click, because you can just hold down either mouse button and the game will auto spam the attack as fast as possible, right?   :awesome_for_real:

A lot of builds have cut RoRG out now actually.  Since a lot of builds require the 6 piece bonus, it's hard to get 3 pieces of another set in to get a worthwhile 4 piece power.  So the end result is that basically, RoRG is a stand in for another armor epic power, since it frees up exactly 1 slot in these builds.  If there is some awesome hat or something you really need (and the armor cube slot is already taken), sure.  Most of the time though, slotting in some other jewelry power is considered better.

Heh heh heh, nope, I didn't know that.  Thank you.

This has been bothering me.  You gave good advice for someone who has plans to do hardcore, because having an attack on the left mouse will get you killed when the mob density gets large and you need to move NOW, and you don't because you attacked instead of moved.  I just assumed that Yegolev was taking a more casual approach to this, and didn't really need hardcore advice.

So... good advice, cept for casuals.

Why do I let things like this bug me?  I don't know.  I'm broken, I guess.

I still have not seen one of these. I get countless of sames but not others. I wonder if they popped it up to T8 or beyond this season.

Nope, I snagged one during leveling. It was like lvl 52, then I cubed it well after 70.

I wonder if it shows up more for some classes? I have a WD and barb this season.

Pretty sure it is down to RNG just being Random.  I have one seasonal character atm, a Monk, and i think the Curio was the second legendary neck that dropped for me.  Meanwhile I think i have burned about 10000 blood shards and still  dont have either focus or restraint.

Yeah, the RNG can be brutal.  For example, I have one of every one of those 'protect you from shit' necklaces except the fire.  But I DO have that ring that lets me stand in the fire and recharge resource, as long as I don't mind dying.... 

Also, the wife has now had THREE seasonal legendary potions.  I still haven't seen one on any character ever.   :heartbreak:

It's the Cindercoat for me this season.  Normally I have dozens of them drop for me, but this season I can NOT get one.  I can't even hazard a guess how many Blood Shards I've spent on chest pieces between my WD and Wizard.

Fuck this game ...... for getting me completely sucked in again.

I have no idea how to evaluate what to reroll on my gear.  It seems completely unobvious for me.

Just play with shit until it's fun.  That's what I've been doing since I got sucked back in this weekend.  (Thanks again to Xanthippe for the power-level)

Finding a legendary weapon set recipe that gave me +100 resist and 10% attack speed was awesome. As was getting some legendaries with useful affixes like "7-sides strike hits 7 more times," so I built around those.

Is it one of the 'optimal' builds? No, that's what farming is for. However, I'm doing good and able to kill bosses now, where the "Exploding Palm uberbuild" of the month was just getting me killed since I didn't have the gear for it. Not being able to spread EP or have it do massive damage means the reliance on non-spirit-builders can really fuck a guy.

Since you mentioned the EP build, I was angling that way but I seem to have created a Thorns build instead.  I'd show you but looks like I don't have the authenticator installed on my main phone.  Something about occasionally doing 1000% of your thorns damage to enemies, combined with a basically absurd* about of life leech on hit, and the legendary that makes you occasionally explode.  EP is an afterthought at the moment.

The main problem is that I have that staff that makes everyone run away from me.  I'm sure I'll find a higher-damage weapon sooner or later.  I created a 50% Cains set but I didn't have the expected loot-enema afterward.

* For someone not quite in Torment but maybe soon.

Nothing really interesting happens until Torment I... if you look at the fine print on the difficulty levels it says on Torment I that "new Legendary items become available at 70"  Now that *could* mean 70 on all difficulties, but my experience suggests that I need to actually move to torment to get the new Set Legendaries to drop (I've yet to do the double blind test on this).  A full set of crafted 70 gear with some 70 uniques has been enough for me to at least crack open Torment.

When I first hit 70, I crafted myself a Sage's Set and a Cain's Set when I could, and then ran T1 public rifts and bounties. I couldn't quite handle split bounties (which is what public bounties are) so mostly ran rifts until I could - although no one complained when I couldn't handle it or was running the bounties too slowly.

I usually hate public groups but this game really lends itself to them. And the loot drop is remarkable in comparison. I'm surprised there aren't more people leeching - it doesn't really matter much unless you get more than one in a group, and that's only happened to me maybe twice out of the tens of groups (hundreds?) I've been in.

But I hate people.  Maybe I'll try it soon.

If anyone needs to do some split bounties and sees me on, let me know. (Stinkfist in game) I'm happy to join in and much prefer not playing with random jackasses. 

Also if anyone wants to level a new character, I can help with that as well.

My monk has been level 70 for all of a day and I can do Torment 1.  A large portion of this IS the legendary patterns I got when doing bounties this weekend. My gear is 3 different set pieces (monk shoulders, two weapons and a ring) and a bunch of Legendaries that dropped when I opened the loot explosions. By no means a powerful set, but like I said - make it work for what you've got, even if it's "sub-optimal."  After all +20% lightning damage vs +0% cold sure makes a bunch of different runes more attractive than the cold/ physical stuff people suggest.

Even if you hate people, get in an F13 group, Yeg. There's enough folks putzing around at higher torments than I am and bounties are quick runs. They don't bite much, either.

The Gem of Ease is fucking hilarious.  Utterly fucking hilarious.

The Gem of Ease is the perfect example of a set of game designers knowing what consumers want.

Shame you can't just start with it in Season mode. Or just start with a level 70 off the bat. The road to 70 is purely an exercise at this point.

Yeah, that's the problem with it, really;  by the time you've GOT a level 25 one, you don't really NEED a level 25 one.

But it's still fucking hilarious.  Stuck it in that 2 hander that makes things explode for your life on kill damage.  It has 12k life on kill on it.

When the Crusader went into Torment 1 at level 1, everything on the screen exploded.  And kept exploding.  For 45 more levels.


Fucking.  Hilarious.

I thought we can only put gems like that in jewelry.

EDIT:  Oh I see, most legendary gems say "Can be inserted into jewelry with sockets", Gem of Ease says "Can be inserted into a weapon with sockets".  I'll have to level it up, then.

Well I"m having fun and my gear allows me to do torment 3 pretty well, just trying to figure out how you advance past that.

I'm going to reiterate how odd I find it that this game became good.  I also find it hilarious how badly wrong they got it, as evidenced by the constant change in decisions.  I was thinking of this as I realised that people are building item sets in order to make the skills Not Suck and give them Choices They Do Not Normally Have.

But props to them for making it fun anyway.  If only we could have either unlimited chars or chars that meant something beyond items.  Or infinite stash space.

More character slots would be nice, I've deleted several level 70s.  I would stab a bitch for another stash tab though.

With no custom appearances and all Paragon points being shared across the account, what's the point of more character slots? I've got to ask because I literally don't see the advantage. Nostalgia? Making equipment swaps easier?

Stash space you can never, ever have enough of. I have a feeling that adding more would become a RMT thing, though.

In honesty, trying to avoid equipment swaps.....

More Chars = more stash space anyway, so why not wish for it ?


I did make the point (and have done previously quite a bit) that there's no point in multiple characters beyond 'keeping' a build and items in one place.

Well, if we had more stash space I wouldn't care about the character slots as much.  I have a few characters I'm keeping in Standard because they are holding equipment because my stash is full.  I have a few Hardcore characters as well.  Then you have your Seasonal characters.  My Seasonal stash is full as well so I've started making multiple characters of the same class just to hold all the equipment to run multiples builds.  For example I'm about to make a second WD so I can have one that runs HT + Sage for DB farming and another that runs a pet build.  It minimizes the pain of completely swapping builds and also clears up some stash space.

I'm dreading this season ending, to be honest.  I'm going to get so much fucking mail with items in it.

I'd buy another Tab for $15 right quick.

ditto

For $15 I'd want like 5 more, but yes.

I can only assume they are either going to announce an f2p like system of some sort or an expansion at Blizzcon.  There's no way they can keep giving us so many free updates without the higher ups realizing that all these people are spending hundreds of hours and not paying anything in a year and a half....

I'm with Ironwood, I'd like to be able to have a char for each class set.  But I'd also like to have more stash space because there are plenty of orange items that would work/help for different sets.

I've noticed that I don't seem to have an alternate weapon set.  Or it's very hard to see.  Since I still haven't found any key icons on my map, it could be me.

You mean like in old Diablo where you could put two weapon sets in and swap them with a key ?

Yeah, you don't get that.

Like in DII:LoD as well as Path of Exile. :oh_i_see:

Yeah, you don't get that.

I'm remembering why I quit last time.

I can't seem to get out of Torment 2-3.  I don't die but I can't seem to get enough damage to progress.  The fact that I just went 4 rifts with barely any blood shards and zero legendaries isn't helping either.

Are you in the F13 Clan?  If so message me through there or accept my friend request (Drevik#1955).  I can carry you through some rifts/grifts to get some upgrades and over the T2-3 hump.

Appreciate it.  I"m not in the F13 clan (in some 2-3 person clan with a real life buddy for no real reason). 

There's an F13 clan ?

Fucking Euro Servers.   :heartbreak:

It's ok, I'm on the North America server (even though I've lived in Europe for the last 3 years), and I just found out there was an F13 clan at the same time as you.   :awesome_for_real:


Guess I should maybe like, join or something.

Holy fuck, 16 treasure goblins at once.

Arg.

I originally set it so everyone in the F13 clan has the ability to invite. If you're friends with us on Battlenet and you see us in Diablo just ask to join.

Can you play on US servers?

I'm on a lot - Xanthippe or Xanthippe#1829 (I don't know which one is the one to use) and can invite. Should I just promote everyone?

Would there be any reason why Greater Rift Keys all of the sudden stopped dropping for me?

I just had one drop at T2 for my crusader and they seem to always drop at T7. I went 4 from 4 runs on my monk a few hours ago.

On a side note, with a maxed red gem in my helm and hellfire jewellery and a level 70 weapon that was accessable at level 30, it just took me over 5 hours to hit 70 from scratch. At level 30 I was raking in XP at Torment 2.

If you have a stack of them in your stash, check the count before and after you run the normal rift.  I didn't pay attention but I think new keys may be deposited straight into your stash checked, that's false, sorry.

T6 and above they are a guaranteed drop. From T1 through T5 they have an increasing chance to drop.

Thanks for the input.  My seasonal monk is still pretty new. I was just on T1 and got 3 of them out of my first 3 rifts.  Then like none in the next 4.  Then I got one after I bitched here.  :awesome_for_real:

Been a struggle to get relevant drops, so the power curve for me is going up pretty slow.  Just got that 2 set bonus that applies your exploding palm every 3 resource builder hits.  That's absolutely hilarious when combined with the lightning fist that arcs. 

If you don't then I will when I get online. No reason to not and I was promoting everyone when we started at launch.

As I said above (and this goes for anyone)...I'm always willing to carry people through rifts/grifts for loot.  I have 3 toons that can carry a whole group through T8 with no issue.  I get increased drops for every person in the group so it helps more than it hurts.  Friend me (Drevik#1955) or ask for an invite to the F13 clan (if not already in it) and you can just jump into my game at any time.  If you have a Wiz or Witch Doctor I'll even run that toon and give you my drops as well if it's a good useable drop I don't need (only a few ancient pieces I need at this point).

Clan is at Max officers allowed. I've edited the clan settings so even members can invite. I thought I had it that way to begin with.

So, a Ramalamalamalamadingdong item dropped for me.  I can now socket a nice weapon.

I can't find clarity on what the hell I should be using this on.  Clearly, it's so rare that I'd like to not fuck up.

What's the 'ideal' for one of these beasts ?

Ancient Legendary is all I ever socket with the exception of "just" legendary Flying Dragon for my monk. Ideally I want the Ancient bonus with a socket added.

Yup, Good Call, but what are the 'must haves' on a weapon these days ?  It used to be primary stat, attack speed and crit, but there's also +damage these days which can be a huge 10% boost.

What do you chaps look for in a weapon ?

It depends on your toon/build.  The basics are Ancient, a high damage range roll (if you hold Ctrl over the weapon it shows you the max rolls for every stat), +Primary Stat, +%Dmg, (stat based on build for example +Attack Speed).  If it has all those things than you can consider going for it.

I have somewhat decided that I can't worry much about weapon selection for now, which is why my lv70s are all using 2h weapons instead of something more class-appropriate.  Doing the math over if I can get a dagger+mojo which outdamages the Butcher's axe isn't something I salivate at the thought of.

IMO:  2h weapon if you mostly use cooldown skills, and each hand if you have spammable skills and weapons with legendary powers that you want to have.

For good or ill, my pantsless lady is using Haunt and Piranha Pond, plus the grabby hands.

I'm finding my monk has to do a shitload of running around not dying while waiting for 7sided to come off CD now that I have gundos bracers and ulinayas full set. It's obnoxious but goddamn do things just explode on that cd timer. I'm hoping I can get some survivability gear to drop or at least the Diabo with the 7sided cd reducer.   

Key part of that build is having The Flow of Eternity (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-flow-of-eternity) power in your Kanai's weapon slot.  Also, make sure you're using the Sustained Attack rune with 7 Sided Strike, obviously.

For survivability, Binding of the Lost (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/binding-of-the-lost) will cover the entire gap between 7 sided strikes with huge damage reduction (if you have Eternity that is).


A good way to get the eternity is to use the cube to upgrade Rare Diabo's.  There aren't that many Legendary Diabo's out there, so odds tend to be pretty good.

That's my Wizard Archon build in a nutshell. CD up, blow shit up. CD off, throw arcane at everyone to slow them while I run away.

Yeah that's the daibo I'm looking for. I've got the Lion's Head fist but that's just a "nice to have" not a CD mandate like the Diabo. I didn't consider the upgrade route because I'm so new to the cube and have been saving to strip powers out. I'll get some mats up and give it a shot tonight. Thanks!

I posted this before, but again, after playing around with a lot of versions of Ulina's, this still seems to be the best build:

http://www.icy-veins.com/d3/monk-ulianas-strategem-seven-sided-strike-build-patch-2-3

You want to slot the Eternity power for Kanai's weapon, because that means you can duel wield Lions Claw and The Fist of Az'Turrasq (http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/the-fist-of-azturrasq).  The fist can increase you Exploding Palm damage by 100%, and since that's where all the damage in this build comes from, basically means that power alone doubles your DPS.  Lions Claw combos nicely with that belt I linked above to give you up to 50% damage reduction between your 7 Sided Strikes.

I have that entire build now, and with all my CD reduction skills and Gems, in the middle of combat I can do a 7 sided strike ever 3-4 seconds currently.  Been doing T10 rifts with it.

That's the exact version I'm going for. Haven't had luck with pieces other than the set dropping, however.  I've got the Lion's Claw & Gundo, and a Talisman of Arnoch, but I' still looking for a Fist, waist and decent rings.

Witout the Diabo and the Fist, that's why I run around a lot. My 7-sided is at about 10 seconds CD, so that's a lot of dodging and praying

A madstone and flow of eternity are what you need in the cube to really make that build shine.

Madstone doesn’t actually seem to have much of an effect with this build.  Between the Ulina’s bonus and Gundos, Exploding Palm spreads like wild fire with little effort as is.  While Madstone means more explosions, so more DPS, you’ll find damage reduction is far more important when you are hitting T9/10 rifts.  That’s why using Spirit Guards is recommended instead, since that equals another 40% damage reduction (which is great on top of the 50% you can get with the belt).

If you ever see me on (I haven't been much this week), I'm happy to play my WD with anyone else who is looking for gear. I'm down to looking for a couple of ancient Helltooth pieces and maybe still making a few more Helltooth Amulets (although I've made probably a dozen). I shard a lot of WD stuff.

Also if anyone is leveling a new character, I'm happy to level you in rifts.

Finally picked this up along with the expansion a few days ago after hearing how good Season 4 was, and soloed a Hammerdin Crusader up to 70 and I'm sitting at like Paragon 80, but stalling out at Torment III. I'm just not sure what avenue to focus on for gearing up, since I need to be shooting for both the new set as well as the two or three legendary weapons most Hammerdins try to go for: Furnace, Johanna's mace, or Skycutter.

I've been alternating between doing bounties for the crafting bits to make Rare > Legendary cube attempts and doing rift runs for keys and Legendary drop chances and GRift runs for blood shards, but it feels like I'm spinning my wheels.

The very first thing you should focus on doing is play with f13 people.

A rather nice Ancient Scrimshaw dropped and since I fancy giving the bears build a try, I used my sockety thingy.

I'm rather pleased with the results.

It does take time (or luck); I think I started seeing the drops I wanted between paragon 100 and 200, and Torment 5 was an effort until I got the gear synergy going. 

When I first hit 70, I ran public bounties (T1). I wasn't very fast, but the way they work is that one Act has a bonus, so everyone goes to that Act and tries to complete a bounty. As the bounties are completed, those who are faster go to help those who are less fast. Then the reward gets turned in, and the bonus Act changes, and everyone goes to the new bonus Act to do the same thing.

I crafted myself a Sage's set for the +1 Death's Breath on pickup, and ran whichever Torment level public rifts I could keep up and not die in. Started at T1, then gradually could go to T2, T3, and so on. I continued to run bounties at T1, though, for speed. I did solo Grifts to level gems.

(I also crafted myself a Cain's set but I don't think it was all that helpful).

I used the Death's Breaths to upgrade rares to legendaries, and used extra set pieces with whatever recipe to finish off the set. (Something Nilfur, I think.)

Icy Veins has some good detailed builds with explanations about what works and why - better than the Curse site builds, I think, or at least more complete.

400+ death's breath and 5,000+ shards and still no Flow of Eternity. Goddamnit, it's never going to drop.  :oh_i_see:

Wait, what ?  That's what you've spent upgrading diabo's ?

The RNG is TRULY fucking you right up the ass there mate.

I got tired of my seasonal monk after T7. It was fun but waiting for the CD bored me. I could probably have put my Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac on her to speed up the CD but instead rolled a Barbarian and went Rend/Whirlwind. Good gear drops later and she's a monster - I seem to be able to run permanent Wrath of the Berserker along with permanent Call of the Ancients which is just awesome in grifts. Half the resists of the monk and she rips through mobs at T6 quicker than the monk. It's probably a shitty build but I have fun with it as long as I don't go nuts with rend and starve on fury.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Setanta-1696/hero/67545436

The ancient sword was an agi drop that I had to change to str but last night I had 2 consumables drop so I was able to socket. Happy days. I'd like a furnace to drop and something to cube- I hate running bounties so I don't cube a lot.

Yes it is, and yeah, I know. I know for a fact I've gotten 3 Inna's reach, 4 or 5 Flying Dragon, 4 The Paddle and a bunch of others. No Flow of Eternity. Fucking thing.

Well, you have my sympathy.  I've been rejigging for one of my last set pieces and it keeps fucking transmuting into the chest piece. Almost every time.

I hit level 70, got 2 paragon points finishing up whatever it was I was doing, and immediately jumped into T6 to shamelessly leech xp.

First group kicked me out a few minutes later, but I was already paragon 30.  After that, nobody seemed to notice I was just tooling around the maps picking up junk and contributing nothing in return.  Hell, as a Crusader I literally cannot keep up with the Barbarians and Monks anyway.  I'm always behind the pack whether I want to be or not.

Random junk, 150 paragon points and keystones from that was enough to go run solo greater rifts and T7 bounties easily.

I've decided to challenge myself and see how high I can get a non hammer build crusader.

Game really doesn't want to give me a Focus.  3 Restraints so far.  :awesome_for_real:

Once I have that and the fist weapon that does +exploding palm damage, all that's rest will be polishing and going after better rolls.

Since I have a gem of ease leveled and ready to go, is there another class that's has some fun builds for this season?

I have 1 focus and can't seem to get a restraint :P.

Barb and WD are the next most powerful and have some good builds.

Found this class while roaming around on the internets

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CPmqhDKUYAAmdiA.jpg)

Barb seems to be pretty broken indeed, but I just dont know if I could stand the playstyle.  Just seems to be nothing but holding whirlwind down and twirling to victory.   Unless there is something I am missing it just appears like it would be mind numbingly boring as hell.

Small question:  If i do the "reroll legendary" thing the cube offers, do i always get a variation of the same legendary back? And can it reroll to ancient? Cause I would hate to throw one of my fists in there and get a different fist back.

I've only done it once because I'm out of bounty material but it gave me the same fist back.  Wasn't ancient but I assume it can be since it doesn't say no ancients like the set reroll recipe does.

From what I've read rerolling a legendary has a 1/10 chance of it being legendary.

Also, apparently upgrading rares can produce sets and ancients as well.

*Edit*: woops, yeah meant that 1/10 to be ancient :P

lol.  Surely you meant 'ancient' there.

Otherwise, that's not a good deal.

Yes and Yes.

Can confirm the sets and ancients. When searching for a Flow of Eternity I got several ancient daibo that wound-up DE fodder and the Avena's weapon several times. Fuckers.

(Finally got my Flow by rolling a new Monk and leveling to 29. Got my daibo in 4 attempts.)

Restraint count is now up to 4.  :oh_i_see:  However, that exploding palm fist weapon finally dropped.  Sad part is that it rolled with an uninteresting damage type and it replaced an ancient weapon.

I've started to cube weapons/armor for the achievement, and I've discovered that I really don't like bounties very much. Luckily you don't need too many mats.

I can help you run more bounties when I get on tonight.

Finding a Flow (finally!) really helped.  Now to find that fist weapon that will increase exploding palm.   :oh_i_see:

Then... uh... level an ease gem and roll something else?  Probably a WD...

I got the fist weapon by transmuting from a rare. It worked far quicker for that than the Flow of Eternity because there's a lot fewer fist weapons in total.

Now I just have to keep rerolling them to tweak. The fist I had was only 1920 dps until I rerolled. Fuck was killing slow.

What is the most efficient way to get death's breaths?  Nephalim rifts?

What is this?

WoW, or possibly EQ, term.  DE=Disenchant.  Basically turn it into a crafting material.

Shame on you, Merusk. :oh_i_see:

Yes, speed runs. If I find a good rift group at tier VII I can get 10 a run or better.


10 year old habits die hard. I suppose I could have called them whatever the Diablo process is called, but I still think of it as "Disenchanting" the item rather than Disassembly or Recycling.

Yes, with a class that has a powerful Sage's speed farming build.  I can run a Witch Doctor Crazy Chicken with 4pc HT/3pc Sage's and get 20-30 DBs a run on T8 with a run averaging 5 minutes.

I think the reverse is actually true.  There are a ton of useless fist weapons, and I'm pretty sure I have all of them.  :awesome_for_real:   There seem to be about 8 different legendary Diabos you can get as a drop.

Really? Weird. I got the fist after very few attempts but I was easily in the 20+ range for Daibo transmutes and never got one until I had a low-level monk. It sucked.

RNGesus is a fickle savior. It took me around 6-10 Diabos to get a Flow and never did get the fist weapon in 20+ tries.  Got 3 Lion fists in the same batch.

Benefit is that now I have a lot of transmog options.   :awesome_for_real:

Yeah, gives you something to spend all that gold from the Death's Breath runs.  :why_so_serious:

Also helps with the Seasonal Journey which I'm working on now. At Slayer and need to get 50 legendary affixes. I've definitely got 50 I can do now, but running the bounties to be able to suck the procs out of all of them is going to suck.

Best way to farm those mats is to join the Bounty Split Farming community.  It goes really fast with a group of 4 people each doing different bounties at the same time.

Glad I finally finished up a Focus / Restraint Pair a while back.  Now, for a new challenge:  Get a pair of unity rings......fuck you RNGesus, fuck you.

I'm confused, can't you zap one of your extra rings into the one that you need? I thought they added a cube recipe that did that for this exact reason.

Only works on sets with 3 items or more. So, no ring sets.

edit: Restraint #5.  INTO THE PILE WITH YOU.

Funny, and the only one I ever find is Focus.  :awesome_for_real:

 :why_so_serious:  Yeah the same. I've got 4 Focus sitting in my bank to see which one will work best with whatever Restraint finally drops for me.

If you want to be leveled up just pm me. I can get you to level 70 in like a half hour.