Patch 2.4 and Season 5

[Merusk]

Ok, I'm getting stuck at ~50 on my 'sader.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Merusk-1698/hero/71098109

The Akarat's Awakening is cubed rather than Blood Brother because I haven't had another AA drop. That one dropped in my 30s so I cubed it and went with the best shield I had. Ditto with Justice Lantern and Conviction of elements. Goldskin isn't supposed to be there, it's actually Aquila but I was farming a bit last night.

Still can't get a goddamn socket roll on my Traveler's Pledge, either. Terrible luck all 'round.

[Stewie]

Can you roll off the the damage on your pigsticker for attack speed? more speed = more application of thorns.

Also I would switch your punish to celerity and drop bombardment.

here's my sader for example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Stinkfist-1403/hero/66756998

For legendary gems I use the Boyarsky's chip (obviously), bane of the stricken and bane of the trapped.   

[Merusk]

I can give that a shot, I think the socket came naturally on that sticker.

I had something else in place of Bombardment before, but I never used it. I figured get the +thorns damage if the skill slot was just sitting passive like that. I'll give Akarat's a go.

You're missing a rune on your steed, BTW.

[EWSpider]

I'm dubious.  I tried acid cloud with helltooth, the damage from it was utterly unimpressive.

I think I have all the pieces, I can try it again, but I am very skeptical it can push to GR 70.

I have a non-season WD with the exact Helltooth build I posted, so I decided to dust him off and see what I could do.  I ran a GR 62 since that was the highest I had available and definitely struggled with it.  I had a terrible rift, but just barely managed to complete it.  Overall I'd say the build definitely feels weak compared to most of my DH builds where I was able to complete GR70 with less optimized gear than my WD.

[Segoris]

In addition to what Stewie said, I'd say switch your CoE for another Justice Lantern and cube CoE. Your CoE has low rolls with low str, and CHC does next to nothing for a thorns sader. However, JL would give you more % to block, which increases its own passive as well as having a greater chance to reduce your cooldowns faster through Akarat's Awakening.

Start looking to replace the traveler's set. Run hellfire portals to be able to craft a useful hellfire amulet, and then keep going for an ancient hellfire amulet with a useful passive.

On the pig sticker, I'd actually go for cooldown reduction first. After str and vit, that is probably the best stat you can have, right above or equal to all resist. You need a different pig sticker anyways though. That or a doombringer, and look for str -> vit -> cdr -> attack speed -> lph (for pig sticker) -> socket, with no regard to weapon damage.

I'm guessing you were running cookie cutter before and had Akarat's Champion in place of Bombardment. A.C. would not be doing much for you until you get your cooldown reduction % and block % high enough so the cooldown is closer to matching the duration. However, it's still doing more for you than Bombard is until you can run LoN Bombardment through the damage reduction and damage increase.

Switch Laws of Hope for Laws of Justice:Decaying Strength. It's used constantly and for good reason. The 15% damage reduction is going to reduce your incoming damage by more than 10k lps and 100k shield that Laws of Hope will benefit for you. Another option would be Laws of Valor: Invincible, but that is far behind LoJ:DS. I'm actually about to try dropping Laws all together and going for condem:Vacuum, but that is experimental.

On your legs - reroll the +punish damage to Vit, All Res, Armor, or +bombard%.

Gloves - reroll for CDR

Switch your vit gems for +280 str

These changes should easily get you to gr60+.

[Merusk]

As I said with the shield, the COE is worn because I haven't gotten a L70 Lantern yet. Fucking drops. What you outlined is the plan, though.

Yep I recall having AC before and it was too long on CD to be worthwhile. That was before I got to where I'm at now, though, so adding some CDR gear might have made it more useful now. I know I need a different weapon, again, drops. I'm getting more set and belt drops than any useful weapons or shields. RNGesus is infuriating.

Laws of Hope isn't for the shield or heal, it's for the run speed and ability to run-through mobs. I was getting stuck behind masses and Poison/ Laserbeam/ Succubus Bulleted/ Moltened to death. Keeping LOH lets me pop it and run away where I'd otherwise be cornered. Avoiding damage entirely > mitigating it.

I'd forgotten about my gloves, I stopped there when I ran out of mats. Hadn't thought about rerolling the pants I'll give that a go, thanks.

Still need more rubies to drop. I'm slowly building there but I've got a metric asston of the rest. I got enough to make one imperial ruby last night.  I might just do the conversion thing in the cube, but farming mats is unfun. Fuck Blizzard for bringing that asstastic WoW element into this game.

[Polysorbate80]

The gem conversion doesn't require anything except the gems, some death's breath, and the expensive vendor reagent.

Make yourself some +280 whatever gems, stick them in the box and turn them into whatever you want.

[Soulflame]

I'm dubious.  I tried acid cloud with helltooth, the damage from it was utterly unimpressive.

I think I have all the pieces, I can try it again, but I am very skeptical it can push to GR 70.

I have a non-season WD with the exact Helltooth build I posted, so I decided to dust him off and see what I could do.  I ran a GR 62 since that was the highest I had available and definitely struggled with it.  I had a terrible rift, but just barely managed to complete it.  Overall I'd say the build definitely feels weak compared to most of my DH builds where I was able to complete GR70 with less optimized gear than my WD.

The biggest problem I see is the lack of DR.  You'll get oneshotted by pretty much anything that avoids your fetishes.

[Segoris]

Of course everything is drop dependent. And I totally missed your comment about your JL and CoE. Oops.

With the Laws of Hope thing, what you're doing makes sense though more CDR will help with that too by having your steed ready faster. If you find you're feeling stuck between mobs, other options include gemming a RoRG and use either a Leoric's Crown or the bounty cache boots that let you walk through mobs. Or, you can use the 2h+shield set items. I used those for a bit and it was close enough in effectiveness that the extra mount time was worth it while I was gearing. Though, I'm honestly surprised you have a chance at dying at all even when stuck. Around that gear level I don't remember GR40-50mobs being able to touch me.

As for gems, I'm with Poly.

[Merusk]

Charge is buggy as fuck, I get stuck on mobs very often and its obnoxious. I shouldn't have to jiggle my mouse to remind the game I'm on a horse but I do, very often, so I started relying on LoH instead.

Mobs don't touch me, environment effects do. It's very weird. I'll be standing there brazenly tanking a few dozen things then some poison or molten path mob or a few of the Succubus join in and I'm dying quickly.

[Ironwood]

I fucking hate that horse.

[EWSpider]

I'm dubious.  I tried acid cloud with helltooth, the damage from it was utterly unimpressive.

I think I have all the pieces, I can try it again, but I am very skeptical it can push to GR 70.

I have a non-season WD with the exact Helltooth build I posted, so I decided to dust him off and see what I could do.  I ran a GR 62 since that was the highest I had available and definitely struggled with it.  I had a terrible rift, but just barely managed to complete it.  Overall I'd say the build definitely feels weak compared to most of my DH builds where I was able to complete GR70 with less optimized gear than my WD.

The biggest problem I see is the lack of DR.  You'll get oneshotted by pretty much anything that avoids your fetishes.

DR?

[Rasix]

Damage resistance.

I'm having a hard time finding a WD spec I actually like that's effective.  Right now I'm just using something that I know clears TX pretty reliably and doesn't get one shot all of the time.  I can even run it without spirit vessel.

I tried a garg build with no real spamable spell.. boy that was boring. Just wait around for your gargs to kill shit and reset your wall of death/piranha cool downs.

I may just try out my wizard.  Anyone have a fun build that's not too terrible to put together?

[Soulflame]

I think of it as Damage Reduction, but yes, your ability to reduce damage is sorely lacking in that build.

I might try using Traveler's Pledge or Sacred Harvester/That Bracer to see if it would improve that build.

[EWSpider]

I think of it as Damage Reduction, but yes, your ability to reduce damage is sorely lacking in that build.

I might try using Traveler's Pledge or Sacred Harvester/That Bracer to see if it would improve that build.

Ahh, yeah you have to be paying attention and quick with Spirit Walk (everything is slowed by Iceblink and all the cold damage).  The damage output was more the issue.  Still not a build I'd care to push higher grifts with though.

[rattran]

My crusader was doing terrible, with no set drops. So I put on an LoN, and a bunch of ancient stuff my DH got.
Shit melts fast, though the thorns/bombardment build is kinda boring.

[Soulflame]

So I tried the Helltooth Acid Cloud build, but I didn't have all the gems leveled up yet.  Working on that.

Ran up to GR 39 so far, no issues.  I even was running up to about GR 17 without the hat, so no six piece.   

I honestly think I'm going to try traveler's pledge, and unity/convention.  Should be good for a lot of DR, and Focus/Restraint is annoying to keep up anyway.

If that doesn't work, I'll try Sacred Harvester/Damage reduction bracer.

Although I am already seeing the same thing you were, the damage at GR 39 is still fine, but is already starting to fall off in effectiveness.

[Merusk]

Thanks again for trying to toss me some gems last night, Seg! Too bad we didn't know they're account bound!

Anyway I tried the tweaks mentioned. (Except the sticker, turns out I had to roll for that socket)  Flew through GR50 like it was EZ mode now. Akarat's instead of Bombard, reroll the gloves and legs for CDR, bam, big performance increase.  (Can't reroll punish damage for anything other than a basic skill)

Also rerolled all my emeralds and amethysts to flawless and  had enough to transmute them to rubies so I have flawless imperials everywhere now. Also a nice bump in DPS.

Now it's all waiting on goddamn drops. Oh, and refilling my gold since forging that many gems, buying the essences and such wiped me down to 50million gold. One empowered rift later I only have 2 million. I'm a poor! Time for some goldfind gear and leeching off some tier X rifts.

[Soulflame]

I would suggest looking at leveling Boon of the Hoarder, then running as high level a rift as you can.  Probably could still easily run TX with it replacing one of your other gems.

Boon of the Hoarder, Goldwrap, and an Avarice ring!

[Merusk]

Not coincidentally boon is one of the gems I have at 35. I didn't get any of my "Mandatory" gems for the first several greater rifts, so it was already ~21 when I needed the achieve. Far easier to take it to 35 (and now 45) than grind the damn runes for Greater Rifts and then run rifts to level another. I'm uber lazy about this.

Avarice ring is the only thing I need.. but I've got the "enemies explode in a shower of gold" item to go with Hoarder and goldwrap, so farming is easy it's just boring.

[Soulflame]

You could also look at crafting the shoulders of corruption, they extend gold pickup range by 7.

That probably would be too much though, you'd need RoRG at that point.

[WayAbvPar]

My latest Avarice plan- wear gold gear, then sit at the entrance to Ruins of Corvus while someone else clears the whole thing on TX. Then run through and harvest all the gold that drops. Who wants to be my guinea pig?

[Hutch]

OK, what genius at Blizzard decided that Wizards need to learn to use Firebird?

I'm frustrated by the set dungeon. 

So I rifted and gambled and grinded Act I for a bit. Now I have 5-pc Tal Rasha + rorg, and did the set dungeon for that instead.
Just as silly, but it felt achievable and frustrating, rather than merely frustrating.

I also found Mantle of Channeling and Etched Sigil, so my Disintegrate based lifestyle has shot up from T4 to T7 in short order. I can probably handle T8 if I build up a little more defense.

[WayAbvPar]

So I got a wild hair and decided to bang out some set dungeons. Finished IK and Raekor's, but got stymied on Wastes (I finished Earth previously). Dusted off my wizard (who did Firebird before), and got outfitted for Tal Rasha. What a fucking pain in the ass. Fuck rockworms to death. I don't see how you can solo it without A) memorizing the exact location of every worm, B) being geared just so, and C) getting lucky. There is not enough time to avoid the worms while trying to hurry WHILE trying to apply 4 stacks of elemental damage. ARGH.

[Hutch]

Galvanizing Ward.

It's not a magic bullet, but it does provide you with some pre-loaded defense against a surprise attack.

[Stewie]

I'm pretty stoked, I finally hit greater rift 70 (14min 57.633 seconds)

This was the last achievement I needed for the Guardian season Journey. Woot!

Not sure if there is anything worth working towards now though  :(

[WayAbvPar]

You should help me get my goddamned set dungeons done so I can get the Conquest for it!

[Merusk]

I have no idea how I'm going to get a second conquest for the seasonal achieve. The rest is simple.

Hating this bullshit grind.

[Stewie]

The conquests I ended up doing are :

- Avarice: Complete a 50M gold streak while out of the Vault and Inner Sanctum. Just farm t10 rifts until you find a gilded baron, switch to gold gear (don't need much) and you are all good.
- The Thrill: Reach GR45 without any set item equipped. this wasn't too bad.
- Years of War: Reach GR55 with bonuses from 6 class sets (2 crusader, 3 dh and 1 wiz set) There is at least 1 set in each class that can hit grift 55 pretty easy and the set items aren't that hard to get.

I found hitting GRift 70 was the hardest.

[Soulflame]

Isn't it GR 60?  I have the tab, and I have not gotten anywhere near GR 70.

[Merusk]

He did the next tier, I'm still on the "get a stash tab" one.

Avarice I knocked out without even trying. One gold goblin while gold farming and I was set. Wasn't even my intent to go around finding one, I was just running a normal rift on Tier X.

GR45 I gave a shot but got my ass kicked. I don't have the ancient gear to make the ring set work even partially well. It seems every time I get an ancient item it's part of my set or off-class.

No way I'm doing Years of War. I don't play enough to get sets for multiple characters.

I considered the 1h run, but apparently the best way of trying involves 4 characters with one staying in town to do turnins. Nah.

[Pennilenko]

GR45 I gave a shot but got my ass kicked. I don't have the ancient gear to make the ring set work even partially well. It seems every time I get an ancient item it's part of my set or off-class.

Having the ring set for ancients wont work, since for that conquest you cant have any set bonuses at all.

[Soulflame]

I didn't even see that there was another level to it.  Eugh.

[Merusk]

GR45 I gave a shot but got my ass kicked. I don't have the ancient gear to make the ring set work even partially well. It seems every time I get an ancient item it's part of my set or off-class.

Having the ring set for ancients wont work, since for that conquest you cant have any set bonuses at all.

Shit that's right. So I'm even more screwed. Whee.

[Segoris]

GR45 I gave a shot but got my ass kicked. I don't have the ancient gear to make the ring set work even partially well. It seems every time I get an ancient item it's part of my set or off-class.

Having the ring set for ancients wont work, since for that conquest you cant have any set bonuses at all.

Shit that's right. So I'm even more screwed. Whee.

It's not the build I used, but it's pretty close. http://www.diablofans.com/builds/76793-s5-conquest-the-thrill

You'll still be gearing for thorns, and I don't even remember having a unity ring on me or my follower or even many ancient pieces when I did this. Ancients will help, but I wouldn't call them required. I think for the weapon cube you can even switch it to In-Geom or Blood Brother if you wanted. Or even swiftmount.