[Gaming] Diablo 3 : Ser Farm-A-Lot
- Thread starter Jay
- Start date
Season 16 has been extended until May 12.
Good. My playtime schedule has been awful and I could use the extra playtime.
Meanwhile the announcement thread is full of people whining about how it sucks that Blizzard caps GR difficulty at 150 and how they’re stuck with nothing else to do but push paragon levels for an extra month because they were already paragon 1500+ by the end of January and now they’re SO BORED.
To which I say screw you, some of us don’t have the luxury of being able to play 60-80hrs/wk.
—Patrick
Good. My playtime schedule has been awful and I could use the extra playtime.
Meanwhile the announcement thread is full of people whining about how it sucks that Blizzard caps GR difficulty at 150 and how they’re stuck with nothing else to do but push paragon levels for an extra month because they were already paragon 1500+ by the end of January and now they’re SO BORED.
To which I say screw you, some of us don’t have the luxury of being able to play 60-80hrs/wk.
—Patrick
Well, finished up Conqueror on the European side. Just the 40 Cube recipes and three gems to 70 left (and I've already done GR75 solo easily so that wouldn't be a problem), and the third conquest...but Curses and Boss Mode are practically impossible solo, so I'd have to grind up a whole 'nother class, get two complete sets, then run a GR55 with 6 of them...A LOT of grinding for basically no reward at all, besides a slightly cooler picture frame. With the extension of the season, I'm now in doubt between that or starting over on America to try and get Conqueror on the US side as well.
Well if you do, let me know and I can give you a good head start. I haven’t tried above GR71 yet, but it’s an easy cruise at this point, even with only one augmented item. What with the extended season, I’m debating boosting my EU account or else making a play for getting the wings from mastering all the set dungeons while the buff is still in effect.
—Patrick
—Patrick
Just did the 6x55 one last night. Turns out it’s really not that difficult once you’re around P700 or so, especially when you have lvl70 gems to help out.
Also the TXIII<2 one isn’t that difficult IF you happen to join a public game where a P1720 WW Barb is farming rift stones. Yes, P1720. In Seasonal. Yeesh.
—Patrick
Also the TXIII<2 one isn’t that difficult IF you happen to join a public game where a P1720 WW Barb is farming rift stones. Yes, P1720. In Seasonal. Yeesh.
—Patrick
I’m impressed! I’m done with everything except conquest #3, right now I’m just bringing all my stones up to 70 to try out the different combinations. Sooo boooring.
—Patrick
Didn't you already have Years of War and Speed Demon? Wouldn't On a Good Day be quick and easy for you at that point?
I don’t have speed demon yet. The P1720 guy I was talking about earlier was helping a buddy of his and had already gotten him through that achievement before I joined the game. They were just doing full clears to farm for gear (and Vaults!) I tagged along because hey, free gear, but we never got a good rift for Speed Demon before they left the game.
Still plenty of time to try for it, though. It’ll give me a chance to perfect a Tempest Rush build, I suppose.
—Patrick
PTR this weekend for 2.6.5 and Season 17.
Season 17-specific buff:
-LoN always active (i.e., you can experiment with LoN builds plus two additional ring effects (OTHER than RoRG... because that would be pointless, right?)
I have LoN Barb and Monk builds I've been wanting to try, we'll see if I can put them together in time.
Highlights from the 2.6.5 changes:
-Higher Torment levels?
-Season journey now displays all steps no matter which step you're on. Finally! No more wondering about which future steps you've already completed.
-The usual tweaks to set stats and stuff
-Gob portals sometimes go moo
-Ancient/Primal Puzzle Ring portals get... buffed?
-Nephalem boss will now mark the map where it died. FINALLY no more rushing around trying to find the death pile after some WW Barb with +200% movement speed insta-shuts the rift while farming rift stones.
Eh, ok some nice changes but nothing really...
--Patrick
Season 17-specific buff:
-LoN always active (i.e., you can experiment with LoN builds plus two additional ring effects (OTHER than RoRG... because that would be pointless, right?)
I have LoN Barb and Monk builds I've been wanting to try, we'll see if I can put them together in time.
Highlights from the 2.6.5 changes:
-Higher Torment levels?
-Season journey now displays all steps no matter which step you're on. Finally! No more wondering about which future steps you've already completed.
-The usual tweaks to set stats and stuff
-Gob portals sometimes go moo
-Ancient/Primal Puzzle Ring portals get... buffed?
-Nephalem boss will now mark the map where it died. FINALLY no more rushing around trying to find the death pile after some WW Barb with +200% movement speed insta-shuts the rift while farming rift stones.
Eh, ok some nice changes but nothing really...
--Patrick
So, anyone playing this season? I'm in doubt between Necro and WD, as usual...I like both Jade and Inarius builds, and there aren't really any LoN builds I need to try. Though the LoN Skeletons solo build might be fun to try, there's really no other builds that lead up to it - even if they share items, they have different wanted stats.
I went to 70+6 on opening night...and I've been stuck there since due to lack of time.
You better believe I'm going to try for at least Conqueror to get that extra stash page, and I hope to get to Guardian to get the rest of the benefits.
I'm playing Barb right now because I have a mitigation build I want to try that depends on LoN, but since we get LoN for free this season that means I can have two extra rings for EVEN MORE mitigation.
I might also go Monk (since I have a LoN-based jackhammer fire build I also want to try) once I finish clearing out my bank and can dump another mule.
--Patrick
You better believe I'm going to try for at least Conqueror to get that extra stash page, and I hope to get to Guardian to get the rest of the benefits.
I'm playing Barb right now because I have a mitigation build I want to try that depends on LoN, but since we get LoN for free this season that means I can have two extra rings for EVEN MORE mitigation.
I might also go Monk (since I have a LoN-based jackhammer fire build I also want to try) once I finish clearing out my bank and can dump another mule.
--Patrick
Go WD because it’s awesome chaos!!
So, question time for those who are better at remembering items and affixes.This season, I haven't been following any sort of guide or build (yet - I guess I'll have to to finish Slayer...And I already have all the other rewards), instead trying to build something myself with what I find.
This has resulted in an Inarius necro (bone armor, swirling storm, lots of extra damage but 25 yard range), with the Bloodtide Blade (Blood nova does 400% extra damage per enemy within 25 yards) in the Cube, and using the Iron Rose offhand (using Blood Siphon grants a free Blood Nova) with the Funerary Pick (Siphon Blood hits 2 additional targets).
In addition I'm using Dayntee's binding (50% extra DR when an enemy is cursed). No Unity or Wisdom of Kalan yet, though, though they'd clearly be useful.
All in all, I'm pretty much destroying anything that comes within 25 yards of me, on TX. I'm struggling a bit with getting enemies in that range, though - Necro's don't really have much pulling power AFAIK - they hardly ever need it, anyway. But ranged enemies can really hurt me (which is why Unity and Kalan would both really help, I guess). I'm wearing an Ess of Johan right now to give *some* pulling power, but still...could be better.
All in all, I'm fairly confident this build can take T13 damage-wise, with some better rolls. Toughness-wise, though, I'm not so sure. Kalan and Unity would about triple my Toughness, so that'd help, but I'd probably still be too squishy.
Any suggestions/critiques? The Funerary Pick is kinda useless, both my current rings and the Cube slot are totally non-build right now (a RORG while you're wearing all 6 pieces is stupid, but I haven't found a better unique ring with a socket yet, and I'm wearin the Circle of Julian's Love while I'm not even using a mage!). Bracers are similarly up for anything (I guess a good Nemesis never goes astray). Currently I have Dayntee's in the Cube, but I could easily equip that and cube any other piece of armor, too...Considering all my Blood Nova's are free, maybe an Aquila's? I literally don't have a skill that uses Essence on my bar right now.
Only other problem is that my damage drops off quite a bit on a Rift Guardian, since there's only one enemy within range in most cases...So I have Army of the Dead as a single-target nuke, but that isn't the greatest ever, either.
This has resulted in an Inarius necro (bone armor, swirling storm, lots of extra damage but 25 yard range), with the Bloodtide Blade (Blood nova does 400% extra damage per enemy within 25 yards) in the Cube, and using the Iron Rose offhand (using Blood Siphon grants a free Blood Nova) with the Funerary Pick (Siphon Blood hits 2 additional targets).
In addition I'm using Dayntee's binding (50% extra DR when an enemy is cursed). No Unity or Wisdom of Kalan yet, though, though they'd clearly be useful.
All in all, I'm pretty much destroying anything that comes within 25 yards of me, on TX. I'm struggling a bit with getting enemies in that range, though - Necro's don't really have much pulling power AFAIK - they hardly ever need it, anyway. But ranged enemies can really hurt me (which is why Unity and Kalan would both really help, I guess). I'm wearing an Ess of Johan right now to give *some* pulling power, but still...could be better.
All in all, I'm fairly confident this build can take T13 damage-wise, with some better rolls. Toughness-wise, though, I'm not so sure. Kalan and Unity would about triple my Toughness, so that'd help, but I'd probably still be too squishy.
Any suggestions/critiques? The Funerary Pick is kinda useless, both my current rings and the Cube slot are totally non-build right now (a RORG while you're wearing all 6 pieces is stupid, but I haven't found a better unique ring with a socket yet, and I'm wearin the Circle of Julian's Love while I'm not even using a mage!). Bracers are similarly up for anything (I guess a good Nemesis never goes astray). Currently I have Dayntee's in the Cube, but I could easily equip that and cube any other piece of armor, too...Considering all my Blood Nova's are free, maybe an Aquila's? I literally don't have a skill that uses Essence on my bar right now.
Only other problem is that my damage drops off quite a bit on a Rift Guardian, since there's only one enemy within range in most cases...So I have Army of the Dead as a single-target nuke, but that isn't the greatest ever, either.
Hmm.
Briggs Wrath? This ring, when combined with Aura of Frailty, will yoink an enemy towards you if you can touch it with the edge of your aura, and you can expand your aura by upping your gold pickup. You can even retrigger the yoink by walking far enough away from the enemy and then walking back towards it. This yo-yo yoinking is handy if you’re also wearing Strongarm Bracers, which trigger on push/pull.
Krysbin’s Sentence is another one that will let you deal bonus damage to anything that is stunned, frozen, immobile, or under any kind of CC, which you can trigger with Bane of the Trapped or your choice of freezing skill (Siphon Blood:Suppress, Bone Armor: Dislocation, or any of the minion freeze spells) or item.
—Patrick
Briggs Wrath? This ring, when combined with Aura of Frailty, will yoink an enemy towards you if you can touch it with the edge of your aura, and you can expand your aura by upping your gold pickup. You can even retrigger the yoink by walking far enough away from the enemy and then walking back towards it. This yo-yo yoinking is handy if you’re also wearing Strongarm Bracers, which trigger on push/pull.
Krysbin’s Sentence is another one that will let you deal bonus damage to anything that is stunned, frozen, immobile, or under any kind of CC, which you can trigger with Bane of the Trapped or your choice of freezing skill (Siphon Blood:Suppress, Bone Armor: Dislocation, or any of the minion freeze spells) or item.
—Patrick
I'm still looking for Krysbins, but that's a valuable addition to pretty much any Necro build...I hadn't considered Briggs. I think it would probably do a better job than the Ess I'm using now, that's a great idea.
I'm now running it with Aquila's and Dayntee's, and I have no more problems surviving TX, on the contrary.
Sigh. The Thrill was easy, of course, with the LoN bonus...I started a WD either for 8 Set Dungeons or for 6x55. Not there yet...Just realized that 8 sets means doing the friggin' Helltooth again, which is a horrible PITA without Mara's. Ughhh.
My Necro somehow can't manage to accumulate more than 40million on a gold run, even with all gear and on T16. Once i've geared the WD she'll make short work of Avarice, probably.
My Necro somehow can't manage to accumulate more than 40million on a gold run, even with all gear and on T16. Once i've geared the WD she'll make short work of Avarice, probably.
I’m just an augment away from Conqueror and a 3rd conquest away from Guardian (probably Avarice). I only have 2 open slots right now (at least until the Conqueror bonus trickles down), so I’m running Barb and ‘sader. As of last night I’ve gotten them both to Solo 70, but what did I get for their guaranteed primals? A Goldskin for ‘sader and a Blind Faith WITH INT for my Barb. “Smart Loot” my STR-lovin’ behind.
—Patrick
—Patrick
Wait, you get a Primal for *every character* that gets to 70? I thought just the one for the first. Huh.
I got a Krysbinn's for my Necro, not perfect rolls but good enough that I'm actually using it.
Just need the gems to 70 (highest is 57 now) and 2 more conquests for Guardian. Gems might go faster if I did groups, but haven't ventured out of solo this season yet, and my Necro kinda struggled on GR70, I doubt I can take him to GR80 just yet. He two-shots Rift Bosses in T16 with a goldbuild, but he's a short-range glass cannon.
I thought the same. And then I got the second one, which could be coincidence, but I never got one on my Crusader until that solo 70 completion, soooo...
You only really need to take him to GR69, you’ll have a 60% chance to upgrade to 70.
—Patrick
Finished the Journey. Pretty wings!
That said, RNG is a dick. I got my very first Unity drop (despite gambling and upgrading rings for literally days) on the Rift Guardian at GR79. It also dropped a Primal Ancient Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, the weapon I've been using for my main build all season, on the RG of GR80, the very last I had to do. I mean, it's nice to have a Primal Krysbinn's and Primal Corroded Fang, but they came a bit late. Still no second Unity means I've died more often than Ted Neeley.
I also managed my - I think - first-ever 20K Billion+ hit while not under the power of a Power Pylon.
That said, RNG is a dick. I got my very first Unity drop (despite gambling and upgrading rings for literally days) on the Rift Guardian at GR79. It also dropped a Primal Ancient Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, the weapon I've been using for my main build all season, on the RG of GR80, the very last I had to do. I mean, it's nice to have a Primal Krysbinn's and Primal Corroded Fang, but they came a bit late. Still no second Unity means I've died more often than Ted Neeley.
I also managed my - I think - first-ever 20K Billion+ hit while not under the power of a Power Pylon.
I forgot to mention that, when going for the Avarice conquests, you of course head over to Adria's neighborhood while wearing all your best gold finding gear, but you do two passes of the catacombs.
The first pass, you wear the Illusory Boots*, and you don't kill anything (so watch your Thorns). Just run through and open all the doors and stuff and then run back outside.
The second pass, you swap your boots back out for whatever ones you do your killing with, and then you've triggered all the scarabs, opened all the doors, etc., so it should be smooth sailing with no breaks.
--Patrick
*Fun fact: Unless they've changed things, these boots even let you run through the walls that waller elites put up (I assume the game treats walls as just a monster that doesn't move).
The first pass, you wear the Illusory Boots*, and you don't kill anything (so watch your Thorns). Just run through and open all the doors and stuff and then run back outside.
The second pass, you swap your boots back out for whatever ones you do your killing with, and then you've triggered all the scarabs, opened all the doors, etc., so it should be smooth sailing with no breaks.
--Patrick
*Fun fact: Unless they've changed things, these boots even let you run through the walls that waller elites put up (I assume the game treats walls as just a monster that doesn't move).
I know, I've done Avaritia a few times now...and with T16 it's easier than ever. It's far, far easier with a WD than with a Necro, though, simply because of the mobility. Last conquest I finished was 6xGR55, yesterday. Today I took my gems to 70. Just can't live with under-90% upgrade chances so went to GR80 solo, as most seasons.
TIL if you are idle long enough for the game to disconnect you from the server, it will NOT release the memory it was using.
So when you sign back in again and start playing where you left off, there will still be about 7GB RAM in use from the last time.
Which means if you go idle again, well...let's just say I couldn't figure out why my computer was freezing and complaining at me that my pagefile space was exhausted (I had it at a fixed size) because Diablo was using ~20GB of pagefile.
Sooo...yeah, keep an eye on RAM usage on longer play sessions, I guess. Thanks, Blizzard!
--Patrick
So when you sign back in again and start playing where you left off, there will still be about 7GB RAM in use from the last time.
Which means if you go idle again, well...let's just say I couldn't figure out why my computer was freezing and complaining at me that my pagefile space was exhausted (I had it at a fixed size) because Diablo was using ~20GB of pagefile.
Sooo...yeah, keep an eye on RAM usage on longer play sessions, I guess. Thanks, Blizzard!
--Patrick
Hah! @Bubble181 if you think that's something, check out the results of my mitigation research:
...with 24 billion toughness, I can literally stand there and not do anything in T16 and not die. Have not tested it against arcane sentries yet, though. I might actually have to push some keys or click my mouse to survive if they're around.
--Patrick
...with 24 billion toughness, I can literally stand there and not do anything in T16 and not die. Have not tested it against arcane sentries yet, though. I might actually have to push some keys or click my mouse to survive if they're around.
--Patrick
Yeah. Last I checked, the top seasonal Barbarian is running GR140-ish solo. As of a few days ago, he was something like P2965.
Oh, to have that kinda time to game.
--Patrick
To be fair, I don't think I could keep going like that. I mean, once I finish a season's journey I'm usually done. I may optimize a bit more to get to GR80 solo, but after that I lose interest because significant upgrades start to come so slowly. Finding an ancient version of an item you're wearing is still probably not an upgrade unless the rolls are perfect. Ugh.
Welp the season is off to a start. I managed to start playing last night around 10p and hit lvl 70 somewhere around 4am.
Also meanwhile I'm 69 going on 70 I get the message that "So-n-so is the first player in the Americas region to complete GR75 solo ... in hardcore" all of maybe 11hrs after season start. Plus all the messages I got during the climb announcing 4-man groups finishing so many of the other conquests. Sheesh, some people and their copious free time.
--Patrick
Also meanwhile I'm 69 going on 70 I get the message that "So-n-so is the first player in the Americas region to complete GR75 solo ... in hardcore" all of maybe 11hrs after season start. Plus all the messages I got during the climb announcing 4-man groups finishing so many of the other conquests. Sheesh, some people and their copious free time.
--Patrick
So how's everybody doing this season? I'm playing a Zuni Carnevil Witch Doctor this time around...Now, while I really like this play style (lots of practically immortal facetanks and turrets? Lovely!), this build is just....so unbalanced.
I'm completely melting everything around me with ease - as in, one-shotting GR guardians on GR75 - but if someone manages to breathe on me around my Wall of Fetishes, I'm dead. I remember when i was happy getting a 5 Billion crit, and that build was plenty strong to do GR70. Now I'm doing 15000 Billion crits with not-even-that-optimal gear...And since that's my fetishes doing the damage, there's usually 10 of those darts heading to whoever's in my way. It's ridiculous. Most of my hits are three-figure Billion numbers.
Only downside is speed. This build cannot use Manajuma (the chicken set), meaning I can do GRs all the way up to 70 or so under 4 minutes consistently...But I've only done one or two GRs under 3 minutes, and I simply don't move fast enough to push out a 2 minute rift. Sigh.
Also, I'm still not happy with my jewelry choices. I dislike the Convention of Elements, and I'd happily replace it with a good-rolled Unity, if there was such a thing. I still might with a badly rolled one, if I ever get one! And the Flavor of Time...Yeah, it's got a pretty fun unique power now (Pylon effects last 2x as long) but that, as well, just won't drop with a decent roll to save my life.
Any suggestions on good jewelry? I'm not sure this build would be a good fit for the Endless Walk, though I might have to try...
I'm completely melting everything around me with ease - as in, one-shotting GR guardians on GR75 - but if someone manages to breathe on me around my Wall of Fetishes, I'm dead. I remember when i was happy getting a 5 Billion crit, and that build was plenty strong to do GR70. Now I'm doing 15000 Billion crits with not-even-that-optimal gear...And since that's my fetishes doing the damage, there's usually 10 of those darts heading to whoever's in my way. It's ridiculous. Most of my hits are three-figure Billion numbers.
Only downside is speed. This build cannot use Manajuma (the chicken set), meaning I can do GRs all the way up to 70 or so under 4 minutes consistently...But I've only done one or two GRs under 3 minutes, and I simply don't move fast enough to push out a 2 minute rift. Sigh.
Also, I'm still not happy with my jewelry choices. I dislike the Convention of Elements, and I'd happily replace it with a good-rolled Unity, if there was such a thing. I still might with a badly rolled one, if I ever get one! And the Flavor of Time...Yeah, it's got a pretty fun unique power now (Pylon effects last 2x as long) but that, as well, just won't drop with a decent roll to save my life.
Any suggestions on good jewelry? I'm not sure this build would be a good fit for the Endless Walk, though I might have to try...
I'm doing all DEX this season, and right now my sticking points to finish the season are TX<2 and mastering a set dungeon. I wanted to go pure Monk, but I added DH just so I could have more choice on set dungeons (Natalya's is usually pretty easy for me to do). Best performing build right now is Monk fire bell (Sunwoko/Wave of Light) which is consistently doing 500bil or so per hit. I don't have all the pieces for DH/UE/Multishot yet, but my ultimate goal this season was to build around Monkey King/Shenlong. It's pretty awesome to be doing over 1 trillion dps via my primary skills, but I haven't mastered timing all the required button mashing yet.
And yes, it took me until about 2 weeks ago to finally get my first Unity, too.
The biggest sleeper this season seems to be the rework of the Crimson Trimmings set, which substantially rewards building around cooldown and cost reduction, don't know if it would be better to work that into your build in place of jewelry. Fair warning, though. You talk about the downsides of your glass cannon-ness, but the meta appears to be moving toward semi-mandatory party play for the higher GR levels, where you have to have a dedicated tank, a dedicated striker, and 2x buff/debuff to be able to complete them in time. I've kind of settled on GR80 so far (with Monk), will probably not start pushing rifts in earnest until I hit P800 (at P700 now).
--Patrick
And yes, it took me until about 2 weeks ago to finally get my first Unity, too.
The biggest sleeper this season seems to be the rework of the Crimson Trimmings set, which substantially rewards building around cooldown and cost reduction, don't know if it would be better to work that into your build in place of jewelry. Fair warning, though. You talk about the downsides of your glass cannon-ness, but the meta appears to be moving toward semi-mandatory party play for the higher GR levels, where you have to have a dedicated tank, a dedicated striker, and 2x buff/debuff to be able to complete them in time. I've kind of settled on GR80 so far (with Monk), will probably not start pushing rifts in earnest until I hit P800 (at P700 now).
--Patrick
Huh, hadn't seen that set...I agree that, for the right build, that might be an awesome combo to make with a class set. Getting both to 60-70% is fairly trivial. I'm wearing the new Aughild's myself, which is pretty neat, but the Crimson bonuses might scale better.
And luckily I don't care much for the meta. As long as there's a solo way to do things, and builds are still available to look at/branch from.
I've actually never played any of the Dex classes for more than maybe an hour - a DH I once made on America and you powerleveled is still the only 70 Dex character I've ever had. Maybe I should break out of my mold and build a Monk or DH next season.
I've finished the Journey, except for x gems to 70 and the three conquests. Three to 65 and GR 75 Solo are obvious and easy, I guess I'll have to go multiplayer for a bit to get the TX <2min, too. Chest isn't happening, and this build definitely isn't capable of Boss Mode.
And luckily I don't care much for the meta. As long as there's a solo way to do things, and builds are still available to look at/branch from.
I've actually never played any of the Dex classes for more than maybe an hour - a DH I once made on America and you powerleveled is still the only 70 Dex character I've ever had. Maybe I should break out of my mold and build a Monk or DH next season.
I've finished the Journey, except for x gems to 70 and the three conquests. Three to 65 and GR 75 Solo are obvious and easy, I guess I'll have to go multiplayer for a bit to get the TX <2min, too. Chest isn't happening, and this build definitely isn't capable of Boss Mode.
Oh, I'm in no way advocating DEX as superior or anything. I just try to do something new every season, and this time around it's a Monk build I wanted to try. Augild's also received a tweak this season, though I don't remember the exact differences. The Chest and TX conquests go much better in multiplayer, assuming everyone can do enough damage to overcome the 4p boost to monster health/damage. Alternatively, don't forget you can redo one of the "easy" conquests but in hardcore to essentially get credit for it again.
I'm with you on the solo stuff. My schedule won't let me do anything but PUGs, so any game that requires team play might as well say, "...except for you."
--Patrick
I'm with you on the solo stuff. My schedule won't let me do anything but PUGs, so any game that requires team play might as well say, "...except for you."
--Patrick