Diablo III:3 Kanai Fix It?

[Traab]

Sounds sweet. Now, as a random question, that skill that summons a giant bell on top of my enemies, im blanking on the name, whats the best overall choice in runes? For awhile I was using the one that summons a pillar that does damage then another 785% damage over 3 seconds or something like that. But im not sure what the best choice overall is.

[Dhavaer]

Sounds sweet. Now, as a random question, that skill that summons a giant bell on top of my enemies, im blanking on the name, whats the best overall choice in runes? For awhile I was using the one that summons a pillar that does damage then another 785% damage over 3 seconds or something like that. But im not sure what the best choice overall is.

I liked the fire one for general fighting and the storm pillar for bosses.

[Traab]

Thanks. And new milestone, I was able to clear a torment 4 rift. It took freaking forever though, so now im nervous about spending a keystone to go for the level 20 grift. My dps sucks. But at least my surviveability is pretty solid. I have the 4 piece set gear bonus so all mantra passive effects are in place. Eh, I will go for it. Worst case scenario I fail and need to loot a few regular rift runs looking for dps upgrades of some sort.

[Psyren]

My dps sucks.

All right, let's take a lookie...

Okay, your first big issue is that (at least as of this writing) you're not using Mystic Ally at all, so your 2-pc set bonus isn't doing anything for you. That's a lot of damage (or toughness) that you're leaving on the table. For example, Fire Ally alone would get you another 80k damage passively (over a 20% increase in damage due to your set bonus), not counting the damage that the Ally itself would be doing by punching things or detonating 5 times for 480% each. I'd drop either SSS or BoH for it; you have no cooldown reduction anyway, so both of those probably have a lot of downtime where they aren't helping you.

Second are the affixes on your gear. A bit of gearing advice that I live by is to go for offensive affixes on the pieces that can take them (gloves, bracers, helm, weapon/offhand, rings etc.) and then go full defense on the pieces that usually can't (chest, belt, pants, boots.) For example, your gloves have a life on hit affix that you can reroll to crit damage for a pretty big damage increase. I tried rerolling you to the average value (38%) and your sheet damage shot up another 60k. Alternatively, reroll that to attack speed - the average value there (6%) gave you another 60k because you're using such a powerful but slow weapon. And speaking of your weapon, that vitality could be rerolled to damage % or attack speed % as well for another damage spike. (Best of all, even if you get fire skills later, the crit will still help you.)

The first things that I would reroll straightaway are affixes that aren't doing anything for your build. For example, your bracers have +fire damage, but you're not using any fire skills, so that affix is doing nothing for you. Reroll that to crit % for another big damage spike. Similarly, your shoulders have dashing strike damage, your helm has lashing tail kick damage, and your belt has crippling wave damage - you aren't using any of these skills. Rerolling those to life, crit and armor respectively would give you both damage and toughness without costing you anything at all.

[Traab]

Well I switched out for the fire ally, and I tried a few suffix switches only to run face first into stupidly unlucky rerolls. I managed to switch around a few, like I think one of my +fire damage was turned to physical. Then I ran the level 20 greater rift. I summoned the guardian with 5 seconds left on the clock. Not good enough to get the dang achieve. Ah well, I willf art around farm up some more cash and keep rolling for better afixes. Oh speaking of money, I looted a puzzle ring. Thats the item that can be used to open a portal to greeds realm right? How does that work?

[Psyren]

Good luck!

Oh speaking of money, I looted a puzzle ring. Thats the item that can be used to open a portal to greeds realm right? How does that work?

You stick it in the cube and press the button Yep, that's it.

I'd hang onto it until you can do TX though... or at least T6 if you see that taking a long time. (IIRC you play solo a lot, right?)

[Traab]

Good luck!



You stick it in the cube and press the button Yep, that's it.

I'd hang onto it until you can do TX though... or at least T6 if you see that taking a long time. (IIRC you play solo a lot, right?)

Yeah I only play solo. I tend to do a single rift or set of bounties then log off for awhile then come back and do it again. I just dont have the mentality to grind for long periods of time anymore. I like to log in, do what I came to do then get out. As an example, I put it on torment 2 and blitzed the keywardens and izual for the season achieves in a single play session and that was it. I still log on a dozen times a day or so depending on what im doing so I get a lot done its just in tiny portions.

[mangosta71]

Finally started my monk, got to level 60, and scored Crudest Boots and Flow of Eternity. Now I just need to get to 70, do the stuff to get my Inna's, and farm up lots of Death's Breath (I crafted the Sage set since I was going to want it anyway and needed to craft something for the seasonal journey). Oh, and get my hands on a RoRG. Thinking I'll want to cube the daibo so I can dual wield (mostly for the benefits of one more legendary, but also the faster attack speed) eventually, but this thing rolled really well on the base damage...

[Psyren]

Yeah I only play solo. I tend to do a single rift or set of bounties then log off for awhile then come back and do it again. I just dont have the mentality to grind for long periods of time anymore. I like to log in, do what I came to do then get out. As an example, I put it on torment 2 and blitzed the keywardens and izual for the season achieves in a single play session and that was it. I still log on a dozen times a day or so depending on what im doing so I get a lot done its just in tiny portions.

Getting geared in solo only is going to take a lot longer but is doable (especially with Haedrig's Gift giving you a boost.) If you focus on the reroll priority I listed above you should clear GR 20 eventually.

If you ever do want to give MP a try though, there should be other EU Playgrounders here who'd want to help out - you woudn't have to brave the wilds of pub games or anything.

Finally started my monk, got to level 60, and scored Crudest Boots and Flow of Eternity. Now I just need to get to 70, do the stuff to get my Inna's, and farm up lots of Death's Breath (I crafted the Sage set since I was going to want it anyway and needed to craft something for the seasonal journey). Oh, and get my hands on a RoRG. Thinking I'll want to cube the daibo so I can dual wield (mostly for the benefits of one more legendary, but also the faster attack speed) eventually, but this thing rolled really well on the base damage...

Flow works really well in the cube. It's designed for Uliana of course, but you can get decent results out of it on Inna's.

I've noticed that most of the classes have a "generalist" set that you can use to mimic a more focused set's main schtick somewhat effectively. For example, a whirlwind barb using IK instead of Wastes. Inna's is that set for monks, the damage and toughness boosts for having lots of mystic allies out work with just about anything.

[Traab]

Quick question on my fire ally. Things get very hectic in the game and the screen is very crowded so its hard to tell but, what exactly is going on with the active ability when i trigger it? I know he splits into 5 then runs to something and explodes, but does he come right back? Do I have to resummon him in 30 seconds? Do I lose the 10% damage buff for that time period? Do I get the buff no matter how far away from me he is at the time? (Sometimes my merc and ally get left behind fighting random trash while I forge on ahead) And how should I use it? Similar to using sss? Basically use it to weaken and or kill medium swarms or to wear down bosses/champs?

[Psyren]

Yes, your ally never actually goes away. You maintain the damage buff the entire time, and in fact it benefits from that buff when it explodes. It should come back pretty much instantly, so you're probably just losing it on-screen in all the chaos. Also, there's no "resummon" - the ally is always there the moment you select the ability, like another passive., similar to a Demon Hunter's Companion.

If you get too far from the ally, it should teleport to keep up with you. I don't think it's possible to get out of range of it, but even if you could, it will just catch up to you instantly like any other follower/pet.

As for when to use it - yeah, basically like SSS, use it for swarms or tougher targets (or just on cooldown, if everything is tough.)

Fire should be your best choice until you get your 6pc bonus and have all of them active, unless you decide to use a primary-less build and need the spirit regen (in which case, go with Holy.)

[turbo164]

Heh got it, thanks. I couldnt figure out how to activate the thing and the only info I could pull up from a search was from sites offering to sell it to me. /eyeroll. Also, I had to unload a few bloodshards on kabala and managed to get lucky. I got The Grandfather. Its probably the most basic legendary possible, its only "special" trait is it ignores durability loss. But it had better dps than the 70 legendary daibo I crafted so I cant complain. Something like a 25% dps boost. Was able to enchant a socket onto it and dropped a high end emerald.

Yeah I still have a few Vanilla Grandfathers on my mules; originally, they were guaranteed to have Indestructible, +Max Health (normally not found on weapons), and +Str/Dex/Int/Vit (back when dex gave dodge). It's sad to see how plain the new ones are...but they can still roll high damage :)

Btw, weapons (and amulets) at Kadala are expensive enough that you might want to spend shards on armors (and maybe rings) and use the Cube to upgrade rare weapons to uniques.

[Icewraith]

So I was thinking of ways to increase my Death's Breath intake since I still haven't seen a Manticore, and noticed I've picked up a full Nat's set (7 PC) and a RoRG.

Unfortunately, Nat's Set includes a ring instead of an amulet, and the builds I've seen are based off F+R. So I tried it out anyways- I have an ancient Nat Chest and Legs, Mantle of Channeling, and Vengeance boosting belt, and the damage on the main hand is about as good as I've seen on a non-ancient hand Xbow. Most of the pieces I have are actually rather well itemized. I already have a cubed CoE, so I just rolled a socket into the RoRG to go with the Nat ring.

Should be good, right? It's "just" TX, and most guides are written for pushing monstrously high GRs. Lightning Rain of Vengenace/Lightning Strafe/Dark Heart Vengeance/Entangling Shot (Fire, unfortunately)/Fan of Knives (Lightning)/Defensive thing I replaced with Vault for mobility.

Nope.

One problem is the only leveled gem I've got recommended for the build is Trapped, and I discovered once I actually used it why Nat's set is not well suited to Zei's. And I was still thinking speedrun, so I had Boon of the Hoarder of all things in the other gem slot. But mainly, the damage was tremendously underwhelming, which is at least partially new user error and probably largely due to no F+R. I am really not used to having a spender on my bar, but now that I've tried it various ways I understand why they recommend Rain and Strafe on L/R click.

Possible improvements:

Well I'm stuck with Zei's for now, but I can drop Boon for my Bane of the Powerful, which will help a lot once I get past the first elite pack. I also gambled up some Hexing Pants, which should help quite a bit. Stricken is usually recommended, but not really for breaths on TX- I could give Taeguk a whirl.

If I can get the kill time down I can drop the 35% DR bracers for Warzechians. My health is getting kinda low, but that's less of a concern with Hexing Pants (25%) + this wouldn't be an issue if things were dying faster. Since I didn't really have death issues even with the low dps (I think) I can probably drop the cheat death passive as well.

I'm completely misusing the cubed CoE + cubed Lord Greenstone's fan combo, and that definitely seems to be set up for GRs and not farming Breaths. Maybe Wolf Companion for an extra 30% chunk of damage when I see an elite pack? Need to figure out a different cube weapon if I try that- right now I'm using an off-hand Dawn, although I've also got a Dawn in the cube. Valla's hand xbow causes strafe to pierce, but of course that's one of the few weapons, along with Manticore, I haven't seen yet. Maybe I could get by with a cubed Buriza in the meantime? The thing that shoots explosive bolts?

Of course, even with all this effort, there's a reasonable probability that the kill speed just won't be enough to keep up with the Unholy set, and so I should just go back to that. I should probably also try building the thing without Sage's to see how it's supposed to work (i.e. with F+R).

Usage question: Does Rain of Vengeance stack with itself?

Thoughts?

[Psyren]

Thoughts?

1) No, RoV doesn't stack, firing it again just keeps the duration going (much like a Wizard using Blizzard or pre-nerf Slow Time.)

2) Yes, you should get a Taeguk asap, that's the primary gem for this build - particularly now that it's been buffed. Stricken works well as gem number 3, or Wreath of Lightning for TX farming.

3) My own Nat's build doesn't use a primary, nor does it use F+R. I use CoE, Elusive Ring, and OROTZ in the cube for 100% uptime on Vengeance, Preparation and Bat companion, resulting in functionally infinite Hatred. Your escape skill should be Smoke Screen->Vanishing Powder for near-100% uptime on smokescreen, making you alternate between being totally invulnerable and having +60% DR. This combo will let you eschew defensive stats on your gear wherever you can, as well as dropping defensive passives like Perfectionist.

4) The weapons I use are Nats handbow (set bonus + guaranteed RoV damage), Calamity, and then Dawn in the cube. On waist I wear Crashing Rain and Shoulders are Mantle of Channeling. In the cube you should use Hexing Pants or Visage of Gunes depending on whether you want more damage or more survivability. If you still have hatred issues after Punishment and Bat companion, swap your Vengeance to Seethe and rune Gunes to maintain the DR; if you don't, swap Vengeance to Dark Heart and run Hexing Pants. I wear Reapers Wraps in the bracer slot to keep my hatred and discipline up.

5) The two mandatory passives are Cull the Weak and Thrill of the Hunt (triggers the former as well as Bane of the Trapped.) From there I'd probably go with Ambush, Tactical Advantage/Hot Pursuit and possibly Awareness (from Hellfire).

I'll post the full build when I get home.

[Traab]

Sweet! I just looted a ramaladnis gift! Just to confirm, when this puts a socket on an item, I can still enchant it to also switch out an unwanted stat right? because that would be so awesome if so. I can hang onto this till I get an awesome ancient legendary weapon or something, slap on a socket if it doesnt have one yet and further perfect its stats for me.

[Icewraith]

1) No, RoV doesn't stack, firing it again just keeps the duration going (much like a Wizard using Blizzard or pre-nerf Slow Time.)

Spoiler: snipish

Show

2) Yes, you should get a Taeguk asap, that's the primary gem for this build - particularly now that it's been buffed. Stricken works well as gem number 3, or Wreath of Lightning for TX farming.

3) My own Nat's build doesn't use a primary, nor does it use F+R. I use CoE, Elusive Ring, and OROTZ in the cube for 100% uptime on Vengeance, Preparation and Bat companion, resulting in functionally infinite Hatred. Your escape skill should be Smoke Screen->Vanishing Powder for near-100% uptime on smokescreen, making you alternate between being totally invulnerable and having +60% DR. This combo will let you eschew defensive stats on your gear wherever you can, as well as dropping defensive passives like Perfectionist.

4) The weapons I use are Nats handbow (set bonus + guaranteed RoV damage), Calamity, and then Dawn in the cube. On waist I wear Crashing Rain and Shoulders are Mantle of Channeling. In the cube you should use Hexing Pants or Visage of Gunes depending on whether you want more damage or more survivability. If you still have hatred issues after Punishment and Bat companion, swap your Vengeance to Seethe and rune Gunes to maintain the DR; if you don't, swap Vengeance to Dark Heart and run Hexing Pants. I wear Reapers Wraps in the bracer slot to keep my hatred and discipline up.

5) The two mandatory passives are Cull the Weak and Thrill of the Hunt (triggers the former as well as Bane of the Trapped.) From there I'd probably go with Ambush, Tactical Advantage/Hot Pursuit and possibly Awareness (from Hellfire).

I'll post the full build when I get home.

OROTZ, huh... Uptime on Vengeance is already at or near 100% with Dawn (also I probably have too much CDR and not enough Crit), but the others could still help. I have a second Ancient Hellfire, it has the one that increases crit and then resets. If I can live without two of those three rings then the DB farm build still has some hope.

Sweet! I just looted a ramaladnis gift! Just to confirm, when this puts a socket on an item, I can still enchant it to also switch out an unwanted stat right? because that would be so awesome if so. I can hang onto this till I get an awesome ancient legendary weapon or something, slap on a socket if it doesnt have one yet and further perfect its stats for me.

Yes. In my experience you usually end up with 2-3+ gifts before you actually find that Ancient "good enough" to socket (you'll get plenty of Ancient weapons, but usually not the ones you're after- I have two Ancient Burizas and at least four other Ancient Bows/ Xbows/Hand Xbows and haven't seen a normal Manticore yet) but once you have more than one you can be more liberal with what you decide to socket. If you have a couple gifts lying around and you get a really good normal- high damage roll and stats, ideal set of bonuses, and it makes your build happen.... why not?

So yeah... the first gift that drops IMe never gets used. The SECOND gift that drops gets used, because you've got the first gift ready for that perfect Ancient that never drops. :)

Also note that this means if you don't have a Gift handy when you find a really good ancient weapon with a socket, DON'T ENCHANT IT YET. Use it as is, then when you get a Gift, reroll the socket and then use the Gift on the ancient.

Edit: Another question- I've been assuming that when dual-wielding, the socketed gem in your weapon benefits attacks made by the other weapon, but is that actually the case?

[Psyren]

OROTZ, huh... Uptime on Vengeance is already at or near 100% with Dawn (also I probably have too much CDR and not enough Crit), but the others could still help. I have a second Ancient Hellfire, it has the one that increases crit and then resets. If I can live without two of those three rings then the DB farm build still has some hope.

The more CDR you get the more you can actually tweak the build for better output. For instance, my version got enough CDR to where Seethe and Punishment alone (well, with the occasional orb from Reaper's Wraps if my attack speed goes up) can keep my hatred full, allowing me to dump the bat companion for a wolf and thus more damage. My fast cooldowns also mean that I can use Smokescreen->Special Recipe, which removes the discipline cost and replaces it with a 6s cooldown instead. With OROTZ and good CDR, that basically means near-infinite smokescreen, with no actual discipline usage in my build.

I breezed through GR50 so TX should be a cinch. If you're having trouble I'd suggest my own setup. Gems used were Trapped, Taeguk and Stricken, though I swapped out the latter to try Gogok and it's working quite well.

Edit: Another question- I've been assuming that when dual-wielding, the socketed gem in your weapon benefits attacks made by the other weapon, but is that actually the case?

I've honestly never been totally clear on dual-wield mechanics. I do know gemming both weapons makes your dps go up.

[Icewraith]

The more CDR you get the more you can actually tweak the build for better output. For instance, my version got enough CDR to where Seethe and Punishment alone (well, with the occasional orb from Reaper's Wraps if my attack speed goes up) can keep my hatred full, allowing me to dump the bat companion for a wolf and thus more damage. My fast cooldowns also mean that I can use Smokescreen->Special Recipe, which removes the discipline cost and replaces it with a 6s cooldown instead. With OROTZ and good CDR, that basically means near-infinite smokescreen, with no actual discipline usage in my build.

I breezed through GR50 so TX should be a cinch. If you're having trouble I'd suggest my own setup. Gems used were Trapped, Taeguk and Stricken, though I swapped out the latter to try Gogok and it's working quite well.



I've honestly never been totally clear on dual-wield mechanics. I do know gemming both weapons makes your dps go up.

OROTZ (and your setup in general) was definitely an improvmeent. I think I'm on the border of not needing bat companion, I don't want to run seethe since it's the wrong element. More notably, I picked up an Ancient Fortress Ballista with a great damage roll, 10% damage, ~950 dex, a socket, and a maximum roll on the shield (3%). I also got Valla's hand Xbow, which causes Strafe to pierce- and tacks on ~90% damage to strafe. It'll be interesting to see which one gives a bigger improvement in kill speed with Dawn in the cube. I'm guessing Valla's will win out in mob packs over the Ballista's 30% base DPS by mostly doubling strafe's output (since the Buriza bothers to specify shots will pierce twice, I assume Valla's strafe shots will only pierce once) and tacking on damage on top of that. I may be underestimating the power of an extra 30% damage on the Rain of Vengeance belt nuke, though. It's still not as fast as Multishot, but if I can get it closer the extra Death's Breath should make it more beneficial for farming.

[Istarial]

Got both conquests done tonight. *Pumps fist*

Curses! - Soloed this one. Getting that damn Act V chest to spawn was a real pain but at least I got to farm some breaths each time it didn't show. (Protip - the ziggurat it appears on always seems to spawn west of the waypoint.)

Question: Do you know roughly how long you spent looking for it before it spawned?
I spent almost 2 hours looking for the blasted thing tonight with no joy, (via the "well is that the bounty" method, which I know will miss it sometimes- but I was doing something else at the time, and it's the easy low-attention way)- but just wondering what's the best way when i'm actually playing, so data useful...

[Psyren]

OROTZ (and your setup in general) was definitely an improvmeent. I think I'm on the border of not needing bat companion, I don't want to run seethe since it's the wrong element. More notably, I picked up an Ancient Fortress Ballista with a great damage roll, 10% damage, ~950 dex, a socket, and a maximum roll on the shield (3%). I also got Valla's hand Xbow, which causes Strafe to pierce- and tacks on ~90% damage to strafe. It'll be interesting to see which one gives a bigger improvement in kill speed with Dawn in the cube. I'm guessing Valla's will win out in mob packs over the Ballista's 30% base DPS by mostly doubling strafe's output (since the Buriza bothers to specify shots will pierce twice, I assume Valla's strafe shots will only pierce once) and tacking on damage on top of that. I may be underestimating the power of an extra 30% damage on the Rain of Vengeance belt nuke, though. It's still not as fast as Multishot, but if I can get it closer the extra Death's Breath should make it more beneficial for farming.

Yeah, I dislike using Seethe too, especially since Dark Heart makes you a lot less squishy. I'm going to try dumping it and going back to Bat + Punishment. The other good thing is that Dark Heart will free me up to drop Visage of Gunes and run Hexing Pants in the cube instead.

N6 = 60% DR
Elusive = 60% DR
Dark Heart = 50% DR

End result would be crazy toughness, necessary for GR50+. (I did easily clear 50 without an Elusive Ring - only my seasonal DH found one of the bloody things - but I was using Unity instead so, same thing.)

Question: Do you know roughly how long you spent looking for it before it spawned?
I spent almost 2 hours looking for the blasted thing tonight with no joy, (via the "well is that the bounty" method, which I know will miss it sometimes- but I was doing something else at the time, and it's the easy low-attention way)- but just wondering what's the best way when i'm actually playing, so data useful...

I did the "check that location whether the bounty is there or not" method. The bounty itself was never there, including when I finally completed the event.

I think it took about a dozen or so games... maybe 15. I would zone in and pop over to that waypoint even if that wasn't the actual bounty, and search around west and south of the waypoint. When I got low on discipline from tumbling around, I'd stop near an elite pack and use them to refill (Unhallowed Essence), finish them off, grab the Breaths and keep hunting. Once I was satisfied that it wasn't there, I'd leave the game and remake.

The hill I needed (looks kind of like a ziggurat) spawned about 4 times, but 3 out of those 4 it was the "King of the Hill" event where you chase one of the big Boggits up the steps. On the fourth try the chest was up there, at which point I slaughtered everything within a half-mile radius of the hill to prevent any adds coming up, then I configured my build for sheer damage as much as I could (including dropping Vault in favor of Caltrops->Bait The Trap). Then I triggered the chest, quickly ran to the side, and just cut loose while standing in my trap.

It only took the one try to get the conquest, but I cut it close indeed; my final score was 363.

[Istarial]

I did the "check that location whether the bounty is there or not" method. The bounty itself was never there, including when I finally completed the event.

I think it took about a dozen or so games... maybe 15. I would zone in and pop over to that waypoint even if that wasn't the actual bounty, and search around west and south of the waypoint. When I got low on discipline from tumbling around, I'd stop near an elite pack and use them to refill (Unhallowed Essence), finish them off, grab the Breaths and keep hunting. Once I was satisfied that it wasn't there, I'd leave the game and remake.

The hill I needed (looks kind of like a ziggurat) spawned about 4 times, but 3 out of those 4 it was the "King of the Hill" event where you chase one of the big Boggits up the steps. On the fourth try the chest was up there, at which point I slaughtered everything within a half-mile radius of the hill to prevent any adds coming up, then I configured my build for sheer damage as much as I could (including dropping Vault in favor of Caltrops->Bait The Trap). Then I triggered the chest, quickly ran to the side, and just cut loose while standing in my trap.

It only took the one try to get the conquest, but I cut it close indeed; my final score was 363.

Hmm, interesting, thank you. Sounds like that is the faster way if you're actually playing.
I'd already had it once that way, but made a mess of the start since i'd totally changed my build for it and ended up only getting 340.
Thanks. :)

[Psyren]

My next thing I'm going to do for an hour or two every night is track down the pets and some cosmetics.

Here's a nice guide to finding the Menagerist (pet) goblins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjMiAGmLI3A

Here's a guide for... damn near everything else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT52fKRo0_k

[Istarial]

Curses conquest + Stash tab attained- thanks for advice, all. :)

Now, next journey stage...

[Seerow]

Wow people are getting their stash tab early this season. I haven't even gotten around to leveling to 70 yet.

[mangosta71]

Wow people are getting their stash tab early this season. I haven't even gotten around to leveling to 70 yet.

I know, right? I look at my schedule and think "Well, this weekend is already packed. Maybe I'll have time to log in next weekend..."

[Icewraith]

Re: Chest Conquest

I just ran bounties and eventually someone said "hey the chest is up" so we all popped over, cleared the area and unloaded on the chest event.

I was having issues crashing at random intervals while playing games (I think the first time it happened was on the sands tileset area that gives some people issues, oddly enough), tried a ton of things, eventually gave up and got CCleaner and had it check the registry, haven't seen an issue since. Hopefully the fix stays fixed. So I've only done about four full sets of seasonal bounties, but I got booted by my own computer another 3-4 times before we were done with more than the first two acts.

Death's Breaths:
The DB drop rate in T10 is 1.25, so to break even on an X minute clear in normal gear you need to clear in Y time in farming gear, where Y= 1.8X.

(2.25/1.25=1.8)

Of course, every rift is a little different, so this won't give exact results in practice (Nat's is noticeably slower in those stupid twisty narrow cave rifts, for instance), but it's a good thing to know. If it's taking about twice as long or longer to clear using Sage's, then I'm probably not breaking even on DBs. If it's taking about half again as much time (1.5) or better, then Sage's is more efficient at getting DBs. If it's roughly even(1.8ish), normal gear is better because I'll be getting more legendaries with faster kill speed while getting about the same amount of breaths.

So the Nat's build isn't there yet, also Valla's was faster (I think) on mobs than the ancient drop but the RG took forever. However, that build needs leveled gems before it's really a fair comparison.

[Psyren]

Wow people are getting their stash tab early this season. I haven't even gotten around to leveling to 70 yet.

I know, right? I look at my schedule and think "Well, this weekend is already packed. Maybe I'll have time to log in next weekend..."

It was faster this time but honestly, I much preferred last season's conquests. "The Thrill" took some real creativity and planning to pull off, and the set dungeons one would have been even better this time around now that they've all been nerfed. (I don't even want to think about what a nightmare the Shadow dungeon must have been pre-nerf, and the nerf to the Jade Harvester dungeon would have saved me hours of work in S5.) But in short, more of them could be approached in a variety of different ways, and it added a real sense of community to have everyone swapping builds and gear setups. "I completed it with this build" "Hmm, I think I could use that, but I think I'd rather swap out X for Y" "If you swap out X for Y, I recommend farming for item Z..."

Compare to this season. Boss Mode and Speed Demon are almost wholly RNG-reliant, because for both you need an ideal map (a dense rift with few stairs, or quick paths to the bosses with few doors and dead-ends) to avoid wasting precious time. Nothing you can really do there (solo anyway) beyond maximize your speed+damage and then pray you get lucky. For Curses, the hardest part was spawning the only damn chest in the game where it's possible to achieve, and that because of a design flaw. GR75 solo, or 3 rank 65 gems are just tedious; they're more about being willing to grind for eons of incremental progress than they are about creativity.

[Icewraith]

I just need to do one more conquest and level gems to 55. Right now I have Zei's, Trapped, and Hoarder at 45 plus a Powerful at 35ish- more levels just increases the time, and it's already over a minute before the buff drops off. Probably start working on a Stricken.

[tyckspoon]

I finally went and bought Reaper of Souls about a month back and recently found enough time to finish Act 5 (I'd quit playing waaaayyyy way back with a character who had just restarted the campaign, so I had to blitz most of that before I hit the expansion stuff.) Went and got the Cube, and now wondering where to start in from there.. playing Wizard, no appreciable set stuff yet, had been using a lightning build (Electrify w/ rune that makes it piercing bolts, Lightning Rune Black Hole, passive that gives lightning hits a chance to stun, some other stuff) Maltheal was nice enough to drop me a Puzzle Ring, tho, so there's a free Vault trip Got a set of Frostburn gauntlets and the not-set Delsere's built (makes Signature spells attack 50% faster) so thinking of switching up to something ice based.

So.. try popping into public bounty games? Suck up the slower speed of bountying on my own, at least until I have a better idea of where the bounty targets are? Give in to the inevitable altitis and start leveling other classes? Whatcha'll think?

[Psyren]

Are you on PC? If so, I actually recommend rolling a seasonal character. Yeah you'll have to hit 70 again, but doing it in bounties is much faster than the story mode, and Haedrig's Gift will actually make that guy stronger than your main by giving them a guaranteed full class set instead of having to spend time farming it up. In addition, a whole bunch of people are doing the same thing, so it'll make getting into T1-T4 bounties and rifts much easier on you. All your progress will get shifted to your non-season guy when the season ends anyway so you're not wasting any of your time.

The Season Journey, in addition to being fun, will give you a pretty clear set of goals to accomplish so you don't feel like you're spinning your wheels. And if you truly have altitis (I do too ) you're going to want the bonus stash space.

The Gift this season for wizards is the Delsere's Magnum Opus set, which pairs quite well with an ice build - judicious use of Frozen Orb can blanket the entire screen in damage and wipe out entire packs, especially if you combine it with the Unstable Scepter wand, Gift of Orpheus wand (in the cube) and the Triumvirate offhand.