Diablo III:3 Kanai Fix It?

[Psyren]

So to make sure, the loaded for bear ruin increases the damage at impact, it also keeps the grenades that spread out? Some it isn't clear if the ruin completely overwrites the entire base ability or just parts of it.

Unless a rune says something is replaced ("instead..."), everything from the base ability is kept. So yes, Loaded for Bear still drops grenades, and they deal the listed damage from the base skill. (You can test this yourself by equipping it and firing also.)

For Maelstrom, it does say "instead" - so there are no grenades in that one, only rockets.

I have a bit of a question about cold, does it only have an effect on the enemy if you have something that upgrades it to a chill effect? I know cold can chill and fire can burn but I'm not sure if it is normally a random chance or if only based on skills. Just trying to make sure I know what will and won't trigger bane of the trapped/cull the weak, etc.

I recall reading somewhere that not every class' cold skills trigger a chill effect, but the DH's certainly do - it's part of the basis for their Cull the Weak passive. Wizard triggers chill too.

I should also look at picking up at least some skill that uses discipline, it just seems like I'm skipping out on part of the class if I never even use that bubble.

If you don't need defensive abilities, then your best bet is likely to be Marked For Death. But I would instead say - get a defensive ability like Smoke Screen, socket your Manticore, and go stomp T8.

[Vaz]

After 20 Minutes of trying to complete the The Thrill with a Cubed RoRG and Aquila Cuirass (while wearing an Aquila Cuirass and no set items) and wondering wear I was going wrong, I managed to complete it with completely unoptimized gear; I didn't even have access to enough Diamonds to make a full set of Flawless Royals. I could have made it easier on myself by crafting my gear, but I got lazy, and thought "Sod it" and went in anyway, gaining practise at T7/8/9 equivalents. I've still yet to find Unity, that would have been a help to have a further 50% DR.

As I'll be changing gear to go back to my Invokers to level my Gems for the rest of the Challenges (literally only one remaining is to level to 45 three gems (I can manage 55 solo) before here is what I ran.

Leorics Crown (Flawless Royal Diamond)
Deathwatch Mantle
Ess of Johan (Bane of the Stricken 35)
Ancient Gloves of Worship (don't know where my Ancient St Archews are, lost them)
Ancient Aquila Cuirass (3x Flawless Royal Diamond)
Ancient Sanguinary Bracers
Justice Lantern (Bane of the Trapped 31)
Ancient Belt of the Trove
Ancient Nagelring (Boyarsky's Chip 41)
Ancient Pox Faulds (Royal Diamond + Flawless Imperial Diamond)
Swiftmount (Flawless Royal Topaz)
Ancient Illusory Boots
Ivory Tower (Flawless Royal Diamond)

Cubed Mortal Drama, Heart of Iron, Convention of Elements

Immortal Follower; Thunderfury, Wyrdward, Haunt of Vaxo (got an ancient, and wanted to try out his Stuns, doesn't trigger Clones *sadface* Back to Ess for him), Bul Kathos Wedding Band, Denial (yeah, don't ask).

Punish (Celerity), Consecration (Bed of Nails), Iron Skin (Reflective Skin), Steed Charge (Spiked Barding), Bombardment (Barrel of Spikes), Akarat's Champion (Prophet), Fervour, Indestructible, Finery, Lord Commander

Statwise, no bonuses to Bombardment, (I had 45% scattered among three other skills), 24.7K Armour, +50% Area Damage, 50% CDR, 24% Block, 104K Thorns, 635K Life, 52M Toughness, 360K Damage, 8.6M Recovery Sheet.

As you can see, really all over the place. The gear wasn't as optimized or streamlined as it should be, but I still managed it. Just another 64 or so Bounties to run (so 7 Split Bounty Games), and I'll have Avarice, and then it's just piggybacking high Grifts for Gems =) I think I'll have my Stash tab to fill with more useless junk. Wish me luck!

[Psyren]

Haunt of Vaxo (got an ancient, and wanted to try out his Stuns, doesn't trigger Clones *sadface* Back to Ess for him),

Thanks for confirming this, I've always wondered.

Wish me luck!

You can do eeeeeeet!!

[Erloas]

Still haven't had a chance to play with my build, but we did run a 40 GRift. I died once I think to some explosion but the wife died quite a few times.
The fat guys that explode into little snakes, that explosion is damage too right? We're thinking that is what killed her quite a few times. Anyone know what kind of damage that is? I'm thinking it is physical, the color isn't too clear, but nothing else really makes sense (it clearly isn't green or red, but blue, purple, and grey are all possible).


Is there a general guideline you guys use for reforging an item compared to just rerolling a single skill?

I was running really late today so I didn't get to take pics of my items to bring to work to enter into d3planner, but I know the DPS on the manticore is only about 2600, which isn't much more than the normal Natalya at around 2450. But I've got several ancients that have dropped much closer to 3000. I'm thinking it is going to be hard to make up for the loss of 20% dps from the loss of MFD if I put something else in the weapon slot over the Calamity, but I could use MFD as the skill but it is hard to get that out as consistently and quickly as Calamity. But maybe some other combination would be better and worth using the manticore in the cube instead. I just know I can't give enough specifics to figure that out without the actual stats of the items.

I did get another Ramaldani's Gift drop last night, it happened at the same time my wife got a very nicely rolled ancient Chantodo's Will so I gave that to her.


If a pet dies is there an easy way to get it back? Just using the active? I have so many running around that it is hard to keep track of them, but I think I had some die before, if getting them back is as simply as using the active then I never really have to worry about it but if it takes more I'll have to pay more attention.
As for the wolf howl skill, I couldn't see an icon for it, I think it uses the quick-bar buff indication (instead of a dedicated icon) so I couldn't tell if I got one or three and didn't get the chance to check the character sheet.

[Psyren]

Still haven't had a chance to play with my build, but we did run a 40 GRift. I died once I think to some explosion but the wife died quite a few times.
The fat guys that explode into little snakes, that explosion is damage too right? We're thinking that is what killed her quite a few times. Anyone know what kind of damage that is? I'm thinking it is physical, the color isn't too clear, but nothing else really makes sense (it clearly isn't green or red, but blue, purple, and grey are all possible).

Yes, it's physical, and it's pretty substantial at higher difficulties. Treat it almost like a Molten explosion (i.e. gtfo quickly.) It also damages surrounding monsters, so if you damage a group of them and pop one, you can get hit with chain explosions that will wreck your HP.

It sounds like your wife needs some more toughness. Try using my enchanting guidelines I posted previously on her stuff, if she'll let you, and give her passives a second look. Does she have Ice Armor/Energy Armor?

Is there a general guideline you guys use for reforging an item compared to just rerolling a single skill?

"Don't reforge ancients" is pretty much it.

Well, that and "save reforging for weapons and amulets" since they're the most expensive to farm from Kadala. Definitely don't waste it on armor, shields or offhands, you can just spam Kadala for ancients on those.

If a pet dies is there an easy way to get it back? Just using the active? I have so many running around that it is hard to keep track of them, but I think I had some die before, if getting them back is as simply as using the active then I never really have to worry about it but if it takes more I'll have to pay more attention.
As for the wolf howl skill, I couldn't see an icon for it, I think it uses the quick-bar buff indication (instead of a dedicated icon) so I couldn't tell if I got one or three and didn't get the chance to check the character sheet.

Your pets shouldn't be dying at all - as a general rule, they're even tougher than you are, and it sounds like you're not really dying much either. If they do though, yes, using the active skill should bring any dead ones back.

You won't be able to tell if the extra wolves are helping by looking at the icon. You'll have to check your sheet damage by swapping Garwulf in the cube for something else and then comparing the two values as I said previously.

[Erloas]

I do think she needs more toughness and I did suggest some of what you said above. It is her character though and she will run it the way she wants so at most I can just make a few suggestions. I think she equipped one of the armor skills but not sure which one now.

I'm not sure if the pets died, just once or twice I'm not sure if I missed a wolf or if it had died, and the bats and ferrets are just too easy to miss. But if using the active brings them back, I use that quite regularly so I'm not going to worry about it at all.


I guess if "farm" for the item using blood shards is the fix rather than reforging, I guess the question is at what point do you call the item "good enough?" If the primary resource and legendary affix are low should that be redone even if the other skills are good? I don't think you can reroll a legendary affix, correct?

[Psyren]

I do think she needs more toughness and I did suggest some of what you said above. It is her character though and she will run it the way she wants so at most I can just make a few suggestions. I think she equipped one of the armor skills but not sure which one now.

She's holding you back! I recommend immediate divorce proceedings
(Less facetiously, see below.)

I guess if "farm" for the item using blood shards is the fix rather than reforging, I guess the question is at what point do you call the item "good enough?" If the primary resource and legendary affix are low should that be redone even if the other skills are good? I don't think you can reroll a legendary affix, correct?

Before you start chasing the margins and blowing tons of mats to squeeze an additional 1% out of your gear, keep this in mind - when you play multiplayer, the monsters are scaled up to present more of a challenge to the group. This is done at a flat rate, regardless of how strong your team is. In other words, the monster scaling assumes that more people in the group means you can handle a higher difficulty than you otherwise could solo. If those other people you're playing with have low damage output or spend a lot of time dead on the ground instead of dpsing, its going to make the game harder for you too. In other words, you might actually get more of a boost out of improving your wife's gear/build than you would your own, especially since you can trade mats to each other on console.

To really test the effectiveness of your gear, try playing a session or two alone and see how you do. If you're curbstomping T9 alone but doing worse when playing with her (or others), then you'll know where your focus should be as far as upgrades and rerolls go.

Also - no, you cannot enchant legendary affixes without rerolling the entire item from scratch, which again you shouldn't really do for ancients.

I'm not sure if the pets died, just once or twice I'm not sure if I missed a wolf or if it had died, and the bats and ferrets are just too easy to miss. But if using the active brings them back, I use that quite regularly so I'm not going to worry about it at all.

I don't think the flying pets or ferrets can even be hit, so that's definitely odd. Only the wolf and boar should be dying, and not even then if you're not.

[thethird]

As for the wolf howl skill, I couldn't see an icon for it, I think it uses the quick-bar buff indication (instead of a dedicated icon) so I couldn't tell if I got one or three and didn't get the chance to check the character sheet.

I don't think having three wolves makes the howl more potent. At least it doesn't on my olde xbox, perhaps it has been addressed in a patch that I haven't been able to get.

[turbo164]

Immortal Follower; Thunderfury, Wyrdward, Haunt of Vaxo (got an ancient, and wanted to try out his Stuns, doesn't trigger Clones *sadface* Back to Ess for him), Bul Kathos Wedding Band, Denial (yeah, don't ask).

Yeah last I checked (season...3 maybe?), most stuns cast by players worked...as well as the Gargantuan stun rune, and the Furious Charge freeze rune...but not the Rain of Vengeance freeze rune, or followers.

[Erloas]

I know the monsters scale based on the number of players, and I know we can pull two empty characters through at least T6 (we haven't taken them into GRifts, they are too easily lost and spend time running into walls or just the opposite direction of everyone else).

And yeah, I know having both characters well rounded will get us the farthest, but I can only control my own character so I'm seeing what I can do there. Also if I have a better idea how to optimize myself I can more easily give general information when she asks for it.


Having just played around a bit with defensive affixes on D3Planner, it seems with both of our characters we gain the most from Vitality, Resist All and %Life are both very close, and armor does the least.
For paragon points it seems to be %Life, armor/Reists all, and Vitality by far the least.
Does that seem right overall?
If so it might be worth changing paragon points and rerolling some affixes if that is the case, it seems like a few changes there could make some decent improvements very quickly. A few rerolls are also very cheap in terms of time and resources.

[Psyren]

Yeah last I checked (season...3 maybe?), most stuns cast by players worked...as well as the Gargantuan stun rune, and the Furious Charge freeze rune...but not the Rain of Vengeance freeze rune, or followers.

I used it on my DMO build along with Crown of the Primus, which gives my slow time bubble every rune, including the stun rune. So I'd slap it down and out would pop two clones, spamming Arcane Orbs at everything. It was pretty cool, especially since DMO and Primus have a time manipulation theme, so I refluffed the clones as being out-of-phase time ghosts of myself

If only Hellfire wasn't so much more dang effective!

I know the monsters scale based on the number of players, and I know we can pull two empty characters through at least T6 (we haven't taken them into GRifts, they are too easily lost and spend time running into walls or just the opposite direction of everyone else).

And yeah, I know having both characters well rounded will get us the farthest, but I can only control my own character so I'm seeing what I can do there. Also if I have a better idea how to optimize myself I can more easily give general information when she asks for it.

I know you know - the issue is that what you were proposing (reforging ancients completely) was going to get pretty expensive mats-wise, so I didn't want you burning through a lot of souls/breaths/bounty mats trying to chase the unicorn of 100% perfection when there's a much easier way to boost your mutual progression.

Having just played around a bit with defensive affixes on D3Planner, it seems with both of our characters we gain the most from Vitality, Resist All and %Life are both very close, and armor does the least.
For paragon points it seems to be %Life, armor/Reists all, and Vitality by far the least.
Does that seem right overall?
If so it might be worth changing paragon points and rerolling some affixes if that is the case, it seems like a few changes there could make some decent improvements very quickly. A few rerolls are also very cheap in terms of time and resources.

It's whatever the numbers say, so sure. Yes, affix rerolling is always the easiest lift.

[Vaz]

We have an end day. For UKers, 5pm Fri 15 Apr, and restarts 5pm 29th Apr. Gogogo.

I think it helps if we have some friendlier faces or some slightly known faces, perhaps a list of battle tags and servers, along with Grifting ability (safe level for farming, and perhaps a max level?)as well as platform.

To start it off, I'm UK based, usually playing sometime after 10pm on weekdays, variable others, although may be free to arrange.

EU; Vaz#2543; Crusader (Paragon 486), Grift Farm 45-50, Max 55ish (PC)

If anyone feels I can be of a help in some grfits shoot me a message in game or on here to arrange sometime to get together in game.

[Arcane_Snowman]

Sounds fun. My battle tag is Snowman#1764, Paragon 613, and I've got a bunch of 70s that can go as high as GRift 60ish.

[Neftren]

Polytonic#1953 - Paragon 712, can carry full party through GR65+, or possibly 2-man GR70.

I've also fully completed the Season Journey (Guardian - Conquests: Avarice, Sprinter, The Thrill) so I can help with any of those as well, for instance, if you need the three minute TX Rift speed clear, I can power you through it with good mob density.

[Erloas]

I've added the gamertags to the first post.


I've updated my d3Planner with the Manticore and many of the spare items I have in my chest. (not counting set armor I don't plan on switching to)
So far I've been happy with the change to the Manticore and cluster arrow build. In fact when we entered the first area my wife thought I changed the difficulty down because of how quickly everything was dying.

We did run a GR42, and she died once and I didn't die at all, so a bit of toughness is all I think we need to move up.

Now that most things are entered I guess I can play around with various combinations of weapons and rings and cube powers and see what I can get the most out of. I did get Focus but I'm still waiting on Restraint. And also see what things look like between Bane of the Powerful, trapped, and iceblink (I think those are my most likely to be useful gems, with enforcer practically a given)

[Psyren]

I'm still pretty sure DH cold skills snare without Iceblink. The 10% crit chance is nice, but I'd recommend dropping IB in favor of a gem that scales better - a great choice here is Zei's Stone of Vengeance. It works especially well in a Marauder build:

- you have a menagerie to tank things for you, keeping them at a distance
- your snares make them take longer to reach you, increasing the number of hits you can land with the damage boost
- Zei's calculates damage using distance between the source and the target, meaning your sentries firing from two screens away will get the maximum boost every time.
- The stun effect on the unlocked Zei's will give you just as much defensive punch as the slightly slower chill on IB. On elites, you won't even notice the slowdown, but you will notice them getting stunlocked - and by the time they hit immunity, they're dead.

[Erloas]

That is why I'm checking here. It is hard to get a good idea of distances, at least I haven't really figured it out yet. I guess the only question with Zei's Stone, it will help the sentries, but since all the pets are melee it isn't going to help any of them. They are a pretty substantial amount of damage, it might be worth finding something that helps them too, or at least try to figure out how it compares.

What 3rd one would you take then, enforcer, Zei, and trapped? And I guess, given what I just said above, is the enforcer worth it? It is a pretty big bonus to the damage of the pets, but they are only one part of my damage.

I've also noticed a few bugs in the D3planner, I had at least 2 items today that it wouldn't let me enter everything because it said there was a conflict. Windforce, the built in chance to knockback wouldn't let me add the chance to blind, which is what the item actually has. And I can't remember the other. I also just tried changing the Cube of the cloak of the garwulf, the defense changes and the pet damage on the skills sheet changes but it doesn't change the effective DPS.


edit:
Looking at wizard defense options and legendary items... I see Ancient Parthan Defenders could be good if you could get a lot of stuns out. Is there any reasonable way for a disintegrate wizard to do that? (I do know there are a couple ways for my DH to do that, and lightning wizards). I also see a few other options, but I don't think most are worth the cube slot since it wouldn't be a big difference.
I know wirt, or squirt? has a legendary necklace, is that good for anything else? I know the puzzle ring and bovine bardiche both open zones, any others that I have missed?

[Quayleman]

Looking at wizard defense options and legendary items... I see Ancient Parthan Defenders could be good if you could get a lot of stuns out. Is there any reasonable way for a disintegrate wizard to do that?

halo of arlyse ring procs a frost nova every time you get hit. The freeze from the frost nova counts as a stun for ancient parthan defenders. This combination has been used by every top solo wizard build since the introduction of halo of arlyse, so it is an incredibly strong defensive combination as long as you can stand near enough enemies. Requires one ring slot or cube jewelry slot and one active skill for ice armor (usually the crystalize rune).

[Psyren]

That is why I'm checking here. It is hard to get a good idea of distances, at least I haven't really figured it out yet. I guess the only question with Zei's Stone, it will help the sentries, but since all the pets are melee it isn't going to help any of them. They are a pretty substantial amount of damage, it might be worth finding something that helps them too, or at least try to figure out how it compares.

I'd say your sentries and spender form the bulk of your damage by far. The pets are primarily for keeping things at bay, and the buffs they give you which apply to your main schtick.

What 3rd one would you take then, enforcer, Zei, and trapped? And I guess, given what I just said above, is the enforcer worth it? It is a pretty big bonus to the damage of the pets, but they are only one part of my damage.

I would personally do Stricken, Trapped and Zei. Enforcer isn't a bad choice though.

EDIT: Actually, thinking about it more I might do Trapped, Zei and Enforcer. I don't think Marauder has much trouble with single targets since the turrets can focus fire, so Stricken will be less necessary. Meanwhile Enforcer IIRC boosts Sentry damage too.

edit:
Looking at wizard defense options and legendary items... I see Ancient Parthan Defenders could be good if you could get a lot of stuns out. Is there any reasonable way for a disintegrate wizard to do that? (I do know there are a couple ways for my DH to do that, and lightning wizards). I also see a few other options, but I don't think most are worth the cube slot since it wouldn't be a big difference.
I know wirt, or squirt? has a legendary necklace, is that good for anything else? I know the puzzle ring and bovine bardiche both open zones, any others that I have missed?

Quayleman covered this one, you need Halo. Note however that for the ring to work you need to be close to enemies, which usually means an Explosive Blast or Arcane Orbit build - Disintegrate prefers to keep its distance.

Another decent choice is Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, combined with the Galvanic Ward passive and the Deflection Rune on your magic weapon for mighty barriers. Ward + ABB alone = +120% life that refreshes every 5 seconds.

[lord_khaine]

So, just got my season defender to 70, and has been a little uncertain what stats to value the most.
Is block worth focusing on? how much and against what does it actually help?

And what are the generally best passive skills to use?

[Vaz]

Season Defender? Crusader?

It depends on where you're going for with it, and what luck you get with Drops. I don't think a session goes by for me to not pick up an Invokers Bracer, which you should be able to reroll for a full set.

Thorns works by getting attacked. Reducing damage is good, but Thorns damage is based on Physical Damage, Strength, Thorns Stat, but it is no good if you get attacked and die straight away, but then again, walling and doing no damage isn't really a thing until you're 4p Group Pushing and you cannot compete with a Top Tier Barb for DPS so you're on ZDPS support duty.

So you need to deal damage but stay alive; kiting isn't so much an option I haven't found until you need to dodge a avoid Molten/Dead Hulksplosions/Poison/Arcane affixes etc. If you struggle for the full set, a 5pc RoRG and Sanguinary Bracers for Damage (deals increased Thorns), Ancient Parthans for Defense (with a Stun build Templar wyrdward/thunderfury/dovu energy trap or a Party member) and Nemesis Bracers for Speed Farming Grifts.

Gems; Boyarsky's and Trapped, and possibly Stricken although I have found that unless pushing higher grifts, stricken is less necessary and more open to other suggestions.

Vit obviously keeps you alive. For Damage, you can either rely on Bombardment/Belt of the Trove, in which case, Mortal Drama, or your Thorns.

Practising timings with a Convention of Elements means that you may be able to stack 20 Bombardment ****s, each one dealing 2x Thorns Damage, and each one boosted by 200% damage from Phys up is rather hilariously face melt melting damage if you can stack on iron skin (reflective) for 300% Thorns. This could be cubed. Other options include a Bloodbrother (works with high block and Akarats Awakening Shield), or Hack (adds Thorns to attack), or a furnace.

For weapons, a Pig Sticker can get 1.61 Attacks base with 7% IAS, which stacks with Attack Speed buffs elsewhere. Each attack applies.

If you check out Icy Veins or Diablofans builds, most recommend Strength, +Phys Damage, +IAS, with Vit, All Resist, fpr defense.

Other shields which work well with a high block chance include the ivory tower, although that favours a Heavens Fury Build, which may spread things a bit thin, if trying to do both Heavens Fury, Thorns, & Bombardment.

I hope that has hped slightly identify where to go somewhat.

[Icewraith]

Icewraith#1444, I still need to finish off a couple things on the journey. I usually run solo or with the wife, so a 4 minute T10 rift hasn't happened yet. My Thorns Crusader can solo up to GR 63.

I discovered a few days ago that Thornsader is actually a pretty good build to hit GR 45 solo with no set items, if you already have the recommended pieces for the full build. Well....

Thorn Bombadier.

I ran with the 100% thorns damage on attacks weapon but it mostly wasn't necessary. What is necessary is having Heart of Iron and Belt of the Trove, and then the double bombardments flail, Aquila Curiass, and CoE in the cube. Having a STR Leoric's Crown lying around also helps. Everything else is just replacing your set slots with anything semi-useful with STR on it that you happen to have lying around that's helpful, especially if you've got a stash of stuff saved up for a LoN build. Even some of the no effect 6 slot crafted legendaries will do (I ended up crafting pants). +Phys amulet and Bracers really helps. The usual really hard to find shield might also be essential to the build. Any relatively high speed weapon with life steal, a good damage range, and a socket wiill do.

You run around and stay alive until your lightning CoE procs, then you stop and attract the biggest crowd of white mobs or dive into an elite pack. Melee things to keep your life steal going. When the Lightning proc is just past halfway through, drop Bombardment. Right before Lightning phase ends, drop Consecrate+Iron Skin as mentioned above. CoE will proc physical, then everything on the screen will die, either from your Bombardment or the one your Belt will drop shortly afterward. Then you Steed Charge off to find either the biggest mob pack you can or the next elite pack, and survive getting hit by things (thus refreshing your CDs if you have the shield) until lightning phase, at which point you get in position to do the combo again. I had a ton of time left when I completed the rift.

[lord_khaine]

Other shields which work well with a high block chance include the ivory tower, although that favours a Heavens Fury Build, which may spread things a bit thin, if trying to do both Heavens Fury, Thorns, & Bombardment.

I hope that has hped slightly identify where to go somewhat.

Thats for the long reply Vaz, even though a lot of it, mainly the different item names, vent over my head. And for that matter seems like something thats out of my control.
What i were mainly confused about where what passive traits were the good ones, besides obvious ones like +50% thorns.

Things have worked out however, i managed to find the Justice Lantern ring, and are now running it along with the thorn seasonal set and that elemental ring.
I have managed to get 3 different elemental nukes, and things are melting nicely as i switch among them.

[Icewraith]

Thats for the long reply Vaz, even though a lot of it, mainly the different item names, vent over my head. And for that matter seems like something thats out of my control.
What i were mainly confused about where what passive traits were the good ones, besides obvious ones like +50% thorns.

Things have worked out however, i managed to find the Justice Lantern ring, and are now running it along with the thorn seasonal set and that elemental ring.
I have managed to get 3 different elemental nukes, and things are melting nicely as i switch among them.

Thorns damage is physical damage, so the more benefit you get from the Invoker's set, the less benefit you'll get from having other element nukes on your bar.

The standard build is punish (extra block rune), steed (endurance or spiked barding in lower torments), either bombardment (barrel of spikes) or a defensive ability I can't remember for high Grifts, consecrate (thorns damage), Iron Skin (triples your thorns damage while active), Akarat's Champion (prophet).

You want +phys damage (when you can get it), Str, Vit, COOLDOWN REDUCTION (when you can get it), Sockets (when you can get them), and All Resist on your gear, Thorns damage in your secondary slots. Ideally you have Life on Hit in your weapon and a Ramaladni's gift to add a socket, but Gifts aren't super common- I usually don't use one unless I have a couple, just in case RNG decides to drop a perfect ancient of the weapon I just gifted. Otherwise you'll usually be rerolling something on your weapon to a socket until you find better or a Gift- Life on Hit is really important on a good weapon but a Socket is VITAL. IAS is nice to have but nowhere near as vital as CDR. Dagger base attack speed is already blindingly fast compared to other weapons, whereas more CDR gives you more and more time spent in Akarat's Champion, which has a free cheat death, huge armor bonus, and damage boost all in one.

Also it's good to keep in mind that most items have four primary stats and two of some combination of secondary stats and unique legendary abilities.

Edit: Passives. The others are usually the one-hander bonus with attack speed and CDR, finery, and the one that changes your dodge into Block. If you don't have a lot of sockets in your gear yet you could take something else instead of finery, but sockets are absolutely essential in five pieces (both rings, amulets, weapon, and helm) and come pre-rolled on invoker pants for a total of seven sockets. Invoker doesn't have a set chest, but set chests usually automatically come with three sockets.

[Erloas]

halo of arlyse ring procs a frost nova every time you get hit. The freeze from the frost nova counts as a stun for ancient parthan defenders. This combination has been used by every top solo wizard build since the introduction of halo of arlyse, so it is an incredibly strong defensive combination as long as you can stand near enough enemies. Requires one ring slot or cube jewelry slot and one active skill for ice armor (usually the crystalize rune).

Quayleman covered this one, you need Halo. Note however that for the ring to work you need to be close to enemies, which usually means an Explosive Blast or Arcane Orbit build - Disintegrate prefers to keep its distance.

Another decent choice is Ashnagarr's Blood Bracer, combined with the Galvanic Ward passive and the Deflection Rune on your magic weapon for mighty barriers. Ward + ABB alone = +120% life that refreshes every 5 seconds.

I don't usually get to check the forums over the weekend, but we just happened to get a Halo of Arlyse drop and tried the ice armor build with it. We didn't have the parthan defenders though. She didn't really like it at all.

I think the shield build is probably the best bet but I think it is harder to demonstrate easily.

I'd say your sentries and spender form the bulk of your damage by far. The pets are primarily for keeping things at bay, and the buffs they give you which apply to your main schtick.
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I would personally do Stricken, Trapped and Zei. Enforcer isn't a bad choice though.

EDIT: Actually, thinking about it more I might do Trapped, Zei and Enforcer. I don't think Marauder has much trouble with single targets since the turrets can focus fire, so Stricken will be less necessary. Meanwhile Enforcer IIRC boosts Sentry damage too.

D3Planner does give the sentries the Enforcer bonus.
I knew my pets could kill stuff pretty quickly, but without numbers turned on, and in general so many different things happening it was hard to really keep track of what does how much.
Looking at it though, it has my pet DPS as 725M combined DPS. The sentries are listed at 122M DPS each, or 609M if I can get all 5 of them down at one place at one time (usually I have a couple far away, still counting towards the damage boost but not able to actually shoot anything).
Cluster Arrow is listed as 448M base damage and 621M damage from the rockets from me (1069M combined), with each sentry doing 181M base and 251M rocket (432M combined) each cluster arrow. So if I can get all 5 sentries down that is 2160M damage.
Since cluster arrow doesn't really have a DPS directly, a single sentry will do the same DPS as all of my pets as long as I get one cluster shot out per second, my base attack speed is 1.34 attacks per second so that should be reasonable.

So something that boosts both damage wouldn't need to be nearly as strong as something that only boosts the sentry as long as I don't have all of the sentries down.

It looks like I would have to have a *lot* of stacks to make Bane of the Stricken come out ahead. Bane of the Powerful actually doesn't seem to do all that much either. Pain Enhancer seems to be really good, don't need a whole lot of bleed effects for it to be doing a lot either... though I would have to get to higher difficulties before that would pay out much, as right now things staying alive long enough to bleed for the bonus seems unlikely.
So Trapped, Enforcer, and Zei seems like the best choice. With either Trapped or Zei's being switched out when things start living longer. ...although come to think of it, trapped probably mostly falls under the same issue, in that most things are dead so quickly the trapped part doesn't get to come up because they are dead before they are slowed, though figuring in the level 25 aura is a bit trickier.

Also does anyone know what it means by breakpoint on the skills/effects tab of d3planner? I think it has something to do with attacks per second but what it is actually telling me is lost on me right now.

[Vaz]

The Halo won't really work without the Ancient Parthan's; Halo triggers AoE Stuns which then improve your Damage Reduction Stat from other attackers. It still 'works' but in the same manner as the Crusader gets the Belt of the Trove, but it needs a 4pc Invokers to get a constant Damage Reduction, and/or Mortal Drama to deal damage.

Each of those has a particular bonus which is good, but the benefits continually stack.

[Psyren]

Even without Parthan's, Halo is damn good. It's hard for Wizards to get that much survivability from a single item. Hell, I run Blood Bracer and still use the Halo too.

I think the shield build is probably the best bet but I think it is harder to demonstrate easily.

That's very easy to demonstrate - wait till you have a bubble up around your toon, then stand in the lasers/poison/fire and laugh

Your health orb while playing should show any shield values you have - if it does, watch your shield values for when they refresh and you should get an idea of how much effective toughness and healing you're getting out of it.

*stuff about Stricken*

I don't want you to sell Stricken short - the whole point is that you're using it in scenarios where the stacks matter, i.e. where you need to be hitting something (a boss or elite) more than 20+ times before it dies. If things are dying faster than that, then yes, it's going to be weaker. Again though, for your build, your pets and sentries are designed to focus on single targets anyway, so you won't be needing the de facto single-target gem.

[Icewraith]

The Halo won't really work without the Ancient Parthan's; Halo triggers AoE Stuns which then improve your Damage Reduction Stat from other attackers. It still 'works' but in the same manner as the Crusader gets the Belt of the Trove, but it needs a 4pc Invokers to get a constant Damage Reduction, and/or Mortal Drama to deal damage.

Each of those has a particular bonus which is good, but the benefits continually stack.

Mortal drama is nice, but it's more that you still need to have the skill on your bar for it to deal damage. If the skill's not still on your bar, it uses the unruned version of the skill.

[Seerow]

Icewraith: thanks for posting about your experience with the GR45 conquest. I'd been procrastinating on that for literally months (you can go back in the thread to see how far back I was saying I meant to do it). After your post I decided to just go ahead and gun for it, rather than waiting for perfect off pieces to drop, I just grabbed what I had in my bags (wound up having to roll a few pants because I literally did not own a pair of non-set pants), and ran in... and just crushed it. I realized after the fact I had even forgotten to put a gem into my Leoric's Crown, but it just didn't matter, finished with like 8 minutes to spare. So thank you for pointing out how stupidly easy thorns build makes it, so I felt better about going in with what I had rather than waiting until I found better non-set gear.

I now have my stash tab and am happy to wait on the next season.

[mangosta71]

I think you can be wearing one piece of a set; as long as you don't have any of the bonuses, you're not disqualified. I know that I wear a couple of set pieces with my LoN because they have better stats than anything else I've gotten to drop, but since they're different sets I still get the pwnage for having no other bonuses.