**OFFICIAL** Diablo 3 Thread

[digiram]

I decided to level a Wizard the other day, and I'm trying to decide which build to go with. I'm currently looking at going with a Tal'Rasha set, but the build that I found is a speedrunning build that seems to rely heavily on the item that reduces cooldowns after killing an elite pack. That may not be a big deal if you have Nemesis bracers, but I've never seen a pair drop on any character (even non-seasonal).



The only bad part about the shield is that it's HIGHLY dependent upon the type of mob that you're fighting. When I fight pure melee mobs, I can watch the cooldown wipe animation just quickly shoot back to 0, but on spellcasters or slow-attacking mobs? It's nearly worthless as it will barely proc.

There's a few speed run builds around. I use a build that combines fragment of destiny and aether walker for db runs. Main damage dealer is thrown blades. You run tals+sage for the +db drop.

 

[sweenish]

The only bad part about the shield is that it's HIGHLY dependent upon the type of mob that you're fighting. When I fight pure melee mobs, I can watch the cooldown wipe animation just quickly shoot back to 0, but on spellcasters or slow-attacking mobs? It's nearly worthless as it will barely proc.

Mob, singular? That's your real problem. Thorns crusader should be surrounded, or on their horse. Generally speaking.

 

[lupi]

Interesting weekend. First I was in a GR and had level after level of green crap. First was one with a bunch of the arm dudes which not only does the puddles but aren't great to handle as a thorn build. Then next level every single elite pack and boss had plague affix. Even though poison is my highest resist stat, having each room look like it's been redone with green carpet gets tiresome.

After that things got better. First I picked up a second AA and it even had a slightly better stat roll than the first said it got used. Then I got a second pig and again this had a decent stat pull so finally dropped the ancient flail for it. And then after blowing well into 5 digit shards, finally got a lantern.

With 90% block though you'd wish you could see more CD reduction.

Now that I do have all the pieces though seasons have gotten even worse. Now it's just going through rifts or bounties waiting to find that stupid goblin to finish that conquest.

 

[Aikouka]

Mob, singular? That's your real problem. Thorns crusader should be surrounded, or on their horse. Generally speaking.

You may want to reread that, because the only singular use was "type of mob".

Although, after playing a Monk with Cyclone Strike, trying to round up enemies as a Crusader can be kind of annoying. Only elites and their minions seem to be willing to follow you to the ends of Sanctuary!

Now that I do have all the pieces though seasons have gotten even worse. Now it's just going through rifts or bounties waiting to find that stupid goblin to finish that conquest.

I have the worst luck when it comes to goblins. I've gotten a few rifts where I get the flock of goblins, and unfortunately, it's always when I'm on my Crusader. The Crusader has fine single-target damage, but ugh... it's so bad when trying to kill lots of things that don't attack you.

 

[PClark99]

Speaking of goblins, wild night last night for goblin packs.

1 rift with 2 packs of gobs, and a 2nd rift with 3 packs of goblins.

Crazy mad loot, all junk though, mats are delicious at least.

 

[sweenish]

You may want to reread that, because the only singular use was "type of mob".

Which is exactly what I went after. You should have many mobs on you. I've only done maybe one rift where all the mob types were horrible for proc'ing the shield.

Even if they're slower mobs, if you're surrounded enough, it evens out.

My favorite is the fire chain blues, though. So good.

 

[thujone]

Interesting weekend. First I was in a GR and had level after level of green crap. First was one with a bunch of the arm dudes which not only does the puddles but aren't great to handle as a thorn build. Then next level every single elite pack and boss had plague affix. Even though poison is my highest resist stat, having each room look like it's been redone with green carpet gets tiresome.

After that things got better. First I picked up a second AA and it even had a slightly better stat roll than the first said it got used. Then I got a second pig and again this had a decent stat pull so finally dropped the ancient flail for it. And then after blowing well into 5 digit shards, finally got a lantern.

With 90% block though you'd wish you could see more CD reduction.

Now that I do have all the pieces though seasons have gotten even worse. Now it's just going through rifts or bounties waiting to find that stupid goblin to finish that conquest.

i finally got a pig sticker... but... i already have an ancient Skycutter with a ramaladni socket on it... 1.4 APS... is 1.5 and another affix worth it?

 

[sweenish]

It's not just quantity of affixes. Pig Sticker can also roll IAS, which I'm thinking Skycutter can't. CDR as well.

If the affixes aren't there for the Pig Sticker, stick with what you have. But we shouldn't have to keep having this discussion every other page.

 

[Ertaz]

It's not just quantity of affixes. Pig Sticker can also roll IAS, which I'm thinking Skycutter can't. CDR as well.

If the affixes aren't there for the Pig Sticker, stick with what you have. But we shouldn't have to keep having this discussion every other page.

Mine rolled ias/elite dmg/cdr. It worked out ok.

 

[Aikouka]

I got myself all excited last night, and then I ended up disappointed. For some reason, I completely forgot about the whole Upgrade to Legendary feature until I saw the Wizard guide recommend using it to get the Wand of Woh. I got a wand that was legendary with pretty decent stats (a low int roll, but acceptable), and I thought it was the one I wanted. Unfortunately, it was the Unstable Wand, which has a similar capability of multiplying the effect of Arcane Orb's explosion instead of Explosive Blast's explosion. Unfortunately, I don't think it's that great. Arcane Orb requires you to be rather good at positioning it well enough for the explosion to really matter.

Also, is there a way to turn off targeted casting for Wizards? I want abilities to cast where my cursor is not at a mob whose model just happens to touch a slight bit of my cursor. When I'm dealing with mobs like Mallet Lords, it can be really annoying since they're really big, and it's not hard for some part of their huge model to hit the cursor. I've had quite a few Meteors and Black Holes go off at the wrong spot because of that.

Which is exactly what I went after. You should have many mobs on you. I've only done maybe one rift where all the mob types were horrible for proc'ing the shield.

I'm kind of confused here. If you're telling me that fighting a lot of mobs at once is a bad idea, that completely goes against everything that I've ever heard for playing a Crusader. If you're telling me that fighting normal mobs isn't worthwhile, then yes, most would agree; however, if my Steed ends around a bunch of mobs, I'm going to just kill them quickly and gain a couple percentage while Steed recharges.

Even if they're slower mobs, if you're surrounded enough, it evens out.

I think the best that I've ever seen was when I fought a named with the scorpion-like minions. Those things normally die fast as normal mobs, but in this case, they lasted long enough to attack me... and they only attack via melee and attack rather quickly.

 

[lupi]

Was just thinking of something, for the revised sets if you use the cube recipe to transform into a different set piece, assuming you'll get one of the revised stats and not a legacy model like you're cubing?

 

[sweenish]

I'm kind of confused here. If you're telling me that fighting a lot of mobs at once is a bad idea, that completely goes against everything that I've ever heard for playing a Crusader. If you're telling me that fighting normal mobs isn't worthwhile, then yes, most would agree; however, if my Steed ends around a bunch of mobs, I'm going to just kill them quickly and gain a couple percentage while Steed recharges.

I have no idea how you arrived at this conclusion about what I said.

 

[Brainonska511]

I got myself all excited last night, and then I ended up disappointed. For some reason, I completely forgot about the whole Upgrade to Legendary feature until I saw the Wizard guide recommend using it to get the Wand of Woh. I got a wand that was legendary with pretty decent stats (a low int roll, but acceptable), and I thought it was the one I wanted. Unfortunately, it was the Unstable Wand, which has a similar capability of multiplying the effect of Arcane Orb's explosion instead of Explosive Blast's explosion. Unfortunately, I don't think it's that great. Arcane Orb requires you to be rather good at positioning it well enough for the explosion to really matter.

I've found the extra arcane orb blast is better with my wizard. Explosive blast doesn't do enough damage and it's not buffed with Delsere's, so I only use it for the + damage effect from orb of infinite depth. Plus, arcane orb gets a very nice buff from Delsere's.

I ended up following this build with my non-season Wizard and can easily clear 62 solo. With the huge buffs to toughness, taking on even high-damage, slow-attack monsters isn't really a big deal.

 

[digiram]

Was just thinking of something, for the revised sets if you use the cube recipe to transform into a different set piece, assuming you'll get one of the revised stats and not a legacy model like you're cubing?

You mean, like if you cube an older Manticore, will you get a revised one? If that's what you're asking, no.

I tried it myself when 2.4 came out.

I was sitting on two ancient Manticores 3000+damage, and tried to cube one to see if it would get the revised manti stats.. nope.

Gotta 3200+ ancient in season now though

 

[sweenish]

It's not as black and white as that.

I have post further back, and you can find the mechanic online, probably on reddit.

The counter is that I re-rolled my rucksack on DH and had a new one with the extra [blue] affix.

I'm not quite sure what lupi was even getting at, though. Set changes are already retro-active.

 

[lupi]

meant more for set items that were redesigned, although I haven't actual spent any time in non-season to look and see if they were changed on existing items.

 

[sweenish]

Do you have an example?

I can't think of any individual set items offhand that there tweaked. Set bonus changes are always retro-active.

If a leg (and I'm assuming set as well) item gains a new blue affix, reforging in the cube will give you that new blue affix, ASSUMING the orange affix did not change. I have no clue if set item conversion would automatically get you the new affix. Of the recipes, it's not too expensive, I'd say to just give it a shot.

 

[thujone]

i wasted a ton of mats on trying to reroll an old aquila cuirass when i first logged in after 2.4... still looking for a new one :/

 

[digiram]

meant more for set items that were redesigned, although I haven't actual spent any time in non-season to look and see if they were changed on existing items.

For set items, the set bonus stats are all retro-active. The damage or affix bonus directly on set weapons are not though (like 2.2 IK 2-h weapn, and inna's 2-h weapon). I have a godly ancient one from last season and it doesn't have the 90++ mystic ally damage %. Sucks!!

 

[Aikouka]

I have no idea how you arrived at this conclusion about what I said.

It appears that I misread "should" as "shouldn't"... probably because I still can't seem to figure out why you're arguing with me when it looks like we're saying the same thing.

I've found the extra arcane orb blast is better with my wizard. Explosive blast doesn't do enough damage and it's not buffed with Delsere's, so I only use it for the + damage effect from orb of infinite depth. Plus, arcane orb gets a very nice buff from Delsere's.

I ended up following this build with my non-season Wizard and can easily clear 62 solo. With the huge buffs to toughness, taking on even high-damage, slow-attack monsters isn't really a big deal.

Hm... I was originally working toward a build that mixed Tal'Rasha and Firebird, which mostly just used explosive blast as a means to trigger the fire element. Although, the one big difference is that explosive blast is very easy to place as it occurs around you, which is great when you use the Audacity passive, which both builds do. That's the one problem that I have with the wand increasing the Arcane Orb blasts -- getting the right position puts me far away from the enemies. Maybe I just need to switch runes or something.

I don't have enough pieces of Delsere's yet to create that build, but I'll keep it in mind for when I do. Although, do you run into issues with rift guardians not remaining in Slow Time? I found that rift guardians would just laugh at Black Hole and run away from it without being affected, so I wasn't sure if the same happened with Slow Time, which would be bad since you need it as a DPS boost.

 

[digiram]

It appears that I misread "should" as "shouldn't"... probably because I still can't seem to figure out why you're arguing with me when it looks like we're saying the same thing.



Hm... I was originally working toward a build that mixed Tal'Rasha and Firebird, which mostly just used explosive blast as a means to trigger the fire element. Although, the one big difference is that explosive blast is very easy to place as it occurs around you, which is great when you use the Audacity passive, which both builds do. That's the one problem that I have with the wand increasing the Arcane Orb blasts -- getting the right position puts me far away from the enemies. Maybe I just need to switch runes or something.

You use the arcane orbit run in the DMO build with unstable sceptre. I personally use the DMO channeling build with the Twisted Sword. Reminds me of the good ol CM wiz days. It's pretty cool to trigger illusion while using ice armor + halo ring to TP directly to elites. I did up to GR 70 with the chanelling build.

Think I should take a break at this point. I'm pretty much all set with my LON WD, and dude is a beast. Unless I work towards augmenting items, there's not much for me to farm for anymore.

 

[Brainonska511]

It appears that I misread "should" as "shouldn't"... probably because I still can't seem to figure out why you're arguing with me when it looks like we're saying the same thing.



Hm... I was originally working toward a build that mixed Tal'Rasha and Firebird, which mostly just used explosive blast as a means to trigger the fire element. Although, the one big difference is that explosive blast is very easy to place as it occurs around you, which is great when you use the Audacity passive, which both builds do. That's the one problem that I have with the wand increasing the Arcane Orb blasts -- getting the right position puts me far away from the enemies. Maybe I just need to switch runes or something.

I don't have enough pieces of Delsere's yet to create that build, but I'll keep it in mind for when I do. Although, do you run into issues with rift guardians not remaining in Slow Time? I found that rift guardians would just laugh at Black Hole and run away from it without being affected, so I wasn't sure if the same happened with Slow Time, which would be bad since you need it as a DPS boost.

For RGs, I find they stay enough in the bubble if you're using arcane orbit, since you're always in melee range. And with a fast attack primary, like spectral blades, the cool down on slow time stays very short.

 

[*kjm]

Got to Destroyer and finished step one tonight... don't think I'll make the stash tab after all this time


Destroyer:
1.Take U there: Reach GR50 solo
2.Destroyer of Rifts: Finish a lvl70 Nephalem rift @TX within 5 minutes
3.Turn it down: Kill Azmodan @lvl 70 on TX
4.Peg U: Kill Belial @lvl 70 on TX
5.Insane in the Gembrane: Level 3 legendary gems to lvl 45
6.Easy: Complete one season Conquest this season

 

[CalebRockeT]

You will be able to finish it dude. Well, unless your play time is extremely limited, like only a few hours a week - then it might be tough.

 

[sweenish]

Played a little of my second seasonal toon, DH. With 4 pieces of Marauders and some other decent bits (visage, manticore, dawn, bracers with damage reduction) I can already farm T7. It's crazy.

I don't plan on pushing it too hard, but if things fall into place and I'm able to finish Years of War (3 sets done already, Roland is stupid and I don't have a Denial), I may just try and finish the season journey.