08-21-2013, 07:06 PM
Some of my HC exploits last night, along with a discussion of whether or not to use the cheating death passives (IncGamers link provided for context):
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showt...ors/page10
So last night I took Dark Side’s advice and dropped Unstable Anomaly-more on that later. I also switched to Living Lightning based on what Vega and TDS talked about. This really opened up build options.
I have been running public games in MP2. Switching to SP/LL opened up 2 skill slots for me since I was able to drop Spectral Blade/Healing as well as Energy Twister. Since I have zero APoC with my current gear, I replaced ET with Familiar/Sparkflint for the DPS boost. Also, I had been using Prism on Diamond Skin; I changed that to Crystal Shell. As tDS suggested, Blur was added in lieu of UA. Fully buffed in Archon mode, that left me at 1MM EHP (and 1.3MM EHP vs. melee). I played for a little while solo in MP2, and I felt pretty safe. The only uncomfortable situation was a Waller/Desecrator pack when Archon was on cooldown. I think the main trouble I had here was the walls blocking LL, so I didn’t get the CM procs. Still, I really liked how this worked out, and I plotted a different strategy for later.
I was hoping Keldaran would be on with his monk, and he was. Since he’s newer to inferno on HC, his gear is slightly stretched on MP1-or at a minimum, he’s still trying to get comfortable with that MP. I wanted to try going all-out DPS and melting stuff before it could hurt us. So I ended up running this build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wi...Ygf!caZYZc
Very fun! My buffed DPS was 110k and, with Mantra of Evasion/Hard Target, I clock in around 785K EHP. And I got to melt stuff really fast. We did 2 Act 1/MP1 runs and I didn’t have any scary experiences-although those elite savage beasts with the bad lasers made me wary. On the 2nd run Keldaran switched to using Cyclone Strike and that made the farming even more convenient.
All right, now let’s discuss the elephant in the room: Unstable Anomaly. I assume this ground has been covered extensively before (maybe even on this very thread) but I’m fairly new to Hardcore mode so I’ll beat a dead horse. Flux brought this up several months ago regarding his monk and Near Death Experience. Do you use it and hope it never goes off in 3 months, or do you use a different passive that benefits your character more overall? My first HC char to make it into Inferno was a witch doctor, and I used Spirit Vessel as soon as it became available at clvl 30. I would use it again, mainly since you get an extra benefit from SV aside from the ‘Get out of Death Free’ ability. But having said that, it only proc’d one time for me. It was against Inferno Belial, and I ended up dying anyway. So I actually think it makes sense to use Blur (or Glass Cannon!) instead of UA. It MIGHT save me in the event of a disconnect, but then again it might not. Plus if I know I’m not using it, I’ll hopefully be more cautious than knowing it’s in my back pocket. (Maybe not-it didn’t proc even once through P27.) It seems to me that Blur will help offset a few of the biggest dangers on farming runs: charging Savage Beasts, elites that you can’t keep at range, and exploding Grotesques. Obviously it doesn’t help with everything (tree poison, arcane), but it certainly helps you avoid taking fatal damage. I’m going to continue to test it in MP2-and perhaps beyond.
What do you guys think about Familiar vs. Force Weapon, if choosing just one? I kind of like FW-mainly because I get an icon to let me know when it has worn off!
http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showt...ors/page10
So last night I took Dark Side’s advice and dropped Unstable Anomaly-more on that later. I also switched to Living Lightning based on what Vega and TDS talked about. This really opened up build options.
I have been running public games in MP2. Switching to SP/LL opened up 2 skill slots for me since I was able to drop Spectral Blade/Healing as well as Energy Twister. Since I have zero APoC with my current gear, I replaced ET with Familiar/Sparkflint for the DPS boost. Also, I had been using Prism on Diamond Skin; I changed that to Crystal Shell. As tDS suggested, Blur was added in lieu of UA. Fully buffed in Archon mode, that left me at 1MM EHP (and 1.3MM EHP vs. melee). I played for a little while solo in MP2, and I felt pretty safe. The only uncomfortable situation was a Waller/Desecrator pack when Archon was on cooldown. I think the main trouble I had here was the walls blocking LL, so I didn’t get the CM procs. Still, I really liked how this worked out, and I plotted a different strategy for later.
I was hoping Keldaran would be on with his monk, and he was. Since he’s newer to inferno on HC, his gear is slightly stretched on MP1-or at a minimum, he’s still trying to get comfortable with that MP. I wanted to try going all-out DPS and melting stuff before it could hurt us. So I ended up running this build:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wi...Ygf!caZYZc
Very fun! My buffed DPS was 110k and, with Mantra of Evasion/Hard Target, I clock in around 785K EHP. And I got to melt stuff really fast. We did 2 Act 1/MP1 runs and I didn’t have any scary experiences-although those elite savage beasts with the bad lasers made me wary. On the 2nd run Keldaran switched to using Cyclone Strike and that made the farming even more convenient.
All right, now let’s discuss the elephant in the room: Unstable Anomaly. I assume this ground has been covered extensively before (maybe even on this very thread) but I’m fairly new to Hardcore mode so I’ll beat a dead horse. Flux brought this up several months ago regarding his monk and Near Death Experience. Do you use it and hope it never goes off in 3 months, or do you use a different passive that benefits your character more overall? My first HC char to make it into Inferno was a witch doctor, and I used Spirit Vessel as soon as it became available at clvl 30. I would use it again, mainly since you get an extra benefit from SV aside from the ‘Get out of Death Free’ ability. But having said that, it only proc’d one time for me. It was against Inferno Belial, and I ended up dying anyway. So I actually think it makes sense to use Blur (or Glass Cannon!) instead of UA. It MIGHT save me in the event of a disconnect, but then again it might not. Plus if I know I’m not using it, I’ll hopefully be more cautious than knowing it’s in my back pocket. (Maybe not-it didn’t proc even once through P27.) It seems to me that Blur will help offset a few of the biggest dangers on farming runs: charging Savage Beasts, elites that you can’t keep at range, and exploding Grotesques. Obviously it doesn’t help with everything (tree poison, arcane), but it certainly helps you avoid taking fatal damage. I’m going to continue to test it in MP2-and perhaps beyond.
What do you guys think about Familiar vs. Force Weapon, if choosing just one? I kind of like FW-mainly because I get an icon to let me know when it has worn off!