Nightmare and Beyond

[MonTy]

MonTy entered Inferno with 8k DPS

which I don't recommend anyone doing. Since yesterday I've gone to the dark side of the Auction House and bought a ~660 dps 1hander with over 100 vit, 100 str for 20k gold o_O So now after buffs it's over 11k dps.

I was also sitting around 80 resists, which is waaay too low for inferno. Now I'm around 200 resists after Ah gear and it's so much smoother.

Now I feel dirty though

[NotSoDarklord]

In later acts I'm still of the opinion that sacrificing damage for survability is essential for surviving lvl 61/62 mobs. Finding the proper +resist all/+high vitality/+armor/+life regen or on hit pieces is hard enough without being limited to pieces with high strength.

Act 1 Inferno can be comfortably cleared with under 200 resists. Act 2 on the other hand seems to require a minimum of 500-600.

[Frag]

Oh, and edit: is Tough as Nails (25% armor passive) not that great? I notice it doesn't seem to grant as much armor as I'd expect it to, like it's only boosting base armor from gear or something.

I use it and here's what I've seen:

2528 Base Armor (48.36%)
3160 with Tough As Nails (53.92%). +25%

3455 with Nerves of Steel (56.13%, 927 vit)
4318 with Tough As Nails and Nerves of Steel (61.53%). +24.98%

4146 with War Cry and Nerves of Steel (60.56%) 20% more than just Nerves of Steel)
5009 with War Cry and Nerves of Steel and Tough As Nails (64.98%) +20.82%

5700 with Glyphed War Cry, Nerves of Steel and Tough As Nails (67.86) +13.795%

Tough as Nails appears to work fine, until you start adding in War Cry. Apparently, War Cry is multiplicative, rather than additive.

bought a ~660k dps 1hander with over 100 vit, 100 str for 20k gold o_O So now after buffs it's over 11k dps.

There's no way that a 660,000 dps weapon is only giving you 11,000dps, sorry.

[Roland]

bought a ~660k dps 1hander with over 100 vit, 100 str for 20k gold o_O So now after buffs it's over 11k dps.

There's no way that a 660,000 dps weapon is only giving you 11,000dps, sorry.

He meant a 660 DPS weapon, i.e. 660 DPS on the item description. The "k" was a typo.

[Frag]

bought a ~660k dps 1hander with over 100 vit, 100 str for 20k gold o_O So now after buffs it's over 11k dps.

There's no way that a 660,000 dps weapon is only giving you 11,000dps, sorry.

He meant a 660 DPS weapon, i.e. 660 DPS on the item description. The "k" was a typo.

Obviously. I was being ironic!

[Taelas]

I'm playing around with a 2H axe at the moment, and rather than using Hammer of the Ancients, I swapped to Whirlwind with the Wind Shear rune; simply using Cleave is just too slow with a 1.00 attack speed weapon. I would change to Frenzy for single-target mobs, but... the duration of Frenzy is too short, it keeps running out when I need an attack for building Fury for Whirlwind.

Obviously, I am not attempting to "tank" anything.

EDIT: So, I finally got to Hell difficulty. After a brief stint back with dual-wielding (and enjoying the freedom it granted me), I'm back with a 2-hander. I decided to bite the bullet and get used to Frenzy, which eased the transition a lot compared to trying to stick with Cleave, as I can attack at a reasonable speed and not get curb-stombed because I can't move because my swing is so slow that it hasn't gone through yet. I much prefer the playstyle with Cleave and two one-handers, though, so I hope I can find some with equitable DPS... though unfortunately, I doubt it. I find I need a very up-to-date weapon to even compete in Hell difficulty (though it is easier playing solo than coop). I imagine it will only get worse as I get further into Hell, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

[MonTy]

I was looking through the legendary items while the server is down. It seems like these would be godsend for melee:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/string-of-ears

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/justice-lantern

Although I doubt I'll be posting more in this thread (at least for a while) since I vowed to start new characters with never using the AH. We'll see how far I get :)

[MongoJerry]

I mentioned this in the kill of hardcore Belial thread, but I thought it was worth repeating here. Kripparian, who plays a barbarian in Inferno (cleared completely in softcore, just killed Belial in hardcore), made this video explaining his skill choices.

[Jabberwolky]

This is my build at the moment.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...abg!aaaaZb

Currently I am in Act 1 of Hell. Its mainly used for champ packs and trash. I have to admit it was not my idea, its a copy of another barb's build that I saw in a post here on a youtube link(Thanks Mongo!). For the past couple of days I have been using it and its definately going to be what i go with until I hit 56, then I'll switch out leap for Furious Charge with the Dreadnaught Rune.

Since the tempo of the game slows down at this level in terms of how often I am engaging mobs, it works out that Beserker Rage and Earthquate are usually up when you need it and if it isn't you don't have to wait long to engage a champ pack or mini boss. Pop beserker, then earthquake once the champs are gathered, while you have iron impact up, and watch the baddies melt...not quite that easy but it does work pretty darn good.

For boss fights I go with

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/ba...abV!aaaaZb

I have gone back and forth between using a 2hand weapon, dual wield, and sword and board. I base it off of what drops I am getting. I finished act 3 and 4 of nightmare using a two hand weapon and at the time it was easier than using the sword and board. Now, because of recent drops, I am back to using the sword and board.