Mostly witch doctor stuff
#41
From the ashes of my dead wizard, my monk has now risen up and reached Paragon 62. So, it "only" took me 3 months to get back to where I was previously. Of course, there's been other progress as well. I still have my barb, who is a bit stronger than before. And I have my DH geared for about MP3; I do occasional runs with her as well. Looking at my current monk versus former wizard, the monk is a bit sturdier. Earlier this week I did 3 A2MP7 games, killing elites and looking for keys. Sure, it was in a good group, but I still felt pretty safe. The wiz met her demise taking heavy mortar fire in an A1MP6 game. Since my monk gets closer to the action, mortar fire is rarely a concern. Some kind of plauged/vortex/arcane combo is more likely to sound the death knell for my monk. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for the monsters-courtesy of Wave of Light.

I actually have 2 different weapon combos. I recently found a high-damage spear, which is great for WoL since it calculates only from your primary weapon's damage. Generally if I run public games at MP3 or MP4, I'll be in "bell mode," dropping as many as I can:

http://d3up.com/b/1324635/cyradis-bells

However, if I'm grouping with a CM wizard or Thunderstrike barb, I will be in "pull mode:"

http://d3up.com/b/1247504/cyradis-ls-and-wkl

This build involves grouping all of the monsters around me, allowing others to easily freeze or hammer them into submission. The WKL is there to boost Sweeping Wind and FoT damage. During that A2MP7 run I mentioned, I ended up with a hybrid. There was another, higher-damage monk in the group, and he wanted me to spam overawe; so I did. (Mantras get an extra, 3-second long boost when you first cast them. The idea of spamming overawe is to re-cast it every 3 seconds so there is a constant 48% damage boost, as opposed to just 24% normally.) I was going to add Exploding Palm to the mix, so I put on the bell weapon set, dropped Cyclone Strike, and changed to EP/Essence Burn. That really helped deal with the trash mobs, and also finished off elites more quickly. It was a fun combo. It certainly made me appreciate the sustain from Sweeping Wind. The closest I came to dying occurred when SW was not running-I'll make sure to avoid that mistake in the future.

I typically tweak things a bit for uber runs as well. The last game I played was on MP6, and we had a low-DPS barb with us. I basically was in pull mode, but with Guiding Light instead of Pacifism and the healing rune (Soothing Breeze) on Cyclone Strike. With Overawe running, I was boosting group DPS by 68%. There was also a CM wizard locking stuff down, so it made for a pretty easy game.

OK, I think I've rambled enough. There was another patch for the RoS beta last night, and the more recent expansion news has been mixed (better than troubling!). Hopefully my monk will live to see Act 5.
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#42
Cross-posted from IncGamers:

I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing my HC monk last night. Started out on Hard and ended by killing Belial on Master (with a barb). I was nervous about that fight but it's a lot less scary now. I found several legs, including an Obs Zod ring that got donated to another player in the group. Also found a new EF, but it lacked a socket (brim).

I did end up equipping 2 orange upgrades. The Gladiator Gauntlets are fun, although I end up running backwards frequently after the massacre bonus. There's something fitting about getting so much joy from the Death Watch Mantle shoulders which were so disappointing to find previous to 2.01. The Fan of Knives proc really adds to my DPS and it's always fun to see. I also crafted some new bracers; although I lost crit chance, I gained +holy damage. I'm happy with that switch for now.

The paragon XP was good, as I gained 2 levels. My Pool of Reflection bonus is now pinned to the right side of my bar-even after leveling. I lost some all resist with the new gear, but still felt tanky enough. As others have mentioned, Fire Chains seems like the most dangerous affix at the moment.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...o/32991130
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#43
This is my life now.

I tend to be slow to embrace change when levelling characters; I pick a skill set that seems okay and am pretty stubborn to change unless something obviously better comes along. My skills and passives haven't changed much for about twenty-odd levels, though I swapped out Spirit Blender out for Zombie Bears because Zombie Bears is still ridiculous. Firebomb had Roll The Bones slotted before 2.01, Soul Harvest had Siphon before 2.01, and Spirit Walk had Jaunt instead of Healing Journey until I figured out that an easy 14% heal almost whenever I wanted was better than an extra 1 second of nigh-invulnerability.

Now as I'm slowly ratcheting up the difficulty to find the level I was before the patch my routine is now thus:

1) Spirit Walk into a ridiculously huge pack.
2) Soul Harvest for a ridiculous amount of damage. Crit for all the damage.
3) Bears and bombs until the few Soul Harvest survivours are dead.
4) Wonder why I still have Horrify set.
5) Oh look, thanks to Grave Injustice my Spirit Walk and Soul Harvest are back off cooldown.
6) Repeat.

My WD is insane now.
When in mortal danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.

BattleTag: Schrau#2386
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#44
Lookin' good, NiteFox! If I may make a couple of suggestions:

-Horrify/FA is great for channeling bats, but probably not as necessary for bears. I would suggest a couple of potential replacements:

-Big Bad Voodoo/Rain Dance. Pop it against elites to get MOAR bears.

-Grasp of the Dead/Death is Life. Two bonuses here: you get minions with free zombie dogs as well as even more health globes. If you go this route, pair it with the Gruesome Feast passive. With your amulet proc and DiL globes, you'll be at 5 GF stacks a lot. It's a big damage boost, plus it helps with mana management.

Happy hunting! (For what it's worth, I'm a big proponent of option 2 above.)
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#45
Nitefox, that build is a few scant changes away from my patented 'faster-farmin'-than-a-ww-barb-crazy-chicken' spec, so cheers! Feel free to hit me up ingame at Frag#1978 if you want to chat. Smile
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.
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#46
(02-27-2014, 05:50 PM)Aahzmadius Wrote: -Big Bad Voodoo/Rain Dance. Pop it against elites to get MOAR bears.

This is what I'm running. Grasp/Death is Life/Gruesome Feast requires a little too much micromanagement to run consistently in my case, so I went with BBV which was something I used to try back in 1.x for bosses.

It doesn't equate to moar bears. Not by a long shot.

I'm finding that the mana regen from Rain Dance is greater than the MPS cost of Zombie Bears. As long as I'm standing in the area of effect, I can spam infinite bears for as long as I hold down RMB.

Infinite. Bears.

Haven't run against any big bosses yet, but I can tell you even on Expert I can kill pretty much any champ/elite pack a lot quicker than they can kill me with my infinite bears.
When in mortal danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.

BattleTag: Schrau#2386
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#47
RMB? I not played often enough to discuss all things in abbreviations.
My witch doctor build at present seems to have hit a few limits, so I am digging through this thread to get a few ideas.
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#48
(03-02-2014, 01:07 PM)Occhidiangela Wrote: RMB? I not played often enough to discuss all things in abbreviations.
My witch doctor build at present seems to have hit a few limits, so I am digging through this thread to get a few ideas.

[whisper] Psst, Occhi - Right Mouse Button [/whisper] Tongue
Lochnar[ITB]
Freshman Diablo

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"I reject your reality and substitute my own."
"You don't know how strong you can be until strong is the only option."
"Think deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh loudly, give freely, be kind."
"Talk, Laugh, Love."
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#49
*doh*

Netspeak is ruining my life. :p
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
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#50
(03-02-2014, 01:07 PM)Occhidiangela Wrote: My witch doctor build at present seems to have hit a few limits, so I am digging through this thread to get a few ideas.

I hope you find something useful. I haven't dug into the forums, but so far the WD does not appear to have changed much. Most of the tips should apply to 2.01. A couple of WD's that I run with are using the Corpse Bomb rune on Acid Cloud, which is new. They're also using Spirit Barrage/Well of Souls, which you'll likely find earlier on this thread. And I haven't really seen anyone channeling bats, but then again I've mostly been running with the same group and not in public games.

But the tip I give to most every WD is Spirit Walk + Soul Harvest. Great combo. Here's a link to a good WD I run with in T1:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Bulvi...o/39889490
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#51
So within a couple of days of posting what I did, I found out that many players were indeed channeling bats: Vampire Bats. IAS gear + no channeling cost on VB + Fetish Sycophants passive = massive damage from the Flayer Jungle of yore. For example:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wi...VdW!ZbZZcc

Pets, pets, pets! There are plenty of variations: you could add in Fetish Army to keep the theme going, for example. Or BBV to give your little army more damage against elites. Possibilities abound! Plus there are big gear bonuses if you find the new Tasker and Theo gloves, for example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/tasker-and-theo

Happy hunting!
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#52
My witch doctor dipped his toe into Torment 1 for the first time last night, and it went pretty well. I'm using the Fetish Sycophants build, along with my preferred GotD/DiL + Gruesome Feast. Just found a new weapon with a proc that Zombie Dogs stun upon being summoned. I don't know if this works with the dogs from GotD, but early indications are that it does. Needs some more testing.

Most of my time is still spent on Hardcore mode, and there I'm playing "Team DEX" with monk as my main. While I am low on the DPS side solo, I can really add to group farming efficiency with Cyclone Strike,Exploding Palm and Unity. Just found a leg weapon with a bonus to Dashing Strike that I'm trying out-fun so far. I ran T1 rifts with a barb and Athenau's wizard and those went well. Didn't find a ton of legs, but it seems to run about 1/hour, which isn't bad. I need about 30 more Forgotten Souls to do some Enchanting.

My DH gets hand-me-downs from the monk as well as her own finds, and it's really fun to play her on Expert for bounties. Maybe Master now, as I found some upgrades this weekend that help her eDPS a ton. I need a Cindercoat to complete the Cluster Arrow quad-fecta (already have Magefists, Reaper's Wraps and Pride's Fall). Still enjoying the heck out of RoS.
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#53
^^WD is the one class I haven't played much though some of the buff's he's gotten are crazy (4000% WD haunt!) Right now I spend a lot of time on my Crusader. While the class has its problems, mostly regarding some undertuned passives and skills, it's also VERY strong.

B.net forums, as usual, are a cesspool of idiocy, so you have people who fill their bars with garbage like heaven's fury and falling sword, then complain the class is bad.

It isn't.
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#54
I use Heaven's Fury on my T2 HC Crusader and love it. ;P
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.
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#55
Athenau, I'd love to run more with your crusader. My DH found a couple upgrades Saturday, so I like to stand behind tanks with her and live on the edge of T1 danger. Saturday night I was running around with 450k screen DPS, 330k life (5.5MM Toughness), and neither Vault nor Smoke Screen on my bar! Fun stuff. I did find a new belt and crafted some pants that brought me up to 6MM last night. Check it out:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...o/26203755

The screen DPS is misleading, since I can pump out LOTS of Cluster Arrows with over 60% bonus damage. Plus the SoJ helps burn down elites, while the Oculus ring protects me from them. I got away with no Vault/SS due to Ice Climbers (gambled!), but I still can't stand in frozen because it does too much elemental damage-ha! I wouldn't solo with this build of course, but it was fun in a group with another DH and a barb. Should work OK with a tanky Crusader as well.

Or my monk is always available for tanking/group buff purposes. Smile

Frag, I haven't tried T2 yet. Suggested it to the group I run with a couple of times, but so far there's been no interest. Risk/reward calculation, or something.
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#56
(04-21-2014, 02:39 PM)Aahzmadius Wrote: I got away with no Vault/SS due to Ice Climbers (gambled!), but I still can't stand in frozen because it does too much elemental damage-ha!

You are incredibly lucky to get these - these are BIS boots for pretty much any class, and they are exceedingly rare. I've spent well over 13k shards on boots at Kadala and still haven't got them yet. By far my most wanted item.

Leveled a new wiz to 70 over the weekend and retired my old one. Everyone say hi to Elendra:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/FireI...o/46925025
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon


"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
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#57
Your gear is amazing and your stats are shockingly bad, Aahzmadius. I would guess that you would insta pop in T2 if anything remotely damaging nicked you. I personally won't run with a character that is under 550k hp at level 70 and nothing less than 7m toughness, though I've never really been below 10m on the sheet, usually 12-14m ingame. I also would assume that since so many of your main stats are fire damage % you do a fairly incredible amount of damage, at the cost of defense. Be careful mate. Smile
Hardcore Diablo 1/2/3/4 & Retail/Classic WoW adventurer.
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#58
The thing is though, profile numbers are pretty misleading, since they don't include buffs from skills, set bonuses with dmg reduction/+elemental dmg, or paragon points. I have only 2.5 mill profile toughness on my wiz, but in game with buffs I'm at near 11 mill toughness @_@

If one looks at Elendra, they would probably think to themselves "man, he must die alot". Nope, very rarely in fact (on T1-T3 at least). Elendra has 24 hours playtime, and has died exactly ONCE. Now in HC, i realize that's all it takes - but my point is that many people stack their vitality to (unintentionally) inflate their paper toughness which is not a good thing. My "sheet" toughness is low because I have prioritized mitigation over vitality, which is what you are supposed to do whether you play SC or HC (though the extent you do this is quite different in both for obvious reasons). I only have 280k life, but I have 2400-2800 all resists with Prismatic armor and Unwavering Will proc, along with about 9k armor. Additionally, I am getting the 3 set bonus from Aughilds set, which grants me -7% dmg from both melee and ranged attacks, as well as -15% dmg from elites AND +15% dmg to them. Further, using Deflection on Magic Weapon and Blur passive really bolster the amount of punishment I can take. Add 6k loh and 11k life regen, 12k life per kill, 49k health globes bonus and 10 yards pickup radius, which makes my lower hp value effectively higher than someone who has more life. Too often in public games I have seen people with 50-100k more life than me die, because they either lack mitigation or they have "too much" life that makes their current healing numbers inefficient and thus they cannot sustain themselves as they continue to take damage.

All in all, Elendra is a resilient little cookie despite her low profile toughness. I survive better than most other wizards who have double my profile toughness, cause they think stacking vitality over mitigation is going to save them. It won't.

My dps is also pretty misleading (though 800k profile dps is still somewhat relatively high even in SC - I've seen a few people break 1 mill profile dps but this is extremely rare still), since in game buffs give me 1.2 mill sheet dps, and that number doesn't even include the substantial amount of + arcane skills dmg/+arcane torrent dmg I get from gear and skills. T3 elites melt like butter in a microwave.

I wish Blizz would fix the profiles though, so that they give us a more accurate picture of where a particular char is in terms of both dps and ehp. Right now, it's just incredibly unreliable since it doesn't tell us much.
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon


"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
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#59
(04-22-2014, 03:50 AM)Frag Wrote: Your gear is amazing and your stats are shockingly bad, Aahzmadius. I would guess that you would insta pop in T2 if anything remotely damaging nicked you.

Uhh...thanks? I think? Funny example of this last night, I was with another monk farming Asheara's mats (Iron Wolves Doctrine). They drop from Ssthrass, who is right outside the Ancient Waterway. So the idea is you switch to Campaign mode, get the checkpoint, and then go backwards into the Oasis and he's right there. The monk had the difficulty raised to T3 with the understanding that if we saw another elite pack we would run back through the waterway. Great. The only problem for me was, Ssthrass casts Thunderstorm in addition to his serpent magus AoE spell. That hit my DH *hard.* We did about 10 runs and I used 10 potions to make sure I stayed alive. A little scary, but I picked up a few mats.

Difficulty-wise, I feel OK in T1, but in talking with some other DH's I switched out Vengeance for Vault/ToC. That should help add a little defense, although it's still an aggressive build. I would probably tackle T2, but only in the right group. The DH is an alt, so I'll be a little risky. Meanwhile, my monk probably has enough Toughness for T2 (barely) but lacks DPS. Like I mentioned, most of the guys I run with are happy to speed through T1 and aren't worried about T2 yet. Yet.

(04-22-2014, 07:05 AM)FireIceTalon Wrote: All in all, Elendra is a resilient little cookie despite her low profile toughness. I survive better than most other wizards who have double my profile toughness, cause they think stacking vitality over mitigation is going to save them. It won't.

My dps is also pretty misleading (though 800k profile dps is still somewhat relatively high even in SC - I've seen a few people break 1 mill profile dps but this is extremely rare still), since in game buffs give me 1.2 mill sheet dps, and that number doesn't even include the substantial amount of + arcane skills dmg/+arcane torrent dmg I get from gear and skills.

I wish Blizz would fix the profiles though, so that they give us a more accurate picture of where a particular char is in terms of both dps and ehp. Right now, it's just incredibly unreliable since it doesn't tell us much.

I agree with all this, F.I.T.-and I do feel lucky to get the Ice Climbers. Your gear is awfully good as well, especially that Thunderfury! Oh, what my monk wouldn't give to get a good TF. I loved the old armory profile, perusing those sometimes when I couldn't play. But the site I miss the most is D3up, which is being updated-but even it's delayed because Blizzard has errors in its API. I can't get too upset because they pretty clearly prioritized getting the expansion out in Q1, and it's in pretty good condition. There are still some problems with Enchanting, as you mentioned, and I'd really like some way to re-roll bounties at the beginning of a game if you're searching for leg mats. But while I'd like the armory profile improved, I'd still prefer they concentrate on fixing some of the in-game issues that remain.

Oh, and also, as you can tell from my DH and monk, I'm with you completely on life pool vs. mitigation. I don't have Amethysts equipped anywhere, and really the only one I'd consider is the helm. Now in HC, you are supposed to maintain some type of minimum pool, probably 350k at the lowest for T1, but once I get there I'm usually looking at damage vs. mitigation. Clearly my glass cannon DH tends towards the former. Smile
Battletag: Aahzmadius#1570

B.net profile: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Aahzm...570/career
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#60
Hehe well thanks for the compliments, but in all honesty, my wiz is really nowhere near complete yet. I still lack two Tal's items, Ice Climbers, a level 70 WH (or Harrington Waist Guard), and probably a pair of Magefists with crit chance, crit dmg, and arcane skills dmg. I've found SIX Thunderfuries believe it or not, though all of them have had low dps (all between 1900-2080). I'd like to get one that is 2300+. I also need to get rid of that rare ring, and replace it with SoJ or a Unity. Much yet to be done on her.

With the way this stuff drops though, it could take years to get it all Sad

I can def see a higher hp pool and mitigation being required for even lower Torment levels in HC. Honestly I don't know how you guys do it, with these terribly unstable servers and the massive lag - I could never play HC on this game, lol. The lag was pretty terrible last night and it reminded me of exactly why I only play SC. I actually did try HC once, I think i got to lvl 50 or so and died to a disconnect, which left a bad taste in my mouth. It's definitely not for me, though I got crazy respect for those who exclusively play it. You guys live quite a hellish life, hehe.
https://www.youtube.com/user/FireIceTalon


"Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class, made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the economic conditions of the existence of your class." - Marx (addressing the bourgeois)
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