Diablo III Catch-All 2.0

GR 123 cleared today and it's getting harder to find the right rift to be able to clear. Feel like gear is more than fine, but it's now hugely dependent upon getting more paragon, getting the right map and mob types.

You're entering a new experience of D3. Now, you have to start thinking of things like, adding Caladin's to every piece of gear. Also, you will now reforge every legendary until you get the perfect ancient or primal piece for every single slot. It'll take months and months and by the time you start gaining good ground, season'll be over.

The right rift is the highest one you can clear in 4 minutes or less. The amount of bonus xp is higher for faster time cleared than it is for rift number.

I.E. you can get as much xp for clearing a rift in 4 minutes as clearing a rift 5 levels higher in 5 minutes. (numbers are rough but close enough)
I have to look it up because there is an online rift calculator.
The way is usually works is a GR you can comfortably clear happens in about 8-10 minutes. (the ones you barely clear while still comfortably you tend to have about 2 minutes left)
A GR that is 5 levels lower that what is comfortable you can clear in 4-6 minutes. So you can potentially earn twice as much XP from doing a rift 5 levels lower than comfortable.
People typically recommend speed builds or variants because those 5 minute rifts you can clear in 2 minutes but I have yet to run a rift lower than 3:55ish
edit: d3xp.com
http://rerollcalculator.com/Paragon
for gr xp and xp required to reach a paragon level respectively

Five levels being Tier levels (like 1-16), or actual rift count levels (like, 1-114)?

Actual rift count. One Torment level corresponds to 5 GR levels up to Torment 16 (GR 75)
If you can clear GR 80 in 10 minutes then you should be able to clear GR 75 in 4-5 minutes and earn the same xp.

Thank you! I never knew that...

Huh. I guess that jives with the design of the rift system, where failure typically isn't "I can't beat this at all" but rather "I can't beat this fast enough." I sometimes forget that in a world where seasonal class sets jump me up to levels where it's once again possible to hit a death wall.

Finally worked out a way to organize my laptop setup with a mouse.
So I have finally started this season and man is the season theme annoying...
It darkens the screen which if anything puts to rest Diablo 3 being not dark enough. It layers a moving cloud effect and you are really flying blind in some levels. I've had to navigate via the compass map quite often.

That aside, the hydra wizard is the easiest build to create from scratch at the start of the season. Serpent Sparker is among the harder items to loot or create. So if you are lucky it can save you some time. The magistrate is not too hard to create via the cube because it is a wizard hat and I believe there are only 4 legendary ones. But you can get pretty far with good crit% and damage plus the legacy of dreams gem. You don't need the Serpent Sparker but the magistrate will help tremendously.

Once you get sparker and magistrate and 50 /300 crit%/damage and most slots legendary, you can handle torment 11. This is where I am now and I have only been playing my wizard for ~15 hours. Plus, I already have 2 pieces of typhons (and I have completed I-IV of the season journey) I also already have the blood bracer that doubles shields, aquilas and tasker and theo.

Now mind you, I am a little bit slower on the draw with my laptop/mouse setup so I was not able to pass the challenge rift for the big boost at the start of the season. So I could have cut off a few hours from that and some better luck on the way to 70. I did not get a leorics crown until level 54. I have yet to find an etched sigil which would have allowed me to blow through the road to 70 and up to GR 25.

I can't imagine having a better experience with any other class. WD I could have gotten better massacre bonus xp from using haunt and it would have been safer with the pets as shields. DH has good killing potential but dies more in my experience. The season set is much better so it may be on equal footing post 70. Barb is amazing post 70 but it takes a while to build up spin to win.

Frenzy Barb is a pleasure once you get all the pieces...

Grenn wrote:

adding Caladin's to every piece of gear.

Caladin's?

Even Google couldn't ID that for me

-Augments I believe. There is a kanai cube recipe that consumes a legendary gem rank 40, 50 or higher to add main stat to a piece of armor. Between that and insane paragon levels above 800, you start ramping up your damage into the millions.
-By contrast, I have only achieved ~1.8 million damage and that was good enough for GR 100. I have only augmented 1 piece of gear though and that was mainly to complete the advanced season journey goals once you have completed the chapters.

Also, I stumbled on a weird Cow King style event during a nephalem rift. I definitely think this is a very positive addition to nephalem rifts that are a necessary slog on the road to getting more GR keys. (plus they are really good for stocking up on death breaths) So I hope it is not a fluke

Caladin's Despair, I believe it is called in the cube. You basically put an ancient or primal piece of gear in the cube, a gem of certain level depending on the gear, and three of the highest gems of one color. It consumes all the mats to put the stat of your choice on the gear. I believe a lvl 100 gem will net you +500. That way, if you have a near perfect piece, but need that one critical thing, like crit damage or something, and you have a couple high level gems sitting around, you can throw them on the gear and roll the main stat off without taking much of a hit.

Well, I've solo finished "speed demon" now with as much as 7 seconds left, but never made it back to Oreck in time. Maybe I can get with some folks this weekend and blast it? Anyone else still need their cheevs? We could work on others, too...

I have found that one is easier to do on t16 than t10. It is very easy with more than one person though. Don't pick stuff up, blast through and someone head to town as soon as boss shows up. You want the same map as cow level, it is so dense with mobs.

I am mostly done playing but if I see you over the weekend I will jump in and help.

Was playing Torchlight 2 on Switch and enjoyed the fun little things they do, like secret rooms and other dimensions. But I didn't enjoy playing it.

Reinstalled D3. Playing a seasonal char. Yup, this is where it's at. No one does it like Blizzard.

Was playing Torchlight 2 on Switch and enjoyed the fun little things they do, like secret rooms and other dimensions. But I didn't enjoy playing it.

Reinstalled D3. Playing a seasonal char. Yup, this is where it's at. No one does it like Blizzard.

There is no question that more things like secret rooms and phase beasts brought to D3 would be beneficial.
I know D3 has goblin portals and cursed chests but they occurred twice as often in Torchlight 2. I also like the mini dungeon style of T2's phase portals better than Whimsyshire.
Even things like mimics would be cool in D3.
And like I mentioned above, I encountered an event that was like a hybrid between Cow King and Jar of Souls during a nephalem rift earlier in the week. That was amazing! We need to see more of that

D3 does indeed have phase beasts; I think that’s the literal name of the teleporting monster. They present a sub-second challenge for most builds.

Phase beasts in T2 leave a portal to a mini dungeon when killed. It is like the goblins in D3 that leave a portal to Whimsyshire when killed. They are much more common in T2 which breaks up the journey between acts better. Plus they have a boss fight at the end. They are designed and sized more like Greed's Vault in D3.

Oh, that would be cool. How did they leave that out?

Jay Wilson, the original design lead for Diablo 3.

I want to say that as much as 90% of what we all love about Diablo 3 was implemented after the Reaper of Souls expansion launched and after Josh Mosqueira took over as design lead. Even the well received systems that were tested before like Monster Power and item scaling were implemented and abandoned for better ones under Mosqueira's watch. Diablo 3 was replayable and good but not great until he took over.

Now D3 is:

Reinstalled D3. Playing a seasonal char. Yup, this is where it's at. No one does it like Blizzard.

Agreed. I merely enjoyed it before RoS and I'm heartbroken we won't see the second expansion.

The second expansion should have been 4+ years old at this point...

Hit level 70 with a seasonal character for the first time. Having owned and played the game on PC, PS3, PS4 and Switch this is the first time I've been able to put real time into the game since my second child was born. #handheldgamingftw

It is funny. Since I have had a pinched nerve in my shoulder I have desperately tried to find a way to play D3 one handed or mouse only.
Well, the Hydra sorceress is absolutely that beast. It actually doesn't even really matter what skill you use for mouse 1. Just put hydra in mouse 2 and the minimap on mouse 4 or 5 and you are done.

Left click to move. Right click to position hydras. Mouse 4 or 5 to bounce around bounties or to exit rifts.

fangblackbone wrote:

It is funny. Since I have had a pinched nerve in my shoulder I have desperately tried to find a way to play D3 one handed or mouse only.

I play D3 with one of those MMO mice with all the buttons, so all my key-bound abilities are used with my right thumb. That’s a nearly one-handed control scheme. I do still use my left hand for opening screens, drinking potions, and holding the “stand and attack” button though.

Yeah, while you can open inventory, check achievements,or open the settings menu with mouse clicks, it is far easier with hitting the keyboard hotkey.

D3 and Jets n Guns (2) are my go to 1 handed games.
I don't even like sudoku or ken ken 1 handed.

Any advice on getting a necromancer through Speed Demon conquest? I have several sturdy builds, but nothing that's durable AND fast enough to clear a Nephalem Rift in 2 minutes. Its that last thing left for me to complete my first season ever. I feel I would really enjoy that pet.

I think the skill is blood rush for necros. But I would party up to get that one. Perhaps even a few pugs would do it. I don't think you have to do the speed demon conquest. There are easier choices like the gold streak one, the 350 kill streak one and the GR 45 with no set items equipped.

The GR 45 one is really easy for me so I tend to do it on a normal and Hardcore character. LoD hydra wizard is a good one for that. The first time I did it, I ran a hodge podge monk with lod and the aoe generator skill (crippling wave). I had cubed that 2 handed axe that fires large piercing axes on attack (stalgard or something like that) which gave me all the damage I need for burst and single target.

The 350 cursed chest is a bit harder but can be more easily done with a group. The bounty you want to look for is the cursed peat in act 5. Sometimes the chest is there without the event so doing a quick sweep around the paths of the drowned waypoint.

I haven't done the gold streak one but with boon of the hoarder and the cow level it should be easily done. I guess you can also acquire 43 bounty caches and open them all at once without having a pet equipped. (it will prematurely start the gold collection and can disrupt the streak)

I keep checking into this thread when I should be all well and done with D3. Now I am tempted to jump in again. I might have the DH itch. Is DH good to play in this season?