3361

Elective mode is basically mandatory for high level success and yes it is a different game. I probably ought to have mentioned it in my quick gearing guide but honestly, once you’ve had it for long enough you forget that the game defaults you into such a terribly restrictive model.

What will really mess with your mind is that most t6+ builds don’t even use one of the traditional left mouse click buttons. Not all, but many. Generally stuff like cooldown reduction, passive set bonuses, resource cost reduction and increased resource generation make the “builders” something you won’t use forever. Blizzard tries to alleviate this by putting in legendary items and gems that hugely buff the left-click skills, but I still rarely see them on the leaderboards. My Wizard has Blizzard on his left-click. Hah.

3362

Mine too. I haven’t used a resource generator on my wiz in a year and half, maybe more.

3363

Could you link your barb? I just completed my Raekor set bonus and I’m tearing mobs a new one in lower torment difficulties (I - IV) but I die really fast since I have zero effective healing (life per fury spent doesn’t work in my build). I’m loving this playstyle so much though, the hockey player inside me is extremely happy >:).

3364

I’d be up for that this weekend (next two days for work are going to suck large.) I can do 5 machines at the moment - 10 sources a pop is expensive for me as I it takes a monumental effort not to blow the ones I have at the mystic. My will power alas is sometimes lacking. Not to mention doing key wardens isn’t terribly fun.

Past few days I’ve been looking for a firebird helm, a gift and a decent SoJ (I did get one but it’s terribad.) No luck at all there. :/

3365

It is worth pointing out, btw, that those on the top of the seasonal leader-boards get there by super efficient analysis of the best way to level, including making use of exploits or running (almost) no risk bounties at T6 for the stupid large XP bonus which results in multiple levels at once.

Basically they min/max the fuck out of the XP metagame in order to get there. If you just want to kill monsters and have some fun, you will never be on those leader-boards.

3366

Dont forget you could start a GR with a 4 man team, have 3 guys exit and 1 guy kill the boss, and those outside would get something like 10-20x the XP you’d get inside the rift.

3367

Observed over at Kotaku (I am not qualified to comment):

15 Must Have Diablo III Items

3368

I can solo T6 pretty easily. I’m happy to link my barb, though I should mention that I tend to play with my build pretty frequently, especially when I’m pairing with Meleketh (aka Shockmesane), since chatting with him will encourage experimentation. I’m usually running a multi-set build, with Raekor’s and Immortal King sets, with the occasional 3rd set of Aughild’s thrown in for good measure (aka survivability). You’ll notice that I’ve currently dropped the Aughild’s in favour of those Tasker and Theo gloves I’m currently wearing since they just dropped, and I’m combining them with the always up Council of the Ancients (CotA) pets, in a Cold Furious Charge build. I’m also ramping up for survivability with my current gem layout, all diamonds. I should also mention that I almost always run War Cry Impunity (for the resists) when I solo, but I swap in Invigorate when I duo with Meleketh because he appreciates the 10% extra health and the 8215 Life per Second. My bracer is quite terrible, and is only being worn for the +20% cold. I swap between the amulet I’m wearing now (Etlich) and a Countess Julia amulet that provides immunity to Arcane - but both provide +cold dmg%.

I have a more offensive, soloing build that uses LeapQuake and Fire Gear, but I die a lot more in it, although its single target DPS is far superior to what I’m currently rocking. That’s my biggest complaint / flaw about my current build. It will be rectified somewhat when I finally roll my Vile Ward shoulders.

Finally, paragon points wise, I always use them to maximize movement speed first, with the remainder going into Vitality if I need defence or Strength for Offence. Offensive, I keep Cooldown Reduction maxed, with spare points going into Critical Hit Damage % improvement. Defense I always max All Resist and secondarily % Life. Finally, Utility is all Life on Hit and Gold Find (since I’m chronically low of funds due to swapping in and out gems).

Prolix: I checked out the article, and it seems pretty valid, albeit Wizard focused.

3369

Is there a bonus or incentive to complete all the bounties in all 5 acts in one session? I did it once but didn’t seem to receive any bonus gold, item, or even a message. Also, when soloing does everyone pretty much always use the Templar? I can’t seem to stay alive as well when using the other 2 followers but granted I don’t have them as well equipped and am probably using them wrong.

3370

No, completing all bounties in all acts gets you nothing extra. Complete all the bounties in one act for the cache but don’t feel any pressure to do more than that. And the Templar is the most common follower because of his healing and CC, yeah. The others have their uses with some builds for some classes, but the Templar works with anything because he nicely complements your character’s role as DPS.

3371

I wish there was a way to save builds. Is there any decent sites that can keep track of various builds for you?

3372

After you complete all the bounties in an Act in one session (don’t log off!), make sure to speak to Tyrael. You’ll get a bounty cache box into your inventory, which you can right click and get all kinds of goodies, including rift stones and the possibility of act specific legendary items.

3373

I played quite a lot of Diablo (1) back in the day, and enjoyed D2 as well. I played through the story once when D3 was released, but the auction house especially made me lose all interest in the game quite rapidly, and I never bothered to take a character to max level. Reaper of Souls has changed that, and D3 has been my main game for the last couple of weeks. I am really enjoying it. Both as co-op with the son on PS4, and solo on PC.

Even though I am a terrible player with slow reactions (I am usually half dead before I notice that I am standing in fire), I’ve managed to take a witch doctor to level 70 and enjoying it quite a lot. So I figured that I would give it a shot, and try and gear him up to Torment difficulty. I’ve been switching between bounties and rifts, and between expert and master depending on mood, and since I hit 70 a couple of days ago, I have changed most of my gear to rare L70 with a couple of L66 Legendary items. My mission now must be to find some good L70 Legendary items, and that made me think about how to do so most efficiently. Wouldn’t it be smarter to take the difficulty down to normal, and run a lot of rifts fast? Or is drop quality somehow linked to the difficulty level?

3374

Yes to both. The second part I asked for intel on a few days ago, hoping someone would like to current best known info on drop rates/difficulty. No such luck yet. /sadface

There are a range of items (inc legs and sets) that only begin dropping in certain torment levels. That said, follow the recent guidelines shockmesane posted and you should be able to tackle them on full yellow gear.

3375

Yeah you really want to get to torment 1 right away. And that’s very doable in yellows, although perhaps not in hardcore.

3376

Do you get better cubes at higher levels and are thye really worth it. I am still trying to get to lvl 70 but it seems a slog atm

3377

The bounty caches contain different loot depending on which act you complete them in and which Torment difficulty they are completed in.
For example in Act 1 you can get a Ring that reduce the ‘set item’ requirement by 1, meaning you can get a 6-set bonus with only 5 pieces.

They are worth it for some “near” exclusive items. You can probably gamble them at Kadala as well, but that old hag is very very very evil.

3378

Yay, WD made it to 70 in HC! I took it pretty easy though.

3379

God, I’ve been having a blast with this on the PS4. I’d been playing adventure mode with my lvl 70 Witch Doctor and focusing on the advice a few pages back work on quipping for critical hit and crit damage and man does it do wonders. I was managing Torment 1 ok with about 300k damage thanks to pets and a giant pile of fetishes, but after spending a few nights swapping out equipment and re-enchanting for those stats I’m up to 560k and I can move through Torment 3 bounties at about the same pace now. Now if I could just get these boring caches to stop… I’ve opened maybe 15 of them at this point and I haven’t seen a single legendary or set item.

Thanks for the tips folks. A quick question on the rifts - I ran one on Torment 1 and it took me forever and it didn’t seem to give me much for the time I spent, so I haven’t gone back. Should I be doing those instead of just running bounties?

3380

Not if it took forever, no. But you should be able to gear up to efficiently run torment1 rifts pretty quickly. Rifts have a doubled chance of legendary drops, and many class-specific sets can only drop in torment 1 or higher.

If you’ve been running bounties you should have a metric crapton of rift stones, too, although each rift probably costs 5 in the console version.