4561

That was a good call Stusser about the Hellfire amulets. I had thought they were some kind of crazy grind but at least on T7, all but one time did a key warden drop a key and then killing the bosses always yielded 2 of the crafting material. It took 7 attempts but I finally got one with a passive I could use…stats aren’t great but that 5th passive is really nice.

I have tried your suggestion before Kahlil and was doing that for quite a while until a mediocre Furnace finally dropped for me. So that’s now what I use for my cubed weapon. Hard to give up on 50% damage against elites considering those are always the things that kill my characters.

For the longest time I ran 4 Zuni and 4 Arychyr (actually 3+3 and a ring of grandeur). Arychyr’s spider + hex is a potent addition to any setup. It’s what really allowed me to start running higher level rifts, which in turn got me all 6 Helltooth pieces. Once you get that, the damage levels you can achieve are pretty insane, making it hard to switch to anything else.

I’ve heard it said, however, that while Helltooth is great for soloing, Arachyr’s is better for groups. I’m not exactly clear why though. I might give it a shot just to try it out and compare. I’m worried about the survivability though. Zuni gives you the damage reduction with each fetish and Helltooth damage reduction every time you land Necrosis. Arachyr’s only comes with the Hex while the Toad is active. Not sure how viable that’s going to be at T8 and beyond.

4562

The most efficient way to complete sets is to use all your blood shards gambling armor and offhands, while grabbing weapons and accessories by upgrading rares in the cube.

4563

That’s the next thing I’m going to have to do.

4564

I can attest that upgrading Rares in the cube is a great way to get better weapons. I picked up an Ancient Lion’s Claw with a socket that was 600 damage higher than my previous one. Wow. I was ecstatic when I saw it. Almost makes up for accidentally salvaging a piece of Uliana’s. And that Sledgefist that was also ancient. I need to stop playing after midnight.

4565

So, does upgrading rares in the cube keep all the old attributes and add one more and make it legendary, or does it completely reroll a legendary item of the same type?

4566

Completely reroll. 10% chance of ancient.

4567

I have 2 Witch Doctors, both non-seasonal. One is running the Carnevil build and the other using Zuni-Helltooth. I know Helltooth/Zombie Bears or Acid cloud are the top builds, but I want my WDs to be pet dudes dammit. That however caps their effectiveness. My primary WD is damn near indestructible - I’m using 6 Helltooth/4 Zuni and cubed the mojo that uses zombie dogs to reduces damage by 30%. With that I can literally stand in the middle of multiple elite packs and not only not die but barely lose any health (in combo with gizzard rune.) Unfortunately it takes a while to kill anything at T10 as the fetishes all get in each others way. I swapped out that mojo and cubed the acid cloud weapon - better DPS but still slow. Oh well. (The Carnevil build is actually more fun but at the same time that WD is a glass cannon and dies if mobs look at her wrong.)

As far as loot goes, making weapons from rares is the only way I’ve been able to get usable Ancient weapons (the vast majority of my drops are the same every time, usually crappy rings and crappy helms.) With the cube I managed to make an Ancient SMK and ancient Shelong fists (which I’ve not seen drop at all.) The generator build is really fun (and so is the exploding EP builds even without a lion claw.) Kinda sad though that I’m happier getting death breath than legendary drops :/

4568

I didn’t think the cube would give ancients…

4569

Holy shit is the damage intake in GR57 brutal. I have ~35m toughness out of combat and still die in like 1 second without Epiphany up.

4570

Ah, only the set conversion recipe will never return an ancient.

4571

So what’s a good way to farm Death’s Breaths, given that those are my bottleneck to upgrading rares?

And also, what’s a good difficulty to be on? I can handle TOrment II without much difficulty, if not quickly.

4572

If T2 is slow going, drop to T1 and farm Rifts (not Greater). There’s a higher concentration of boss packs in those, which is where the Breath drops from. Also look into gearing away from toughness if possible for more damage if your progress is slow but easy.

4573

Another good way to get Death Breaths is to find the bracer that will spawn an elite each time you activate a shrine. Combine that with a lower-level rift (as above), and you can increase your Breath intake by about a third.

4574

I’ve farmed DB’s by using a mobile build and picking a Torment level that remained fairly easy with my current gear. Higher torment levels increase the chances for DB drops. At T7+, you’ll see frequent double drops.

There is also a crafted set (Sage) that increases DB drops. If you can fit it in with your current gear, talk to your local blacksmith.

4575

Yeah, I think you need to be doing T8 and over to get double DB drops.

4576

For Death’s Breath, I was running through Torment VI (now Torment VII) rifts and just looking for Elites. I think at T6, the estimated DB drop rate is 64% so by the time I was done, I usually had an average of 10. I think there is a helm, or maybe a 2 or 3-set bonus that causes a second DB to drop when you get one. I’m sure I used it while leveling up shortly after hitting 70.

Right now, my goal is to try to complete the Seasonal Champion challenge…I just need to get 3(?) Legendary Gems up to level 30, which shouldn’t be hard, and finish a level 70 Nephalim Rift on Torment VII in under 6 minutes. That one is the problem. I’ve tried upping my damage as much as possible, but can’t seem to even break the 7 minute barrier. Maybe I’m just getting bad random maps.

4577

I go through public T7 Rift games to get Deaths Breaths. Even though I struggle to keep up with everyone else’s movement speed, I’m not to proud to scavenge after Elite Pack fights.

4578

Completing a rift in under 6 minutes is trivially easy, if you join a public game.

I go through public T7 Rift games to get Deaths Breaths. Even though I struggle to keep up with everyone else’s movement speed, I’m not to proud to scavenge after Elite Pack fights.

I completed HC Seasonal Champion last night. Now I’m on to Destroyer. I did the “Extract 50 Cube powers” one already, but the rest of the Destroyer challenges look like they’re far far beyond me.

4579

Got my 5th Helltooth last night. Combined with the RoRG, I’m now getting the 6-piece bonus. You aren’t kidding about hte 6-pieces being game-breaking. The amount of damage output is insane… Bumped back up from T7 to T8 and I’m still munching through mobs really fast. I’m feeling the loss of the 40% damage reduction and 10% LPS from the 4-piece Arachnyr, so had to swap to Spirit Vessel for those “wow, that was a huge burst of damage and now I’m dead” moments. Likely going to need to swap out for some survival passives now if I want any hope of getting to T9/10.

4580

How do you “gamble with the cube?”

I’m still not sure I actually understand everything the cube can do.