Diablo III

[Hanacker]

I don’t disagree with anything sharleo wrote, but how was it so drastically different from the icy-veins build? Unless you weren’t looking at the thorns build there :)

Provoke and Bombardment instead of Steed and Arakat Champion, I think (although it looks like he put Arakat Champion back in?). If you don’t have the belt to proc bombardment, that’s an obvious change to make, and if you don’t have the shield to reduce Champion cooldown, it’s not a bad one to remove. Nice to have on Rift Guardians, but maybe not necessary.

Possibly Law of Valor instead of Law of Hope? Fine if you’re not pushing high GRifts, I guess, but damage has never been a problem for me with the 6-piece bonus.

[Syzygy]

I’ve had luck getting a Mask of Jeram and also a Furnace to drop, so all I really need is those stupid Tasker and Theo gloves. I’ve spent hundreds of shards and haven’t seen 'em yet.

I’m a big fan of this spreadsheet which can set your expectations properly on how many shards you can expect to spend to see each item, which in turn gives you a peak into the rarity.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cM-s4e66ql2zsrkfkfKXmvVJ4zmngzxdzVLk9gvLvT8/htmlview?sle=true#

It looks like for Witch Doctor you need to spend 8,250 shards on average to get those gloves. And 4/5 people will have the gloves after spending 13,500 or so shards.

[Syzygy]

After falling in gamer love with the console version of D3:RoS a little over a year ago, the bug has bitten me really hard again with Season 5 on the PC. I’ve only dabbled each Season so far, going the furthest in Season 3 in which I was about Paragon 150-200 on Hardcore.

This season I’m at Paragon 500 on HC and over 300 on Softcore. The goals I’ve set for myself are:

1. Finish Conqueror tier for the extra Stash tab
2. Complete the Crusader and Demon Hunter set dungeons on HC for the banners, possibly the Conquest (which may be needed for Guardian or not), and to work towards the wing reward from mastering all set dungeons in future seasons

Then maybe…
3) Finish Guardian tier
4) Finish Wizard set dungeons on SC
5) Finish Witch Doctor set dungeons on SC

[sharaleo]

So went to Grift 28 and then went to T7. T7 is doable, but I do have to watch my step. Big crowds can still get me. I set everything off, do tons of damage then retreat & pick off the ones that come after me. I’ve probably run 6 rifts and 4 grifts, with nothing special dropping (got steeds charge to complete the 2-piece set of flail & shield, but I don’t want to give up 2x thorns damage from provoke.

I spent all my blood shards on shields & converted 6 shields to legendary, but not getting the shield that I need. I’ll keep plugging away.

Heya! Still no socket and topaz in your weapon, naught boy! ;)

It annoys me that the online paper doll takes time to update so is not always up to date.

However, assuming it is current…

Put a topaz in your weapon! Re-roll the lightning damage affix to a socket. That is another 38k thorns. In a perfect world you actually want the fastest weapon you can get for faster attack speed. Ancients are lovely, but not for the increased sheet DPS - you want an ancient for the increased affix range (eg higher strength roll), which in turn raises your thorns damage.

Heavenly Strength needs to be removed from the passives while you are using a 1-hander.

Change Spiker and Haunt of Vaxo out of the cube. Cubed powers don’t stack, so if you are wearing Spiker, there is no point it being cubed. Haunt is also wasted as I don’t think you are rocking any stuns in your build - ie it should not be proc’ing any shadow clones at all.

Roll off the crit hit damage on your Puzzle Ring and the fire damage on your Stone of Jordan for sockets and slot two more leg gems from. Boyasky’s Chip it the must have as previously mentioned, but pretty much any of them is going to be more beneficial than those affixes. Bane of the Trapped, Bane of the Stricken or Moratorium are other good choices while you farm for the chip.

You can probably re-roll thorns onto your HF ammy as well. In a perfect world you’d re-roll the damage affix to something more useful, but thorns tend to be a re-roll option on secondary effects, not primary, so you’d be giving up the fire resist. Thorns on an ammy is worth up to around +6k.

Those changes should take you a few minutes and have you obliterating T7.

[Murbella]

Provoke and Bombardment instead of Steed and Arakat Champion, I think (although it looks like he put Arakat Champion back in?). If you don’t have the belt to proc bombardment, that’s an obvious change to make, and if you don’t have the shield to reduce Champion cooldown, it’s not a bad one to remove. Nice to have on Rift Guardians, but maybe not necessary.

Possibly Law of Valor instead of Law of Hope? Fine if you’re not pushing high GRifts, I guess, but damage has never been a problem for me with the 6-piece bonus.

This is basically how i feel.

Unless you have the CD shield, it is really tempting to not use Arakat champion as it won’t be up much. I’ve basically given up on this shield. I’ve upgraded probably 10 shields to legendary and gambled dozens upon dozens of crusader shields. I finally just got the take half damage on blocked attacks shield and the damage reduction is pretty nice.

I do not personally believe it is worth using bombardment for this build. I’d rather take provoke with lightning damage personally, ESPECIALLY with that shield. Obviously the belt is worth using though because it keeps it on all of the time. I still have not been able to get one myself, not for lack of trying.

If i had all of the gear mentioned in the icy veins guide, i’d go the same build, but until then, i’ll be accommodating the gear i have.

[amandachen]

Tman -> Hack (axe) and Pig Sticker are both easy to craft and are great for an invoker/thorns build. Wield the piggy and cube the axe.

[inactive_user]

Oh Bombardment is absolutely useless to slot in Invoker. Get it from the Belt or not at all.

[sharaleo]

Oh Bombardment is absolutely useless to slot in Invoker. Get it from the Belt or not at all.

Two days ago, I would have agreed. Now, I’m not so sure.

Last night a played a low GR70’s with a PUG, one of which was a very high paragon support globe monk. Alongside was me and my mate, both with saders.

After failing the GR because every single damn champ pack was bloody shielding arcane, he commented we were both crazy for not running bombardment. Now I was sure it was pointless - my belt does not exactly put out stacks of damage when I don’t have bombardment on my skill bar and I know the belt is for the damage reduction while Akarat’s also give you access to the cheat death rune.

That said, I tried it tonight initially while running TX bounties. Replaced Akarat’s with Bombardment/Spiked Barrels and also changed my cube from Furnace/Heart of Iron/Conv of Ele to Mortal Drama/Sanguine Embraces/RoRG (I also switched in a Broken Crown for ruby farming, hence the RoRG). Even with a 40k drop in thorns and loss of damage boost from removing HoI and CoE, the clear speed was faster. Bombardment damage was quite significant, doubly so with Mortal Drama. That’s both from belt proc and skill bar trigger and you can trigger off the skill bar more regularly than Akarats. Boss fights were marginally slower without the CoE proc, but put that down to my desire for gem farming necessitating the RoRG. I think that setup will now be my preferred Invoker load-out for farming.

So, then I returned my cube to GR spec - F/HoI/CoE and took that bombardment/spiked barrels through six GR’s or so up to GR64 while leveling a gem. I have to say now that DPS output felt improved. I cleared the GR64 in under 6 minutes, so the DPS should be good for GR69/70 with my current gear.

Based on that, I’d say bombardment is far from useless on the skill bar, in fact it seems like it is not only a good choice but a better choice for DPS than Akarats, particularly against large trash groups, though it will come at the expense of survivability.

[cannedwombat]

Two days ago, I would have agreed. Now, I’m not so sure.

Last night a played a low GR70’s with a PUG, one of which was a very high paragon support globe monk. Alongside was me and my mate, both with saders.

After failing the GR because every single damn champ pack was bloody shielding arcane, he commented we were both crazy for not running bombardment. Now I was sure it was pointless - my belt does not exactly put out stacks of damage when I don’t have bombardment on my skill bar and I know the belt is for the damage reduction while Akarat’s also give you access to the cheat death rune.

That said, I tried it tonight initially while running TX bounties. Replaced Akarat’s with Bombardment/Spiked Barrels and also changed my cube from Furnace/Heart of Iron/Conv of Ele to Mortal Drama/Sanguine Embraces/RoRG (I also switched in a Broken Crown for ruby farming, hence the RoRG). Even with a 40k drop in thorns and loss of damage boost from removing HoI and CoE, the clear speed was faster. Bombardment damage was quite significant, doubly so with Mortal Drama. That’s both from belt proc and skill bar trigger and you can trigger off the skill bar more regularly than Akarats. Boss fights were marginally slower without the CoE proc, but put that down to my desire for gem farming necessitating the RoRG. I think that setup will now be my preferred Invoker load-out for farming.

So, then I returned my cube to GR spec - F/HoI/CoE and took that bombardment/spiked barrels through six GR’s or so up to GR64 while leveling a gem. I have to say now that DPS output felt improved. I cleared the GR64 in under 6 minutes, so the DPS should be good for GR69/70 with my current gear.

Based on that, I’d say bombardment is far from useless on the skill bar, in fact it seems like it is not only a good choice but a better choice for DPS than Akarats, particularly against large trash groups, though it will come at the expense of survivability.

This is based on my experiences as a hardcore invoker crusader, YMMV.

Setup for pushing GRs 65+ (mostly solo):
Punish - Celerity
Steed Charge - Endurance
Iron Skin - Reflective
Consecrate - Bed of Nails
Law of Valor - Decaying Strength
AC - Prophet
Standard Gear (Justice Lantern, Endless Walk, Belt of the Trove, pigsticker, Akarat’s Awakening)
Cube: Blood brother, Aquila Cuirass/Heart of Iron, Convention of Elements

Setup for TX, lower rifts
Throw darts at a board.

Ok, it’s not quite that open ended, but lots of weapon/cube/skill combos will work. I’ve tinkered with In Geom, Swiftmount, Mortal Drama, Furnace in various combos. There’s even fun to be had with a Goldwrap/Avarice Band/Boon of the Hoarder setup. Throw in Norvald’s set for even more giggles.

[Murbella]

I’ve heard rumors that the spiker shield mentioned earlier does not work. Can anyone confirm this before i go gambling for one? Thanks.

[LockerK]

According to the Thornsader Megathread over on Reddit:

The Provoke / Spiker combination only increases damage dealt by thorns reflection based on an incoming melee attack – not any skills or set bonuses that add X% of thorns damage to the base skill.

So still useful but not as good as one may expect.

[Murbella]

According to the Thornsader Megathread over on Reddit:

The Provoke / Spiker combination only increases damage dealt by thorns reflection based on an incoming melee attack – not any skills or set bonuses that add X% of thorns damage to the base skill.

So still useful but not as good as one may expect.

That kind of severely hurts the viability of the item from the sound of that.

I think i’ll stick with my half damage on block shield while trying to get the -cd on block shield.

Nice thread too.

Thanks.

[sharaleo]

It depends, still makes it very good against trash mobs when combo’d with Iron Skin/Consecration, just less so against champs where you want use of the 6 piece bonus for single target damage. Good for speed clearing and bounties, bad for pushing GR’s.

Edit - hmmm, the consensus on the reddit is that spiker does NOT combo with other skills (iron skin, etc), as well as the set bonuses…

[Tman]

Heya! Still no socket and topaz in your weapon, naught boy! ;)

It annoys me that the online paper doll takes time to update so is not always up to date.

However, assuming it is current…

Put a topaz in your weapon! Re-roll the lightning damage affix to a socket. That is another 38k thorns. In a perfect world you actually want the fastest weapon you can get for faster attack speed. Ancients are lovely, but not for the increased sheet DPS - you want an ancient for the increased affix range (eg higher strength roll), which in turn raises your thorns damage.

Heavenly Strength needs to be removed from the passives while you are using a 1-hander.

Change Spiker and Haunt of Vaxo out of the cube. Cubed powers don’t stack, so if you are wearing Spiker, there is no point it being cubed. Haunt is also wasted as I don’t think you are rocking any stuns in your build - ie it should not be proc’ing any shadow clones at all.

Roll off the crit hit damage on your Puzzle Ring and the fire damage on your Stone of Jordan for sockets and slot two more leg gems from. Boyasky’s Chip it the must have as previously mentioned, but pretty much any of them is going to be more beneficial than those affixes. Bane of the Trapped, Bane of the Stricken or Moratorium are other good choices while you farm for the chip.

You can probably re-roll thorns onto your HF ammy as well. In a perfect world you’d re-roll the damage affix to something more useful, but thorns tend to be a re-roll option on secondary effects, not primary, so you’d be giving up the fire resist. Thorns on an ammy is worth up to around +6k.

Those changes should take you a few minutes and have you obliterating T7.

I did a lot of these changes but then got some nice drops. Still not the magic belt/shield, but got a nice ancient legendary one-hand DPS sword. Got a socket on it & have Topaz in it. Got an interesting belt that throws Knives for every hit that really clears a room.

The provoke / reflective shield / bed of spikes is a finesse move that wipes anything in range, but I still get killed if I’m not careful on cooldown by something stupid that wipes my health, but easily doing T7. I’m probably ready for T8 now.

I collected a number of legendary’s that look cool on paper. I’m going to have to write them down / test to see how effective they are. (nepahalem glory globe, some others I can’t recall)

Is there any hard & fast rule on which rare’s to upgrade to legendary? For now, I try to upgrade any rares with 4-5 orange diamond attributes. Wasn’t sure if there was anything else to look for.

[inactive_user]

The affixes of the rares literally don’t matter. Just the base type.

Generally speaking, it’s more efficient to upgrade jewelry as that costs more to gamble from Kadala.

[Charlatan]

My WD build only needs rings and upgrades to my weapon and mojo. I’ve been cubing rare rings with little luck so far. And I’ve been rerolling my weapon in hopes of getting an Ancient, again with no luck. So I’m busy farming Death’s Breaths and Forgotten Souls (yay, fun). What should I do with my blood shards?

Also, I’ve been looking at a build that uses those new rings, the ones that boost your damage per ancient piece if that’s your only set bonus. Is there any non mind numbing way to get the Ancient pieces I am interested in othe than by farming for a month or so? :/

[Ultrazen]

I thought my Whirlwind barb was fun, and it was, I thought my firebird/tals mage was fun, and it was, but holy cow, THORNS CRUSADER…

I’ve never really taken to crusader, as all the builds seem clunky and slow…but thorns with perma up time steed…holy crap. Talk about speed clearing bounties.

Probably the most fun I’ve had in D3, this current patch/season is awesome. I haven’t even ventured into monk or WD yet. So many hours into this game, and still looking forward to playing.

[amandachen]

Anyone around who can add me to the EU guild?

[Tman]

I have collected an extra set of thorns gear. If anyone is running a new crusader and wants a jumpstart once they hit level 70, let me know.

[inactive_user]

You realize gear is untradeable, right? ;)