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[Boogalogist]

Okay, finally managed to check your gear via d3planner.



First things first, the very obvious:
- Get those Rathma gloves, son. Gamble at Kadala, or if you've got duplicates of other Rathma pieces, you can use the "Convert Set" recipe from the cube to... convert one of them to gloves. Once you have them, cube your Tasker and Theo, and use that instead of Nemesis Bracers.

I have the Rathma set from the Season's Journey gift. I didn't have a good ring to go along with the Traveler's Pledge. Actually using T&T + nemesis bracers (in Kanai) due to faster clearance of GR.

- Upgrade all your gems: weapon emerald and armor topazes to flawless, legendary gems to rank 40 at least (since you can do GR50 solo). That alone will make a big difference in DPS.
- Eventually you'll have to replace your Bane of the Powerful with Zei's Stone of Vengeance (once it's leveled enough), but you don't have to right now. BotP is good in the early stages.

This is hilarious. I actually thought I max upgraded all the gems in my armor. That's what a 2 year hiatus does to you. Good point on the Legendary Gems!

- Don't put a Topaz in your helm. Resource Cost Reduction isn't that great, even if it sounds like it might be. Your essence regen comes from health globes and Bone Spikes (more on this later). Put either an amethyst for survivability or a diamond for CDR.

Yeah. I actually put RCR in cause I thought it will give a boost to Skeletal Mage - Singularity. From what I read, it only affects the base casting cost of 40 essence.

- Golem is a useless skill right now, get rid of it.

That's my essence regen mechanism. I was previously using Moribund Gauntlets for the 1 corpse per second. It's pretty nuts. I have no problems maintaining 4 Skelly Mages.

- Same with Army of the Dead, sadly. Yes, even with the 6p bonus from Rathma, it's not worth it, trust me.
- instead of those two skills, you want Bone Spikes with the Sudden impact rune (which I'd put on left click) for essence generation and the stun which procs your Krysbin damage bonus, and Land of the Dead with Frozen Lands.
- Also, replace the Voracious rune on Devour with Satiated.

Thinking of replacement AotD with Frailty curse, since I already have Simulacrum - Reservoir as a nuke.

How long does Devour-Satiated extra life % last?
LotD any good? Any way to reduce the cooldown?

Jewelry: if you can get a decent Nailuj and Compass rose, use those instead of the Krysbin's and the Ring of Royal Grandeur, and cube Krysbin's. Reason being that Krysbin's is kinda hard to roll well, and RoRG is a crappy ring anyway. Only wear the RoRG until you find a Nailuj or Rathma gloves. Your traveler's pledge is great though. If it's not enchanted yet, reroll the intelligence to physical damage. It won't show on your sheet DPS, but this is actually a huge DPS upgrade for your build. I have 1450 intelligence on my primal amulet (1,000 + augment) and it still gives my mages less DPS than a +20% physical damage stat. Generally speaking you want crit chance and crit damage (and obviously a socket) on all your jewelry (+ intelligence on rings).

Yeah. I'm on the lookout for Compass Rose. That +100% damage while standing is amazing. This bonus works on summons too, right?

That note on the replacing Int with physical damage is certainly interesting. I'll give a go and try it out.

Would a Hellfire amulet be good? What skills on the Hellfire?

Weapon: it's non-ancient, so you'll have to replace it with/reroll it to an ancient one obviously, as this is the single most important slot to improve your DPS. The damage rolls are poor, even for a non-ancient, but at least you've got decent stats (int, attack speed, socket). If you have a few Ramaladni's Gift on hand, you might consider rerolling the socket to +10% damage and use the gift to recreate a socket. If you don't know what that is or only have 1, forget what I said, the weapon is not really worth it anyway with these damage rolls. However, in that case, reroll the attack speed to +10% dmg instead. Nice, easy DPS increase right there.

Wow. I didn't know about upgrading item to Ancient status. Any experience with this? Any tips? Does the older stats get replaced? Is it a completely new item or maintains the old affix?

Helm: reroll death nova to skeletal damage. Rathma builds should always have int/crit%/mage damage on helms.

Shoulders: reroll resource cost reduction to armor or vitality. RVR is by and large useless. I'd go with armor.

Chest: reroll Golem damage to vitality. Again, Golem is useless.

Gloves: again, replace with Rathma gloves. Not much you can do in the meantime since you've already enchanted your T&T to crit%. Ideally you'd want int/crit%/crit dmg and, after you've got all those, attack speed.


Pants: reroll Siphon Blood to armor. Note: when you have the choice between armor and all resist, always pick armor for an intelligence class. Intelligence already raises your resistances, so it's inefficient to roll it on gear too.

Boots: absolutely reroll the life regen to Skeletal Mage Damage. Between this bonus and the helm, you're already looking at a +30% damage increase. Incidentally, life regen is even more useless than resource cost reduction .

Shield: reroll RCR to crit chance.

Excellent points. I have not min/max these parts

Bracers: while crit chance is absolutely a must for any decent pair of bracers, reroll it to +20% physical damage (same reasoning as the amulet). Huge DPS increase. Or better yet: craft better Reaper's. They don't cost much. A single bounty run of Acts 2 and 3 on T13 will let you craft 16 Reaper's Wrath if you have enough regular mats. You want physical damage, crit chance, intelligence and vitality.

I'll probably just craft better Reapers.

Belt: vigilante belt is an interesting choice here because of the CDR and because it's an ancient. Nothing to reroll here. However, you might want to replace it with a Witching Hour down the line for DPS, or Dayntee's Binding for survivability if you plan to use Decrepify at some point. I'd go for Witching Hour. But your belt will do nicely until then.

This was a placeholder until Witching Hour. So yeah.

This is all advice for a fairly cookie-cutter build, to be honest. It's the one I'm running. You don't have much leeway and gear and skills.Variants you'll see include Decrepify (with Dayntee's Binding for your belt) and/or Blood Rush for skills, and Haunted Visions and Convention of the Elements instead of Traveler's Pledge and Compass Rose.

Anyway, make these changes and watch your GR potential jump by 10 GRs at least .

[EDIT] Priorities:
- skills: replace golem, army and the devour rune
- gambling/converting for Rathma gloves and cubing Tasker's
- if you have money and gems: upgrade all your gems, replace helm topaz with amethyst or diamond
- if you're short on resources (money, mats, bounty mats): do goblin vaults with friends, rifts in public games (or with friends) at a level where you can comfortably speedfarm, and bounty runs in public games or with friends.
- single biggest DPS increases by changing item: craft new reaper's wraps with +20% physical damage AND crit chance, or at least reroll your current one to physical damage; upgrade rare scythes to a better Jesseth scythe Careful, might get costly. If you can't have a good one yet, keep one in your stash that you'll later reforge to an ancient one.
- cheapest/quickest increase through enchants: skeletal mage damage on helm and boots, physical damage on bracers and amulet, crit chance on shield, +10% damage on your current weapon.

Excellent points! Thanks for your advice.

Even with my current unoptimized setup, the GR boss appears and melts away in 2 seconds. I'm left wondering what the hell just happened. I suppose it's a sign that I just need to do higher GR.


I remember back when D3 first launched, we had to do Torment 1 Act 1 countless times just to get proper gear to do Act 2 (or Dank Cellar runs). Then when Rifts came out, we had to band 4 of us together just to scrap to GR 35. Now? GR50 solo...no problem! How times have changed.

 

[Kilrogg]

Yeah. I actually put RCR in cause I thought it will give a boost to Skeletal Mage - Singularity. From what I read, it only affects the base casting cost of 40 essence.

Yep, RCR doesn't work for skills that use up all your resource.

That's my essence regen mechanism. I was previously using Moribund Gauntlets for the 1 corpse per second. It's pretty nuts. I have no problems maintaining 4 Skelly Mages.

No, trust me, your regen mechanism is Life from Blood + Reaper's Wraps (and killing enemies fast so you can consume the corpses to spawn the globes fast enough) . Sorry if I'm being categorical. I'm all for balanced skills, but Golem really is that bad. Whatever it does, there is some other skill that does it much better. No real synergies involve Golem. Hopefully Blizzard will rework Golem at some point.

Thinking of replacement AotD with Frailty curse, since I already have Simulacrum - Reservoir as a nuke.

Frailty isn't optimal for very high dps builds like this one. If an enemy is below 15% with Rathma, it's already dead or will die from the next hit anyway. Use Land of the Dead or Blood Rush in that slot.

How long does Devour-Satiated extra life % last?

Extremely long, actually. The thing is, every corpse devoured increased the total duration of the effect, with no apparent cap. I once checked and so it had 30 minutes remaining after a GR lol.

LotD any good? Any way to reduce the cooldown?

Yes, it's good, though it's the one skill some people sometimes abandon in favor of mobility for instance. Sadly there is no real satisfying way to reduce its cooldown enough to give you a real advantage as a Rathma. That's why I didn't advise you to have CDR on your gear. Or if you do, don't have it on more than 1 or 2 pieces, to make sure you have some time to recast it before the end of the Cooldown Pylon effect when you get it. Any more is a complete waste, and even then, I'm not sure having CDR on even one piece of gear is better than the alternative: more DPS.

Yeah. I'm on the lookout for Compass Rose. That +100% damage while standing is amazing. This bonus works on summons too, right?

Yes. Their DPS is based on your sheet DPS, so any general damage bonus will apply to them automatically. Interestingly, attack speed bonuses (except that of Tasker and Theo) don't give them more attack speed, but since AS increases your sheet DPS, it still increases their damage.

That note on the replacing Int with physical damage is certainly interesting. I'll give a go and try it out.

You don't have to take my word for it. The d3planner allows you to do a simulation and see how it impacts the damage of your mages. I did just that right before posting that, so I can confirm that phys% will give you more effective damage than either intelligence or crit chance. Though ideally you want all three on your bracers.

Would a Hellfire amulet be good? What skills on the Hellfire?

If you've got nothing better and it's well rolled, sure, I guess. As for what passive, I don't know, I'd say either Blood is Power, for those dire situations where an enemy hits you and activates Final Service (so it will give you 20% CDR and possibly allow you to cast LotD/Simulacrum) or whichever passive increases the attack speed of your Bone Spikes, for faster essence regen.

By the way: always use the stand still command with this build. don't just left-click enemies with the bone spikes. I put stand still on the spacebar. I find it's more comfortable to use that way.

Wow. I didn't know about upgrading item to Ancient status. Any experience with this? Any tips? Does the older stats get replaced? Is it a completely new item or maintains the old affix?

Take a look at the cube recipes when you have time. Most of them are really useful. To be clear, the upgrade rare/reforge legendary recipes don't guarantee that you'll get an ancient legendary, but they sure are the quickest way to get the ancient legendary you want.

Upgrade does what it says on the tin: it turns your rare item into a random legendary of that type. So upgrading a rare 1H scythe will give you a Jesseth Scythe, or a Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, or a Funerary Pick, or a Scythe of the Cycle, or something else I forget. The stats will be random too. There are not that many legendary 1H scythes, so the likelihood of getting a Jesseth is fairly high, and it's much cheaper than reforging. The reforge recipe will give you the same item with completely new stats. That's why you want to use a spare item, not the one you're currently using on your character in case the reforge is worse. For both recipes, there's always a chance that the resulting item will be Ancient or Primal. Conversely, if you reforge an Ancient or Primal, it will most likely become non-ancient.

The thing is: however badly rolled an ancient weapon is, it will 99% of the time be far superior to a non-ancient version of that weapon. The DPS increase is too big to ignore, even if the other stats suck. For an amulet though? Your non-ancient amulet might be better than a primal version if that one rolls with stats you don't want.

I'll probably just craft better Reapers.

That would be my recommendation. Never reforge Reaper's/upgrade bracers to Reaper's. Not worth it. Crafting them is much cheaper.

Even with my current unoptimized setup, the GR boss appears and melts away in 2 seconds. I'm left wondering what the hell just happened. I suppose it's a sign that I just need to do higher GR.

How much time remaining when you do GR50? If it's consistently more than 2 minutes, you can safely go higher.

I remember back when D3 first launched, we had to do Torment 1 Act 1 countless times just to get proper gear to do Act 2 (or Dank Cellar runs). Then when Rifts came out, we had to band 4 of us together just to scrap to GR 35. Now? GR50 solo...no problem! How times have changed.

You're thinking of Inferno difficulty, not Torment . Then came Monster Power. Torment came much later. But yeah, I remember... I remember not being able to complete the beginning of Act 2 because the wasps would one-shot me (and everyone else).

 

[Boogalogist]

Frailty isn't optimal for very high dps builds like this one. If an enemy is below 15% with Rathma, it's already dead or will die from the next hit anyway. Use Land of the Dead or Blood Rush in that slot.

I was looking at Frailty with Scent of Blood rune. +15% damage from minions sounds significant.

Extremely long, actually. The thing is, every corpse devoured increased the total duration of the effect, with no apparent cap. I once checked and so it had 30 minutes remaining after a GR lol.

LOL...this is insane. So imba!

By the way: always use the stand still command with this build. don't just left-click enemies with the bone spikes. I put stand still on the spacebar. I find it's more comfortable to use that way.

This is a great tip. I keep forgetting I have this stand still button.

For both recipes, there's always a chance that the resulting item will be Ancient or Primal.

Sounds like i should clear GR70 first to unlock Primal before trying this (if i can do with current gear after optimizing as per your recommendation)

How much time remaining when you do GR50? If it's consistently more than 2 minutes, you can safely go higher.

I finish GR50 in about 7+ mins i believe.

You're thinking of Inferno difficulty, not Torment . Then came Monster Power. Torment came much later. But yeah, I remember... I remember not being able to complete the beginning of Act 2 because the wasps would one-shot me (and everyone else).

Oh man..the wasps were really something back then, weren't they? Act 3 was even easier. But the shit thing was that you needed to complete Act 2 Inferno to move on to Act 3 Inferno. Nobody farms Act 2 Inferno back then. LOL

 

[kennah]

What’s a good necro build if I don’t want to actually play the micro of the game and just walk around and have things die around me.

 

[New002]

You're thinking of Inferno difficulty, not Torment . Then came Monster Power. Torment came much later. But yeah, I remember... I remember not being able to complete the beginning of Act 2 because the wasps would one-shot me (and everyone else).

Man I kinda miss that time around D3 launch where I was rocking my WD Spiders build because kiting was the only option lol. I always hoped they'd somehow make corpse spiders into a powerhouse skill to build around, but I don't think it ever happened

 

[Ultratech]

Finally finished up the Season Journey!
(Got some help for doing Urzael in under 20 sec...that's pretty hard.)

Also managed to finish the remaining Monk Set Dungeons, so I finally got them Mastered now and got my fancy Wings for Mastering all the Set Dungeons.
(As it turns out, I saved all my Monk Set Gear.)

Thoughts:

Sunwuko: Did this one months ago...so I don't remember. Must not have been too bad.

Inna's: This one really sucks. The objectives seem easy, but they're really not.
Half the problem is that you kinda have to gimp yourself so your Mystic Allies you don't kill all the little minions so you can pull them in and unleash on them.
Took me a while to finally get it Mastered.

Uliana: Similar to the above, but you don't have to gimp yourself this time.
A lot of this revolves around moving quickly, making sure you blow up large groups of mobs, then trying to run around a big map trying to kill everything and not get hit by Fire (or just use the Fire-immune amulet and cheese that part).
Took me a while since I'd either not get all the Groups I'd need or I'd miss a few enemies.

Raiment: GOTTA GO FAST! I remember trying to do this one back in the day and it was awful.
Still is kinda awful these days, but you can cheese it a bit with Nemesis Bracers. First objective is to just reach and open a Gold Chest in under 2 min, and then you gotta kill everything else in the Dungeon.
The bad news is that there's a TON of enemies; it's very annoying since they're all over the place. Also, you have to avoid Succubus projectiles, though that's actually pretty easy.
Took me quite a while to finally beat it (and only within seconds).

Come to think, all the Monk Set Dungeons are pretty rough save for Sunwuko.

 

[Boogalogist]

Just did some changes to my setup and managed to do GR60 in 8 mins. But I can feel it's getting harder and harder.

On the plus side, I found an ancient Circle of Nailuj's Evol with great stats, but only 2 extra seconds of Skelly Mage.

 

[Raticus79]

Finally finished up the Season Journey!
(Got some help for doing Urzael in under 20 sec...that's pretty hard.)

Also managed to finish the remaining Monk Set Dungeons, so I finally got them Mastered now and got my fancy Wings for Mastering all the Set Dungeons.
(As it turns out, I saved all my Monk Set Gear.)

Thoughts:

Sunwuko: Did this one months ago...so I don't remember. Must not have been too bad.

Inna's: This one really sucks. The objectives seem easy, but they're really not.
Half the problem is that you kinda have to gimp yourself so your Mystic Allies you don't kill all the little minions so you can pull them in and unleash on them.
Took me a while to finally get it Mastered.

Uliana: Similar to the above, but you don't have to gimp yourself this time.
A lot of this revolves around moving quickly, making sure you blow up large groups of mobs, then trying to run around a big map trying to kill everything and not get hit by Fire (or just use the Fire-immune amulet and cheese that part).
Took me a while since I'd either not get all the Groups I'd need or I'd miss a few enemies.

Raiment: GOTTA GO FAST! I remember trying to do this one back in the day and it was awful.
Still is kinda awful these days, but you can cheese it a bit with Nemesis Bracers. First objective is to just reach and open a Gold Chest in under 2 min, and then you gotta kill everything else in the Dungeon.
The bad news is that there's a TON of enemies; it's very annoying since they're all over the place. Also, you have to avoid Succubus projectiles, though that's actually pretty easy.
Took me quite a while to finally beat it (and only within seconds).

Come to think, all the Monk Set Dungeons are pretty rough save for Sunwuko.

Inna's is one where it's best to team up with someone so you can use a low level crafted weapon to hit the objectives easily while they go around actually killing things. It's pretty hard to strike that balance to be able to do it solo.

What’s a good necro build if I don’t want to actually play the micro of the game and just walk around and have things die around me.

The Inarius set has some decent options for an easy playstyle.

 

[Justin_Ong]

Hi - Can someone help a brother out?!

I am currently on a new Monk character trying to get the free gear set.

I have done all objectives in Chapter 2 apart from killing Malthael.

I have not completed Campaign with this character but I have been doing it all in Adventure Mode.

I went to the location of where Malthael is and completely cleared Pandemonium Fortress Level 2, but I could not find the Soul Prison.

How else can I kill Malthael in Adventure Mode, or do I have to go through the Campaign again (really don't want to have to do that)

Hopefully someone can help me out!!

Thanks Guys!!

 

[kennah]

Hi - Can someone help a brother out?!

I am currently on a new Monk character trying to get the free gear set.

I have done all objectives in Chapter 2 apart from killing Malthael.

I have not completed Campaign with this character but I have been doing it all in Adventure Mode.

I went to the location of where Malthael is and completely cleared Pandemonium Fortress Level 2, but I could not find the Soul Prison.

How else can I kill Malthael in Adventure Mode, or do I have to go through the Campaign again (really don't want to have to do that)

Hopefully someone can help me out!!

Thanks Guys!!

Go through the portals.

 

[AlexBasch]

Stupid question.

Didn't finish the game on XB1 so I don't have access to Master difficulty, yet you need to be LV.70 to unlock Torment.

I'm already at 61 in the Adventure mode, if I get to 70 do I get to unlock both difficulties or am I forced to finish the story first?

 

[Ayumi]

Stupid question.

Didn't finish the game on XB1 so I don't have access to Master difficulty, yet you need to be LV.70 to unlock Torment.

I'm already at 61 in the Adventure mode, if I get to 70 do I get to unlock both difficulties or am I forced to finish the story first?

Doesn't matter which mode you're playing. Most of us go straight to Adventure Mode when leveling our characters.

 

[IceMarker]

The PTR Patch Notes for Patch 2.6.1 are up on the Diablo blog.

Buffs across the board to underused items and sets!!

 

[uncredited male]

The overpowered Necros forced them to do global buffs lol.

Jade still has shit defense. Gargs got boosted. Uliana looking interesting.

Sunwuko with a perm 6000% multiplier. That is getting tweaked.

Witch Doctor Skills
Soul Harvest
Adding a stack or refreshing Soul Harvest now refreshes all stacks of Soul Harvest.

Yay.

EDIT -

Fixed an issue where Mimics created from Rabid Strike were not correctly inheriting the player’s bonus damage from Lashing Tail Kick, Seven Sided Strike, Cyclone Strike, Exploding Palm and Wave of Light.

So LTK is going to be the rage with this and the Scarbringer boost.

 

[Syf]

The PTR Patch Notes for Patch 2.6.1 are up on the Diablo blog.

Buffs across the board to underused items and sets!!

Now this is the sort of patch that can get me playing again. Long, long time coming.

 

[Kilrogg]

Shit, I'm actually somewhat impressed. This will probably change the meta for many classes/builds, even Necros. Assuming most of the changes are kept as is from the PTR to the actual patch.

Just looking at the necro, here are my thoughts:
- some much needed QoL changes for skills, like Simulacrum having a buff-like glowing line indicating when it's active. I was kinda hoping they would buff the duration of the mages, but oh well. Glad Fueled by Death was fixed though, this will be good for speedfarming.
- Hopefully Bloodtide Blade will make Death Nova somewhat useful now. Not holding my breath. Always the Blood Nova rune really cool but useless.
- Dayntee's now works with all curses, awesome. My Aura of Frailty speedfarming build will like this. Perma-half-damage, yeah!
- The Defiler Cuisses buff makes me think that maybe Bone Spirit will become the new "Rift Guardian Killer" skill. 400-500% per second active is huge for this spell. It's very slow and already deals 4,000% base damage. Imagine if it takes 10-20 seconds to reach the RG. I can see people using it from very far to deal massive damage to the RG. We'll see. All I know is I doubt it will have any other use.
- Leger's Disdain: Grim Scythe becoming good, maybe?
- Steuart's Greaves: another item to add to the speedfarming category. 100% mvt speed for 10 seconds whenever using Blood Rush? YES PLEASE
- Not sure I understand the change to the Johnstone, but it looks like it's really powerful now. Might become part of the Bloodlancer build now.
- Pestilence set finally viable? +1,500% dmg to Corpse Explosion and Corpse Lance. Sad that Corpse Lance is once again made mandatory, but I'm all for making Corpse Explosion more relevant. Let corpses go boom!
- Lol @ the Trag'Oul change. Yeah, it's OP enough as it is, not much more they could do without making it completely stupid. Wish they'd removed the life cost for Haunted Visions as well. Too bad.
- Lost Time is even better for speedfarming now, yay!

 

[Forward]

When is the patch coming out?

EDIT:

I JUST soul'd a metric tons of things, like my full Ancient Jade's Set. :/

 

[Kilrogg]

When is the patch coming out?

Don't know about the patch, but the PTR is already up.

... And they brought QoL to PTR! There's now a new NPC (you literally can't miss him when you start the game, you'll see what I mean). His name is D'jank Miem (that's gotta be a pun on "Dank Meme", right?), and he'll give you bags full of legendaries against shards. I only had a quick glance, but this seems pretty well made. There are different types of bags, including bags containing only the reworked legendaries for your class. But you can also get bags for other classes from what I've seen. Again, I literally looked at it for 5 seconds, so go check it out for yourself.

Damn, between Starcraft Remastered, this and Sonic Mania at half price thanks to the Russian eshop trick on Switch, this is 3 timesinks I wasn't expecting at all - I'd pretty much stopped playing D3 a couple days ago, so burnt out...

theypullmebackin.gif

 

[Laughing Banana]

Still plenty of people playing this on PS4? Or have most people moved on?

Thinking of rebuying this game and play it all over again from the beginning.

 

[eek5]

Holy shit those PTR changes. NEXT season is probably the season to play. Goddamn. Everyone getting buffs

Spoiler

let's see what makes it to live lol

edit: vengeful wind stacks are critical now. I hopped on PTR with a 6 roll (5400% dmg increase instead of 6000%) and DAMN. If anything close to this hits live, the LTK farm monk will be RIDICULOUS next season. Fastest T13 mid-high GRs for sure. Build is a lot smoother without having to micro manage stacks as well.

I two-three shot packs now but was one shotting them on T13 on PTR lol.

Fire bell could maybe see a comeback w/ the torch cubed (500% dmg increase on bells + 50% reduce cost) and ingeom/vengeful wind (6000% dmg increase lol) as dual wield. Could put out really sick bell damage... I don't even think you'd need kyoshiro's belt since you don't lose stacks dropping bells w/ the crits off-screen + you can finally take advantage of the DW attack speed not killing all your stacks immediately so ingeom/vengeful becomes viable. You could use the torch as well but you'd have to drop ingeom since vengeful wind seems mandatory for SWK builds now

I'm playing monk again next season for sure!

 

[Raticus79]

Monk again? Don't mind if I do!

 

[Human Trashcan]

Fuuuuck yes EP/SSS build is back! That makes me so happy. Can't wait for these to go live.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

Pestilence finally viable? Good. Got a nice set in storage with a primal nayr

 

[Dunfisch]

Oh god, that PTR! The day I leave to visit friends & family, a buff-a-thon like this appears out of nowhere. Well, it's fairly evidently to put the other classes in line with the Necro, but you won't see me complaining.

Doubt it'll hit these numbers on the live servers whenever it comes, but I'll take anything. Some of these buffs are fucking insane either way. I like the idea of every build being T13+ viable with just a regular set and complementary legendaries, which most definitely was not the case so far. Lots of builds needed ancients / augments / high levelled gems to get viable at that level, which will be attainable for any build now.

Exciting times ahead! I might even try a Frozen Orb build with this, now that it has the power to back it up.

 

[Mengy]

Wow at those buffs in the PTR! That is like one of the best changelogs I’ve seen for D3 in years!!! I hope it does a great job of balancing out the classes so that they all are at least somewhat competitive, certainly appears to be a huge step in the right direction.

If an Arcane Orb wizard is viable again I’ll probably play my wizard for the next season. I hate the Archon and the melee wizard builds, but I’d love for Arcane Orb to be effective again!

Although the necro is still my favorite class now I think. I just love the Rathma playstyle, even if he is a frail glass cannon.

 

[Kilrogg]

When is the patch coming out?

EDIT:

I JUST soul'd a metric tons of things, like my full Ancient Jade's Set. :/

You never want to get rid of your set items, because patch changes always apply to them retroactively, no matter how old your item is. There is no such thing as a legacy set items.

 

[Dunfisch]

You never want to get rid of your set items, because patch changes always apply to them retroactively, no matter how old your item is. There is no such thing as a legacy set items.

Yeaaah, about that... it's mostly true, except for gear which was pre 2.0 for the RoS patch. Those things are still rocking their old set bonuses, all of which are pointless these days, naturally. They don't mix with the revamped sets either, since the items have different IDs behind the scenes. Unless they somehow forced those to fit in now, which I don't believe they do.

 

[Kilrogg]

Yeaaah, about that... it's mostly true, except for gear which was pre 2.0 for the RoS patch. Those things are still rocking their old set bonuses, all of which are pointless these days, naturally. They don't mix with the revamped sets either, since the items have different IDs behind the scenes. Unless they somehow forced those to fit in now, which I don't believe they do.

Sure, but why would you keep them for so long anyway? There is a grand total of 2 items you might wanna hang onto from pre-2.0: the old oculus ring (because you can equip it with the current oculus for double rings), and the old witching hour because of the bonus... Though honestly current witching hours are better now because of the huge gap in stat rolls.

Old sets were always bad, so there never was a point in keeping them in the first place.

 

[Boogalogist]

Finally got my a Witching Hour. Time to upgrade the Jesseth set!

edit: and upgrade Legendary Gems!

I'm still gunnin' for that GR70 solo!

 

[Raticus79]

Rolling the damage bonuses into all those cube effects should have some fun implications for builds - hopefully we see some new ones pop up.

Hitting GR70 will be a lot easier now too.

 

[uncredited male]

TXV incoming.

 

[Ultratech]

The PTR Patch Notes for Patch 2.6.1 are up on the Diablo blog.

Buffs across the board to underused items and sets!!

Damn, lots of Buffs all around.

It'll be real interesting to see how all this shakes out once people start playing on the PTR.

 

[pots555]

I'm so late with this game. Bought it last night. I'm a huge fan of the first two games! Started as a paladin.

 

[Quantum]

is it possible to join the EU gaf group even though I mainly play on US server?

if so - I'm messing around with a character from scratch

lol "You have no friends" screen is just rude.


Quantum#1137

 

[Boogalogist]

I'm so late with this game. Bought it last night. I'm a huge fan of the first two games! Started as a paladin.

Welcome to the club. Which server are you in?

is it possible to join the EU gaf group even though I mainly play on US server?

if so - I'm messing around with a character from scratch

lol "You have no friends" screen is just rude.


Quantum#1137

You can add me Booga#6818. I'm on the US server.



On another note, i upgraded a rare scythe and managed to get an ancient Jesseth Scythe! Woo!

 

[Forward]

Fuuuuck yes EP/SSS build is back! That makes me so happy. Can't wait for these to go live.

Did you SEE that Balance buff?

800% bonus to Tempest Rush?

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Spoiler

n

 

[Raticus79]

Did you SEE that Balance buff?

800% bonus to Tempest Rush?

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Spoiler

n

Combine that with the fact that SWK can be used with it now that SWK no longer consumes stacks, and I think that means TR is back as a farming build. Giving that a shot on PTR now.

Edit: it's 800% from Cesar's Memento bracers and 600% from Balance

Edit2: It's improved a ton, but it's not going to beat the in-geom dash builds for speed. The Flurry nuke is fun though - hitting for about a trillion.

Uliana monk's taking the lead with a solo GR 111, 2 ahead of the necro. WW barb at 109 too, nice. Pretty close overall so far.

 

[Wafflecakes]

I was looking at the PTR patch notes and noticed some massive buffs for Helltooth Witch Doctor.

Will the changes on the PTR be implemented before this season is over, or after?

 

[Zertez]

I was looking at the PTR patch notes and noticed some massive buffs for Helltooth Witch Doctor.

Will the changes on the PTR be implemented before this season is over, or after?

After in most cases, and doubtful all the changes will make it. PTR allows Blizzard to test builds, nerfs, buffs, and gear changes without screwing ppl over during the season. The leaderboards are very competitive and making big changes during a season is a quick way to upset players.

 

[Wafflecakes]

After in most cases, and doubtful all the changes will make it. PTR allows Blizzard to test builds, nerfs, buffs, and gear changes without screwing ppl over during the season. The leaderboards are very competitive and making big changes during a season is a quick way to upset players.

Ugh. Damn.

...because Helltooth WD was a shitty decision on my part this season, and I am not sure I have time to get a decent LoN set.

 

[Kilrogg]

is it possible to join the EU gaf group even though I mainly play on US server?

if so - I'm messing around with a character from scratch

lol "You have no friends" screen is just rude.


Quantum#1137

I can send you an invite to the EU clan if you want, but keep in mind that that only gives you access to the EU clan then. The US clan is a separate thing. And you will only see the EU clan and see EU GAFfers when you're connected to the EU servers. Are you gonna play on EU?

 

[Quantum]

I can send you an invite to the EU clan if you want, but keep in mind that that only gives you access to the EU clan then. The US clan is a separate thing. And you will only see the EU clan and see EU GAFfers when you're connected to the EU servers. Are you gonna play on EU?

if EU clan near 150 members its all good, wouldn't want to take a space from a dedicated EU player.

I'll be playing more on US but kinda bored now that I've completed the season journey and banged my head against GR87 on my DH.

US toons burnt out paragon 900ish in SC 300ish in HC

Rolled a necro in EU and figured if there was space I'd hop in - although I'm guessing everyone pretty much is done with the season already - so like everything in D3, diminishing returns.

My current toon in EU paragon 200 and actively playing until I burn out then I'll probably be MIA until next season.

 

[Kilrogg]

if EU clan near 150 members its all good, wouldn't want to take a space from a dedicated EU player.

Is there a hard limit? I wasn't aware of that. Tell you what: I sent you an invite anyway (you need to accept it), and if we need a free spot at some point, I'll give you a heads up before removing you. Sounds good?

You're right though: most of us have are done for the season, especially now that we know what's (supposedly) coming with the next patch. There are still 1 or 2 members who play regularly. If I hop back on at some point I'll give you a hand.

 

[Quantum]

Is there a hard limit? I wasn't aware of that. Tell you what: I sent you an invite anyway (you need to accept it), and if we need a free spot at some point, I'll give you a heads up before removing you. Sounds good?

You're right though: most of us have are done for the season, especially now that we know what's (supposedly) coming with the next patch. There are still 1 or 2 members who play regularly. If I hop back on at some point I'll give you a hand.

Thanks!

 

[Forward]

Combine that with the fact that SWK can be used with it now that SWK no longer consumes stacks, and I think that means TR is back as a farming build. Giving that a shot on PTR now.

Edit: it's 800% from Cesar's Memento bracers and 600% from Balance

Edit2: It's improved a ton, but it's not going to beat the in-geom dash builds for speed. The Flurry nuke is fun though - hitting for about a trillion.

Uliana monk's taking the lead with a solo GR 111, 2 ahead of the necro. WW barb at 109 too, nice. Pretty close overall so far.

Uliana's Monk?

What build?

EDIT:

Oh... basically my old Season 3 build:?

Nice.

That was my favorite character build, ever.

When I started playing again for the first time since then, just before Season 11 started, she STILL could swing high end Rifts... actually higher end, considering 13 wasn't around, back then.

I like this.

 

[Raticus79]

Uliana's Monk?

What build?

I like this.

The same old one with Lion's claw, Fist of Az'Turrasq and Flow of Eternity.
https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/monk-u...build-with-exploding-palm-patch-2-6-season-11

 

[Laughing Banana]

Is there any way to easily dismiss summons such as Skeletons and Golems? (In PS4 here)

Cause the scene of 7 skeletons and a Golem following my Necro around in towns and cities while he's talking to people is a bit too much XD

 

[Rhaknar]

are these PTR changes going live any time soon? Those Necro pet changes would get me back in

 

[Kilrogg]

are these PTR changes going live any time soon? Those Necro pet changes would get me back in

Well, the season started a month ago, and seasons last 3 months, give or take a month. Blizzard typically doesn't patch the game during a season since it would impact the leaderboards and possibly the season journey too much. So already you're looking at a 1 or 2-month wait. Besides, the patch features many balance changes. Many more than any patch in recent history. So it's gonna take them some time to work out the kinks.

That said, Blizzard has ended seasons early in the past, and I'm surprised that this patch is called "2.6.1" given how many changes are coming. It sounds like a 2.6.5 or even a 2.7 to me. I'm also surprised that they're announcing it this early into the season. Have they done that a lot in the past? Maybe they want to push this one out of the gates early. Who knows.

 

[Mengy]

So I completed the next to last season journey last night and got my extra stash tab for S11 with my new necromancer, and yeah I’m pretty sure this is my favorite class in the game now. I’m still running a Rathma pet build:

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Mengy-1287/hero/91901526

I kept Dayntee’s Binding for the belt using Decrepify for defense, and running Reaper’s Wraps which produce tons of health globes that also keep my essence topped off so much that I barely ever need to use Bone Spikes for essence generation. I’ve thought about dropping Bone Spikes altogether but every now and then it’s handy to have it. Even though I still need a few ancient pieces, including my weapon, I’ve managed to clear GR76 and I’m certain I can climb higher yet, especially if I ever find an ancient Jesseth scythe.

Regarding the necro pet build though, I really just love playing it. I find it very satisfying in both an action and strategic way. The sound of the Command Skeleton “march” as they zip from mob to mob just makes me smile. For some reason the D3 necro just clicks with me.

I think for the rest of the season I’m just going to experiment with other necro builds to see how they play and generally have some fun trying crazy or non-optimal builds. I’ve collected all of the other sets along the way, half of which are ancient pieces no less. I’d like to try a bone and poison build, and I’ll probably try that build that is at the top of the leaderboards where you skip all trash mobs, although it doesn’t look appealing to me from a gameplay point of view from the vids I’ve seen. I like killing everything, not just elites.

Looking forward to S12 already though. With the class shakeups it’s going to be very difficult to pick which class I’ll be playing next season…