Various Thoughts

With the Sorcerer effectively done it seemed like a good time to get working on clearing those 0% Hardcore challenges. As of now I’ve got a Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Rogue all at T6 or higher (with level 25-30 glyphs, no ancestral weapons, and missing a bunch of other things) at Paragon 183.

First off was Necromancer, and for this I decided I liked the look of Maxroll’s Army of the Dead build for the most part. Being a bit concerned with the “Negatives: Squishy” note though I swapped the runewords to CirVex and NaguMot. So far I’m quite happy with it and amazed that Army of the Dead is finally a good skill. I’m notably still missing the Heir of Perdition, both ancestral uniques, and the Heavenly Strength affix however.

Next up was Sorcerer Mk.II, which after some thought I decided to make a homebrew Crackling Energy build after hearing so much about it. The remarkably impressive result was:

Harlequin Crest (CirVex), Ancestral Great Storm (NaguYom), Ancestral Piercing Static
Ancestral Dominance (Diamond), Ancestral Shredding Blades, Ancestral Overwhelming Currents (Topaz)
Melted Heart of Selig (Skull), Ancestral Armageddon & Storm Splitter’s (Amethyst, Ruby)

Spark 6 (Crackling, Additional Hits, Overcharged), Charged Bolts (Weaken, Surging), Chain Lightning (Additional Chains, Crit Chance, Power Flux), Flame Shield (Overpower), Teleport (Movement, Crackling, Wormhole), Ice Armor (Cooldown, Permafrost), Familiar 15 (Charge, Bonus, Lightning), Lightning Spear 15 (Speed, Damage, Reverse), Ball Lightning (Multiple, Crackling, Orbital), Unstable Currents 15 (Ferocity, Damage, Boundless)

Exploit -> Enchantment Master/Tactician -> Static Surge/Electrocute -> Frigid Fate/Warding -> Ceaseless Conduit/Destruction

Enchantments: Lightning Spear, Flame Shield
Mercs: Rahier (Guard, Lure), Varyana (Bloodthirst)

Just pop Unstable Currents and spam Familiar and everything dies. Soloed world bosses included… though they actually last for up to a minute currently (no ancestral staff or rings, also missing Dominance affix). I’m not consistency at 100% uptime, but pretty much never have to wait more than 10 seconds to recast it.

Last for the moment was a Rogue after hearing about someone mentioning they were having trouble finding good builds. Since my non-HC Rogue is a Hakan build that was out, as was poison since the non-HC Sorcerer has turned me off DoT damage entirely. Ultimately I went with the old standbye of ‘Spin to Win’:

Heir of Perdition (NeoMot), Ancestral Debilitating Toxins (AhuQue), Fists of Fate, Death’s Pavane (Ruby, Topaz)
Ancestral Prepared Assailant’s, Ancestral Imitated Imbuement, Ancestral Alchemical Advantage, Condemnation
Ancestral Bitter Infection (Skull), Ring of Starless Skies (Ruby), Ancestral Toxic Alchemist’s (Topaz)

Puncture (Crowd, Overpower, Three), Dance of Knives 15 (Energy, Lucky, Star), Dash (Weaken, Resolve, Shadow), Dark Shroud 15 (Movement, Consume, Shadow), Smoke Grenade (Duration, Silhouette), Shadow Imbuement 15 (Vulnerable, Overpower, Endemic), Shadow Clone 15 (Unstoppable, Cooldown, Awakening)

Canny -> Cunning Stratagem/Efficiency -> Eldritch Bounty/Fluidity -> Danse Macabre/Assassin -> Exploit Weakness/Nightstalker

Specialization: Combo Points
Mercs: Rahier (Guard, Lure), Aldkin (Languish)

Basically for most content you just Puncture enough to trigger Overpower, Dash to trigger Fluidity and get some Resolve stacks, then hold down Dance of Knives while occasionally tapping Shadow Imbuement until the map is cleared. For bosses it’s a bit more involved since you’ll have to use Smoke Grenade to refresh the Imbuement instead of that happening automatically (which is why Condemnation is used, since 3 punctures between Grenades is unrealistic). For runewords I’m not really sold on Que but have left it for both survivability and legacy reasons (pre-Starless Skies the Vulpine affix is key to 100% uptime).

For the moment I’m missing a great many of its parts, having no ancestrals besides the Starless Skies Ring, a Death’s Pavane with subpar affixes as the only unique, the Toxic Alchemist affix alone, and no Ahu rune… yet it still crushes most of T6 (for lair bosses I need to drop back down to T5). I’m optimistic for its future prospects.

Ultimately, the DoT Sorcerer build ended up in Torment 9 at Paragon 201 with glyphs all at level 60. In theory I could make it to T10 if Fundamental Release gets fixed, find some ancestral Penitent’s Greaves, and I upgrade my gems to grand (they’re all at royal)… but any higher is probably out of the question without the new expansion content. Had to do some reworking though, as Heart of Selig does not mesh at all well with Incinerate. Not sure why I was so obsessed with it:

Harlequin Crest (LithQue), Ancestral Disobedience (CirVex), Ancestral Shivering
Iceheart Brais (Emerald, Sapphire), Penitent’s Greaves, Orsivane (Ruby), Ancestral Untarnished Blaze (Ruby)
Ancestral Elemental Constellation (Skull), Tal Rasha’s Loop (Ruby), Ancestral Elemental Fate (Amethyst)

Arc Lash (Stun, Inescapable Reach), Incinerate 15 (Healthy, Overpower, Flamethrower), Flame Shield (Duration, Scorch), Teleport (Movement Speed, Wormhole), Ice Armor (Duration, Permafrost), Frost Nova (Resource, Vulnerable), Ice Blades (Cooldown, Duration, Ice Crack), Blizzard 15 (Damage, Resource Gen, Hailstorm), Meteor (Immobilize, Overpower, Shooting Star), Firewall 15 (Damage, Weaken, Ring of Fire), Deep Freeze (Duration, Reduce Cooldown, Bonechill)

Enchantments: Blizzard, Meteor
Mercenaries: Subo, Aldkin

Note that despite what some may claim, Incinerate does not noticeably benefit from attack speed (which is why Varyana is out). It ~might~ make the damaged bar deplete slightly faster, but it doesn’t actually increase the damage. Of course, maybe it should and that’s a bug. I’ve noticed a couple like ‘Gain Life on Hit’ apparently not working and the ‘Rare Rune Undercity Tribute’ not rewarding any runes if you add one of the optional weapon, armor, or jewelry modifiers.

Up to T4 now at Paragon 86 with 2 uniques and no ancestrals with only 1 glyph at 15. The new T4 seems to be equivalent to the old T2 and mainly will be where you’ll see ancestrals start to drop. So some thoughts on the various changes made:

– Lair Keys being condensed is a godsend
– Silent Chests being opened directly with Obols has taken far too long
– Elixirs and Incense being removed seems bad… less forgiving for less optimal builds
– Allowing non-legendaries to drop as ancestrals feels like a busywork step
– Masterworking is incredibly slow now
– Being able to Temper uniques is nice
– Uniques having randomized affixes that cannot be enchanted… less so

As for my earlier build, I’ve currently settled on the following:

Vision of the Firestorm (NeoLum), Ancestral Piercing Cold (CirVex), Ancestral Inner Calm
Iceheart Brais (Topaz), Penitent Greaves, Orsivane (Ruby), Ancestral Shivering (Ruby)
Melted Heart of Selig (Skull), Tal Rasha’s Loop (Ruby), Ancestral Writhing (Amethyst)

Fire Bolt (Overpower), Incinerate 15 (Healthy, Overpower, Flamethrower), Flame Shield, Teleport (Movement Speed, Ferocity), Ice Armor (Resource Regen, Duration, Permafrost), Frost Nova (Resource Gen, Shatter), Ice Blades (Cooldown, Duration, Ice Crack), Blizzard 15 (Damage, Resource Gen, Hailstorm), Firewall 15 (Damage, Ring of Fire), Deep Freeze 10 (Duration, Reduce Cooldown, Bonechill)

Enchantment: Blizzard, Firewall
Mercenaries: Subo, Varyana

Exploit -> Enchantment Master/Elementalist W-> Fundamental Release/Tactician
Enchantment Master/Elementalist N -> Frigid Fate/Eliminator E-> Burning Instinct/Flamefeeder

We’ll see how well it does in later difficulties.

Got a slightly late start here because I was replaying Skyrim of all things, but since I don’t plan to buy the new expansion until it goes on sale (probably at the start of next season based on past history) it doesn’t seem like I’m missing much. A good half of the season targets appear to be expansion-specific.

I had wanted to run a homebrew Enlightenment Sorcerer originally, but with the rather heavy changes made to the skill tree and items to a lesser extent I had to do a bit of re-thinking. Not much as it turned out (although the key Fundamental Release ability appears to be currently broken). At Paragon 42 at the moment with the fourth challenge tier cleared with all of the free reliquary rewards claimed and haven’t really had any trouble: Ice Blades to trigger Vulnerable, Firebolt to trigger Overpower, and then spam Incinerate. Ring of Fire Firewall and Deep Freeze fit in in-between Firebolt and Incinerate for nastier enemies. Immobilizing Meteor for Scornful Aspect and Blizzard are my enchantments.

That was all just playing things by ear though. Now I’ve got to fiddle with the character builder to work up a list of loot and aspects to target. I’m currently thinking Orisvane, Vision of the Firestorm or Harlequin Crest, Iceheart Brais, Penitent Greaves, Melted Heart of Selig, and Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop for mythics/uniques and Scornful, Conceited, Channeling, Piercing Cold, and Shivering for ancestrals. Enchantment Master, Fundamental Release when it’s fixed, Burning Instinct, and Frigid Fate will likely be the paragon board choices with Exploit, Elementalist, Flamefeeder, Tactician, and Eliminator for gylphs (likely not in that order).

All seasonal challenges now complete except Monster Mash and killing T4 Lilith. I’m 2k short of the former and see no reason to bother with the latter, since it would probably require grinding paragon node levels (mine are at level 50, which is plenty for the rest of T4).

For the Rogue build I ended up going with:

• Skills
  • Rank 1 Fundamental Heartseeker, Subverting Concealment, Countering Dark Shroud, Mixed Cold Imbuement
  • Rank 5 Supreme Rain of Arrows
  • Rank 1 Rapid Gambits, Shadow Crash, Deadly Venom, Precision
  • Rank 3 Sturdy, Weapon Mastery, Unstable Elixers, Trick Attacks, Balestra, Agile, Evasive, Exploit, Malice, Alchemical Advantage, Debilitating Toxin, Frigid Finesse, Deadeye, Alchemist’s Fortune, Impetus, Unto Dawn
• Power: Inner Sight
• Companions: Raheir + Varyana
• Paragon: Efficacy, Exploit Weakness/Canny, Eldritch Bounty/Versatility, Danse Macabre/Ranger, No Witnesses/Devious
• Equipment
  • Harlequin Crest Head (YulVex), Shroud of False Death Chest (Emerald), Grasp of Shadow Hands, Flickerstep Feet, Orphan Maker Crossbow (NeoQax), Word of Hakan Necklace (Skull)
  • Ancestral Legs (Emerald & Crowded Sage), Swords (Emerald, Vehement Brawler & True Sight)
  • Ancestral Rings (Diamond, Arrow Storms & Vengeful)

Much more fun than my previous Druid build. Just a constant Rain of Arrows every which way. And I got pretty lucky with ideal boot and necklace drops, although I had terrible luck with the crossbow. Took a half hour to burn through a little over 600 bloods in T4 and only got two ancestral versions (both with the same lackluster stats, *Exploit and only 260% Reload). Incredibly annoying.

Before clearing Pit level 75 to wrap up the season though I got sidetracked by wanting to make a Druid build to grab the Vulnerable Lightning Kills achievement. So I headed over to see what Maxroll Lightning Storm build was available and was promptly disappointed. The build itself is oddly busy and the ratings certainly didn’t inspire confidence.

It did have a number of elements I liked enough to modify it a bit though:

• Skills
  • Rank 1 Earth Spike, Innate Blood Howl, Wolves, Poison Creeper
  • Rank 5 Raging Lightning Storm, Cyclone Armor, Supreme Grizzly Rage
  • Rank 1 Heart of the Wild, Neurotoxin, Circle of Life, Perfect Storm
  • Rank 3 Wild Impulses, Backlash, Ancestral Fortitude, Vigilance, Feral Aptitude, Clarity, Nature’s Reach, Envenom, Toxic Claws, Quickshift, Catastrophe, Defiance, Natural Disaster, Resonance
• Spirits: Stag 2, Eagle 2 & 4, Wolf 4, Snake 4
• Companions: Raheir + Varyana
• Paragon: Fang&Claw, Constricting Tendrils/Werewolf, Lust for Carnage/Dominate, Thunderstruck/Earth&Sky, Heightened Malice/Spirit
• Equipment
  • Ring of Starless Skies (Diamond), Tempest Roar Head (NaguXal), Mad Wolf’s Glee Chest (Sapphire), Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps Hands, Tibault’s Will Legs (Sapphire), Hunter’s Zenith Ring (Diamond)
  • Ancestral Boots (Dire Wolf), Polearm (LithKry, Rampaging Werebeast), Amulet (Skull, Rabid Beast)

Earth Spike is ignored once you become self-sufficient with resource usage, while Wolves and Creeper are mainly just there to ramp Quickshift and trigger the NaguXal runeword. Playstyle is to simply blast Lightning Storm 24/7, Howl whenever its effects are about to run out, and use Rage & Creeper on cooldown.

Just blazes through T4 in general and the Pit level 75 specifically (at 240 paragon with level 50 nodes) with the only issues being a relatively low health pool and not much in the way of evasion to handle the massive amount of bullshit ‘on death’ AOEs this season seems to have added. Infernal Hordes in particular is a land of extremes; either stand in the middle of the arena and everything on-screen instantly dies without issue, or you have to constantly run from 10+ homing AOEs.

Plans for next season are a poison-based Spiritborn that makes use of Andariel’s Visage and Shattered Vow and… some kind of Sorcerer. No ideas just yet since I don’t want to do the standard Hydra or Crackling Energy thing. Will have to play around with the character builder.

Diablo IV‘s eleventh season changes various things up:

• Map rewards have been folded into seasonal rewards and an equipment affix.
• Seasonal ranks have been decoupled from the individual challenges (you now only need to complete certain dungeons and hit Pit level 75 to get all account-related rewards).
• The Pit’s been seasonally overhauled to be notably more hectic and always have you facing off against Belial.
• Equipment now has four random affixes and can have a single non-random temper affix added to it.
• Tempers are no longer limited and can roll a greater affix.
• Physical and elemental resistances have been made more complicated (but are no longer hard-capped).
• A season-specific equipment enhancer was added that turns every item into a unique (meaning you can’t modify it afterward).

There are also minor changes like a new world and undercity boss, Helltide blood maidens getting replaced with Duriel, and masterworking getting condensed. As for the seasonal storyline, all that’s there this time around is a short paladin-related quest and Azmodan showing up in the last capstone dungeon.

At the start of Torment 4 right now at Paragon 180 with three of my five nodes at 46, and didn’t have any trouble getting here. I had planned on making a wolf-focused Druid as my first character this season and nothing in the patch notes altered that plan:

• Skills
  • Rank 1 Claw & Innate Blood Howl
  • Rank 5 Primal Shred, Ferocious Wolf Pack, Brutal Ravens, & Supreme Lacerate
  • Rank 1 Heart of the Wild, Neurotoxin, & One With Nature
  • Rank 3 Wild Impulses, Digitigrade Gait, Predatory Instinct, Backlash, Ancestral Fortitude, Vigilence, Feral Aptitude, Call of the Wild, Clarity, Envenom, Defensive Posture, & Quickshift
• Spirits: Stag 3, Eagle 1 & 4, Wolf 1, Snake 3
• Companions: Raheir + Varyana
• Paragon: Territorial, Lust for Carnage/Fang&Claw, Ancestral Guidance/Wilds, Untamed/Shapeshifter, Heightened Malice/Spirit
• Equipment
  • Doombringer Sword, Mad Wolf’s Glee Chest (NaguOhm), Storm’s Companion Legs (Sapphire)
  • Ancestral Helm (IgniWat & Spirit Bond), Gloves (Stampede), Boots (Metamorphosis)
  • Ancestral Totem (Emerald, Moonrage), Amulet (Skull, Shepherd’s), Rings (Diamond, Alpha & Unsatiated)

Originally the idea was to claw things and then use the Ravens/Wolves whenever they came off cooldown… but with the wolf spirit bonus neither of them ever go on cooldown to begin with. So for general area clearing I ended up with a playstyle of casting Ravens twice, Shred to return to werewolf form and refresh Quickshift’s bonus, then back to Ravens. Tossing out a Wolf whenever I run across an Elite or particularly dense monster pack. For lair bosses the play is Lacerate (immediately cancel) -> Howl -> Ravens -> Wolves -> Shred, then alternate between Wolves and Shred/Howl.

This character is basically done now, so after getting the other paragon nodes to legendary I’ll move on to making my second character this season (a Hakan Rogue). Once they’re also up to T4 I’ll figure out which one I want to clear the 75th Pit level with (probably the Rogue).

Ended up trying both Necromancer minion variations and the Bone one came out on top. There’s just too little synergy between Overpower and the other minions to recommend using the Blood Lance version (that it would be useless post-season also played a role).

Bone Minion Necro

• Abilities
  • Rank 1 Enhanced Reap, Dreadful Bone Prison, & Plagued Corpse Tendrils
  • Rank 5 Paranormal Bone Spear, Abhorant Decrepify, & Supreme Bone Storm
  • Rank 1 Hewed Flesh, Grim Harvest, Necrotic Carapace, & Kalan’s Edict
  • Rank 2 Necrotic Fortitude
  • Rank 3 Fueled By Death, Titan’s Fall, Skeleton Warrior Mastery, Amplify Damage, Death’s Embrace, Death’s Approach, Skeletal Mage Mastery
    Coalesced Blood, Golem Mastery, Finality, Inspiring Leader, & Hellbent Commander
• Paragon
  • Gravekeeper, Cult Leader/Deadraiser, Hulking Monstrosity/Warrior, Scent of Death/Golem, Bone Graft/Mage
• Minions: Skirmishers 2, Bone Mages 1, Bone Golem 2
• Mercenaries: Rahier (Resistances) & Any
• Seasonal Powers: Alter the Balance, Grim Reapers, Unstable Power, Crazy Brew
• Equipment
  • Chaos Ring of Mendeln Head (NeoOhm), Hardened Bones Chest (Topaz), Grasping Veins Gloves, Blood Moon Breeches (Topaz), Chaos Lidless Wall Boots, Reanimation 2H Scythe (NaguVex), Occult Dominion Necklace (Skull), Conceited & Damned Rings (Diamond)

Main issues are that getting the minions to target what you want them to is incredibly difficult (although Corpse Tendrils with the extended area Temper helps with that), and having to constantly replenish the supply of Skeleton Mages is annoying.

Post-season changes would be to replace the head with Occult Dominion, the boots with Metamorphosis, the weapon with a 1H Vehement Brawler scythe and Lidless Wall, the conceited ring with a Ring of Mendeln, and swap the amulet affix to Reanimation. Also, the chest slot is meant to be a Shroud of False Death, but I’m currently both 1 rune and 1 Spark short.

After that build was finalized I moved on toward making a new Barbarian in the mold of that Deathblow one, which turned out more fun to play.

Arsenal Barbarian

• Abilities
  • Rank 1 Combat Frenzy, Strategic Rallying Cry, Fighter’s Rupture (2H Slash), Fighter’s Mighty Throw (2H Blunt)
  • Rank 5 Violent Double Swing, Power War Cry, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
  • Rank 1 Pressure Point, Raid Leader, Thick Skin, Concussion, & Unbridled Rage
  • Rank 3 Warpath, Imposing Presence, Martial Vigor, Guttural Yell, Aggressive Resistance, Pit Fighter, Slaying Strike, Defensive Stance, Counteroffensive, Wallop, Invigorating Fury
• Paragon
  • Dominate, Decimator/Ambidextrous, Blood Rage/Ire, Bone Breaker/Crusher, Carnage/Seething
• Expertise: 2H Axe
• Mercenaries: Raheir (Slow, Iron Wolf’s Call) & Varyana (Whirlwind)
• Seasonal Powers: A Beast Cornered, Accelerating Chaos, Deafening Chorus, Marred Guard
• Equipment
  • Harlequin Crest Head (Ruby), Chaos Battle Trance Chest (Ruby), Twin Strikes Gloves, Undying Pants (Ruby), Yen’s Blessing Boots, Limitless Rage 2H Blunt (IgniWat), Vehement Brawler’s 1H Mace & Sabre of Tsasgal (Sapphire), Fields of Crimson 2H Slash (TamVex), Edgemaster’s Amulet (Diamond), Starlight & Vocalized Empowerment Rings (Diamond)

Now, you may notice this build does not actually use Walking Arsenal. It meant too, but Unbridled Rage just ended up flat-out better with the benefits of A Beast Cornered. Gameplay is simple yet engaging; Wrath -> Mighty Throw -> Rupture -> spam Double Swing. It slices things up nicely and doesn’t have any notable survivability problems thanks to the barrier and life gain.

Post-season changes would be to swap in a Deflecting Barrier chestpiece and swap out Unbridled Rage for Walking Arsenal, then switch Rupture to Fighter’s and reduce Frenzy to Enhanced while getting rid of Raid Leader to put two points in Booming Voice. Might also have to swap out the +Skill runeword for a +Resources one since the Shouts won’t have constant uptime.

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Wanting to grab the various Barbarian and Necromancer challenges I was missing without respeccing my existing characters first lead me to creating a Deathblow Barbarian. While at the start this seemed rather powerful, by the end (although it certainly wasn’t weak) it felt both more fragile and weaker than the cobbled-together Shadowblight build. Even having all the required gear besides the Mythic.

Somewhat disappointed, as I was really hoping for a boss-killer that could finish off Lilith, I moved on to trying to create a Necromancer minion build. This failed miserably. It was barely capable of handling basic T3 content. While it’s possible that may have been a result of the mere level 8 masterwork and level 15 paragon glyphs, not being interested in putting much leveling effort into a build I planned to soon delete, it was more likely a lack of focus; there was Bone Storm, and Blood Lance, and all three minion types.

Extremely disappointed at this point I decided to check out Maxroll and Icy Veins‘ Shadowblight builds to see if my ‘finished’ build was missing anything obvious. Putting aside the whole Alter the Balance setup, which I dislike as it feels like an exploit and will be useless post-season, it turns out I was: Blighted Corpse Explosion. Taking the extra points out of Blight, 1 point from Necrotic Carapace, and dropping Sever (which was only there for Reaper’s Pursuit) let me take both that and put 3 points into Fueled By Death. Now having a consumption power, I was also able to swap the Bloodbath paragon board for Flesh-Eater.

This resulted in a pretty massive damage upgrade allowing a brute force victory over T4 Lilith, helped out a bit by having gotten better at dodging her Death From Above (the trick it seems is to keep running around the inner edge of the arena while she’s in the air) and finally finding the last Rune I needed for the Mythic greatsword.

Since that turned out so well, next up was looking at some endgame Minion builds hoping for similar inspiration. This turned out to be a wash. For whatever reason they’re focused on a single minion type, and if I’m going to be playing minions I want all the minions. Also, while I can understand focusing solely on Skeletal Mages if you’re using Hand of Naz and Service/Sacrifice, I’m deeply suspicious of the claim that sacrificing the Mages will result in more damage for the Reaping Warrior build than keeping them.

So I’m now split between two potential paths:

1) A bone-centric Reap build that uses Skirmishers 1, Bone Mages 1, and Bone Golem 2 supported by Corpse Tendrils, Bone Prison, and Bone Storm. Chaos powers being Alter the Balance, Grim Reapers, Unstable Power, & Crazy Brew with the intent being to just have bone shards flying everywhere and critting everything.

2) Based solely on having a 3-star Ancestral ring with Overpower damage just drop, keeping the Reaper theme but switching to a blood skill focus. I’m hesitant to try to re-tread that path though after the earlier Blood Lance debacle and none of the Mage minion options have any synergy.