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).