Does anybody else hate arcane elites? The ones with the purple laser beams?
I feel like that black commando guy from the Resident Evil movie.
I had the unique joy of going against a waller, invulnerable minion, arcane champion today. Kind of made me want to gauge my eyes out!
Oh god. That's gotta be the worst.
I've only fought against arcane wallers, and yeah it was horrible.
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BethrynUnhappiness is MandatoryRegistered Userregular
The best one is Invulnerable Minion + Fast on the guys who sometimes dig. And they dig and stay dug and you can't lifesteal or outrun their minions.
THE BEST OF TIMES.
...and of course, as always, Kill Hitler.
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
So I'm in the middle of act 2 Nightmare on my DH and I'm pretty convinced that any build without Smokescreen in it somewhere is basically both suicidal and retarded. That skill is crazy strong
PSN: Waybackkidd
"...only mights and maybes."
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VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
I was trying to test out the game with a guest pass when I realized that I could only use European servers (they have lots of lag). I think my guest pass was from a European guy's box. Could an American please give me a guest pass, so I can see if that works?
Repeating please my request for an American Guest Pass to test, please.
Good use of shadow power can replace SS up until hell/act IV boss nightmare. And then you switch to the next act, and you never live long enough to life steal.
You know, you'd think that, after getting killed three god damn times in a row by
Belial's poison nova attack, that people would finally start seeing the patterns and openings and fucking use them so that they don't die so pathetically and the tank has to rez their ass three times.
Only thing worse is that, then the fucker deciding he's going to just sling more shit at the boss that's fixed on said tank rather than rez the other dude who's died 3 times for the same reason.
Which just ends up feeling like a hassle considering its short duration
Think I'm probably going to leave my WD alone for awhile and make a Wizard instead
duration isn't all that short, plus there's a rune to extend it
there are also runes to steal life or mana with it which means you'll want to cast it anyway.
I've never really used harvest, just seems there are more useful abilities.
Keeping a thirty/sixty second duration rolling at all times is the opposite of fun to me, I dunno. And if you take the sixty second duration rune, you're losing out on actually useful runes.
And I dunno about more useful abilities, but even at low levels tagging at least three enemies with Harvest results in roughly +100% damage.
Later on, it skyrockets to somewhere in the neighborhood of +400%-650% damage.
It just feels like WD is balanced around having it up at all times, because if it isn't then having it up at all times would be incredibly imbalanced due to the massive spike in deeps. It also means that unless a boss periodically summons trash, your dps is going to drop into the shitter for only having one target to Harvest.
VariableMouth CongressStroke Me Lady FameRegistered Userregular
edited May 2012
I do enough damage without it and awesome damage with it. you aren't required to have it up (I'm in hell act 1 and I've forgotten to do it just because I just switched my setup and keep forgetting to hit that hotkey) and it doesn't make it an issue. when I remember, things die a bit faster.
I can't comment on bosses yet but I played through all of normal and NM using the skill and dealing with bosses... they just take a little longer is all. it's not like you become useless without it.
I like it, I like that there's risk involved in getting the most out of it as well.
edit - and if you want to concern yourself with how the WD is balanced re: that skill, consider if anything it's probably balanced around 2 or 3 mobs (and I even think this is a stretch, I honestly don't know that it's REQUIRED to play the WD especially with the awesome slow ability we have) so when you get 5 you're super strong... it adds a cool variable to the gameplay.
I have been so very, very stupid. I didn't realize that mojos can actually give quite big damage bonuses. Which means with doctor's class specific weapons may be viable after all. They're fast weapons, so the damage increase from mojo is really big, and can compensate for the otherwise crappy 1h weapon damage. The damage/spell would still usually end up smaller than with equivalent 2h, but if dots tick faster with higher attackspeeds that's not really an issue. The main benefit would be far faster cast animation without any additional ias gear, which means safer casting. Also the chance of getting over 20 mana regen would be nice.
Alas, I'm currently using 790 dps 2-hander with 205 int and 80 vitality, and while it's nothing special replacing it with equivalent 1h+mojo seems to be ridiculously expensive. I'd need something like 550+ dps ceremonial knife with good stats and 150+ average damage mojo (best mojos are around that) with also good stats at the very least. They don't come too cheap. Spending near million for testing some builds is a bit excessive at the moment for me
I hit sort of a wall in late NM Act 3 (waay harder than Act 1, then again I was in a 4 player game for the first time). I feel my minions losing effectiveness, so I think its time to respec and gear up. How are WD's completing NM and moving on into Hell? Minions still viable there?
edit: saw your build upthread, nvm
valiance on
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
Which just ends up feeling like a hassle considering its short duration
Think I'm probably going to leave my WD alone for awhile and make a Wizard instead
It's very easy to keep up, heck, half the time you don't even want to cast it when its off cooldown because your either saving it for life regen or because you already got a 5 stack burst and why risk losing such a good thing?
Spirit walk makes landing 5 person harvests easy peasy.
A friend turned me on to this build and I am loving it. Took me a bit to really grok it but I am currently soloing act 3 of hell no problem. Holy shit typing this post made me realize that I have actually been soloing it, no follower. Fuck me!
Anyway, the build:
Haunt with consuming spirits, spirit barrage with phantasm, soul harvest with siphon, spirit walk with honored guest, poison dart with splinters, grasp of the dead with unbreakabpe grasp. Spirit vessel, pierce the veil, rush of essence.
Trust, this build is legit. Just took down some waller, mortar, shielded mobs with no problem.
@ Inquisitor thanks for this I just tried this build and I like it a lot.
Haunt and Spirit Barrage(Phantasm) are my main DPS for LMB and RMB. then I've got spirit walk and honored guest on 3/4. poison darts on 5, and grasp on 6
I'm only in NM but I was flailing around for a good build and I think this might be one. I like the tons of mana and life regen this build has built in. I might swap out the honored guest for healing journey when I can, but this is a fun build.
Lot of actives though. It's weird for me to have so many spells without CDs on my action bar, especially after having 2 minions before. I really have to think about my rotation now. Normally its spirit walk -> soul harvest -> spam haunt and phantasm till OOM --> poison darts/kite with grasp till mana returns --> Spam DOTS more till everything dies.
Except leveling JC definitely is not waste of gold. You cannot get past Flawless Square without crafting. The reason squares are so cheap is they're drops, and they're not the best kind of gem that drops. Flawless Squares common enough that crafting them doesn't make much sense (and they're cheap to buy too, for the same reason). Anything better than that? Perfect Squares vary from 80k to 180k or so at AH, while crafting one costs 30k.
They need to figure out an equivalent system for the blacksmith, such that its worth it to invest in him rather than just buying items off the AH. One big difference is all gems are the same, but the diversity in items means your ideal is another man's vendor trash. Huge difference from gems.
Ok, Why THE FUCK do people keep salvaging magic items?
Here are the prices for everything:
Subtle Essence: 19
Fallen Tooth: 7
Shimmering Essence: 30
Lizard Eye: 150
Wishful Essence: 40
Encrusted Hoof: 400
Exquisite Essence: 1200
Iridescent Tear: 3200
Fiery Brimstone: 19,000
Prior to getting to Infero? Every item you salvage is a loss of gold. So stop salvaging, sell your items, and just buy the mats you need on the AH.
I keep logging in to check these prices, and they keep dropping. It's so damn confusing. Why are these people salvaging items that sell for 100G to sell its essence for 19G?!
Yeah, I'm pretty confused that people keep salvaging magic items in order to sell the components at a gigantic loss on the AH.
I'm sure that over time these people will either stop being so silly or stop playing the game.
I really hope Blizzard notices the problem and drastically modifies crafting prices. The Auction House breaks so many parts of this game that they really need to fix some things very quickly.
yeah. I hope this is just initial volatility and idiocy but I lean towards thinking that the AH broke the smith.
Got to say, the art style in this game put me off at first, but it has grown on me in a hurry.
Still think the monster and character models are pretty awful, though.
So what do non-wizards do against bosses? Because my strategy boils down to "cast hydra and avoid attacks."
Act 2's boss was easier on Nightmare than Normal.
I just finished Nightmare on my barbarian by trading blows toe to toe with Diablo. My chin was sturdier.
Really, the bosses aren't the problem... it's those fucking champions. I spent quite some time on a vampiric fucker who kept healing himself by using some flamethrower spell on Tyreal. The build I run with doesn't favor fights with monsters that like to run away and shoot at me, or ones that bounce around everywhere.
So what do non-wizards do against bosses? Because my strategy boils down to "cast hydra and avoid attacks."
Act 2's boss was easier on Nightmare than Normal.
punch them in the face I think. most boss stories make them sound ridiculously easy on other classes and killing them in 20 seconds.
that's basically what I did with them on a wizard too. crystal skin, spectral blade, explosion. run around til cds reset. it was way easier than messing around with hydra and meteor.
valiance I had the same thought about trying healing journey. I think you need that mana though... still worth trying when I hit the level.
I need more heals. I've got soul harvest, haunt, and potions and that's not enough--I'm cool with sitting in spirit walk regening mana, but mana comes back eventually, life is waaay more important. Just wiped 5 or 6 times on Rakanoth before finally beating him. Swapped in the gargantuan for the grasp.
There's just really no point to level the Blacksmith at all really, the way things are on the AH right now.
I've actually made some decent money off the Journeyman weapons. They are quite decent. Also, one of the random stats can be a socket, which is huge that early.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Right now I'm using Fists of Thunder (Quickening) combined with Sweeping Wind to essentially give me infinite spirit (there seems to be a bug where Sweeping Winds crits also give the +15 spirit bonus). I have Crippling Wave to use on packs. With my massive spirit I spam Mantra of Healing against tough enemies, and use Serenity when I get in trouble. I also use Blinding Flash, which is a great skill but something else could potentially go in this slot. The game is a total cakewalk for me right now with this set-up.
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SpectrumArcher of InfernoChaldea Rec RoomRegistered Userregular
Not really sure why there are other spells than Disintegrate in the game.
Got rid of all the others. Magic Weapon, Familiar, Archon, and the Diamond Armor rune that makes spells cheaper (Prism?).
Pewpewpewpewpew giant lasers kill everything
feel like I'm a Touhou character
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BeezelThere was no agreement little morsel..Registered Userregular
So I'm trying to concoct a group play build that isn't so dependant on Smoke and prep. Combo too strong but also gets a little damn boring after awhile. Has anyone played around with shadow power? There's a rune that gives 65% damage reduction on top of the life leech and I'm wondering if that can be worked in with some kind of hate/disc gen build built around stuns and *gag* grenades.
The Idea is to constantly pull enemies in to me, and spam my healing mantra as well to keep me alive. Healing Pillar and Serenity are there when things get a bit dicey.
Delphinidaes on
NNID: delphinidaes Official PA Forums FFXIV:ARR Free Company <GHOST> gitl.enjin.com Join us on Sargatanas!
The Idea is to constantly pull enemies in to me, and spam my healing mantra as well to keep me alive. Healing Pillar and Serenity are there when things get a bit dicey.
Finished up Normal earlier today about 25 hours in (doing total clears). Really been enjoying the game so far, even the story line. I think the narrative and dialogue may frame itself a little better around the barbarian character.
Performance was really good for me during the week, but I have had some troubles with latency over the weekend.
My only other gripe with it so far is that the loots don't seem to feel very phat. I have found good gear and am progressing well through Nightmare difficulty, but I feel that I should have a few more build options than what I have right now without resorting to the AH, particularly considering how much time I've spent with optional content.
Yay 58! Time for bed. Maybe I'll get 60 tomorrow, we'll see.
Loving this witchdoctor build. What I really like is I feel like my success really comes down to how well I personally play this build. If I get sloppy I can die no problem. But, when I am on the ball I've kept it going against champion packs by myself after my team has died. It had just enough avoidance and life leach and mana regen and kiting that if you time it all out right you can stretch fights on indefinitely. Well, against most champion packs at least. There are some packs that are basically unkiteable (mobs that are already have fast move speed getting the fast suffix gave me the biggest headache so far when playing with some friends. I just couldn't create enough room to breath when my friends went down).
Yay 58! Time for bed. Maybe I'll get 60 tomorrow, we'll see.
Loving this witchdoctor build. What I really like is I feel like my success really comes down to how well I personally play this build. If I get sloppy I can die no problem. But, when I am on the ball I've kept it going against champion packs by myself after my team has died. It had just enough avoidance and life leach and mana regen and kiting that if you time it all out right you can stretch fights on indefinitely. Well, against most champion packs at least. There are some packs that are basically unkiteable (mobs that are already have fast move speed getting the fast suffix gave me the biggest headache so far when playing with some friends. I just couldn't create enough room to breath when my friends went down).
this build is really really hectic. I kinda die a lot. but maybe I'm undergeared. definitely not steamrolling like before. The level of challenge is nice, but I miss being able to hold my ground against stuff and blow them up. I also feel like witchdoctor CC kinda sucks for some reason. thinking of swapping out gargantuan/grasp of the dead for mass confusion with the stun, but that would need testing.
Posts
Oh god. That's gotta be the worst.
I've only fought against arcane wallers, and yeah it was horrible.
THE BEST OF TIMES.
"...only mights and maybes."
duration isn't all that short, plus there's a rune to extend it
there are also runes to steal life or mana with it which means you'll want to cast it anyway.
I got you. Check your PM in a few
3ds friend code: 2981-6032-4118
I've never really used harvest, just seems there are more useful abilities.
Keeping a thirty/sixty second duration rolling at all times is the opposite of fun to me, I dunno. And if you take the sixty second duration rune, you're losing out on actually useful runes.
And I dunno about more useful abilities, but even at low levels tagging at least three enemies with Harvest results in roughly +100% damage.
Later on, it skyrockets to somewhere in the neighborhood of +400%-650% damage.
It just feels like WD is balanced around having it up at all times, because if it isn't then having it up at all times would be incredibly imbalanced due to the massive spike in deeps. It also means that unless a boss periodically summons trash, your dps is going to drop into the shitter for only having one target to Harvest.
I can't comment on bosses yet but I played through all of normal and NM using the skill and dealing with bosses... they just take a little longer is all. it's not like you become useless without it.
I like it, I like that there's risk involved in getting the most out of it as well.
edit - and if you want to concern yourself with how the WD is balanced re: that skill, consider if anything it's probably balanced around 2 or 3 mobs (and I even think this is a stretch, I honestly don't know that it's REQUIRED to play the WD especially with the awesome slow ability we have) so when you get 5 you're super strong... it adds a cool variable to the gameplay.
I hit sort of a wall in late NM Act 3 (waay harder than Act 1, then again I was in a 4 player game for the first time). I feel my minions losing effectiveness, so I think its time to respec and gear up. How are WD's completing NM and moving on into Hell? Minions still viable there?
edit: saw your build upthread, nvm
If they would let me post more than 10 auctions at a time that would be fine.
Anyways, I ended up running the end of act 3 again and got enough. So yay:
It's very easy to keep up, heck, half the time you don't even want to cast it when its off cooldown because your either saving it for life regen or because you already got a 5 stack burst and why risk losing such a good thing?
Spirit walk makes landing 5 person harvests easy peasy.
Act 2's boss was easier on Nightmare than Normal.
smokescreen whatever shit they fling on me and repeat.
"...only mights and maybes."
@ Inquisitor thanks for this I just tried this build and I like it a lot.
Haunt and Spirit Barrage(Phantasm) are my main DPS for LMB and RMB. then I've got spirit walk and honored guest on 3/4. poison darts on 5, and grasp on 6
I'm only in NM but I was flailing around for a good build and I think this might be one. I like the tons of mana and life regen this build has built in. I might swap out the honored guest for healing journey when I can, but this is a fun build.
Lot of actives though. It's weird for me to have so many spells without CDs on my action bar, especially after having 2 minions before. I really have to think about my rotation now. Normally its spirit walk -> soul harvest -> spam haunt and phantasm till OOM --> poison darts/kite with grasp till mana returns --> Spam DOTS more till everything dies.
They need to figure out an equivalent system for the blacksmith, such that its worth it to invest in him rather than just buying items off the AH. One big difference is all gems are the same, but the diversity in items means your ideal is another man's vendor trash. Huge difference from gems.
yeah. I hope this is just initial volatility and idiocy but I lean towards thinking that the AH broke the smith.
Still think the monster and character models are pretty awful, though.
I just finished Nightmare on my barbarian by trading blows toe to toe with Diablo. My chin was sturdier.
Really, the bosses aren't the problem... it's those fucking champions. I spent quite some time on a vampiric fucker who kept healing himself by using some flamethrower spell on Tyreal. The build I run with doesn't favor fights with monsters that like to run away and shoot at me, or ones that bounce around everywhere.
punch them in the face I think. most boss stories make them sound ridiculously easy on other classes and killing them in 20 seconds.
that's basically what I did with them on a wizard too. crystal skin, spectral blade, explosion. run around til cds reset. it was way easier than messing around with hydra and meteor.
When they implement PvP, I want to be able to play as an elite pack...
Or your builds. That works.
SniperGuyGaming on PSN / SniperGuy710 on Xbone Live
I need more heals. I've got soul harvest, haunt, and potions and that's not enough--I'm cool with sitting in spirit walk regening mana, but mana comes back eventually, life is waaay more important. Just wiped 5 or 6 times on Rakanoth before finally beating him. Swapped in the gargantuan for the grasp.
I've actually made some decent money off the Journeyman weapons. They are quite decent. Also, one of the random stats can be a socket, which is huge that early.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Right now I'm using Fists of Thunder (Quickening) combined with Sweeping Wind to essentially give me infinite spirit (there seems to be a bug where Sweeping Winds crits also give the +15 spirit bonus). I have Crippling Wave to use on packs. With my massive spirit I spam Mantra of Healing against tough enemies, and use Serenity when I get in trouble. I also use Blinding Flash, which is a great skill but something else could potentially go in this slot. The game is a total cakewalk for me right now with this set-up.
Got rid of all the others. Magic Weapon, Familiar, Archon, and the Diamond Armor rune that makes spells cheaper (Prism?).
Pewpewpewpewpew giant lasers kill everything
feel like I'm a Touhou character
"...only mights and maybes."
This is the one I'm using in Act II Hell atm. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#WfXgiQ!YcZ!ZaZaYZ
The Idea is to constantly pull enemies in to me, and spam my healing mantra as well to keep me alive. Healing Pillar and Serenity are there when things get a bit dicey.
Official PA Forums FFXIV:ARR Free Company <GHOST> gitl.enjin.com Join us on Sargatanas!
makes for good gearing i guess
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
Why yes I do like those
Similar ideas but different take:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#afXgiQ!XUc!YYYYYb
Performance was really good for me during the week, but I have had some troubles with latency over the weekend.
My only other gripe with it so far is that the loots don't seem to feel very phat. I have found good gear and am progressing well through Nightmare difficulty, but I feel that I should have a few more build options than what I have right now without resorting to the AH, particularly considering how much time I've spent with optional content.
Loving this witchdoctor build. What I really like is I feel like my success really comes down to how well I personally play this build. If I get sloppy I can die no problem. But, when I am on the ball I've kept it going against champion packs by myself after my team has died. It had just enough avoidance and life leach and mana regen and kiting that if you time it all out right you can stretch fights on indefinitely. Well, against most champion packs at least. There are some packs that are basically unkiteable (mobs that are already have fast move speed getting the fast suffix gave me the biggest headache so far when playing with some friends. I just couldn't create enough room to breath when my friends went down).
this build is really really hectic. I kinda die a lot. but maybe I'm undergeared. definitely not steamrolling like before. The level of challenge is nice, but I miss being able to hold my ground against stuff and blow them up. I also feel like witchdoctor CC kinda sucks for some reason. thinking of swapping out gargantuan/grasp of the dead for mass confusion with the stun, but that would need testing.