Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Seriously, just do the Grifts normally. There's no need to game the system. If you have a gem you want to upgrade, great. If not, then run the next level and hope for the gem drop there or keep the key for later. If you hit your cap and don't think you can finish quickly, then just quit and start a new trial. It's not that hard.
This is like people arguing that you should do a Normal bounty run when you still kill everything in one shot in T2.
Remember, any time you spend killing something outside of a rift is actually time wasted, because the drop rates within rifts are significantly higher than outside of rifts. And you don't get blood shards, either. The same holds true for Grifts - any time you spend in a Grift that isn't helping you level a gem is wasted, because you get crap drops and crap shards for your time. 5 minutes for zero drops is worse than 7 minutes for 1 drop and 3 epic gem levels.
There's no need to try to game the system for gem drops. If you play normally, you still get the keystone at the end of the grift. Just save it for later if you can't use it at that time.
Agreed completely, though I do like doing a trial and getting a GRift lvl 1, then going through normally when all I want are gems or to rank up my lvl 0 gems. But this only happens for a few and then I just go through normally.
Smoogy-1689
3DS Friend Code: 1821-8991-4141
PAD ID: 376,540,262
Remember, any time you spend killing something outside of a rift is actually time wasted, because the drop rates within rifts are significantly higher than outside of rifts.
This is not true in the scenario where you're looking for a cache-only drop, and are spending your outside-of-a-rift time doing bounties.
Should I roll the dex or the phys damage into CD? Just started crusader but I dunno if they have any physical builds.
Pet 'sader builds are physical, both archer and ponies. Tons of fun too, I'm playing one myself. You do need at least the proper shield for it, the archer build also needs Eternal Union ring.
Remember, any time you spend killing something outside of a rift is actually time wasted, because the drop rates within rifts are significantly higher than outside of rifts.
This is not true in the scenario where you're looking for a cache-only drop, and are spending your outside-of-a-rift time doing bounties.
Still true.
If you are spending time killing random mobs on your way to doing a bounty instead of just completing the quests to get the cache, then you are spending time that would be better used in a rift. Just focus on the bounties if you want the cache drop.
What are you guys doing to jump into bounties while a Grift portal is open? Do you keep the TP active and just use waypoints? Then you're wasting a ton of time traveling back and forth. I mean, you can skip a bunch of mobs at the entrance but IMHO that's playing with fire.
I 'finished' my raekors without a vile ward and this thing is janky as hell. has to take some practice to get used ot
So I've being playing raekors for about a week and yes it does have a bit of a learning curve. I can now clear T6 pretty quickly (probably around 7 to 8 mins, not near as fast as my sader but not terrible.) A couple of quick tips:
You need enough cooldown so that hitting 3 enemies with charge is enough to instantly recast charge.
Don't charge into 1 or 2 enemies unless that is the only option.
If there is just 1 enemy left ignore him and move on.
Each different type of enemy has a different hit box for charge it take a while to hit it properly.
Learn how to push a single close by enemy into the bigger group of far away enemies.
Once you have a nice clump, just charge a very short distance right next to your character.
Maximus is a great weapon to use as its pretty easy to get all the enemies into the fire chains.
I like to use Minerea as single target dmg is the build biggest weakness.
At first I had a hard time clearing T4 but after a little practice I could clear T6 even though I didn't change any of my gear.
Remember, any time you spend killing something outside of a rift is actually time wasted, because the drop rates within rifts are significantly higher than outside of rifts.
This is not true in the scenario where you're looking for a cache-only drop, and are spending your outside-of-a-rift time doing bounties.
Still true.
If you are spending time killing random mobs on your way to doing a bounty instead of just completing the quests to get the cache, then you are spending time that would be better used in a rift. Just focus on the bounties if you want the cache drop.
What are you guys doing to jump into bounties while a Grift portal is open? Do you keep the TP active and just use waypoints? Then you're wasting a ton of time traveling back and forth. I mean, you can skip a bunch of mobs at the entrance but IMHO that's playing with fire.
If I take this option, then what I do is this:
- Roll through the grift until I summon the rift guardian.
- Run away from him a little bit, note how much time is left in the grift, and Town Portal.
- Once in town, open the map and go to any open bounty.
- Finish the bounty.
- If there is time left, open the map and go to the next open bounty. Rinse and repeat.
- If there is no time left, click on the town waypoint.
- Go into the still open Town Portal portal.
- Kill the rift guardian.
There is no time wasted, because you don't need to be at a waypoint to initiate travel. If you only need a one-way trip to town, clicking Town Portal is the equivalent of opening your map and clicking the town waypoint.
Incidentally, I'm not saying that the go-through-grifts-level-by-level track is the best option, just that it's much more reasonable than it might seem to be at first.
I will say that every time I went this route, I spent all of my outside-the-rift time thinking "oh man oh man is it time yet do I need to go back holy eff did the timer run out oh man". But then, I'm as far from "nerves of steel" as you can be.
Opinions++ and all, but I agree with starting from level 1 if you don't have any gems, but then just do the rifts normally. If you manage to not get a gem you actually want to upgrade before it looks like you're hitting your limit? Save the key and start a new trial to begin again at level 1, but keep clearing the rifts normally.
I'd argue that all of the time in the grift is wasted if you're playing at that low a level over and over - if it takes you 5 minutes each time to clear grift 1 thru 15, and now you're waiting for 6 minutes to, most likely, do a single bounty before going back into the grift and finishing it... i mean, it's really just shit for both grift loot and bounty loot.
let's look at a ~10 minute period of time:
-start grift, spawn boss (5 min)
-complete a single bounty, or potentially two shorter bounties & kill boss with 4:30 left on grift timer (5 min)
so now in this 10 minutes of work you have:
-obtained probably 20 bloodshards, maybe less from the extremely low grifts
-obtained, most likely, 0 legendaries, maybe 1
-no guaranteed gem levels
-obtained 0-2 rift keystone(s) from the random bounty(ies)
I find little redeeming qualities about doing it this way, and i feel even more strongly about it if i'm playing with a group of friends. it's extremely boring and a minimal return for your time investment. it does both jobs (bounties & rifts) extremely poorly. if you want both those things (cache and gem/rift loot), you would be much better served by split farming act 1 caches with your bros (or randoms) for 30 minutes, and then doing 30 minutes of actual grifts that will guarantee gem levels (and a shitload more bloodshards & legendaries*).
*your mileage may vary on the legendaries!
This is the future. This is what we built. This is what we wanted. It must have been. Because we all had the fucking choice, didn't we? It is only our money that allows commercial culture to flower. If we didn't want to live like this, we could have changed it at any time, by not fucking paying for it.
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Remember, any time you spend killing something outside of a rift is actually time wasted, because the drop rates within rifts are significantly higher than outside of rifts.
This is not true in the scenario where you're looking for a cache-only drop, and are spending your outside-of-a-rift time doing bounties.
Still true.
If you are spending time killing random mobs on your way to doing a bounty instead of just completing the quests to get the cache, then you are spending time that would be better used in a rift. Just focus on the bounties if you want the cache drop.
What are you guys doing to jump into bounties while a Grift portal is open? Do you keep the TP active and just use waypoints? Then you're wasting a ton of time traveling back and forth. I mean, you can skip a bunch of mobs at the entrance but IMHO that's playing with fire.
If I take this option, then what I do is this:
- Roll through the grift until I summon the rift guardian.
- Run away from him a little bit, note how much time is left in the grift, and Town Portal.
- Once in town, open the map and go to any open bounty.
- Finish the bounty.
- If there is time left, open the map and go to the next open bounty. Rinse and repeat.
- If there is no time left, click on the town waypoint.
- Go into the still open Town Portal portal.
- Kill the rift guardian.
There is no time wasted, because you don't need to be at a waypoint to initiate travel. If you only need a one-way trip to town, clicking Town Portal is the equivalent of opening your map and clicking the town waypoint.
I get what you're trying to say here, but the fact that you need an entire flow chart with a dozen points basically says it all.
Also, the fact that you can't perfectly time the bounty clear with the grift clear means you're wasting time.
Honestly, I don't care that much. Everyone should play however they want, and whatever is fun to them. But this method is not superior to just playing grifts normally. I just want to make it clear that people shouldn't feel compelled to use this ridiculous grift level and timing management system in the name of "efficiency".
it's a complete waste of time. if you are doing fast grifts 1-2 levels below what your max is you are going to get 2-3 drops pretty much every time. both the level and your time matter when it comes to what the rg drops.
So, today, I got the last piece for my Marauders set, (no RoRG yet, despite over 30 bounty runs), got into the vault, and hit two rifts with treasure goblin sections.
awww for a second there I thought you guys were talking about a whimsyshire themed shield that I didn't know about that would make my rainbow warrior complete.
Well people should play as they want. It's just worth keeping in mind that rifts can be really fucking inconsistent, some builds are great at putting you in rift lvls above what you can handle (condemn vacuum says hi) and it's pretty easy to overestimate you abilities on a fresh season toon. Every time I've started at lbl 1 on both the season and non-season toon, I was able to get more than 4 lvls out of the process (yes, even on my season toon that was poorly geared). I know I'm not the only person, that would rather have a gem, that I intend to use, on hand for when I do fail the timer because I've observed RNG can easily make a very doable rift into something you fail (try combo of poor density (they seem to have fixed this a little), bad map layout and bad elite affix configurations, in a bad area to get certain affixes, that are now something you can't laugh off).
Really, failing one trial, on purpose is not the end of the world and having a gem you want to use by the time you choose or have to choose the upgrade option. Is easily better time spend than doing your best in a trail, getting a trail that is too hard and having to upgrade a gem you don't want to use. Once you have a gem you want, that's consistency that you really don't get from bloodshards or RG drops outside of shards.
So I found a Gyrfalcon's Foote on my seasonal crusader last night! The irony? I don't have a Jekangbord. Apparently I've salvaged every one I've ever found on this character. *sad trombone* It sucks that the foote is so rare because it would be hands-down the best build for a fresh 70 crusader just starting out. It's tons of fun too, just fill the screen with bouncing shields until everything is dead (except for the last guy).
I also found the last piece of the Roland's set so now I've got all 6. I know it's not top-tier but I still want to make this set work, if not for T6 than at least for T4. I'm thinking of stacking Physical damage and going with 5-pieces with RoRG, Depth Diggers, Angel Hair Braid, Piro Mirella, Reaper's Wraps and Simplicity's Strength, Bane of the Trapped and Pain Enhancer. I'll use Punish for wrath regen and a little tankiness, Sweep Attack: Holy Shock for groups, Shield Bash: Pound for single target and then Provoke, Steed Charge and AC: Prophet. I've got a decent Golden Flense that I will try for the build. I also want to try a variation with Maximus and a Cindercoat, but the Crumble rune sucks so I would probably take Shield Bash out for something else like Shield Glare.
I'm really hoping they update this set. I think the 6-set bonus is terrible, since attack speed is detrimental to a non-perma-AC build. I think that it should grant armor stacks or some other defensive bonus to make up for the loss of perma-AC and the fact that both Sweep Attack and Shield Bash require you to be in melee range.
my ponies crit for 20m and there are 3 of them but it just doesn't seem to do that much damage
You need to have the Unrelenting Phalanx to double the ponies for it to really shine.
Then put on some Strongarm bracers for 30% more dps since stampede procs knockback.
Then put on Bane of the Trapped for 25%+ more dps since stampede procs stun.
Then put on Pain Enchancer gem because yay, free physical dps.
Then add one of these gems to your liking: Gogok, Bane of the Powerful, or Efficacious Toxin
I'm wondering if they could do something with Roland's, to put it on par with Akkhan, if they allowed the set bonuses to interact with iron skin. Probably not, though, not without giving it the ability to make iron skin permanent or having it provide some sort of toughness/healing boost when defensive CDs aren't active. I feel like Roland's just highlight how the devs fucked up with melee survival in the game overall.
I'm curious: What legendary gems are worth using for a pet witch doctor? Right now I've got Bane of the Powerful (seems like practically a perma-buff, given the rate at which you run into elites in rifts), Bane of the Trapped (because I'm using Addling Toads with Rhen'ho Flayer, plus Pirahnado), and Enforcer (just because that seems like the appropriate gem, and because I'm looking forward to that damage reduction to pets).
Is Enforcer actually useful for me, though, given that I've got a Mask of Jeram? Would, say, Pain Enhancer be better, given that I've got a bunch of +physical damage?
While I'm here, I might as well ask: Given my gear, should I try to reroll the socket on the Homunculus into +crit chance, instead? I don't have a good handle on how the math works out. A gem gives intelligence, which gives me some more damage all the time and some all resist, while crit chance increases how often damage spikes happen; how would I determine which provides more damage, on average?
Is Enforcer actually useful for me, though, given that I've got a Mask of Jeram? Would, say, Pain Enhancer be better, given that I've got a bunch of +physical damage?
I switched to PE from Enforcer with my pet 'Sader since it just seems really good for a +phys pet build. Pets keep it up basically 100% of the time on several enemies at once and it's like 700% weapon damage per second later on so even though the rank25 bonus is crap IMO it's a solid gem.
ETA: My back-of-the-napkin math numbers indicate that for me, Enforcer was slightly better against single enemies but for 2+ enemies PE blows it out of the water. YMMV, being a different class and all.
I think I would go with Pain Enhancer and Bane of the Trapped, then either Bane of the Powerful or Enforcer...I think some combo of those 4 is the best for pet docs. I need a lot of work on my gems and gear to fully test this, though. Check the leaderboards!
Smoogy-1689
3DS Friend Code: 1821-8991-4141
PAD ID: 376,540,262
I think I would go with Pain Enhancer and Bane of the Trapped, then either Bane of the Powerful or Enforcer...I think some combo of those 4 is the best for pet docs. I need a lot of work on my gems and gear to fully test this, though. Check the leaderboards!
The most annoying part about the epic gems is that they really hone in on the issue that Blizz needs to make the math in this game more transparent. The only reason some gems are superior to others has nothing to do with their purported effects and everything to do with how the damage is actually calculated.
I like the idea behind both of the barb sets but they involve a bit too much cooldown management which really disengages you from the action on the screen. earthquake isn't quite as bad at least.
+1
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I like the idea behind both of the barb sets but they involve a bit too much cooldown management which really disengages you from the action on the screen. earthquake isn't quite as bad at least.
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This is like people arguing that you should do a Normal bounty run when you still kill everything in one shot in T2.
Remember, any time you spend killing something outside of a rift is actually time wasted, because the drop rates within rifts are significantly higher than outside of rifts. And you don't get blood shards, either. The same holds true for Grifts - any time you spend in a Grift that isn't helping you level a gem is wasted, because you get crap drops and crap shards for your time. 5 minutes for zero drops is worse than 7 minutes for 1 drop and 3 epic gem levels.
There's no need to try to game the system for gem drops. If you play normally, you still get the keystone at the end of the grift. Just save it for later if you can't use it at that time.
3DS Friend Code: 1821-8991-4141
PAD ID: 376,540,262
Should I roll the dex or the phys damage into CD? Just started crusader but I dunno if they have any physical builds.
Oh you fucking monster.
There are some good phys Crusader builds (Lord and Commander, or Shield Bash), roll the dex into CD also I hate you.
Pet 'sader builds are physical, both archer and ponies. Tons of fun too, I'm playing one myself. You do need at least the proper shield for it, the archer build also needs Eternal Union ring.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
Still true.
If you are spending time killing random mobs on your way to doing a bounty instead of just completing the quests to get the cache, then you are spending time that would be better used in a rift. Just focus on the bounties if you want the cache drop.
What are you guys doing to jump into bounties while a Grift portal is open? Do you keep the TP active and just use waypoints? Then you're wasting a ton of time traveling back and forth. I mean, you can skip a bunch of mobs at the entrance but IMHO that's playing with fire.
So I've being playing raekors for about a week and yes it does have a bit of a learning curve. I can now clear T6 pretty quickly (probably around 7 to 8 mins, not near as fast as my sader but not terrible.) A couple of quick tips:
At first I had a hard time clearing T4 but after a little practice I could clear T6 even though I didn't change any of my gear.
If I take this option, then what I do is this:
- Roll through the grift until I summon the rift guardian.
- Run away from him a little bit, note how much time is left in the grift, and Town Portal.
- Once in town, open the map and go to any open bounty.
- Finish the bounty.
- If there is time left, open the map and go to the next open bounty. Rinse and repeat.
- If there is no time left, click on the town waypoint.
- Go into the still open Town Portal portal.
- Kill the rift guardian.
There is no time wasted, because you don't need to be at a waypoint to initiate travel. If you only need a one-way trip to town, clicking Town Portal is the equivalent of opening your map and clicking the town waypoint.
I will say that every time I went this route, I spent all of my outside-the-rift time thinking "oh man oh man is it time yet do I need to go back holy eff did the timer run out oh man". But then, I'm as far from "nerves of steel" as you can be.
let's look at a ~10 minute period of time:
-start grift, spawn boss (5 min)
-complete a single bounty, or potentially two shorter bounties & kill boss with 4:30 left on grift timer (5 min)
so now in this 10 minutes of work you have:
-obtained probably 20 bloodshards, maybe less from the extremely low grifts
-obtained, most likely, 0 legendaries, maybe 1
-no guaranteed gem levels
-obtained 0-2 rift keystone(s) from the random bounty(ies)
I find little redeeming qualities about doing it this way, and i feel even more strongly about it if i'm playing with a group of friends. it's extremely boring and a minimal return for your time investment. it does both jobs (bounties & rifts) extremely poorly. if you want both those things (cache and gem/rift loot), you would be much better served by split farming act 1 caches with your bros (or randoms) for 30 minutes, and then doing 30 minutes of actual grifts that will guarantee gem levels (and a shitload more bloodshards & legendaries*).
*your mileage may vary on the legendaries!
So let's celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger. -transmet
I get what you're trying to say here, but the fact that you need an entire flow chart with a dozen points basically says it all.
Also, the fact that you can't perfectly time the bounty clear with the grift clear means you're wasting time.
Honestly, I don't care that much. Everyone should play however they want, and whatever is fun to them. But this method is not superior to just playing grifts normally. I just want to make it clear that people shouldn't feel compelled to use this ridiculous grift level and timing management system in the name of "efficiency".
WoW
Dear Satan.....
then accidentally sharded it instead of the other useless shield I also gambled
Ouch, that sucks.
See, this is why we need an item lock thingy.
Right? Riiiiiight?
they are so expensive to gamble though
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Really, failing one trial, on purpose is not the end of the world and having a gem you want to use by the time you choose or have to choose the upgrade option. Is easily better time spend than doing your best in a trail, getting a trail that is too hard and having to upgrade a gem you don't want to use. Once you have a gem you want, that's consistency that you really don't get from bloodshards or RG drops outside of shards.
I also found the last piece of the Roland's set so now I've got all 6. I know it's not top-tier but I still want to make this set work, if not for T6 than at least for T4. I'm thinking of stacking Physical damage and going with 5-pieces with RoRG, Depth Diggers, Angel Hair Braid, Piro Mirella, Reaper's Wraps and Simplicity's Strength, Bane of the Trapped and Pain Enhancer. I'll use Punish for wrath regen and a little tankiness, Sweep Attack: Holy Shock for groups, Shield Bash: Pound for single target and then Provoke, Steed Charge and AC: Prophet. I've got a decent Golden Flense that I will try for the build. I also want to try a variation with Maximus and a Cindercoat, but the Crumble rune sucks so I would probably take Shield Bash out for something else like Shield Glare.
I'm really hoping they update this set. I think the 6-set bonus is terrible, since attack speed is detrimental to a non-perma-AC build. I think that it should grant armor stacks or some other defensive bonus to make up for the loss of perma-AC and the fact that both Sweep Attack and Shield Bash require you to be in melee range.
You need to have the Unrelenting Phalanx to double the ponies for it to really shine.
Then put on some Strongarm bracers for 30% more dps since stampede procs knockback.
Then put on Bane of the Trapped for 25%+ more dps since stampede procs stun.
Then put on Pain Enchancer gem because yay, free physical dps.
Then add one of these gems to your liking: Gogok, Bane of the Powerful, or Efficacious Toxin
Yeah, Stampede can get really silly...
Here is just a typical T6 clear I did recently:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-2y57JIGzxs
Is Enforcer actually useful for me, though, given that I've got a Mask of Jeram? Would, say, Pain Enhancer be better, given that I've got a bunch of +physical damage?
While I'm here, I might as well ask: Given my gear, should I try to reroll the socket on the Homunculus into +crit chance, instead? I don't have a good handle on how the math works out. A gem gives intelligence, which gives me some more damage all the time and some all resist, while crit chance increases how often damage spikes happen; how would I determine which provides more damage, on average?
I switched to PE from Enforcer with my pet 'Sader since it just seems really good for a +phys pet build. Pets keep it up basically 100% of the time on several enemies at once and it's like 700% weapon damage per second later on so even though the rank25 bonus is crap IMO it's a solid gem.
ETA: My back-of-the-napkin math numbers indicate that for me, Enforcer was slightly better against single enemies but for 2+ enemies PE blows it out of the water. YMMV, being a different class and all.
3DS Friend Code: 1821-8991-4141
PAD ID: 376,540,262
If I were to eventually get m6, does the +sentry dmg mod also buff each of the spenders it fires?
The most annoying part about the epic gems is that they really hone in on the issue that Blizz needs to make the math in this game more transparent. The only reason some gems are superior to others has nothing to do with their purported effects and everything to do with how the damage is actually calculated.
Cool thanks, I figured the latter but the former sounded kinda too good to be true
oh no wait it's for wizard fucking shit
Immortal King is pretty set-it-and-forget-it.