I have a real noob question. I think I know what everyone is talking about but I wanna make sure. I keep hearing people mention “builds” in reference to what set you should have, what leg gems you should have, what powers, etc. They say things like, depending on what build you want, you should have X gem with X set." Or, " This build goes better with that weapon and gem."
What is meant by “build”? Is it certain armor/weapon combos? With 10 of 1,000s of armor/weapon combinations, how can you get a certain “build”?
Also I hear phrases like, “If you get a good roll you may get x gem, or x set, or x weapon”. Or, “depending on what roll you get, you may get X”. Not sure what “Roll” means.
I also hear a lot of acronyms when referencing weapons and armor and particularly rings/amulets. Should I know what a “CoE” is or a “BoS”?
Thank you ahead of time for answering a noob question.
Roll typically refers to an item specific characteristics. For example, does a ring have damage, main stat, cooldown reduction, critical hit chance, critical hit damage, etc…
Builds tend to refer to the optimal item combinations (and their rolls) that work together to maximize your ability to clear more challenging content quickly.
Thank You. Roll doesn’t mean what I thought it meant. So a “roll” are the “enchants” that an item has that you can change. As for “Builds”. I didn’t think there was an “optimal” item combo. People say things like, “depending on what build you want… . blah, blah, blah”, which makes it sound like there is no optimal build, just personal choices based on your style of playing. My personal style is to maximize damage stat (offense) and life stat (defense). Everything else is fluff to me.
Google icy veins and diablo. It has links to class-specific builds that are stratified by their power. Going there does take some of the fun away of trying to figure stuff out by yourself.
What is meant by “build”? Is it certain armor/weapon combos? With 10 of 1,000s of armor/weapon combinations, how can you get a certain “build”?
There may be tens of thousands of possible combinations, but far fewer viable ones. Typically there’s only a handful of viable gear/skill combinations for a given class set (or for LON with the given class) and only 2-3 that are optimal for endgame difficulties.
Also I hear phrases like, “If you get a good roll you may get x gem, or x set, or x weapon”. Or, “depending on what roll you get, you may get X”. Not sure what “Roll” means.
Roll = RNG
Remember that the properties of each legendary item aren’t fixed - there’s always a range of possible affixes, each with a range that depends on whether the item is of Legendary, Ancient or Primal tier (and those tiers are RNG as well). “If you get a good roll” translates to “If you find a version of this item with optimal - or close to optimal - affixes and affix values”
Should I know what a “CoE” is or a “BoS”?
COE - Convention of Elements
BOS - Bane of the Stricken (I think?)
Great questions, Odyl.
First, I recommend you read the New Player’s Guide: [Guide] New + Returning Player's Guide (Season 20)
No matter what class you play, it has tons of really useful information.
“Builds” refer to specific combinations of skills and items, and are almost always dictacted by set bonuses. In reality, this means that sets dictate, to a very large degree, builds. For example, Barbs have 5 major builds, 1 each based on their four sets, and a fifth that combines two different sets.
Builds work in very specific ways, and if you tinker too much with a build, you can really weaken it–or in some cases, cripple it. In other words, builds require certain skills on the bar, certain items equipped, and certain items in the Cube, and you must use it all in a very specific way. Some builds, however, can be tweaked a little bit, and we call these “build variants.”
Builds that are competitive with each other in a given class are called “major builds.” Generally speaking, major builds are capable of clearing within +/- 10 Greater Rifts of one another. “Minor builds” are strong, but are generally used for lower GR clears or speed-farming Torments. Some builds are really only useful for speed-farming, and some are only useful for pushing GRs.
Builds can also be put together with the Legacy of Nightmares ring set, or the upcoming Legacy of Dreams gem. These items can, depending on class, dictate various major and minor builds, and we refer to these with the prefixes “LoN” or “LoD” (LoN HOTA, for example, was a popular Barb build last Season).
“Rolls” refer to the traits on an item. For example, you might find a helmet with:
- 500 Strength
- 255 Vitality
- 6% Critical Hit Chance
Each of these are rolls. If you take the helm to the Mystic, you can “enchant” or “re-roll” one of these traits. If you’re collecting gear for a specific build, you’ll need it to have specific rolls. In most cases, we’re very restricted by what rolls a build needs, so you normally need an item to drop with most of the needed rolls so you can afford to re-roll something at the Mystic.
The term “roll” can be used interchangeably to decribe the RNG present in the game. Whenever a monster dies, the game “rolls” dice to see if an item drops. Then it rolls again to see what kind of item, what stats, etc.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have questions.
It’s pretty much a combination of both
There is the personal choice based on what style you want to play and the optimal build for that style of play
e.g. if you want to play a WW barb you use the skills that best compliment the WW style of play and the optimal build is to use the best items to complement those skills
It’s like if you are playing a thorns build crusader you use items that increase your thorns damage to increase damage and not use a weapon that increases the damage of blessed hammer because you don’t actually use blessed hammer
Build usually applies to set of skill and stat set up of a charcter in RPGs, as well as gears that compliment it to play a typical role/trait. I.E Spellsword in Elder Scrolls.
In Diablo 3, a build usually revolves around one main damage dealer skill, and everything else is in synergy or support that skill.
Roll usually applies to stats on items that is determined by RNG. But some may refer to rolling a build, as how powerful you get as that particular build will depend on RNG as well, due to requiring items with the right and optimal stats to support the skill in use.
BiS not BoS means best in slot. Meaning the build is most optimised with that item in that slot. Ofcourse further optimisation of the build will be dependant on what stats you have on that BiS item.
Thank you Free. You gave a very good description of build and roll. I learned a lot. Right now, based on another comment, I put on 5 ancient-legendary armor pieces and the LoN ring combo. Wow, what an enhancement I got. I went from barely making it through a T4 lvl with a full Firebird Set, to easily making it through T8 lvls. Now I don’t know what to do with my Firebird set - taking up 7 slots in my stash (that is a lot with this game’s weak stash utility). I also have 5 Tal Rasha pieces (none ancient 
) that are just sitting in my Stash along with the 5 regular gem types, 6-7 other leg gems and misc do hickeys… Some commenters are telling me Tal Rasha is an “easier” set to use than Firebird. You can cruise without having to worry about stacks and mulitiple powers. I am thinking just keep the ancients and cruise through this season (though it ends in about 2 weeks). I know once I set into chapters 6/7/8 in this season (just on 5 now), even my ancients won’t be strong enough, so I am upgrading my leg gems in GR to 25 - but its slow. This game has a lot of grinding. Wish it was more like Witcher with 50-60 unique quests and the same # of side-quests. Wouldn’t seem like you were grinding so much.
Wish it was more like Witcher with 50-60 unique quests and the same # of side-quests
That’s the campaign mode, except for the relative lack of developed sidequests.