You start with the more casual setup:
Mote6-IK2-Istvans
And the more you are used to, the more you can switch the build to include Fjord and Echoing fury and CC set instead of IK.
At the end, you can go with full zodiac version (at about 1800-2000 paragon min). You will need CdR optimization to keep perma berserker and CoA.
Basically follow the build selection table (rubric) at the very beginning. Paragon values are mostly uncertain. See how it goes. With Ik version you can clear 114s at about 1800 paragons and Istvans. When you switch to Zodiac and Fjord with EF it should give you about 10 GRs.
Good slamming.
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You can start with 0 paragon.
+10 GR with new items looks too optimistically. EF doesn’t give so much bonus because I can’t keep it’s bonus 100% of time. I did 125 and it seems like 121 in S18. My weapons are not good but paragon is higher… so it looks like about +5 GR + ? GR I had due to triunity bonus.
I have been playing around with various options on NS and wanted to share some of my findings.
All of my testing has been with the MotE5/CC2 Zodiac setup. Having 2.5k paragon as you go up in GRs the defense gets to be more of an issue and I have been looking at what is the best way to deal with it.
First is gear. The first piece of gear to get is your Zodiac ring with RCR/CHC/CDR. If you have a ring with ASI that is no good. If you have one 8% RCR with the CC set you shouldn’t have any issues with Fury even if you are down to one mob. Only time I have had issues is with a RG is when they either teleport and leap. If they don’t do either you will never run out of fury provided there is at least one mob to fight. If you don’t have the piece of RCR you will want Weapon Master as your 4th passive.
Best stats for the Fjord cutter are CDR/AD/RCR/STR in that order. I have done testing with FC at 130 to 144 increased damage and haven’t noticed a huge difference. Obviously the later is better but I wouldn’t shy away from a FC that has CRC/AD/STR in favor of one that has CDR/STR/STA just because it has an extra 10 damage on slowed mobs.
Hardest piece of gear for me to find which I am still looking for is the proper shoulders which should have CDR/AD/RCR. I would take a non ancient version of these shoulders over Ancient that don’t have the RCR.
If you are having issue staying alive with this build, If you had really good gear with RCR on the Zodiac, shoulders and Main weapon that still may not be good enough. I have ran tests with 48% RCR and still had multiple deaths. The best way I have found to get the extra defense I need is to change bloodshed to sword to ploughshares. Yes you do give up some damage but staying alive is more important. Also if you keep distance from the mobs, to get a high bonus on Zies, bloodshed shouldn’t be doing anything.
Edit:
Forgot to mention that if you go Sword to Ploughshares, you have a little bit of leeway in the CDR needed. Instead of running CDR on every item you can run without 1 slot of CDR. I am choosing to replace the CDR on my Compass Rose and rolling it to AD to give me a bit more damage. Ideal stats on the Compas Rose for me would be AD/CHC/Physical damage (CHD is also nice).
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Thanks felix. Awesome observations.
I also observed that if you go with gogok instead of Zei, you stay alive more. Damage is also decent as IAS lets you hit much faster when EF kicks in. This is smy d3planner cannot calculate ino.
Try gogok as well but keep bloodshed. But of course zei will be thr higher dmg most probably
If you go with Gogok, you really need to keep bloodshed because you loose a huge bonus to be at range.
I mainly played with Gogok on season 18 as it allowed me to be less precise on the skill timers. With the faster attack speed with the change to FC, you get a few more ticks of zodiac which has allowed me to go back to Zies.
For now I prefer Zies with StPS with the Zodiac variant. If you go with BOM, I would be more tempted to use Gogok.
Also just 3 keyed 126. 3 level clear only good level was a battlefield but I did have a power pylon for the RG.
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My weapons are also very bad. Still need better ones.
Caldessans etc are bad. But I cleared 119, 120 is still clearable.
Another change that helped me to survive was selecting fury shoulders in cube instead of mortics. Otherwise mortics was receiving a lot of key stats and the moment berserker goes down death was inevitable.
By selecting fury shoulders, i selected TaO. This helped redistribute some of the DR to another skill. So more chance for survival if you want to try.
No PoC in cube. Also fury shoulders help build fury much faster. I had 0 fury starvation issue and 0 downtime for bersetker IP and CoA
With my build right now I just cleared a 123 in 8:48 without a power or a conduit. Woods followed by Battlefield with good mobs.
DPS is there just need to stay alive long enough to dish it out.
BTW, the way to stay alive if you have mortics with BOM is as soon as WotB goes down you just start running around to get the defense bonus from EW. I don’t like the play style but it can be done.
Hmm I am not using BoM. Zodiac.
For defense if you have a Zodiac build you should have CC/Mortic/Iron Hide. No idea how you can go without Mortic. TaO will get you the defense but it drops on a recast which is bad. Also what do you do for healing?
Ignore pain IB. I have 0 downtime for skills and always have fury. I am also questioning if EW set is ok or not. With zodiac we cannot really stay in one spot for long (no BoM). So 100% buff may not be fully utilized. So I am thinking for DPS CoE and FoT or BoM and FoT. Pylon placement will be the deciding factor then.
I played around with Fot and CoE in season 18. It is less damage over all by around 20%. This is only if you have the perfect stats on both items. If you get a magical rift with the plyons in the right spot it has a chance to do more damage than EW.
I don’t like to fish much so I am staying away from that option.
Also using StPS I only leap every time I cast IP so for 7 seconds I am mainly standing still.
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I ll try StPS too with zeis abd see how i will do. With these new items build changed. So many ways to optimize. There is no fixed one path I think.
Physical damage on a ring?
p.s. I got it - you mean plain (average) damage.
Something worth noting:
I cleared a 126 tonight and drew Hamelin as RG. With a power pylon, I killed him in under a minute.
I believe that when his rat summoning triggers, he only stops when a certain number of rats have been placed on the ground. But, you can deal damage to them while they’re in the air, and they can also deal AD. If you can do enough damage to kill them before they touch down, he’ll just keep continuously summoning, and the result is that the boss ends up taking enormous numbers of AD procs to the face.
I’ve seen this happen lots of times when running speed GRs or T16s, but never when pushing, and I had always wondered if it was actually possible to deal enough damage to take advantage of this effect in a higher GR. It turns out it is indeed possible.
I only stacked Stricken for one 20 second Wrath/Ancient uptime cycle, and killed him on the next cycle. I’m pretty sure that, with a power pylon, Hamelin is the best boss for this build, by a fair margin.
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What is your sheet damage?
I also noticed, fully agree with you.
Hamelin should be the best RG. He is helpful to activate EF and the damage circle.
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2.9M with no buffs up. I never look at sheet damage though.
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Looks good.
Here are just a few suggestions you may want to change.
Section 4 armor cube, you can have mortics, BOD , PoC or FoA.
Section 6 there is an optional Gogok if you use BOM and not Zodiac
Section 7 Some build have IP on the bar either IiB or IH
Section 8 I think every build Boon of Bul Kathos is a must, Ruthless is optional
Section 9 Since we are now using Echoing Fury the enchantress isn’t a good follow, Templar is better.
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