I’m finding it difficult to proc enough zodiac for the wotb/cota cool down’s during early RG fight with just whirlwind. I usually have to throw in a few hammers to just get enough zodiac procs. Good to know about the stacks per min, I’ll have to do some tests to figure out my ratio.
Do you have a link to the Asia video clears by chance? I’ve only come across your videos on youtube so far.
PS - how do you hit so many 0% condi’s lol.
Miss 150 by a few hammers… Run had a CDR and Condi pylon only. If only a 3rd pylon, any of them would have been the push to close. 
https://imgur.com/BIjIUQ3
Bagged 150, woohoo! Rend is next on the list, but dang, that build is so underwhelming compared to Hota and Raekor. Not even fun to play anymore with these new builds.
Thanks buddy, those tips help a lot with understanding the build. I’ve only played Hota a hand full of times so that really helps to put together a game plan for a hard push. As you can see, I’ve only played this build a hand full of times lol.
Yeah…
But it’s still good to shine at the thing you’re good at, and you shine very bright indeed…
Definitely! When I was doing my hota pushing, all I kept thinking about was how good this build would be with rage flip. It would be an upgrade to rend in every way!
Gratz Kozmik!
Have you been following the “adjusted” clear tracking that DMKT and I have been doing? Well, this clear of yours is the best, adjusted for time and paragon, yet accomplished with the build!
I wrote this about how the process works:
We’ve been putting up weekly updates here on the forum and on Reddit, tracking how all sets in the game are performing this season. And this week we’re releasing a big analysis that evaluates build strength by looking at basically all relevant clears, across several eras and seasons, for all sets (and LoN/LoD, of course).
There’s a version of our adjuster linked through this page if you want to play around with it: The Rage + DMKT GR Clear Adjuster
Based on the data we’ve collected, LoD HotA is actually pretty competitive at the “elite” end of the player spectrum. There’s a small group of people who play the build really well, and push for the top. But beyond that top level, not a lot of interest from the player base as a whole. But, that “elite” competition, and not the “everybody and their brother” competition, is really what drives a set to the real heights.
Let me put it this way: let’s say two teams were going to compete for best clear with LoD HotA. On one team is you, Enryu, LebronJames, and BlackStxR. And on the other team is… everybody else. Literally every other D3 player. Who would I put my money on? Well, on the 4-person team.
Why? Well, because most of the players on that other team, whether it’s 10000, 50000, or 250000 people, are basically immaterial. There’s a 0% chance they can actually compete at that level, they’ll just get obliterated. So that big player count doesn’t really mean much.
Keep an eye out for the big build power update later this week. There are metrics in there that quantify some of these sorts of things we’re talking about.
Raekor’s in an interesting place. I assume you’ve noticed that some of the high paragon players are not carrying either BoM or Esoteric, and are just going full damage with CoE/EW/RoRG/Zei.
But, with “adjustment”, the best high paragon clear is by Enryu, who uses Esoteric (and CoE) but not BoM (or Zei). And, lower paragon clears using both Esoteric and BoM are adjusting highest of all (Enryu’s seasonal 150 with ~3300 paragon is still the highest ranked clear in our system).
So yeah: it’s pretty unclear what the ideal high-paragon Raekor trash-clearer would look like.
Jw, why do you use Dust Devils. Also, it looks like something is knocking up mobs, was wondering if it is DD.
Haha, no worries, its appreciated. Thanks very much for the detailed response.
Yeah, this was the main reason I asked about dust devils. I wanted to be able to not call out the ancients until after i made a big pull, but without wind shear I would run out of spirit. I will try some of the tactics you mentioned.
A lot of really good info in your response though, thanks again.
One other question if you don’t mind. I was trying out Andariel’s With Fire/iAS/HotA/Soc, It looks like a ~4% dps upgrade, at the cost of a 4.5% cooldown roll. (or 2.5% cooldown and 4% AD) Here is the my d3planner if you want:
d3.maxroll.gg/d3planner/524376821
I was wondering why no one is using this option. Am I missing something?
Oh, that’s not what I see on d3p. It shows with:
cheat death/Leorics I am at 23f,
ias/leorics 22f
Cheat death/andy’s 21.5f
ias/andy’s 21f
Thanks for another great response. I took your advice and went back to Leoric’s.
Darn. Just missed a 150 by 16 seconds. Made it to RG with 4 minutes exactly, got Orlash, thought it was in the bag. What do you think the best way to fight the RG is? I have been WW for ~2 minutes, then banging on him for the rest.
Update: everything in this post is wrong. See post 178 for explanation.
TLDR (the short answer): against a boss with no adds, just hammer during CoE fire phase, and stack Stricken with WW the rest of the time.
But, against a boss who summons adds below X% life (Saxtris or Binder), start by stacking Stricken with WW for ~1 minute, then start switching over to HOTA during Fire cycle.
The long answer:
I’ll be interested to hear what Kozmik says, but here’s an answer from my “mathbarb” perspective:
First off, let me say that the answer probably depends a bit on which RG you draw…
There may well be one answer for a single-target RG (i.e. Orlash), another for an RG that starts summoning adds at a certain life point (i.e. Saxtris), and another still for an RG that summons adds right from the start (i.e. Eskandiel).
First off, most bosses in the 3rd category (adds from the start) are going to be bad, and you’ll rarely get a good result against them, unless you know some trick to convert them to a different category (i.e. Eskandiel stops summoning after he summons 10 adds, so then you just run away, let him teleport to you, and do him as a single-target).
For bosses in the 2nd category (adds at certain life point) you want to be sure to get all your Stricken stacking in before they hit that life point (75% for Saxtris, 80% for Binder), because once they do, it drastically changes the relative efficiency of Stacking Stricken : Dealing Damage. The adds eat your Stricken stacks, so stacking gets much harder, but you’re also dealing a bunch of aoe via AD and Bloodshed, so dealing damage gets much easier.
And for bosses in the 1st category (no adds), none of that is an issue.
Anyway, let’s go to the math…
So, I started by running a Stricken stacking test using the LoD HotA setup with WW:Dust Devils, and the result I got was 493 stacks/minute, or one every ~7.3 frames. Compare that to just stacking with HotA, where you get one every 19 frames, or 189 stacks/minute (when you have no EF stacks, which will be the case for most boss fights).
Let’s compare a few things:
In each case, let’s assume that the boss has 1,000,000 life, and that you do 100 damage per hit. Note that CoE loads 1/2 your damage into 1/4 of your time spent, so in cases where we alternate WW and HotA, our damage during that time is essentially 50 per hit. And, we’re also assuming our Stricken gets us +2.3% per stack (max rank).
Finally, let me note that I use a sigma sum calculator to work out how the total damage increases as the Stricken stacks go up. If anybody wants me to explain that, I can, but I figured it would make this already long answer far longer still.
So:
1: No Stricken
1,000,000 life / 100 damage per hit = 10000 hits to kill.
10000 hits * 19 frames per hit = 190000 frames
190000 frames = 3167 seconds
total time = 3167 seconds (52 minutes 47 seconds) (note: lol)
2: Stack with WW for 1 minute, then HOTA
1 min WW gets us 493 stacks. It then takes us 539 HOTAs to kill the boss.
539 hits * 19 frames per hit = 10241 frames
10241 frames = 171 seconds
171 seconds HOTA + 60 seconds WW = 231 seconds
total time = 231 seconds (3 minutes 51 seconds)
3: Stack with WW for 2 minutes, then HOTA
2 min WW gets us 986 stacks. It then takes 359 HOTAs to kill the boss.
359 hits * 19 frames per hit = 6821 frames
6821 frames = 114 seconds
114 seconds HOTA + 120 seconds WW = 234 seconds
total time = 234 seconds (3 minutes 54 seconds)
4: Stack with WW for 1 minute, but HotA during CoE damage phase
1 minute of this combo gets you 370 stacks from WW (493 * 0.75) and 47 stacks from HOTA (189 * 0.25), for 417 stacks total.
You also deal damage during this minute, since you hammer during fire phase, dealing 121126 damage, and leaving the boss with 878874 remaining.
It then takes you 527 extra HOTAs to kill him.
527 hits * 19 frames per hit = 10013 frames
10013 frames = 167 seconds
167 seconds HOTA + 60 seconds WW/HOTA = 227 seconds
total time = 227 seconds (3 minutes 47 seconds)
5: Stack with WW for 2 minutes, but HotA during CoE damage phase
2 minutes of this combo gets you 740 stacks from WW and 94 stacks from HOTA, for 834 stacks total.
You deal 442174 damage during these 2 minutes, leaving the boss with 557826 remaining.
It then takes you 242 extra HOTAs to kill him.
242 hits * 19 frames per hit = 4598 frames
4598 frames = 77 seconds
77 seconds HOTA + 120 seconds WW/HOTA = 197 seconds
total time = 197 seconds (3 minutes 17 seconds)
6: Stack with WW for 3 minutes, but HotA during CoE damage phase
3 minutes of this combo gets you 1109 stacks from WW and 141 stacks from HOTA, for 1250 total.
You deal 961706 damage, leaving the boss with 38294 remaning.
It then takes you 12 extra HOTAs to kill him.
12 hits * 19 frames per hit = 228 frames
228 frames = 4 seconds
4 seconds HOTA + 180 seconds WW/HOTA = 184 seconds
total time = 184 seconds (3 minutes 4 seconds)
Anyway, it sure seems like you are getting a faster kill against a boss with no adds if you just hammer during CoE fire phase, and stack Stricken with WW the rest of the time. That also removes any guesswork of wondering if you’ve been stacking Stricken too long, or not long enough. Just hammer during Fire!
But, against a boss who summons adds below X% life (Saxtris or Binder), I would start by just stacking Stricken with WW for ~1 minute, then start switching over to HOTA during Fire cycle.
And that’s my two cents on the matter!
Are you kidding? That was at least a Buck Twenty-Five…
Yeah, was mostly referring to a ST boss, I should have specified.
I thought this was 85%, but I definitely could be wrong. Ill have to check next time I fight him.
Ahh, there’s my problem, I was doing option number 1 ;p
Thank you for the response mathbarb, very informative. Looks like hammer on fire is the way to go.
Just spawned a power near the start of desolate sands at ~80% and a 3 minute lead. was saving for RG, but even with pretty good trash I couldn’t maintain the lead. That map is waay too big.
What’s better than a hammer? A hammer on fire!
If it increases my DPS I would gladly light my hammer on fire.
Is the damage from CotA relevant, or is that skill just used for fury generation and damage reduction?