Those are some rigid rules! Respect for sticking to them.
I’ll definitely be pushing with Phys. I think I tested a 115 at the beginning of the season and found my toughness lacking iirc. Damage could stand to be a little bit higher too. Haven’t touched it since. I think I may have to get going on it not to disappoint the resident Leap guru, haha.
Whaaaaat? I level up gems with my zbarb. lol
So, I know I already answered this question a while back, but here’s some info that might be of interest.
I looked back through the videos of all the “push” GRs I’ve recorded over the past few years. All of these, AFAIK, were the highest Leapquake clear at that paragon level, at the time they were completed. So, y’know, pretty hard. The maps for those were:
122: Festering - Battlefield
123: Battlefield - Firstborn - Festering - Arreat
124: Festering - Cave - Festering
126: Festering - Moors
133: Spire - Festering
134: Festering - Battlefield
135: Festering - Cave - Moors
136: Festering - Festering
137: Festering - Cathedral
These 9 rifts contained a total of 22 separate levels, and 11 of those were Festering. 7/9 first floors were Festering. And not a single one of these rifts didn’t have a Festering somewhere.
{{Edit: Much later addition:
138: Battlefield - Desert
139: Festering (single floor)}}
{{2nd Edit, still later:
140: Cemetery (single floor)}}
So, to kind of re-answer your question, it obviously helps a ton to get a Festering for your level 1. This is a bit of a small sample size, so maybe I can’t make a totally sweeping statement about the value of different maps, but it sure kind of looks like even Battlefield is less good, on average, than Festering.
For clarity, I thought I’d also mention that I generally will play any rift that opens into: Festering, Battlefield, Spire, Desert, Moors, Hell Rift, and some that open into Pandemonium Fortress or Cathedral.
{{Later Edit: after the patch adding new maps to the pool, it is generally agreed that the single best map is Fields of Misery. After that are Festering, Battlefield, and Cemetery. }}
Still no pin?!?
Why the h. can’t this get a place we’re it belongs?
Spending time in the wizard section this forum is a dream, the effort all these people put in to help others is easy to miss just reading through. A shame this guide isn’t pinned.
So battlefields will be similar to a non 4 corner fester. They are usually a waste of time when you are truly pushing the limits. When you are pushing an average level GR a lot more maps come into play. I want to say every single one of my clears since switching to core had a 4 corner fester. My 143 had two even though I spawned the boss almost immediately on the second one. It is the large open areas that can not be found on any other map. It is even more important for rend since we pull mobs almost till the game breaks. I died twice in my 145 attempt from lag before I started recording.
I would take your research one step farther. How many of those festers are 4 corner?
Do you ever pause the game to let it catch up when there is lag for solo pushing? I have heard that this helps.
Yes but if you are late in pausing the game it will still register all the damage as if you are not paused. What happens is you pause it and you see the game paused on your end but it is not paused on the server side. So in that small gap you take a bunch of damage since you are not spinning or doing anything. Sometimes even band of might will fall off. 145 is the hardest I’ve pushed so I need to start moving out of the pile then pause as 145 does hurt even at 7500 paragon. Even more so if BOM is down.
Pro-slam is blowing up on the PTR. With the wpns MOTE is going to be goofy.
Yep!
A good question. Let’s take a look…
122 is 1/1 4 corner
123 is 0/1 4 corner
124 is 0/2 4 corner (unsure about the second one, just collected a bit of progression and then went back a level to power pylon)
126 is 0/1 4 corner
133 is 0/1 4 corner
134 is 0/1 4 corner
135 is 1/1 4 corner
136 is 1/2 4 corner
137 is 1/1 4 corner
So, a mix, with a higher ratio of 4-corners recently. I dunno, my hardest push so far is still probably my 126 I think (pre Tribes buff and pre follower buff). I think we’d have to look at the additional maps, mobs, pylons, and RGs in order to prove or disprove the “4 corner is a lot better” thesis.
I mean, I think it’s pretty clear that 4 corner is better, but, for Leapquake at least, it’s unclear whether it’s ~30% better or just like ~5% better than a decently laid out but not 4 corner Festering.
What I like is that ethereals allows you to equip everything for Mote Earthquake + Seismic Slam to play both together in one build.
Correct for leapquake the importance of a 4 corner fester is not anywhere near how much rend values them. For me in 145 I need rank 1 zombie trash and 4 corner 100%
there was a 128 pro slam clear on PTR, they used the grandfather with the seismic slam 2Her wpn, cubed the EQ wpn, wore the SS bracers
Pshh, that Chinese player did 150 with just a little more paragon than you. You should be ploughing 145’s that have nothing but caves and spear-chuckers leading to Vesalius or Ember.
Yeah, can probably play a composite that uses Fjord Cutter, FotVP, Tribes, GoG, Zodiac- and just casts EQ via TS, cooled down by SS proccing Zodiac.
Ive been messing around with a hybrid pro slam EQ and its really not terrible. Much more engaging play style. That extra bonus helps a lot.
Pro-Slam is a blast. I really hope it crushes in Seasons.
Yep, one of the most fun for sure. They really need to uncap BoD. It would bring slam and leapquake much closer.
When i get home from work im going to try and fit ground stomp with the belt into the hybrid pro slam. You dont need the fury of the ancients shoulders with kredes flame on your follower, plus earthen might restores all your fury. Then maybe ditch battle cry for a interesting avalanche rune.
I like having endless walk also. Much more consistent damage then squirts. Plus spamming SS gives you tremendous healing.
I think it would be better if they just jack up the damage of FotVP or something like that. The reason I’ve always liked having some level of target limit on BoD is that it distinguishes Slam builds from HOTA builds. Without that, Slam will basically always be either just flat-out mathematically better than HOTA, or flat-out mathematically worse.
Huh, it’s crazy that that’s why I think it needs to be uncapped, since HotA only hits about 10 enemies as well. With the cap, both builds are “do x damage to the first 10 enemies in front of you” whereas I’d prefer to see it where HotA is higher damage for a few enemies, while slam is lower damage for as many enemies as you can fit into a cone. Idk, in the end it doesn’t matter since they’re not going to listen to either of us 
Or go full flavor and add something like
Reduces the Fury cost of Seismic Slam by [50%], Avalanche and Seismic Slam both deal [400%-500%] increased damage. Every [4th] strike with Seismic Slam will cause an Avalanche on the first enemy struck by Seismic Slam.
Yes, Avalanche damage is horrible(and could use a massive buff); but another activation trigger for Earthen Might would be amazing for the flow of ProSlam or the MOTE set in general.