Thank you both for your kind words. I’m waiting to hear back from certain people about certain things, so I’m hesitant to say more at the moment, but the short version is that IRL work and obligations demand more and more of my time, and Diablo as a game isn’t very exciting to me. For quite some time now, I’ve been completely turned off Blizzard games, and their approach to community interactions, particularly on this forum, is embarrassing for a company of this stature. Really, the only thing that kept me coming back here was helping the community, but more important opportunities loom, and it’s nigh time to pass the torch.
Chris and Seras are, in my opinion, the best Rend players on the NA server.
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Right there with you. My interest in Diablo - and Blizzard properties in general - has never been lower. Even in much better circumstances it’d be difficult to maintain interest in a nine year old game, and given the current state of things… well.
Thank you for all your hard work, good humour, patience, and time over these many years, Free. Best of luck to you with whatever the future holds 
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I feel ya, Morgan.
Honestly, the direction Blizzard has been going for years in terms of game design, corporate shenanigans, and community interactions is not my cup of tea, to put it lightly. In particular, the D3 side of things has been absolutely abysmal since Nev left. I know she was the glue holding it together, especially on the community side of things, but I didn’t expect things to tank this hard.
Even if we’re talking about just the games, I look at all the footage of D4 and nothing about it looks interesting. Nothing. The whole thing looks flat and boring, a mish-mash of ideas desperately cobbled together to please an audience that marketing swears exists. Maybe I’m wrong and the game will be great. Who knows?
What I do know is that for the moment I have no interest in it (or any other future Blizz product), and even if I did, there are better uses for my money.
Anyway, I’ll be around for a little while yet, and I’ll drop in now and again to say hi and make sure people aren’t rolling off the damage range on weapons.
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I just noticed there’s a GR 150 seasonal clear by a Chinese player with 8114 paragon…
That’s notably better than the next best 150 clear, which is with 11850 paragon…
Crazy.
So what your saying and what I am hearing is Chris stop being lazy and start throwing keys at 150. ROFL!!! That is pretty amazing clear.
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Ahem, dork:
Also, yeah, please crush 150.
I guess. It just need some updates. Biggest changes are from follower updates.
I need some ENTHUSIASM, Chris!
I want to show everyone who is still around what it means to read this guide and play it the way it is intended. Some may find other ways to play rend more fun or simply put “I don’t like to HC rend and just stand in occy will solve all your problems” while still struggling to clear 131. This is fine if your goal is fun. I do not find under performing builds fun though. What I find fun is like minded people(Seras) who want to play the build optimally and push the limits based on what has been proven to work. Sometimes they learn the hard way like getting their face smashed in by molten a bunch like seras. He did this few times but he learned and then progressed to get the lowest paragon 141 clear in the world. This is only because he followed the guide and personally in game asked me every question possible.
Take it however you want but my personal progression is proof that this stuff works.
Era 2017-1 GR 61
Era 2017-2 GR 92
Era 2018-1 GR 105 Rank 415 NA
Era 2019-1 GR 116 Rank 104 NA/Rank 515 world
Era 2019-2 GR 131 Rank 31 NA/Rank 384 world
Era 2020-1 GR 138 Rank 21 NA/Rank 160 world
Era 2021-1 GR 143 Rank 5 NA/Rank 34 World
100% of this success is because I decided after two years of hard headedness to actually listen to Free’s advice. Who know maybe a Rank 1 NA clear is in the works.
You can even look at Seras progression. His progression has been much faster and almost immediately was a top rank barb. This is because he listened to the advice he was given by
proven success.
BIG THANK YOU FREE FOR EVERYTHING!!! EVEN THE HARASSMENT YOU PERSONALLY GAVE ME ON DISCORD TRYING TO GET ME TO RUN THE BUILD THE PROPER WAY.
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I F*&^%$G LOVE YOU MAN.
This guide shall be yours.
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Haha, yeah!
Then again, it is in China. An awful lot of the highest clears happen there, whether we’re talking solo clears for every class or group meta (for era 14, Chinese teams have 77 of the top 100 4-player clears. NA teams have 0). Maybe that’s just because China has a huge and active player base. But, I know Blizzard doesn’t have as active a hand in managing those servers, so I am occasionally a little wary about the results we see coming from there.
, that was unnecessary. And for the record I already cleared 131 and I’m on track to clear 133 (taking a hiatus), which will be totally doable within all the right conditions. I’m projecting this fun setup could clear 136 - 138 @ my low paragon. Not too shabby for a fun build. 
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Hey Free, sad to see you go, but life priorities change and sometimes we just need to move on. 
I won’t beat a dead horse but like everyone has said, we all appreciate your upkeep of the guide.
Just moved last weekend so all my gear is still boxed up for the next while longer. Writing on mobile right now.
I’ll have to pass on maintaining the guide as I’m just a doer, not a teacher. I take info from all sources and try to incorporate it into practice is what I’m good at. Theory craft and why/how that works? I haven’t a clue most times and go ask chris lol.
I say that whether you can handle keeping this guide up to date or not you are still without a doubt a fine person.
Some early thoughts on the new season theme. Unless they surprise us this will be a boring one. Let’s look at the options.
For one it says the legendary powers are class specific and can not stack with items already in the cube. So this means squirts and coe are not an option for a drop and they will be powers already in the toolbox. Their will not be new powers. Also rend doesn’t have any meaningful multipliers that are being left out aside from crimson set and furnace. The way I see it we will want the band of might power to roll on an ethereal. Then we can wear/cube RORG and cube lamentation. Wear crimson and slot ambos then cube furnace as well. That is best case scenario. So we lose 30% from istvans and 25% from mantle for 60%ish from crimson and 50% elite damage. From a gearing perspective this is very underwhelming. To just give players more stats on the ethereal is pointless not to mention the RNG on them will be stupid. Imagine trying to find a flavor of time if it was a weapon but it could only drop from monsters. No Kadala, no reforging and no rare upgrades. RIP this season. Only reason I see this being good is if your into transmogs!!!
Think the powers are weapon specific. Which means 1H and 2H mighty weapons.
Your right. That is even worse for rend though. Swapping out istvans for an ethereal with ambos trait or furnace is a nerf. Yes the stats on the ethereal might make it worth it. Barbs
just don’t have additional multipliers out their to use. Well furnace is not specific to barbs
so that is out too. ROFL!!!
Why can’t they just do something like ramaladnis gifts allows you to slot one additional roll
of your choice on a primal weapon. Make all sockets open for legendary gems then make hellfire rings best in slot for as many builds as possible. Then make the transmogs a rare drop. You accomplish the same thing but give players more stuff to search for including bringing back uber farming. Also make legendary gems much more valuable intead of just the same 3 we have been using for years. This is 5 minutes of thought.
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Another evolution in my 120 speed build just gained squirts. 15 runs again with 7461 paragon. Huge improvement and a few really good maps.
Best 2:58
Average 3:37
Worst 4:33
I’m playing my just my third season, only second that I started from the beginning. 21 started halfway through and got up to 1500 playing only solo. 22 learned how to play zbarb and got to 2600. This season at 1900. It was thrilling last season getting into groups, becoming somewhat competent as a zbarb, getting a bunch of gems up to 135+, beating 145, all that, and I’m still having fun this season, but grinding all the gear, paragon, and gems again…I can’t see doing that again for numerous seasons.
The seasonal theme would have to be really compelling to play just for that… And are any of them really that compelling?
We need to wait till ptr for final judgement. At this point it is all speculation.