Definitely, Rampage is a must in density. I dropped Boom for Brawler and need to work extra hard to manage cool downs with 44 CDR.
You should have both my friend. And congrats if you are playing at a lvl where rampage is hard to keep up then you my friend are pushing. Keep on gettin it. lol!!!
Thx fellas.
Given I’m not in a position to drop boon yet (not as skilled as you guys!) so if you had to choose between Rampage or Brawler, which would you take? The spikey buff/defense or the much smaller but more consistent dps buff?
rampage is dmage and defense. Take that one. Rampage is actually our #1 passive you should always take no matter if its speeds or push.
Thanks Chris, that’s clear.
Only reason I started questioning rampage as of late was because I noticed Wudijo doesn’t run with it, but GR140 is pretty extreme so it may not be the best comparable to someone doing high 120s like myself.
Did a 132 clear yesterday on NS. First map was Shrouded Moors where I thought I killed all the Mothers, but it didn’t pop globes. Must’ve missed one
Second map was festering which was naise.
Gameplay was super laggy, I need to figure out the recording settings to get a smoother video and in game qol. Hopefully will have a better video next time.
Grats. Great power pylon and our #1 RG. good job!!!
Yes thank you! I was really pushing for more progression towards the end of Festering with hopes of a Conduit or Power Pylon at the next floor. Luck would have it I got the Power and a good RG!
Slowly but surely I’m building up my stash of gems so I can get some higher level augments in. Having so much fun with D3 these days, it’s addicting.
What did you use to record?
Encoding video is really CPU-intensive, especially when you are doing it in real-time to capture gameplay.
If you have an older CPU or a CPU with lower core count, it’s going to thrash your CPU, to the point where it might affect your gameplay.
If you have a (newish) Nvidia GPU and an older CPU, you’ll get smoother results using the NVENC hardware encoder baked into the GPU. It’s faster but coarser, NVENC will usually result in either larger file sizes or lower quality (or both), but it takes the load off your CPU.
If you have an older CPU and an Nvidia GPU (like I do) and recording with OBS (or similar) is causing performance issues, you’ll almost certainly get better results with Shadowplay since it takes most of the load off your CPU. You might be able to configure OBS or whatever you are using to record to use the NVENC encoder too? Not sure, I’ve only ever used Shadowplay. Also not sure if there is an AMD equivalent of NVENC. But anyway, that’d be where I’d start to try and optimize your recording.
Congrats that’s awesome! Pylon spawn was perfect - fantastic anticipation
How do you decide when to “thin out the pack”? I always struggle to decide when I should be pulling in more, vs when I should clear it out (other than with a pylon),
Area dmage is 10 yards but you always want to be moving at the same time. As long as your trash count is 20-30 your maximizing your area damage within that 10 yards. During physical cycles hit rend a few times then pull more. Repeat this till you get to a pinch point where it will be difficult to pull. Maps like battlefields or desert you can pull everything the entire length of the map. Festering has obstacles and can be tricky but ultimately more potential.
I think I need to switch over to Ambo/Doom, starting to really feel the limitations without COE’s physical cycle to burn down packs. On the flip side, I’m extremely fragile at P1500 for that setup based on a few test runs. Decisions…
Last question - when you guys are pushing and you open a fresh GR and it’s a mediocre map like tunnels/halls etc. Do you immediately leave and restart or do you play it out to see floor 2?
Personally when I’m pushing I leave. Go watch Wudijo video on fishing. It’s a good one. My 134 clear was 25 keys and only 2 attempts. That’s 23 instant new games.
I wouldn’t call caves or any kind of tunnel mediocre. Those are actually terrible maps.
I haven’t seen that one - thanks for the tip!
Think you’re right here… I’ve had quite a few where I knew I was behind and playing on sub-optimal maps but played it out, and it just leaves you feeling drained after a while.
Hi Tinne, regarding my settings, I was using OBS and set the encoder to NVENC. My GPU is an older NVIDIA 1060 3GB model so it supports NVENC, but not as well as the newer RTX cards.
I think my issue was I didn’t downscale my output and kept it at 3440x1440 resolution. This was too much for my little card which caused a lot of stutter. I’m going to do more tests later on different output resolutions.
Hi Blayze, only three scenarios where I will thin out a pack.
1st is to maneuver around a map. If you notice in the Shrouded Moors floor of my video, the first corner I had to thin it out to pull the Blue Mothers. On the Festering map, I made a big pull in the middle of the map. I didn’t think I could pull everything down to the Yellow + Blue at the bottom with the added difficulty of the missile dampening orb so I thinned it in the middle.
Second is after making a big pull of a few screens worth of trash mobs to weaken the Elites.
Third is situational if I’m expecting a Conduit/Power Pylon I will thin out the trash to maximize the zaps on the Elites.
Regarding your pushing map question, I only play through Battlefields, Festering, Desert and Shrouded Moors. Other maps are return to town and remake game.
True!! Battlefields and Desert I will try to pull the entire map and scout. Much harder on Festering if you get a narrow tile with lots of trees and rocks.
Despite its potential, I’ve grown to hate Festering due to the number of obstacles that often block pulls and bottleneck monsters. For my money, Battlefields is hands-down the best map in the game for pushes.
If I open a GR and Floor 1 is any kind of cave or Keep Depths, I quit and re-make. If it’s anything else, I’ll likely check out Floor 2, but only if I can break even on time, get ahead of the time, or quickly skip the entire first floor. If Floor 2 is not Battlefields, Festering, Desert, or Spire, it’s time to remake.
I talk about this in the guide, so check that out if you have questions about pushing and GRs.
My two cents: When I’ve pulled 2-3+ screens of density together, or when there are too many dangerous affixes in density and I need to take less damage. Otherwise, I keep density thick and keep elites in the mix.
Congrats to Seras and everyone else on your recent clears! I wish I had the time to play and push with you, but alas, grad school comes first.
This right here, this is why I fight so hard against the Fun Police. This is why I fought so hard when Lamentation got nerfed. This is why we did the Barb Buff Proposal.
Keep at it!
Thanks everyone. Love this thread, you guys are an awesome community.
This is why the Barb buff Proposal was successful!!!
I find Rage Flip to be one of the most fun skills to use in the game. It takes skill to nail that pixel-perfect pull that flings an elite into the exact right spot, and when you’ve cleared out a few screens of density and have a couple of elite packs still standing, there’s nothing in the game that comes close to Rage Flip in terms of quickly moving them across the map to your new engagement point.
Rage Flip just feels good to use. It’s hard to master, which I like, but it’s the feeling that keeps me, err, flipped!
You can use Demoralize, and it will provide some grouping, and offer some ability to re-position mobs, but it doesn’t compare with Rage Flip. Check out the video for my 125 clear and you’ll see what I mean. I make some GG pulls in that video, and a lot of what I do in terms of positioning isn’t possible without Rage Flip.
Mind you, that wasn’t even a difficult push for me. At 2.2K Paragon and 17K main stat, I could definitely push another few tiers without changing anything, and most of that potential is due to Rage Flip. In the way that hard-cast Rends are this build’s biggest source of damage, Rage Flip is the build’s true source of mobility. If you’ve crushed density and need to drag elites across the map?
Rage Flip.
Found an elite pack but need to quickly gather a few screens of density?
Rage Flip.
Found a Conduit, but know you need to quickly find and drag several elite packs to it?
Rage Flip, Rage Flip, Rage Flip!
You could almost say that hard-cast Rends + Rage Flip = Zodiac Rend.
Your DR issues stem from your choice of healing. If you drop the Life per Hit and take Swords to Ploughs (with the IB set), and you have perma-Wrath and Band of Might active 100% of the time, you shouldn’t be dying, and incoming damage should rarely be a problem. The exception, of course, is if you’re trying to fight in thin density. Remember, you need to hit lots of things to heal, so your problem is likely that you’re not collecting enough density and/or trying to fight small, isolated packs of elites/trash.
Thanks, bud. What I wrote above is just advice on how to optimize, but as always, if you prefer to play a different way, keep at it. The only point I see in D3 is having fun, and having it in the way you find most enjoyable. It’s a shame the game’s design more or less railroads players into narrow build options and play styles, but them’s the breaks, I guess.
Thank you both for your support. I agree: The Barb community is the best around, and we’re fortunate to have folk like y’all in the mix.
Not been pushing for a while. I’ve gotten all my augments up to 600STR and farmed 100+ keys tonight. Tomorrow I’ll see what I can do with them. Getting onto EU S20 leaderboard now needs a GR123 though.