How to roll/farm for Zodiac Rend

Hi there,

I’ve played D3 on and off for years. Currently my Barb is Paragon 650, has the Wrath set. I’m stuck at T13/GR60; I can’t beat the rift any faster than 6+ minutes, and I generally die at least once per rift. I’ve read Free’s amazing Zodiac Rend post and am looking for the necessary gear but here’s where I’m stumped.

What’s the most efficient way to farm for the necessary gear, then roll for the best stats? Should I drop to a lower Torrent to run normal rifts to find material? Do I drop to T8, run bounties to get materials, then head back to T13 to buy legendaries from merchants and upgrade/reforge in Kanai’s Cube until I run out of material?

I’ve seen conflicting advice, so I’m not sure which way to go. I’m not looking for some magical shortcut; I’m OK if the answer involves grinding away. I just want to know what would be the most efficient way to do it.

Thanks,
Craig

PS: I’m totally new here, forgive me if I’m ruining etiquette by posting this in the wrong place.

Great guide at the top of the sticky post here: [Guide] Zodiac Rend (Season 20)

Hey Craig,

Usually these questions go in the thread you linked, but that’s no problem. I took a look at your profile, and here are the most pressing issues:

  1. No Ambo’s Pride. This is a 1-H mighty weapon that lets WW auto-apply Rend, and also massively increases the damage. You want to get one of these, then extract the power in the cube. Fastest way to get one is to use the Cube recipe for upgrading rares to legendaries.

  2. No Band of Might. This is another very important item, that quintuples your toughness. You want to get one and, again, extract it in the cube. Quickest way to do that is actually to create a second, level 1 Barbarian character, and then use that character to gamble rings with Kadala. The ring can drop at low level, so when you do this, you have a high probability of getting a BoM (as opposed to being high level, when there are 30-ish different rings that can appear).

  3. Skull Grasp is basically useless. In the current version of WW/Rend, basically all the damage comes from Rend. So the Skull Grasp ring isn’t adding a whole lot for you. Furthermore, you have it both on your hand and in the cube, and items can’t be doubled up that way.

  4. Squirt’s Necklaces is probably killing you. Your amulet has a legendary power that increases both the damage you deal and the damage you take every second, until you are hit. This makes you quite fragile. This item is often used along with an item that gives a shield, which prevents the effect from being reset when you are hit. For Barbs, the two items that produce this effect are the legendary gem Molten Wildebeest’s Gizzard and the Gloves St. Archew’s Gage. Or you can use a different amulet.

  5. Other important items. The other really essential components of the build are Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac (ring - upgrade rares in cube), and Mortick’s Brace (bracer - gamble with Kadala).

That gives you a good bit to work on. I’d try to address these points pretty much in order. If you get an Ambo’s and a BoM, you will be mowing down your foes at T13 and shrugging off the damage they deal like it’s nothing.

Good luck out there! If you’ve got further questions, stick them in the Zodiac Rend thread.

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Hi Rage,

Thanks for the advice. I’m working on getting Ambo’s; and thank you for confirming that upgrading through the cube is the way to go.

I know I’ve equiped my barb wrong… I doubled Skull Grasp because I thought the stats in the ring I’m wearing made it worth while, despite having it already cubed (I knew i wouldn’t double the WW effect.) Clearly THAT logic was in error.

Weird thing: the Squirts Necklace I’m wearing doesn’t mention the whole damage dealt/received thing… and in my naivete (or stupidity) I thought, since it wasn’t mentioned it wouldn’t apply, but now that you point it out, what you’re saying makes so much sense.

I actually have Zodiac and Morticks in my stash (I think I have a BoM too, come to think of it). I hadn’t equipped them because I didn’t think their stats were better than what I was wearing. I think I’m still trying to figure out/wrap my brain around the fact that the raw strength/life stats are not priority. But that brings me to my other question: am I better off equiping these pieces even if the rolls aren’t ideal, and hopefully find/gamble/re-roll better later on?

OK, gonna log on and start fixing things. Thanks again for the advice.

Cube Ambo Pride for weapon

Bracer: Morticks

Jewelry: Worn/Cubed: Band of Might, Obsidian Ring, Convention of Elements, Flavor of Time (Cube one of the 3 rings)

Belt: Lamentation and cube Aquila or mantle of channeling

Weapons Consider Bul Kathos Swords if fury problems with your play style

Active skill: Battle Rage instead of leap

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Hey Craig,

So, I see you changed out your necklace… but now that you mention it, I may have been in error! Was your Squirt’s something you had from a while back? The Legendary power for that item was added in the relatively recent past. Before that, it had no power at all. So if your Squirt’s was old, it would have no affix. In which case, it would be fine to use.

Yes! Zodiac will help you cool down your skills quickly, which is tremendously helpful. And Mortick’s gives you two WOTB runes that are very useful: Striding Giant, which doubles your toughness, and Thrive on Chaos, which gives you significant healing (it gives you all the WOTB runes, but Slaughter and Arreat’s Wail are useless).

With those in place, you just need an Ambo’s, and you will start clearing content much, much faster. From there, it’s just a question of refining your gear further and practicing the build, and everything you really need to know about that is in the Zodiac Rend guide.

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I see you are in Non Seasons, I sent you a friend request if you would like some help to gear up and such, I am leveling Gems and doing Bounty’s and stuff for a few days, see you on the battle field. :slightly_smiling_face:
:peace_symbol:

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Hey Rage,

Yeah, my Squirt’s was from a while back… so if the affix doesn’t apply to it, that’s great (and now I don’t feel as stupid). But I think I may do without for now; I swapped it for a necklace with a socket so I can use another legendary.

I was able to get Abo’s while doing some bounties. Holy hell does that make a difference! Got stomped at GR62 but that was due to a combo of nasty demons and me not familiar with the new build. I’ll need to go back to the guide to read up on the best way to work things, now that I have most of the gear. Thanks again for the assist/advice.

Have a look at my Seasonal Barb, Eidetic. I was using rares and a farming t16 with that build and just kept at it until the right pieces dropped eventually. He’s around your paragon level and clears T16 easily and is my bounty farmer when I’m playing.

Sounds like you aren’t keeping BoM active… just need to use Ground Stomp (or Leap, or Furious Charge) once every 8 seconds to keep the toughness buff up. Do that and you should have no problems with incoming damage.

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Just to elaborate on this a little bit more, the reason those pieces are choosen for the build are their set or legendary powers, so typically you need all of the legendary powers for the build to work well. That will have a much larger effect on the builds power typically than better rolls on the gear itself, so at least getting all the legendary powers and set bonuses active should be first priority. This will allow you to farm at more efficient difficulty and do so at higher speed, which increases the number of items you get. Then as you play you will be able to upgrade pieces as better ones drop.

Hi Seras,

Thanks, I’m looking at your profile and, yeah, very similar to mine in equipment. I’ll take a longer look and see. I think, at this point, my bigger issue is learning how to use the build properly more than getting the right gear, but I appreciate the help either way.

Hi Craig. You’ve been given some good advice, so I’ll add my two cents.

Think about gearing up the build as something accomplished in stages.

In the Stage One, you don’t have all the items, and you haven’t optimized your rolls. You’re still farming (pick a Torment you can do reliably and clear Neph Rifts in 2-3 minutes), doing Bounties, and gathering everything you need to fully get the build on its feet. In this stage, you’re not worried about correct rolls on items–you just need to find the basic items that the build requires, stock up on mats (including bounty mats), and get familiar with the build’s mechanics.

In Stage Two, you have all the items you need, and can bump up the difficulty to T13-16 (again, stay at the Torment that you can clear in 2-3 minutes). You’ll also start farming Greater Rifts–probably GR 50-70–for legendary gems and gem upgrades. In this stage, you’ll spend Blood Shards on Armor, upgrade rare rings and amulets for jewelry upgrades, and upgrade/reforge weapons for better weapons.

Remember, for speed-farming, you’ll want to use the BK sword set–this includes GRs you can crush in 2-4 minutes.

In Stage Three, you have all the items, have most of them optimized (or at least have all the correct rolls on most of the items), and are now going to start pushing Greater Rifts and targeting game activities for specific upgrades.

All of this is explained in the New Player’s Guide stickied in this forum. For more info on the build, read through the Zodiac Rend Guide. I wrote both of the guides, so if you have questions, it’s probably better to ask them in those guides since stickied threads get noticed first.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

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