I'm paragon 120 and can't do Torment V. Need some tips

General Discussion
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This is my first character, a barbarian that uses two handed weapons. I am paragon 120 but I barely scrape by on Torment 4 and I still die quite a bit on that difficulty. I figure Torment V and up is out of the question right now.

I use to just equip anything that showed green percentage growth on my main stat, but am I at a point where I can’t really do that anymore? Should I look at the secondary effects of legendaries and set items now? Should I not mix match ancients and sets? I use to think that all you had to do was look at the green percentage growth for main stat and just equip what made it go up but I don’t know anymore.

Please inspect my profile and tell me what I’m doing wrong if you can from that. I accept all criticism and would like some tips. Am I mix and matching sets wrong? I’ve only found two Ancient Legendaries so far. Do I just have to keep grinding? Is this normal for paragon level? Do I have to ignore just green percentage damage increase on weapons now for the most part and focus only on secondary effects based on build or something?

I feel like at Torment 5 and above the game expects you to have mastered the intricacies of stats or you just aren’t going to get higher. Is Torment V where the buck stops for a casual like me if that’s the case? It seems so complicated on what I should equip. I have a regular Legendary hammer that reduces cost of Seismic slam and that’s my main skill, but the damage isn’t nearly as high on it like the weapon I have now, so I’m not sure what I should even equip.

Please help, thank you.

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Well, with what you have so far you won’t be doing well above T5 for sure. You need much better gear for that really. Since your character is seasonal you would want to try to complete seasonal goals to gain the Haedrig’s Gift rewards which will grant you all 6 parts of a complete set. (2 per bag) for chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the season journey. With a full 6 part set bonus then difficulties above T5 will be much more possible. The catch is that this current season will be ending soon (within the next couple weeks most likely).

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You will need to focus on putting together a build. You can either guess one up or use the main builds posted on maxroll.gg or icy-veins. I prefer the builds on maxroll.gg.

There’s many ways to go about making a decent build, but the majority of players just follow the prescribed formula posted online.

As suggested above, you should complete the season journey to get the free set. That will get you on the right track.

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And for another opinion, sometimes its better to go at a level where your killing speed is better vs struggling to clear.

I usually stick to this forumula:

If you can kill a typical yellow elite mob in 6-8 seconds or less, you are at a good killing speed for your build. If you are one-shot killing everything, then you need to go up till you hit that approximate kill speed.

This allows you to farm at a respectable level for your current gearing without wasting as much time. Sure the drops may have a higher percentage at a higher difficulty, but if you are killing 2 to 3 times as many monsters in the same amount of time, you are actually going to have more drops over the long haul.

Also, it doesn’t hurt to figure out things that help your movement rate, and keep your resources up. Go with skills and builds that are easier to run with and just farm.

Target pieces that you want with shards. Upgrade rares when you have the mats. Try to equip your follower to boost your death breaths and gem drops.

Good luck.

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Most of your power will come from legendary effects and set bonuses and those are not a factor in the percentages, so yeah, going by those are dubious at best.

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Thanks all, much appreciated. I welcome more tips!

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Yes, that is correct.

The algorithm that computes the increase/decrease in damage, survivability, etc makes certain assumptions and when you start playing at higher difficulties and when your build may have specific requirements, those assumptions just don’t apply.

In short, once you hit Torment level difficulties, you need to start getting crit damage AND crit chance on every item that can roll them. Exceptions are for any thorns based builds or builds that have guaranteed crit chance (i.e. you don’t want to roll crit chance but still need the crit damage).

  • Items that should roll both crit stats are amulets, rings, and gloves
  • Items that should have crit chance on them are helms, bracers and offhands
  • Weapons should be socketed with an emerald

Additionally, your power is heavily gear based and is centred around set bonuses for most part as the base on which skills are further buffed from 2pc sets or legendary items. As others have said, take a look at the builds on maxroll.gg or icy-viens. They’re pretty easy to follow.

Complete your Haedrig’s Gift from the first 4 chapters of the season journey as an easy way to get your first set, keep working on getting the support legendaries in the build you’ve chosen for that set (pretty much one choice for Raekors), and from there farm up other sets for the other builds you wish to create.

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Thanks! I think what was throwing me off, is that I wanted to focus on Cleave and Sesimic as my main skills, but the sets that I have don’t really benefit those skills, but now that I changed my skills to match Raekor’s, throwing weapon and spear throw, I am destroying everything much quicker!

I hope in the future there are builds that focus on Cleave, but I guess Cleave is the skill you use until Torment levels or some such or if you’re super casual and play on lower difficulties for fun.

I was going from probably 6 million damage crit with my weird build to 360 million plus with the set! Wow. I had no idea that sets were this powerful when you equip a decent amount of pieces for it. I always just depended on that little green percentage number to increase my damage.

Thank you!

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Yes, you will find that the 5 sets each class has will funnel you down into a very specific way of playing.

Seismic Slam is supported by the MOTE set but Cleave hasn’t been a thing for Barbs since forever. Even when leveling up to lvl70, if you drop something with a large multiplier for one of the other skills, you would tend to use that other skill. Cleave just doesn’t have much that boosts its damage to the levels that other skills have.

In saying that…

If you wanna play things your way with Cleave and Seismic Slam, level up a Legacy of Dreams gem.

Weapon wise, you will want to equip two of these:

And have this one in the cube:

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  1. Open game options and enable Elective Mode and Advanced Tool Tips.
  2. Learn to enchant.
  3. Swap the diamond in the weapon to Emerald.
  4. Start doing Greater Rifts and level up the legendary gems. Of course, you need sockets in your jewelry (see point 2).
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You are in a very rough patch, especially for a newbie. Going through the lower torments is a bit slow and can get a bit boring.

Basically, if you are stuck in T4, that’s okay. No worries. Here are a few steps and a bunch of bla bla bla to help you get out of the lower torment slump.

1: If you don’t have it, get the Cube. You will need that big time. Go to act 3 and look at the map, press m, and choose the top waypoint ‘The Ruins of Sescheron.’ It’s a bit of a pain to get to. Just clear each area and go to the next area. Rince and repeat and you will eventually find it. The best way to explain it, or even better look it up online. If you have that already, disregard the bla bla bla, I tend to get a bit long winded.

2: Do a ton of bounties, especially since you will need the materials later. While you are doing those, you will find a lot of legendaries as well as getting the bounty ones. Of course equip the best ones you have. Also, look at anythying you can craft. If you have the sage set, craft it. You will get double death’s breaths and you need those for later.

3: Once you have say 50+ bounty mats in all five acts, start doing rifts. Of course by now you should have found a bunch of legendaries from mobs and bounty caches. If you can, start collecting Wrath of the Wastes set pieces, even crappy ones, you just want that lovely 6pc bonus set. If you find the Lamentation belt, keep it, even a crappy on. If you find the sword Ambo’s Pride, keep it, even a crappy one. Use the cube (page one) to extract the power from the belt and the sword if you have it. Select each one and you have passive powers. WOOT! If you stumble upon a band of might (ring) keep it. You can either wear it or put in the cube. Same thing with ring of the zodiac. Keep an eye out for the 2 bulkathos swords (green items).

4: You will need a ton of greater rift keys anyway, so go crazy and do a bunch of rifts.

5: Once you have a lot of greater rift keys, say 50 or more, start doing greater rifts. At this point you should have 4-6 pieces of the Wastes set and maybe even the belt and sword in the cube. If not, then by the time you have a ton of rifts, you will.

6: Greater Rifts. Lots, and lots, and lots of them. At the end, you get loot, and a legendary gem. If you beat the greater rift timer, you can put levels in your legendary gem. Look out for Taeguk, Bane of the Trapped, and Bane of the Stricken. Get those 3 to level 25 to unlock their special power.

7: You should be able to start testing out the higher torments. You should be good to at least T13, maybe even up to T16. Then you start the endless game of finding upgrades. There are ancients and even primal ancients. Of course, later on, you will be into enchanting your items for more goodness.

Now, I suggested the Wastes set because it’s easy to use (spin around and kill stuff) and buff once you have all the pieces in place. Make sure you use the charge skill or whatever is your liking to make uses of the Ring of Might’s ability.

Icy Veins, Maxroll, and to a lesser extent Diablofans are good sights to get guides, build breakdowns, explain skills, what gems to use, etc.

Then you do it over and over again with either the same class or another. This game will keep you busy FOR A LONG TIME!

Enjoy.

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Check if you had done all of the following steps

https://d3.maxroll.gg/resources/season-start-1-70-leveling-guide

And play seasonal to get a full set fast. Then check the builds and search for the uniques to get a full build. This should help you to higher difficulties.

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This item is super helpful only when you replace 1 of your 6-piece set items with a different item (legendary/set), otherwise if you keep all 6 & wear this, its just as good as a rare item (yellow).

MOTE = Might of the Earth

If you plan on using Raekor throw Barb until the end of season.
https://d3.maxroll.gg/guides/raekor-boulder-toss-barbarian-guide

The quickest thing you might be able to upgrade is crafting 2-pieces of Captain Crimson’s Trimmings from the blacksmith, that would replace your yellow belt, and remove an unneeded 6th set item. Since you are wearing ring of royal grandeur, it will make your 5-piece raekor to 6, and the 2-piece captain’s to 3.

For max level this is Best for Barbarians! Because of the huge Crit Damage boost. You can duel-wield, having the 2 one hands from the maxroll.gg site WITH 2 emerald gems will be even better for you.

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The quickest thing to do is upgrade yellow lvl 70 spears in the cube until you get Arreat’s Law and The Three Hundredth Spear. With the 6 piece set you have that will be enough for T16 even un-optimized.

You can then farm for the other sets and items to make a Slam build if you like.

https://d3.maxroll.gg/d3planner-ptr/392597884

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That is great to hear. So many people refuse to learn these days. Are you playing in the season or non-season? I was not able to tell from your post. If you are in season, complete the season journey for a free set. Once you have a 6 piece set bonus, you will start flying through the torment levels. But you have to do Rifts to get keystones and do greater rifts to get the legendary gems Those really buff your damage. Good luck! Plenty of help in game too as so many people are will to group with you and help you create a good build. Just ask in chat!

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Thanks friend. I’m playing season, started kinda late. I decided to to do the Raekor build and man it’s a huge difference. I’m clearing T7 like nothing. Before I was trying to see if I could do it with my “build” with cleave and sesimic slam but I couldn’t. I was still equipping rares over legendaries at points because the little green numbers would show increase in damage and such, but I learned that when you’re at the end game you can’t really rely on that anymore. So I decided to ask here and read up on boards to replace most gear with Raekors set, and my yellows with legendaries. I’m using both legendary spears now that was recommended in that build and I’m really tearing through things.

The problem now is that if I start a new character, I wonder if I’ll be able to get a good build together eventually for Torment difficulties like on a Crusader or something on non season.

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Easily.
Given you are playing a STR class you can outfit a Crusader with random STR stat legendary items and a LVL 25 LoD gem, it should have been the 2nd gem that dropped for you after Bane of The Powerful.

Alternatively simply earn blood shards with your Barb and spend them with your Crusader at Kadala. It doesn’t take long to get a full set. Also convert duplicate set items in the cube to complete them, don’t salvage set duplicates when gearing up.

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You can start the Crusader on Seasonal play and share a stash with your Barbarian. Once the season is over, all seasonal items & characters are automatically transferred to non-season.

The whole reason for seasonal play is to have a fresh start, and have a change from the normal game play, to “spice” things up a little.

Blizzard try’s to have seasons start approximately every 4 months or so.
https://d3resource.com/seasons/

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Where can I find the complete order in which the legendary gems drop?
Thought they were mostly random, but apparently not.

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Bane of the Powerful drops first, after that it’s random, Legacy of Dreams has a larger chance than the rest though.

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