Lacking toughness for 4man t16 rifts on Hardcore?

https://us.diablo3.com/en/profile/Velkyr-1900/hero/120985937

i cleared GR88 with unity on seasonal HC using Valor set. yet when i drop unity and try to do 4man T16 rifts, i feel like i’m going to die if not really careful.

currently have Esoteric Gem, instead of bane of the powerful/stricken. Not sure what other changes i could make to get my toughness up there. have all diamonds. could my paragon points be too low at 600s? or is my gear still trash?

looking for help, thanks.

Esoteric is good…but it’s not really good when you’re defensive end is low and you’re just hoping it helps. It shines when you’re gear is heavily corrective already for resists, and your resists aren’t bad, but they are by no means great, which is normal. Molten Gizzard is better protection for ranged builds and great overall for T16 content and below. I doubt you’re getting many procs off Iron Skin - Flash too.

Captain’s biggest advantage for Saders is using Valor - Unstoppable force since it’s an automatic 50% DR by using it. I know the Cooldown is big too but you should consider the tried and true goldrwap/avarice band/boon of the hoarder combo if you want to keep Hope/Wings. Norvald’s is great but I think you might be better off going 1h for speed groups, switch to Fervor and either use a Darklight or In-Geom (put the other in the cube). In-Geom is probably the best overall item for speed runs for any build that has 2+ important cooldowns. Don’t forget to give this a whirl on a lower torment to get the hang of it first.

Summary:

  • Switch to Fervor and use In-Geom/Darklight, wear the better one.
  • Switch Iron Skin - Flash to Steel Skin
  • Switch Esoteric to Molten Gizzard (obviously this is better the higher it is and it works great with Hope/Wings)
  • Switch Provoke to Consecration - Bathed in Light (you can snapshot a huge shield with Molten - mouse over health bar for shield value)
  • For a shield, you could run Ivory Tower, Lidless for damage, Coven’s or Salvation for blocking, even Stormshield for a little extra oomph on defense, pretty open ended (unfortunately!)

If you’re keeping Crimson’s on and/or doing speed Greater Rifts, Switch To Valor - Unstoppable Force otherwise :

  • Switch RoRG to Avarice Band
  • Switch Captain’s Boots to Aegis Boots
  • Switch Captains Belt to Goldwrap
  • Switch Bane of the Powerful to Boon of the Hoarder

Remember to test this out on T10 or so and get used to the build so you don’t lose your character. You need to start new runs a little slow to build your Aegis stacks and Goldwrap Armor, but then you’ll be nearly invincible once gold starts flowing.

PS - If you get really comfortable with the build and not losing your molten bubble, you could switch to Squirt’s necklace and maybe pick up Stone of Jordan, or Justice Lantern with a high block% shield for defense (Stormshield is great here)

PPS - You could even snapshot Boots of Disregard life regen for even bigger, badder Molten Shields.

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