So I was previliged/lucky enough to get a 150 clear on my Barbarian WOOT! And I am just farming up 150s on my Monk. Thanks again to all that contributed to this casual’s success.
Nevertheless, as I farm 150s on my monk, I found myself struggling to heal up… I made just a couple changes to my build from the 150 clearing pros… I simply did the HEALing Cyclone - Soothing Breeze instead of Implosion, HEALing Serenity - Peaceful Reprose instead of Ascension, AND, decided to use, SKILL Sixth Sense instead of either Transcendence or Guardian’s Path, which I’m just a fan of the healing… again, I’m not a pro in the least, but feel like my 150s have gotten smoother with the healing setup vs the dps burn through… and I’m at 3100 paragon (which again is the casual in me grinding shrug)… this ultimately landed me my fastest clear so far @ 10:07, WOOT WOOT!
Just figured if there were any other casuals out there looking for help and this helps, use it otherwise… ignore it
Have a great rest of the week/S34… interested to try out S35, though I know I’m going to struggle I think LOL… shrug
Super to see you taking advice to heart and finding tweaks to builds to make them funner, smoother, or more engaging or all three than you might find in a guide or just looking at the Leaderboards.
Many of us tweak builds as we learn the game and to make a build easier to play.
Also, casual has some negative connotations, so I came up with a phrase for players like you and I. “Dedicated Casual” is more fitting. It simply means that sometimes a player will like to focus and go “hardcore” into the game to reach some goal like doing a GR 150 while other times it’s a little less feasible on account of skill level or any other factor.
Anyway, I just don’t like the term “casual” when someone uses it in a self-deprecating way or others using it to insult their fellow gamers.
But getting back to the point…
Good on you for finding something to make your playstyle your own and wanting to share in hopes that it helps other people.
I think what KillerProc is referring to (in at least part) is that some people use the term condescendingly. They don’t have to go as far as saying “filthy casual” but some people that play a lot or have accomplished “high end” things in a game sometimes refer to people who haven’t as casual. Or they look down on those who don’t live on the game and play at their leisure.
Basically comes from people with an inflated false sense of superiority.
Congrats OP on the 150 clear. And you are no longer a casual once you break that 3000 paragon, you’re in the big leagues now. I’m glad you’re having fun. Congrats again!
OK, I’m gonna quote this next time someone argues that I’m not a casual. I’ve only just gotten over P1000 in this season and my NS paragons is only P2800.
To be honest with you, most people are casuals. I play when I can, mostly when each season starts. I usually go to around 2000 P each season. Then I play a little D4. For the life of me, I don’t understand how players can get over 5000 paragon in a season. Some have gone to over 9000 this season! That’s some hardcore players. Obviously not married.
You are right, most people are casuals. But there really is no metric to determine which a person is. Despite that, being hardcore doesn’t automatically make someone better either. There are people who game all day long but are (for a lack of a better word) mediocre at them. That’s not a bad thing.
HAHA, I broke 3100 because at the beginning of the season, I usually look at the top 10ish or so and figure out what I’m going to need to just barely successfully complete a 150
That said, I am now farming 150s on the monk, by doing almost every map successfully; however, I still don’t know how anyone gets a sub 2-minute clear shrug
THIS IS ME LOL I am retired and old, grinding a lot of paragon for me to be successful in completing the 150 has always been my idea of “casual”…
I consider myself to be a casual. I think the highest gr I have done is in the low 120’s. I tend to play multiple characters because I keep thinking of different builds and I can’t seem to just stick with one character till I have it ancient/primal geared and augmented.
I was the same way in WoW, so many different characters, especially in different servers and on Horde and Alliance. It got worse and worse when Blizz added new races. So, I don’t consider ‘casual’ to be negative at all. However, I do use the term ‘lazy.’ Those people want to be powerleveled and have their hands held throughout the gaming process.
Those people tend to be labeled as ‘filthy casuals.’ There was a ton in WoW too. IMHO, it kind of defeats the whole purpose of playing a video game if you constantly have stuff done for you.
Edit.
GRATS on the GR 150!!! Especially on the Barb and Monk. My two favorite D3 classes.
This is pretty much what I meant. And I think people using “casual” in a self-deprecating way gives permission to the those who use the term to be condescending to other players.
But I also consider myself to be a “casual” in the sense that even if I reach the top of the Leaderboards, I’ll play in a less than most efficient way. Like, I’m a smoker so like when I’m running speeds I often take breaks to roll cigarettes and either smoke while playing or fool around at the mystic to make my character look cool or mess with the banner or other things that take away time that could be spent farming more paragon or better equipment.
Or I’ll take a few days to hunt up a specific white transmog or some other item in the game that I want to use. Things like that would definitely earn me the scorn of the “pros”.
I usually top out somewhere between 2700 and 2900 paragon in seasons where I’m really trying and just try to do my best with that and get a thrill when I match someone who has more paragon or better equipment on the leaderboards. I don’t always do GR 150 every season, like I haven’t this season. I’ve topped out at GR 148 with Nat’s and 147 with Shadow. Once I saw I had a chance at the top spot on the DH No Set Leaderboard, I focused on that and only cleared a 137 but it put me 9 tiers above 2nd place on that leaderboard.
I tried a 138 a few times this morning but eventually gave up and set about clearing out my stash, salvaging the sanctified items in my builds and stuff. Essentially ending my season in prep for season end tomorrow.
Anyway, knowing I could have completed a GR 150 if I just switched classes is good enough, I don’t necessarily have to prove it every season.
Edit:
This season though, I put a little more effort than I usually do and earned 3625 paragon, my highest ever.
Edit #2:
You just wait till the Soul Stone Season comes back around. That season I did a GR 150 with 1900-something-or-other paragon and ended my season when I got my time under 8 minutes at around 2600 paragon.
You’re going to love that you don’t have to spend tons of time to get a GR 150.
Ditto. I think I got the Monk done with 2800ish… the Barbarian with 2900ish… (I don’t know if or how I can see my FIRST 150 clear for the season).
Ever since I learned to fish for the “better chance” maps, I have definitely been less stressed; thoroughly enjoying alternating farming on my Barbarian, then running 150s on my monk … definitely more enjoyable that way!
This was me last season enjoying my Barb; I think I was done earlier that season at 141 or something… playing Frenzy barb shrug
That’s A LOT. I think this is my highest season ~3100+ cause I was able to farm 150s XP.
Yeah I haven’t played all the varieties, but now that I have and understand them each, I’m hoping to get another shot at focusing on one toon better!
I don’t know either. I know more or less how to clear 150 on a small paragon - a month ago came from EU server to US and downed ssf 150 on Generator Monk at 1362 para, 10 min or something. But how players, even if at 8-9k para, do it under 2 minutes, is beyond me. It’s like a speed run…
Btw, the next season looks promising for many builds that were losers the current season.
If you have only done one on a character/set and have gotten a place on the leaderboard you can see the time and date there. I usually take a screenshot of the completion screen in the game just as a reminder or trophy
It’s a lot of skill and being able to force the spawn of Pylons. I don’t know every mechanic in the game, but there’s players that can go through a GRift and never be hit by an enemy because they’re extremely skilled at timing when to use the skills for optimal performance.
Also, once you get enough paragon, defensive items become less important so they can replace them with more offensive items which also goes back to just being able to dodge stuff with their skills or popping an invulnerability skill at the best possible time.
It’s not all paragon there’s mad skills needed for the super-fast times in a GRift. Skills I can’t match so I, like many others, are left having to do more fishing or having to have really good luck in getting great items.
Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with trying to get good enough at the game to get your time down, but there’s also nothing wrong with accepting that you might not have the talent in the game that others have.
Also, some of those high paragon players are botters. Competing for the top spot on the leaderboard would necessarily mean that you’re willing to cheat to get there.
Normally that indicates that he does mainly high GRs where he gets more exp per kill. Example: Player #1 can do rifts and visions exclusively and get lots of kills but not so many Paragon levels. Whereas player #2 does mainly GRs where he can get a much higher ratio of experience to kills. Does this make sense?
Personally I have 37,608,801 Kills with 1,830,826 Elite Kills and only 5587 SC Paragon and 3236 HC Paragon. Keep in mind in the early days of D3, there was a cap of 100 paragon levels, then they raised it to 1,000 and so on and so on.
otherwise… ignore it 
