So I leveled a new Wizard, got to level 70, just finished a GR70, and not a single Ethereal weapon for the Wizard has dropped.
Are there any? Is this thing broken?
If you look at the web profiles of players here you can see that most of their season heroes’ weapen hands are empty. So it looks like nobody has gotten any. 
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Well, you can’t really count that. There aren’t any web images for these weapons on the profiles, so even though on my Demon Hunter I have a Doomslinger equipped in my offhand, there’s no picture of it.
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I’ve only played Wizard SSF this season and I can confirm that ethereals do drop from time to time. Even got some for other classes.
Hope you know about cube recipe 2 and 11…
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You’ve already gotten nice Typhon’s gear for your fresh wizard 
I just wonder if Bane of the Stricken is a good choice for a GR 70 (especially on HC) given the limitations on how little damage it does during the run until the RG spawns. (You’re the hardcore expert of course).
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I didn’t think Ethereal weapons could be produced by upgrading. I remember something in the patch notes about you can add a socket with Ramaladni’s Gift, but they can’t be enchanted, and they can’t be had by upgrading or from Kadala. So I think recipe 11 doesn’t apply for Ethereals, you’ll just get a Primal every time.
The Bane of the Stricken is just a choice among inferior choices. The Stone of Vengeance doesn’t help because I’m never hitting anything far away; I always try to be right in the middle of the pack so everything is within 15 yards of me. I don’t care about any of the defensive stones, I’m not channeling anything, and the 25% bonus to Rift Guardians is just too good to ignore, plus at rank 80, the Stricken’s 1.6% increased damage per hit actually makes a difference. But the Bane of the Powerful would be my second choice.
Not trying to correct you in any way for sure (I could never survive for long in HC). I would just think that Bane of the Powerful with 35% extra damage, and mitigation on top of that, would be better up to a certain point, and Zei’s gives the first damage bonus already from 0 yards. From 10 yards we get the next increase and so on (according to the experts).
A primal ethereal that is… but very likely with unwanted legendary power. So very expensive to use!
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Yeah, I would always only get the zero yard bonus…lol
(gotta go to work…)
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Just edited and added some info about recipe 11 in earlier post.
List of Ethereal Weapons by Class
- Barbarian
- Doombringer
- Gimmershred
- The Grandfather
- Crusader
- Astreon's Iron Ward
- Khalim's Will
- The Redeemer
- Demon Hunter
- Buriza-Do Kyanon
- Doomslinger
- Windforce
- Monk
- Bartuc's Cut-Throat
- Jade Talon
- Shadow Killer
- Necromancer
- Blackbog's Sharp
- Blackhand Key
- Soul Harvest
- Witch Doctor
- Arioc's Needle
- Ghostflame
- The Gidbinn
- Wizard
- Mang Song's Lesson
- The Oculus
- Wizardspike
Source: Maxroll, D3, Resources, Ethereals Explained, Overview
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Like most other things, fissures and spamming 2-3 min GRs is the answer. I have got around 40 ethereals so far. From reforging I managed to make one semi decent one. Still nothing uber yet.
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Yes, I’ve had one on my seasonal Necromancer, i.e. a wizard ethereal.
Other than the achievement for collecting 21 of them / unlocking the cosmetics? No.
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Your best bet really, is to get the LV 1 requirement for the altar and create more wizards to get the drops (assuming you’re going for the achievement, otherwise, it’s grind city and your best bet is spamming visions). The reason for creating additinal characters, even of the same class, is that, at least for solo play, your best chance is via low level characters. For group/assist play you could have someone lock a game at LV 12 (the apparent “optimal” level due to lack of legendaries in the potential pool) and farm the game until it’s empty and then repeat.
Solo players are going to have it rough even with the help of the altar with regard to gear because it’s a crapshoot and if you aren’t good at or just don’t like certain classes, it’s going to be a slog.
Well, just got back home, and on my first GR85 (leveling gems) I got a Wizardspike. I haven’t looked at it yet, but I am assuming a lottery winner’s chance of it being good for my Hydra build (the only Wizard I play).
And I was right! But it does have the Aether Walker power, no Teleport cooldown, which I love, but there’s no way I could incorporate it because I would have to give up 30% Hydra damage for each Spectral stack granted by the Fragment of Destiny.
That’s one thing I loved about last Season; I could give up Tasker and Theo (or whatever other power I wanted to put in the armor slot) and put the Aether Walker in that slot. So I would have the full power of the build, plus unlimited Teleport!
So I think that brings me to my next post I’m going to do right now, my idea of “Imbuement.”
And while I’d like to have the transmogs for non-Season, there is no way I am going to play a Sader…so bad luck for me…
Thanks, guys, for all your input!
Good Hunting!
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That’s where recipe 2 can help… but it may take lots and lots of tries and use huge amounts of souls to get the right power.
I slogged along after level 70 with an LoD wiz build (got an ethereal wizardspike while leveling up), that was transformed to a mediocre Hydra build until I could get a Tal Rasha meteor going (skipping the chappters to get the Vyr set).
I didn’t play Sader in s24. I played Wizard and DH and I still got the ethereal transmogs unlocked.
So far Ive only played Demon Hunter and Ive gotten 8 ethereals form other classes. The Witch Doctor class is finished already. RNG go figure.
Well, I got the Wizardspike and Oculus so far (got all 3 DH weapons).
These Wiz weapons are quite impressive on the surface. Each of them gives me (according to the dialog box) between 65% and 75% more damage. In practice, I went from 2.1M sheet damage with the Fragment of Destiny to 3.6M with the Oculus, and 3.3M with the Spike. I did a GR95 in 3:13 with the Destiny, but 4:35 with the Oculus. Any I think that was only because I got a cool +50% damage to Elites from it. Useless Prodigy passive…
I think the only thing these weapons are good for is leveling up. I got a Windforce at level 8 in S24, and used it through level 50…lol.
By the way, are you guys having trouble with your Toughness value? Not actual Toughness, but just the displayed value? At this point my Wiz is usually about 1.8B, but right now reads about 500M. Though I can still stand in fire in the middle of an Elite pack and take no damage…You notice anything like that?
And impressive under the surface too. Like with Wizardspike (the 10 to 100% multiplicative damage) if you combine it with Squirt’s. Huge multiplicative damage.
You mean leveling gems up to maybe 150 in solo play?
Haven’t looked into the toughness thing you mention. Maybe try and swith between ethereal and ordinary weapon to see if that is the reason?
Wait until you see the sheet damage output from the 2 hander weapon. It’s another 50+% over the 1 handers, but I believe the 1 handers are the way to go plus an offhand stat stick.
I just picked up the 2-hand staff. 5.3M sheet damage.
The problem is that with the Fragment, it seems the IAS combined with the Spectral stacks (+300% to Hydras) outperforms the +100% or +200% to all Wiz skills. And that is with +102% to Cold damage
Another million+ to my sheet damage, but also +2 minutes to GR time, on comparable maps. So all I know is that all else being the same, change the Fragment to either of the 1-hand Ethereals, and sheet damage and GR time both go up…lol.