When a new season comes out, hardcore players kill competitions within days. They play 12 hours a day in groups of 4 and do exactly what needs to be done to be as efficient as possible. The famous “town is lava”, which means to go as quickly as possible between two rifts.
You won’t see someone with 600 paragons beating a 150 rift. It’s just math. Skills are important, optimization is important, and paragons are just as necessary.
At some point, the way you play won’t change, and only increasing your character’s power will have an impact on your performance. This is the downside of Diablo’s end game. It’s a never-ending race for power.
dang!!! ok that dude is really coordinated…I will try that style on some LOW rifts see if I can get the hang of it, I had actually given up using Spear as it didn’t seem all that useful to me compared to the shout I put in place for more defense.
But as I said, I had just completed a new record for me 110 in 8:58 with my non-season barb, 3063 para, yaddayaddayadda seems pretty pitiful compared to the talent/skill level of most of the players. Same for my flavor of the month necro, the overpowered class this season, woohoo a 120, oh btw the rest of the world is 16 + level rifts higher!! but only @ 1770 para for season
I will have to work on playstyle as that seems to be the BIGGEST issue I have, other than comprehending some other factors which I have yet to hammer out. Perhaps it’s a good thing there is no new “flavor of the month” this coming season, I can try to work on just playstyle skills etc and not worry about the “next big thing”.
Please feel free to add any more constructive criticism, it’s all taken to heart as I really am trying to improve my game.
Paragons are not the end all be all of those higher tier clears.
Map layout is important, having an open area map where you can group monsters up will help your clear times greatly. Then there is pylon placement is another. Then skill at playing the build. Having good monsters that are easy to kill that doesn’t have any crazy affixes like Juggernaut. Also knowing how to play the build properly. Knowing when to skip certain mobs.
So some of the above amounts to luck. The right map that wouldn’t have any back tracking. Good monsters to beat. Good pylon placement.
You are not an average player if you learn’t how to play this game by watching videos on youtube. An average player learns to play a game by playing it.
Indeed. I’ve been saying that for a while. Some people seem to think a high paragon gives players some strange magical abilty to clear high GRs with ease. That is not the case.
My classic example:
Let’s assume a player with 2k paragon has 20k main stat from all sources combined. He suddenly gains 4k more paragons (to the total of 6k), doubling the main stat to 40k. What happens to damage output? It doubles! That’s 5GRs difference! Further 4k paragons to total of 10k only increases damage by 50%.
Note that example only considers damage output. Main stat also provides mitigation which does also play a part.
The top clears are a combination of mostly just having correct tilesets, monster types and densities, and skill. Paragon contributes but it can not substitute any of the other factors.
I have found that there’s a “sweet spot” to this (at least for ZodiacRend). If you go too low on the GR level, you’ll kill things as you whirl around and can’t pull as much density, since the trash mobs will keep dying on you.
Similarly with barb you have to be in a good rhythm of ground stomp to proc BoM, it might be easier to forget that if you’re on such an easy rift that the mobs can’t hurt you, and then you’ve built muscle memory up that doesn’t include proccing BoM. Stomp is a big part of building density too though, so you have to use it strategically.
I’m still learning how to use spear to drag density and have also found watching videos of others helpful. I used to avoid spear as well before I realized how to use it well enough to see how crucial it is.
I’m also a 99% solo player (occasionally will do pubby key runs and I always do split bounties). I’ve been playing D3 off and on since the beta, and also played D1 and D2 a ton over the years, but at this stage in my life don’t have much time for computer games, so I’m pretty casual. My Zodiac Rend WW barb has done 120 in the 1350 paragon range, for what it’s worth, with augments in the 90 to 100 range and gems in the 110 range I think. Gear is decent but far from godly.
I think your question seems to be two part in terms of goals. You talked about “speed runs”, ie doing GR10x in 3:xx time compared to someone else, and then also talked about personal bests. Note that the speed build is typically a variation on skills and gear which give up damage and mitigation at the expense of movement speed, which you can afford to do on the lower levels (relative compared to your max).
Wheras the “push” build is typically optimized for maximum damage and mitigation/healing via skills and items (both which items and the rolls) and the goal is to complete as high a rift as possible in the 15 minutes. So if you did a 110 in 10 minutes, if I were you I would keep pushing higher until you either fail or it becomes clear that you don’t have the damage to handle the rift in time. With “no” changes you may be able to push to higher than 110 just by using the remaining rift time. Keep in mind that rift variation may cause some rifts to be slower or harder even at the same difficulty, so don’t get discouraged if you try the next higher level or two and it feels like a larger jump than you were expecting.
So true. And I disliked this aspect of the Ladder experience in Diablo since Season 1. It is what it is, but I wish there was a different game mechanic.
Skill=Paragon/playing in 4 man meta groups=Willingness to fish PROPERLY.
Most good players have and do 2/3 of the above. Meaning IMO a top 100 clear on any leaderbaord. Top page (top 12) will require equal amounts of all three unless you have disproportionately more of two that it out weighs the rest of players. This can happen with any of the three.
An example of this would be myself. This season on my barb I cleared a 130 with zero augments. Then right after I got some 150 augments and I cleared a 135 within 10 keys back in December at 2.3k paragon. This clear at the time was rank 4 and the lowest paragon clear 135+ in the world. It was literally zero effort except a few weeks of prep time getting 150 augments and getting over 2k.
So I have lots of skill and the knowledge with average paragon. Now two months later I am not willing to waste time fishing for maps that will get me a 142 top page clear. This is my decision so I am ok with the result. We all need to take a step back and take this view of d3 then we will all enjoy this game a lot more.
Put in the time
Learn your class
Do what is necessary
hehehe I know feels good right? You had the skill/paragon/knowledge to get in early so now you will always have that screenshot. You did what was necessary and im assuming you are ok with the result. Now if and when you fall out of the top page you either need to be ok with the result or put in more work. This is kinda a recurring thing every season when some 850 paragon barb cries that he can’t clear 115. I can guarantee these players are doing 0/3 and it is 100% there fault. Decisions to play builds a certain way or play very casual are very much your decision. Play the way you want but but be ok with the result.
I’ll never do a RatRun or META, as the play-styles look like they’d bore the pants off me, so I know I’ll never have Rank 150 main gems, or 750 STR augments, and so on. Heck, even if someone magically gave my Barb those, turned every single one of his gear pieces into primals with the ideal affixes, literally perfect there’s still one unavoidable limitation. Me.
I’m happy with where I am. I’ll get a GR130 on live for sure with 2.7.0, as I’ve done one on the PTR. With fishing, maybe a GR131 or a GR132, but that’s where I’ll cap out, and I’m fine with that because that’s where my skill level puts me.
ok so, other than swap ancient spear/rage flip in for War cry, any other gear/skill/play style for the Barb (Hallertau) ?? OR… google search for xxx class play style!!!
Non-season para is currently 3063…one would think I SHOULD be able to clear a 120??? with either my Barb or Wizzy(Chelan) or maybe a 110 with Monk or Crusader!!! (Zythos or Citra) altho they have very low augments mostly 80’s?.
Once again, I am NOT looking to make front page news, but it is extremely frustrating to have a fairly well geared toon, decent para, etc and be so far behind all the hip kids… you know …oh this is so easy I have xxx number of toons all on leaderboards in one season or I can do this with half your gear/stats/whatever. OR even this season necro (compared him to leaderboard 1000) Wtf am I doing wrong, my best is a 120 in 8:58 and that dude has done 136 in 13 something!!! Hence my frustration.
I have been playing this altho with no real direction/help/constructive input since D1 and up and feel I really should be able to make a better showing after all these years.
A non-seasonal GR120 with 3K paragon is something that’s absolutely possible for WW/Rend, yes. The WW/Rend guide thread in the Barb forums is full of very knowledgeable, friendly and helpful players. If you want specific advice, that’s absolutely the best place to get it.
Just a shame you’re on the US servers, or I’d have invited you to some games and shown you, rather than linking videos / typing stuff. Good luck with your pushes.
I recommend going to the barb forum and read the entire guide. Heck read it twice. I still after 6 years of playing ww go back a read a few things at the start of season just to de prepared. Then when you understand rolls and what proper fishing means go find seras video of one of his clears or fails. They all showcase what a world top barb clear looks like. You want to as best you can make your run look like his. Even a third of the trash he pulls will get you a 125 clear at 3k. His videos are posted in both the main we thread and the clear video thread.
skill, knowing to do the build and to play it is first. recently I did a 143 grift in 4 party as WD at 4100 paragon, can do easily 145, even more eith some fishing and good group(mainly good pixel barb).
I saw 6000+ WDs which can not do 140, because they do not know to play the build.
In terms of damage a 6000 para char vs a 4000 para is 2 grift levels above. @4000 you have ~30000main stat, @6000 you have 40000. 40000/30000 = 1.33, 2 grift levels. of course there is more defense @6000 thst you have so maybe another grift level in plusbecause of that.
now of course 8000+ botters(cause 90% of para > 8000 players are botters), when they know to play the builds, you can not compete with them…
Blizzard can diluate a bit paragons levels, anyway lot of them are by chesting, and increase via augments for example the main stat of player. e.g. 100 level gem to give 2000main stat and not 500. in this way, 13×1500 in plus mainstat = ~20000, so @4000 para you have 50000 main stst vs 60000 @6000, only 1 grift level in plus in this case, not 3, defense is almost the ssme.
