Stricken vs trapped

Demon Hunter
1

Hi

I have some questions about GoD build and achieving higher gr. Beyond the obvious like augments, paragon, gem levels.

First one, I am wondering why GoD solo builds run with stricken.
It seems to me that trapped by far provides an overall better killing speed. Which should out perform stricken. I mean, killing the guardian is important. But you need to get there first…

I am probably missing something here. Could be as simple as my low clears (gr102), but still.

So, can some one perhaps provide some explanation about this, please?

Another one, how can I achieve gr 125 or 130 with my build? Really just getting more paragon, gem levels and augments? Or do I also need to change my build in a way allowing for achieving higher gr?

(I have no decent FoT).

Weapen question.
I read in this forum, that the main weapon is just the one with highest damage. Its legendary power seems irrelevant even.
I usually run UE build, because i like it. Despite it not being the best for quite some time, I know. Now that I’m not running UE this season, I got a primal Yang’s, early on… lol. So should I use that one because of its high damage?

Leveling my gems is imperative too, I know. But can’t get them much higher atm. I usually play solo. I have low paragon, so group play seems impossible.

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“Bane of the Stricken” (BoS) is good only for tougher bosses. BoS is better than “Bane of the Trapped” (BoT) for bosses if you have to hit the boss about more than twenty times. It depends on the level of the gems. For other monster is better BoT.
I counted it today, but I have it on another PC.

1 Like
3

It depends if you want to “abuse” the season mechanics or not (killing the boss with snowball).
Killing the RG normally is just impossible beyond GR125 unless you have 4 to 5 min to spare on the fight. I tried several times… yes trapped cleans faster, but unfortunately it’s not night and day. Stricken on the RG though is night and day.
For 125 and higher you need to fish, you can’t just pop in and clear.
Then you have 2 options, you push your luck on the pylon spawns and you use FoT, or you don’t and go with EoJ which will give you 3 to 5 more GR because you will clear trash way faster.

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4

It will depend on stats, augments and so on.

I’m currently paragon ~1k and at ~115 boss takes already pretty long. Felt like 1 min or so. So BotT is probably still fine for that level - but I would go higher 5 levels - Boss would take twice as long.

Besides that: Stricken will do something during GR. Not that much - but sometimes you have an elitepack with 30% life left, at the end of the level without trash. Stricken helps here - with BotT you should probably skip it. Dunno - I’m not pushing so I currently kill all elite packs.

~ 100 is speed territory for GoD with 800 paragon. Maybe not 2mins without augments and so on - but 5-6+ mins.

For you current char BotT or BotP will probably do more than stricken.

This is only true for certain builds (I think Natalaya) - but not for GoD. Both weapons matter. Problem is you current dawn with 51% roll.

Do you have a Cirri with ~ 570%+ and CHC? I’d use that and cube dawn.

You can always do publics. I like them - although they are often suboptimal, like doing 90 when I could do 100 in the same time solo - but I don’t care - just gogogo :wink:

Maybe check on T14 and then run 90 speeds in 3 minutes. It’s often fun as you are now the best and you can drop some items for others. On T16 you also have the leechers and those people who search for the perfect group for 30 minutes.
Nice people are often on lower levels :wink:

It’s a grinding game. It is pointless to do ~105 in 14 minutes - run 3-4x 90 in 3 minutes instead. Try to sell after 2 or 3 runs and directly restart.

Hint: Ballista + Squirts will help a lot - Valla + FoT is more suited for very high pushing.
In speeds Squirts is usually always active so twice the damage (~5 levels higher in the same time).

And try to read here more or ask - a lot of your items are suboptimal or rolled wrong.

High is more for the fun/competition (with your self or others) or to check where you are currently (or to push simplicities). If 100 is your highest, grind up other gems to 80 first and do 90 speeds. You’ll get a lot of paragon and upgrades during that.

For 120+ I’d try that with at least 6 lvl 100 augments and a lot of AD.

3 Likes
5

Thanks for your advice, Kindergarten. I appreciate it.

~ 100 is speed territory for GoD with 800 paragon. Maybe not 2mins without augments and so on - but 5-6+ mins.
And try to read here more or ask - a lot of your items are suboptimal or rolled wrong.

So while I should be able to to 100 fast, I can’t.
I’m guessing due to bad gear, wrong rerolls.
Could you perhaps indicate what I rolled wrong, what it should be and why, please?

Up until this point, I simply went for clear direct damage. I know the dawn sucks, but haven’t anything better yet. Also working on that. It should be at least 60…

This build should perform better, than it currently does for me. I’d like to understand why and fix that.
I am working on augments, at least lvl100 ones.

6

Don’t run Valla’s for speeds. The affix doesn’t really do anything because stuff dies too fast.

I’d recommend either going for the 9 fpa breakpoint with a bow (Yang’s or Etrayu, Odyssey’s End isn’t really worth it for speeds either) or 2-hand crossbow, or running Fortress Ballista + Squirt’s. Valla’s is just a waste of a weapon slot for GR100s.

As for your gear rolls, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong except for your garbage Dawn. 51% is just way too low, you’ll have a sizable chunk of Vengeance downtime. Either find a better Dawn, or run with the quiver instead of you have a decently rolled quiver.

Also for speed runs, especially for something like GR100s, I’d probably recommend picking up something for some extra movement speed. Either Smoke Screen: Displacement (instead of Shadow Power) or swap a passive to Tactical Advantage. And also probably Boar to Preparation: Focused Mind so you can keep up your Shadow Power or Smoke Screen spam to keep your movement speed up. Unless you go for Yang’s, in which case you might not need Focused Mind.

And then Stricken to Trapped as discussed above. You really shouldn’t need Stricken for GR100s at any paragon level.

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This was more a general statement before I checked your profile. Depends of course, but you are also sub 800.

Items:

Your current items are probably the best you have right now. Can’t see any major Fxxxkups. And your amulet is the correct choice if that is currently your best - better than a bad FoT. Just as a general rule:

  • always roll of movement speed on items (since it is capped at 25 and you will get that via paragon once you hit 800)
  • on Valla/K’mar always roll of strafe damage for GoD builds
  • Ancient matters only for weapons - stats like crit, cooldown and so on are more important.

In early stage - just get a normal Cirri with high base roll close to 600% (at least above 500). Ideally with CHC - if not roll it on, wear it and cube the dawn. Easier to get than a ancient dawn with a high roll. This is different to high end optimization.

Once you got this - you’ll need 3 CDR rolls on gear. Mandatory slot is shoulders (you already have that) +2. Options are weapon, quiver (cirri), Gloves or maybe a ring. A normal ring with CDR+one crit is pretty good - roll off dex for the other crit. Damage might go down for now - but with more paragon it won’t matter.

Once you got perma vengeance it is gonna be way easier and more fluid.
I’d also put Diamonds in all items (like chest and so on).

Prio 1: Perma Vengeance - this will make speed farming so much easier.

8

Thank you, especially Kindergarten,

I made some changes and I can do gr 100 much faster now.
(Not yet speed, but close).
Leveling up gems for augments.
Really helps with the paragons too :slight_smile:
Guess pushing has to wait for a bit.

Survivability on gr100 is ok. Sometimes awareness triggers, mostly due to me not paying enough attention. So sticking to emeralds seems to be ok while leveling gems.

Legendary weapons are the most important, very true. However, more legendaries are needed for augmenting. I prefer to augment only decent ones.

Any suggestions for further improvements are welcome!

1 Like
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You’ve received some good advice here, but depending on how many materials you have, veiled crystals, arcane dusts, reusable parts and death breaths and gold and if you think you might hang onto that chest piece for a while, as in if you don’t think you’ll find an upgrade anytime soon, you could roll off vit on the chest to Reduce Damage from Elites. At 10 or 11%, it’s a pretty beefy defense boost especially in areas where you might find two or three elites packs together or if they pile up as one pack follows you into another and those follow you into another.

Vit is good, no question and also Reduce damage from elites is a rare affix so if you don’t have much gold or mats, it might not be worth it BUT if you have the mats and gold it’s a worthy substitute for Vit.

Another tidbit: If you ever get a good Dawn, you can decide to run a shield to meet the magic breakpoint and a shield can also have reduce damage from elite’s on it. With it on your chest and shield gives you close to 20% or a little over 21% depending on if they’re 11% or 10% reduced damage on each piece. That with the fact that you’re running a shield will give you close to the same defense as dual wielding Dawn + Ballista. There’s two shields that you can craft making a good ancient pretty easy to get.

These are just suggestions. But you might want to consider them if you have the gold and mats to make it possible.