Excellent! I’m a bit behind you, p1435, GR144 down with 5 minutes to spare. Just tried a GR145 but failed (not sure how, game didn’t display time when I closed the GR, weird). At least 3 minutes over. I’ve had man carver now 5 times out of the last 6 GRs. No adds, no pylon. Crap maps, mobs, very poor density, crap elites, everything about the GR was just crap. Have had enough for the night, time for some image processing (I have a few red-rumped kingfisher shots to process from a few months ago). Need to import images into Lightroom and need to copy a bunch of images from my CFExpress card to the laptop and sort/rate/cull. But, since it’s 11.10pm won’t get most of that done tonight.
On the bright side - got a nice shiny new lens today - RF 200-800. Got a nice big fat juicy discount of AUD $800 off RRP. So, pretty chuffed. Got to play with the newly released Canon R1 too, but that’s out of my price league lol (I own a R3, which is the next best thing).
I have been gone awhile and came back in the past week. Pleasantly surprised to see 4 cube slots and the altar of rites again. Happy that the season journey does not include set dungeon mastery (if the set dungeons didn’t have such wonky objectives they might actually be good) and happier that the conquests include options that are 100% solo possible.
I’m conflicted about Visions though. They drop an immense amount of loot for their difficulty; it feels like too much. But they are fun and they give an extra reason to farm the open world instead of just sitting in town doing rifts. If only they gave a portal back to the entrance instead of always sending you to town…
The day I finish GR 150 with M6 Hellcat DH, the game will be truly finished, but that day will probably never come, I’m not willing to grind the paragon necessary.
I need that for my next MV! Or something better than my rotten mobile phone.
I would’ve thought twister would be really strong otherwise, but I guess a little limited as you can’t get deathwish and archon buffs at the same time. So it’d have to be out-of-archon damage cycle, which isn’t quite as appealing. Or swap out deathwish for whatever is second best and dps cycle more in-archon, but I don’t see that being a beneficial trade…
I’m looking through the off-set wizard leaderboards on SSF NA, and there are some very low hanging fruit for anyone that wants a top 10 or even top 1 clear…
DMO: top 1 is GR127, top 10 is GR110.
vyr: top 1 is GR120, top 10 is GR75 (19 people have cleared any GR in vyrs…)
typhon: top 1 is GR150 () but top 10 is GR125.
firebirds: top 1 is GR140, top 10 GR123
no set: GR144 and GR120
while tal rasha has two GR150 clears, and top 10 is GR145
apart from me, top 20 clears on overall are all tal-rasha.
Idk, makes me keen to go and swipe some off-meta rank 1s, like what wudi used to do. When I started playing D3 seriously I was so impressed by LoD twister clears with reverse archon shi-mitzu, seemed like this holy grail of min-max to me back then. I’ve always wanted to do that build since, and with 4 cube slots, this would be the season I guess. Then I can probably jsut swap out LoD for vyrs and DMO and some small modifications to the build for a decent clears on those LB as well.
No idea what is happening in firebirds space… Are those just meteor builds now, mostly ignoring the original firebirds mechanics? Can I slap firebirds onto a twister build and get a clear?? Probably not right?
Anyone else keen for some fun off-meta LB pushing??
My Season Journey still going slow because I had no time in between my own interests and catching my share of seasonal cold. Last time I cleared any personal best was a week ago and clearing lower than tier 100 Greater Rifts with my Jade Witch Doctor, still landed me at top 500 which is funny but also sad. I think nobody bothered with WD this Season. I don’t even plan to bother to finish Altar, and I’ll be happy if I can finish my Solo Self-Found Season Journey that I’m way left behind.
Sounds like it worth a try. Come up with a maxroll simulator scheme and you’ll have it clearer.
Struggling with my TO DN build. Can’t clear GR145 and getting frustrated. Had my best chance earlier tonight, spawned RG (Coldsnap) with 4.5 minutes to spare. No pylon, no adds from RG. And stupid Dave didn’t realise that he had no NG stacks, so half dmg for the entire RG fight. Ended up finishing just under 16 minutes. Pretty cranky with myself for not managing my NG stacks better, but even more cranky that Blizzard continues to implement this crippling BS in the console ports. Just give us parity with the PC version of the game, get rid of NG console mechanism and replace it with the PC NG mechanic and make our damage equal to that of the PC version, instead of having to stuff around with this stupid NG mechanic.
It’s not much to ask. Console players have been asking to get this mechanic fixed for 8 years now. No acknowledgement from Blizzard. No fix. Complete ignorance.
Sorry for the rant, getting ticked off in a major way.
me too, although her adds won’t spawn until she hits 75% life.
Anyway, finally got a GR145 down at p1550 last night. Was ahead of the timer, but not by much. Got to the 3rd map and battlegrounds. Power pylon right near the entrance. Took on a 3 champ pack mallet lords, died twice from their stomp (had the same mob twice earlier in the GR without any dying issues, weird), wandered down the road a bit, and a condi pylon. Yes please. Grabbed that, killed the elite, went back for the champ pack and gave them the finger in a not so polite way (as you do LOL), back tracked and grabbed another elite to spawn the RG (the binder). Bonus, shield pylon had spawned. Grabbed my stricken stacks, grabbed the shield pylon and bolted back to the power pylon. Of course, the RG took 35 seconds to decide to TP to me LOL…2 minutes to spare, so happy, rank 9 for the build.
I really do not think I will grab a 150 this season. The build just doesn’t feel like it has the power to do it and is squishy.
Is this still true for non-4th/flexi-cube seasons when you can’t equip both Unstable Scepter and Wizardspike along with Aether Walker? Would you take a different approach for those seasons?
Thanks for these great videos! I’m now considering a Wizard-start next season, though would you mind fielding a few questions?:
This might be related to my first question above. Once you had a complete LoD Frozen Orb build, instead of then gambling for armor pieces to try to get a 6 piece set, you prioritized gambling for rings (I’m guessing because your LoD setup was strong enough for T16 content?). Would this approach change for seasons which don’t have the cube flexibility theme which gives so much power to low level LoD builds?
What is your dye/transmog methodology? It seemed related to organizing your builds. Some items are dye-only, some xmog-only, some both dye and xmog, and sometimes you changed an already dyed item to be xmoged or vice versa.
Why do you level to 70 with a 2h staff but then switch to a 1h wand + offhand at 70?
Generally yes. Once you have a somewhat okay set of gear you should be able to speed through GR60 with Unstable Scepter + Aether Walker.
I generally don’t run above GR75 until I am done the achieves. No real need to. GR75 for Divinity, GR74 for 100% on gems for On A Good Day.
So you don’t necessarily need both weapons in the mix and can get away with Aether Walker. I might also run Unstable Scepter + Aether Walker for GR60 farming then swap to Unstable Scepter + Wizardspike to run GR75 or whatever at a bit slower pace.
Yes. For a season without Years of War / Master of Sets, sets aren’t as much of a priority if you have your LoD setup at a decent power level. So Karini for toughness made sense. Also potentially wanting a Puzzle Ring for to get a Hoarder for Avarice. So a few useful things for gambling rings.
For a season with Years of War / Master of Sets, it’s sets the whole way. #1 priority. And once I finish wizard sets, then it’s on to DH (or whatever other class) sets. No shards wasted for Karini, because you don’t need it. It’s a luxury. All resources to sets. And a bit to whatever supporting items you deem mandatory. But for GR55 and set dungeons, you often don’t need a full setup of supporting items, so I’ll usually just focus on a few critical ones. Like on DH, you really only need a Yang’s and a Karlei’s and you can do GR55 and all 4 set dungeons.
There’s no method to it. My endgame is invisible helm + shoulders, Gloves of Worship + Illusory Boots (default colours), Conquerer’s Chest (forest green), and Conqueror’s pants (default colour). I’ve been using that transmog combo for like 25 seasons straight or something, I’m not very creative with it.
Early season I often won’t have Illusory Boots + Gloves of Worship, so I’ll substitute in some other gloves + boots combo I don’t hate and dye them green. Sometimes Conqueror’s Gloves, sometimes the set gloves, sometimes Conqueror’s boots, sometimes Nilfur’s. Just something that doesn’t look too horrendous dyed green. Conqueror’s is an easy go-to because you always have it unlocked (assuming you’ve unlocked it in enough seasons to have all the pieces).
And some of the chest pieces I don’t hate (e.g. Tal’s, Firebird’s), so if I’m lazy I’ll just leave them in and dye them green instead of transmogging. I generally want the chest to be some sort of long flowing cloak thing dyed green.
I really hate the look of DMO. And I’m not too fond of Vyr’s.
2-hand weapon is stronger for levelling. Especially with channel skills, better resource management.
I don’t always switch right away, but usually I’m dumping 475 shards on sources at 70 and then upgrading a wand, and a legendary wand + source beats a yellow staff. Plus at a certain point the faster attack speed will start to feel better for farming. But as a fresh 70, it should really be whatever the highest DPS combo is until you get a multiplier.
You can also use a combination of one-hander and a shield while leveling up to seventy. Yes, a plain old hand-bare shield with block rating. The idea is block rating protecting you while you move into melee range or cover the slight windup on your spell casting.
I should point out, DH Haedrig’s GoD start will almost definitely be faster than wizard past about the 3 hour mark. I think you’d end up with a faster time to Master of Sets starting DH and doing Haedrig’s. At least for the first mode and set of conquests.
My strategy is more about getting to 100% achieves as fast as possible, and doing LoD start in one mode and claiming the gifts to level in another mode just seems most efficient. This season in particular I’ll be doing LoD start in SC then claim GoD set and do DH in HC.
I also just like starting wizard.
I suppose you could. But if you are claiming the cache and levelling with full 70 gear, you are an immortal god until the mid 50s, so you might as well just run a 2-hander for damage. And in the late 50s and 60s, damage becomes pretty limiting, so it’s generally better to just focus on dodging and maximize damage with a 2-hander.
A 2-hander with mainstat + vit + life on hit is ideal, the big vit roll for toughness, and when you do get hit, the big life on hit roll so you heal almost instantly.
If you struggle to survive, or are in HC, I could see the value in a 1-hander + shield, but if you want to hit 70 as efficiently as possible, 2-hander is the way.
That’s my plan as well since I’m also going for achievements, though in my case I will be going for 2060 instead of 2100 since I don’t do sprinter. For SC LoD, my plan is typically to start with Monk if I can get crudest boots, but if I strike out, then I go with Necro.
However, I’ll change it up and try a Wizard-start this season. I will definitely be slower since I haven’t played much Wizard since Season 28, but that’s ok because this is an experimental season for me since I’m not competeing for 100% achieves. Hopefully I’ll get an early Hydra or Frozen Orb build going, but if I end up with EB or Twister or nothing at all, then it will probably be tough going for me.
One potential benefit of prioritizing pet auto salvage over double kadala is that blood shards with double kadala unlocked only gives an 11% chance for a set item (20% chance for a leggie, then 5/9 chance (on pants for most classes) to be a set item) and necros are even worse since they have 5/11 pants that are set items; whereas upgrading pants gives you a 55.6% chance to get a set pants (or 45.4% chance for a necro or 62.5% for Crusaders upgrading shoulders).
Whereas pet auto salvage helps with quick visions farming which supplies mats for upgrades as well as higher leggie drop rates compared to GRs/blood shards. But with that being said, there is a balance to maintain between visions and GRs because GRs are still needed for the leggie gem 6x rank 40 requirement as well as the On a Good Day conquest. So which altar node to choose also depends on what specific progress has been made at the point where one is ready to unlock those nodes.
) but top 10 is GR125.