Torment 1 confusion

PC General Discussion
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I’ve finally reached level 60 on Necromancer after getting Vessel of Hatred only to find out that upgrading to Torment level 1 is no where near as easy on on Diablo III.

Where do you find all that material you need? How do you upgrade to Tier 4? Which are the nightmare dungeons they keep talking about? What other places can materials be found? Etc. etc… Is there any way to more or less summarize all this so n00bs like me can get a handle on it? I’ve been googling all this. The more I read the more confused I get.
In the mean time stuck on the Pentient level, the game is basically a turkey shoot.

Can anyone help?

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I got you fam.

Upon starting out there’s a plethora of activities for you to engage in. Let’s start with the easy ones and work our way up.

 

  1. Helltides & Whispers

First of all Helltides, they start every hour on the hour and last for 55 minutes with a 5 minute rest in between. You can see them on the map when you hover over a zone and it has a red tint to it (not the PvP zones). There will also be a giant red demon skull that when hovered over by the cursor should show you the time left.

This is a good place to start, pick the zone with the most Whisper Objectives (think bounties from D3) and start to complete them. As you kill things in these Helltides they’ll drop shards you can use on the random chests found within that zone that specifically spawn during a Helltide.

If you die, this currency is cut in half, there is no gaining it back, so be careful. You also lose all of your shards once the Helltide event ends, so be sure to spend them before then. Once you’ve completed enough Whisper objectives you’ll then want to travel to the Tree of Whispers to turn them in. You’ll have an option of three caches to choose from.

 
2. Nightmare Dungeons & Masterworking Materials

Once you open a cache it’ll give you a decent amount of rewards, but what you’re looking for is what’s called a Nightmare Dungeon Sigil. This can be found in one of your characters inventory tabs. Upon activating this sigil, you can immediately open your map, and it should show you where that Nightmare dungeon is.

You can then click on the dungeon itself and be ported there. Complete the dungeon for Masterworking materials and possibly other rewards such as gear, runes, gem shards, glyphs, etc. Hopefully you will also receive some Artificer Stones as well, either from the Helltide, Whisper Cache or the NMD.

  • It should be noted that NMD Sigils can drop from various sources, but starting out Whisper caches are more consistent with dropping them.

 
3. The Pit

Travel to Cerrigar and you’ll notice an obelisk very close to the Waypoint that allows you to enter The Pit. They require the Artificer Stones I mentioned earlier. You’ll start out at level 1 and build your way up. Upon completing Pit Tier 20 you will unlock Torment 1. You can even use the Difficulty statue in Cerrigar to change your difficulty if you so choose.

The Pit, much like Grifts in D3, allows you to level your glyphs for your paragon board. Side note here, glyphs can drop from anywhere in the game, and when dropped they are blue items that specifically say ‘Glyph: Name-of-Glyph’. Make sure to pick them up as they can be easily missed.

In order to unlock the higher Torment Difficulties you will have to complete the appropriate level Pit.

Torment 2 requires Pit level 35
Torment 3 requires Pit 50
Torment 4 requires Pit 65

 
4. Infernal Hordes

During your adventures you may also find Compasses that allow you to travel to the Infernal Hordes. Basically a gauntlet of 6 to 10 waves you have to complete in order to face off against the bosses at the end. The more enemies you kill the more currency you’ll get to spend at the end for rewards. Each wave offers you three choices making any subsequent waves more difficult, but with chances for more currency to drop.

 
5. Undercity and Tributes

You may also find Tributes, they’ll be in the same spot as your Nightmare Dungeon Sigils or Compasses in your inventory. These are used for the Undercity in Nahantu and can help you target farm specific items.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask.

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You can also get people to help you along.
I find people are more generous/easier to talk to in D 4 then… other games based upon my experience/observation ((In Game)).

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It’s normal to feel stuck at first but you’ll master it soon. I’m a Necro player like you and I challenged myself to only use Masterworking once I unlocked Torment III.

  • I only focus on hunting and upgrading the items I’m equipped with (Higher affixes or higher aspect effects) with Helltides & Legion event.
  • I have a specific build from the beginning and focus on increasing Crit Chance & Crit Damage + Overpower Damage.
  • I use Tempering to maximize my damage output.
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so, do you plan to read more forum posts to masterwork your confusion?
why not play through each part of the game and see for yourself?

if you do cellars, you get one thing; if you do dungeons, you get another. hell tides give you these, and infernal hordes give you those… and so on.

depending on what you need, i assumed you will focus on the relevant content, no?

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Guys, I can’t thank you enough for your help. I’m going to save the page and read it carefully until I get the hang of it.

SageBright → To answer your question, when I mentioned reading and confusion, I refer to stuff I found by googling. It was when I couldn’t make heads or tails that I came to the forum. This is clearly the place if you want answers. I should have started here.

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Keep in mind that stuff you’re going to find while googling may very well be outdated information depending on what you’re looking for.

Best to calmly ask in the forums like you did here.

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Iggi, et al. In the informative post you wrote me, let me ask:

In the Helltides there is a red sword with fire underneath. As you said, you hover over it and it gives you the time remaining This is just a marker for a Helltide area, not an entry point as in a dungeon, right? Also, what happens if you’re in that area and time expires?

So far I’m seeing several whispers on the map. Are these area markers too or do you go inside them like dungeons? One has a demon skull with a red 6 pointed star. Other whispers have demon skulls and (I believe) swords, both with pink backgrounds. What’s the difference?

Also: Last night after being in a Helltide area I went back to Cerrigar and clicked the Artificer Obelisk. It promoted me to “Tier 20 - Torment 1” (not sure what that means) but more importantly it opened a pathway to the Pit. I decided I was tired and to do that tomorrow. Now it’s not there any more. What just happened?

With help from all of you I’m slowly but surely getting the hang of it. Thanks again.

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Correct just a marker for the Helltide itself nothing more. If you see another demon skull on the map (typically smaller) that actually signifies where you can go to summon the Blood Maiden, assuming you have the appropriate amount of Baneful Hearts.

Baneful Hearts are found as rare drops in Helltide, typically from the chests you open if you’re lucky. The Blood Maiden can prove to be difficult though, depending on your level, difficulty tier, etc. so just a heads up.

As for the second part of your question, when the timer expires the zone goes back to normal. The chests and Helltide specific Whisper objectives disappear and you lose any current shards you collected. You actually keep any Baneful hearts you’ve collected though between Helltides.

Majority of them will not be dungeons but rather just objectives to complete within the area. Not all of them will have borders though. However if you hover over them they should tell you what the objectives are, and if you click one of them it’ll add it to your objective/quest list to help you keep track of it while you’re completing the objective.

That being said some whispers can be a Dungeon or a Cellar. I typically steer clear of any dungeon ones unless it just so happens to be a NMD I’m completing. Cellars are quick and easy if you need that extra whisper, but I tend to focus on whispers that offer more completion. However if I’m one away from the 10 required to turn in a whisper I’ll run a quick cellar.

Not entirely sure what happened honestly. The obelisk shouldn’t have disappeared though, you should be able to walk up to it again and activate it. It should give you a drop down menu of Pit tiers you have access to. After selecting one you can then click to activate it and go inside the Pit.

  • Side note: The pit only unlocks once you reach Level 60, it will not unlock before then on any character, regardless if you have it unlocked on a different level 60 character.

As far as the Tier 20 - Torment 1, that means it is basically the capstone Pit level you must defeat before you can unlock Torment 1 difficulty. Think of it similar to Grifts in D3, where Grift 20 was basically Torment 4, same principle, just different numbers is all.

As I mentioned above you’ll have to complete a specific tier level in order to unlock each Torment difficulty. Starting with T1 at Pit 20, and it increases by 15 pit levels for every torment tier you need to unlock.

It should also be noted that you receive a Negative Armor & Resist debuff for each Torment tier.

T1 = -250 Armor & -25 All Resists
T2 = -500 Armor & -50 All Resists
T3 = -750 Armor & -75 All Resists
T4 = -1000 Armor & -100 All Resists

Keep in mind that the armor cap is 1000, and resist caps are 75% each (assuming you haven’t raised the cap by use of gear, elixirs, or paragon). So if you want to cap out your armor and resists for each difficulty tier you’ll have to make up the negative amount as well.

What this also means too is that the Pit follows the same rules for each Torment Level. So just attempting Pit level 20 will apply the negatives upon entering the Pit, regardless of what the Overworld Difficulty is.

To put it another way, if you have the difficulty set to Penitent, which has no penalties, and you attempt a level 35 Pit, which is the equivalent of Torment 2, once you enter the Pit itself you will receive negative 500 armor and negative 50% resists. Keep that in mind when you’re trying to unlock a new Torment difficulty tier and it feels harder. This is one of the reasons.

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I was finally able to unlock Torment I. Let me ask: am I seeing things or do a whole bunch of other Whispers, Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, and other stuff open up?

I was under the impression Torment I was just a higher difficulty level and not much else.

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It’s not hard every time you increase difficulty your chances for better gear increases too

Just play through the difficulties and you will reach your destination in time

It’s not like d3 where you get your welfare set and burn through the tiers

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Pretty much stays the same. Ancestral items start to drop for you. I think Infernal Hordes also become available if I remember. Not entirely sure if the Undercity (need expansion) unlocks in Torment 1 or you can enter it before then.

All the open world stuff, whispers, Helltides, world bosses, legion events, etc. don’t change. However keep in mind Whisper progression is saved to your Difficulty Tier. So if you had 5 Whisper completion in Penitent, then switch to Torment 1, you’ll have zero. It’ll still save your progress for Penitent difficulty if you go back though.

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D3 is more “all at once” given the enormous power of the 6 piece set, but you sorta needed that welfare system (or an LOD gem) given the meteoric rise in difficulty and drop rates through the 16 torment tiers of that game.

D4 is more incremental, but more under the player’s influence. Between some aspects being unlockable via dungeons and uniques being target farmed, you can get a post-60 build up and running very fast.

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I wish there was as level somewhere in between Penitent and Torment 1. I got to Torment 1 but it’s next to impossible. I get killed and killed again. Had to go back to Penitent.

Any ideas how to keep playing Torment 1 without getting killed all the time?

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Focus a bit on your armor and resists. Make sure they aren’t in the negative at least. Temper your gear, even if it’s only momentarily, it’ll help out a little bit here or there. Try to go for more defensive aspects, maybe ones that add damage reduction or armor as needed. Socket your gear with gems, even if you can’t make the top gems just yet, every little bit helps.

Not sure what class you’re playing, but maybe a change of skills would be in order. Are you following a build guide by any chance?

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What Iggi said.
Torment 1 is a step up in the damage you need to effectively kill.

For your defenses, pay attention to Resists and Armor. You should be able to cap or get near Armor cap. Even using Juggernaut Aspect can help a ton. You can drop it out later as you fill out Paragon.

For Resists, look to Tempers if needed to shore up any that are negative. Especially Fire. Tons of enemies show up with Fire damage.

For damage, check your build. Use Tempers to increase your main skills you’re using.

Make sure you’ve collected all the Lillith Statues and Rep Rewards. That’s a chunk of stats and Paragon right there.

If you want more specific advice, post a screenshot of your build and your items. All classes at cap should be able to dive into T1.

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