Diablo 3 - Reaper of Souls

a_skeleton_03_sl said:

I am stuck at like GR55 with my barb because I hate HOTA. I even tried botting for a bit to get some more paragon to push past but I don't think I want to fish for the perfect grift to progress. Every gem is at 50 though.

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That's odd, there are many things I miss from my barb:

Excellent mobility and speed from Furious Charge. The speed is a bit dependent on map density, but if you're having to walk a lot between packs, it's going to suck anyway.
CC immunity from WoTB.
Not having to watch cooldowns. 90% of this being FnR on my witch doctor. I really liked that FnR on my barb is skills I'm going to frequently use every 5s anyway.
Having the toughness and recovery to stand in melee range. At least, for appreciably longer than the WD before being overwhelmed. Admittedly, difference in Ancient gear might play a factor here.
Not having 15 retarded, but necessary(see previous point) pets that prevent optimal clumping.

That said, I did give my barb another whirl before you posted that. I do not miss:

Dieing with your CoTA or WoTB on long cooldown.
While 2 ability rotation is ideal, HoTA is still kinda boring. Doesn't help that Battle Rage, War Cry, WoTB, and CoTA have no context so you just press them to keep them up.
Dieing because you can survive a tough situation with CoTA up but not otherwise and they bite the dust quickly with very little warning.


IDK, I still favor HoTA over WD. Bloodshed and AD make small packs ideal so the focus on density is not nearly as intense. The barb makes up for it by being able to rotate and move on through packs as they become non-ideal. This makes fishing nearly as painful, which is the huge problem with pushing grifts. Way too obvious that there's little skill involved past a certain point. I mean, I guess everyone knew this, just sucks actually running into it.

Arcaus_sl said:

My gear isn't amazing and I hit 60 with ease with the Whirlwind build -Fyff - Community - Diablo IIIIt's much more fun then the HotA build.

@Deathwing - Have you tried the Helltooth Acid Cloud build? That's how my buddy did it. He swears it's easier on higher GRifts then Zombie Bears.

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WW and HoTA are probably about equal, but boring remarks about HoTA aside, I find WW even more boring.

I do have good Ancient SuWong, two actually, but the problem is that you lose out on a valuable legendary affix. Playing with Henri's seems necessary for high grifts, so that means Bears can cube Furnace or Solanium while Acid Cloud can't. And Acid Cloud still needs to be in melee range to take advantage of Swampland and Grave Injustice. I might be wrong on that last part, I'll consider giving the build another try. I got GR55 with it easily but never pushed higher.

What? Scrimshaw has to be one of the easiest weapons to get an ancient. As a WD, you only have two choices for a spear. So, you have, on average, a 5% chance for the yellow -> orange recipe to give you an ancient scrimshaw. And since it autorolls good affixes for all but one slot, it's likely that first hit is a good one.


I putzed around with Acid Cloud again tonight, cubing Furnace or Solanium. It feels about equal in terms of power to Scrimshaw, ToTD, and Henri's. But it also seems less susceptible to map fuckery or bad affixes, so I might stick with it. I really really wish there was a way to fit in Languish, Piranhado, and Leeching Beasts. LoH on weapon + Leeching Beasts is almost(almost!) the same as a Henri's. Doesn't do much for initial burst damage, but fuck assassins anyway.

Ortega_sl said:

Total change of subject here, but sheesh I wish they'd add new characters. It would be nice if they could take on the HoTS business model, and just add new characters every few months that you can buy for $15 bucks or 10 billion gold. I'm kind of shocked they haven't moved towards something like this.

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They've not demonstrated an ability to balance characters that would be required for that model.

Ortega_sl said:

Seems like a non issue to me in this game as long as they can get in the same ballpark as other classes. The game is just a mindless demon killing loot fest. Does it really matter if the Druid gets loot 1.25x faster than the Monk? They already have discrepancies like this in game as you basically pointed out.

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I mean, I guess that's kinda what sets are, no?