Just started playing again after a few months break, and lucked into a 400mil Inna's I just sold. (It's like the game WANTS me to keep playing)
So, long story short, I'm scared to death of wasting the gold and could use some pointers for what pieces I should be focusing on/need the most help.
I've been messing around with Bears for a little bit, and It's not bad, but I'm really interested in going Zero Dogs. I have Mana reduction pieces for bears (SoJ and String of Skulls), plus a decent-ish Echoing Fury (2.2% LS) that I forgot to log out with, but that's the only gear I have with Bears specifically in mind.
Is 320 mil enough to really get a good Zero Dogs set up and going, or should I stick with bears until I luck into a few more good drops? I'm assuming I'll be going for the 34 second reduction, so I have an alright idea of what I'm looking for, I just feel like I could use a few pointers and a little more direction.
Since I just made this account, I can't post a link to my profile, but my battletag is Nintenuendo#1945 if that helps.
I posted this on the official forums as well, but nothing wrong with casting a wider net, and you guys always seem to give really good feeback.
I'd really appreciate any help you guys can give me. I'm not a total noob (I don't think), I've just never had this much gold to potentially thrown down the drain, and I'm really unfamiliar with Zero Dogs.
Is 320 mil enough to really get a good Zero Dogs set up and going, or should I stick with bears until I luck into a few more good drops? I'm assuming I'll be going for the 34 second reduction, so I have an alright idea of what I'm looking for, I just feel like I could use a few pointers and a little more direction.
To get a decent Zero Dogs set up, you will need to save up another 700m-1b gold unfortunately =(
I've tried the Zero Dog set up, and IMO it was kind of underwhelming. It's really nice as a group support set up since you can generate a bunch of health globes, but other than that, I personally prefer the standard bears build. For high MP solo farming the build is effective, but I found it very annoying to fight against any packs that had Nightmarish and/or Frozen. Overall, the build is effective and fun. Purely DPS-wise, bears is the winner, for group and solo MP10 farming, Zero Dogs is a very nice set up.
So, long story short, I'm scared to death of wasting the gold and could use some pointers for what pieces I should be focusing on/need the most help.
Here's what I think when I look at your gear: if I had to guess, it seems like you are farming on a higher MP since you opt for a lot of EHP, yet you are wearing things like Lacuni/EXP Ring/EXP Gem, which are better for MP0-2 farming. So I'm unsure as to which MP you are actually playing on most of the time, so I will try my best to give you general suggestions on your gear.
Here's a piece-by-piece breakdown of your gear (IMO)
Head: Your helm is nice since its got a lot of EHP, my only suggestion here is to consider swapping it out for a +crit% zuni helm.
Shoulders: Nice crafted shoulders =)
Ammy: Swap LoH with Crit% on your Tals?
Gloves: I would look for a glove similar to yours, but with +Vit on them as well
Body Piece: Look for a zuni chest piece with around the same stats, but with a useful final affix instead of thorns damage. Affixes to consider are +life%, pick up radius, +armor, etc.
Bracers: Unless you really want the attack speed and the 12% movespeed, ditch the lacuni's for a crafted int/vit bracer. (All res, crit%, int, vit, armor). Either that, or get a similar Lacuni with +crit%.
Belt: Might consider getting a Witching Hour here instead, but your belt gives a lot of EHP.
Rings: Both rings are fine, but I highly reccomend getting a zuni ring with crit chance.
Pants: For lower MP farming, I prefer an int/vit inna's pants over the Lacuni Prowlers. For Higher MP, I prefer the Depth Diggers or a nice rare. Your pants definitely need an upgrade though. (aside from high int/vit/2sockets, desirable affixes would include armor, all res, extra health from globes,etc)
Boots: I really like your choice on the zuni boots since it gives you some utility (+pick up radius and extra health on globes). Only other suggestion here is to swap it out for a high int/vit zuni or an int/vit/all res zuni.
Weapon: Personally, I prefer a big DPS Skorn with at least 5.5% Life Leech on it. The slower attack speed increases your mana efficiency with bears, you get more damager per cast, and the +5% life leech on the skorn makes it so that you can sustain yourself vs reflect dmg mobs on MP10.
Main Hand + Off-Hand: If you prefer the main hand + off hand combo, then I would suggest getting a different MH wep, as I find the attack speed on Echoing Fury is detrimental to mana efficiency, and the built-in fear is very annoying. Something better would be a rare with crit dmg/socket/3% life steal/int, you will only lose paper dps. As far as the off hand, ToTD is great for low MP farming, you can upgrade here by getting one with at least 200 vit, and higher average damage; try looking for one with at least 100 minimum damage.
Awesome. Thanks a lot, that really helps me kinda figure out what I should be doing.
Sorry, I logged out in my Acid Cloud gear, but there isn't much difference aside from a ring and the off-hand.
As far as what I usually farm. My friends and I generally just do mp0-1 XP runs, but I'm really trying to work up to where I can successfully do the higher MPs without dying a bunch, which is why Dogs appealed to me. But some minor gear changes look like Bears can give me the same effect.
I took some advice from a friend and put together a rudimentary Zero Dogs build to try out the playstyle. It's... interesting, to say the least. I actually really like the chaos of it, but I see how ridiculously expensive it's going to be to put together a set that puts it on par with bears.
I went ahead and took your advice. I picked up a Skorn with what was left from my dogs experiment. 1337 DPS (admittedly low, but still), 337 in, 6% LS, 156 CD, and a socket. I'm really digging the mana savings so far. I'll start working on replacing the other pieces now with what you recommended, starting with the pants.
At what MP is it recommended that you switch from an xp gem to a health % instead? Same rule applies to HF Ring, I assume?
Thanks again, that really helps me to know where my focus should be.
As far as switching out the EXP gear, it really depends on the rest of your gear, but personally I swap out all EXP gear at MP6 and higher. For low MP farming (MP0-2) I like running around with Inna's pants, since it gives that extra 12% moves speed; they are relatively cheap and you don't really need that much survivability in MP0-2. Also, I strongly reccomend to slowly accrue more crit chance where you can, to make up for the loss of the crit chance that the off-hand normally gives you.
Another thing, a website you should checkout, if you didn't already know, is d3up.com. It's easy to use and has a lot of great tools and gives you very useful stat breakdowns on your characters.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Just started playing again after a few months break, and lucked into a 400mil Inna's I just sold. (It's like the game WANTS me to keep playing)
So, long story short, I'm scared to death of wasting the gold and could use some pointers for what pieces I should be focusing on/need the most help.
I've been messing around with Bears for a little bit, and It's not bad, but I'm really interested in going Zero Dogs. I have Mana reduction pieces for bears (SoJ and String of Skulls), plus a decent-ish Echoing Fury (2.2% LS) that I forgot to log out with, but that's the only gear I have with Bears specifically in mind.
Is 320 mil enough to really get a good Zero Dogs set up and going, or should I stick with bears until I luck into a few more good drops? I'm assuming I'll be going for the 34 second reduction, so I have an alright idea of what I'm looking for, I just feel like I could use a few pointers and a little more direction.
Since I just made this account, I can't post a link to my profile, but my battletag is Nintenuendo#1945 if that helps.
I posted this on the official forums as well, but nothing wrong with casting a wider net, and you guys always seem to give really good feeback.
I'd really appreciate any help you guys can give me. I'm not a total noob (I don't think), I've just never had this much gold to potentially thrown down the drain, and I'm really unfamiliar with Zero Dogs.
Thanks,
Kongo Jack
To get a decent Zero Dogs set up, you will need to save up another 700m-1b gold unfortunately =(
I've tried the Zero Dog set up, and IMO it was kind of underwhelming. It's really nice as a group support set up since you can generate a bunch of health globes, but other than that, I personally prefer the standard bears build. For high MP solo farming the build is effective, but I found it very annoying to fight against any packs that had Nightmarish and/or Frozen. Overall, the build is effective and fun. Purely DPS-wise, bears is the winner, for group and solo MP10 farming, Zero Dogs is a very nice set up.
Here's what I think when I look at your gear: if I had to guess, it seems like you are farming on a higher MP since you opt for a lot of EHP, yet you are wearing things like Lacuni/EXP Ring/EXP Gem, which are better for MP0-2 farming. So I'm unsure as to which MP you are actually playing on most of the time, so I will try my best to give you general suggestions on your gear.
Here's a piece-by-piece breakdown of your gear (IMO)
Head: Your helm is nice since its got a lot of EHP, my only suggestion here is to consider swapping it out for a +crit% zuni helm.
Shoulders: Nice crafted shoulders =)
Ammy: Swap LoH with Crit% on your Tals?
Gloves: I would look for a glove similar to yours, but with +Vit on them as well
Body Piece: Look for a zuni chest piece with around the same stats, but with a useful final affix instead of thorns damage. Affixes to consider are +life%, pick up radius, +armor, etc.
Bracers: Unless you really want the attack speed and the 12% movespeed, ditch the lacuni's for a crafted int/vit bracer. (All res, crit%, int, vit, armor). Either that, or get a similar Lacuni with +crit%.
Belt: Might consider getting a Witching Hour here instead, but your belt gives a lot of EHP.
Rings: Both rings are fine, but I highly reccomend getting a zuni ring with crit chance.
Pants: For lower MP farming, I prefer an int/vit inna's pants over the Lacuni Prowlers. For Higher MP, I prefer the Depth Diggers or a nice rare. Your pants definitely need an upgrade though. (aside from high int/vit/2sockets, desirable affixes would include armor, all res, extra health from globes,etc)
Boots: I really like your choice on the zuni boots since it gives you some utility (+pick up radius and extra health on globes). Only other suggestion here is to swap it out for a high int/vit zuni or an int/vit/all res zuni.
Weapon: Personally, I prefer a big DPS Skorn with at least 5.5% Life Leech on it. The slower attack speed increases your mana efficiency with bears, you get more damager per cast, and the +5% life leech on the skorn makes it so that you can sustain yourself vs reflect dmg mobs on MP10.
Main Hand + Off-Hand: If you prefer the main hand + off hand combo, then I would suggest getting a different MH wep, as I find the attack speed on Echoing Fury is detrimental to mana efficiency, and the built-in fear is very annoying. Something better would be a rare with crit dmg/socket/3% life steal/int, you will only lose paper dps. As far as the off hand, ToTD is great for low MP farming, you can upgrade here by getting one with at least 200 vit, and higher average damage; try looking for one with at least 100 minimum damage.
That's my 2 cents, hope I helped.
Sorry, I logged out in my Acid Cloud gear, but there isn't much difference aside from a ring and the off-hand.
As far as what I usually farm. My friends and I generally just do mp0-1 XP runs, but I'm really trying to work up to where I can successfully do the higher MPs without dying a bunch, which is why Dogs appealed to me. But some minor gear changes look like Bears can give me the same effect.
I took some advice from a friend and put together a rudimentary Zero Dogs build to try out the playstyle. It's... interesting, to say the least. I actually really like the chaos of it, but I see how ridiculously expensive it's going to be to put together a set that puts it on par with bears.
I went ahead and took your advice. I picked up a Skorn with what was left from my dogs experiment. 1337 DPS (admittedly low, but still), 337 in, 6% LS, 156 CD, and a socket. I'm really digging the mana savings so far. I'll start working on replacing the other pieces now with what you recommended, starting with the pants.
At what MP is it recommended that you switch from an xp gem to a health % instead? Same rule applies to HF Ring, I assume?
Thanks again, that really helps me to know where my focus should be.
As far as switching out the EXP gear, it really depends on the rest of your gear, but personally I swap out all EXP gear at MP6 and higher. For low MP farming (MP0-2) I like running around with Inna's pants, since it gives that extra 12% moves speed; they are relatively cheap and you don't really need that much survivability in MP0-2. Also, I strongly reccomend to slowly accrue more crit chance where you can, to make up for the loss of the crit chance that the off-hand normally gives you.
Another thing, a website you should checkout, if you didn't already know, is d3up.com. It's easy to use and has a lot of great tools and gives you very useful stat breakdowns on your characters.