Just to show that Paragon levels aren't everything. They help, sure, but you don't really need them.
I was toying with the idea for a while, but never got to actually record anything until today. Just no time nowadays.
Anyway, I cleared GR38 with zero Paragon points allocated. Make-believe Paragon 0 character, even though that would never happen. I also made two attempts at GR39 with no Paragon points, spawning the RG both times before the timer started counting down, so that's doable, too.
Crappy Furnace, loss of >600 intelligence, 25% movement speed, 50% CHD, 5% CHC, 7% IAS, 10% CDR, 25% life, 25% armor, 250 resist, all my regen/LOH, 10% RCR, all my area damage and... sniff... gold find.
Fully buffed I had barely over 1 million sheet DPS and less than 9 million toughness.
Good enough to still clear the Rift and place on the leaderboard (Top 1000) had this been my highest clear.
Gear and spec are important. Sure.
But L2P > everything else.
Time's running out to place on the first "era" (as Blizzard calls it). Practice and go for it.
Man, you're saying over 20% of your total CHD, your CHC (both of which drastically affect Firebird's damage output), all movement speed, a quarter of all your HP and armor stats (which scale off Energy Armor), all passive healing stats are all almost useless? The only "useless" stat is IAS and that only applies for this spec (have you attempted Hydra-oriented builds or channeling builds that involve breakpoints?). I can't imagine what kind of character you're building. I checked the numbers. Removing those Paragon points effectively halved both my eDPS output and my EHP.
Would you like me to do the same with a Sunkeeper, Serpent's Sparker, or Devastator? I've done those before.
I have one Furnace. 3500 DPS and minimum 40% elite damage. It's fantastic. Actually, no, I had two. The other one was 3300 DPS with bleed bonus, also with minimum 40% elite. Slightly less fantastic so I salvaged it a while ago.
Also, would you like to try this, too? Please try it and let me know how it goes for you and how many attempts it took. The only reason I made this video is because I know numerous players who are unable to clear GR38+ who have equal or even better pieces of gear than I do. I wonder what's the difference. Surely it isn't gear.
Actually, I have a faint feeling you haven't tried something like this before, else you wouldn't have made a weird comparison to a WoW 2v2 arena, nor have actually watched the video.
And just for good measure, in case you missed the point, this video is for players who still need help progressing with solo Greater Rifts and to show that it is possible. Yes, those players do exist. Yes. players with the recommended gear, BiS or not, with more than zero Paragon points.
It's pretty ignorant to say there's zero skill involved. A lot of people who are low on leaderboards like to mention that but its clearly untrue. Yes RNG accounts for most of the progress once you get into the higher rifts but there's still skill involved. In this specific case, you have to know how to kite effectively. That is you have to pull mobs with you, without dying, and without their dots wearing off if you move too far. You have to know when to press forward, when to back off, when to place your hydras so mobs walk into it, how to use the map layout/terrain to your advantage, etc. Skill is gameplay knowledge.
Grats, A lot of people just don't realize that you can develop "skill" in this game. It's just that it's far more subtle then other games out there in terms of measurement.
Someone at paragon 0 doesn't have level 53 gems. Either way I have personally never thought I need to be a certain paragon level to be able to do something. It helps but it's not mandatory, good that you showed people though.
I don't know. This is a pretty poor experiment since we don't have a control. It would be nice to know what you are capable of when you don't gimp yourself. What you've shown here is meaningless without context.
For ease, let's say that going no-paragon dropped your dps by half and you finished it right at the 15 minute mark. If you then did the same rift fully allocated and finished it at 7m30s, then this would actually prove that gear is the prevalent source of your clearing ability. In order to prove that skill plays a significant role, you would need to clear the same level in a good deal faster than half the time.
I strongly disagree with this. I get that you're trying to show that skill is important (and I agree with that notion), but this accomplishment (gz btw) would not have been possible if, say, you made so simple a change as removing your chest piece.
Both aspects are very important. But until I see a naked GR38 clear, I don't see how anyone can say that gear takes a back seat to skill.
I think what this video may highlight is that fluctuations in numerical stats (not gear) are less important than one might think. A lot of people already know this though. It's why we take RoRG even though the stats on it are pretty bad compared to what's out there. A small loss in numbers can be more than made up for by the greater whole.
I strongly disagree with this. I get that you're trying to show that skill is important (and I agree with that notion), but this accomplishment (gz btw) would not have been possible if, say, you made so simple a change as removing your chest piece.
Both aspects are very important. But until I see a naked GR38 clear, I don't see how anyone can say that gear takes a back seat to skill.
Well. before the line "L2P > everything else" I wrote "Gear and spec are important."
Obviously without the gear and right spec, no matter what you do, you're walled off.
The point is for people who have the gear and are still unable to get past a certain Rift level. I have several clan mates who are in that boat. They have equal or better gear than I do, yet they are unable to push past a certain point, namely GR38+.
Over this past weekend, three of my clan mates have practiced hard with their Apocalypse Firebird specs. All three are now on the Top 150 solo wizard leaderboard with GR40+ clears. Ask any of them and they'll tell you it simply came down to practicing and getting into the right mindset. You don't just go from unable to finish any GR38 to suddenly clearing GR40/41 in 13 minutes in one weekend.
I was toying with the idea for a while, but never got to actually record anything until today. Just no time nowadays.
Anyway, I cleared GR38 with zero Paragon points allocated. Make-believe Paragon 0 character, even though that would never happen. I also made two attempts at GR39 with no Paragon points, spawning the RG both times before the timer started counting down, so that's doable, too.
Crappy Furnace, loss of >600 intelligence, 25% movement speed, 50% CHD, 5% CHC, 7% IAS, 10% CDR, 25% life, 25% armor, 250 resist, all my regen/LOH, 10% RCR, all my area damage and... sniff... gold find.
Fully buffed I had barely over 1 million sheet DPS and less than 9 million toughness.
Good enough to still clear the Rift and place on the leaderboard (Top 1000) had this been my highest clear.
Gear and spec are important. Sure.
But L2P > everything else.
Time's running out to place on the first "era" (as Blizzard calls it). Practice and go for it.
You can do it.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Would you like me to do the same with a Sunkeeper, Serpent's Sparker, or Devastator? I've done those before.
I have one Furnace. 3500 DPS and minimum 40% elite damage. It's fantastic. Actually, no, I had two. The other one was 3300 DPS with bleed bonus, also with minimum 40% elite. Slightly less fantastic so I salvaged it a while ago.
Also, would you like to try this, too? Please try it and let me know how it goes for you and how many attempts it took. The only reason I made this video is because I know numerous players who are unable to clear GR38+ who have equal or even better pieces of gear than I do. I wonder what's the difference. Surely it isn't gear.
Actually, I have a faint feeling you haven't tried something like this before, else you wouldn't have made a weird comparison to a WoW 2v2 arena, nor have actually watched the video.
And just for good measure, in case you missed the point, this video is for players who still need help progressing with solo Greater Rifts and to show that it is possible. Yes, those players do exist. Yes. players with the recommended gear, BiS or not, with more than zero Paragon points.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
You're a wizard Harry.....
Wizards are much too dependent on the set bonus to deal damage.
For ease, let's say that going no-paragon dropped your dps by half and you finished it right at the 15 minute mark. If you then did the same rift fully allocated and finished it at 7m30s, then this would actually prove that gear is the prevalent source of your clearing ability. In order to prove that skill plays a significant role, you would need to clear the same level in a good deal faster than half the time.
I strongly disagree with this. I get that you're trying to show that skill is important (and I agree with that notion), but this accomplishment (gz btw) would not have been possible if, say, you made so simple a change as removing your chest piece.
Both aspects are very important. But until I see a naked GR38 clear, I don't see how anyone can say that gear takes a back seat to skill.
I think what this video may highlight is that fluctuations in numerical stats (not gear) are less important than one might think. A lot of people already know this though. It's why we take RoRG even though the stats on it are pretty bad compared to what's out there. A small loss in numbers can be more than made up for by the greater whole.
Well. before the line "L2P > everything else" I wrote "Gear and spec are important."
Obviously without the gear and right spec, no matter what you do, you're walled off.
The point is for people who have the gear and are still unable to get past a certain Rift level. I have several clan mates who are in that boat. They have equal or better gear than I do, yet they are unable to push past a certain point, namely GR38+.
Over this past weekend, three of my clan mates have practiced hard with their Apocalypse Firebird specs. All three are now on the Top 150 solo wizard leaderboard with GR40+ clears. Ask any of them and they'll tell you it simply came down to practicing and getting into the right mindset. You don't just go from unable to finish any GR38 to suddenly clearing GR40/41 in 13 minutes in one weekend.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site