Should my next upgrade be a weapon? Lately I've just been staring at memptos hoping one with crit will be posted for cheap, with no luck...
and every other slot an upgrade is either 1000mil+ or more of a side grade. I even have a pair of innas temperance, but at the cost of 5k dps...I like my survivability.
Guess my post is just asking which slot of mine is behind the most? (archon farming gear on atm) and is there any chance of getting a meaningful upgrade in the 100mil range?
Honestly, for 100M, I'm not certain you'll be able to get any meaningful upgrades. You're at the point where everything will probably be at least 300M and up. For 100M, you can probably nab a slightly better Vile Ward with slightly more DPS at the cost of a few hundred HP's worth of vitality, or a higher DPS Witching Hour without as much EHP.
If you can manage to find a pair of Inna's Temperance with vitality, you should still be in good shape EHP-wise for Archon farming. However, you will not likely be getting a 90+ int with decent vit Inna's for 100M. You're better off continuing your farm and continue selling things you find for quick gold. At paragon 50, you should be relatively decent drops if you're farming MP3+ with Archon. Grind out some more paragon for the MF bonuses. On average, I get about 1-2 unique items per Alkaizer run, which is essentially at least 6 uniques per hour. Chances are at least one of them will be worth 10M+ when running with over 425% MF on MP3, not to mention the pages and pages of rares that are gathered. This is just my average, but it's all dumb luck in the end.
Farm and be patient, or if you have the extra income to do so (as a last resort), you can treat yourself to $50 worth of gold or something. I'm at the point where I cannot by any means make an upgrade unless I farm for a month or two straight. I occasionally put some money in to cover whatever extra gold I need to buy out an upgrade. I don't recommend doing this unless you're at the level where upgrading anything significant at all is near impossible with grinding alone. Some people go out to the bar once a week and bust $80 on drinks. I might bust out $50 from my weekly paycheck to add some more gold to the bank.
Off topic: I keep forgetting to update this guide...
Well, to be honest... there's a small difference between your DPS (it's just insane and most of us will probably never get there) and that of usual players like us ;-) And even if someone reaches that dps - having > 400k EHP at the same time is amazing, many people just go for the dps and wonder why they can't survive on higher MP levels.
I was wondering - when you run MP8, you can't possibly 1shot mobs. Given the steep HP increase for any enemy on higher MP levels, I'd like to know how you sustain Archon. When I run Archon in a group with 1-2 demon hunters, I have a lot of downtime - even just on MP2/3, and even though they try to let me have the killing blows whenever I'm in Archon. (I'm at ~110k (unbuffed)/150k (buffed) dps currently).
I don't sustain Archon. The longest my Archon's been active on MP8 was 1 minute. The whole point is to make use of Arcane Destruction (1600% weapon damage). Activate Archon, beam everything while you can, spam Living Lightning, Diamond Skin, Frost Nova until Archon is up again, nuke, do your thing, repeat.
By doing that, I think anyone with decent enough EHP can use Archon at high MP levels as long as you have the crit chance to do so.
I'm curious - in your signature it says that your dps is 291k; in your bnet profile its 427k. Is Bnet displaying buffed dps?
I want to ask for some advice from diablofans community and made an account. My gear and current build: eu battle net/d3/en/profile/dante-2908/hero/1437409 (dante#2908) I have 4M gold. That skorn dropped recently and buffed my dps from 50k to 70k. Currently farming on MP2 for keys, items and XP with the ultimate goal to get hellfire ring.
1) What build do you recommend with my current gear? Is my current build ok for solo?
2) What to aim for in short-term?
more crit hit chance to enable CM based archon build (2 new rings)?
just more dps / move speed to enable archon build?
Stash money and collect X million for what?
In terms of concrete upgrades, I'm between many options: should I upgrade first my helm/shoulders, jewelry (rings with crit chance), 1H+triumvirate or sth else?
That skorn I have is worth like 3M tops; I feel I cant afford APOC gear and a decent 1H to go for CM-WW build - id prefer to jump directly to archon or other builds suitable for killing uber bosses.
Right, BNet profile shows buffed stats.
1. You're on the right track and stacking the right stats. You should try the Archon build. The cheapest items for you to upgrade should be your helm and shoulders, with the belt and chest a close second.
2. Like I mentioned before, try out Archon on low MP (1-2). Adding more DPS with move speed (i.e. Lacuni's or Inna's Temperance) will cost huge gold, so yes... save money. Just farm more on low levels with Archon and you'll eventually gain enough paragon levels to kill faster and farm more efficiently.
I have a question about gearing. Would you recomend 1h + offhand over 1.3k+ dps skorn with best possible stats ( like 200% crit dmg, 320 int and LS) ? I find one handers to be extremely expensive ( can buy pretty awesome offhand for 30m though).
The advice the others have given you are on the money. If I have anything else to offer, I'll do that when I'm off.
Jaetch, can you have a look at my profile please (link in sig), i'm sitting on 300+m gold right and i'm like you said in the part 4 having 'inner battles' over which way to go.
If you're not looking for a Witching Hour, it should be very easy for you to grab a belt with more vitality. However, last I checked you can grab a 100 int/100 vit/9 ias Witching Hour under 100M (shouldn't pay more than that) in the AH. Otherwise, you can go for a normal 170 int/150 vit/ 70 all resist belt for half that price.
I'd also consider waiting for Zunimassa's Pox prices to go down a bit (about 150M or less for crit chance + crit damage ones). That way with 300M, you can grab both the Witching Hour and Zunimassa's Pox for huge boosts and have gold left over.
Edit: Not sure how much those Depth Diggers are really helping you. You can consider switching them out to rare pants with the same base int, way more vitality, the same resist, and two open sockets. Or look into a similar pair of Blackthorne's with more vit but lower int.
A great guide!
You've given me something to work towards! I've never been that lucky in item drops but I have fought tooth and nail to get my gear. However some of my gear is based more around life on hit (i needed it! D:) and i'm still doddling around the 60-70k dps range.
Knowledge of class - I'd say I can understand wizards very well and can execute specs in an efficient way. Though I dislike not having archon in my build. It makes me feel vulnerable and weak.
Wealth - Well...let's say i can probably sell all my gear for around 100-150m but I need that gear! D: And spare cash i have none.
So I am currently using a variation on the arcane destruction spec and mostly kill the mobs without too much fuss. However I am stuck on what to upgrade first. My items are decent and I'd have to sell something to make an upgrade. Sadly in most cases this either leaves me extremely vulnerable or at a temporary loss in dps.
So I guess my problem is finance but all but 3 items I am currently using are from my own item drops. Any advice for improvements?
I can't post links yet so i guess just search Incar#2286 (EU)
Would very much appreciate your help on this
PS: If I'm still in CM-SC build, I tried it today for the first time, hated it and haven't switched back yet.
I'm pretty sure you can get by with using Archon in your current get-up. You have a hefty amount of EHP and respectable DPS, but I can see you having trouble keeping Archon up for most of your run. You don't have any bonus move speed, which is crucial for traveling from one pack to another. You lack spells that can make use of your CM. Try ditching Disintegrate for Stormchaser. Even without AP on crit, if you drop 2-3 twisters, you can bring your Archon out of cooldown fairly quickly.
You can also swap out one of your LOH rings for one with attack speed, crit chance and crit damage (but wait until after patch 1.05 launches to upgrade jewelry). Your attack rate is at 1.3 attacks per second, which is on the low side. Diamond Skin is a good choice, though because you already have great resist/armor/vitality, you can probably drop that and add Sparkflint for increased DPS. Archon is meant for quick, efficient kills. Kill faster, keep Archon up for longer, etc.
Shop around and be patient. You can usually find a good deal now and again in the AH if you're careful enough (look for bids that end soon).
It'll be tough if you don't even have a million in your budget. All I can say is farm more (keep farming) and consistently repeat the sell/buy process in the AH.
I don't have access to the game right now so I can't update you on prices, but I suggest you grab a new pair of pants with more intel and vitality to start, or ditch your bracers.
But as I mentioned, don't go for major upgrades until after the patch hits (of course, unless you can afford to).
As of now, after testing PTR for a little while, I'm going to say hold off on serious gearing until 1.05 comes out. I have a hunch prices will go berserk during the first week or so after launch.
As in current items worth millions will drop in value based on the huge influx of low level items that will roll ilvl 63 stats. Also jewelry stats are going to go past the current max stat limit (to my dismay), so prices for current top-tier rings and amulets will probably crash and new superior jewelry will sell for ridiculously inflated prices.
Ah okay I see, did a quick check on some more items and your estimates seem quite right overall :-)
I just dinged 60 with my wizard and I got around 15 million gold in my pocket (from my DH) so do you think I should aim for items with stats like in your 30 million sheet and aim for the CM build (my items are pretty much all crap except helm and offhand right now)? I assume these items are also suited for a Blizzard/hydra build? - since I haven't tried the CM build I don't know if I will like that kind of playstyle so it would be kinda bad to invest too much gold into it if I don't like the playstyle and prefer Blizzard/hydra.
Also, what stats do you think is most important on the weapon? I see that you have listed 'variable' for all LoH, do you think it's ok not to have any of this or do I have to have some of it here and there?
Thanks again for a nice guide :-)
Blizzard-VenoHydra is simple and straightforward. The problem is that it relies heavily on kiting, so it takes a lot more effort to down tough-affixed packs. CM build is very reliable if you're properly geared and all you have to do is mash a combination of 1,2,3,4, left click or right click on your skill bar over and over again to down packs. Of course, there are tactics and skill involved in any play, so that's left to you. I was hesitant on using CM back when I was running Blizzard-VenoHydra just because I was so used to the latter build. But trust me—and trust the many, many, many wizards that currently run CM-SC—that CM is a much more reliable build.
There should be a video posted that shows you how to gear a CM-SC wizard with less than one million gold. It's possible if you keep a sharp lookout for deals, otherwise, a few million total should put you in a good spot. I've recently helped gear a random pub wizard with zero knowledge on CM up to par with about 5 million gold. He easily jumped from struggling in Act 1 to having a pretty good time in Act 2. Lowering stat parameters in the AH search also helps if you're willing to forgo some stat points. You want to have decent survivability here more than relying heavily on DPS. 30 mil is just a line I drew for being able to cruise through Act 3 without having too many problems.
I put "variable" down for most weapon affixes because they're great to have, but not always necessary. As an example, I don't have life steal, life on hit, or any of that on my weapon. I would love to have life steal, but unfortunately I can't find the right weapon. If you want to run CM, you'll want AP on crit on your weapon. Then again, you can also skip that and put AP on crit on your helm or off-hand. Obviously you want to look at decently-high DPS weapons for the best cost according to your budget. Don't buy something cheap or medium-priced knowing you're going to replace it within hours or days. Get something that's a good deal: cheap, yet reliable. The whole point in upgrading is solely for improving your farm runs; to kill faster and die fewer times.
There is a lot of room to maneuver. Remember, this is a guide to direct you on a path, not a set of rules.
jaetch, how many cost change a wiz-cm-tank to archon with moderate dps? u think 50k dps in archon good to solo?
You're going to have to get higher DPS to make good use of Archon. You want to be able to kill mobs as fast as you can to continue adding to Archon's duration. The longer it takes you to kill, the faster Archon will run out. The good thing about switching from CM-SC(tank) to Archon is that you can keep all your crit chance, all resist/armor gear and just stack more DPS-enhancing stats (int, attack speed, crit damage).
Archon's the most expensive build for wizards, so you'll have to shop around for deals. Posting your current gear set-up would certainly help, or else there's no way to estimate what you need as upgrades.
I am levelling up my wizard at the moment and I think it gives some good tips where to start. However, I find that your price estimates are really low compared to the prices on the AH? I don't know if it's because I'm playing on EU, but I find I don't think the differences should be that dramatic?
For example I try to search for an amulet with the following three filters:
crit hit chance 6, crit hit damage 50 and attack speed 5 (as suggested in your <30mill sheet)
The cheapest buyout is 6.000.000 (and no items with bids any lower than this) where you suggest the price to be 500k. It's the same story for other items (haven't checked all though). I know it's just estimates you give, but considering the big difference I'm just thinking if I'm misunderstanding something :-)
Hmm, I should have written somewhere that the prices for jewelry were based on two of the three trifecta stats (attack speed, crit chance, crit damage). If you want all three stats, the prices will be dramatically higher. Usually go for crit chance with crit damage, otherwise attack speed and crit damage.
Also, you might be the first person to say I'm underestimating
The ring I do have has a huge chunk of intel, 4.5% crit, and +min dmg (only thing the + elemental dmg affects), so it's hard for me to find a trifecta ring that happens to be an upgrade.
Perhaps target a new helm, or a Lacuni's with crit or a bigger Vile Ward (more int and more vitality)? Actually, you might be able to nab a Zuni Marrow with more vitality and around the same int stats for a respectable amount. I'll have to check the current prices since I haven't looked at Zunis in a while.
Edit: Never mind, I didn't notice the armor bonus for your Zuni Marrow.
I've been looking around for a while, and maybe I just need to bide my time more, but I can't seem to find any meaningful upgrades anymore for sub-100mil. (tried tal rasha chest and andariel's visage but lost too much survivability)
Are there any glaringly obvious slots I could upgrade for 50mil or less? (without taking a giant hit to survivability?)
You're at that stage when it gets a little rough to upgrade. For 50M or less you can get a trifecta ring with bonus damage or an all resist Tal Rasha's helm. You will have to hunt for those two as they can vary as low as 30M to as high as 100M+.
On the note of rings, I've sniped a few trifecta rings for less than 30M before, so it's certainly doable (then I flip them when I find better ones). As an example, I bought a trifecta ring (31 dmg, 4 cc, 34 cd, 7 ias) for 28M not too long ago, and sold it today for 50M.
Honestly, for 100M, I'm not certain you'll be able to get any meaningful upgrades. You're at the point where everything will probably be at least 300M and up. For 100M, you can probably nab a slightly better Vile Ward with slightly more DPS at the cost of a few hundred HP's worth of vitality, or a higher DPS Witching Hour without as much EHP.
If you can manage to find a pair of Inna's Temperance with vitality, you should still be in good shape EHP-wise for Archon farming. However, you will not likely be getting a 90+ int with decent vit Inna's for 100M. You're better off continuing your farm and continue selling things you find for quick gold. At paragon 50, you should be relatively decent drops if you're farming MP3+ with Archon. Grind out some more paragon for the MF bonuses. On average, I get about 1-2 unique items per Alkaizer run, which is essentially at least 6 uniques per hour. Chances are at least one of them will be worth 10M+ when running with over 425% MF on MP3, not to mention the pages and pages of rares that are gathered. This is just my average, but it's all dumb luck in the end.
Farm and be patient, or if you have the extra income to do so (as a last resort), you can treat yourself to $50 worth of gold or something. I'm at the point where I cannot by any means make an upgrade unless I farm for a month or two straight. I occasionally put some money in to cover whatever extra gold I need to buy out an upgrade. I don't recommend doing this unless you're at the level where upgrading anything significant at all is near impossible with grinding alone. Some people go out to the bar once a week and bust $80 on drinks. I might bust out $50 from my weekly paycheck to add some more gold to the bank.
Off topic: I keep forgetting to update this guide...
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I don't sustain Archon. The longest my Archon's been active on MP8 was 1 minute. The whole point is to make use of Arcane Destruction (1600% weapon damage). Activate Archon, beam everything while you can, spam Living Lightning, Diamond Skin, Frost Nova until Archon is up again, nuke, do your thing, repeat.
By doing that, I think anyone with decent enough EHP can use Archon at high MP levels as long as you have the crit chance to do so.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
http://us.battle.net...XYSO!bgf!caaccc
Magical against ubers and elite packs. Although using Arcane Destruction on Reflect mobs (and uber Siegebreaker) is a big no-no.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Right, BNet profile shows buffed stats.
1. You're on the right track and stacking the right stats. You should try the Archon build. The cheapest items for you to upgrade should be your helm and shoulders, with the belt and chest a close second.
2. Like I mentioned before, try out Archon on low MP (1-2). Adding more DPS with move speed (i.e. Lacuni's or Inna's Temperance) will cost huge gold, so yes... save money. Just farm more on low levels with Archon and you'll eventually gain enough paragon levels to kill faster and farm more efficiently.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
The advice the others have given you are on the money. If I have anything else to offer, I'll do that when I'm off.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
If you're not looking for a Witching Hour, it should be very easy for you to grab a belt with more vitality. However, last I checked you can grab a 100 int/100 vit/9 ias Witching Hour under 100M (shouldn't pay more than that) in the AH. Otherwise, you can go for a normal 170 int/150 vit/ 70 all resist belt for half that price.
I'd also consider waiting for Zunimassa's Pox prices to go down a bit (about 150M or less for crit chance + crit damage ones). That way with 300M, you can grab both the Witching Hour and Zunimassa's Pox for huge boosts and have gold left over.
Edit: Not sure how much those Depth Diggers are really helping you. You can consider switching them out to rare pants with the same base int, way more vitality, the same resist, and two open sockets. Or look into a similar pair of Blackthorne's with more vit but lower int.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Will update builds, briefly. Followed by new average gear costs and miscellaneous formatting stuff.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I'm pretty sure you can get by with using Archon in your current get-up. You have a hefty amount of EHP and respectable DPS, but I can see you having trouble keeping Archon up for most of your run. You don't have any bonus move speed, which is crucial for traveling from one pack to another. You lack spells that can make use of your CM. Try ditching Disintegrate for Stormchaser. Even without AP on crit, if you drop 2-3 twisters, you can bring your Archon out of cooldown fairly quickly.
You can also swap out one of your LOH rings for one with attack speed, crit chance and crit damage (but wait until after patch 1.05 launches to upgrade jewelry). Your attack rate is at 1.3 attacks per second, which is on the low side. Diamond Skin is a good choice, though because you already have great resist/armor/vitality, you can probably drop that and add Sparkflint for increased DPS. Archon is meant for quick, efficient kills. Kill faster, keep Archon up for longer, etc.
Shop around and be patient. You can usually find a good deal now and again in the AH if you're careful enough (look for bids that end soon).
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
It'll be tough if you don't even have a million in your budget. All I can say is farm more (keep farming) and consistently repeat the sell/buy process in the AH.
I don't have access to the game right now so I can't update you on prices, but I suggest you grab a new pair of pants with more intel and vitality to start, or ditch your bracers.
But as I mentioned, don't go for major upgrades until after the patch hits (of course, unless you can afford to).
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
As in current items worth millions will drop in value based on the huge influx of low level items that will roll ilvl 63 stats. Also jewelry stats are going to go past the current max stat limit (to my dismay), so prices for current top-tier rings and amulets will probably crash and new superior jewelry will sell for ridiculously inflated prices.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Blizzard-VenoHydra is simple and straightforward. The problem is that it relies heavily on kiting, so it takes a lot more effort to down tough-affixed packs. CM build is very reliable if you're properly geared and all you have to do is mash a combination of 1,2,3,4, left click or right click on your skill bar over and over again to down packs. Of course, there are tactics and skill involved in any play, so that's left to you. I was hesitant on using CM back when I was running Blizzard-VenoHydra just because I was so used to the latter build. But trust me—and trust the many, many, many wizards that currently run CM-SC—that CM is a much more reliable build.
There should be a video posted that shows you how to gear a CM-SC wizard with less than one million gold. It's possible if you keep a sharp lookout for deals, otherwise, a few million total should put you in a good spot. I've recently helped gear a random pub wizard with zero knowledge on CM up to par with about 5 million gold. He easily jumped from struggling in Act 1 to having a pretty good time in Act 2. Lowering stat parameters in the AH search also helps if you're willing to forgo some stat points. You want to have decent survivability here more than relying heavily on DPS. 30 mil is just a line I drew for being able to cruise through Act 3 without having too many problems.
I put "variable" down for most weapon affixes because they're great to have, but not always necessary. As an example, I don't have life steal, life on hit, or any of that on my weapon. I would love to have life steal, but unfortunately I can't find the right weapon. If you want to run CM, you'll want AP on crit on your weapon. Then again, you can also skip that and put AP on crit on your helm or off-hand. Obviously you want to look at decently-high DPS weapons for the best cost according to your budget. Don't buy something cheap or medium-priced knowing you're going to replace it within hours or days. Get something that's a good deal: cheap, yet reliable. The whole point in upgrading is solely for improving your farm runs; to kill faster and die fewer times.
There is a lot of room to maneuver. Remember, this is a guide to direct you on a path, not a set of rules.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
You're going to have to get higher DPS to make good use of Archon. You want to be able to kill mobs as fast as you can to continue adding to Archon's duration. The longer it takes you to kill, the faster Archon will run out. The good thing about switching from CM-SC(tank) to Archon is that you can keep all your crit chance, all resist/armor gear and just stack more DPS-enhancing stats (int, attack speed, crit damage).
Archon's the most expensive build for wizards, so you'll have to shop around for deals. Posting your current gear set-up would certainly help, or else there's no way to estimate what you need as upgrades.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Hmm, I should have written somewhere that the prices for jewelry were based on two of the three trifecta stats (attack speed, crit chance, crit damage). If you want all three stats, the prices will be dramatically higher. Usually go for crit chance with crit damage, otherwise attack speed and crit damage.
Also, you might be the first person to say I'm underestimating
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Perhaps target a new helm, or a Lacuni's with crit or a bigger Vile Ward (more int and more vitality)? Actually, you might be able to nab a Zuni Marrow with more vitality and around the same int stats for a respectable amount. I'll have to check the current prices since I haven't looked at Zunis in a while.
Edit: Never mind, I didn't notice the armor bonus for your Zuni Marrow.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
You're at that stage when it gets a little rough to upgrade. For 50M or less you can get a trifecta ring with bonus damage or an all resist Tal Rasha's helm. You will have to hunt for those two as they can vary as low as 30M to as high as 100M+.
On the note of rings, I've sniped a few trifecta rings for less than 30M before, so it's certainly doable (then I flip them when I find better ones). As an example, I bought a trifecta ring (31 dmg, 4 cc, 34 cd, 7 ias) for 28M not too long ago, and sold it today for 50M.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site