I think that anyone who wants to rely on Shield Bash as their primary spender or damage source may want to invest in the crafted crusader shield (Piro Marella)because it can reduce the wrath cost of Shield Bash by about 50%.
My favorite rune was Shield Cross, which would offer some AoE for about 1/3 of the main damage, but Pound seems like it hits very hard on bosses or elites.
I personally have zero problems landing shield bashes on my targets, buy my friends have complained about desynch or bad hit detection.
Getting a high block % on your shield pulls double duty as both a defensive and offensive increase in both Shield Bash and Blessed Shield builds.
If I were building with damage in mind, I'd use something like this:
I'd go for a Piro Marella with +11% block and high base block chance (29-31% after bonus), 10% critical hit, Strength, and +15% Shield Bash damage.
I'd also round out block % with a Justice Lantern rolled into Strength, Vitality, Critical Hit, and Block Chance, or a Helm of Rule with Block Chance, Strength, 6% Critical Hit, and +15% Shield Bash damage.
I'd use Hold your Ground and probably Divine Fortress because I'd have a 30% base block chance.
Pretty much agree with that. Just got 2 recipes (HoR and Piro) - seems that to use Shield Bash really effectively, you need to max out the needed stats (block chance/str/crit) with which your total skill damage could hop up to 1150% of wep dmg per hit (with only 1mil dps and 27% block chance as well as only 33% holy dmg and +40% dmg on elites I had up to 20 mil crits). Still I find this skill really buggy - sometimes it just seems to me that the skill simply doesn't hit the target + there are some terrain issues.
Got 2 set items for my Crusader. Shoulders dropped twice (once from Manglemaw before nerf). Also got 2 Blackthorne atm (had boots as well but they went to salvage).
What's more annoying is that I get same useless legendaries over and over again. IE: got 2 Vile Wards in a row (5 in total up to this day). Yesterday got 2 Goldskins in 3 hours of playing. 2 Zweihanders/Bovine bardiches/Mortal dramas/Skycutters etc. And no Gyrfalcon at all. Wanting it badly, and still hope for it to drop.
I'm sure with enough time you'll be able to get the most items in the game you want - just never give up! )
As for toughness, people tend to push for hich Vit/Life which doesn't yeld good results. It's better to have ~400k HP with higher resistances and some healing, than 600k hp with low resistances.
As for paper dps, it's pretty good to have high values, but you always have to consider other things. I hace 650k paper dps but ~100% fire damage, which is more or less 1.3m dps. So if somebody has 1m paper sheet dps and 30% of any elemental damage he's doing more or less same dps as I am.
On top of that I'm using Judgement - Resolved (with ~33% critical hit chance), which makes all my hits crits, thus my 650k is further increased in reference to somebody who has 55% crit chance.
But most important thing is to play the way and build that's most fun for you.
I still have no clue why you guys rely on a 20-second cd ability with an uptime of about 33% without any RCD items/gem/paragon skill. Though Mannercookie also points out that stacking over 20% CC is useless with that skill. Still i prefer to be ready to deal out dmg at any time i want to.
And about vit/AR - read Mannercookie again. He explains why more vit is essential ('cause you're going to have a bigger hp pool to prevent overhealing).
As for paper dps - you can't really trust it. Imagine the situation where you hit like a truck with extra strong 2-hander - you can deal out pretty big numbers, but you attack pretty slow and you also lack mobility which in elite/boss fights means you can't attack them consistently and therefore have a risk of dealing less damage overall.
Cry out on every corner about it and they'll soon nerf everything: items, skills, passives. Right now Crusader is too dependent on several items in the game (like this Gyrfalcon's which i didn't have a chance to get yet, Jekang's board - for Blessed shield, some 2-h for HF (and they've already nerfed its damage), prolly same fate is about 2-h for Bombardment skill) and still this class is far from competing with wizards. You shall be really glad you're lucky to get this amazing 1-hander and you shall not provoke Blizz and other people into QQing.
I wish blizzard would give us more MPL levels to play with, instead they are nerfing the endgame unneeded.
You are one of several millions of players, and of those players, far less than 1% have the gear you have. For the other 99.9% of other players, monster power is absolutely fine where it is. Asking for it to be adjusted further so you can feel a challenge on a character you have literally "maxed out" is pretty silly. Start a new character on hardcore and do MP10 the whole way through if you're looking for a challenge.
Again, this problem can be solved really easy: Blizz shall just place several elite packs together and link them with each other (excluding possibility of separating them). Try 8-12 affixes at a time if you're so pro! =P
Comparing my monk with 40k dps (400 AR/4500 armor/38k hp) to my WW barb with 90k dps (300 AR/6500 armor/38k hp) monk seems to be way stronger: he gains spirit faster, is more safe to get into combat (barb could be killed in just 2 seconds while monk can simply blind everyone after 2 hits) and i almost never die. Monk's budget is way lower too. Probably killspeed is a bit slower but to my mind it's better to go without deaths and kill slower than to die 10 times in a row sometimes.
The 100 AR makes all the difference, almost as much as the armor. You also could have more lifesteal/LOH on the monk than the barb. With equal stats (for argument, both classes have 60k dps, 400 AR, 5k armor, 38k HP), the barb will outlive the monk in most situations easily.
2000 armor > 100 resist in practically every situation (use EHP calculator to verify!).
That said, though, it doesn't matter how much gold you have invested if you have it invested wrong. If your monk has good life steal and life on hit while your barb does not, no wonder your barb dies so easily. Also, are the monk stats after skill/passive bonuses? If not, then obviously he's even tankier compared to your barb that probably uses no defensive skills/passives (you really shouldn't in 1.0.5, except maybe bloodthirst). Besides, 90k DPS is quite high if you're using a stat stick off hand with low DPS, but quite low if your off hand has the same DPS as your main hand.
All stats are counted including all passives. Barb's LoH = 800 + he has LL = 2,8%. Monk's Loh = 680-ish and no LL at all. Barb's passives are WM (for crit)/Ruthless (same purpose)/Superstition (to compensate lack of resistances). I was using a mid-rolled Skorn (1300 dps/290 str/240 crit hit dmg) - the main source of my dps.
I think the biggest problem for barb is getting rage from 0 (if you die or just running a long distance from mob to mob) - 'cause i'm using a bash (Instigation) as a generator. Since my swings are slow with Skorn, if I engage 2-3 "hard" monsters they can multishot me in just a sec. With Monk i'll simply blind them all and escape or just kill fast.
Got 3 legendaries (Triumvirate, Madstone and Sever) yesterday in just a quick Stonefort - Ghom run (maybe 40 mins as i only progress with my monk). MP3, 5NV, not more than 20 (^^) MF from items. Also must say that all of them cost less than 1 million (way too far from perfect rolls). So stop whining about droprate please.
Comparing my monk with 40k dps (400 AR/4500 armor/38k hp) to my WW barb with 90k dps (300 AR/6500 armor/38k hp) monk seems to be way stronger: he gains spirit faster, is more safe to get into combat (barb could be killed in just 2 seconds while monk can simply blind everyone after 2 hits) and i almost never die. Monk's budget is way lower too. Probably killspeed is a bit slower but to my mind it's better to go without deaths and kill slower than to die 10 times in a row sometimes.
Who cares what % of rares have 6 affixes. On AH you sell rares, not % of rares. Finding 2 more rares worth selling is 2 more rares you sell on the AH. Our profit in the end has nothing to do with how many trash vs good items we find, but rather just how many good items we find total. So this whole discussion is pretty silly.
If the extra item is only from normal monsters (which don't drop much anyway), then it makes monster power suck even more.
As for keys and parts, keep in mind that the scaling in drop rate is beneficial regardless of your DPS all the way up to MP3, as MP2->3 increases the chance by a factor of 1.5 (20%->30%) while the HP aren't multiplied by as much. Any MP levels higher than 3, though, would require that your DPS is high enough so that you waste enough time running around at MP3 for the HP increase from MP3->4 to be worth it (and same goes for higher MP levels, with the DPS requirements increasing by a lot every level, to the point where even perfectly geared players will still not bother with more than MP6).
For everything else (xp, mf) you need quite amazing gear (probably well over 200mil in total value, maybe even a lot more) to even think about going above MP0.
Well, you mean most people (like 80+ %) now are trying hard to beat Inferno?
I've spent like 10 mil at max on my Barb (WW) and i can handle all of the content. Even the hardest packs (though i die sometimes). And Blizz said that current difficulty is equal to MP 2-3. What on the Earth are you talking about then?
Wait, wait...
Even I can solo Diablo with my WW barb with 2-hander - and i've definitely spent not more than 10 mil as well. Have about 500 AR (avg) and 1300 LoH + 5.7 LL, 7.3k armor and 37k hp, about 50-60k dps...
No, I dont care about rares, since I am lvl30 paragon and found only 2 worth rares, I dont care about them anymore, just get them identify and sell, hehe ... I rlly hope 1.0.5 changes this feeling I have about rares now ... there are some runs that I am so bored that I even ignore rares and just keep running to other elites ... I have so bad luck
laters
Sorry for OT but yesterday i've got a Three-hundredth spear dropped for me from a barrel in Act 3 =) Not a great drop but still...
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Feel teh powah!
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What's more annoying is that I get same useless legendaries over and over again. IE: got 2 Vile Wards in a row (5 in total up to this day). Yesterday got 2 Goldskins in 3 hours of playing. 2 Zweihanders/Bovine bardiches/Mortal dramas/Skycutters etc. And no Gyrfalcon at all. Wanting it badly, and still hope for it to drop.
I'm sure with enough time you'll be able to get the most items in the game you want - just never give up! )
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And about vit/AR - read Mannercookie again. He explains why more vit is essential ('cause you're going to have a bigger hp pool to prevent overhealing).
As for paper dps - you can't really trust it. Imagine the situation where you hit like a truck with extra strong 2-hander - you can deal out pretty big numbers, but you attack pretty slow and you also lack mobility which in elite/boss fights means you can't attack them consistently and therefore have a risk of dealing less damage overall.
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Again, this problem can be solved really easy: Blizz shall just place several elite packs together and link them with each other (excluding possibility of separating them). Try 8-12 affixes at a time if you're so pro! =P
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They do stack, so weapon throw cost only 1 fury.
I wonder how much gold/$ was invested in this sick gear...
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All stats are counted including all passives. Barb's LoH = 800 + he has LL = 2,8%. Monk's Loh = 680-ish and no LL at all. Barb's passives are WM (for crit)/Ruthless (same purpose)/Superstition (to compensate lack of resistances). I was using a mid-rolled Skorn (1300 dps/290 str/240 crit hit dmg) - the main source of my dps.
I think the biggest problem for barb is getting rage from 0 (if you die or just running a long distance from mob to mob) - 'cause i'm using a bash (Instigation) as a generator. Since my swings are slow with Skorn, if I engage 2-3 "hard" monsters they can multishot me in just a sec. With Monk i'll simply blind them all and escape or just kill fast.
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Well, you mean most people (like 80+ %) now are trying hard to beat Inferno?
I've spent like 10 mil at max on my Barb (WW) and i can handle all of the content. Even the hardest packs (though i die sometimes). And Blizz said that current difficulty is equal to MP 2-3. What on the Earth are you talking about then?
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Even I can solo Diablo with my WW barb with 2-hander - and i've definitely spent not more than 10 mil as well. Have about 500 AR (avg) and 1300 LoH + 5.7 LL, 7.3k armor and 37k hp, about 50-60k dps...
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Sorry for OT but yesterday i've got a Three-hundredth spear dropped for me from a barrel in Act 3 =) Not a great drop but still...
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Mate, what's up with your arithmetic? 5.75 divided by 5 is equal to 1.15, not 1.12 (because 12 minutes is 1 hour divided by 5).
Sorry for off-topic.