HC just as much botting in my experience, if not even more due to there being more incentive to do so (multiple sets, and now Caldesann as well, which imho is a terrible thing added for HC).
It's just done with 'immortal' builds that don't die even if connection is lost. Crusaders.
Reason I posted this is that Caldesann ruined HC for me tho. Having multiple sets was an alright "twist", but losing enchanted gear just made me not want to restart on RIPs.
I'm mostly interested in group play. I don't care about solo much at all, I only do that if it's absolutely necessary. I don't have a team or anything either though, so I'd prefer something that doesn't ABSOLUTELY rely on others doing well (e.g. zero dps monk, if that still exists, I wouldn't want to be it now).
I haven't played this game since early RoS. Cleared content, got to the part where you just farm T6 indefinitely, got bored, quit. I've also never before played Hardcore, but I want to try it now. Any other tips/links/info are appreciated (like, how do I level in hc? is it safe to join pub games at any point of this adventure? where do I look for people to play with? anything to avoid in HC that's recommended in "what to do after dinging max level" guides? etc).
Thousand Storms is hella pointless unless you get really good rolls of it for the right slots. It's only 15% lightning damage for FOUR pieces. It's not a big deal when most single pieces with elemental damage can give 20% or more. Having 4 items with strong and useful affixes will be better than having 4piece Storms with bad rolls. My lightning character runs T5 with comfort and I use none of Storms (but I'm unlucky as hell with that set in particular). T6 is a stretch, but that's more so because our DPS specs are severely lacking. I doubt me getting the absolute BiS set (which is really just about losing Cain's 8% damage for 15% Lightning and 500 Dex) is going to change this at all.
Anyway.
Get an Aughild's (shoulder + chest) and a Cain's (boots + gloves) sets instead. Or you can do what a poster above said and get Aughild's + Storms, just drop one of the Storms pieces (chest or shoulder) and get an Aughild's bracer. That's not the best way to do it though because if you get a decent Strongarm Bracers, you absolutely want to use them - hands down one of the best items in the game if you're running in groups, and very good solo as well. But you can always re-craft and re-adjust your gear once you get them, so why not? This is why crafts are cool. (Edit: I don't think Reaper's are that good, by the way. I have a very good lightning version of them and Strongarms is just way ahead, I do however always run in groups - publics if nobody is online, rather that than alone.)
Reroll your helm to a socket and use % Life. You're at 287k, that's like half of what most people have - this is most likely your biggest survival problem. You should reroll that thing anyway because if you want damage, you go for +% Crit reroll.
Why did you reroll +armor on your belt? TGV drops with All Resist, why did you even touch it at all? You can go for AR or +Life on it, both will help you more than armor.
Your boots reroll question: if I remember right, boots can have LTK damage. I don't know, in your situation it's probably more useful to reroll the secondary, but LTK damage is cool too. To be honest I'd just craft Cain's boots and gloves, solve your gloves problem and improve all the affixes overall at the same time. Same goes for Shoulders, just with Aughild's set instead; but if you want to keep using Storms, I'd reroll SSS damage into vitality - as I said earlier, you lack a lot of hp.
RoRG reroll is awful as well, but I guess you're aware anyway.
Finally, and ironically the first thing you should try doing (cuz its free), is just using Mantra of Healing/Time of Need (or the life per hit rune even, if you feel like you lack sustain over reduction). You can then actually use Unity passive. You don't really end up losing that much anyway - how often do you really use your mantra when you have a spirit spender soaking up most of your spirit anyway? Furthermore you can even use Chant of Resonance (over Transcendence) to be able to use the MoH activation shield whenever it's necessary. I used to run that build myself a lot when I just started out playing in RoS and ran T4 with friends absolutely undergeared. The shield saved me a countless amount of times.
Edit: and regarding your poorness problem - stop running bounties as a primary activity. Do T1/T2 rifts. Do any rifts that you can comfortably do. You'll at least stack mats like that, for all the crafting and rerolling. Gold too.
Hope this helps. Didn't realize I wrote so much until I posted it, lol
I agree that Dex is awful. However there are now multiple builds monks have posted in these very forums showing 6-10 minute T6 clears. So Monk is not the issue, the player playing it is.
Wrong. Monk IS the issue. In order to be T6 viable, you have to either farm up enough gear with the same single-resist (usually lightning) to make OWE worth using OR you have to stack defensive stats and use a group-only build (zDPS monks).
It shouldn't take 5 to 10+ times the amount of play time of other classes for a monk to be viable at that level. In fact, the OWE talent basically completely breaks Monk balance. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that talent was the sole reason that Monks are such a shitty, extra time-demanding class. That talent definitely needs to be reworked or removed.
Don't get me wrong -- I love my Monk. I have a lot of fun playing her in at least a couple different specs. But I've still got another 200+ hours to put in before my Monk will be viable for T6. In fact, I basically have to replace every piece of my gear, even the great ones, just so I can get better single-resists. That's broken and it's the reason I've more-or-less stopped playing in the last few days. The carrot is just so far out of reach that I no longer see the point.
Also, Blizzard has already stated that they're going to improve Dexterity as a stat in 2.1. With any luck, those changes will make my Monk and DH a lot more enjoyable to play.
Don't bother, even if you get the best possible gear for your lightning monk you will never do enough damage to be T6 viable anyway.
However you can spec palm, craft a couple of different sets in a couple of hours and suddenly become one of the most demanded classes for T6. It'll literally take a couple of hours, I'm not exaggerating.
Whether this can be considered good design or healthy for the game is up to you. I don't see anything good about this type of progression at all.
I agree that Dex is awful. However there are now multiple builds monks have posted in these very forums showing 6-10 minute T6 clears. So Monk is not the issue, the player playing it is.
Variations of exploding palm build don't count as "multiple builds" in my opinion. The playstyles are similar, you just use different 'secondary' tools (if I can call it that) depending on how much CDR you have, and whether you play in groups or solo.
You basically can't find a decent group for T6 if you're a dps monk, unless you join a random public and force people to bear with you. Even T5 is a stretch - although I can pull my weight there with my extremely good Lightning set (BIS and very high rolls on everything of significance), it'd still go much faster if I just palmed. Our DPS builds are severely lacking, all of them.
Also I find the whole EP playstyle to be incredibly overpowered in general. I built a set for it and it literally trivializes the game to a point where T6 feels like T1, and it's mostly just crafted items (the only notable drop that makes a big difference really is the fist that increases palm explosion scaling - I have a 85% version, the max roll is 100%). The problem is that this build scales with enemy mob HP, not your gear, so it will stay just as viable even in the upcoming tiered rifts and whatnot. It's actually incredibly boring, and some of my friends have been asking me to start running something else simply because the game stopped being fun when I'm in the group.
I'd vote for a EP nerf in trade for a DPS buff any day of the week.
Well, for arcane I definitely always switch to my Julia's Cameo; the healing is just insane. But many other dangerous affixes are not mitigated by the String of Ears (Orbiter, Molten, Frozen Pulse) and those usually get me killed, especially Frozen Pulse because it's sometimes hard to notice. But I might edit that part and mention SoE as alternative. However, I really think one should aim for at least 2000 all resist and I just think that TGV gets you there earlier than the SoE which simply doesn't work on many dangerous affixes but helps a lot for stuff that doesn't kill you (a dozen white mobs hitting you). But yeah, SoE is a viable option.
What I was trying to say is that there's no one belt that is, like, a tier above all others. Both TGV and SoE are good ones, but I just felt like you put too much emphasis on highlighting TGV, almost as if it's a must have.
I always forget about Julia's existence though, I literally never had one myself lol. Yeah, if you're doing that switch, that definitely reduces the overall value of SoE.
In my final gear setup I have Aughild's instead of Born's - but still using Mind's Eye, because you can get to 70% CDR without Kekegi's. And honestly, you can never have enough spirit; more EP casts = more heal for the group and more explosions; more CS casts = avoid that a few mobs get away. Even with 300 spirit and 35 spirit regen I run out of spirit from time to time. More is just better and Kekegi's imho is simply no match for a well-rolled Mind's Eye by any stretch of imagination.
I can see socket as second priority but absolutely nothing is more important than CDR, I completely disagree here. If you don't get 2x 10% CDR on weapons you have absolutely no chance of getting to 70% - and imho 70% is crucial. With 70% CDR you've already got an Epiphany downtime of almost 4 seconds and that's already quite dangerous (Frozen/Jailer and GG). But I'll add socket as an alternative and #2 in the final gear, thanks.
I see. I think the reason we have different vision here is because the way I progressed to Karma's build is by slowly gearing towards CDR whilst running a "normal" EP build, with a spirit generator, whilst this guide is about rushing for CDR directly and adapting Karma's playstyle as soon as possible.
Actually didn't know that. Really? Even level 70 recipes roll level 70 stats on a level 1 character? That sounds almost broken. Thanks, I'll add that!
Yeah, I just did that a few days ago on a level 1 Crusader. Just remember to switch the crafting menu filter to "All" instead of "Highest usable" or whatever it's on by default.
Hm... I'll add it, but I'm not too keen on it. Litany has four fixed primaries (allres, life regeneration, main stat, elite reduction); so it cannot have both CDR and RCR, and it can never have lightning resist. It's pretty far off from my perfect ring. Maybe a strength Litany with high health globe bonus is an option, and then re-roll life regen to CDR. Along the same lines, a well-rolled Oculus is probably even better (same stats but IAS instead of life regen). Same problem - will never be really close to anything BiS, but maybe for beginners an option.
Yeah, it's far from a perfect or even a good one, but it seems to drop a lot and if you don't have a SoJ (which seems incredibly hard to get a decent roll of), you could run it. Oculus is a decent option too, used to play with one myself before SoJ; and used a Litany (which I got like, 5 of) early on.
I honestly don't see why you consider TGV to be necessary or even important for this build. The only benefit it has is the extra ~100-150ish resistance - it's really not that big of a deal, you can play without it; obviously I assume that you get a belt with lightning res or all res on it. I also still think String of Ears is way better, because it does work against Arcane and actual melee strikes are still a part of this game and 30% is a big number.
Regarding Kekegi's vs Mind's Eye: if you're at 70% CDR, you don't have any spirit issues anyway via Epiphany, but the reason you can do that and still have enough CDR is because you use Born's. I think the Aughilds + Kekegi's > Born's + Mind's Eye, though, because Aughild's set bonuses are overall stronger. Born's gets you 10% CDR and 15% Life versus Aughild's 15% to elites, -15% from elites, and -7% melee/ranged damage. It's just flat out better, imo, but I guess both variants work. I would put the Aughilds + Kekegi's variant as the primary one, however.
Armor roll is completely irrelevant too. No way you should mention that in front of elite damage reduction (on chest). If you get decent rolls, you'll want to use them regardless of how much armor the item rolled. I wouldn't advice people to pay attention to that at all.
I'd rank sockets on weapons above CDR as well, damage to elites is one of the few things that Exploding Palm does scale with. But it can work without sockets too, I guess.
Along with the "join a crafting community" tip I'd mention that you can craft things on a level 1 character, for those who don't play any of the str classes.
Otherwise this is pretty neat.
Edit: oh I'd also mention Litany as one of the possible rings. That thing drops a lot and it's decent for this build. Elite damage reduction is one of the strongest stats for this imo.
WoL is already a lot of spirit, having enough to also benefit from a Mantra activation requires either strong spirit regen (via the mentioned ring or just raw spirit/sec), and/or Chant of Resonance instead of Transcendence in the linked build. I run the latter myself sometimes if the group will greatly benefit from Overawe.However normally I'd recommend taking Mantra of Retribution with Transgression, and picking up the Unity passive - you gain 20% damage for yourself, and 5% damage and 10% attack speed for everybody in your group, without any reliance on the active effect of it (plus the Thorns damage will actually generate some DPS too, just that we can't quantify it).
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HC just as much botting in my experience, if not even more due to there being more incentive to do so (multiple sets, and now Caldesann as well, which imho is a terrible thing added for HC).
It's just done with 'immortal' builds that don't die even if connection is lost. Crusaders.
Reason I posted this is that Caldesann ruined HC for me tho. Having multiple sets was an alright "twist", but losing enchanted gear just made me not want to restart on RIPs.
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I'm interested. Wizard, 1175, GR 94 (12 mins).
Mikle#2598
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Yeah, so. What to roll for S2 hardcore?
I'm mostly interested in group play. I don't care about solo much at all, I only do that if it's absolutely necessary. I don't have a team or anything either though, so I'd prefer something that doesn't ABSOLUTELY rely on others doing well (e.g. zero dps monk, if that still exists, I wouldn't want to be it now).
I haven't played this game since early RoS. Cleared content, got to the part where you just farm T6 indefinitely, got bored, quit. I've also never before played Hardcore, but I want to try it now. Any other tips/links/info are appreciated (like, how do I level in hc? is it safe to join pub games at any point of this adventure? where do I look for people to play with? anything to avoid in HC that's recommended in "what to do after dinging max level" guides? etc).
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Anyway.
Get an Aughild's (shoulder + chest) and a Cain's (boots + gloves) sets instead. Or you can do what a poster above said and get Aughild's + Storms, just drop one of the Storms pieces (chest or shoulder) and get an Aughild's bracer. That's not the best way to do it though because if you get a decent Strongarm Bracers, you absolutely want to use them - hands down one of the best items in the game if you're running in groups, and very good solo as well. But you can always re-craft and re-adjust your gear once you get them, so why not? This is why crafts are cool. (Edit: I don't think Reaper's are that good, by the way. I have a very good lightning version of them and Strongarms is just way ahead, I do however always run in groups - publics if nobody is online, rather that than alone.)
Reroll your helm to a socket and use % Life. You're at 287k, that's like half of what most people have - this is most likely your biggest survival problem. You should reroll that thing anyway because if you want damage, you go for +% Crit reroll.
Why did you reroll +armor on your belt? TGV drops with All Resist, why did you even touch it at all? You can go for AR or +Life on it, both will help you more than armor.
Your boots reroll question: if I remember right, boots can have LTK damage. I don't know, in your situation it's probably more useful to reroll the secondary, but LTK damage is cool too. To be honest I'd just craft Cain's boots and gloves, solve your gloves problem and improve all the affixes overall at the same time. Same goes for Shoulders, just with Aughild's set instead; but if you want to keep using Storms, I'd reroll SSS damage into vitality - as I said earlier, you lack a lot of hp.
RoRG reroll is awful as well, but I guess you're aware anyway.
Finally, and ironically the first thing you should try doing (cuz its free), is just using Mantra of Healing/Time of Need (or the life per hit rune even, if you feel like you lack sustain over reduction). You can then actually use Unity passive. You don't really end up losing that much anyway - how often do you really use your mantra when you have a spirit spender soaking up most of your spirit anyway? Furthermore you can even use Chant of Resonance (over Transcendence) to be able to use the MoH activation shield whenever it's necessary. I used to run that build myself a lot when I just started out playing in RoS and ran T4 with friends absolutely undergeared. The shield saved me a countless amount of times.
Edit: and regarding your poorness problem - stop running bounties as a primary activity. Do T1/T2 rifts. Do any rifts that you can comfortably do. You'll at least stack mats like that, for all the crafting and rerolling. Gold too.
Hope this helps. Didn't realize I wrote so much until I posted it, lol
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Honestly, it isn't.
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However you can spec palm, craft a couple of different sets in a couple of hours and suddenly become one of the most demanded classes for T6. It'll literally take a couple of hours, I'm not exaggerating.
Whether this can be considered good design or healthy for the game is up to you. I don't see anything good about this type of progression at all.
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You basically can't find a decent group for T6 if you're a dps monk, unless you join a random public and force people to bear with you. Even T5 is a stretch - although I can pull my weight there with my extremely good Lightning set (BIS and very high rolls on everything of significance), it'd still go much faster if I just palmed. Our DPS builds are severely lacking, all of them.
Also I find the whole EP playstyle to be incredibly overpowered in general. I built a set for it and it literally trivializes the game to a point where T6 feels like T1, and it's mostly just crafted items (the only notable drop that makes a big difference really is the fist that increases palm explosion scaling - I have a 85% version, the max roll is 100%). The problem is that this build scales with enemy mob HP, not your gear, so it will stay just as viable even in the upcoming tiered rifts and whatnot. It's actually incredibly boring, and some of my friends have been asking me to start running something else simply because the game stopped being fun when I'm in the group.
I'd vote for a EP nerf in trade for a DPS buff any day of the week.
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I always forget about Julia's existence though, I literally never had one myself lol. Yeah, if you're doing that switch, that definitely reduces the overall value of SoE.
I see. I think the reason we have different vision here is because the way I progressed to Karma's build is by slowly gearing towards CDR whilst running a "normal" EP build, with a spirit generator, whilst this guide is about rushing for CDR directly and adapting Karma's playstyle as soon as possible.
Yeah, I just did that a few days ago on a level 1 Crusader. Just remember to switch the crafting menu filter to "All" instead of "Highest usable" or whatever it's on by default.
Yeah, it's far from a perfect or even a good one, but it seems to drop a lot and if you don't have a SoJ (which seems incredibly hard to get a decent roll of), you could run it. Oculus is a decent option too, used to play with one myself before SoJ; and used a Litany (which I got like, 5 of) early on.
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Regarding Kekegi's vs Mind's Eye: if you're at 70% CDR, you don't have any spirit issues anyway via Epiphany, but the reason you can do that and still have enough CDR is because you use Born's. I think the Aughilds + Kekegi's > Born's + Mind's Eye, though, because Aughild's set bonuses are overall stronger. Born's gets you 10% CDR and 15% Life versus Aughild's 15% to elites, -15% from elites, and -7% melee/ranged damage. It's just flat out better, imo, but I guess both variants work. I would put the Aughilds + Kekegi's variant as the primary one, however.
Armor roll is completely irrelevant too. No way you should mention that in front of elite damage reduction (on chest). If you get decent rolls, you'll want to use them regardless of how much armor the item rolled. I wouldn't advice people to pay attention to that at all.
I'd rank sockets on weapons above CDR as well, damage to elites is one of the few things that Exploding Palm does scale with. But it can work without sockets too, I guess.
Along with the "join a crafting community" tip I'd mention that you can craft things on a level 1 character, for those who don't play any of the str classes.
Otherwise this is pretty neat.
Edit: oh I'd also mention Litany as one of the possible rings. That thing drops a lot and it's decent for this build. Elite damage reduction is one of the strongest stats for this imo.
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