I am a large blizzard fan. I have played their games a ton. 1000s of huors of enjoyment. If I never played D3 again it was worth the 3 copies I purchased for my family. In playing their games I have seen them shut down a game immediately because the top boss that only .00000000001 percent of the population could even get to was able to be killed easily because of bug and issued a rollback. Why on earth didn't they shut down the servers immediatley, this information was out fast. If the servers were shut down quickly a rollback would have caused hardly any hardship at all and fixed everything. The bug I understand...poop happens. Not shutting down the servers once they were aware of the problem, then continuing to not shut it down really limited their options in dealing with the issues and made the cleanup much messier. I am disappointed.
I returned to D3 recently and received a bunch of quality advice from a number of kind people on these forums. I was low in resources, 200k and my gear was very outdated. I want to share what I have learned in my short journey so far. I ended up using a Black Ice/Blizzard build because it was cheap. Here is my story. This build is not original https://us.battle.ne...opic/7681548262 I cannot play without Teleport and Hydra is unnecessary DPS. IMO Black Ice and Blizzard is all you need.
Black Ice is the way to go here. At 504% weapon damage, if used properly it can melt mobs. It self propagates meaning a creature dying to black ice will make more black ice. If you use terrain to your advantage you can watch mobs kill themselves. I will try to show this in the new video.
Snowblast is actually very useful in some multiplayer games. At MP8-10 if your DPS is not high enough that you are getting a reasonable amount of black ice you should switch to this rune. 364% weapon damage is very helpful with elites, golblins rares and bosses.
Sleetstorm can be used but only when your gear makes you more tanky. This plays more like a tank and can be impressive but certain affixes will make you a little nuts. 364% AOE with a blizzard on your head is pretty fun though.
I do not like the other rune choices.
Blizzard
The build is called Black Ice but I think it should be called Snowbound(maybe, Black Ice sounds cooler though). Blizzard at only 20 AP is one the best skills available to us. Nearly any death can be prevented with another Blizzard. The benefits from the other runes are nothing compared to only 20 AP. Nothing is more critical to this build than being able to cast a Blizzard when you need one. The synergy with black ice can be hurt if you freeze the mobs apart, black ice is a small radius. Extra duration is not as good as casting a second blizzard. Increased radius is not as good as 2 blizzards. Snowbound is king here. LoH works nice with a lot of blizzards and the new monster density so having some mixed in to your gear is great.
Armor
Storm armor
I like Reactive for solo play. The mobs are going to be on you. LS does proc on this so it is a damage shield. You know your gear is appropriate for the MP level when some mobs one shot themselves attacking you.
Power of the storm is very useful if you gear does not support RoF AP. It will usually always fix the problem but it does slow down farming somewhat so it is not ideal or a good long term solution. It can get you through gear gaps.
Energy Armor.
Pinpoint Barrier is my rune choice for MP 8-9-10 group play. I need the extra crit without the scoundrel because the elite fights are longer, more crit equals more AP when geared with AP on crit. I lways use this on group play now. Mobs do not stick to me enough to make reactive armor worth it. With Cold Blooded on d3 up my DPS goes up to 285k and 304k vs elites.
Prismatic barrier, every time I think I need it my gear is not good enough for the MP I am playing, moving back one MP is the right choice if you think you need this. The other alternative is more EHP on your gear (better).
Magic Weapon
Force weapon is the way to go here. I have used conduit if I need a small bump in AP because of my gear. Blood magic could be useful if your weapon does not supply enough LS.
Familiar
Spark Flint is a nice DPS boost. Arcanot can be used if you are having serious AP issues or if you do not want to use Astral presence.
Teleport
I can’t play without this. I only use Fracture. I am sure someone could play without it. Experiment here if you like but this builds biggest weakness is to CC. I love teleport fracture.
Slow Time
I have started experimenting with this in group play. The 20% damagefrom Time Warp seems to speed group clearing, it appears to be a fair trade of against personal surviviability of teleport I would only use with high EHP stats.
Passive Skills
Cold blooded. No explanation necessary. Use it
Astral Presence. I have tried to use other things. I find this mandatory as well. Running out of AP for just a second can kill you while tanking a reflective elite while standing in some evil poop on the ground.
I mess around with the third one often and it usually about gear, MP level, group or Solo. Glass cannon at lower MP with high DPS is very productive. Blur is nice at higher MP. I have recently settled on Unstable Anomaly because I die very infrequently, but when I do it is usually an unlucky set of circumstance that UA prevents. Others have used Power Hungry/ with pick up radius. I am not found of that option. I like to go after other stats on my gear.
The Gear
The build is trying to leverage High Weapon Damage combined with no IAS stats. This helps with cost. Trifecta gear is very expensive. IAS actually hurts this build. Crit chance a Crit damage are key the higher the better. 50 CC and 500 CD is sweet.
Weapons
Skorn
I prefer a high LS one. You can make due at very low MP with LoH if you cast a lot of blizzards. Crit Damage, Intelligence and Average dam are key here. This build is possible with a triumvirate and 1 hnd black weapon damage weapon and make sure have 2 sources of AP on Crit. I have not tested it myself so I cannot comment on it. It should work. A lower speed 1hnd would be helpful to you
Helm
If you are planning on Tal’s 4 piece set bonus the guise of wisdom is you choice here. I prefer Storm Crow as your CC increase so I can use AP on crit instead of Tal 4 piece
Amulet
Tal allegiance’s W/CC is must if using Tal 4 piece You want a good one, your amulet provides a lot of stats. If using a storm crow, craft one with High CC and CD with other good stats.
Chest
Tals relentless pursuit or a Zuni Marrow here. A nice crafted one with work as well. Tyreals Might could be awesome but the ones you want are crazy expensive. 3 Sockets and high stats. The Tal chest will inflate your DPS do not be fooled. The IAS DPS increase hurts, not help.
Shoulders
Craft or vile ward
Gloves
Craft high CC,INT CD gloves EHP here helpful
Belt
Tal belt or rare. Get some EHP here
Legs
I prefer Depth Diggers with big stats but there are a few options here. Get EHP here for sure
Boots
Zuni Trail is what I use. If I could find the tight Ice climbers with MS that did not break the bank I would. I cant find them at a bargain. I love the zunI 2 and 3 piece set bionus for this build though.
Rings
I use a Zuni Pox with High CC here but it is not a must. Other rings make great options. Go after your core stats here, high CC and CD int and EHP stats too.
My current gear level farms MP8 with speed solo and I can hang in MP9 and 10 group play. MP9 is better because there are way more leechers in MP10. The key to group play is blizzard and not RoF. Cover the board with them, WW barbs go everywhere, one should always be centered on the CM wizard at all times too. One centered on you as well.
Remember, this build is about Life Return, D3 is fast and dynamic, casting your blizzards where you anticipate the mobs are going to be is key. Once you become good at this, this build is freakin awesome. Good luck. Look for new video here in the upcoming days.
Everything you attack, cold blooded applies because all of your dps is frost, so the effective DPS is higher than listed. Pretty much everything you attack has a bizzard on top of it as well. This is why every time I try archon I go back to black ice. On d3up my effectve DPS is 285k and 304k vs elites.
Use a calculator or spreadsheet and know your conversions. Bagstone’s gear guide is an absolute must, it contains so much information, it is embarrassing when he answers your questions pointing to the guide and you have already read it and he has linked it for you previously(It has happened to me). http://www.diablofan...ard-gear-guide/
Well written. I appreciate the effort you put into that. Educating people is often the first step towards reasonable discussion. I have recently returned to the game after a long break and think the game is better. However the fundamental flaw still remains for a person with limited time. It is a far far better use of time to play the AH to improve your gear than it is to play the game.
Watching the AH gives me a far better opportunity to improve my character. It is slowing down somewhat but not a lot. In a little over a week I quadrupled my DPS and survivability by playing the AH. I am not wearing a single drop. I was for 1 day. I loathe crafting in all games most specifically one with RNG in it. I have not found a good drop to sell yet (something worth over 1 million). I am farming MP5 act 3 solo and in groups with speed. I am only paragon 19 so MF and GF are far from optimal. I stopped playing the day paragons were introduced.
I like a number of the changes and fixes. I am encouraged by 1.08. However, I do not see a situation where I will be able to play that long before boredom returns. Playing the game needs to be more productive than playing the AH. It is the only solution that will get me to buy an expansion and play the game long term.
Removing items from circulation is the only solution to me. I know people enjoy the AH. There needs to be a compromise though. The one I have mentioned before is. An item should be allowed to be traded or sold 1 time. After that in should become bind on account. This would allow the developers a way to fix the drops and allow them to become more useful and get items out of the economy.
An awesome item drops for you that you cannot use you can still sell it or trade for something you can use. I do not want to craft. I want to play for a hour or a few hours at a challenging MP level and have reasonable chance for Item to drop that I can use or sell. I do not need every play session that way but most would be nice. If items stop dropping I can’t use, it should cause me to go up in MP power.
Facerolling stuff super fast to farm is boring to me. Push me to play smarter, play harder content and REWARD me for my efforts. Right now the best rewards come from playing the AH and it isn’t even close.
It is amazing who people choose to listen to and follow. There are people on these boards who give freely of their own time to help others. They try and increase the enjoyment of others for no other reason than satisfaction received from doing something selfless. Then you have people who play a game they spent $50 on, and play it for 1000s of hours, become somewhat famous and profit off it, then they turn around and bash it. Then idiots mindlessly listen to them and drink their Kool Aid. Are you kidding me? If you are still playing this game after your modest initial investment, you like it or are a fool. I am not saying, criticism is unwarranted or wanting it be better is unreasonable, but claiming it is terrible after playing it so much, makes whatever you say meaningless.
1
6
The Build . http://us.battle.net...QSTj!ZXW!cbYZaa as I use it
My current gear http://us.battle.net...97/hero/4552603
The Active Skills
Ray of Frost
Black Ice is the way to go here. At 504% weapon damage, if used properly it can melt mobs. It self propagates meaning a creature dying to black ice will make more black ice. If you use terrain to your advantage you can watch mobs kill themselves. I will try to show this in the new video.
Snowblast is actually very useful in some multiplayer games. At MP8-10 if your DPS is not high enough that you are getting a reasonable amount of black ice you should switch to this rune. 364% weapon damage is very helpful with elites, golblins rares and bosses.
Sleetstorm can be used but only when your gear makes you more tanky. This plays more like a tank and can be impressive but certain affixes will make you a little nuts. 364% AOE with a blizzard on your head is pretty fun though.
I do not like the other rune choices.
Blizzard
The build is called Black Ice but I think it should be called Snowbound(maybe, Black Ice sounds cooler though). Blizzard at only 20 AP is one the best skills available to us. Nearly any death can be prevented with another Blizzard. The benefits from the other runes are nothing compared to only 20 AP. Nothing is more critical to this build than being able to cast a Blizzard when you need one. The synergy with black ice can be hurt if you freeze the mobs apart, black ice is a small radius. Extra duration is not as good as casting a second blizzard. Increased radius is not as good as 2 blizzards. Snowbound is king here. LoH works nice with a lot of blizzards and the new monster density so having some mixed in to your gear is great.
Armor
Storm armor
I like Reactive for solo play. The mobs are going to be on you. LS does proc on this so it is a damage shield. You know your gear is appropriate for the MP level when some mobs one shot themselves attacking you.
Power of the storm is very useful if you gear does not support RoF AP. It will usually always fix the problem but it does slow down farming somewhat so it is not ideal or a good long term solution. It can get you through gear gaps.
Energy Armor.
Pinpoint Barrier is my rune choice for MP 8-9-10 group play. I need the extra crit without the scoundrel because the elite fights are longer, more crit equals more AP when geared with AP on crit. I lways use this on group play now. Mobs do not stick to me enough to make reactive armor worth it. With Cold Blooded on d3 up my DPS goes up to 285k and 304k vs elites.
Prismatic barrier, every time I think I need it my gear is not good enough for the MP I am playing, moving back one MP is the right choice if you think you need this. The other alternative is more EHP on your gear (better).
Magic Weapon
Force weapon is the way to go here. I have used conduit if I need a small bump in AP because of my gear. Blood magic could be useful if your weapon does not supply enough LS.
Familiar
Spark Flint is a nice DPS boost. Arcanot can be used if you are having serious AP issues or if you do not want to use Astral presence.
Teleport
I can’t play without this. I only use Fracture. I am sure someone could play without it. Experiment here if you like but this builds biggest weakness is to CC. I love teleport fracture.
Slow Time
I have started experimenting with this in group play. The 20% damagefrom Time Warp seems to speed group clearing, it appears to be a fair trade of against personal surviviability of teleport I would only use with high EHP stats.
Passive Skills
Cold blooded. No explanation necessary. Use it
Astral Presence. I have tried to use other things. I find this mandatory as well. Running out of AP for just a second can kill you while tanking a reflective elite while standing in some evil poop on the ground.
I mess around with the third one often and it usually about gear, MP level, group or Solo. Glass cannon at lower MP with high DPS is very productive. Blur is nice at higher MP. I have recently settled on Unstable Anomaly because I die very infrequently, but when I do it is usually an unlucky set of circumstance that UA prevents. Others have used Power Hungry/ with pick up radius. I am not found of that option. I like to go after other stats on my gear.
The Gear
The build is trying to leverage High Weapon Damage combined with no IAS stats. This helps with cost. Trifecta gear is very expensive. IAS actually hurts this build. Crit chance a Crit damage are key the higher the better. 50 CC and 500 CD is sweet.
Weapons
Skorn
I prefer a high LS one. You can make due at very low MP with LoH if you cast a lot of blizzards. Crit Damage, Intelligence and Average dam are key here. This build is possible with a triumvirate and 1 hnd black weapon damage weapon and make sure have 2 sources of AP on Crit. I have not tested it myself so I cannot comment on it. It should work. A lower speed 1hnd would be helpful to you
Helm
If you are planning on Tal’s 4 piece set bonus the guise of wisdom is you choice here. I prefer Storm Crow as your CC increase so I can use AP on crit instead of Tal 4 piece
Amulet
Tal allegiance’s W/CC is must if using Tal 4 piece You want a good one, your amulet provides a lot of stats. If using a storm crow, craft one with High CC and CD with other good stats.
Chest
Tals relentless pursuit or a Zuni Marrow here. A nice crafted one with work as well. Tyreals Might could be awesome but the ones you want are crazy expensive. 3 Sockets and high stats. The Tal chest will inflate your DPS do not be fooled. The IAS DPS increase hurts, not help.
Shoulders
Craft or vile ward
Gloves
Craft high CC,INT CD gloves EHP here helpful
Belt
Tal belt or rare. Get some EHP here
Legs
I prefer Depth Diggers with big stats but there are a few options here. Get EHP here for sure
Boots
Zuni Trail is what I use. If I could find the tight Ice climbers with MS that did not break the bank I would. I cant find them at a bargain. I love the zunI 2 and 3 piece set bionus for this build though.
Rings
I use a Zuni Pox with High CC here but it is not a must. Other rings make great options. Go after your core stats here, high CC and CD int and EHP stats too.
My current gear level farms MP8 with speed solo and I can hang in MP9 and 10 group play. MP9 is better because there are way more leechers in MP10. The key to group play is blizzard and not RoF. Cover the board with them, WW barbs go everywhere, one should always be centered on the CM wizard at all times too. One centered on you as well.
Remember, this build is about Life Return, D3 is fast and dynamic, casting your blizzards where you anticipate the mobs are going to be is key. Once you become good at this, this build is freakin awesome. Good luck. Look for new video here in the upcoming days.
Everything you attack, cold blooded applies because all of your dps is frost, so the effective DPS is higher than listed. Pretty much everything you attack has a bizzard on top of it as well. This is why every time I try archon I go back to black ice. On d3up my effectve DPS is 285k and 304k vs elites.
Use a calculator or spreadsheet and know your conversions. Bagstone’s gear guide is an absolute must, it contains so much information, it is embarrassing when he answers your questions pointing to the guide and you have already read it and he has linked it for you previously(It has happened to me). http://www.diablofan...ard-gear-guide/
1
Watching the AH gives me a far better opportunity to improve my character. It is slowing down somewhat but not a lot. In a little over a week I quadrupled my DPS and survivability by playing the AH. I am not wearing a single drop. I was for 1 day. I loathe crafting in all games most specifically one with RNG in it. I have not found a good drop to sell yet (something worth over 1 million). I am farming MP5 act 3 solo and in groups with speed. I am only paragon 19 so MF and GF are far from optimal. I stopped playing the day paragons were introduced.
I like a number of the changes and fixes. I am encouraged by 1.08. However, I do not see a situation where I will be able to play that long before boredom returns. Playing the game needs to be more productive than playing the AH. It is the only solution that will get me to buy an expansion and play the game long term.
Removing items from circulation is the only solution to me. I know people enjoy the AH. There needs to be a compromise though. The one I have mentioned before is. An item should be allowed to be traded or sold 1 time. After that in should become bind on account. This would allow the developers a way to fix the drops and allow them to become more useful and get items out of the economy.
An awesome item drops for you that you cannot use you can still sell it or trade for something you can use. I do not want to craft. I want to play for a hour or a few hours at a challenging MP level and have reasonable chance for Item to drop that I can use or sell. I do not need every play session that way but most would be nice. If items stop dropping I can’t use, it should cause me to go up in MP power.
Facerolling stuff super fast to farm is boring to me. Push me to play smarter, play harder content and REWARD me for my efforts. Right now the best rewards come from playing the AH and it isn’t even close.
1