First of all, great guide Yorricman! I've been using VQ/bears and have been cruising through act 1, also act 2 started working for me when getting better gear. I started getting trouble with some elite packs in act 3 though, and decided to try your build out, as it seemed key to get some distance between yourself and certain mobs. Therefor I spent pretty much all my cash on yesterday on items for this build, and am quite pleased with the result.
The elite packs in act 3 felt alot more manageable, and I'm not even close in terms of gear, to what this build can accomplish (currently 25% crit, 150% more crit dmg).
However last night i ran into them big fast mobs in the fortified bunker which basicly 1-2 hits me to death and has like 500% walking speed. I have alot to learn about how to make this build work for me perfectly, but this is step 1 for me. I tried making them stuck in terrain, but often i cant hit them with dire bats from there. How do you handle these mobs? Didn't see them in any of your videos, maybe i missed it.
Help is greatly appreciated
Fast is a problem for sure, and dire bats is certainly weaker in the first part of Act III because of LoS issues. The most effective way to kill fast mobs is to:
(1) 12% movement speed is not good enough in Act III against fast affix--it's worth pushing that up to 18%-19% (this may require buying some pants JUST for fast affix mobs).
(2) Try and split up the group so you're only taking dmg from one elite instead of 3-4....your hex will keep it down most of the time and you can burn it down (this is where jinx shines)
(3) Just get more dps. Act III requires a LOT of dps to "feel right". It takes a long time to get to that threshold--you definitely need 30k+ dps, and much more is desirable so you can get those packs down fast before they get to you.
You're right about keeping certain mobs at a distance. Heralds of Pestalence are prime examples, but those awful birds in Act III and the Fire Mages--keep them at max distance from your bats and just spam until they are dead. Basically anything with its own projectile (spear throwers, fireball throwers). All Resist also makes a HUGE difference in Act III after 1.0.3. I was a glass cannon before 1.0.3 and could only take 1-2 spears before I died or triggered spirit vessel. Now I can take 6-8--this make a huge difference in your ability to kind of face tank some white mobs and kill them before they have a chance to kill you (life leech/life on hit is good for this--even a little bit makes a big difference).
That said, I I won't lie--there are some elites that are just close to impossible not to die on a few times with this build--I assume tanking them is the only way to survive without dying solo. These include:
(1) Phase Beasts with teleport and illusionist (act III)
(2) Corruptors with Fast or Teleport (act IV)
If you can give me the name of the mobs you're having trouble with I will hunt them down and put up a video for you showing my strategy for killing them. Hope it helps.
I think he's talking about the giant guys that run through doorways and break them. The elite version of them is probably my least favorite mob in the area that I typically farm (siegebreaker farm).
The best advice I can give you is zombie wall. They cannot be hexed and they run right through grasp in under a second so yeah... zombie wall has been the only solution I could find. If you have enough defensive stats it can help to equip a shield as well... but typically I just burn them down. Sometimes you can also get them stuck in a doorway but I haven't found a good way to do that reliably... it just happens sometimes.
First of all, great guide Yorricman! I've been using VQ/bears and have been cruising through act 1, also act 2 started working for me when getting better gear. I started getting trouble with some elite packs in act 3 though, and decided to try your build out, as it seemed key to get some distance between yourself and certain mobs. Therefor I spent pretty much all my cash on yesterday on items for this build, and am quite pleased with the result.
The elite packs in act 3 felt alot more manageable, and I'm not even close in terms of gear, to what this build can accomplish (currently 25% crit, 150% more crit dmg).
However last night i ran into them big fast mobs in the fortified bunker which basicly 1-2 hits me to death and has like 500% walking speed. I have alot to learn about how to make this build work for me perfectly, but this is step 1 for me. I tried making them stuck in terrain, but often i cant hit them with dire bats from there. How do you handle these mobs? Didn't see them in any of your videos, maybe i missed it.
Help is greatly appreciated
Fast is a problem for sure, and dire bats is certainly weaker in the first part of Act III because of LoS issues. The most effective way to kill fast mobs is to:
(1) 12% movement speed is not good enough in Act III against fast affix--it's worth pushing that up to 18%-19% (this may require buying some pants JUST for fast affix mobs).
(2) Try and split up the group so you're only taking dmg from one elite instead of 3-4....your hex will keep it down most of the time and you can burn it down (this is where jinx shines)
(3) Just get more dps. Act III requires a LOT of dps to "feel right". It takes a long time to get to that threshold--you definitely need 30k+ dps, and much more is desirable so you can get those packs down fast before they get to you.
You're right about keeping certain mobs at a distance. Heralds of Pestalence are prime examples, but those awful birds in Act III and the Fire Mages--keep them at max distance from your bats and just spam until they are dead. Basically anything with its own projectile (spear throwers, fireball throwers). All Resist also makes a HUGE difference in Act III after 1.0.3. I was a glass cannon before 1.0.3 and could only take 1-2 spears before I died or triggered spirit vessel. Now I can take 6-8--this make a huge difference in your ability to kind of face tank some white mobs and kill them before they have a chance to kill you (life leech/life on hit is good for this--even a little bit makes a big difference).
That said, I I won't lie--there are some elites that are just close to impossible not to die on a few times with this build--I assume tanking them is the only way to survive without dying solo. These include:
(1) Phase Beasts with teleport and illusionist (act III)
(2) Corruptors with Fast or Teleport (act IV)
If you can give me the name of the mobs you're having trouble with I will hunt them down and put up a video for you showing my strategy for killing them. Hope it helps.
I think he's talking about the giant guys that run through doorways and break them. The elite version of them is probably my least favorite mob in the area that I typically farm (siegebreaker farm).
The best advice I can give you is zombie wall. They cannot be hexed and they run right through grasp in under a second so yeah... zombie wall has been the only solution I could find. If you have enough defensive stats it can help to equip a shield as well... but typically I just burn them down. Sometimes you can also get them stuck in a doorway but I haven't found a good way to do that reliably... it just happens sometimes.
Are you talking about the guys that hunker down and hugely increase their defenses? When they have a fast affix they go really really fast? Is that what you mean?
Yes, the guys that go into their shells and barely take any damage. The problem is that they're really fast even without a fast affix + they hit like trucks + hex doesn't work on them.
Yes, the guys that go into their shells and barely take any damage. The problem is that they're really fast even without a fast affix + they hit like trucks + hex doesn't work on them.
In the places I farm I almost never come upon elite versions. I will try to find a fast version--I assume they can be found in the keep / bunker?
Yes, the guys that go into their shells and barely take any damage. The problem is that they're really fast even without a fast affix + they hit like trucks + hex doesn't work on them.
In the places I farm I almost never come upon elite versions. I will try to find a fast version--I assume they can be found in the keep / bunker?
yup there's plenty of them almost 100% chance elites in the bunker. Sometimes I have 2 elites/champions with these monesters. It is very annoying.
I've been using your build for some time and it's way better than splinters which seems very very slow to kill anything. Now with my gear I've got bat crits close to 400k (45%crit chance), adding mana regen makes me feel like I added attack speed which is pretty cool (50mana regen atm).
Wow dude--400k bats crits! That's very impressive you must have a good chunk more intellect than I've managed to get on my gear (my bats crit around 280, highest ones are in the low 300's). Are your resists also sufficiently high? I just find that gear with good crit and crit damage doesn't often ALSO have good intellect and All Resist. And since I had to prioritize All Resist for act III/act iv/diablo, i sacrificed lots of intellect. Maybe I should pick up a few REALLY high int roll items like legs/chest/belt/shoulders to farm act I super fast.
I've got about 300% crit dmg and 600-700resists, ~42k hp. I don't really like to play glass cannon where every little mob can kill you (like the little shadow ones in act 4). I sacrificed resists on gloves and chest coz I think it's not worth to lose dps from this piece of gear and I've never had on rings/amulet and helm (I think mana regen+crit+socket+decent int>resists- really hard to find one with good stats +resists even if you have gold). I've got weapon only 820dps but with 279intellect+130% crit dmg (only 70%gem). Overall I have just a bit more than 2k int.
I've been playing around with the second dps skill and I'm still not decided which one is the best fetish +ambush pretty cool but cd is way too long which makes it a bit useless sometimes. Pile on good dmg (very often ~1.5mln), short cd, hard to hit sometimes:/ (especially while running) for the moment (while playing with barb) I'm going to use vodoo+mana coz even with vision on+low mana regen you can't spam bats as fast as your attack speed allows you to (still can hear my char comments about no mana).
ROFL. Yeah...you WAY WAY outgear me. I have like 1300 intellect, 50% crit chance, 280% crit damage, 32k hp, 500 all resist, 3300 armor--I have absolutely no perfect pieces, so not one thing that has crit/crit dmg/int/all resist/vitality--I always have to sacrifice one or even two stats because I can't afford better. You should make some videos of you tearing it up--it must be insane, because right now about 95% of the game feels pretty faceroll to me (there are obviously some very difficult packs still, but that's the nature of RNG!!) so it must be cake for you. At this point each legitimate upgrade for me averages 30 million and I just don't have the luck with awesome drops to support that kind of cost very often (the last upgrade I got was an amulet three weeks ago--and I'm still sitting under 3 million gold because i don't have much time to play and I never get good drops when I do).
^ Your gear seems fine, just need more intellect probably to get to ~30-35k. But the resistance/hp/crit/crit damage is exactly where you want it to be.
Really you just need room to kite. VQBats is never going to be great when you're running around in dungeons, it's not built for that. Best things you can do vs those guys is probably to not have Hex and use ZW. I don't feel like BBV or FA is necessarily that great against those mobs. But that may not be worth it to you vs other packs. Also, the Templar is going to be better than the Scoundrel, despite having Anatomy/Hysteria.
Why are you using bats in act 1? I understand acts 2-4, as I use the same build there.. but when I go back to faceroll act 1 (perhaps to farm pots, or with lesser geared friends) I almost always run with pile-on and bears. Bears just do way more dmg and act 1 is super easy to just face tank and use health globes dropping from massive bear dmg to keep you alive.
Why are you using bats in act 1? I understand acts 2-4, as I use the same build there.. but when I go back to faceroll act 1 (perhaps to farm pots, or with lesser geared friends) I almost always run with pile-on and bears. Bears just do way more dmg and act 1 is super easy to just face tank and use health globes dropping from massive bear dmg to keep you alive.
Fair question. I guess I just find that holding down bears is boring, and I've developed a proficiency using bats. It's just a more active playsyle/feel to me. To be honest, I never even step foot in act I anymore since I'm able to do Act III now with only very rare deaths. When I go back I promise I'll give it a try.
Yea, i usually only go back to act 1 to faceroll with friends or farm some pots I'm at the point where i can 1 shot crit most trash in act 3, so i just need a bit more crit (im at 30%) to be consistent and probably some more survivability >_>
Certain parts of Act III are just pretty tough, especially the beginning. At this point with my gear it's not hard, but I literally only did the keep ONCE to get to the much easier open area of the field and the bridge up to siegebreaker and beyond. That, to me at least, was the best place to farm for drops that could fund my AH purchases.
You definitely need to get good at dodging arrows--I have about 500 all resist now (580 with a 5 stack of soul harvest) and can take 6-8 of them which is nice, but early on I could only take 2-3 which is okay on the field but very hard in the closed-off keep. Your HP is quite high, much higher than mine--I think you could sacrifice some vit for more AR (check your effective health on a calculator of course, but your hp seems high for your amount of AR).
You can see videos of me farming Act III and some mobs in Act IV on my Youtube channel:
I think he's talking about the giant guys that run through doorways and break them. The elite version of them is probably my least favorite mob in the area that I typically farm (siegebreaker farm).
The best advice I can give you is zombie wall. They cannot be hexed and they run right through grasp in under a second so yeah... zombie wall has been the only solution I could find. If you have enough defensive stats it can help to equip a shield as well... but typically I just burn them down. Sometimes you can also get them stuck in a doorway but I haven't found a good way to do that reliably... it just happens sometimes.
Are you talking about the guys that hunker down and hugely increase their defenses? When they have a fast affix they go really really fast? Is that what you mean?
In the places I farm I almost never come upon elite versions. I will try to find a fast version--I assume they can be found in the keep / bunker?
Wow dude--400k bats crits! That's very impressive you must have a good chunk more intellect than I've managed to get on my gear (my bats crit around 280, highest ones are in the low 300's). Are your resists also sufficiently high? I just find that gear with good crit and crit damage doesn't often ALSO have good intellect and All Resist. And since I had to prioritize All Resist for act III/act iv/diablo, i sacrificed lots of intellect. Maybe I should pick up a few REALLY high int roll items like legs/chest/belt/shoulders to farm act I super fast.
ROFL. Yeah...you WAY WAY outgear me. I have like 1300 intellect, 50% crit chance, 280% crit damage, 32k hp, 500 all resist, 3300 armor--I have absolutely no perfect pieces, so not one thing that has crit/crit dmg/int/all resist/vitality--I always have to sacrifice one or even two stats because I can't afford better. You should make some videos of you tearing it up--it must be insane, because right now about 95% of the game feels pretty faceroll to me (there are obviously some very difficult packs still, but that's the nature of RNG!!) so it must be cake for you. At this point each legitimate upgrade for me averages 30 million and I just don't have the luck with awesome drops to support that kind of cost very often (the last upgrade I got was an amulet three weeks ago--and I'm still sitting under 3 million gold because i don't have much time to play and I never get good drops when I do).
You're right about the helm.
Really you just need room to kite. VQBats is never going to be great when you're running around in dungeons, it's not built for that. Best things you can do vs those guys is probably to not have Hex and use ZW. I don't feel like BBV or FA is necessarily that great against those mobs. But that may not be worth it to you vs other packs. Also, the Templar is going to be better than the Scoundrel, despite having Anatomy/Hysteria.
Why are you using bats in act 1? I understand acts 2-4, as I use the same build there.. but when I go back to faceroll act 1 (perhaps to farm pots, or with lesser geared friends) I almost always run with pile-on and bears. Bears just do way more dmg and act 1 is super easy to just face tank and use health globes dropping from massive bear dmg to keep you alive.
Fair question. I guess I just find that holding down bears is boring, and I've developed a proficiency using bats. It's just a more active playsyle/feel to me. To be honest, I never even step foot in act I anymore since I'm able to do Act III now with only very rare deaths. When I go back I promise I'll give it a try.
Certain parts of Act III are just pretty tough, especially the beginning. At this point with my gear it's not hard, but I literally only did the keep ONCE to get to the much easier open area of the field and the bridge up to siegebreaker and beyond. That, to me at least, was the best place to farm for drops that could fund my AH purchases.
You definitely need to get good at dodging arrows--I have about 500 all resist now (580 with a 5 stack of soul harvest) and can take 6-8 of them which is nice, but early on I could only take 2-3 which is okay on the field but very hard in the closed-off keep. Your HP is quite high, much higher than mine--I think you could sacrifice some vit for more AR (check your effective health on a calculator of course, but your hp seems high for your amount of AR).
You can see videos of me farming Act III and some mobs in Act IV on my Youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/yorricman?feature=results_main
I'll work on gear pictures but I'm kind of really into The Secret World right now...I'll get around to it.