There's probably something I'm missing, but many of the L70 and/or torment restricted sets which typically offer +500 primary dmg stat & other set bonuses, such as the WD set which lets soul harvester pop DoTs dmg immediately on targets ... well .... I just don't really see the allure.
I have yet to get my hands on a 4 piece zunimassa set, much less any other full sets for post 70 characters thus far, but seems to me having 15 permament fetishes + a gargantuan & perhaps even + 3 - 5 zombie dogs, + mask of jeram (+~70 - 100% pet dmg), + tasker & theo (+a chunk of pet attack speed), seems to be more advantageous than trying to leverage locust swarm.
Yea, there's the whole supporting build diversity aspect, which I like. It's just.. well.. sets that are more rare, restricted, etc .. I expect to read things that make me really want that over something "lesser". So, is it just me? Am I nuts? Is the harvester set bonuses really quite strong? Or... whats the deal?
P.S. Also in so far as the zunimassa 4 set piece bonus which makes Fetishes live until killed, does that work with any skill or item that creates fetishes, or does it require you to actually slot the fetish army ability?
It reads, "Your Fetish Army lasts until they die."
As for the 4-p Zuni bonus it only affects the Fetish Arty, NOT the Fetish Sycophants spawned from the passive skill. There is also a bug on live server where your Fetish Army gets overwritten by Sycos, which in not good as the Fetish Army ones does much more damage.
I have both sets and played with both of them quite a while. I personally use Jade Harvester at the moment.
It may sound ridiculous but even without pets to take damage for me, I still survive better than Fetish build. Because Haunt and Locust Swarm with Hwoj Wrap literally cripples enemies. And if you get your hands on 2 unity, I can easily say that you will become immortal.
After using the dots, I one shot champion elites and take the rare elites to %20ish with a single Harvest on Torment 6 even my gear still requires upgrades. The rifts became surprisingly fast after I switched to Jade.
Visage of Giyua says that it spawns a 'Fetish Army' but didn't even try it because of Mask of Jeram. And Fetish Sycophants (& probably Gidbinn) don't count as 'Fetish Army' as far as I know.
Ah, okay. Cool. I have Jade Harvester's Swiftness (boots) for that set, and Helltooth Gaunlets, Mask of Jeram for the Helltooth set. As for Zunimassa, I have the Zunimassa Trail (boots) and Zunimassa Pox (ring) at the moment. I've been trying to get zunimassa marrow and a trifecta ring of grandeur, which I'm still shooting for really even after reading all this. As much of a PITA getting items I'm looking for has been up until very recently with my mask of jeram legendary, I just have to assume getting 1 more set item, zunimassa marrow, has got to be a lot easier at this point than getting 4 - 5 more pieces of harvester.
There are actually two mask of jeram. One is part of a set and is green, and the other is the legendary. I have one of both.
I've read about the whole unity ring thing, but I'm thinking that a good Uhkapian Serpent and more than a dozen pets is not so bad. The damage I take on high torment is mainly from elite affixes, not so much straight up mob damage. Only zombie dogs give reduced damage via Uhkapian Serpent. My Uhkapian Serpent is 28% of damage you take is redirected to your zombie dogs - this + circle of life, although may not be most efficient method vs other gear, passives and skills. It is what I have though and as I don't currently have items that allow me to have followers in multiplayer games and I'm mainly playing in multiplayer games, public games no less, I'm not sure how viable a unity is for me. Also with so many pets, I don't really get agro, which again comes back to AoE and pack affixes hitting me, if anything, for the most part.
But.. It's nice to know that when and if I actually get a harvester set, I should be able to get good use of it.
Jade harvester + coatl + the supporting gear (cold damage soj, amulet, sunkeeper) is the most broken single player gear in the whole game, period. It is also the most item-dependant gear in the game, requiring a minimum of 8 specific drops to bring together (5 jade set pieces, quetzalcoatl, royal grandeur ring, sunkeeper). The nuke is so strong it's not even funny. No amount of pet damage gets even close in comparison.
The best WD party gear needs zuni + SMK and it is a wonderful support build. If you wantch any T6 streamers that do party rifts, it's all about the same gear (zuni,jeram, tnt, kukri, hexxing pants). The outrageous rarity of the kukri makes this build underplayed.
I wouldn't say Zuni set is needed for the WD party gear. The Fetishes from Fetish Sycophants benefit from SMK as well, you just have to get some first with Rain of Toads, but that doesn't really take long. I'm running Jeram, T&T, Kukri with BBV, Garg, Toads, Piranhado, Spirit Walk and Mass Confusion (Paranoia). Lots of extra damage and barely any survivability issues on T6 (though I do run Aughild and Blackthorne, because why not)
If you do the "run around like a headless chicken while your pets do all the work" spec you might as well go hexing pants and zuni 4 pc yeah. With how easy it is to get fetishes though, I don't think it's that needed (and if you forego those, you just REALLY need Jeram and Kukri, making it about the least gear intensive T6 build)
But yeah, I'm just running this until I get my Jade set complete. Already have an amulet to reroll, a SoJ to reroll, a good Sun Keeper. Just 2 more Jade pieces and a Quetzal
The headless chicken build gives your party an extra debuff in Mass confusion/paranoia, so you won't have to use useless skills like rain of toads. Yes, I know that it summons fetishes like crazy, but it itself is a pretty useless spell, no crowd conrtol, no damage, plus you have to stand still to cast it and in a T6 environment that's far from practical. The hexxing pants build gives an extra 20% damage amplification, not to mention the offchance to steal an elite to have it fight for you every once in a while.
I run T6 almost exclusively now, and have had no problem standing still casting. And I'm not sure where you get the idea you can't get Mass Confusion, as I run that alongside rain of toads. (see previous post for build). I buff my party with all that, and have 10+ fetishes running around. Zuni takes a lot of gear space; not running it lets me run things like aughild + blackthornes, which makes me less squishy and lets me stand there casting stuff.
In the end, both types of pet builds are viable, as is Jade. And Jade is good in group play as well, I reckon. You don't have to kill most of the common enemies, just hunt down the elites and champions and kill any common enemy you can. If you chase those you're not doing it right
and while the starter pet build may be "garbage" it's a very good starting point to farm gear above T1, a way better starting point than most classes get.
Yeah maybe my pet build is garbage too, but I usually smash through stuff no problem and often get all the last hits, etc. Hmmm... well. No matter. I have more farming to do, more gear to get, and more paragon levels to grind. Eventually I'll get the gear, or they'll change the game and I'll be farming for something else.
I have yet to get my hands on a 4 piece zunimassa set, much less any other full sets for post 70 characters thus far, but seems to me having 15 permament fetishes + a gargantuan & perhaps even + 3 - 5 zombie dogs, + mask of jeram (+~70 - 100% pet dmg), + tasker & theo (+a chunk of pet attack speed), seems to be more advantageous than trying to leverage locust swarm.
Yea, there's the whole supporting build diversity aspect, which I like. It's just.. well.. sets that are more rare, restricted, etc .. I expect to read things that make me really want that over something "lesser". So, is it just me? Am I nuts? Is the harvester set bonuses really quite strong? Or... whats the deal?
P.S. Also in so far as the zunimassa 4 set piece bonus which makes Fetishes live until killed, does that work with any skill or item that creates fetishes, or does it require you to actually slot the fetish army ability?
It reads, "Your Fetish Army lasts until they die."
It may sound ridiculous but even without pets to take damage for me, I still survive better than Fetish build. Because Haunt and Locust Swarm with Hwoj Wrap literally cripples enemies. And if you get your hands on 2 unity, I can easily say that you will become immortal.
After using the dots, I one shot champion elites and take the rare elites to %20ish with a single Harvest on Torment 6 even my gear still requires upgrades. The rifts became surprisingly fast after I switched to Jade.
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Visage of Giyua says that it spawns a 'Fetish Army' but didn't even try it because of Mask of Jeram. And Fetish Sycophants (& probably Gidbinn) don't count as 'Fetish Army' as far as I know.
There are actually two mask of jeram. One is part of a set and is green, and the other is the legendary. I have one of both.
I've read about the whole unity ring thing, but I'm thinking that a good Uhkapian Serpent and more than a dozen pets is not so bad. The damage I take on high torment is mainly from elite affixes, not so much straight up mob damage. Only zombie dogs give reduced damage via Uhkapian Serpent. My Uhkapian Serpent is 28% of damage you take is redirected to your zombie dogs - this + circle of life, although may not be most efficient method vs other gear, passives and skills. It is what I have though and as I don't currently have items that allow me to have followers in multiplayer games and I'm mainly playing in multiplayer games, public games no less, I'm not sure how viable a unity is for me. Also with so many pets, I don't really get agro, which again comes back to AoE and pack affixes hitting me, if anything, for the most part.
But.. It's nice to know that when and if I actually get a harvester set, I should be able to get good use of it.
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