Manald Heal finally dropped in a Nephalem Rift last night, so now the build is complete. From here on, it'll just be about trying to get ancients and increase paragons.
I also happened to get Serpant Sparker last night, but I just stashed it for now. I upgraded a rare dagger in the cube and got an ancient pig sticker. Put in the stash, waiting on a Ramaladni's.
I cleared GR61 solo a couple of times in ~10 mins and doing T13 Nephalem as well. I do see now that survivability is becoming more of a concern. Not having a lot of trouble staying alive yet, but I do have to pop health potions fairly often.
Tried running with hydra again for a few rifts. It was ok and I could tell it came in handy in some situations, but I feel like hydra just isn't that necessary overall. Maybe it's my imagination, but when using the hydra it seems to take longer for Archon to reset. I may go back to it later this season if I can roll an ancient Serpant Sparker with good stats, just to see how it goes with the ability to summon two hydras.
I was under the impression that the hydra variant of this build was the "best" this season, but looking at the leaderboard for Xbox at least, only a few in the top 50 or so are using it.
I'm satisfied with this char now. I think clearing GR61 in 10 mins at 476 paragon is better than I was doing with my Demon Hunter.
Nice, thanks for the vid. Haven't watched it all yet but so far I notice that you're not using the arcane blast ability at all while in Archon. Is there a particular reason for that?
Got the RoRG on our second Act I run last night. I have also, at least for now, changed to the non-hydra build reeeech suggested. It's definitely less maintenance and works out quite a bit better for playing with my wife since I'm not telling her to backtrack to hydras anymore. I like it better when going solo, too.
I did cleared a GR48 by myself with a few minutes to spare, so I'm definitely doing a lot better damage wise. I did die once from an ice bomb or something. I didn't even see it.
I dropped Fulminator in favor of a Pig Sticker that dropped in one of the rifts. Didn't roll the highest human/beast damage bonuses and it's not ancient. However, it did come with poison damage, 666 Int, 9% RCR 10% CDR and 20% AD. I finally got a Ramaldni's Gift in the next rift, which I used to put a socket on it. I rolled off the RCR for +10% damage. It's a lot less paper damage than I had before, and I gave up some Int and Vit that I had on my ancient Fulminator, but I seem to be more effective with it. The 10% CDR helped tremendously. I've got Archon CD comfortably under 20 secs now when fighting enemies, so I'm able to overlap the stacks.
Still no Manald Heal unfortunately.
To start pushing past GR50, I think I'm going to need to get the MH and more paragons. I would also like to equip Fazula's Improbable Chain when I can, and that should help. I can't do it until I get Tal Rasha gloves though. I tried converting a spare piece of Tal Rasha's in the cube several times to no avail.
Another tweak I made is swapping out Power Hungry passive for Audacity. When playing solo (using the Templar for follower but he can't keep mobs occuplied like my wife can) I just can't maintain a long distance from everything. I think the switch helped. I'm still using the Zei's gem to buff long range attacks.
I may have to go back to hydra later, but I like this new build much better for the time being. I'm finding Blizzard to be a better crowd control than Black Hole.
If you're not using Manald Heal, RoRG and Obsidian Ring - you're just going to have a hard time even if you have perfectly rolled gear everywhere else.
Obsidian is a must to get the cooldowns to get back into Archon asap. Outside of Archon you're just going to die - you're too squishy to survive for
long periods of time.
RoRG - a must to get 6 Tal Rasha and 4 Vyr. It's that combo that makes this build.
Manald Heal - namesake of the build. While you can run it without it - you just can't push high GR without it.
Even if you get the worst possible roll - just use them for the time being. I know, I know, the RNG's suck. But seriously, once you find one, equip it even if it sucks. It's not so much the rolls, but the abilities it gives the build that you need right away. Once you get them, worry about getting the right rolls later. On a side note - I like to equip RoRG and Obisidian and cube the Manald Heal ring - so you automatically get the full damage range (trying to reroll them so you can euip it is a pain in the butt and the other two rings you don't needto reroll to get those stats).
I do have Obsidian cubed. I hear you on survivability, and I'm sure that's going to come into play later.
I believe what I'll do tonight, if my wife will cooperate, is just keep doing Act I bounties over and over. Take any bloodshards I get and roll rings. Upgrade rares as much as I can afford. Do it for a couple of hours. If I still don't get the RoRG after that, then I'm putting this game down for a while. Hopefully I'll luck out and get it early on, then I can get back to rifting in search of a MH.
I may try the non-hydra build reeeech proposed, because honestly I'm not digging the playstyle required to take full advantage of the hydra.
I'm used to the mechanic of doing the 4 elemental attacks already, in order to proc the toughness buffs from Tal Rasha 4.
I'll keep in mind what Yori1989 suggested about ditching Serpent Sparker. I have seen some people using In-geom on the leaderboards, so I was already keeping an eye out for it. However, RNG hasn't given it to me at all yet. But hey, I do get a lot of Slorak's Madness wands! Oh, and Mad Monarch's Sceptor. I've rolled probably 10 of those each.
As for crit hit stats, honestly I haven't rolled much for those. I think my amulet (currently Traveler's Pledge) is the only gear that I've rolled for crit hit on. I had to roll for sockets on my rings, which right now are an ancient Wyrdward and a Bul-Kathos's Wedding Band. The main reason I've kept those rings is because they both rolled with CHC and CHD. I know I have a Focus/Restraint set in my stash, and I'm pretty sure I also have a Compass Rose if I want to go the Endless Walk route. None of that stuff has crit hit stats though, which is why I wasn't using them. I'm not even using a primary skill right now, so Focus/Restraint wouldn't do me any good unless I got rid of Ray of Frost/Black Hole/Hydra. Don't know if it would be worth it. Hydra helps proc paralysis and does lightning damage which is buffed by my bracers, Ray of Frost serves as my cold element, and Black Hole is for crowd control. I guess I could switch out RoF for a signature spell that does cold damage. But maybe going with Endless Walk would be the best choice?
For the most part though, it sounds like I'm just gonna have to keep grinding until I get another piece of Tal Rasha or RoRG before I can really start pushing into some higher difficulty levels.
I only play locally with my wife, not into the multiplayer scene besides that. We don't have Gold subscription. We got the game a couple of months ago. I haven't gone through the process of transferring my character to D3planner or anything, but hopefully that isn't necessary for the advice I seek given the low level of difficulty I'm trying to work on right now.
My first character - which is non-seasonal - is a UE6 Multishot DH. I'm able to play solo on T13 with little issue and cleared a GR70 solo. It has 800+ paragon.
For the season I decided to play Wizard class. I'm basically shooting for the Tal Rasha/Vyr lightning hydra build that most people at the top of the leaderboards are using (even though I don't intend competing at the top of the leaderboards). I play D3 a lot but I'm not a super highly skilled hardcore player. If i can beat GR70 solo, I'm pretty much satisfied. (by "hardcore" I'm not referring to hardcore mode in the game)
I'm getting frustrated with this character. I think I have been extremely unlucky. I don't know how many hours I've played on this particular character but it's gotta be pushing 80 hrs or more. I have yet to get the following:
- Enough of Tal Rasha/Vyr to get the 6 piece and 4 piece respective bonuses (only getting bonus for Tal Rasha 4 and Vyr 2)
- No RoRG despite doing Act I bounty runs at least a dozen times
- No Manald Heal
- No Serpant Sparker
Though I'm not wearing 5 pieces of Tal Rasha right now, I do have a 5th piece that I can equip if I get RoRG.
I've spent many hundreds of bloodshards on rings. I've tried upgrading rares in the cube when I can.
The problem I'm having is damage. I cannot do anything higher than T7/GR30 right now because it just takes way too long to kill enemies. My toughness is fine, as I play on T10 with my wife without a problem. We've cleared a GR49 so far. She's running an I6 monk and probably does ~80% of the damage when we play together. I can take hits fairly well on T10 with her, although I am benefiting by her Mantras. Still, damage is my biggest problem by far.
My general stats are good, I think. I've got 50% CHC and 330% CHD. I have around 9700 Intelligence, which is quite a bit more main stat that my non-seasonal DH has. I'm using Power Hungry passive and Magic Weapon for additional damage buffs. I have Starfire/Swami/Obsidian cubed. My CDR isn't great, at only 46.66%, but I've gotten pretty crappy rolls on my jewelry and have forgone CDR in favor of crit hit stats. I think the Archon cooldown is 33 secs. But I don't see that it matters very much, because even while in Archon my damage output isn't amazing. My paragon level is 278 or something like that. I'm using Zei's, Trapped, and Gogok for my LG's, all of which are above Level 30.
I guess my main question is, does the 6 piece bonus for Tal Rasha and Manald Heal really make all the difference in the world? Is that all I need to make T13 and GR70 viable or am I just a crappy player?
I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I was doing better than T7 with my DH before I got M6 or UE6.
I may not be executing the mechanics of this build very well is the other thing. I know you're supposed to keep as much distance from the enemies as possible, and use the Hydra. However, as you know, Hydra can't be cast while in Archon. If I kill the enemies in the immediate area while Archon is still going, the Hydra becomes useless as I have to move on away from it to encounter more enemies. There is not enough time to teleport to enemies and get them to follow me back to the Hydra. I can do that, but Archon is exipred by the time I get all the way back to it.
I'm aware that if i roll max cooldown on my gear I can get Archon wait down to under 20 secs, which will cause archon stacks to overlap and serve as a major damage buff. But I'll worry about that once I can play on T10 or higher.
Anyway, I'm just about ready to stop playing for a while. RNG has not been good to me with this character. Haven't even rolled a Ramaladni's gift one single time. Probably going to take a break after one more session tonight, which will probably be 3-4 hrs, if I don't at least get RoRG or Manald Heal.
Manald Heal finally dropped in a Nephalem Rift last night, so now the build is complete. From here on, it'll just be about trying to get ancients and increase paragons.
I also happened to get Serpant Sparker last night, but I just stashed it for now. I upgraded a rare dagger in the cube and got an ancient pig sticker. Put in the stash, waiting on a Ramaladni's.
I cleared GR61 solo a couple of times in ~10 mins and doing T13 Nephalem as well. I do see now that survivability is becoming more of a concern. Not having a lot of trouble staying alive yet, but I do have to pop health potions fairly often.
Tried running with hydra again for a few rifts. It was ok and I could tell it came in handy in some situations, but I feel like hydra just isn't that necessary overall. Maybe it's my imagination, but when using the hydra it seems to take longer for Archon to reset. I may go back to it later this season if I can roll an ancient Serpant Sparker with good stats, just to see how it goes with the ability to summon two hydras.
I was under the impression that the hydra variant of this build was the "best" this season, but looking at the leaderboard for Xbox at least, only a few in the top 50 or so are using it.
I'm satisfied with this char now. I think clearing GR61 in 10 mins at 476 paragon is better than I was doing with my Demon Hunter.
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/89927-rebel7254-s10-lightning-archon
Ah, gotcha. So is the slow time bubble approximately a 30 yd radius then?
Got the RoRG on our second Act I run last night. I have also, at least for now, changed to the non-hydra build reeeech suggested. It's definitely less maintenance and works out quite a bit better for playing with my wife since I'm not telling her to backtrack to hydras anymore. I like it better when going solo, too.
I did cleared a GR48 by myself with a few minutes to spare, so I'm definitely doing a lot better damage wise. I did die once from an ice bomb or something. I didn't even see it.
I dropped Fulminator in favor of a Pig Sticker that dropped in one of the rifts. Didn't roll the highest human/beast damage bonuses and it's not ancient. However, it did come with poison damage, 666 Int, 9% RCR 10% CDR and 20% AD. I finally got a Ramaldni's Gift in the next rift, which I used to put a socket on it. I rolled off the RCR for +10% damage. It's a lot less paper damage than I had before, and I gave up some Int and Vit that I had on my ancient Fulminator, but I seem to be more effective with it. The 10% CDR helped tremendously. I've got Archon CD comfortably under 20 secs now when fighting enemies, so I'm able to overlap the stacks.
Still no Manald Heal unfortunately.
To start pushing past GR50, I think I'm going to need to get the MH and more paragons. I would also like to equip Fazula's Improbable Chain when I can, and that should help. I can't do it until I get Tal Rasha gloves though. I tried converting a spare piece of Tal Rasha's in the cube several times to no avail.
Another tweak I made is swapping out Power Hungry passive for Audacity. When playing solo (using the Templar for follower but he can't keep mobs occuplied like my wife can) I just can't maintain a long distance from everything. I think the switch helped. I'm still using the Zei's gem to buff long range attacks.
I may have to go back to hydra later, but I like this new build much better for the time being. I'm finding Blizzard to be a better crowd control than Black Hole.
I quickly made a build link for my char, at least to show overview.
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/89900-rebel7254-lighnting-hydra-archon
I do have Obsidian cubed. I hear you on survivability, and I'm sure that's going to come into play later.
I believe what I'll do tonight, if my wife will cooperate, is just keep doing Act I bounties over and over. Take any bloodshards I get and roll rings. Upgrade rares as much as I can afford. Do it for a couple of hours. If I still don't get the RoRG after that, then I'm putting this game down for a while. Hopefully I'll luck out and get it early on, then I can get back to rifting in search of a MH.
Thanks for the replies so far.
I may try the non-hydra build reeeech proposed, because honestly I'm not digging the playstyle required to take full advantage of the hydra.
I'm used to the mechanic of doing the 4 elemental attacks already, in order to proc the toughness buffs from Tal Rasha 4.
I'll keep in mind what Yori1989 suggested about ditching Serpent Sparker. I have seen some people using In-geom on the leaderboards, so I was already keeping an eye out for it. However, RNG hasn't given it to me at all yet. But hey, I do get a lot of Slorak's Madness wands! Oh, and Mad Monarch's Sceptor. I've rolled probably 10 of those each.
As for crit hit stats, honestly I haven't rolled much for those. I think my amulet (currently Traveler's Pledge) is the only gear that I've rolled for crit hit on. I had to roll for sockets on my rings, which right now are an ancient Wyrdward and a Bul-Kathos's Wedding Band. The main reason I've kept those rings is because they both rolled with CHC and CHD. I know I have a Focus/Restraint set in my stash, and I'm pretty sure I also have a Compass Rose if I want to go the Endless Walk route. None of that stuff has crit hit stats though, which is why I wasn't using them. I'm not even using a primary skill right now, so Focus/Restraint wouldn't do me any good unless I got rid of Ray of Frost/Black Hole/Hydra. Don't know if it would be worth it. Hydra helps proc paralysis and does lightning damage which is buffed by my bracers, Ray of Frost serves as my cold element, and Black Hole is for crowd control. I guess I could switch out RoF for a signature spell that does cold damage. But maybe going with Endless Walk would be the best choice?
For the most part though, it sounds like I'm just gonna have to keep grinding until I get another piece of Tal Rasha or RoRG before I can really start pushing into some higher difficulty levels.
I play on Xbox so I don't have a convenient link to my seasonal Wizard character.
[edit] I did make a build that gives basic overview of my char:
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/89900-rebel7254-lighnting-hydra-archon
I only play locally with my wife, not into the multiplayer scene besides that. We don't have Gold subscription. We got the game a couple of months ago. I haven't gone through the process of transferring my character to D3planner or anything, but hopefully that isn't necessary for the advice I seek given the low level of difficulty I'm trying to work on right now.
My first character - which is non-seasonal - is a UE6 Multishot DH. I'm able to play solo on T13 with little issue and cleared a GR70 solo. It has 800+ paragon.
For the season I decided to play Wizard class. I'm basically shooting for the Tal Rasha/Vyr lightning hydra build that most people at the top of the leaderboards are using (even though I don't intend competing at the top of the leaderboards). I play D3 a lot but I'm not a super highly skilled hardcore player. If i can beat GR70 solo, I'm pretty much satisfied. (by "hardcore" I'm not referring to hardcore mode in the game)
I'm getting frustrated with this character. I think I have been extremely unlucky. I don't know how many hours I've played on this particular character but it's gotta be pushing 80 hrs or more. I have yet to get the following:
- Enough of Tal Rasha/Vyr to get the 6 piece and 4 piece respective bonuses (only getting bonus for Tal Rasha 4 and Vyr 2)
- No RoRG despite doing Act I bounty runs at least a dozen times
- No Manald Heal
- No Serpant Sparker
Though I'm not wearing 5 pieces of Tal Rasha right now, I do have a 5th piece that I can equip if I get RoRG.
I've spent many hundreds of bloodshards on rings. I've tried upgrading rares in the cube when I can.
The problem I'm having is damage. I cannot do anything higher than T7/GR30 right now because it just takes way too long to kill enemies. My toughness is fine, as I play on T10 with my wife without a problem. We've cleared a GR49 so far. She's running an I6 monk and probably does ~80% of the damage when we play together. I can take hits fairly well on T10 with her, although I am benefiting by her Mantras. Still, damage is my biggest problem by far.
My general stats are good, I think. I've got 50% CHC and 330% CHD. I have around 9700 Intelligence, which is quite a bit more main stat that my non-seasonal DH has. I'm using Power Hungry passive and Magic Weapon for additional damage buffs. I have Starfire/Swami/Obsidian cubed. My CDR isn't great, at only 46.66%, but I've gotten pretty crappy rolls on my jewelry and have forgone CDR in favor of crit hit stats. I think the Archon cooldown is 33 secs. But I don't see that it matters very much, because even while in Archon my damage output isn't amazing. My paragon level is 278 or something like that. I'm using Zei's, Trapped, and Gogok for my LG's, all of which are above Level 30.
I guess my main question is, does the 6 piece bonus for Tal Rasha and Manald Heal really make all the difference in the world? Is that all I need to make T13 and GR70 viable or am I just a crappy player?
I could be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure I was doing better than T7 with my DH before I got M6 or UE6.
I may not be executing the mechanics of this build very well is the other thing. I know you're supposed to keep as much distance from the enemies as possible, and use the Hydra. However, as you know, Hydra can't be cast while in Archon. If I kill the enemies in the immediate area while Archon is still going, the Hydra becomes useless as I have to move on away from it to encounter more enemies. There is not enough time to teleport to enemies and get them to follow me back to the Hydra. I can do that, but Archon is exipred by the time I get all the way back to it.
I'm aware that if i roll max cooldown on my gear I can get Archon wait down to under 20 secs, which will cause archon stacks to overlap and serve as a major damage buff. But I'll worry about that once I can play on T10 or higher.
Anyway, I'm just about ready to stop playing for a while. RNG has not been good to me with this character. Haven't even rolled a Ramaladni's gift one single time. Probably going to take a break after one more session tonight, which will probably be 3-4 hrs, if I don't at least get RoRG or Manald Heal.
Thanks.