Hey
What are your thoughts about gems?
To me it seems that "Taeguk" will be a must have as we spam our primary resource almost all the time.
The smite gem seems pretty nice too.
Taeguk is decent but the smite gem "Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver" is currently best in slot. The Mini Conduit gem "Wreath of Lightning" is also quite strong since it has a high proc chance. "Enforcer" can be good for summon Phalanx builds however the use of Phalanx with Stampede is arguably better at the moment.
Going live now to do further testing, will try to collect pieces for Phalanx build.
seasons are not available yet so you can't find the shield acutally? would be nice to see someone test the new condemn spam shield. I guess this will be on par with shotgun.
Correct, you can't get the shield or any of the seasonal items yet, however many of the updated legendaries with new or added legendary powers are on the PTR. It should be very competitive with shotgun for sure besides the obvious single target disadvantage.
Pretty viable can be also Condemn based build similar to Holy Shotgun. There is lower penalty for incorrect positioning and higher dmg (Unleashed - 1160%, Fires of the Heaven - 960% or 3480% vs 2880%) so its clearly better on paper atm, only downside will be single target, prepare to make sad panda when fighting guardian.
Yes the Condemn Build will be a great build once again. Looking at it though the advantages it has over what you already listed would include no attack animation which would allow you to use the new Angel Braid belt with Punish and Depth Diggers which would probably be viable since you'll need to be in melee range for Condemn to be most effective. The big disadvantage like you said is the single target damage. Shotgun on the other hand excels at that.
Greetings all, this thread contains what I feel to be the top builds in the current metagame for the most recent patch. The builds will be listed in a tier ranking in an easy to read list so that you can quickly discover what the highest performing end game builds are. These rankings will be updated whenever major changes occur for that given class and naturally will change depending on the significance of those changes. Given the new nature of the PTR these builds are still subjective to change as testing continues.
Updated for Patch 2.1.0 -The following builds are intended to be optimal for running Greater Rifts on the PTR.
1. Firestarter Furnace - Utilizing the item The Furnace was easily the best way to quickly take down Torment 6 Rift Bosses because of their high health. This build allows you to get the most procs from this item and continues to increase in effectiveness when advancing in Greater Rifts where monster health is continually increasing as The Furnace scales incredibly well.
Active Skills: Fist of the Heavens - Tempest
Consecration - Shattered Ground (flexible)
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Too Scared to Run
Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force (flexible)
Akarat's Champion - Firestarter
Skill Summary:This is the general layout of the Firestarter build with some added defensive abilities as Greater Rifts approaching level 30 become far harder to tank than a Torment 6 Rift. Consecration - Shattered Ground offers decent healing while still proccing The Furnace nicely but can be swapped out for more defense skills if needed. Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force becomes much more attractive when you have to cast your skills many more times than normal due to the increased health pools of the monsters which requires more efficiency, however it can be swapped out for another defensive skill.
For passives you will always want at least Heavenly Strength and Finery as they are both too good to give up, Wrathful is great sustained healing but often times you will get bursted down too quickly where Wrathful will have little use, swapping it with the passive Vigilant can be necessary. Indestructable is one of the best passives to deal with huge spikes of damage but is useless while on cool down, swapping it with either an additional defensive passive or efficiency passive such as Long Arm of the Law can be very useful.
2.AmazonianPhalanx-This is currently one of the top builds as it provides high scaling damage with The Furnace and control with the stun used with Phalanx - Stampede. Stampede with the Amazonian Parma shield will cast two waves of horses for a potential 2,940 damage (more than shotgun) with a very high chance to stun. A summon version is also viable as Phalanx Avatars aggro mobs but cannot die and with the new Eternal Union ring which will increase the duration of Phalanx Avatars by 200% (including Baleful Remnant avatars) you will have permanent uptime on Bowmen (10 second duration) or Bodyguards (30 second duration) while Baleful avatars (30 second duration) will easily last from pack to pack.
Active Skills: Phalanx - Stampede
Iron Skin - Steel Skin
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Charged Up
Laws of Valor - Critical
Akarat's Champion - Prophet
Passive Skills: Heavenly Strength
Finery
Lord Commander
Indestructable
Skill Summary:Phalanx Stampede combined with the Amazonian Parma shield provides more damage than Fires of Heaven with Fate of the Fell and also stuns, in addition it can proc The Furnace at a high rate. Iron Skin - Steel Skin is a solid defensive ability that can be swapped with other defensive abilities as you see fit. Provoke - Charged Up is a large steroid ability for Phalanx Avatars as they can proc it. Laws of Valor - Critical provides a huge damage boost for your large number of Avatars. Because Phalanx's don't proc Firestarter, Prophet is likely going to be the strongest rune to push the greater rift limits.
The only passive that's really up to preference is the last one as Heavenly Strength will be used with Baleful Remnant, Finery is a must and Lord Commander provides a flat 20% damage increase to all Phalanx Avatars. Indestructible has some good synergy with Akarat's Champion - Prophet since it can provide a safety cushion after Prophet's second life proc is on cool down, however other defensive passives such as Wrathful or Vigilant can be viable options or an offensive passive such as Long Arm of the Law can provide a large overall damage increase because of the amount of minions on the field at any given time.
3. Holy Shotgun-Retaining its former strength from 2.0.6 the Holy Shotgun build is still a very capable build, however it doesn't scale anywhere close to the Firestarter Furnace build as the Greater Rifts increase in difficulty leading to less efficiency over time. One of the advantages of this build is that you can use Akarat's Champion - Prophet making you incredibly tanky. While Heaven's Fury - Fires of Heaven does high damage overall, it don't scale as you cannot use The Furnace over Fate of the Fell which in the end will make you hit a cap during your Greater Rift progression.
Active Skills: Heaven's Fury - Fires of Heaven
Shield Glare - Divine Verdict (flexible)
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Too Scared to Run
Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force
Akarat's Champion - Prophet
Passive Skills: Heavenly Strength
Finery
Holy Cause (flexible)
Long Arm of the Law
Skill Summary:Of all the active skills I would say that Shield Glare is the only flexible skill that can be replaced. When the monsters health starts to increase during greater rift progression you end up casting many more Fires of Heaven's per mob than you usually would which requires you to be much more efficient with your wrath through both play style and skills/passives. Provoke - Too Scared to Run provides you with on demand wrath as well as a great defensive bonus. Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force is almost mandatory with the increased combat time on mobs/elites. Akarat's Champion - Prophet is an incredible toughness boost and you will most likely utilize it's second life proc often.
Holy Cause can be replaced with a more defensive passive like Vigilant or Indestructible. Long Arm of the Law may also be replaced with something more defensive, although I would replace Holy Cause first, the additional five seconds of 50% resource cost reduction is very helpful during the longer fights.
4. BoP Condemn - Making a comeback due to the yet unnamed seasonal legendary shield that will reduce the cooldown off of Condemn while adding a cost of 40 wrath, this build has some strong potential. This build is similar to the Holy Shotgun build in terms of the resource cost and non existent cooldown given by the new shield yet it has some unique advantages/disadvantages, there is no attack animation when casting Condemn which means you are free to cast another ability in addition to Condemn, however one of the drawbacks is that this ability is still very weak versus single targets.
Active Skills: Fist of the Heavens - Heaven's Tempest (flexible)
Condemn - Reciprocate
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Charged Up
Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force
Akarat's Champion - Firestarter
Passive Skills: Heavenly Strength
Finery
Vigilant (flexible)
Long Arm of the Law (flexible)
Skill Summary: This build takes advantage of the fact that Condemn has no attack animation, Fist of the Heavens - Heaven's Tempest is taken to effectively stack Firestarter on single targets as well as packs while Condemn is used as necessary to AoE down large mobs. All wrath reducing abilities are taken to compensate for the large use of wrath when spamming both FoH and Condemn while a Cindercoat will likely be required to further reduce the high wrath cost usage.
Vigilant can be swapped out with Indestructible or another defensive passive of your choice while Long Arm of the Law can also be substituted for another defensive ability, however wrath management would be much more difficult.
Going live now to do further testing, will try to collect pieces for Phalanx build.
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861
twitch.tv/iamdreamwing
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861
Updated for Patch 2.1.0 -The following builds are intended to be optimal for running Greater Rifts on the PTR.
1. Firestarter Furnace - Utilizing the item The Furnace was easily the best way to quickly take down Torment 6 Rift Bosses because of their high health. This build allows you to get the most procs from this item and continues to increase in effectiveness when advancing in Greater Rifts where monster health is continually increasing as The Furnace scales incredibly well.
Active Skills: Fist of the Heavens - Tempest
Consecration - Shattered Ground (flexible)
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Too Scared to Run
Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force (flexible)
Akarat's Champion - Firestarter
Passive Skills:
Heavenly Strength
Finery
Wrathful (flexible)
Indestructable (flexible)
Skill Summary:This is the general layout of the Firestarter build with some added defensive abilities as Greater Rifts approaching level 30 become far harder to tank than a Torment 6 Rift. Consecration - Shattered Ground offers decent healing while still proccing The Furnace nicely but can be swapped out for more defense skills if needed. Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force becomes much more attractive when you have to cast your skills many more times than normal due to the increased health pools of the monsters which requires more efficiency, however it can be swapped out for another defensive skill.
For passives you will always want at least Heavenly Strength and Finery as they are both too good to give up, Wrathful is great sustained healing but often times you will get bursted down too quickly where Wrathful will have little use, swapping it with the passive Vigilant can be necessary. Indestructable is one of the best passives to deal with huge spikes of damage but is useless while on cool down, swapping it with either an additional defensive passive or efficiency passive such as Long Arm of the Law can be very useful.
2.AmazonianPhalanx-This is currently one of the top builds as it provides high scaling damage with The Furnace and control with the stun used with Phalanx - Stampede. Stampede with the Amazonian Parma shield will cast two waves of horses for a potential 2,940 damage (more than shotgun) with a very high chance to stun. A summon version is also viable as Phalanx Avatars aggro mobs but cannot die and with the new Eternal Union ring which will increase the duration of Phalanx Avatars by 200% (including Baleful Remnant avatars) you will have permanent uptime on Bowmen (10 second duration) or Bodyguards (30 second duration) while Baleful avatars (30 second duration) will easily last from pack to pack.
Active Skills:
Phalanx - Stampede
Iron Skin - Steel Skin
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Charged Up
Laws of Valor - Critical
Akarat's Champion - Prophet
Passive Skills:
Heavenly Strength
Finery
Lord Commander
Indestructable
Skill Summary:Phalanx Stampede combined with the Amazonian Parma shield provides more damage than Fires of Heaven with Fate of the Fell and also stuns, in addition it can proc The Furnace at a high rate. Iron Skin - Steel Skin is a solid defensive ability that can be swapped with other defensive abilities as you see fit. Provoke - Charged Up is a large steroid ability for Phalanx Avatars as they can proc it. Laws of Valor - Critical provides a huge damage boost for your large number of Avatars. Because Phalanx's don't proc Firestarter, Prophet is likely going to be the strongest rune to push the greater rift limits.
The only passive that's really up to preference is the last one as Heavenly Strength will be used with Baleful Remnant, Finery is a must and Lord Commander provides a flat 20% damage increase to all Phalanx Avatars. Indestructible has some good synergy with Akarat's Champion - Prophet since it can provide a safety cushion after Prophet's second life proc is on cool down, however other defensive passives such as Wrathful or Vigilant can be viable options or an offensive passive such as Long Arm of the Law can provide a large overall damage increase because of the amount of minions on the field at any given time.
3. Holy Shotgun-Retaining its former strength from 2.0.6 the Holy Shotgun build is still a very capable build, however it doesn't scale anywhere close to the Firestarter Furnace build as the Greater Rifts increase in difficulty leading to less efficiency over time. One of the advantages of this build is that you can use Akarat's Champion - Prophet making you incredibly tanky. While Heaven's Fury - Fires of Heaven does high damage overall, it don't scale as you cannot use The Furnace over Fate of the Fell which in the end will make you hit a cap during your Greater Rift progression.
Active Skills:
Heaven's Fury - Fires of Heaven
Shield Glare - Divine Verdict (flexible)
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Too Scared to Run
Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force
Akarat's Champion - Prophet
Passive Skills:
Heavenly Strength
Finery
Holy Cause (flexible)
Long Arm of the Law
Skill Summary:Of all the active skills I would say that Shield Glare is the only flexible skill that can be replaced. When the monsters health starts to increase during greater rift progression you end up casting many more Fires of Heaven's per mob than you usually would which requires you to be much more efficient with your wrath through both play style and skills/passives. Provoke - Too Scared to Run provides you with on demand wrath as well as a great defensive bonus. Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force is almost mandatory with the increased combat time on mobs/elites. Akarat's Champion - Prophet is an incredible toughness boost and you will most likely utilize it's second life proc often.
Holy Cause can be replaced with a more defensive passive like Vigilant or Indestructible. Long Arm of the Law may also be replaced with something more defensive, although I would replace Holy Cause first, the additional five seconds of 50% resource cost reduction is very helpful during the longer fights.
4. BoP Condemn - Making a comeback due to the yet unnamed seasonal legendary shield that will reduce the cooldown off of Condemn while adding a cost of 40 wrath, this build has some strong potential. This build is similar to the Holy Shotgun build in terms of the resource cost and non existent cooldown given by the new shield yet it has some unique advantages/disadvantages, there is no attack animation when casting Condemn which means you are free to cast another ability in addition to Condemn, however one of the drawbacks is that this ability is still very weak versus single targets.
Active Skills: Fist of the Heavens - Heaven's Tempest (flexible)
Condemn - Reciprocate
Steed Charge - Endurance
Provoke - Charged Up
Laws of Valor - Unstoppable Force
Akarat's Champion - Firestarter
Passive Skills: Heavenly Strength
Finery
Vigilant (flexible)
Long Arm of the Law (flexible)
Skill Summary: This build takes advantage of the fact that Condemn has no attack animation, Fist of the Heavens - Heaven's Tempest is taken to effectively stack Firestarter on single targets as well as packs while Condemn is used as necessary to AoE down large mobs. All wrath reducing abilities are taken to compensate for the large use of wrath when spamming both FoH and Condemn while a Cindercoat will likely be required to further reduce the high wrath cost usage.
Vigilant can be swapped out with Indestructible or another defensive passive of your choice while Long Arm of the Law can also be substituted for another defensive ability, however wrath management would be much more difficult.
Diablo 3 Armory: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Dreamflight-1572/hero/44076861