I added 2% CDR to your gear and swapped in Doombringer and here are the simulated results:
Lidless - 2735.076B
Bulwark - 1943.103B
The problem is it dropped your CDR far below the breakpoint. I swapped out the VIT on the shield for 8% CDR to match what you lost from Lidless. At that point Bulwark jumped to 2812.454B once the proper CDR requirement was met.
Unless you can stay above 61% CDR somehow it is not a viable option ATM for you. I would like to add our best weapon is Sun Keeper. You give up 20% Physical for an additional multiplier of 30% elite that is not diminished. You may want to consider getting that weapon first before making a final decision on how you want to adjust your gear.
If you are going to consider Coven or Bulwark it would also be worth thinking about if you can fit Hold Your Ground in to the build. It would significantly increase the DR you gain from both shield bonuses.
All three shields are pretty solid I would have to see the rest of your gear and put it in to the simulator to come up with a proper decision. In the end it comes down to DR vs DMG. Also 61% CDR is lower than I like to sit at. You can not say enough about having as high up time as possible on Akarat's as well as Immovable Object.
I have very similar shields and I find for grinding solo exp that 12% more Physical is rather noticeable in clear times. As for the DR shields, again it comes down to if you can fit Hold Your Ground in to your build to maximize their potential and for my own personal play style do not like to run that low of CDR since I have to give up Fervor to fit it in to my passive.
1440M avg first barrel - Whites, Blues, Yellows, and Purples
1816M avg first barrel - Araneae, Butcher, and Leoric (Act1 bosses)
Act Bosses and Rift Guardians are the only mob types that qualify for the rank 25 property. I would assume Quin does not address it simply because the wording is sufficient enough.
Can anyone link me to first hand information on this gem.
Does it work AOE now ?
Why does it say bosses and not elite monsters like every other thing in the game ?
I have read posters say (in old posts from last season) that it works on elites, but it is odd that this would be worded differently than everything else in the game, so a first hand source of info would be appreciated. (official statements would be appreciated or a post/vid from a reputed player actually testing it properly). Some for the AOE factor, i have seen posts saying it didnt work properly last patch, now i see people using it, but no source of info or anything in the patch notes that it now does actually work.
Thanx
a) No. It has only ever proc'd on the first target you hit with an ability that has a proc coefficient. If you are referring to the rank 25 property, Stricken will still stack on the first target you hit regardless of mob type. In order to benefit from the damage increase of the rank 25 coefficient the monster type needs qualify.
As for the rest of your post it seems almost as if you are confusing Stricken with Area Damage not working properly in previous iterations. If not then I will point you towards the reputable players video you are looking for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoYWLbfrVoY
During prime time hours when the server lags I think about how many resources are being consumed by automated players. If I played hardcore I would care a lot more but since I do not it is merely an inconvenience. Even a single bot contributes to negative server performance which as a result directly effects my game experience.
Here are some statistics directly from the front page of one of the bot makers:
In the last 24h, 2257107 legendary items and 608685 set items have been dropped by your bots
Interesting about Envious Blade, is it just with horse or does it work with Bombardment as well?
Just tested this and I can confirm yes to both. Belt of the Trove also seems to be interacting with it as well.
The numbers below were tested with no belt in my belt slot to cut down on clutter for more accurate results. There were no damage buffs or modifiers active. The only gems I was using were rank 63 BotT & Chip. Only had base crit values of 5% CHC and 50% CHD. No paragon points were put in to CHC or CHD
By that point you'll switch to LoN Bomb most likely though (or some speed version of LoN Blessed Shield), both of which should be faster due to better AoE clear. As I mentioned this is an easy-in build. I ran about 50 TX rifts with it before switching to LoN Bomb (once I got the gear for it).
RNG for the set weapon was not friendly to me. I happened to complete a TX capable LoN Bomb set before the weapon dropped, so I went from Invoker straight to LoN Bomb. At that point on I cubed Swiftmount, Broken Crown, and Avarice Band (BotH, BotT, and Chip for gems). Early on I find it efficient to spread out my total intake while keeping clear times as low as possible (3-4 min avg).
-edit
I think I will try In-geom in the cube tonight for key farming. I find Swiftmount to be really strong when I do bounties since I spend 90% of the bounty getting to a designated location.
Laws of Hope (Wings of Angels) - pop it before you mount for additional movement speed
Avarice Band in cube - more gold for empowered rifts
Hoarder over Powerful - trading additive damage for speed to further support Avarice
You kind of need powerful for this, otherwise it doesn't hit the T10 damage threshold. Trash clear is not as good as LoN Bomb, but that's also why it's easier to gear for. I use it currently while I gather gear for other builds.
This was one of the builds I tested on the PTR and I agree with you completely that at the current gear and paragon level shown in your video that TX would likely require the additional damage Powerful provides. Avarice + Hoarder would require more ancients/paragon to pull off.
I do not recommend anyone giving up the power for speed until the power is overkill. When you reach that point Avarice combined with Hoarder is a good way to make your speed clears even more efficient. This can be applied to just about any build that do not lock you in to 2 specific rings + cubed jewelry.
And, yet, I do. It takes me 13 minutes to reach guardian on 54 - in a relatively good rift, at that.; fail outright if I have to deal with wasps and other annoying ranged mobs. Killing the guardian, though, is still relatively easy.
As for my gear,... Well, that Doombringer is pretty much the best weapon I have available right now, and I will need to do tons of farming before I can afford to roll legendaries in cube (again). And knowing how RNG likes me, it'll take no less than 10 attempts to get anything even remotely usable... Also, is there any other reason why Pig Sticker beyond it having 15-30% to human and beast enemies? I know that there is another dagger with five primaries.
The Endless walk set... Looted a single crappy ring so far. It'll need a total reroll before it can be useful. Haven't seen the amulet yet at all. As I've said, RNG just loves me, so (usually - once in a blue moon it is actually generous to me) it takes me a lot of time to gather the appropriate gear.
As for the hardcore thing... I think that the only places where I had my passive proc were the set dungeons when I did something stupid. Not willing to switch it for something else, though - it's better to be safe than sorry on Hardcore.
Your gear is pretty good and could get much better if you do have an Akkarat's Awakening.
1) Start with running Blood Brother in the cube and switch back to Akkarat's Awakening. You will be block capped and gain a significant damage increase.
2) Bane of the Trapped is significantly better than Bane of the Stricken during the rift clear. BotT at level 25+ passively proc's itself and is a multiplier while other gems fall under additive damage. BotS is largely wasted considering Invoker's 6 set at your current GR level and gear. You will see significant improvement from your 2 set during the clear itself using BotT.
3) Pig Sticker is only 1 of 3 daggers that you can get from the cube recipe (Eun-jang-do is 2x rarer than Pig Sticker and The Barber). Even with bad luck it is still very easy to get it via the cube. It is very unlikely to take you more than 100 death breath to make one.
4) I understand your frustration about The Endless Walk set. It took myself over 500 paragon to receive my first Traveler's Pledge.
-edit
5) Hold Your Ground is way too strong to pass on. I would drop Fanaticism.
The easiest conquest by far is the 50 million gold streak. Most people get this "by accident" at some point - when doing a T10 rift and killing a Gilded Baron, especially while having Boon of the Hoarder equipped.
This is very good info. I get around 45-48 Mil per Gilded with my LoN Bomb Cruz.
List of gold find on my set:
81% Kymbo's Gold - neck
35% Litany of the Undaunted - ring
33% Homing Pads - shoulders
Just a Kymbo's Gold and Goldskin should be more than enough with a Boon of the Hoarder. Also take advantage of Gold Find in paragon for this conquest.
Until I started farming T8 I did not see any. Yesterday in TX and GR55+ I found 2 in a 5 hour session. I would conclude, like every other drop in the game, you have a higher probability of finding what you are looking for in the highest possible setting you can farm reasonably quickly.
I realize that is an extremely small sample size, yet it is indicative of how the drop rates are calculated in regards to difficulty level.
We have a philosophy of launching patches between Season transitions, and not while a Season is currently active. This leaves a window of possible patch dates; sometime between Season 4 ending and Season 5 beginning. We also, typically, deploy patches on Tuesdays (for North America). However, deployment dates can suddenly shift, including down to the last minute. Technology can be a fickle mistress, and unforeseen circumstances can arise.
This is why we don't provide firm patch release dates. However, we know a lot of players want to plan their time around new content or the start of the new Season. Announcing a more firm Season date is a way to meet in the middle.
Blizzard gave the official announcement about stash tabs....
Do you mean the announcement at Blizzcon there?
If so, am I the only one who finds it remarkable that there has not been one single mention about Stash space anymore in any of the recent Blizz News about the Season Journey & Awards? One would assume that such an important thing (unarguably the most important thing) like a Stash Tab would find a mention in those announcements, if there are really still plans to implement that system....
0
I added 2% CDR to your gear and swapped in Doombringer and here are the simulated results:
Lidless - 2735.076B
Bulwark - 1943.103B
The problem is it dropped your CDR far below the breakpoint. I swapped out the VIT on the shield for 8% CDR to match what you lost from Lidless. At that point Bulwark jumped to 2812.454B once the proper CDR requirement was met.
Unless you can stay above 61% CDR somehow it is not a viable option ATM for you. I would like to add our best weapon is Sun Keeper. You give up 20% Physical for an additional multiplier of 30% elite that is not diminished. You may want to consider getting that weapon first before making a final decision on how you want to adjust your gear.
0
If you are going to consider Coven or Bulwark it would also be worth thinking about if you can fit Hold Your Ground in to the build. It would significantly increase the DR you gain from both shield bonuses.
All three shields are pretty solid I would have to see the rest of your gear and put it in to the simulator to come up with a proper decision. In the end it comes down to DR vs DMG. Also 61% CDR is lower than I like to sit at. You can not say enough about having as high up time as possible on Akarat's as well as Immovable Object.
I have very similar shields and I find for grinding solo exp that 12% more Physical is rather noticeable in clear times. As for the DR shields, again it comes down to if you can fit Hold Your Ground in to your build to maximize their potential and for my own personal play style do not like to run that low of CDR since I have to give up Fervor to fit it in to my passive.
0
This is how I approach a LoN speed farming build
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/75202-tx-high-speed-lon-bomb-bounties-machines-rifts
0
Ok I was bored enough to do a test for you.
Barrel of Spikes
1440M avg first barrel - Whites, Blues, Yellows, and Purples
1816M avg first barrel - Araneae, Butcher, and Leoric (Act1 bosses)
Act Bosses and Rift Guardians are the only mob types that qualify for the rank 25 property. I would assume Quin does not address it simply because the wording is sufficient enough.
0
As for the rest of your post it seems almost as if you are confusing Stricken with Area Damage not working properly in previous iterations. If not then I will point you towards the reputable players video you are looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoYWLbfrVoY
0
Here are some statistics directly from the front page of one of the bot makers:
0
The numbers below were tested with no belt in my belt slot to cut down on clutter for more accurate results. There were no damage buffs or modifiers active. The only gems I was using were rank 63 BotT & Chip. Only had base crit values of 5% CHC and 50% CHD. No paragon points were put in to CHC or CHD
Spiked Barding
704M - non crit
1056M - crit
Barrel of Spikes
998M - non crit
1495M - crit
Reflective Skin + Spiked Barding
2815M - non crit
4223M - crit
Reflective Skin + Barrel of Spikes
3893M - non crit
5845M - crit
One shotting TX trash was happening fully equipped. Even without stacking additional multipliers.
0
RNG for the set weapon was not friendly to me. I happened to complete a TX capable LoN Bomb set before the weapon dropped, so I went from Invoker straight to LoN Bomb. At that point on I cubed Swiftmount, Broken Crown, and Avarice Band (BotH, BotT, and Chip for gems). Early on I find it efficient to spread out my total intake while keeping clear times as low as possible (3-4 min avg).
-edit
I think I will try In-geom in the cube tonight for key farming. I find Swiftmount to be really strong when I do bounties since I spend 90% of the bounty getting to a designated location.
0
I do not recommend anyone giving up the power for speed until the power is overkill. When you reach that point Avarice combined with Hoarder is a good way to make your speed clears even more efficient. This can be applied to just about any build that do not lock you in to 2 specific rings + cubed jewelry.
0
A few tweaks to consider:
Laws of Hope (Wings of Angels) - pop it before you mount for additional movement speed
Avarice Band in cube - more gold for empowered rifts
Hoarder over Powerful - trading additive damage for speed to further support Avarice
0
Your gear is pretty good and could get much better if you do have an Akkarat's Awakening.
1) Start with running Blood Brother in the cube and switch back to Akkarat's Awakening. You will be block capped and gain a significant damage increase.
2) Bane of the Trapped is significantly better than Bane of the Stricken during the rift clear. BotT at level 25+ passively proc's itself and is a multiplier while other gems fall under additive damage. BotS is largely wasted considering Invoker's 6 set at your current GR level and gear. You will see significant improvement from your 2 set during the clear itself using BotT.
3) Pig Sticker is only 1 of 3 daggers that you can get from the cube recipe (Eun-jang-do is 2x rarer than Pig Sticker and The Barber). Even with bad luck it is still very easy to get it via the cube. It is very unlikely to take you more than 100 death breath to make one.
4) I understand your frustration about The Endless Walk set. It took myself over 500 paragon to receive my first Traveler's Pledge.
-edit
5) Hold Your Ground is way too strong to pass on. I would drop Fanaticism.
1
List of gold find on my set:
81% Kymbo's Gold - neck
35% Litany of the Undaunted - ring
33% Homing Pads - shoulders
Just a Kymbo's Gold and Goldskin should be more than enough with a Boon of the Hoarder. Also take advantage of Gold Find in paragon for this conquest.
0
Until I started farming T8 I did not see any. Yesterday in TX and GR55+ I found 2 in a 5 hour session. I would conclude, like every other drop in the game, you have a higher probability of finding what you are looking for in the highest possible setting you can farm reasonably quickly.
I realize that is an extremely small sample size, yet it is indicative of how the drop rates are calculated in regards to difficulty level.
Here are two links that you may find useful: difficulty values & gambling probability
1
http://www.diablofans.com/blizz-tracker/topic/61153-too-silent-on-patch-notice
0
There was an official clarification of the system given not even a week ago that is on the front page of this very site.