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I just found a video of a leaked conversation between the developers that explains what happened yesterday night. It might shed some light on this issue (or not).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTRAagg02s8

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Edit: Moved from this thread, as I feel bad for derailing the discussion. On a more serious note, it's a video thread and to be d'accord with the rules here a short summary:

This is a satiric video in which, inspired by the recent popularity of a new meme, I try to bring a smile on some people's face that seemed a bit too much worried about barbarians being nerfed by the removal of the bracers just a day before the patch hit. The bracers had to be removed though as they were too strong and barbarians should be in a good spot anyways; if not, Blizzard will address this (see John Yang's tweet). What was really very unfortunate was the timing of the removal; many people don't follow Blizzard news that closely but have heard about the bracers and might keep gambling for them.

With 2.1.2 around the corner, we'll be farming rift after rift after rift. However, to get access to those rifts we need rift keys! While most people might farm T6 bounties, some of us ("there are dozens of us!") prefer to get rift key fragments as fast as possible. For those, I made this thread!

Inspired by the T6 rift clearing competition, I hereby attempt to create the same for normal bounties. If there's already such a competition and I missed it please let me know. As for the T6 competition, we need a clear set of rules... I discussed this with Jamoose and we thought about clearing 5 full sets of act 4 bounties and something like that; however, it's very subjective to RNG, so rather pick something more reliable. Therefore, let's use only one bounty that is almost always the same: the Underbridge in act 3. It should take about a minute and is therefore very easy to verify! Rules are as follows:

• Complete a full Underbridge bounty in act 3, from starting waypoint to finish ("bounty finished" message).
• Record the run on video to have proof. Upload video on Youtube, Dailymotion, or simply on Dropbox and post link so that your run can be verified.
• No external buffs such as other class buffs or shrines. Buff yourself *after* teleporting to the area (though it'll only take a second or less, but still).
• After finishing the bounty, go over gear, stats, paragon, and build at the end of the video.

While this is a competition, it's also about fun. There will be faster and slower runs - but I want to see as many different specs as possible. The great thing about Normal bounties is that EHP and DPS is relatively meaningless, so you can finally use some of that "useless gear" and theorycraft a bit different than usual!

I'll start with my two favorite builds, a DH (which is insanely fast as you can imagine) and a monk (which is not as fast but a lot of fun). I'll keep the list up to date. Btw, if anyone knows a free video editing tool with which I can edit in the timer in the video... let me know. You can either post a link to the build on the build tool or a link to your character (or both). I prefer the build tool as I switch gear on my characters all the time, so those links are never persistent.

Danetta+Vault DH

Explanation: The idea is basically to perma-Vault thanks to Vengeance and Preparation. High CDR and the Natalya set allow for Vengeance (and Punishment) to be available quite often, high RCR is required as you can imagine. I use Chakram's Shuriken Cloud for a little bit more extra damage and Vault-Action Shot to kill stuff; Rain of Vengeance with Dark Cloud is probably overkill on Normal, so it doesn't matter if you forget to click it. Bat companion adds a little bit of extra hatred regeneration. This build is inspired a lot by Desolacer's and k1ckd0wn's build, so all the credit to them.

Video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ekll4_dh-vault-speed-bounty-underbridge-normal_videogames (I uploaded on Dailymotion because I've heard they're not as strict on copyright as Youtube... and I might add a song at some point).

Build: http://www.diablofans.com/builds/16609-danetta-natalya-normal-bounty-speed-farming

Time: 50 seconds.

Monk Tempest Rush

A pretty straightforward TR build. I use Warstaff of General Quang for the Tailwind rune such that I can run with Electric Field for more AoE damage. Zephyr and Annihilation provide little speed buffs, just like the two gems and Rechel's Ring which is procced occasionally by Pandaemonium Loop's fear (unfortunately almost never in my run below). I used Sunwoku set but actually think it might be useless, I might try again with different items for a better time. It's far from perfect or optimized... but a lot of fun!

Video: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ekl5n_monk-tr-speed-bounty-underbridge-normal_videogames

Build: http://www.diablofans.com/builds/16608-tempest-rush-normal-bounties-speed-spec

Time: 71 seconds

Current ranking:

1. DH - 50 seconds
2. Wizard (ChangBooster) - 52 seconds
3. DH (Desolacer) - 54 seconds (T6 HC!)
4. Crusader (Jamoose) - 56 seconds
5. Monk - 71 seconds