in 4s meta though, the niche isnt as strong now that WD may not be exactly the top choice for 1 of the dps slots (there are some alternatives especially both channel meteor wizards) as not every class gets the same benefit as WD from a few globes. zwiz and zdh are then weighing more damage vs ignore pain and movespeed, essentially.
barb can be replaced with wiz and dh supports, both of which sacrifice a few globes, optional movementspeed buffs, and ignore pain in order to provide nearly equal toughness buffs and much larger damage buffs to group.
zdh also plays the role of tagging monsters very easily without even needing to leave group as the build runs marauders 4set bonus so you can place a sentry and shoot MS windchill offscreen. wiz offers grouping skills too. both can be made quite mobile.
to put it into perspective, at around 1200 paragon in season 11, my friends and I ran gr 111 for #897 4man clear with znec/zdh/2rathma where we barely had a 108 with zbarb instead of zdh. on the other hand, frozen elites gave us more trouble but all was well as we consistently cleared 109s.
for those who play 2man and 3man, zwiz and zdh prime choices for supports there. zdh + RGK necro was a top 2man comp in season 11, and both of these support classes fit into 1 dpser 3man comps quite well.
S11 was the first season back since season 4 or 5, and the first time on leaderboards for my friends and me. we hit it on all group leaderboards and some of us tried and got solo leaderboards for our class too. including #208 rank 2man, and a not wd/rgk/zmonk/zbarb comp 4man. (#897 with znec/zdh/2rathma)
in S12 we will try developing on that, we will as a group start the season not late to the party and grind harder than we ever have.
depends on what the comp wants. zmonk gives grouping toughness and a some bonus damage, would just need a dps to do the scouting and prefers dpsers with 1-2 buffs to party damage like DH wolf companion as an example. if group wants globes, monk could cube solanium but zbarb and znecro do it better - but both of those sacrifice most or all grouping capability. there are plenty of options that benefit in different ways, zbarb will never be a bad choice as a scout and globe generator and zmonk will never be a bad choice.
every class has a viable support setup, but they all focus more on some of the following than all of it: grouping mobs, buffing damage, buffing toughness, poviding large amounts of cc, spawning globes, etc. most comps will need buffed toughness to really push far and grouping mobs is a huge help for aoe clears, so those tend to be favorites.
early in the season the meta will likely remain the current meta setup, but comps that dont follow this meta will be much stronger in the coming season than they currently are, expect gr 100 maybe as high as 120 to have plenty of variety. season 12 will definitely be the time to push with friends with builds you want to use most.
it needs to be tested further, but a good choice that is known is firebats - helltooth has higher multiplier but arachyr does almost as much thanks to having an extra skill slot . speculative math shows that a well played aoe inarius poison scythe could possibly do even more damage and be far less laggy for the group - and with a stacking grouper support like zwizard and briggs znecro and harpoon zbarb, it gets area damage (its area damage isnt a radius, they have to be on the same unit).
however, due to massive buffs all around, could end up using 1 support comps and 2 mixed dps could do the job of aoe clear and enable many more options for meta comps.
FB channel meteor wizard - as long as it doesnt have to stop channeling, its damage is solid on ptr in both 1target and in aoe. situational, but an alternative option for GR 120 and below if it can sit and channel safely.
Shadow is a good alternative for GR 120 and below as RGK.
HotA would be something worthwhile trying, depending on how hard it hits compared to shadow at base damage and how well it stacks stricken.
Tragouls is as good of an option as it is on live.
Above GR 120, Boneringer inarius is quite a bit better than anything else. Rathma can copy the build piece for piece (archers rune not singu) and if it has enough essence can maintain a slightly higher multiplier and slot something instead of bone armor (if it doesnt have the essence to maintain 4 archers, then it won't work) but it loses stricken stacking during archer casts.
However, every meta changes when someone finds something new and better. This is just what seems to be in discussion.
There has been suggestions recently on the bnet forums to move LoN to one of two options that I found interesting as concepts:
A. make it a passive each class can have which now frees up 2 ring slots at cost of a passive slot, slight % bonus buff has been suggested with this.
B. additional effects besides straight % bonus based on class. as an example, DH bonuses for LoN could give 3% hatred cost reduction and 1% attack speed per ancient item equipped.
In addition, it has been suggested that primal ancients give a larger % bonus from LoN passive which would seems like a logical thing to do, but would make it harder to maximize potential than it already is.
I do like the idea of only disallowing 6 set bonuses, but I fear it will mean LoN builds will end up becoming tied into set bonuses like shenlongs/danettas/slanderer-LR/BulKathos/jesseth/manajuma and making other options incomparable - which wasn't the original intention of the LoN set.
I also have the siberia v2, white with blue glowing ears. only issue I've found is some programs like league tend to kill my sound drivers if their client is buggy at the time. (for a couple patches, I had to delete and reinstall my drivers for the headset every time I logged onto my computer and decided to play it)
So, I've learned to live with it up till now, but it is kind of ridiculous. When I play, I get constant lag, where my characters miss some visuals and then double others, stop moving for a split second, rubberband (mostly when I collide with a unit or obstacle), and latency spikes often. All of these things are hindrances on my gameplay. While I am a very casual player, I feel like this shouldn't be the reason why I'm stuck at my GR progression (at 55 nonseasonal my DH passive gets procced in 1 hit, so i spend about half the rift dead from dying to things before I see them on my screen - and just bad with some affixes too but I would count 2/3 of my deaths to lag).
My internet provider TWC is strong, even an upgrade recently from Verizon, and sitting at 25/2 mb/s. Other games i have played or currently play do not have anywhere near this lag issue and most I have played have zero (league, wow, atlantica, elsword, hearthstone, and others). My computer has decent specs: i7, gtx 660m, 8gb ram. I even run 95% of the graphical settings of d3 on minimum and ones that may perform better off as off. (Also, to note I have tried looking up some fixes and did change the number of audio channels to 16, which helped only a little with rubberbanding)
I was thinking since the ele% is additive, it would be worse than multiplicative damage provided by hexing pants (ele% and rov% stack additively and are at a base amount higher than hexing pants and taeguk, but idk if there is a rank # where taeguk is so high that this scenario would be worse after reaching full active taeguk stacks).
Personally, I had major issues with hatred in this build until I got hexing pants. so far hexing seems to put me at ~1 more hatred gained than spent on strafe. Still gearing my seasonal toon atm (my main is not nats build, yet at least)
the roll on the calamity with the suggested enchant by spiralphoenix5 is so close to the damage of the windforce, even while ignoring the attack speed difference, that the calamity affix makes it way beyond the damage of the windforce.
edit: if you are running a build that doesnt do its main damage in a wide area, such as the common cluster arrow m6, the knockback from the windforce may not work so well for you. I dont know if someone came up with a combo in addition to it and strongarms that makes up for the knockbacks reducing accuracy (your next cast being done on the spot where the mob was instead of where it lands if your reaction time isnt as fast as the knockback). would love to hear if my opinion is wrong, because I love knockbacks.
0
you all do know this was from last season.
0
in 4s meta though, the niche isnt as strong now that WD may not be exactly the top choice for 1 of the dps slots (there are some alternatives especially both channel meteor wizards) as not every class gets the same benefit as WD from a few globes. zwiz and zdh are then weighing more damage vs ignore pain and movespeed, essentially.
0
barb can be replaced with wiz and dh supports, both of which sacrifice a few globes, optional movementspeed buffs, and ignore pain in order to provide nearly equal toughness buffs and much larger damage buffs to group.
zdh also plays the role of tagging monsters very easily without even needing to leave group as the build runs marauders 4set bonus so you can place a sentry and shoot MS windchill offscreen. wiz offers grouping skills too. both can be made quite mobile.
to put it into perspective, at around 1200 paragon in season 11, my friends and I ran gr 111 for #897 4man clear with znec/zdh/2rathma where we barely had a 108 with zbarb instead of zdh. on the other hand, frozen elites gave us more trouble but all was well as we consistently cleared 109s.
for those who play 2man and 3man, zwiz and zdh prime choices for supports there. zdh + RGK necro was a top 2man comp in season 11, and both of these support classes fit into 1 dpser 3man comps quite well.
0
lost a 112 trapped, at least i had a 103 backup one.
0
S11 was the first season back since season 4 or 5, and the first time on leaderboards for my friends and me. we hit it on all group leaderboards and some of us tried and got solo leaderboards for our class too. including #208 rank 2man, and a not wd/rgk/zmonk/zbarb comp 4man. (#897 with znec/zdh/2rathma)
in S12 we will try developing on that, we will as a group start the season not late to the party and grind harder than we ever have.
0
Boneringer inarius is your RGK at GR 115+ in season 12, below that will be trags but several non-necro alternatives
0
depends on what the comp wants. zmonk gives grouping toughness and a some bonus damage, would just need a dps to do the scouting and prefers dpsers with 1-2 buffs to party damage like DH wolf companion as an example. if group wants globes, monk could cube solanium but zbarb and znecro do it better - but both of those sacrifice most or all grouping capability. there are plenty of options that benefit in different ways, zbarb will never be a bad choice as a scout and globe generator and zmonk will never be a bad choice.
every class has a viable support setup, but they all focus more on some of the following than all of it: grouping mobs, buffing damage, buffing toughness, poviding large amounts of cc, spawning globes, etc. most comps will need buffed toughness to really push far and grouping mobs is a huge help for aoe clears, so those tend to be favorites.
early in the season the meta will likely remain the current meta setup, but comps that dont follow this meta will be much stronger in the coming season than they currently are, expect gr 100 maybe as high as 120 to have plenty of variety. season 12 will definitely be the time to push with friends with builds you want to use most.
0
it needs to be tested further, but a good choice that is known is firebats - helltooth has higher multiplier but arachyr does almost as much thanks to having an extra skill slot . speculative math shows that a well played aoe inarius poison scythe could possibly do even more damage and be far less laggy for the group - and with a stacking grouper support like zwizard and briggs znecro and harpoon zbarb, it gets area damage (its area damage isnt a radius, they have to be on the same unit).
however, due to massive buffs all around, could end up using 1 support comps and 2 mixed dps could do the job of aoe clear and enable many more options for meta comps.
0
FB channel meteor wizard - as long as it doesnt have to stop channeling, its damage is solid on ptr in both 1target and in aoe. situational, but an alternative option for GR 120 and below if it can sit and channel safely.
Shadow is a good alternative for GR 120 and below as RGK.
HotA would be something worthwhile trying, depending on how hard it hits compared to shadow at base damage and how well it stacks stricken.
Tragouls is as good of an option as it is on live.
Above GR 120, Boneringer inarius is quite a bit better than anything else. Rathma can copy the build piece for piece (archers rune not singu) and if it has enough essence can maintain a slightly higher multiplier and slot something instead of bone armor (if it doesnt have the essence to maintain 4 archers, then it won't work) but it loses stricken stacking during archer casts.
However, every meta changes when someone finds something new and better. This is just what seems to be in discussion.
1
There has been suggestions recently on the bnet forums to move LoN to one of two options that I found interesting as concepts:
A. make it a passive each class can have which now frees up 2 ring slots at cost of a passive slot, slight % bonus buff has been suggested with this.
B. additional effects besides straight % bonus based on class. as an example, DH bonuses for LoN could give 3% hatred cost reduction and 1% attack speed per ancient item equipped.
In addition, it has been suggested that primal ancients give a larger % bonus from LoN passive which would seems like a logical thing to do, but would make it harder to maximize potential than it already is.
I do like the idea of only disallowing 6 set bonuses, but I fear it will mean LoN builds will end up becoming tied into set bonuses like shenlongs/danettas/slanderer-LR/BulKathos/jesseth/manajuma and making other options incomparable - which wasn't the original intention of the LoN set.
0
I also have the siberia v2, white with blue glowing ears. only issue I've found is some programs like league tend to kill my sound drivers if their client is buggy at the time. (for a couple patches, I had to delete and reinstall my drivers for the headset every time I logged onto my computer and decided to play it)
0
It does just as often when I am just walking around in town.
0
So, I've learned to live with it up till now, but it is kind of ridiculous. When I play, I get constant lag, where my characters miss some visuals and then double others, stop moving for a split second, rubberband (mostly when I collide with a unit or obstacle), and latency spikes often. All of these things are hindrances on my gameplay. While I am a very casual player, I feel like this shouldn't be the reason why I'm stuck at my GR progression (at 55 nonseasonal my DH passive gets procced in 1 hit, so i spend about half the rift dead from dying to things before I see them on my screen - and just bad with some affixes too but I would count 2/3 of my deaths to lag).
My internet provider TWC is strong, even an upgrade recently from Verizon, and sitting at 25/2 mb/s. Other games i have played or currently play do not have anywhere near this lag issue and most I have played have zero (league, wow, atlantica, elsword, hearthstone, and others). My computer has decent specs: i7, gtx 660m, 8gb ram. I even run 95% of the graphical settings of d3 on minimum and ones that may perform better off as off. (Also, to note I have tried looking up some fixes and did change the number of audio channels to 16, which helped only a little with rubberbanding)
I can provide a dxdiag if requested.
0
I was thinking since the ele% is additive, it would be worse than multiplicative damage provided by hexing pants (ele% and rov% stack additively and are at a base amount higher than hexing pants and taeguk, but idk if there is a rank # where taeguk is so high that this scenario would be worse after reaching full active taeguk stacks).
Personally, I had major issues with hatred in this build until I got hexing pants. so far hexing seems to put me at ~1 more hatred gained than spent on strafe. Still gearing my seasonal toon atm (my main is not nats build, yet at least)
0
the roll on the calamity with the suggested enchant by spiralphoenix5 is so close to the damage of the windforce, even while ignoring the attack speed difference, that the calamity affix makes it way beyond the damage of the windforce.
edit: if you are running a build that doesnt do its main damage in a wide area, such as the common cluster arrow m6, the knockback from the windforce may not work so well for you. I dont know if someone came up with a combo in addition to it and strongarms that makes up for the knockbacks reducing accuracy (your next cast being done on the spot where the mob was instead of where it lands if your reaction time isnt as fast as the knockback). would love to hear if my opinion is wrong, because I love knockbacks.