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Quote from Justboid»

There are 2 major reasons the 1 dps + 3 zdps meta exists. Scaling mob dmg requires as many buffs/cc you can get to keep the dps alive at higher Gr lvls. The second and really the bigger issue that will prevent even 2 dps is the lag. D3s servers simply cant handle the numbers. This is why zdps go with no area dmg or LoH. In its current state, the game would lock up every time you grouped up enough mobs to kill with 2 dps .

For most of the past seasons 2 dps + 2 zdps was the meta because it provided the best utility combined with the best dps and the least lag. We saw 3 zdps start in S3 speed runs only because people wanted to leach XP+gear on their dps class but it was uncommon, in S4 supports were able to act as dpsers thanks to Static Charge monk proc'ing from everybody's attacks but there was still many groups with EP monk + SC monk. S5 is when 1 dps + 3 zdps was mandatory and it has nothing to do with buffs or lag, it was entirely because of a brokenly OP sword and a brokenly OP passive that allowed 1 class to pump out lingering AoE spells that scaled exponentially and reached heights unforeseen by the devs.

Lag is a byproduct of too many mobs taking damage too frequently. The game was designed around the assumption that mobs would die fast so things like DoT's ticking many times per second or the Area Damage stat which proc's multiple times off of spells that already do AoE damage (aka exponential scaling) are okay when things die fast but it lags to all hell when you group a ton of shit together and it never dies. They have slowly been redesigning things ever since S1 to reduce the number of calculations but AD is fundamentally flawed, DoT's need to tick less frequently, and mobs need to leash to prevent over-grouping (too much density).

The meta is controllable, they can promote builds that cause less lag by making those builds' dps the highest, they can reduce the utility of support specs, they can make DoT's tick less often, and they could redesign AD to only work with single target spells or only proc off the first target hit ortons of other things that don't create exponential calculations...

Quote from swebarb»

Quote from phuzi0n»

Extract it, reforge it, throw it away, w/e. Once patch hits Krider builds are dead and you'll want Yang's with cubed Calamity. If you stockpiled mats then you can craft a ton of yellow bows and upgrade them with the cube to try to get ancient Yang's and you'll get tons of Kriders while you're at it.

yeah true but many dont even play with multi so its kinda useless bow for them.

Multishot is pretty much the only build in 2.3 because of how strong Yang's is and DML moving to nonseason.

Extract it, reforge it, throw it away, w/e. Once patch hits Krider builds are dead and you'll want Yang's with cubed Calamity. If you stockpiled mats then you can craft a ton of yellow bows and upgrade them with the cube to try to get ancient Yang's and you'll get tons of Kriders while you're at it.

Quote from Talyn_Rahl»

It's ALMOST as if you can just make your own build, and trust in Shenlongs to make you viable :p.

Pretty much. It adds so much dmg to generators and since it's a weapon set you can combine it with several armor sets or just generic gear depending on what you want to do. Getting the set early in the season will rocket you into high torments.

Quote from Atiyo»

People are being bitches about it because it shows the general layout of the map that you are currently on. It's not discovered or anything but it shows you roughly where an exit to the map should be (not always the case, since maps are randomized in rifts).

But yea if you played the game enough you know the maps and should find the exit at almost the same time as someone who uses Thud. Or you could simply google the map layouts and have them up on your 2nd monitor, but I guess that's cheating too Kappa.

It shows way more than that, especially where mobs are, what rarity they are, what affixes they have, etc. Even without regard to anything it does, it is a 3rd party program which is enough to make it against the EULA. WoW has UI customization built in as a feature using an API that blizzard provides people but D3 devs specifically decided not to allow UI customization because they want it to be a very simply (and totally stupid) UI similar to D2.

Most of the stuff in THud should just be baselined because at this point everyone is presumed to be using it whether they are or not and it's near impossible to group with people that aren't using it. Expanding the map view and providing an option to display mob affixes on top of them instead having to try to hover over them aren't that drastic of changes but would even things out a lot.

Quote from slayk0r»

If i correctly understood any attack will apply the debuff on one target only with a certain internal cooldown which is approximately 0.3-0.5~ seconds

Pretty much but it has to have a proc coefficient above 0. It can be a really small coefficient like 0.01 and it will still apply 1 stack to 1 target 100% of the time if the ICD is up.

Monks and barbs unless something drastic happens.

Quote from Helycon»

The bow isn't S4 exclusive

Oh right, the shitty 1h xbow is.

In that case, ns players should stock up on tons of mats and lvl 70 YELLOW BOWS so that you can use the cube to upgrade the yellow bows into legendaries and try to get an ancient Yang's. And since you're going to wait then forget about having RCR anywhere else than the massive reduction from Yang's and cubed cindercoat.

I'm coming from the perspective of a seasonal player so I can't be sure about the build itself... S3 is about to end so you will be able to get DML soon in non-season for a huge dps increase, but you may want to play S4 because the S4 bow is a massive upgrade for multishot builds.

You're missing ancients everywhere, they provide huge toughness gains from the extra AR/vit as well as some dps gains. You need RCR on shoulders/gloves/quiver so that you can multishot more. Get a chest with hatred regen as well. Your witching hour should probably be vit instead of AR. You should probably have a helm with CC/multi or CC/vit, definitely get rid of chakram dmg. Get that neck higher chd or wait for 2.3 and farm hellfires (VERY easy in 2.3). Craft reaper wraps for your bracers. Reroll the restraint to cc or chd, reroll the ias on focus to cc. Get AR on pants/boots. Try to get a better weapon (craft arcane barbs) with a gift on it.

Quote from MeatHeadMikhail»

Quote from Kelathos»

Given all the items that go into the finished build, a large amount of time will be spent farming for these items before we can play with the final... product.

At what point can we switch from a generic build to actually using EP / SSS?

I'd like to know more about the build and playstyle that goes into farming for this, and what it looks like before it's completed.

Once you have 6 piece set + either Madstone or Gungdo. It'll still suck until you get FoE, but I rolled without it through earlier torments for a bit on PTR and it was manageable. That's just how it is though, it's a 12 piece set. If you don't have all the pieces you'll be disappointed.

I'm going to disagree again on this aspect. It seems MHM keeps looking at it more from the perspective of already having another full set and switching over to Uliana. Having all the pieces will of course make you the strongest you can be with this set but it is still VERY good while you are gearing up as a fresh character.

Since your question seems to be precisely about what to do as a fresh character, I will try to lay it out for you. You will hit 70 and have some generic generator/spender build. If you get 2pc Uliana, Madstone, or Gungdo then you can start using EP:Strong Spirit to gain lots of resources to spam your spender more if you're solo or EP:Impending Doom in a group. If you've got multiple monks in group then anyone without U6+Madstone needs to use a different EP rune until they have it because using the same rune will just overwrite each others'. Once you get 4pc, Lion's Claw, FoE, or the previous mentioned Madstone then add SSS into your build, and if you're solo then probably keep another spender until you have FoE. Until you get 6pc, use any bonuses from other sets that you get to help you out. After that you just keep adding w/e you're missing to become more powerful.

My gearing strategy at the start will be: spend blood shards primarily to get 6pc and focus on the slots that I don't have any legendary/Uliana first, use the cube recipe Skill of Nilfur to reroll any extra set items to ones that I need, use the cube recipe Hope of Cain to upgrade yellow fist weapons to legendary for Lion's Claw/EP fist and maybe diabos to get FoE if I feel it's taking too long, when I'm T6 ready then do a few keywardens/ubers with a full group for a decent neck (perfect it later in T10).

It's a lot simpler to fix than completely redesign it. Just add another item (belt/bracers) that gives X% dmg reduction every time you leap and expand the set to 6pc with a bonus that increases dmg. Erupting existing earthquakes for full duration dmg every time you leap would be a great way to get better instantaneous dmg. Adding some synergy with avalanche would also fit the theme of the set. With all the power creep it needs way bigger numbers.

Quote from sanguinae666»

If there is another Uliana monk in the group they should be focusing different groups of enemies... and in the worst case scenario you both will be hitting the single and same enemy, in this case if you make explode someone else EP with SSS having equipped gungdo don't know if the explosion will apply your EP with your rune or his... never considered it cause i find absurd a group with more than 1 person with the same build, always preferred diversity in the group giving different buffs to each other.

2x Uliana is standard for groups on PTR and you can't separate when you are both relying on your support barb to give you massive toughness buffs and keeping the mobs grouped tight for better EP explosion damage. If it's just T10 or w/e easy stuff then you can split up if the map isn't linear but madstone is still a huge quality of life improvement when you're alone.

Quote from sanguinae666»

I've been playing a little with this set in the Ptr and you actually don't need Madstone in cube, because using gungdo the explosion from EP will apply EP to the enemies which explosion is triggered by the 6p effect of the set, so you only need to apply palm before by using it or 2p effect; So i'd rather recommend using both gungdo and the spirit guards, using the best one you got and cubing the other. The only situation where you benefice from using Madstone is if u use SSS to a single target with no EP applied, then you'll apply EP but not trigger explosion in the first hit but you'll do in all the rest of hits and as i have said this can be resolved by just using EP before while not using Madstone.

Cya,

Sanguinae

Madstone is mandatory if you have another Uliana monk hitting the same mobs that you are with the same EP rune because they will overwrite your EP's. If you group with other monks at the start then just run different EP runes until you have each madstones but once you get to high content you'll all want to be cold. If you play solo then it is still a strong option that almost everyone uses but you can get away without it.

Quote from MeatHeadMikhail»

Hey guys, today I explain and showcase the new Monk set coming in 2.3 - Uliana's Stratagem. Although it does have a steep gear requirement (it's basically a 12 piece set), it's one of the smoothest builds out there among a sea of clunkiness (see Helltooth Gary). I go over the gearing strategy, gem choices, speed farming vs. greater rift considerations, and blow up some T10 cows. Moo moo. Enjoy & discuss!

https://youtu.be/MFEjbqaUGNI

That's a large exaggeration because you're suggesting that the BiS list (including cube powers) is mandatory. Following that logic pretty much every set is 15+ pcs in 2.3...

In reality Uliana's has the smoothest gearing I've ever seen and the cube makes it even easier through targeted crafting/rerolling. Every set bonus adds dps, almost every complimentary item adds dps, and the belt adds huge toughness. Every time you find a new complimentary item or complete a new bonus you can raise your torment 2 times and end up in T10 while missing a few BiS items.

Quote from Crackersoup»

Support barb is only a thing due to a bug with their helmet: Skull of Resonance. This helmet is bugged and ignores the current DR system, effectively giving barbs a way to perma cc. This is unintended and has been addreissed (blue post) as a bug by blizzard. Any "support barb" builds we see now will not make it to live, as they bring very little outside of the bugged cc and a decent ability to pull (which monk and sader do better while bringing dps buffs).

Lol no. Look at Dutchfreak's gr74 4p setup, no Skull of Resonance... Barb brings a good share of offense, huge defense, and a long range pull.