Season 25: Shard My Pants

[Orbert]

Inspired by this thread, I just ran a GR 100 with my Monk.  Tomorrow I'll have to decide on a new character.

[Cluck Kent]

Well done! I still haven't decided what to do next but as I write this, I can feel I'm leaning a little Barbish.

[Cluck Kent]

So HC Barb it was. Using the Act 2 chest routine, it took me 44 minutes to level my Barb to lvl 70. Most of that time was spend in town. Once at 70, I loaded him up with all the legendaries and ancients I could fit on him and he ran LoD until he had a full set of Bul-Kathos. He could run T14 easily with all the extra defensive buffs I could lay on him and continued until he had a full wrath of the wastes set. Ran a GR 75, no problem; then a GR85, no problem and then went for it and bumped him to a GR100 which he completed easily in about 4 minutes. HC Barb to GR100 complete.

Still to consider: Witch Doctor, Necro and Crusader. I've always found the WD very fragile, ditto the Necro.

[Orbert]

Wow, congrats!

Um, what is "the Act 2 chest routine"?

[Cluck Kent]

It's the area in Act 2 where Vidian is. Normally on the main floor there is a cursed chest - kill 100 enemies. In the process of finding the chest and killing the monsters around the chest and spawned from the chest, the bonus XP is incredible. I start with a Hellfire ring, lvl 70 weapon with a Gem of Ease, Hellfire amulet with a LoD gem. Almost immediately after killing just a few monsters I'm lvl 16-18 and I head back to town to get a helm with a socket in it and either put a top lvl ruby or this season, a lvl 3 special gem. Go back in and kill a few monsters and I'm at lvl 30. I head back to town, grab a Leoric's ring, check my inventory for other low lvl gear, update my skills and head back out and this time stay until I find the chest. By the time I'm done - just a few minutes - I'm at lvl 51-53. Go back to town, reset the game, check my inventory for other stuff I can wear and rinse repeat a couple of times and I'm at lvl 70.

Even when I start the season with my first character, I still go to that Act 2 location and run that chest, but obviously without tall the XP gear it takes longer but it's still the fastest way I've ever found to lvl 70.

[Orbert]

Wow, that sounds worth exploiting, heh heh.

[Cluck Kent]

Lost my first HC char of the season, my Crusader, just after I had equipped the entire Akkan's set. Too bad. I should have taken it a bit more slowly and learned more about all the buffs. It took me 29 minutes to get another Crusader to lvl 70 - the fastest I've done it so far and now she's rolling through T12 or GR 55. The biggest loss from the death was a lvl 100 BotT, which will take some time to re-level.

[Orbert]

Ouch.  My condolences.

[Orbert]

After getting four characters up to T16/GR75+, the boredom was setting in, so I went back to my HC Demon Hunter.  I had gotten him up to T10/GR45 for the Conquest, but now I'm trying to get that same build (LoD, no sets) up to T16/GR75.  Scary.  Even the concept of pushing is different in HC.  Don't push too hard!

So he's T11 now, and after a few hours of no significant equipment upgrades (but a bunch of Paragon points), I'm maybe ready for T12.  Easy does it.

[Cluck Kent]

Easy does it indeed. I don't recall how far I've taken an LoD Demon Hunter, I always switch over to gears as soon as possible now. The build is tough, super fast and best of all super maneuverable. It's also not too hard to put together.

Good luck Orbert, I haven't done much since in the last few days except get my BotT back up to nearly lvl100 again. I figure I should take some time and replenish the larder for a bit before I head back into the Crusader although as I write this, I'm seriously thinking about the WD...

[Orbert]

I gave up on the T16 with LoD.  He was fun, but he seemed to plateau at T13.  Played for a while and got no signficant upgrades, so I switched him to M6 Multi-Shot and ran a T16 shortly after.  Running T16/GR75 for a while, I finally got two more Embers, and upgraded a Shard of Hatred, trying to get +Dexterity.  Got frickin' +Intelligence again.  So now I have two of these things, both with +Intelligence, and no Embers left.  So I started a Wizard.  She's into the 60's slog now.  I'll get back to her after dinner.

[Cluck Kent]

The only char I've played T16 with LoD is the Witch Doctor BUT, the LoD gem was lvl 98 so that helps a lot. I took the HC WD to GR85, but I was seriously concerned about staying alive so started a SC version to get a feel. Already run a GR95 with the Arachyr's set but not ready to go back to HC yet.

Have you tried one of the embers with Int? You may find they are still very effective. I find the same thing happens to me,  end up with Holy damage or something equally as useless but I have been very lucky with shards in HC and still have a pile of 28 in my inventory. I did complete a HC GR110 with my DH. I think that's the highest HC I've ever done. I'm paragon 930 roughly HC now, about the same or slightly better than my non season.

[Orbert]

My Wizard graduated to 70 that night, and I've been pushing her (gently) ever since.  Made T16 last night. 

I was wrong about which helm shard I was using; it was Terror, not Hatred.  The +Int was nice, but Shard of Terror is all about cooldowns, and it just wasn't working out, since Wizards don't have many skills that have long cooldowns.  I was casting skills all the time just so they'd be in cooldown, which only lasted 10 seconds or so.  So once I got two more Embers, I upped a Shard of Hatred.  I'd considered that one mostly for melee characters, since the damage is based on how many monsters are within 25 yards.  But it's working out pretty well.  I cast a Frost Hydra, then go stand on it and the bad guys come to me.  They get frozen, and die shortly thereafter.

Remnant of Pain in her wand is working out nicely, too.  The first one I had gave +Holy damage, but my second one rolled a raw +15% to Damage.  I'm saving the +Holy damage one for a possible Monk.

After a couple of Greater Rifts, I had a banner splash a few times that was too fast for me to read; I finally figured out that I was making the Leaderboards.  I was like 218th for Hardcore Wizards using Typhon's, but hey, I made the boards.  It happens so rarely that I didn't realize what it was telling me.

[Cluck Kent]

Interesting use of the Shard of Hatred Orbert! I should experiment more now that I have a fw.

Holy damage would also be good for a Crusader.

I really like the way they have the leader boards broken down now. It's great for several things.

Gotta run, Canadian men's soccer starting now!