d3

Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

07/12/2012 By TLN

Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

INTRODUCTION

This guide is intended only to cover the basics of the wizard class in inferno; i.e. what the popular builds are and how to gear your wizard in a general sense. A friend of mine just hit 60 on his wizard and asked me to write something up for him so I decided to make it into this post in case anybody else is interested. It’s a general guide; if I don’t mention your build or your strategy it doesn’t mean I think it sucks, I’m just posting general information on what I perceive to be the popular builds and strategies. The guide is geared towards preparing for and clearing act3/4 inferno, and eventually farming act 3.

BUILDS

1) BLIZZARD KITING BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#blROQS!Ydf!bbbYZZ

Strategy:

This build’s strength comes from the use of two combos: Blizzard’s strong 60% slow + Venom Hydra’s stacking DOT pools, and Teleport + Illusionist. To play this build you want to engage from max distance (preferably the very edge of the screen) by dropping a hydra about halfway between you and the mobs and then dropping a blizzard on top of them and then a line of blizzards between you and them. This way the mobs will walk through your blizzard trail while slowed and take continuous damage from both the blizzard and the venom hydra. When possible, you spam your signature spell to add damage. Continue this while kiting. When/if the mobs eventually get to you, you take a hit (which is reduced to 35% of your HP by force armor) and then teleport away. Since you have illusionist, you can do this every time you take a hit. For sustainability in the longish fights vs. elites you need some form of healing – life regen/sec is the most effective in combination with force armor.

This is the build I used to clear inferno and after trying numerous other builds its what I’ve come back to and currently use to farm act 3. A lot of people find it boring but its very efficient. Since 1.0.3 I have not had to skip a single elite pack in act 3 while farming and I generally die less than once an hour farming act 3.

Pros/Cons:

+Least gear dependant of all the builds, great for new 60 wizards, but still scales well

+Extremely safe due to permanent Blizzard slow + Illusionist/Teleport

+Great AOE damage from Blizzard + Venom Hydra + Piercing Orb

-Some people find it boring

-You have to kite a lot, you can’t stand and tank like the prismatic armor builds

-Relies somewhat on skillful play to avoid taking hits

Choices/Variants:

Signature Spell – I like Piercing Orb for better AOE damage and for shielding/invulnerable minion packs, but some people prefer Magic Missile – Seeker.

Blizzard – Stark Winter is a viable alternative to Snowbound.

Teleport – Some people prefer Fracture to Wormhole, both are fine.

4th Skill – I recommend Force Weapon at lower gear levels, but once you get enough DPS you can switch to Diamond Skin, or if you find yourself dying too much. Some people think Familiar – Sparkflint is better than Force Weapon. Some people like Mirror Images or Frost Nova here too, but I don’t think they are as strong.

2) CRITICAL MASS BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VSYXhj!gWY!YZcbcZ

Strategy:

These builds are based primarily on utilizing high crit rate and the Critical Mass passive to constantly refresh cooldowns such as Frost Nova and Diamond Skin. Some use Prismatic Armor instead of Force Armor and build fairly tanky so that they can stand in melee range. They rely either on Spectral Blades or Energy Twister – Wicked Wind to trigger Critical Mass as much as possible. The Energy Twister variants are probably more gear dependant because you will need AP on Crit gear in order to not run out of AP, but the Spectral Blades variants probably require more defensive/resistance gear. These are the builds I have the least experience with, so I would refer people to http://www.windupwizard.com/ for more specifics on what’s probably the most popular variant of the build.

Pros/Cons:

+Much less kiting required, can often stand still and spam abilities

+Some consider it more fun/exciting, possibly more fast paced depending on the variant

+Able to put out massive dps – see the video of the Belial kill on the link above

-More gear dependant than the force armor builds

-Not nearly as safe as the blizzard/vhydra build since you are in melee range and don’t have teleport

-Requires careful play to make sure the combo doesn’t “fizzle out”

Choices/Variants:

Spectral Blades vs. Wicked Wind Prismatic Armor + Tanky gear vs foregoing that and relying on Diamond Skin + Frost Nova spam. Lots of variance in the damaging abilities used – some use meteor, some explosive blast.

3) ARCANE ORB BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#cRXOQS!YdU!YbaYZZ

Strategy:

These builds are kiting builds similar to the Blizzard build above, but replace Blizzard with Arcane Orb + Temporal Flux for the slow. At higher gear levels it’s possible to drop Temporal Flux altogether due to the damage output of Arcane Orb. The basic strategy is similar to the Blizzard build above; engage from max range, drop Hydra and spam Arcane Orb while kiting. When you get caught, you rely on Illusionist + Teleport to get away.

Pros/Cons:

+Less gear dependant than the Critical Mass or Archon builds

+High burst damage from hard hitting Arcane Orbs

+Fairly safe kiting build

-Not as safe as the Blizzard build since you are using a weaker/less reliable slow

-More gear dependant than the Blizzard build

-Relies on kiting, which some find boring

Choices/Variants:

Orb – Tap the Source is the most popular rune for Arcane Orb, but some people use Obliterate or Celestial Orb. To use these you probably need to add a signature spell, likely Magic Missile – Seeker.

Hydra – Arcane Hydra can be used instead of Venom Hydra to make the build safer by adding a more reliable slow. It is less damage, but not tons less and is perfectly viable/safer. Probably better at lower gear levels.

Teleport – Again, some prefer Fracture to Wormhole.

3rd and 4th Skills – Any combination of Diamond Skin / Force Weapon / Familiar – Sparkflint / Frost Nova / Mirror Images is fine.

Passives – At higher gear levels you can drop Temporal Flux for something else.

4) ARCHON BUILDS

Example: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#VmjOQS!Ybg!YcacZZ

Strategy:

These builds revolve around being in Archon the most time possible and using it to quickly melt everything. They are the most gear dependant, but probably also the most efficient at the highest levels of gear. Your buffs such as Energy Armor, Force Weapon and Familiar persist into Archon form, which itself also adds 40% resists/armor. The goal is to buff your dps as high as possible, pop archon, and maintain it by killing tons of mobs to get a bonus to the duration from each kill. Once Archon ends your goal is to refresh it as quickly as possible so that you can do it again. Actually killing things with Archon is self-explanatory, just hold down right click and point at the mobs. Don’t forget that you likely don’t have an escape or CC spell though and will quickly die if you allow anything to actually get to you and hit you.

Pros/Cons:

+Insane speed/efficiency at high gear levels

+Hilariously fun to melt entire screens of enemies in 1-2 seconds and champ packs in 5-10 seconds

+Great AOE damage, great single target damage, trivializes certain boss fights

-Most gear dependant build

-Not very safe while in Archon form due to no escape spell or CC

-Weak/vulnerable when Archon is on cooldown

Choices/Variants:

Archon Rune – I think Improved Archon, Teleport or Pure Power are the best. Some people use Slow Time.

What you do when you aren’t in Archon is up for debate. Some people take Arcane Orb and try to farm or at least clear white mobs with that while Archon is down. Another strategy (the one in the build linked above) is to take Critical Mass and either Wicked Wind or Spectral Blades to try to refresh Archon as quickly as possible. I prefer the latter.

GEARING YOUR WIZARD FOR INFERNO

Tools: The Wizard DPS spreadsheet, the best way to compare gear and decide on potential DPS upgrades: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuCuIwwOof50dGpVRXhOYTZHNUJ3R1dWTmdNdS1TeWc#gid=1

The EHP calculator, an essential tool if you’re using force armor and very useful regardless: http://rubensayshi.github.com/d3-ehp-calculator/#intro

The maximum values of stats which can appear on gear of different slots: http://www.d3rmt.com/guides/diablo-3-item-stat-maximum-values/

Offense – Your primary offensive stats are int, crit chance, crit damage, attack speed and bonus damage, and not necessarily in that order. The relative value of all of these stats depends entirely on how much of them you already have, and the only good way to figure it out for you individually is with the DPS spreadsheet I linked above. Just as an example, for me with my current gear my equivalencies are as follows: 1% crit = 27.28 int, 1% crit damage = 4.47 int, 1% IAS = 22.29 int, and 1 average bonus damage = 2.52 int. Bonus damage is an often overlooked damage stat that can be very valuable and can often be found on jewelry for less cost than its worth because people overlook it. Stacking crit + crit damage is really the only way to get very high dps.

2h vs 1h + source is an endless debate, but after trying both extensively I prefer 1h + source, mostly because you can get crit chance on the offhand which I think at higher gear levels pushes 1H+OH over any 2h. If you are just starting out in inferno a good 2h may be cheaper and a better way to go initially.

Defense – Your primary defensive stats are vit, % life, bonus armor (which includes strength), resistances (which includes intellect), life regen, dexterity (everybody should have at least 100), movement speed (which includes IAS), and for some builds life on hit. Which of these stats and how much of them you want depends very much on whether you are using force armor or prismatic armor, which I’ll address more below.

Gearing by slot:

As you’ll have noticed from the link above, various different stats can appear or can not appear on different slots, and in different amounts. That means there is a strategy for which stats you want to look for on each slot. Generally, the slots you should focus on for offensive stats are your jewelry, helm, bracers, gloves, weapon and offhand, while you should focus on defensive stats on your shoulders, chest, legs, belt, and boots because, except for legendaries, those slots can’t spawn the good dps stats. Every slot should have some amount of int.

DPS gear:

Helm – You want the highest int and crit chance you can afford. A socket is nice, but not necessary and sometimes artifically inflates the price. Use a calculator to compare your gain from the % life on the socket to what you can get on an unsocketed helm in terms of vit and % life. This is one of the two slots (gloves are the other) that can spawn particularly high int, so this is a relatively cheap place to get a lot of it.

Gloves – You really want int, crit chance and crit damage all on this item. This slot, along with the amulet and the weapon, is the best place to look for crit damage. These three slots (gloves/ammy/weapon) are likely going to be both the most expensive and the most worth spending on. Again, one of the two slots that can spawn especially high int.

Bracers – Again you want int and crit chance here. There are a lot of these on the market, probably due to crafting, so this is a slot you can get a very good value on.

Amulet – Similar to the gloves, but more expensive. Int, crit chance and crit damage are all mandatory. Bonus damage is a nice plus as well, and can lead to you getting more of a bang for buck on this slot. For example, an amulet with +15-25 damage adds 20 average bonus damage, which for me would equate to an additional 50 int in terms of dps. IAS would be great but unless you are super rich you aren’t getting all of that on one amulet.

Rings – Crit chance and crit damage both spawn on this item, but the crit damage modifier on rings is fairly low and adds a ton to the cost of the item. Its often a better idea to skip it in favor of getting more crit chance, some bonus damage, or some IAS.

Weapon – If you’re just starting out this is going to be one of your biggest purchases, and is also your biggest opportunity to both get a ton of value or to vastly overspend. Basically, weapon DPS is highly overvalued by a lot of people, and the stats on the weapons are undervalued, although that is becoming less true as more people are figuring this out. For example, with my current gear I could replace my 789 dps weapon (with 126 int, 65% crit damage and a socket with a 90% crit damage gem) with a 1450 dps blue weapon with no stats and I would lose dps. A 1500 dps blue weapon with no stats would very slightly raise my dps. Obviously such weapons don’t even exist. The point is to use the spreadsheet when you make this purchase and actually figure out which weapons are best before you overspend for listed dps. Another thing is that weapon speed on a 1h matters when you are using an offhand and have bonus damage from gear, so you are generally going to want to buy either a sword, wand, or dagger. The 1.3 speed 1h axe can be acceptable too if it has good enough stats, but a 1.2 speed mace or spear needs much higher stats to be better so they probably won’t be cost efficient for you.

Offhand – Bonus damage is king on this item. Here’s a thread explaining some of the math on why that is: http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Strategy/comments/wfeii/wizwd_why_damage_is_king_on_offhands_and_why_you/ Basically at a minimum you want the numbers on the offhand to add up to 400, for a total of 200 bonus damage, bare minimum. Don’t buy anything less than that. 450 total is better and what you’ll want eventually, and 500 total is near perfect. The biggest stat to look for on this item is crit chance. You really want a source with the highest bonus damage and crit chance that you can afford.

Defense gear:

Shoulders – Int/vit/resists/life regen. Nothing special here, probably the most boring slot for wizards. I wore a blue archon spaulders with 170 int / a bunch of vit for the longest time, because there just isn’t anything special here. Probably best to pick up something like that if you’re on a budget. Good slot to get your resists as they are usually cheaper here than on chest/pants.

Chest – One of the two slots that can spawn a particularly high vit, the other being the pants. Also the slot that can spawn the most life regen. If you’re using a force armor build you want life regen here. Also, its almost always best to get one with 3 sockets.

Belt – Sort of like the shoulders, nothing really special here. It can spawn high strength so sometimes that’s a good find as strength = armor and you get 65% more of it from energy armor. Like shoulders, a good slot to get your resists as they are usually cheaper than on chest/pants.

Legs – Another slot to get your vit from. Get one with 2 sockets, it’s almost always better.

Boots – 11%+ movement speed is mandatory, and 12% is better. This is a slot that can spawn high dex so it’s a good place to make sure you’re over 100. Another good spot to grab resists potentially.

Force Armor vs. Prismatic armor builds:

If you’re going for prismatic armor you’re going to need a lot more EHP and resistances. If that’s the case, there really isn’t much to say other than just get as much as you can afford. However, for force armor its much more tricky.

Force armor reduces any hit to 35% of your HP, but it cannot reduce the hit by more than 100% of your HP. Therefore, Force Armor does one of four things when you get hit: A) The hit is for less than 35% of your HP. Force Armor does nothing. B) The hit is for more than 35% of your HP but less than 135% of your HP. The hit is reduced to 35% of your HP. C) The hit is for more than 135% of your HP but less than 199% of your HP. The hit is reduced by 100% of your HP and you live with a varying amount of life left depending on how hard the hit was. D) The hit is for more than 199% of your HP. Since Force Armor can only reduce it by 100% of your HP, you die.

I wrote two large posts about this in the past, one pre-1.0.3 and an update after 1.0.3. You can find them here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/ukkm9/wizard_how_to_get_the_most_efficient_use_out_of/ and here: http://www.diablofans.com/topic/54852-update-gearing-for-the-most-efficient-use-of-force-armor/page__p__951032#entry951032

The short story is that for Act 3 inferno you want 117.5k EHP in order to not take more than 35% of your life from any hit. This is fairly easy to obtain. Also, fire and physical are the most common sources of damage so you can fudge a little bit by getting those to 117.5k EHP while shorting the others a little.

Obviously, there are various ways to get to 117.5k EHP, because vit, % life, resistances and armor all contribute. However, the optimal way to do it is by raising resistances and armor as much as possible while reducing vit and % life. You will still need a good bit of HP, probably at least 20k, but if you can get to 117.5k EHP while keeping your life low your survivability will increase dramatically because you will get a much larger benefit from heals. This makes the life regen stat very strong. If you can get to 117.5k EHP with 20k hp, then 1k of life regen will full heal you in 20 seconds and heal a hit that is absorbed by force armor in 7 seconds.

AP on Crit:

This stat is important for some builds and only appears on Wizard Hats, Sources, and Wands. It’s expensive on good items and part of what makes the critical mass and arcane orb builds more gear dependant.

ABOUT ME – Full Credit for Guide goes to Prime_Meridian (from Reddit)

I’ve played a wizard as my main character since release. I cleared inferno on 6/7/12, pre-patch: http://imgur.com/4bbB6

My current stats in my farming gear: http://imgur.com/LKlTJ http://imgur.com/jAP3G

My current gear: http://imgur.com/vGN4S

The build I’m using in the previous screenshots: http://imgur.com/iJaPi

My follower for Act 3 soloing: http://imgur.com/mzUNa http://imgur.com/s0l9M

Digg Digg

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: 103 wizard guide, act 1, act 2, act 3, barb, best wizard guide, blizz wizard build, cm wizard build, d3, demon hunter, diablo 3, diablo inferno, good infeno wizard builds, inferno, inferno guide, inferno runs, melee wizard build, post nerf inferno guide, wizard, wizard guide, wizard inferno builds

Best Farming Spot in Act 1 Inferno Diablo 3

07/06/2012 By TLN

I have been testing different runs and the most efficient groups of elites to kill for the highest drop rate of rares in inferno act 1, and this is what I have come up with.

I stick to this run like Velcro because it is so consistent with the rare and blue mob spawns.

Waypoint 1 -

Northern Highlands -> run west to the border and north and south… look for the watch tower. If the watchtower doesn’t spawn, remake the game. If it doesn’t spawn elites, remake the game (sometimes it glitches out). There’s 2-5 packs here. TP after clearing the watchtower.

Waypoint 2 -

Cathedral Gardens Level 3 -> always an elite pack here. You sometime have to run backwards. TP after killing him.

Waypoint 3 -

Cemetery -> clear the first elite out of every dungeon. JUST THE FIRST. After the first one, TP back and take the way-point again… it’s not worth looking for a non-guaranteed elite.

Waypoint 4 -

Leoric’s Manor -> run backwards, there’s a 25% or so chance there’s an elite IN the manor, but there’s a guaranteed elite in Leoric’s Manor Courtyard.

Waypoint 5 -

Festering Woods -> guaranteed 1 outside, and 2 more guaranteed in each of the two dungeons, and there’s a chance for the king of the hill event to spawn 1.

Then you can do the Warden / Butcher if you want ( I would )

Hope this can help you guys get some millions, its not easy to find the best place to farm in inferno act 1!

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: act 1 d3, act 1 mf, barb, barbarian, best d3 farming spot, best mf spot act 1, d3, demon hunter, dh, diablo 3, farming, fastest 5 stack inferno, inferno act 1, inferno act 1 blue spawns, inferno butcher run, magic find inferno, mf, monk, rare spawns act 1 inferno, witch doctor, wizard, wizard mf run

How to Easily Make Money from RMAH in Diablo 3

06/26/2012 By TLN

Recently I have been toying around with ways to make money from the real money auction house in D3. Just like the normal gold auction house it can be frustrating to list 10 items, to only realize a few hours later that they aren’t going to sell and you have to wait another day and a half. After some trial and error I think I’ve found a way to make *at least* 5-10 dollars a day if you try. Which obviously depends on random number generator etc., but on average I do believe this is very possible, even for the casual 1-2 hour a day gamer.

How to make the real cash money!? Tell us please little nerd!

Well, what I have been doing is crafting +5 (and even +4 would somewhat work but the odds are more against you with the +4 stats) stat armor with my crafting character. I’ve only made boots/chest/helms so far, but I have had a few that have sold for 9.99, and other items which I underprice and just list for 1.99 – 4.99. You can buy most +5 stat recipes from the gold auction house for 250-500k gold, which isn’t really too much compared to the 20-30 million gold recipes for +6 stats. A stack of 100 inferno essences are about 180k last time I checked, and tombs / tears are very cheap(like 15k for 100ish).

Totals – (just average estimates)

100 x Inferno Essences -180kish

Tombs x 1– 500ish each

Tears x 1 (rare inferno mats) – 500ish each

Average +5 stat crafting prices – 40kish

Average gold spent per item is about 100kish

Now, I am not breaking down the gold exactly, you can do that on your own since this guide will be around a while and the auction house prices will drop, so check for yourself to price it out.

So, to make a profit you will need to gross over 100k per item, which obviously is a gamble, but here is where my point comes in. Instead of farming all day, hoping for one good item to sell on the RMAH, you can just invest a little bit of gold, and out of say a million gold you invest (which really isn’t much), you can have 10-15ish pairs of boots. Out of those boots, AT LEAST 2-5 will be good and able to sell on the RMAH.

Final Point – Instead of farming for hours to find items to sell on RMAH, Craft items with the abundant gold you have, and then sell for mediocre prices on the RMAH. It’s quicker than farming, you almost ALWAYS get your money back, by gold or real money, and the only thing you need to have is about 1 million gold and a decent recipe/max level 10 crafter.

This guide is really aimed at people who are trying to make cash and money from diablo 3, and not people who are trying to turn a profit with items on the gold Auction House. You can defiantly still get good profits most the time but this is for the RMAH. Sorry for repeating myself, I know this guide is vague but I believe you can use this method to make the fastest cash on the Real Money Auction House.

I will soon either update this post, or make a new one with some items that I’ve crafted, sold for real money, and how much gold I spent to roll that item. I will include pictures so you can believe me and hopefully figure out your niche to make a few extra bucks a day/month, as I’m sure we could all use it.

Hope this guide was somewhat helpful, and have a great day! – Boot Danger / TLN

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Boot Danger’s Wizard Guide for Diablo 3 – Updated for Patch 1.0.3

06/21/2012 By TLN

Since the 1.0.3 patch many people have been complaining about their DPS being nerfed. Well yes, this is the case, but the fact of the matter is everyone got nerfed, along with the monsters of Inferno! Many people have it worse than us Wizards, so stop the QQ and just adapt. I am personally glad at the fact we now have more gearing options, and an all-around set, as opposed to a full glass cannon set, is much more appealing.

Here are some basic tips which need to be covered since the patch.

IAS got nerfed. It is still a good and much needed stat! Before you could grab two 50,000 gold rings from the auction house and increase your DPS by 25-50% – not as intended! Each IAS item (rings x 2 and gloves will do) are still critical in a good all-around DPS/Defensive build and help the attack animation greatly.
Repairs/dying/farming locations! – Take advantage of the new drop tables. The 1.0.3 patch has punished the zerging and glass cannon builds by increasing repair costs. If you are dying too much in act 2/3/4, just do inferno act 1 runs until your gear can keep you alive more often in the higher acts.
Making Money in 1.0.3 – Quick fact – easy way to make money from 1.0.3 is to just get mats from the blues that drop and sell them on the auction house for a good chunk of change. They sell well. You can also craft but obviously it is a gamble and not something you may want to take a chance on when you still need tons of gear to pwn the nub mobs.

What are the primary stats needed on a wizard since 1.0.3 to clear inferno?

Gearing is difficult to figure out, but prioritize Intelligence / vitality / crit / crit dmg / IAS (on rings x 2 and gloves) % Life is good when you can find it but not a necessity.

EXAMPLE OF GOOD WIZARD GEAR TO CLEAR INFERNO! – http://i.imgur.com/ybHMP.jpg

You can use the above gear to relate to, it is gear from a player who has cleared inferno and has over 70k dps, 40k+ life and 1k resists, which is a good all-around gear set.

What Mercenary to use? I currently use the scoundrel, as I use a cold damage bow and it’s great for my play style of kiting as it slows all enemies hit, plus gives me critical hit chance.

What is the best wizard build for Inferno? The game is dynamic, and there are many good builds, but there is a few which I personally enjoy and work good for myself, and others as I have seen through research.

Build – http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#acRSOQ!YXd!cYbZYY

Build /w Electrocute – http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#UcRSOQ!YXd!bYbZYY

Reasoning – This is basically the build I use for act1/2/3 farming and progressing. I like it because it fits my play style and I’ve come to love teleport, especially when it comes to “waller” and “fast” monster affixes. The Magic missiles can be subbed out for electrocute with the piercing rune, I use both, electrocute is faster for act 1 I think. The arcane orb is super sweet for clearing groups of minions, usually 1-3 arcane orbs and the entire group is blow to smithereens.

That’s all I have for now. The biggest thing is finding your own comfortable play style, I enjoy kiting, but It’s totally possible with enough life/dmg/resits to tank a lot of hits from monsters and not have to kite as much. To each their own, but the gear example at the top should direct you in the right path to know what good gear to shoot for if you want to beat the entire game, in Inferno mode.

One last thing – The difference between stats is very small when playing the auction house. A million + gold item is only 25-50 stats better than a 50k item. Take time to learn the market and you will be able to tell what gear is worth what.

Hope this guide was semi-useful, feel free to comment and let me know what’s up or what build works good for you.

EZ PZ PWN LIFE!!

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: best wizard d3 guide, boot danger, d3, d3 wizard guide, diablo 3, diabo 3 wizard, ez pz, good wizard guide 1.03, guide for 103 wizards, patch 1.0.3, pwning wizard guide, wizard, wizard guide diablo 3

50+ Useful Tips and Tricks for Diablo 3

06/19/2012 By TLN

Hey again my fellow nerds, here is a great list of useful tips and tricks for Diablo 3.

Most Veteran players will know most of this, but I’m sure there are still multiple things everyone can get out of this post. This is a repost from Reddit, and the names in ( *** ) is the contributors name on Reddit.

The Original post can be found HERE.

Enjoy and improve your PWN!

1 – CTRL + Mousing over and item on the ground (outside of inventory) shows stats so you aren’t forced it up. (kallell)

Doing this while having your inventory open should compare the item on the ground to what you currently are wearing as well. (broken1000)

2- There is a “force move” (labeled “Move” and is unbound by default) button that is unbound by default. This is helpful for running through packs of monsters and not accidentally clicking and attacking one. (need to manually bind) (kallell)

3- You can link items by bringing up the chat text box and shift + clicking an item, making it easier to show items to people to see if they need them or if you’re in different areas. (twincannon)

4- If you think you have an upgrade for someone you’re playing with, instead of asking him you can inspect him by right clicking his icon on the top-left. (twincannon)

5- Whites/grays sell for next to nothing and really aren’t worth the inventory space outside of the first act, just toss that junk for less town trips (make sure to check the prices in nightmare mode and beyond though, who knows if this will change later on). (twincannon)

6- Buy +2-4 damage magic rings ASAP, they’re pretty overpowered when they become equip able at level 6. Restart the game a few times if they don’t show up, or if they give a poor secondary bonus. (twincannon). Buy @ Radek the Fence: http://i.imgur.com/C0VXGh.jpg (Sf4tt)

7- Never sell magic items to a vendor as the crafting mats will probably sell for more in most cases (will change in retail but in beta, magic stuff sold for 50-75 usually and the essence sold for 150). Also rumors that you can trade the essence upwards, i.e. 10 normal mode essence for 1 nightmare mode one. (twincannon)

8- Don’t waste money on bigger stash early on, make mules to hold items, (twincannon)

9- If leveling up with a friend, designate one of you for leveling up the ~~jeweler artisan~~ (JC is MUCH cheaper) and one for blacksmith artisan, saving half the money required. (twincannon)

Although I don’t remember the exact numbers, the Blacksmith will require about ~700,000 gold to level up to max, while the jeweler will only take about ~45,000. (tolvinar)

10- You can hold left click to run around and simply tap shift to “stutter walk” fire instead of clicking the mouse (holding shift and casting will make you cast the ability in place,), works well for ranged characters to give your clicking finger a bit of a break. (twincannon)

11- If you’ve got a big friends list and don’t want people to join your game without your permission, or just want to play alone, there’s an option to disallow “Quick Join” under social options which is what makes your game show up with a “Join” button for friends (twincannon)

12-If you open your inventory (C or I), and THEN hold ctrl while mousing over the ground loot, it will pop out the compare box instead of just the item’s own stat box. (similar to when mousing over an item in your inventory — shows dps changes, etc.) (exuled)

13- And if you hold ALT it will compare to your off-hand/equip to your off-hand, while in inventory of course. Handy for dual-wielders. Also works on rings. (Nyctalgia)

14- You need to activate lecterns yourself. It is different than a chest as only you can activate your lecterns. If they don’t drop lore they can still drop gold. (rec916)

15- When you are leaving a game and the timer is counting down because you are not in town, your mouse does not work but your keyboard does. You may be frozen and getting beat up while waiting to leave the game but you can still fire off those skills with 1-4. (rec916)

16-Lore books give EXP, make sure to pick up all you can. (Only works on lore books you have not already picked up!) (ethereal4k)

17- Elective mode (off by default). Gives MUCH more customization on where to stick your skills on your bar. (KroBa)

18 – Advanced tool tips (off by default). Shows advanced skill information such as % damage increase and what the skill does (KroBa)

19- While each player gets their own loot and gold drops, the health globes you pick up are shared and will heal other players if they are nearby. (Tolvinar)

20- Hitting “g” will make your banner fly down wherever your mouse is pointing at. Shows off your achievements as well. (Tolvinar)

21- Hitting “f” will bring up your follower’s (templar’s) inventory. Don’t forget to choose his skills and give him equipment! (Tolvinar)

22- Once you begin the fight with Jondar, use town portal and then wait in town for about 2 minutes. Once you go back through the portal Jondar will have summoned about 50 skeletons. They will most likely be in a tight group so you can get big massacre bonuses from this.( Tolvinar) That tip with Jondar will be great if they still have the achievement to kill 20 monsters in a single hit. I never managed that in the beta. (Oneironaut2)

23- Pressing “alt” will make items on the ground show their names for 10 seconds. The time can be adjusted in the options menu. (Tolvinar)

24- Intead of playing with your pinky on the shift key and the rest of your appendages on numbers 1-4 try this. switch the hold key from shift (default) to the spacebar. I felt it more comfortable if I played spacebar instead of shift. (spaceboundmonkeys)

25- Pressing ‘Z’ zooms in on your character until you press it again. (nathanstratton2010)

26- Checking the advanced tooltips option in the game play menus will show additional item information in your inventory while holding CTRL key. (snhender)

27- Numpad 0-9 will make your character say in game phrases (both audible and to chat). (kallell)

28- When hovering over a weapon in your inventory or a merchant it will bring up your currently equipped item to compare. However if you’re dual wielding it will only bring up your primary hand. To quick view the other hand just hold alt. (dextini)

29 -You must be level 10 to do hardcore. (kallell)

30 – Your battletag is what is going to show up in game to your friends. As of now, character names really do not matter outside of the character select screen and in game dialog with NPCs. Pick a battletag that’s easily remembered and that you wouldn’t mind others seeing! (kallell)

31- Patch 1.0.1. bug – Running programs that put an overlay over Diablo III (such as Mumble, Xfire, and MSI Afterburner) can cause Diablo III to crash. Use these overlays at your own risk. (kallell)

32- Treasure goblins will disappear if they are not killed fast enough. Make sure once you see them they become a priority as they can drop vast amounts of gold and loot. (kallell)

33- Gems in game drop up to rank 8 now, ranks 9-14 need to be crafted. (kallell)

34 – Magic find is averaged across group members. IE: if player a has 300 mf, and player B has 100, the MF rate for the group is 200. You get 20% of companion MF(kallell)

35- There is no “procs” for new recipes in crafting. All recipes become available on a rank by rank basis. (kallell)

36- Monster scaling (damage and HP) depends on the difficulty (norm, nightmare, hell, inferno) and players in game. Details can be seen here – http://goo.gl/BBKPU. (kallell) You WILL NOT get more exp per monsters the more players you have in the game. You do however, gain killing speed – theoretically farming monsters faster which in turn gives more exp and loot. (kallell)

37- If you fall behind or wander off away from your party, use your town portal and click their banner to quickly catch up.

38- Make sure to delete your D3 beta entirely (including files in programdata/battlenet) ortherwise your D3 install may not work correctly. (kallell)

39- MAKE SURE TO UPDATE GRAPHIC CARD DRIVERS (and sound card drivers if you have non-integrated ones)! This can have vast improvements on FPS. (kallell)

41- There will be two types of auction houses. RMAH and Gold AH. Gold sounds exactly like what it is. Sell and buy items off the AH with in game gold. With RMAH, you have two options. Send money straight to paypal or use “battle bucks”. If you choose to use battle bucks, the money will reside in your bnet account and can be used for other AH purchases, or blizzard merchandise. YOU CANNOT cash this out. If you intend on getting cash for items, be sure to go the paypal route.(kallell)

42- RMAH will not be available for the first week after launch. (kallell)

43-RMAH: – Blizzard charges $1 + 15% transfer fee to paypal for items.

-For commodities Blizzard charges 15% for the item itself, and another 15% transfer fee to paypal.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY AN ADDITIONAL $0.30 + 2.9% paypal fee Formulas:

Items

(Sale Price – 1)*(1-Blizzard to Paypal Transfer Fee) = Profit

(Sale Price – 1)*(1-.15) = Profit

Commodities

(Sale Price)(1-Blizzard Commodities Fee)(1-Blizzard to Paypal Transfer Fee) = Profit

(Sale Price)(1-.15)(1-.15) = Profit

What are commodities? Crafting materials (from salvaging items), gems, and gold.

Additional info and calculation tables – http://tinyurl.com/bnfmwfg (kallell)

44-The official authenticator should be out today (May 14th) for 6.50 + S. However, you can always get the mobile app for free on any smartphone. (kallell) **Furthermore at the very least, make sure you sign up for mobile alerts. That way you get texted if anything is changed on your account (password, personal info, etc) Info and signup is here – http://tinyurl.com/7mu68rz (kallell)

45 – Dual wielding gives 15% attack speed bonus. (riraito)

46- The best magic finding will be from killing rares around the world rather than simply boss farming (unlike d2). Every rare pack you kill, you gain a (stacking) Nephalem valor buff which increases your gold and magic find. Dying or switching runes removes this buff. Only kicks in after level 60(kallell)

47-You can re-assign the 1234 keys to QWER (good for MOBA players)(riraito)

48 – Bosses have enrage timers. Inferno only? (kallell)

49 – Press X to show hp bars of every individual monster (altzan)

50- each vendor sells specific types of items that are generated when the game is created. If you want different items then remake the game.(riraito)

51-Unless they changed it from beta, magic (blue) items sold by vendors have unlimited stock. A cheap blue item can be a useful source of crafting materials if the auction house is too expensive.(tolana)

52-EXP chart basics:

If the level difference is less than 5, there is no penalty

if the level difference is between 5-10, there is a small penalty (10%, 20%, 30%,…)

If the level difference is more than 10, you’ll only receive 5% experience (95% penalty)

You only get “bonus” exp from monsters 6 levels below you. You gain increased (over 100% by default) exp by killing monsters up to 3 levels above you.

53- Activating ‘Letterbox’ mode in options will allow you to play in 16:10 if you have a 16:9 monitor. This means you will have more horizontal visibility. (Space-Dementia)

54 – Not as much of a tip as just personal preference…Remap my skills to , W,.A, D and potion to Q and/or E.

This way I can keep my hand in standard wasd position and have easy access to shift, alt, ctrl, skills and pots. No, need to reach for number keys.

I usually put my “oh shit” skill on space bar since my first instinct near death is to press every button. (hsmith711)

http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/tmjw2/45_and_growing_tips_and_tricks_for_d3_come_look/

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: auction house tips, barb guide, best d3 guide, d3, d3 mf guide, d3 rmah tips and tricks, d3 tips, d3 tricks, demon hunter guide, diablo 3, diablo 3 tips, diablo 3 tips and tricks, diablo 3 tricks, list of d3 tricks and tips, list of diablo tips, monk guide, useful diablo tips, witch doctor guide, wizard guide

MAX DPS Per Weapon Type in Diablo 3 – Best Dps Items in Game

06/15/2012 By TLN

Here is a really helpful and informative post that started on D2jsp and Reddit, and has built into something which should last the life time of the game. If you study this list enough, you will eventually know what a sell-able weapon is, and what a ZOMG LOOK BRO weapon is

Max DPS for each different weapon type!

The Reddit post can be found HERE.

What you start with are the base DPS numbers on battle.net. There is exactly 1 level 63 weapon for each weapon type, and they all have a special name. I have included the names of every weapon so that you can look out for them on the ground (the base name shows up when a rare hasn’t been identified). Anything ilvl62 and below can’t really compete because it has lower base damage AND lower affix damage (all crafted items are ilvl 62).

Affix numbers can be found here. Affix damage scales up per item level, currently maxing out at ilvl 63. Daggers and 1H Crossbows get gimped affix damage due to their weapon speed, but all the other weapons have exactly the same bonus elemental damage potential (that’s why faster weapons have lower base damage).

All types of bonus elemental damage except cold have exactly the same amount of bonus damage potential (including physical).

A base weapon can be modified by a second +damage modifier: Fine. This goes up to 40% base damage!

For the maximum DPS I picked a perfect damage range roll (from battle.net), a maximum roll on the elemental damage range, +40% base damage from the Fine modifier, a perfect +50% damage (this only applies to the base damage of the weapon), and a perfect +25% Increases Attack Speed roll (this is +25% overall DPS straight up, after all other factors).

The formula is thus: ((Base Damage) x 1.4 x 1.5 + (Affix Damage) x (Weapon Speed)) * 1.25

Format is weapon name first, then maximum normal affix DPS, and then maximum DPS with a cold damage affix. And without further ado, the current numbers (sorted by DPS!):

One Handed Weapons:

Darkblade

Dagger 1330.3

Cold Dagger 996.4

Rune Sword

Sword 1486.2

Cold Sword 1151.1

Heaven Hand

Fist 1486.2

Cold Fist 1151.1

Veil Piercer

Ceremonial Knife 1510.1

Cold Knife 1175.0

Arch Axe

Axe 1523.3

Cold Axe 1212.0

Slayer

Mighty 1523.3

Cold Mighty 1212.0

Centurion Spear

Spear 1555.8

Cold Spear 1268.6

Demolisher

Mace 1573.1

Cold Mace 1285.9

Two Handed Weapons

Warlord Sword

2H Sword 2032.6

2H Sword Cold 1769.2

Guru Staff

2H Diabo 2060.2

2H Diabo Cold 1796.8

Titan Axe

2H Mighty 2084.0

2H Axe Cold 1844.6

Decapitator

2H Axe 2097.1

2H Axe Cold 1857.8

Sovereign Staff

2H Staff 2129.9

2H Staff Cold 1890.6

Dread Lance

2H Polearm 2144.3

2H Polearm Cold 1916.9

Doom Hammer

2H Mace 2174.4

2H Mace Cold 1958.9

Ranged Weapons

Desolator Wand

Wand 1473.3

Cold Wand 1138.2

Exorcist

Hand Crossbow 1524.2

Cold Hand Crossbow 1167.9

Revenant Bow

2H Bow 1833.5

2H Bow Cold 1498.4

Hellion Crossbow

2H Crossbow 2005.3

2H Xbow Cold 1741.9

Offhands

There isn’t much math to do with off hands, as far as I know. The best Mojos are ilvl 62 with a damage range of 110-405 and same with Orbs. There is a rare and legendary with the same damage range, so I’d assume you want to get the legendary.

After that it’s a simple calculation based on weapon speed (after IAS) for how much DPS the offhand will give you:.

Orb/Mojo with:

Mace, Spear (1.5 post IAS): +386.3 DPS

Axe (1.625 post IAS): +418.4 DPS

Sword, Ceremonial Knife/Wand (1.75 post IAS): +450.6 DPS

Dagger (1.875 post IAS): +482.8 DPS

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: beast diablo 3 weapons, best diablo 3 weapon, d3, d3 best 1 hander, d3 best axe, d3 best mighty weapon, d3 max dps list, diablo 3, diablo 3 perfect weapon rolls, max dps weapon list, pwning

Diablo 3 Patch Notes 1.0.3 – Design and Gameplay Improvements

06/07/2012 By TLN

The Diablo 3 upcoming patch 1.0.3 notes have been released by blizzard today. The patch should be out in 2-3 weeks in all goes well. Here are the most up to date improvements coming to D3!
Making Inferno Better

The ilvl (item level) of an item determines the statistical budget for its power. The way the game is currently set up in Inferno, Act I drops ilvl 61 gear and below, Act II drops ilvl 62 gear and below, and Act III and IV drop ilvl 63 and below.
Unfortunately this has caused two main issues. The first is players who find an Act too difficult feel compelled to use the auction house in order to progress. The second is that certain classes, skills, and play styles are less gear dependent than others, so although great items are making their way into the game economy, people feel pigeonholed into a handful of viable strategies. For a lot of people they would rather do something frustrating or boring in Inferno Act IV (such as having Tyrael fight for them or breaking vases) for a chance at a “top-tier” upgrade, rather than fight hordes of monsters in Inferno Act I.
We’re shifting to a philosophy where the best items in the game can drop from many different places, so a wider variety of play styles are viable. If you would rather chain-pull elite packs in Act I than 3 minute cat-and-mouse in Act IV, we’d like you to be able to do that and know you can still find the best items in the game.

Nothing would explain it as well as just sharing the intended drop rates coming in the next patch, so here they are. Note that the drop rates vary slightly by item type; the table below represents an approximate aggregated rate of all item types:

Item Drop Rate Percents

- iLvl 61 – 9% @ Hell Act 3/4 – 18% @ Inferno Act 1 – 19% @ Inferno Act 2 – 24% @ Inferno Act3/4
-iLvl 62 – 2% @ Hell Act 3/4 – 8% @ Inferno Act 1 – 12% @ Inferno Act 2 – 16% @ Inferno Act3/4
-iLvl 63 – 0% @ Hell Act3/4 – 2% @ Inferno Act 1 – 2% @ Inferno Act 2 – 4% – 8% @ Inferno Act3/4

Legendary Items will be Better in Future Patch

As previously mentioned, we’re going to be reviewing Legendary items in a future patch. Legendaries won’t change in 1.0.3, but it’s still something we’re actively working on. When we’re done, high level Legendaries should be flat out better than blue items, they’ll carry a good amount of power with them, and they should also be distinctive or memorable in the benefits they provide. We’ll be able to share more information on the specific changes we’re making after 1.0.3 launches.

The Nephalem Difference

It’s no secret that our goal for the end-game item hunt is players hunting monsters packs, building to five stacks of Nephalem Valor, and then killing a boss. While we’re seeing a lot of that occurring, what we’re missing is people feeling like it’s worthwhile to continue onward after killing a boss.
To help hit that goal we’re lowering the number of guaranteed Rare items on bosses when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor from two guaranteed Rares to one guaranteed Rare (you still have a very good chance at multiple rares, it’s just no longer guaranteed). In exchange, all champion and rare packs will now drop a bonus guaranteed Rare item when you have your full five stacks of Nephalem Valor. The change benefits players with more overall drops, and a reason to push to continue progressing.

Group Play Changes

We’re removing the bonus monster damage per additional player in a coop game. Our design goal is for players who prefer to play solo to be able to play solo, and players who prefer to play in groups to be able to play in a group. We feel the bonus monster damage per additional player is one of the biggest inhibitors to wanting to play with your friends.
In a perfect world, single player and co-op would be absolutely equal, but that’s not attainable when you consider item properties such as “Life on Kill” or skills such as Archon which simply scale better when you are solo. Since the variety and breadth of game mechanics essentially dictate that solo vs. group play will never be 100% equal, our goal is to make them as close as possible but err on the side of coop in cases where we need to make adjustments. The inherent logistical requirements when forming up with other players and attempting to work together effectively warrants some added benefits.

Inferno Getting Easier

Inferno balance right now has a difficulty gap in which Act I feels about right, but Act II feels like trying to bust through a brick wall. In patch 1.0.3 we’re going to be lowering that wall by adjusting the damage and health of monsters in Inferno Act II, III and IV. We feel like Act I Inferno is in a pretty good place.
Our design goal with Acts II, III and IV is to keep them challenging, but smooth the difficulty ramp out a bit. If a monk or barbarian is geared well enough that they can use a heavily offensive build and murder everything in Act I, they should be able to swap to a more defensive build and do okay in Act II. As they gear up they can begin adjusting back to becoming offensive in Act II, at which point they can jump into Act III with a focus on defense, and so on. Difficulty certainly ties into itemization, encounter and enemy tuning, and class balance, and all of these things together are going to paint a more reasonable difficulty curve as you hit Inferno in 1.0.3.

Repair Costs Going Up Significantly

Current repair costs at level 60 are barely noticeable, and because of that we see a lot of people wonder if “graveyard zerging” tough enemies or “chain rezzing allies on a boss” is intended game play – it definitely is not. To help solve the issue we evaluated a number of new death mechanics, such as just allowing the resurrection timer to increase even higher, disallowing resurrection during boss fights, or putting a debuff on you when you resurrect (such as reduced combat effectiveness).

Ultimately we felt that increasing repair costs was the best solution that preserves the fast paced style of the game. Repair costs on level 60 items are going to go up a lot. Our goal is the next time a player is graveyard zerging a boss, it should occur to them that “this is probably not an efficient way to go about things”. We’re currently evaluating repair costs between 4x and 6x their current values.
In the face of increasing costs, we recommend listening to the Hardcore players out there as they probably have some helpful advice on how to minimize repair costs. Following this change zerging a boss will still be possible, but our intent is that it won’t be optimal, and players who are seeking to be as efficient as possible will adjust their item hunting routes accordingly.

Attack Speed Changes

We’re fixing a number of bugs with Attack Speed, mainly related to the stat not working on some items, but we’ve also decided we need to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed overall. Many players have commented that Increased Attack Speed is such a dominant stat they feel it’s required. While we don’t have an issue with there being important stats, Increased Attack Speed in particular has secondary effects on mobility in combat, resource generation and resource consumption. We want there to be options and considerations for how you gear up, and one uber trump-everything stat can really work against choice and options.
There are two different solutions we’re considering to reduce the effectiveness of Increased Attack Speed. The first is to simply reduce the value on all the items to their desired values. In general our desire is to never change items as that makes them feel less concrete, but the upside is you would still be able to look at an item and know exactly what you are getting. The other approach is to change the formula used for attack speed aggregation so that stacking attack speed from multiple slots suffers from diminishing returns. The downside of that approach is that it introduces yet another hidden modifier on an item property (and many people dislike hidden modifiers), and complicates the already difficult decision of item gearing.
We’re currently leaning toward the first solution, to simply reduce the value on items, but we’d be interested to read people’s thoughts on the problem.

Gem Combining Costs Lowered

Upgrading gems is now possible for very little gold, I’m not going to post the values, but the most it costs is 100 gold and 2 tomes for Flawless Square gems, which is down from the previous value of 20k gold! (Also only takes 2 squares from 3).
Class Changes – Not a Big Focus for 1.0.3 Patch
Class tuning is not a major focus for 1.0.3. There will be a small number of skills changes, but for the most part we want people to continue experimenting and enjoy their skills for a while. Our goal was and continues to be build diversity, and though we see quite a bit of build diversity, we think we can do much better. Class tuning will be an ongoing process, and we’re targeting the 1.1 patch for most class tweaks, with a focus on punching build diversity up a few more notches.
Is that it?!?
While these are a few of the larger systems adjustments we’re making, the 1.0.3 patch will include many fixes, quality of life enhancements, Auction House improvements, and other changes. We hope you look forward to the patch as much as we do getting it out there, and again we appreciate your continued feedback. See you in-game!

All Questions were answered by Wyatt Cheng who is a Senior Game Designer for Diablo III.

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: 1.0.3 Patch, d3, D3 Patch Notes, diablo 3, Diablo 3 patch notes

The Tank Barbarian Build for Inferno Farming in Diablo 3

05/31/2012 By TLN

Inferno currently is extremely hard for barbarians, mainly because they are the most gear dependant class in the game, it won’t be a huge issue in the future, but for now it basically means we are stuck with this Tank Barbarian Build, which farms inferno great, but isn’t the most fun.

Here is an awesome post which I found on the Diablo 3 forums by Zrave

Tank Barbarian:

us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/barbarian#WVSRXk!beV!accZac

This build is very versatile. It can kill most elite packs, all bosses, and skip through zones. It’s designed to get 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor, reach bosses and then kill them for the bonus loot.

Frenzy(Sidearm): I brought this skill because I wanted to have good single target damage for boss encounters. The Sidearm rune was chosen because it has the highest single target dps (considerably higher than Maniac in this build), while simultaneously providing a little bit of aoe damage, since the thrown axes can hit multiple enemies.

Revenge(Provocation): This skill provides the staying power when you’re fighting groups of enemies. I chose the Provocation rune to make the heal consistent, which is important because this build depends on it to stay alive.

Ignore Pain(Iron Hide): An amazing panic button, it has saved my life more times than I can count. It has a decent duration and short enough cooldown that I can depend on it to get me out of tricky situations, such as getting frozen on top of aoe damage. Also, for especially challenging encounters, you can dps while it’s up and kite while it refreshes.

Leap/Iron Impact: Leap is a fantastic skill. It gives the build much needed mobility since you’ll often be blocked by groups of enemies. Furthermore, the Iron Impact rune allows you to rotate defensive cooldowns (Leap/Ignore Pain/Leap). With my gear, the 300% armor increase means I take 60% less damage!

War Cry(Impunity): This is here mostly for the Impunity rune, since I stack resists and adding 50% to that is very effective. With my current gear, having this shout up reduces incoming damage by 33%!

Furious Charge(Dreadnought): This skill has two purposes. First, it complements the mobility provided by Leap, and if you use both in succession it is possible to deaggro packs that are chasing you. The second purpose is for the heal, which can be used as a backup if you get unlucky with Revenge, and also for miscellaneous healing when you are trying to kite and not enough enemies are around you for a Revenge heal.

Passives: Nerves of Steel, Tough as Nails, Superstition.

I chose the three passives that further reduce incoming damage. I highly recommend the first two.

The idea of this build is to maximize effective health, and then take advantage of the percentage based heals from Revenge and Furious Charge becoming large compared to the incoming hits.

When fighting challenging enemies relative to your gear, I find it most effective to do damage while rotating Leap/Ignore Pain/Leap and then kiting with Furious charge until I can do it again.

I’ve made a series of videos showcasing the gameplay and my farming route for each Act:

Act 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9U8YkFJLb0

Act 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ygb4NS4JXw

Act 3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak6mhFXmDSc

Act 4: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSxwug0mkdg

Whimsyshire: coming soon!

I’ve also used this build to solo diablo, but I did it in over 30 minutes so I couldn’t take advantage of my 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor

The downside of this build is that the dps is very low. I make up for this whenever I can by farming with npc assistance, but I expect to be able to increase the offensive aspect as I get more gear. Once I can kill act 4 elite packs without dying too much, I’ll transition into offensive stats while keeping survivability constant.

Stat Priority:

Resist All
Vitality
% Life
Life on hit (in the hundreds)
Armor
Physical or Fire Resistance (Desecrate, Molten, Fire Chains are all fire and problematic)
Strength
Life regeneration (Always nice for when you’re kiting, especially during boss fights)

Furthermore it’s important to maximize your block chance. I currently have 49% with a Storm shield, Justice Lantern, and Helm of Command, but I realize that not everyone will have access to that. Block % is the most important statistic on your shield and often overlooked. Also, try to have at least 3k blocked amount, which can outright negate most hits if you have high armor and resists.

Other desireable legendaries are the String of Ears belt to reduce melee damage taken (as high percentage as you can afford each point is better than the previous one), and the Band of Fallen Heroes has nice Vitality and Resist all on a ring slot.

Bring the Enchantress companion for her Powered Armor buff, it makes a huge difference. I also currently spec mine with Charm, Erosion, and Mass Control. Since I can’t outfit her to do acceptable dps just yet (I expect it to be possible at some point since she gets a 2.5 multiplier on intelligence from items), I gave her a staff with a % chance to stun enemies.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask questions

EDIT: I wanted to mention a trick I discovered:

By using Furious Charge or Leap at the correct time, it’s possible to avoid getting frozen. You still take damage, but it can be a lifesaver.

Demonstration: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX-0i91C-VM

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: barb tank builds d3, best barb inferno build, best barb items d3, d3, d3 barb loots, diablo 3, diablo 3 barbarian build, inferno barbarian builds, magic finding guide

How to Solo Inferno as a Witch Doctor Guide By Hesterry

05/29/2012 By TLN

Here is a great high quality post written by Hesterry which I found on the Diablo 3 forums, explaining in detail how to pwn noob inferno monsters with ease.

It’s a great guide and all the comments have been positive so I picked this one to be the main Witch Doctor Guide for TLN!

The Purpose of This Guide

While I could write a guide on how to magic find effectively, blah blah blah… I’m going to avoid doing that, as I’m sure there are already tons of such guides that are better than I could write. Instead I’m going to focus on progression – how to get to Act 4 as quickly as possible. Therefore, I will talk very little on the concept of MF, how to fight elite packs (as they can be run past), and so on.

Why not just farm as you go, or farm the easier/earlier acts/bosses? Interestingly, this has the same answer as why you would want to farm such things – the loot. Blizzard has stated that each subsequent act has a higher tier of loot. In other words, Act 4 Inferno has better loot than acts one, two, or three inferno. So, by getting to Act 4, and learning to farm it somewhat efficiently, you will be getting better, more valuable loot than you would by farming the earlier acts.

Thus, progression in inferno > farming – at least until you hit Act 3 or 4, with very few exceptions.

Notes on Builds and Gear

First of all, let me state that much of this guide I didn’t think up entirely on my own – some of it I have, but much of this is just a compilation of other people’s information. As such, I’ll try to give credit where it is due, but I apologize if I miss some people.

With every Act/Boss, I’ll post an optimized build, and in some cases, and optimized gear set, or at least recommended stats. Of course, going with a build you’re comfortable with is almost always more important than following other people’s recommendations. That said, I highly recommend you try it if you’re having difficulty. I also highly recommend changing builds as needed, and totally ignoring the Nephalem Buff until you get to the act you want to farm. Again, progression first, farming later!

Also note that most of my builds are a Splinter/Kiting build that I discovered thanks to Spellful. For more information on how to use this build, go here:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5271599319

Last, until you get to Act 3 with the stats I recommend for it, spend all of your gold on gear. The increase in income from Act 1 to Act 3 or 4 through selling loot on the auction house is tremendous, but you need the gear to clear the later acts even close to efficiently. Sitting on a million gold does nothing for you – spending it on gear lets you get more gold faster in the long run. Don’t save unless you have to for a specific piece of gear!

Mercenary

I’ve tried all of the mercenaries, and here is what I’ve found…

Scoundrel doesn’t do anything worthwhile, not even going to go there…

Enchantress seemed like a good choice for a while. However, after some time I noticed that she actually polymorphed me. At first, this seemed hilarious – until it got me killed on an elite pack in act 2. Sacked her and settled again on…

The Templar! With decent gear, he can actually take some hits. Additionally, his stun is useful against a number of monsters (Worms, soul lashers, phase beasts etc), particularly when coupled with Hex and other CC. His heals aren’t bad either. Sure, he’ll die, but he’s better than the other choices, in my opinion. For his abilities, I go Heal, Loyalty, Charge, Guardian. My templar currently has 47k HP, 2300 Armor, and 1260 Damage

General Witch Doctor Notes

Spirit Walk – It may not have been apparent in lower difficulties or Inferno Act 1, but it’s important to know the weakness of this ability. When you pop Spirit Walk, a dummy spawns in your place. Sometimes (but not always) monsters will go for it. If it dies (and it dies pretty fast) you immediately come out of invulnerability. Against AoEs, this can make Spirit Walk totally useless. Always, ALWAYS, try to move away before Spirit Walk, or pop it early enough that you can make an escape before it gets damaged – for example, against desecrate+jail, pop it after being jailed, BEFORE being desecrated.

Wall of Zombies – First and foremost, always use this ability with Relentless Grip. The slow will keep enemies from running right past it. Also, it does MASSIVE damage if placed directly on an enemy – literally doubling your dps – which can be amazingly useful on slower bosses, such as Ghom and Azmodan. I’ve found that the best way to use this is to kite monsters (even elites!) to a choke, slow with Grasp of the Dead, then drop a wall directly on the front-most monster as they’re about to leave Grasp. Also, be aware that some particularly large/hovering monsters can walk over it – this includes many (but not all) bosses.

—————————————–
Act 1

Recommended Builds

Splinters with 1-Hander+Mojo and attack speed items

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRX!XbW!aacZab

VQ Bears with slow 2-Hander

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#fUkXdT!cZU!cZZbZY

Recommended Stats

Damage: 10,000
Health: 30,000
Armor: 2000
Resists: 120

—————————————–

Getting to the Butcher should be fairly easy with either of the above builds, provided your stats are reasonable. In fact, it should be so easy, there is very little I can say. However, understand that if going from Hell Act 4 to Inferno Act 1 is roughly a 20% increase in difficulty, going from Inferno Act 1 to Act 2 is going to be a 50% increase. Arbitrary numbers, but the concept is what’s important.

What this means is, unless you have about a million gold, or a million and a half, on hand to spend on gear upgrades, expect to farm up a fair bit of gold in Act 1. This is the only time I’ll tell you to go out of your way to farm. The way I did this was by starting at Quest 3 Part 2 (Northwest Gate) and clearing everything to Leoric, killing him, then resetting. This can be done with worse than recommended stats, so if your stats don’t meet this requirement, farm Leoric as I’ve recommended, or farm Heart of Sin+Azmodan in Hell Act 3.

As a point of reference, I spend about a week in Act 1 Inferno, even though I had killed the Butcher about three days in.

—————————————–

Leoric

Leoric is a joke, really. Just avoid his attacks, and pay attention to when he goes invisible/ethereal. If you’re moving when he does this, chances are he’s not going to hit you. Even if he does, as long as you have the recommended gear, he shouldn’t one-shot you.

For a faster clear with the Splinter Build, I highly recommend dropping Horrify for Soul Harvest+Siphon, and Hex for Haunt+Resentful Spirit. Note that you can burn your mana out really fast with Haunt, so only use it when it’s needed – don’t spam it for the Resentful Spirit damage!

If you’re going VQ Bears, Just be precise in your positioning/range, so he can’t randomly turn around and bash your face in with the scary mace.

—————————————–

The Butcher

Recommended Builds

Splinter Variation

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRe!XVW!aacZaZ

VQ Bears Variation

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#fUkPQT!cZU!cZZbZY

Recommended Stats

Damage: 15,000
Health: 40.000
Armor: 2000
Resists: 150

The Butcher can be a tad tricky due to his enrage timer when he sets everything on fire – thus I recommend higher damage. The above stats should suffice if you are aggressive enough with your attacks. If you’re still having trouble, shoot for 18-20k damage. Note that VQ Bear damage will be somewhat lower than Splinters due to Pierce the Veil – this is normal, and shouldn’t be a problem, as bears get a higher damage coefficient, and multiple bears should be hitting The Butcher anyway (since he’s so damn fat).

Strategy wise, he’s quite easy. He has five main abilities:

Charge – He’ll rear up and shoot out a red line. Note that with the way Spirit Walk works, you won’t be saved by it unless you run into him, or manage to get out of the way with the movement speed boost it gives.

Rake – He shoots out a cone of bladed chains. This ability often follows his charge, and sometimes his ground slam – rarely other abilities. The only way to practically avoid this is to back up right as he’s using another ability, then move back in afterwards. This can provide some issues if you’re using VQ bears, but your mitigation should be so high from passives, armor, and resists, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Ground Slam – Broadcasted by him bouncing up and down. Incredibly easy to avoid, and gives an amazing opportunity to get some damage in.

Hook Shot – Broadcasted by him pointing in a direction with his cleaver. Another fairly easy dodge, though the hitbox can be fairly large, and with server lag, it can grab you when it shouldn’t. If he does grab you, pop Spirit Walk to avoid his followup attack.

Fire – Technically this isn’t his ability, it’s an environmental one of the arena he’s fought in. This does no damage to him, but it will absolutely destroy you. Just look for a panel on the ground turning red, and avoid it. Pay particularly close attention if he’s standing in it. If he pulls you into the fire, you’re probably dead – Spirit Walk will NOT save you!

If you avoid most of his abilities, dps at every opportunity, and use the healing well efficiently, he should be fairly easy. Expect at least a few attempts in order to get an idea for his enrage timer.

Random Tip: Wall of Zombies will stop his charge. If you see him about to charge, pop a wall and continue your damage!

Act 2

Recommended Builds

Splinters with 1-Hander+Mojo and attack speed items

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRX!XVW!aacZab

Recommended Stats

Damage: 20,000
Health: 35,000
Armor: 2000
Resists: 200

—————————————–

Act 2 is hell on wheels – almost literally. Almost everything moves extremely fast, doing ridiculous amounts of damage. Unfortunately, this makes VQ Bears highly impractical. The wasps alone will make it a nightmare to try to kills things – the bears’ range is simply too low, and the casting delay from using a slower weapon makes it impossible to dodge. Thus, I highly recommend using the splinter build.

Using splinters, however, should make the act pretty darn easy. Slow, perhaps, but easy. Everything should be killable, and you should be able to take a few hits here and there, dramatically reducing your number of deaths. Stutter step to victory!

—————————————–

Maghda

I’m not even going to bother going into a build/stats or her abilities and such – this boss is far too easy to bother. Save your CCs for the minions she spawns, and avoid her flies and such. The only reasons you should ever die to her are: a) Extreme lag, or b) Blatant human error.

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Zoltun Kulle

He’s fairly easy, although I admit it did take me a few tries. His abilities are as follows:

Minions – He has two, but they’re fairly squishy if you’re soloing. Kite them, trash them, move on.

Slow – He occasionally drops a bubble that slows you if you’re inside it. Never, ever stand in it. If he tosses a fire ball or drops rocks on you, you won’t be able to get out in time.

Falling Rocks – Occasionally he’ll drop some rocks on you from the ceiling. This is broadcasted by the screen rumbling for a moment before they begin to fall. If you aren’t already on the move, this can be tricky to dodge.

Fire Ball – Broadcasted by a shout and burning sound. A fairly easy dodge if you remain moving. It does move kind of fast, but he’s always seeming to shoot it exactly where you’re standing – not a whole lot of motion prediction going on.

Tornadoes – These are again more of an environmental effect, and they just pop up randomly in the arena. They move slowly, but do a ton of damage. Just be wary as you kite around the ring.

His abilities to tend to move quickly, but he doesn’t really try to predict your movements. Never, stop, moving.

If you’re absolutely desperate, it’s possible to trap him on one end of the invisible bridge in the middle (the one going diagonally from top-left to bottom-right) and kill him Mephisto style by darting him to death from the other side. If he’s stuck this way, he won’t use any of his abilities.

—————————————–

Belial

Recommended Builds

Splinters

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUdQP!YWV!aaZYbb

Recommended Stats

Damage: 25,000
Health: +40,000
Armor: 2000
Resists: 220

I used this video guide (to an extent) to fight Belial, and I highly recommend all witch doctor’s try it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44PSy_W40pM&feature=related

It shortens attempt time by making the first two phases end in about a minute total, allowing the player to focus on the third, harder phase.

Phase One – Snakes

About two dozen serpents spawn in small groups. Kill them all via kiting. Should be fairly easy. If you’re using the recommended build, do not waste CDs or Spirit Vessel, and do not pick up any health orbs just yet. Also, attempt to get five stacks on Soul Harvest if you can.

Phase Two – Mini Belial

Belial comes off his platform and attempts to kill you himself. Initially he’ll reposition by dashing around, then he’ll settle for a bit. He then will occasionally dash to you and hit you for massive damage. If you have the stats I recommend, this should not one-shot you. After about 20 seconds, he’ll step back and shoot three green circles at you. They move slowly, but they will probably one-shot you, and the middle of the three circles will always be centered on you when he fires them. After 30 seconds or so, he starts spawning more snakes, and you have to fight both him and his minions at the same time. Once he gets to 20%, he enters Phase Three

If you’re using the recommended build, grab any health orbs you can as he’s positioning, then blow your cooldowns. If done correctly, with reasonable stacks of Soul Harvest and Gruesome Feast, you should be able to get him to 20% before he starts spawning snakes. Should you not have enough damage to do so, attempt to continue to focus him, while Ccing/kiting the snakes. Avoid fighting the snakes as much as possible, as this will only extend the fight, and increase the odds of making a mistake and dying.

Phase Three – True Form Belial

This is where most of your attempts will probably fail. Don’t despair! Keep trying! He has three main abilities. I recommend positioning yourself in the lower/lower-right section of the arena. Know that ALL of his abilities one-shot

Ground Slam – This should be the only thing you die to, barring extreme lag or really, really poor luck. He’ll rear up, and a green circle will appear on the ground. These attacks vary in form, as do the hit boxes. Never, ever try to make a “clean,” or “efficient” dodge during this phase. Always run further than you need to, and be careful not to get cornered. Note that these attacks often happen in sets of three and two (a three hit combo, then two random hits) before he switches to another attack. The type of attack can also sometimes be influenced by your positioning. For example, if you position closer to him, he’ll quite often do a straight down attack, where he pierces the ground with his claw – thus having a much smaller hit box. However, I’ve found it best to simply run small arcs around the lower section of the arena, somewhere in the middle, between him and the outer edge – not getting too close or too far. Do not attempt to attack him during this type of attack. Between lag and what not, you will probably get hit and die

Breath – While this is broadcast by him rearing up, it’s often too late to avoid by then if you aren’t already moving. However, this is an easy one to dodge, as it only comes immediately after a Ground Slam sequence. Simply position yourself in the lower-right corner and it won’t hit you. Note that if you’re terribly unlucky, he’ll block the lower-right corner instead of the upper-left as he’s supposed to, and you won’t be able to take cover. Once positioned, this is a good chance to attack.

Bombing – This attack often comes immediately after a breath attack, but not always. He’ll stick both of his hands in the ground, and green circles will start popping up everywhere, and explode a second or two later. Avoid, and attack whenever you get the chance. While your avoiding, know that the moment a circle explodes, it can usually be walked on – even if there appears to be an explosion animation going on. For better dodging, try to memorize the order in which nearby circles pop up. If you get boxed in, it’s good to know which are about to explode. Unfortunately, there is a rather severe bug that plagues this ability – invisible bombs. Occasionally, you’ll think you’re safe, but you’ll suddenly explode. If this happens more than once, leave the game and remake to get on a new server. It’s unfortunate, but that’s all you can do.

Honestly, Belial took me six hours, or about fifty attempts. Lag, even in small amounts, got me killed constantly. I’d attempt to dodge a ground slam, but the server would consider me underneath the attack, even when on my screen I was quite far away. Coupled with invisible bombs and the occasional human error, it was not a pleasant experience. It seems luck is required to some extent (or a lot of perseverance, in my case ). A few tips though…

-Again, dodge his ground attacks by running as far as possible. Avoid running into a corner where he can box you in.
-Dodge carefully during his bomb attacks. Make sure you’re standing just a little bit further away from the circles than you need to be. Again, avoid corners.
-Try to save Spirit Walk for his ground slam attacks – you want to keep Spirit Vessel off cooldown for as long as possible.
-NEVER try to hard-dps using cooldowns. Dodging > damage always
-His opening attack sequence is almost always three attacks plus two, breath, then bombs. Note that this sequence can vary, so don’t rely on it to much. After his first bombing, he can do ground slam -> breath -> ground slam again, so immediately prep for dodging ground slam again after a breath attack, and don’t start hitting him until you know his going into a bomb attack.

Act 3

Recommended Builds

Splinters

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRX!XVW!aaaZab

OR for dealing with packs of Fallen…

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRh!XVW!aaaZac

Recommended Stats

Damage: 28,000
Health: 40,000-45,000
Armor: 2200-2500
Resists: 250

—————————————–

The jump in difficulty from Act 2 to 3 is significantly less than Act 1 to 2, with a few exceptions. Most notable of which are the elite packs. At this point, some of them are so difficult/impossible to fight, that you either have to reset the map by leaving/rejoining, kite them to a corner and die, or run past them. Only about half of these packs will be killable within a reasonable amount of time. You’ll learn very quickly what you can and cannot kill – use your judgment for each fight. Is it easy to kite? Does it have ranged? Is it plagued? Teleport? Fast? All things you should take into consideration before deciding to fight or skip a pack. Don’t feel bad about skipping things! If you want to farm elites, you can do it later – for now, it’s best to get to Act 4 as quickly as possible.

It’s also worth noting that trash mobs drop some pretty good loot at this point. Check the value of everything that seems like it could be worth some money. I skipped about half of Act 3 (in terms of elites), but still made about a million and a half gold in the day I spend doing the act – almost all of which came from random monsters.

Another exception in terms of difficulty are Soul Lashers – the monsters that slap you about with their tongues. As far as I can tell, this will always one-shot you. Spirit Vessel will help with this, but you still must learn to fight them, and fortunately, they usually come as individuals – not in packs.

The best way of fighting them is either to let the templar charge them for a stun, and have hex out while he does so. The lasher will get stunned, then polymorphed. Provided your damage is reasonably good, you should be able to kill the lasher before it gets out of CC. Optionally, you can spirit walk up, hex, and shoot them to death. Notice that I now recommend Jaunt on Spirit Walk instead of Healing Journey – this is one of the reasons why.

A third option is available, but it requires the right situation. The range of their tongue is actually a fair bit shorter than the screen. Provided you see them coming from afar, you can slow them and shoot them before they get in range. However, more often then not, they are on top of me before I can slow them.

Yet another exception are Phase Beasts. Treat these much like Soul Lashers, except that these don’t have range. They also typically don’t teleport more than once every five or ten seconds. Once the teleport, drop a wall DIRECTLY on top of them to trap them, pop hex a second or two later, all the while shooting them. In emergencies (or when dealing with multiples), Horrify with Face of Death is quite handy.

Also, there tends to be a lot of ranged in Act 3, from quill beasts to archers. The best way to deal with them is to poke your head out from behind a corner, drop a wall, shoot a few times, and hide. Repeat as needed. Note that quill beasts have fairly short range, and can be killed from off-screen fairly easy. Archers have longer range, but their projectiles are very slow.

—————————————–

Ghom

Lolreally?

Ghom is the easiest boss you will ever fight. Just dodge the gas, kiting in large circles around the edge of the arena whenever possible, slowing the slimes whenever needed. Generally you can ignore them, and they’ll slowly die to your grasps/walls. For a faster kill, drop Horrify for Soul Harvest and Hex (you really shouldn’t need the heal sustain, as you should never get hit) for Haunt with Resentful Spirit. Keep in mind that Haunt burns mana fast, so don’t use it unless the previous cast has run out.

—————————————–

The Siegebreaker

Another easy boss. Keep Hex if you feel like it, dropping Horrify for Haunt again. He really only has four attacks, only two of which should matter.

Big Charge – This is the one he broadcasts by stomping the ground a few times, then rearing up facing the direction he will charge. Pay attention and dodging should be easy, even if you have to use Spirit Walk

Mini Charge – Similar to the other one, except much more sudden. He won’t stop about, he’ll just rear up and charge. This will kill you if you aren’t keeping a close eye on him.

Ground Slam – Largely irrelevant, as you should never be close enough to him for this to hit you.

Claw Attack – Same as Ground Slam. Worth noting that the hit box for this is really tiny – it shouldn’t hit you unless you balls up badly.

Again, Wall of Zombies will stop his charges, and there are a number of terrain features (namely rocks on the left side of the arena) that you can hide behind which also stop his charges. Really though, if you just keep him on the edge of your screen while running circles around him, he should be cake, as none of his abilities will be capable of hitting you.

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Cydaea

Recommended Build

Splinter Variation

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRd!XVW!aaaZaZ

Yet another easy boss. Keep hex for a touch of sustain against her ranged attacks, and take Siphon over Horrify to make the fight faster.

Poison Darts – She’ll periodically shoot out four poison darts in somewhat random directions, though oriented towards you. These are somewhat dodgeable as long as you remain moving, but they shouldn’t one-shot you either. After two or three volleys, she’ll use her web ability

Web – Just a slow that she places underneath you. Doesn’t do damage, just a little annoying at times. Walk off it and continue fighting!

Spider Pit – Occasionally she’ll shoot out little green pits that spawn spiders. These also spawn on their own. They spawn slow moving (but one-shotting!) small spiders for a little while, then disappear. I find it best to ignore these spiders, occasionally Spirit Walking into them for Soul Harvest. Once there’s a good 30 of them on the screen, kill them with grasp+wall. Though, if you wait long enough, the spiders will disappear on their own eventually.

Basically just kite around the spiders, shooting Cydaea whenever you can. Keep Hex up for the heal, as you will inevitably get hit by the darts. Otherwise, this plays much like Ghom, and should be fairly easy.

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Azmodan

Same build as usual, just dropping Horrify for Haunt once again. However, your gear will need a bit of work. It is absolutely mandatory that you have 12% movement speed on your boots. I also highly recommend buying Hammer Jammers (cheap legendary pants with movement speed on them), Slave Bonds (cheap legendary bracers with movement speed), and possibly a Talisman of Aranoch and/or Unity (cheap legendary amulet and ring with movement speed). Do try to keep about 35k HP and reasonable resists when buying these pieces of gear, however. I’ll explain why you want the movement speed shortly.

Fire Ball – Instagibs, but slow moving. Simply stutter-step as you do damage, and this will never hit you. You can also break it by hiding behind the chains that look like support beams such that it collides with them.

Spawners – After he takes about 15% damage (or it could be on a timer, not really sure), he starts creating monster spawners around the arena, which spawn the melee demon troopers. I like to kill these when they crop up, leaving the health orbs until I need them.

Puddles – These are why you need movement speed. At about 70%, 45%, 25% and 15% life, he’ll use an ability that spawns growing black puddles around the arena. The first three drop fairly predictably in the top right, top left, and bottom left areas of the map, then the others will drop very near, or even underneath you. Spirit Walk can help if you end up right on the edge of a puddle, but if you are right in the middle, Spirit Walk will break before you get out of the pool. With the extra movement speed, however, you can outrun much of the pool’s growth, and ultimately take less damage – hopefully getting out without using Spirit Vessel. Note that the pools have a slightly larger radius than the animation shows.

Lazorzpewpew – Azmodan will occasionally use a somewhat slow moving arcing laser after the first time he uses puddles. Just stutter-step it and keep shooting him.

Much like Belial, kiting > damage, particularly during the pool attack. Fortunately, unlike Belial, lag is much less of an issue, since Azmodan’s abilities tend to be slower, with more obvious hit-boxes. The only hard-to-deal-with mechanic that will kill most of your attempts is the pool ability. Movement speed will help vastly with this. However, it can still be tricky… Some tips:

-Always avoid getting too close to the puddles, and never try to walk between them unless you absolutely have to. Remember, these break Spirit Walk with ease. If you have to cross over a puddle, pop Spirit Walk in a “safe” area, then run across.
-I find that following the ring pattern in the ground that goes from chain to chain with a mild zig-zag is the safest way to deal with the puddles. They seem to have some sense of motion-prediction, and occasionally he’ll drop them in front of you. Zig-zagging seems to mitigate this significantly.
-Don’t be afraid to potion! Keep Spirit Vessel on cooldown as much as possible. When you get hit by a pool, do everything you can to avoid taking lethal damage – from potting to using hex, or grabbing health globes (though only if it’s absolutely safe to do so!)
-When dealing with the spawners, one option is to just drop a wall on one. It will kill the spawner, and most likely any minion that manages to spawn from it.
-Wall+grasp also deal decent damage to Azmodan.

Act 4
IN PROGRESS!

Recommended Builds

Splinters

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRX!XVW!aaaZab

Recommended Stats

Damage: 30,000
Health: 40,000-45,000
Armor: 2500
Resists: 300

—————————————–

I find there is much contention of damage vs survivability on a Witch Doctor past Inferno Act 2. Most Witch Doctor’s opt for full int gear, with no survivability whatsoever. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. If you prefer to kill things quickly at the risk of being one-shotted by everything, that’s fine. In fact, it’s possible that you may progress more quickly in Act 4 by doing so.

Personally, I’ve found that not everything, just most things, one-shot in Act 3 and 4. Having some health/resists dramatically reduces my number of deaths against such things (like ranged monsters, and dots like desecrate and plague). You’re choice, but I recommend starting with balanced gear, and deciding from there based on your playstyle and performance.

On that note, I’ve also found that a lot of things that players believe is a guaranteed one-shot, actually isn’t. Two prime examples are the Corrupted Angels’ charge, and Izual’s global freeze attack. I’ve found that, with roughly the recommended stats above, I survive the Corrupted Angel charge about 1/3rd of the time with 1/5th health remaining. Similar for Izual’s freeze, except it’s more like a 70% survival rate.

That said, most of the monsters in Act 4 are really squishy. Thus, 30k damage has been enough for me so far. The only monsters you really need to watch out for (at least where I am at), are saboteurs (mortar-like effect that one-shots) which you will stutter-step endlessly to kill, and Oppressors, which have a near-instant charge that one-shots. Treat the Oppressors like the lashers from Act 3, and you should be fine.

Corrupted Angels are similar, except their charge can actually be dodged or avoided with Spirit Walk if you have really good timing. They actually pause and rear up for a moment before charging. If you can dodge it, great. If not, treat them just like lashers. Also, try to hit them with Grasp of the Dead or Wall of Zombies before using darts. This way they’ll be physical resistant and not poison resistant, allowing you to kill them much faster.

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Iskatu

Another fairly easy boss. I recommend dropping Horrify for Locus Swarm+choice rune. Take him slowly, and kite in big circles around the edge of the map. Save your CC for when the little guys bunch up enough to make a slow worthwhile, popping locust when it’s safe to do so. If you try to rush this boss, he’ll kill you very, very quickly. So just let locusts do most of the work, firing off darts when you have a good chance, and running around as needed to wait for cooldowns. Keep hex and potions on hand just in case you take a hit or two.

—————————————–

Rakanoth

Recommended Builds

VQ Bears Variation

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#fUYTQP!UVW!caaZZb

Recommended Stats

Damage: 38,000 MINIMUM
Health: lolwat?
Armor: lolwat?
Resists: lolwat?

Happy fun time! Oh I lied! This guy cannot really be beaten conventionally. No amount of defensive gear/abilities can save you from his charge, which is undodgeable and instantly kills. In order to beat him, you actually have to stack intellect gear and go VQ-Bears (with a one-hander+mojo), and Spirit Vessel is mandatory. I used this video as a guide.

Essentially, there is no strategy. Pop your pets, and the moment he jumps in (hopefully not onto you), step into the corner, drop your CDs, and blow him up. I have done this successfully, but it took a few tries for him to not jump on me initially, and to get the positioning right. For the this work, every single bear MUST hit him. Positioning your back to the wall, when done correctly, will make the bears go in a straight line, making this possible.

Just as a side note, the gear cost me about 300k, so it’s not a “huge” investment, as you shouldn’t have needed to buy much gear (if any) between the end of act 2 until now. Plus, it’s always good to have a pure-intellect set on hand, should you ever want to change your strategy to a suicidal-type build.

Also, when buying your int gear, try to get it with dexterity. Just a little bit of dexterity can give you the dodge you need to survive a charge, and finish the fight.

—————————————–

Izual

Recommended Builds

Splinters

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#aZUkRW!XVW!aaaZaZ

Recommended Stats

Damage: 30,000
Health: 45,000
Armor: 2600
Resists: 300

As you can see, I recommend a splinter build with Toad of Hugeness in place of Horrify. I’ll get to why shortly. Note that Spirit Vessel is pretty much mandatory for this fight, as it was for Rakanoth.

Frozen – Typical freezing ability that you see on elites. Avoid it carefully, and you’ll be just fine.

Charge – All oppressors have this ability. It’s basically an instant-charge/teleport that instantly kills. It’s range-triggered, so try not to get within a screen of Izual or his oppressors unless there is something between you and them.

Global Freeze – Izual will cast this twice, at roughly 60% and 25%. This a lot of people believe is a one-shot, but if you have the recommended stats above, you should be able to survive. If not, I’ll explain how to deal with it below.

Minions (Oppressors) – Spawns at about 75%. Typical oppressors. Don’t get charged, kill them fast when they show up – ideally from off-screen.

Minions (Corrupted Angels) – Spawns at about 50%. Again, typical corrupted angels, except I think they have slightly more health. Never, ever let these get on screen. Always kill them off-screen, or fight them while they’re hexed and you’re in Spirit Walk.

If you survive the Global Freeze without getting killed, then this fight should be fairly easy. Kite him around one of the holes in the ground for the first 20% or so (oppressors can’t charge over the holes, though the angels can), then start kiting before triggering the oppressor spawns. Drop CCs like a madman (thus the Toad of Hugeness) and kill the oppressors from either behind a hole, or even better, from off-screen.

Shortly after freezing you, the Angels will spawn. Here is where the Toad of Hugeness becomes particularly handy. Whenever you stop to shoot Izual, drop the toad and hex. If the angels wander on screen, they should be near-instantly CCed, giving you time to run away before they kick your !@#. Either kill the angels or ignore them and kill Izual, being careful of when you trigger his second freeze. Other than that, he should be pretty easy.

Now, if you can’t survive his global freeze, you will need to follow the same strategy, EXCEPT after the first freeze (and the triggering of Spirit Vessel), kill any minions and kite Izual until the cooldown on Spirit Vessel ends, then resume fighting. Keep in mind that this means you cannot get hit by anything except the global freeze during the entirety of the fight. Also know that Tyrael does pretty massive damage. Make sure that when you are kiting him in between freezes, that you are keeping Izual off-screen so that Tyrael stays next to you.

Tips and notes!

-Izual can be slowed and trapped by Grasp of the Dead and Wall of Zombies, respectively.
-Izual can be hexed.
-Izual generally doesn’t charge unless he gets within a quarter of a screen of you, whereas oppressors will often charge from the edge of your screen. Keep the oppressors away, and shoot blindly from off screen if you have to!
-The Corrupted Angels tend to be really slow, and not particularly aggressive. If you stay near the edges of the map, and move around cautiously, there’s a good chance you’ll never have to fight them directly – just spirit walk past them occasionally, while dropping CCs as you run by.

—————————————–

Izual down, and I’m currently at the Pinnacle of Heaven (Diablo). It seems with my current stats that all of his attacks are a one-hit kill (except the cage+grab combo, which never kills). I only did one run, so we’ll have to see if there is some way to mitigate his damage. But for now, I must sleep. Hopefully I can complete this guide tomorrow!

You can find the rest of his post and updates to the guide @ us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5149014804?page=1

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: best d3 inferno guide, best witch doctor guide, d3, d3 guide, d3 inferno guide, diablo 3, inferno witch doctor guide, wd guide, witch doctor guide

Diablo 3 Monster Affixes for Nightmare, Hell and Inferno Monsters

05/29/2012 By TLN

When you are running nightmare, hell and inferno modes in D3, you really need to know what you are going up against, because sometimes those yellow rare mobs can pwn you, ez pz.

Here is the list of rare monster affixes which will explain in better detail what the rare monsters will do when you come across them while playing Diablo 3.

Arcane Enchanted – Monsters enchanted with Arcane Enchanted trait deal additional arcane damage and have the ability to summon orbs which fire rotating arcane beams

Avenger – When a Champion group imbued with Avenger arrives, the death of each group member imbues the remaining Champions with added power/size as they wreak their frenzied vengeance on the Hero

Desecrator – A monster with Desecrator trait creates a glowing void zone beneath the targeted hero that damages the hero. Desecration will activate a few seconds after it appears on the floor, giving you time to get out of the void zone. (Darksaiyan)

Electrified – A monster with the Electrified trait has higher lightning resistance, deals additional lightning damage and discharges sparks across the floor in random directions when stuck.

Extra Health – This trait bestows the imbued monster with extra HP

Fast – This makes monsters run, attack and cast magic faster

Fire Chains – Champion backs are attached by a fire chain. The Hero suffers damage if he touches or even gets near one of the fire links.

Frozen – Monster with the Frozen affix can summon frost orbs that grow and eventually explode causing cold damage and applying a Chill and a Freeze debuff

Health Link – Health Link reduces the amount of damage taken by the champion with that trait by linking his HP to that of all other Health Link champions in the area

Horde – Horde increases the squad of minions that spawn with a rare monster, crowding the battlefield

Illusionist – The Illusionist trait imbues a creature with the ability to create clones of itself at much lower health levels

Invulnerable Minions – Monsters imbued with this trait arrive with a squad of indestructible puppet minions and an expanded heath pool

Jailer – This trait gives monsters the ability to immobilize the Hero in a conjured prison

Knockback – Knockback allows monsters to push back the player a short/long distance with each connecting blow, whether it be ranged or melee. Also, slows player. (OMGBBQLOL)

Missile Dampening – Creatures imbued with the trait generate a reddish sphere around themselves. Any projectile entering this sphere moves 90% slower than normal

Molten – Monsters that spawn with this trait deal extra fire damage. In addition, they leave trailing pools of lava that deal fire damage over time. Any non-minion monster killed with this trait leaves a time bomb that will explode after 3 seconds, dealing large amounts of fire damage

Mortar – Monsters with mortar can lob several fireballs that deal splash damage on impact. Mortar lobs a burst of 3 fireballs towards the player, even over obstacles, but will always lob over a character in melee distance. (Darksaiyan)

Nightmarish – Nightmarish monsters have a chance to fear the player on hit and can be triggered from both melee and ranged attacks

Plagued – Monsters enchanted with Plagued leave pools of poisonous green goo around them for 9 seconds

Shielding – This trait gives the monster a brief period of invulnerability to all forms of damage. Shielding mobs have green glow around them before they activate the shield. (Darksaiyan)

Teleporter – Gives the monster the ability to teleport to a nearby location

Reflect Damage – When you strike a Reflect Damage imbued foe with any attack, you suffer automatic damage in return

Waller – Monsters with Waller can summon earthen walls between the player and the monster, or sometimes behind the player to prevent escape. Waller mobs are different between elites and champions. Elite (boss with minions) create a box around the players to keep them in a general area, while champion packs create single walls in front or behind the player. (Darksaiyan)

Vampiric- This trait allows monster to literally feast on the damage they inflict to you by turning it into health for themselves

Vortex – Grants the ability to forcibly pull the player right next to the monster but does not pull player through objects.

Filed Under: Diablo 3, Gaming Tagged With: best d3 guide, Best Diablo 3 Guide, d3, d3 monster affixes, d3 rare mob affixes, diablo 3, diablo 3 monster affixes, diablo 3 monster prefixes

Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

Best Farming Spot in Act 1 Inferno Diablo 3

Hope this can help you guys get some millions, its not easy to find the best place to farm in inferno act 1!

How to Easily Make Money from RMAH in Diablo 3

Boot Danger’s Wizard Guide for Diablo 3 – Updated for Patch 1.0.3

MAX DPS Per Weapon Type in Diablo 3 – Best Dps Items in Game

Here is a really helpful and informative post that started on D2jsp and Reddit, and has built into something which should last the life time of the game. If you study this list enough, you will eventually know what a sell-able weapon is, and what a ZOMG LOOK BRO weapon is

Max DPS for each different weapon type!

Diablo 3 Patch Notes 1.0.3 – Design and Gameplay Improvements

All Questions were answered by Wyatt Cheng who is a Senior Game Designer for Diablo III.

The Tank Barbarian Build for Inferno Farming in Diablo 3

Inferno currently is extremely hard for barbarians, mainly because they are the most gear dependant class in the game, it won’t be a huge issue in the future, but for now it basically means we are stuck with this Tank Barbarian Build, which farms inferno great, but isn’t the most fun.

Here is an awesome post which I found on the Diablo 3 forums by Zrave

How to Solo Inferno as a Witch Doctor Guide By Hesterry

Here is a great high quality post written by Hesterry which I found on the Diablo 3 forums, explaining in detail how to pwn noob inferno monsters with ease.

It’s a great guide and all the comments have been positive so I picked this one to be the main Witch Doctor Guide for TLN!

Diablo 3 Monster Affixes for Nightmare, Hell and Inferno Monsters

When you are running nightmare, hell and inferno modes in D3, you really need to know what you are going up against, because sometimes those yellow rare mobs can pwn you, ez pz.

Here is the list of rare monster affixes which will explain in better detail what the rare monsters will do when you come across them while playing Diablo 3.

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Wizard Gear and Build Guide for Diablo 3 – Patch 1.03 and Beyond

Hope this can help you guys get some millions, its not easy to find the best place to farm in inferno act 1!

Hey again my fellow nerds, here is a great list of useful tips and tricks for Diablo 3.

Most Veteran players will know most of this, but I’m sure there are still multiple things everyone can get out of this post. This is a repost from Reddit, and the names in ( *** ) is the contributors name on Reddit.

The Original post can be found HERE.

Enjoy and improve your PWN!

Here is a really helpful and informative post that started on D2jsp and Reddit, and has built into something which should last the life time of the game. If you study this list enough, you will eventually know what a sell-able weapon is, and what a ZOMG LOOK BRO weapon is

Max DPS for each different weapon type!

All Questions were answered by Wyatt Cheng who is a Senior Game Designer for Diablo III.

Inferno currently is extremely hard for barbarians, mainly because they are the most gear dependant class in the game, it won’t be a huge issue in the future, but for now it basically means we are stuck with this Tank Barbarian Build, which farms inferno great, but isn’t the most fun.

Here is an awesome post which I found on the Diablo 3 forums by Zrave

Here is a great high quality post written by Hesterry which I found on the Diablo 3 forums, explaining in detail how to pwn noob inferno monsters with ease.

It’s a great guide and all the comments have been positive so I picked this one to be the main Witch Doctor Guide for TLN!

When you are running nightmare, hell and inferno modes in D3, you really need to know what you are going up against, because sometimes those yellow rare mobs can pwn you, ez pz.

Here is the list of rare monster affixes which will explain in better detail what the rare monsters will do when you come across them while playing Diablo 3.

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Archives

Recent TLN Posts

TLN MeTa

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