Made by Monkeys

I’m still having a good time and am making reasonable progress for a casual player who doesn’t group. And therein lies the problem with Seasons — you really have to group in order to get high paragon numbers, and high paragon numbers are what you need to survive the hardest parts of Seasons. I don’t want to group with strangers, so I may not finish.

Then again, I may get far enough to obtain an extra stash tab, which is all I want.

My demon hunter is coming along really well, thanks to Blizzard’s much improved drops, some good fortune related to goblins, etc.

She presently has a decent Unhallowed Essence set:

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/simmery-1600/hero/86973245

As you can see, it’s a simple setup that centers around Multishot and Vengeance. I have enough cooldown to keep Vengeance up nearly all the time. I think I have a fairly good synergy and a relatively good balance between damage and survivability. You’ll notice, however, that I need better jewelry. The Traveler’s Pledge amulet is incredibly good, and I have two more really good ones sitting in the stash. The rings, sadly, are not so great. What I need is a good Focus/Restraint set for this build. I have a workable Focus but no decent Restraint.

Well, I’m in Torment 10 now, so maybe things will get better. I can do a level 46 Greater Rift comfortably. To improve my legendary gems, I’ll have to get a little uncomfortable, but them’s the breaks.

Diablo 3 remains a fast game, and this character is ultra-fast. Sometimes she’s so fast that I almost lose control of her. Her low resistances are offset somewhat by the demon hunter’s native “cheaty teleport” skill Vault. It’s clear to me that Blizzard favored this class from the get-go. They gave her the advantages of Diablo 2’s sorceress and essentially crippled the D3 wizard.

Oh well — now I need to do a set dungeon in order to finish the “Slayer” chapter of Season 10. After that, the big hurdles will be Conquests — those stupid hoops you have to jump through to get a stash tab. Oh, and let’s not forget completing a level 70 Greater Rift (which is why I need more paragon points).

I’m so pleased with this wizard that I had to share a little. This is a lightning build, and it is very, very powerful.

Diablo 3 has traditionally not been very good to the wizard’s lightning abilities. The signature skills are more novel than useful, and the spenders have been woefully lacking in power. Come to think of it, Blizzard has ignored two elemental build possibilities if you include cold. It’s true that Archon is an arcane element, and they do offer the Vyr’s set for that focus. They also provide Firebird if you want to go all fire all the time. But lightning has been their real stepchild.

Enter the amazing legendary ring called Manald Heal. As you can see, the perk works with the wizard’s Paralysis passive and has a 15% chance to proc as much as 14,000 percent weapon damage. That . . . is . . . huge.

Let’s take a moment to examine how the build works.

https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/simmery-1600/hero/75622413

As you can see, Paralysis is chosen as one of the passives. The Manald Heal ring has been cubed so I can use the amazing properties of the Legacy of Nightmares ring set. Notice the perk: as long as LoN is your only set bonus, every ancient item you  have confers 100% additional damage. That, folks, is a lot of hurt.

I have tried to raise my attack speed as much as possible. The synergy offered by the Shame of Delsere belt and the Gogok of Swiftness legendary gem is off the chain. I need this to increase the chance of that 15% proc, and it works. Arcane Torrent is also a fast skill (aided by the shoulders), and the hydras spit out lighting quite rapidly (two of them, thanks to the cubed Serpent’s Sparker). The Myken’s Ball of Hate source does its job nicely. There’s hardly ever a time when enemies aren’t paralyzed and taking immense doses of lightning damage.

For survivability, you can’t go wrong with the Aquila Cuirass, as long as you can keep your Arcane Power over 92%. This is helped along by the cubed belt. Also, since I can’t use Teleport, I have to rely on the extra health I get from the amethyst in Leoric’s Crown, but mainly I’m counting on the Deflection rune of Magic Weapon working in concert with the Ashnagarr’s Blood Bracer. I’m pretty happy with the result. In fact, everything in this build contributes meaningfully to my protection and the humiliating zappery of monsters. (I’m still looking for an ancient pair of Tasker and Theo gloves – https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/tasker-and-theo.)

If you feel inclined to bow down, I’ll understand.