Crit or go home?

[NissanSkyline]

I don't like magic missle....at all, and I don't like being without a signature spell. I was hoping to switch to mirror image, but it's not going to happen yet. I did have something interesting happen. In the Desolate Sands, the gold chest in the little spiral that spawns sometimes, I got my first set item. I thought it was a tome that I hadn't seen yet or something, and I cleared my eyes and indeed it was "helm" in green letters. It stands to reason it would be a Tals head, as I must have had 50 or better of them drop in D2. I got a really good roll on the Int and Armor, but the random attribute was 6 yards to radius. If that would have been resist all, I would be wearing it, even though it looks dumber than Hell, kinda lik the original. I might still equip it, as I like having a few pieces with extended radius. Finding that kinda spurred me on a little, and I destroyed every pack after that. I have around 330 hours played, and 1 set and 4 ****ty unique items. But I really don't care at this point, as they are going to switch them up at some point.

Honestly magic missile seeker and shock orb/piercing orb are the best signature spells IMO but both are flawed. Seeker obviously lacks AOE and the damage is just decent. Piercing orb is great for hitting multiple targets per orb but it moves slowly and isn't as good for kiting, and has even less damage per target. I think if you have very high crit chance and plenty of arcane on crit you can just go with arcane orb and no sig., otherwise you gotta just settle for one or the other.

[darkstarhub]

I have +13 Arcane Power on my source, so if I could find a good sorc wand with +15, I would have 108, and Arcane Orb might be possible. Then some Arcane on crit gear, but that would require decent crit gear, and thats going to take awhile. I would love to have Arcane Orb instead of Shock Pulse/Piercing Orb though. I have lost several treasure goblins because they dont die very quickly to Hydra/Blizz and SP/PO. When I was using Arcane Orb, I could kill them easily with that. The only way I can kill them now is if I get them in a corner and my merc hacks at them while I am casting my low power signature spell.

I put a few bucks in my battlenet balance, but I cant find a weapon I want. I am sure if I wanted to pay 200 bucks I could, but I am not, so I will just have to keep looking for a deal. There is no way I can come up with the gold for something good, so I guess its RMAH. I am thinking about getting something with 1.2 or 1.3 attack speed, instead of 1.4 on a regular sword. That would give me alot more options to get the numbers I am looking for. I dont think an axe with 1.3 would change anything that much. I shouldnt have gotten used to having alot of vitality on my weapon. The sword I am using now has 271, so losing that much would drop me 8-10k hit points. I am trying to stay above 40k, but that may be impossible.

[galzohar]

If you use a 100-400 damage source or similar, a 1.3 dps weapon is a loss of 25 dps and 1.2 is a loss of 50 dps compared to a 1.4 weapon. Just take those numbers into account (probably using your own source/rings/amulet damage total for more accurate results) when you look at weapons, and see if they can make up for the DPS. Of course, if you're using arcane orb rather than bliz/hydra then there is an additional advantage to a slower weapon (as long as the DPS loss isn't too much), but for bliz/hydra you should mostly just look at the DPS. With my example, if you find an 850 DPS mace that's comparable to an 800 DPS sword.

You never HAVE to use the RMAH. Just use the GAH wisely (when it comes to both selling and buying).

[Silverbug]

I finished the game and can farm anywhere with zero crit%/dam...

Maybe some can kill faster with crit.. I dunno, nor care much, but sure is doable without..

my stats was

39 K dam
1200 all res 1000+ with glass cannon
5000 armor
48000 Life
27% dodge
1000 life regen, before nerf, guess 500 after or soo..

No % crit nor crit dam Ias from rings total 14 I think.. nice to shoot faster.. 12 frw boots, really helps with elites and positioning.

Skills I use

active

arcane orb tap the source
blizzard snowbound
hydra poison
teleport fracture
enery armor prismatic
magic weapon force

Passive

glass cannon
astral presence
Galvanizing ward

[darkstarhub]

I am with you on crit not being something you absolutely need to have in order to progress. I would like to try a build with 20% CTC and 150 crit damage just to see if it plays any better. I did find a weapon for cheap that wasn't exactly what I wanted, but had about 125 more DPS. I also found a ring that had just been listed for 3$ that was an awesome deal. Comparable rings were in the 40-60$ range, and with those changes I am just short of 34k. I have been trying to pay more attention to the AH and how things are priced or sold. I have found some decent stuff that I should sell. I have held onto the good DH gear in case I want to play that character.

I could try switching arcane orb/tap the source for shock pulse/piercing orb and switching back to astral presence. I do like illusionist, but it takes a good hit for it to kick in. Switching in teleport has been the biggest help for my survival out of anything I have done, short of getting more damage. I did not know about the life regen nerf, what exactly are they doing with that?

[darkstarhub]

I was riding high after beating Belial on the first attempt, and then come back to reality when I started in Act 3. I kinda went in a little to loose, and died several times before I realized any mistake is going to get me killed. I started using a whole lot more strategy and looking for routes to kite elites and champs around the towers. I always have liked the keep, as the walls are usually more of a help than a hindrance. I get through all that fairly easy, and then I get to Ghom. After around 20 attempts, I decided to give up. I got him down to 25% HP several times, but by then there was nowhere to go, the whole room was filled with poison clouds. The times I did get him down, I had a clockwise path around the room going, and had some health globes from the little poison blobs to keep me going. I even changed a few skills to no avail. Teleport wasn't really doing me any good, so I switched it to Diamond Skin, switched Piercing Orb to Arcane Orb, and switched Illusionist for Astral Presence. This setup got the closest to beating him, but the whole thing is just rediculous. I never had any trouble at all with him in Normal, Nightmare, or Hell. I know they buffed him in one of the patches, but damn. I guess its just a matter of luck now.

[darkstarhub]

After a few days of farming(and not finding ****!), I decided to try Ghom a few times. I did manage to find a decent armor with all resist and some extra poison resist on the GAH for cheap, which I thought might help a little. The first time I tried, I got him down to a sliver of life left, moved the wrong way, and watched a 3/4 full bulb of vitality drop instantly. After a few more attempts where I went around the room to fast for the gas to clear, I got it right. I had him back at the entrance with the gas clearing out in front of me, a lucky globe drop to get me out of the red screen, and I finally killed his big fat ***.

I could have used the Archon god mode, but that would totally defeat the purpose of a challenge to me. It was wonderful to finally see Ghom in ruins laying on the floor. My heart was beating out of my chest, it felt awesome. I went on and made it to the Sin Heart without dying. I knew I would be good once I got past Ghom, but those Phasebeasts are just crazy. Siegebreaker was easy, and I can at least run him a little bit now. As for crit dmg and chance, I still don't have any. I have fiund some gear with them, but not good enough to replace my high Int and resist all pieces. I am sure that my gear is not in the proper order of things, but it works.

[zaanus]

My advice:

I've never used the RMAH, and I've been farming in Act 3 since pre 1.03 on a wizard using
Blizz/Hydra/MW/EA/MM/Teleport

Ditch orb and get teleport w/ fracture.

I have been doing this for a while with very little crit or crit damage. It isn't necessary to kill, only to kill faster. Act 2 is pretty much as hard as Act 3 is to me. Snakes, leapers, are just as awful as reviled (aka autopark them).

I've been doing it since about 32k damage, 6k armor, 400 all resist, so it's doable if you don't mind some repairs - when I do act 3 I mostly just break even gold wise, I only gain gold if I get a nice drop. In act 1 I get fewer drops but get reliable 300k-400k per full run in gold drops.

My advice to you: farm in act 1 where it's easy until you find or can afford (from selling drops) a nice upgrade from the GAH. After you get a nice drop, try some act 3 again. Don't waste gold on 300 dmg upgrades. Try to get at least 1k+ and if you can't, keep saving up.

[darkstarhub]

The build I have stayed with is pretty much what you listed. I really dont like magic missle, in any form. I used seeker when I beat Ghom, but quickly switched back to Shock Pulse/piercing orb for farming and leveling. I can switch out several pieces for farming Act 1 for better magic find and still be able to destroy everything while not even worrying where I am placing myself in the fight. I can say the same thing for Act 2, but not 3. The incoming damage is just to high for low resist all, well, for me anyway.

I have actually found some decent stuff, most notably a really nice Witch Docter Ceremonial Knife, that I know I sold for way to cheap. It was not even up for a minute. I kinda wish I would have kept it for if I ever want to do a Witch Docter. I have been working on a Barb, and a Demon Hunter will be after him, so I went ahead and sold the knife. I have been playing a barb for a few days finishing Act 1 on normal. Its really fun as he just destoys everything with a Ruby socketed Monster Hunter, but I know it will be alot harder later. I am going to try out Cydaea and Azmodan tonight on the Wiz just to see what I can do. I switched up my keys to get everything a little closer and moved the map to another button besides TAB, because accidently hitting TAB in the middle of a fight really sucks. Now that I think about it, that was really stupid to have it there in the first place. All I need is the CPU and motherboard and my build will be ready to put together. I know the CPU will be an i5 2500K, but anybody have any suggestions for the mobo? I have had a Gigabyte Ud5h on my list for awhile.

[Dogbert]

i5 2500k is for the older sandy bridge platform which will be phased out by ivy bridge. upgrading to an older platform is generally unwise.
you are better off going for the latest ivy bridge platform as the costs are identical or even cheaper.
also less heat, better performance and a faster connection between cpu and gpu + pci express 3.0 is hard to argue with.

i5-3570K is what i'm using and i can recommend it. if you don't plan to overclock i5-3450 is enough.