Boxing the meta 4 man

[Perrigrin]

I am looking at planning the 4 man meta boxing, but looking at how it plays I'm not sure how well it would box.

I am talking about Twister mage, globe barb, globe monk, cc buff WD.

Concerns are:

- Can enough globes be picked up without one or 2 toons moving independently from each other / the group?

- Positioning, wiz wants to ideally stand positioned so that he casts the twists towards walls etc

- Wiz survivability, again comes back to positioning, when playing the twister wiz in 4 man I move a LOT to both to get twisters max dps, but also to live

Any thoughts? Anyone doing it?

[Cmoidudu]

Since I have been disapointed with Crusaders/Thorns, I'll slowly migrate to this setup and give it a try.

- I have been playing with a zDPS WD as character #4 for quite some time now, so no problem this one, he is pretty much straightforward.

- I'm testing the Monk as character #3. He has one flaw, his survivabilty comes from his skills, so he can die while moving between packs: -40/-50% from casting Cyclone strike while wearing some shoulders, -30/-40% from resource generators with some bracers, -50% from Sweeping Wind with 2p Sunwoko... I tried to have him use a Solanium for spawning globes but it's not worth it. Globes will come from the Barbarian. Also I would not use Epiphany because of the desyncs. But he can use an Aquila Cuirass since he doesn't use resource.

- I haven't started the Barbarian, but I understood how it runs. Continuously using Hammer of the ancient shouldn't be a problem with resource regeneration, but since I haven't tried it, I can't tell.

- I need to investigate about Wizard survivability and Mana generation at high GRs. I understood the trick while watching Gabynator's Twitch channel, it should work as a Multiboxer, but I haven't tried it either, so, more about this later.

Obviously you can't use Teleport / Spirit Walk etc because of desyncs. So Illusory Boots are mandatory either on characters, or in Cube.

[Perrigrin]

Let me know how it works out for you - I'll be dabbling in it as well, but currently my regular group is very active so don't get to box much.

I would be very curious to hear how you work out positioning and globe pick up.

Also, FYI - having the monk with solanium and globe build helped my regular group a lot vs just a globe barb - specially before all have perfect gear.

[Devile]

The only problem I see is the Wizard's mobility. The 3 supports can have Illusory boots. If u add Illusory boots to the wizard, u lose APD which will pretty much kill your DPS at 85+. GLobes pickup? Thing of the deep on the WD maybe? I wouldnt care much about it tbh, just stack some pickup radius.

My main concern is being able to move my party freely. The other choice is adding a Crusader with Wings of Angels, but it won't add much dps or survivability. Maybe ditch the Monk for a Crusader? Dont think Shield Glare, Judgement and Provoke will make it for all the stuff a monk provides.

[Shodokan]

The meta for hardcore currently seems to be 2x lon bomb crusaders + Barb + X for around 85s from what I watched. The wizard was running a disintegrate converge + ranslors + etched sigil build with DMO as the 4th from what I saw.

I think the main problem is going to be positioning on your wizard while positioning everything else away a bit without a very micro oriented playstyle. On top of that your positioning matters most on wizard since the orientation of the movment of your twisters is based on your mouse cursor's position so you would need to lead from the wizard. Thing of the deep should cover the radius though as stated above.

With perfect gear you can get very close to the damage of a DMO wizard with a LoN shield throw build, but thats not something that will be readily avail and will be a grind to get going, that would give you the ability to run two DPS if you really wanted.

[Cmoidudu]

About globe gathering, you just have to move the team one step forward, or backwards, or whatever, and the WD will pick all the globes. Thing of the Deep gives him 20' pickup, plus what he might have on the rest of the gear. This works, I tested it. Of course once again you need Illusory Boots...

About farming at high GR levels, let's face it, I doubt that any of us will farm GR85+ so let's stay humble, but I'd like to be wrong

About globe generating from a Monk, I might reconsider what I said earlier since I looked at Quin69's video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM8DMTkqc88), but I tested it and I wasn't too impressed. I miss some key elements however, like that Flying Dragon in the cube, so I might want to give him another try. But out of this, the constant gathering of creatures with Cyclone Strike, or Inner Sanctuay/Forbidden Palace makes him a good addition to the team.

[Devile]

85+? I think it's completely doable. Remember they lowered HP on mobs and basically 2.4 GR80 = 2.3 GR70~. Add augmenting stats on gear which pretty much equals hundreds of paragon per piece. Try it solo with any of your old chars and u will see. My barbs/dhs can speedrun around 10GRs more than what they used to. My mixed SC party was doing 70+ back in 2.3 and ET Wizards are way more powerful than what SC monk was. Pretty sure we will be doing 85+ in no time.

I'm gonna start playing solo my Wizard to boost it to Paragon 1200+ and work on 90+ gems with all augmented gear. Once I get that, the supports wont really matter how high their paragon is. Trust me, 85+ won't be a problem.

[Ellay]

Biggest issue with going current meta is the game freeze/timeouts. There is just too much stuff happening it seems. Even when your just 1 of the 4 I see Twitch streams where the game lags out and takes time to come back. There have been multiple builds in the past I would have loved to use but just didn't work out due to outside limitations.

[Cmoidudu]

OK I have tried to run this thing with a Crusader/Thorns as DPS, and then the 3 buffing dudes. Of course I don't have resource regeneration problems, but I can monitor how things works (globe generation, survivability). As for now...

- Witch Doctor works fine,
- Monk works fine,
- Barbarian is a problem.

I miss some key elements in the Barbarian setup: Fury of the Ancients (shoulders), Pride of Cassius (belt) and Bracers of the First Men (bracers)... But right now the biggest issue is that Wrath of the Berserker gives +20% movement speed to the Barbarian, so either he is running forward, or, if I spend Paragon points so that he has +5% speed, he'll stay behind when he is out of Wrath of the Berserker...

At the moment I can't maintain Wrath of the Berseker up all the time, and I don't have the required belt to keep Ignore Pain up all the time either, so the poor Barbarian is dying all the time (other dudes are ok). Because of this I'm running GR50's, just waiting for gear to drop, which is not the purpose of this team. To have this team work, you really need to have high creature density, and packs that don't die instantly (so, high GRs), otherwise you can't "keep the machine running".

More later, but I'm quite busy IRL at the moment

I also want to try something with Ground Stomp / Jarring Slam with Band of Might (ring), assuming I already have an Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac as second ring...

[Cmoidudu]

OK, so I have been running this team on low GR60's and it's quite tricky. It works tho. Some issues that I need to fix...

The Wizard is very vulnerable, specially when he moves. Damage Reduction from the Orb of the Infinite Depth expires very fast... I'll have him cube an Aquila Cuirass maybe. Also he doesn't have an ancient Twister Sword, so DPS is not so good.

It's very tricky to manipulate this team. I have been looking at the SOS team on Twitch, and that Wizard dude exactly know where to target so that the twisters are stuck. I have yet to succeed in doing so. Also, when I have a correct position, sometimes the Monk moves the target away with Cyclone Strike.

I'm not using Wrath of the Berserker with the Barbarian because of synch problems. I'm using this build :
http://www.d3planner.com/417169218

You can't have enough pickup radius on the WD. Of course he's holding a Thing of the Deep, but still, I'll see if I can find some decent gear with additional pickup radius

I'm not using Illusory Boots at the moment. I'm trying to figure out if I really need them.