2.6.1 and its Meta-Team ?

[Cmoidudu]

Hello around,

I'm back after a 1-year break (or so) from Diablo III. I haven't bought the Necromancer pack(s), maybe I will, maybe not. Anyway it's a very old Blizzard tactic where they introduce something extremely powerful so that everybody wants to buy it, and then in the next patch they nerf it LOL... Althought it seems that this time they haven't nerf it per se, but instead they considerably buffed the rest (good call).

So, I checked some Youtube videos and Twitch channels, worked the D3Planner, and ran some in-game tests. I'm pretty interested in a specific template as main DPS, which is the Firebird/Meteor Wizard dude. First tests look promising, but I need to re-gear my dudes and this will take some time. For example I had ancient Niflur boots on all my chars with a nice +100% to meteors, but the new release of the boots are giving +600%, etc.

I noticed that the Necromancers are (or were as in S11) very good DPS, but it seems to me as they are dead all the time when in a Meta-Team. A Firebird Wizard is maybe a little under in terms of DPS, but is so much stronger. Also, it seems like it's possible to do again what was possible last year, which is create a Meta-Team that can pack stuff and go for plain DPS, ignoring all incoming damage.

About the Meta-Team, zDPS Barb and Monk are apparently mandatory, but I'm not sure of what last spot might be. Maybe 2 DPS and 2 zDPS ? I will try and investigate. Witch Doctor + Firebats seems to be popular too.

Anyway it will take some time before I'm ready to push, but I'll keep you updated.

[Cmoidudu]

Also, after a 1-year break, I was pleased to see that my old InnerSpace setup was working like a charm.

However, Blizzard doesn't seem too happy when I tried to log all the 4 characters at once, I had some "unable to connect with the provided data", etc. Anyway I log my toons one by one with a couple of second or so between each log, and it's ok.

[Devile]

Welcome back. 2.6.1 introduced a TON of buffs so I'm not sure what the meta is going to be. Also, there are different metas depending on your goal. EXP meta last season was 3 necros (2 dps, 1 zdps) + 1 zbarb for speed 95s. Pushing was usually zmonk + zbarb + wd + necro. Leatherboards are locked right now, but I'm pretty sure the meta will remain the same. Instead of LoN WD it will prolly be FB WD for the trash and Necro again as the RGK. The speed 95's will most likely remain since mages do ridiculous damage and u can rush thru the rift in less than 3 mins.

Maybe the trash killer could be a wizard or barb, but WD area damage has been the preferred choice for several seasons in a row. FB items (belt + staff) have been buffed a LOT and both Arachyr's and HT got buffs too, so I'm not sure how other classes will be able to compete against that. No idea how fast are the other classes now as RGK but necro was damn fast last season.

[Cmoidudu]

Well I'm sort of hitting the same conclusion. From my early testings, FB/Meteor Wizards are very good at killing Elites and Guardians, but are mediocre at farming trashes, and it's the contrary for Firebats WD. So, I guess a good team would be 2x DPS (Wizard + WD) and 2x zDPS (Monk and Barb).

The only bad point about Wizards is that they don't bring any buffs to the group, unless I introduce Slow Time in the spell rotation. I have to work around this. Or maybe this is the reason why a Necromancer would be a better pick.

Anyway, I'll have to first go throught the long and painful process of re-gearing ancient weapons and off-hands, just because they haven't been upgraded with the previous patches. Cube properties from items have been upgraded, but "real" items were not, so I own full stash tabs of useless ancient weapons and other "orange" stuff.

[NetQvist]

I did a lot of Rathma necro + 3x zdps (wiz, monk, barb) last season for higher GRs. It's been buffed a bit now even and doing 100s is just easy at around 800-1000 paragon already.

One of the best parts about this composition is that it works very naturally as a mixed party if you have good key maps.

For torments I basically just ran the same build but switched the wizard and monk to necros that pretty much were globe feeders for the main rat necro.

I'm pretty sure a really good geared Rat necro could do around 115 with this setup in multiboxing, I've done 110 in none season without any big issues and that's with jesseths set which is inferior to the bone armor scythe. It was also done without decripify belt so I had some toughness issues.

For this I'm thinking I'll just do a 4x of the same class to finish the journey and then go back to non season if I can be arsed to play anymore even.

EDIT: Here's a video I recorded of a early 105 with my mixed party, I was still tinkering a lot here so it's pretty messy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpKPGfmFSgw

[Cmoidudu]

Guys, I'm ranked LOL



Don't take this too seriously, I believe I did this at the moment when the leaderboard were reset (it's just a GR 86)... but anyway, that's funnny

EDIT: Here's a video I recorded of a early 105 with my mixed party, I was still tinkering a lot here so it's pretty messy

Nice video. Do you have a D3Planner for your zDPS Wizard ? I fail to see how he is better that a zDPS WD. Still, I have been out of the game for a year, so that's a lot of patches that I missed...

[Devile]

Nice video. Do you have a D3Planner for your zDPS Wizard ? I fail to see how he is better that a zDPS WD. Still, I have been out of the game for a year, so that's a lot of patches that I missed...

Your pick:

WD
Damage debuff: Bad Medicine (25%) + LS Cloud of Insects (25%) + MC Paranoia (30%) + Hex (15%) or WoD (25% 3 secs only)
Damage buff: Haunt (20%) + BBV (15% + 15% IAS) + 15% Piranhas
Extras: 30+ pickup radius (no need to stack this on other party members)

Wizard
Damage debuff: DMO 4-set (30%) + Slow Time (25% damage + 20% less IAS)
Damage buff: Slowtime (15% + 10% IAS) + Frost Nova (33%) + Cold Blooded (10%) + Conflagration (6% crit)
Extras: Slowtime stops all projectiles + Black Hole deals easily with Arcane/Molten + Ranslor's Folly procs 30% strongarms to a lot more mobs

For DPS, Wizard seems like the best choice here, but if u need more DR, then WD is for you. I may be missing some stuff here. Before the BBV nerf, WD was the clear winner, but now is not the case. Also WD has big cooldowns, even with ORotZ + Grave Injustice that will restrict your big debuffs/buffs for elites only while Wizards can spam skills on trash. Also there's an interesting 60% IAS debuff with Arcane Torrent that could be useful as well.

[Cmoidudu]

OK thanks. At the moment I'm in season 12 for the last extra stash tab, and as always when I'm doing seasons, I'm wondering, "why am I doing that?"... Like when I need to cube 40 items, which is 1k Death's Breaths x4, and all I really need is 3 cubed items for the season...

[edit] Actually you only need to cube 20x items for the stash tab. The 40x thing is if you want to complete the last rank and get the last portrait frame.

[NetQvist]

Sorry that I haven't answered, I've been playing with the clan and not boxing so far this season.

Concerning the ranked, grats! Last season I hovered between 250-1000 with my setup quite far into the first weeks even, only got this shot from it though.

https://i.imgur.com/Q884F6T.png

Since the other guy responded with all the details and he is pretty correct except about one thing:

"but if u need more DR, then WD is for you"

This is actually wrong, he even answers the question himself before:

"Extras: Slowtime stops all projectiles + Black Hole deals easily with Arcane/Molten"

I have tried so many variations of zdps but playing without the blackhole is just suicidal once you go past 105. The Rathma necro just cannot survive multiple hits of arcane beams or moltens if you want to have enough damage to actually kill something. The slow projectiles is also pretty amazing since it makes the ranged hits hit you over a larger duration of time so you can get healed up. Been considering trying to get some kind of movement skill into my build but I seem to actually have a lack of skill slots for the necro for everything I try. Since they changed the dayntee's binding to be affected by any curse I'd probably drop decripfy now which at least would give me one slot.

For my builds I don't have time to make a d3planner but I can link you the bnet profiles, the non season ones called sup are the builds I use for this right and will stay that for months so just look at them.

https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/.../hero/88666465

https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/.../hero/88666494

https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/.../hero/81707943

NQ2 is the wiz, 3 is the barb and 4 is the monk. Noticed that the monk has lost what I think was the spirit guards in the cube.

[Cmoidudu]

I have tried so many variations of zdps but playing without the blackhole is just suicidal once you go past 105. The Rathma necro just cannot survive multiple hits of arcane beams or moltens if you want to have enough damage to actually kill something..

Yes, this is why having a Channeling/Meteor as main DPS is interesting. I found something by mistake, but didn't change it, here it is : with this template, spells that cost resource in your spell bar are auto-cast when channeling, so obviously you need to only have Meteor as a resource spender...

... However, Blackhole is also a resource-spender, so if you have it on the spell bar, it will be cast from time to time... Which lowers your DPS unfortunately, but still, it is a nice "automatic" feature. And, since it's on timer, you can choose to cast it "manually" and then it won't be cast by channeling for the next few seconds.

But after all, I'm not sure that a Wizard can match a Necromancer in terms of DPS. I'll try when I'm done with season 12.