Mixed Class - Theorycrafting

[dancook]

These are just some first thoughts on builds for my HC team of mixed classes

Fire Mage
http://www.d3head.com/calculator/skill#zozuZn8zyy8mRt68zIRn8cLsY8VLhP8zMYH852e852v8 8vm

Support Monk
http://www.d3head.com/calculator/skill#zmVTPq8cjMR8MzMme8zzOqn8cTKE8Vznml8Knm86QI8K jS86Vm

Crusader Tank
http://www.d3head.com/calculator/skill#zMczupc8zzrEx8VzEmF8zzrsq8MzwVH8czGJp8zDdC8z C2b8zTcX8zTi6

Barb
http://www.d3head.com/calculator/skill#zzMNiK8cuvg8cNVn8VzOhc8zzCaS8Vjj685VQ846185c h88xu

If anyone has 2 cents to throw in,


haven't considered gear yet :D just trying to get a bunch of CC, Team helping skills and survivability.

[Yelgis]

Playing a mixed team like that is going to be pure chaos imo. Keeping disparate classes like that in sync all with different skill loadouts is going to be rough. Also, I don't know if you understand how CC really works in this game.

Mobs develop 10% CC resistance every second they are CC'd and lose 10% every second they are not CC'd. This builds up to a cap of 70% for elites and bosses. This resistance directly lowers the duration of any further CC. So if you apply a CC to a boss with 70% resistance that is supposed to last 2 seconds it ends up only lasting .6 seconds.

The real kicker is there is also another mechanic called the minimum threshold. The minimum for bosses is .85 seconds. If your CC after resistance calculation would have a duration below this threshold it has zero effect. What this means in practical terms is that the only way to reliably CC elites and bosses is with CC's that have a duration 3 seconds or greater.

FYI, all CC but fear works on bosses. Movement speed debuffs have both their duration and magnitude of their effect reduced by CC resistance, but they are not subject to minimum thresholds like hard CCs (stun, freeze and blind).

I can't really say much on how your team idea would actually perform if you could manage to control them well since I don't really play mixed teams, but I hope the CC info above helps you out some.

[dancook]

Thanks it's useful to know my endeavours could have gaping flaws :)

[Yelgis]

I have toyed with the idea of running a Lock Doc with 3 others. It is the only mixed setup I have considered that I feel might push a team further in GR progression. The only issue with that team setup is the others would need to be fairly tanky and aslo probably wear xeph ammies to absorb lightning since they would have to stick close to the doc.

One team that might work after the 2.2 patch is a Lock Doc with 3 IK pet barbs. The barbs are pretty tough with perma WOTB and would also make the loc doc tougher, their DPS is automatic since it comes from pets so it is easy to play in a multibox situation, and with 50% CDR on all three of them you can keep Ignore Pain - Mob Rule up permanently for 50% less damage to the party. With the new crit chance Broken Promise ring you can swap all CC from gear to CDR and still have high crit, so it is a perfect setup.

I was toying with the idea of 4 pet barbs anyway, adding a doc to the mix shouldn't be too hard. The barb IK set progresses pretty well too. 2 pieces give you permanent pets, 4 gets you the aoe. Once you have the aoe the barbs farm pretty well. At 6 pieces you get your big power jump with perma-WOTB. The only part i am unsure about with a barb team is the actually leveling to 70 part lol.

[joes]

The only part i am unsure about with a barb team is the actually leveling to 70 part lol.
Heh, trust me, it is possible! I got mine to 70 (it was slow and boring) and just collecting IK pieces that rarely drop on my monks while waiting for 1.2 :-)

[Yelgis]

What skills did you find useful Joes? I haven't leveled a barb to 70 naturally in long time. I will be looking to start my barb or mixed barb team in season 3 with 2.2 so any info would be great. Not sure what works best with them as they progress without any smith stuff or hand me downs. Guess I might have to start a team and level them without anything for practice before the next season.

[joes]

Uh, don't remember exact build right now. It was Rend-based with some fury generator + 4 shouts with different secondaries (they stack), WotB, BR and ancients, but without WW due to dsyncs.

But because you have decent lvl 70 characters, you can do 2x2 or 3x1 to speed up boosting by doing higher difficulty tiers. At least I did it to get my monks to 70 quickly after I failed with barbs.

[Yelgis]

I was aware of the shout stacking. I already tested that on PTR and I figured it worked anyway since Monk Mantra's do the same thing.

Leveling the Monks was a little slower than I liked in season 2 because of being melee and I feel Barbs will be even more so. I won't be boosting because the Barbs will be for season 3... fresh start and all.

[Shodokan]

I was aware of the shout stacking. I already tested that on PTR and I figured it worked anyway since Monk Mantra's do the same thing.

Leveling the Monks was a little slower than I liked in season 2 because of being melee and I feel Barbs will be even more so. I won't be boosting because the Barbs will be for season 3... fresh start and all.

Do a dry run to get acquainted with the class and how it is boxed. Because thats the only real way to make it any faster.

Also s2 has at least a month left in it so no point in not enjoying the game... as if you don't want to re-start again then you are better off on non seasonal anyway.

[Yelgis]

Yea a dry run is what I will probably do between seasons Shodo. I did a dry run with Crusaders before season 2 to get a feel for their progression, but then ended up going with a monk team for season 2. Monk was my first main character so I was somewhat familiar with them already. Melee just seems harder to work with early on is all.

[Shodokan]

Yea a dry run is what I will probably do between seasons Shodo. I did a dry run with Crusaders before season 2 to get a feel for their progression, but then ended up going with a monk team for season 2. Monk was my first main character so I was somewhat familiar with them already. Melee just seems harder to work with early on is all.

My plan this season worked great for me. Get a DH up solo with friends and then power level two DH to gear it quicker. then use that to gear alts to play at least in a playable state.

Soloing up to 30 rifts in 5 mins or less is great. Though my 3 monks do the same now in like 3 mins each.

Unless you plan on having ONE team starting with that team isn't necessarily the best option. Especially if melee is kinda crap to level up since more than half of the compositions are going to be melee unless you stick to like buff WD and demon hunters (currently).

[Yelgis]

This season I did the Monk team first and I can currently clear up to about GR 36 with them. I just recently started my Crusader team and am in the process of gearing them (can do low 20's so far).

The game has been very kind to me in terms of giving me good Torches so I can't really do the Bells build I would want to run with the Monks. The Saders are mostly all at 5 pieces of Akkhans but they all still need helms to gear them the way I eventually want to and they are all still working on their CDR. I've only had one poorly rolled blade of prophecy drop so far though.

I also used 3 of my monks to level up a WD and have him geared as a Loc Dock for non boxing group play (no SMK yet though he has a nicely rolled mass confusion dagger).

The season lost some of my interest when I saw all the shiney things coming in the 2.2 patch.

[Shodokan]

This season I did the Monk team first and I can currently clear up to about GR 36 with them. I just recently started my Crusader team and am in the process of gearing them (can do low 20's so far).

The game has been very kind to me in terms of giving me good Torches so I can't really do the Bells build I would want to run with the Monks. The Saders are mostly all at 5 pieces of Akkhans but they all still need helms to gear them the way I eventually want to and they are all still working on their CDR. I've only had one poorly rolled blade of prophecy drop so far though.

I also used 3 of my monks to level up a WD and have him geared as a Loc Dock for non boxing group play (no SMK yet though he has a nicely rolled mass confusion dagger).

The season lost some of my interest when I saw all the shiney things coming in the 2.2 patch.

I've gone with a TR build for fast clears instead of doing tzo krin builds with bells only three torches dropped and one was ancient...one was 3100 dps so i couldn't even use it. But its still fun. I was thinking of doing crusaders next myself.

Loss of interest is something people get regardless of the game with ARPGs it seems. Comes and goes with content updates.

[Yelgis]

I've had about 5 Torches drop and they were all non-ancient and all poorly rolled. So I haven't even tried using them yet.

The update to the PTR yesterday really changed a lot. Looks like they are changing the IK set and trying to move it away from a pet only build style so that really hurt my idea for a barb team using pets. I plan to keep an eye on the changes, but I really am hoping some of the new things will allow for some new interesting team setups.

[joes]

Ahem, I'm para ~310 on all 4 monks and I never saw single Torch so far. So, I'm stuck with generator-based builds (or TR builds) and can't progress further than GR34. It just takes too long to kill Rift Guardian. (Correction: I can get to GR37 by completing trial and can finish it, but not in time).

For me, upcoming 2.2 is, basically, life saver.

I was hoping for IK pet build too, but oh well.

[Shodokan]

Ahem, I'm para ~310 on all 4 monks and I never saw single Torch so far. So, I'm stuck with generator-based builds (or TR builds) and can't progress further than GR34. It just takes too long to kill Rift Guardian. (Correction: I can get to GR37 by completing trial and can finish it, but not in time).

For me, upcoming 2.2 is, basically, life saver.

I was hoping for IK pet build too, but oh well.

IK WW barbs look incredibly strong.