New here, but not to multiboxing. Here are my D3 setups :)

[Cmoidudu]

Hello here,

Since this forum has some active members, I thought I should join. I have been multiboxing Diablo III (and some other games) for more than 2 years now. Here are my 2.1.2 setups with some comments. When checking my profiles you probably won't see my amulet and rings (and legendary gems) since I share them among characters...



4x Barbarians (Charge + Reakor). One of my profiles is here, the 3 others are the same, save for the gems. On characters #1, #2, #3 I use Bane of the Powerful, Bane of the Trapped, Pain Enhancer, and character #4 uses a Gem of Efficacious Toxin.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/cmoidudu-2696/hero/11412626

Eventually I toned down the dps (since in T6 everything is dying almost instantly with this setup) using a Leoric crown with a red gem and a hellfire ring for XP purposes. I don't use this build for GRs. For a moment I ran T6 with level 24 Boon of the Hoarder gems, and now I'll never need gold coins again :)



4x Monks. 3 of them are sunwoko + wave of light with a lightning build, last one is a permanent inner sanctuary dude with cyclone strike to gather stuff, and 4x Mantras. I use Teaguk (from spaming sweeping wind), Bane of the Powerful, Bane of the Trapped, and a Gem of Efficacious Toxin on character #4.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/cmoidudu-2696/hero/30936900
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Loup-2764/hero/42339353
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fango-2485/hero/42339329
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Erha-2932/hero/23142171

This team is not too much dps oriented but they are XP grinders with Leoric + red gem (~80%), Cain (50%), Hellfire ring (45%) and they can still run GR 30-32.



4x Demon Hunter. Marauder build of course, 3 of them are Fire builds with Cindercoats (I still need 2 Bombardier's Rucksak), last one is a Frost build. However I will not develop them further, because at GR 36 and higher they die too fast from elite abilities.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/cmoidudu-2696/hero/48588867
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Loup-2764/hero/48588869
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fango-2485/hero/48588868
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Erha-2932/hero/48588870



4x Witch Doctors, physical pet build. This was only to gear up a zDPS dude.



3x Crusaders (Condemn build) and 1 zDPS Witch Doctor. At the moment it looks the most promising. I need to tune up things, but still they have a solid DPS and they don't die all the time. Of course i'm auto-chaining abilities with a razer mouse, which creates a little glitch because it seems that my zDPS dude sometimes stops walking to cast. But still, I'll probably be able to push this over GR40, with better gear, since what I have is so-so at the moment.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/cmoidudu-2696/hero/39084022
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Loup-2764/hero/39084501
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fango-2485/hero/39084932
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Erha-2932/hero/48211560

[Yelgis]

Interesting setups. Do you play seasons?

Also why do you only use Toxin on a single character in each comp? You know the 10% damage bonus from rank 25 stacks right? 4 characters using it amounts to a 40% damage modifier total. That doesn't always mean it is the best choice though, but it is certainly a strong gem for multiboxers from a damage perspective.

Anyway welcome to the forums. More and more people have been getting active with the D3 subforum here lately. Always glad to have more people to bounce ideas of off.

[Cmoidudu]

Hum I didn't know about that Gem of Efficacious Toxin stacking. I'll have to consider this, but anyway it won't work for my DH team (out of range), and about my current best setup which is 3x Crusaders and 1 zPDS...

- If I wear a Gem of Efficacious Toxin on character #2 he'll buff #1, #2 and #3, but #4 is a zDPS so that's 10%x3...
- If I wear a Gem of Efficacious Toxin on the dps characters I have to remove another gem, and I currently wear...
-- Minrinae level 39 to 41 which is probably better... I don't know actually, but Mirinae seem to hit hard and often.
-- Taeguk level 40 to 42 so that's 30 to 31% damage buff, plus the armor buff.
-- Bane of the Trapped level 37-38 so it's a 26,10 to 26,40% damage buff, a Gem of Efficacious Toxin setup is better but I won't bother (and I can still level the Bane of the Trapped over 30%).

But I'll think of it for my 4x Monks setup, since they all dps, so a 4x10% is obviously better than a 30% for each character.


And I'm lazy playing on seasonal, I hate having to restart everything, like collecting gems.

[Yelgis]

Yea toxin isn't always a better choice. If you are running a ZDPs that limits its functionality, and like you mentioned crusaders already have 3 good gems to use. Just wanted to make you aware of the possibilities though. Anyway your teams sound nice and I can understand not wanting to start over all the time.

It wasn't a big deal for me because I only came back to D3 and RoS a few months before seasons started, so I had only a max level WD at the time (I played a monk and WD mains at retail release). I've been using seasons to play classes and multibox comps that I haven't done before, so the starting over doesn't bother me as much.

[Cmoidudu]

I see that Devile reached GR 44 with his 4x Condemn Crusader team, I'll try to get there :)

Since this was the 2x experience week, so I'm mostly chaining 1-2 T6 rifts to stack yellow pool bonus, followed by a couple of GR 35-37 for the XP and then repeat. I didn't focus on breaking records, however I still went from GR 36 (achieved with my DH team) to... 37 38 39 40 and 41 with the 3x Crusaders + 1x zDPS WD.

I'm still working on the zDPS dude with some changes, like he now has 4p bonus of Asheara, which means that the 3 followers are almost always on, with some nice damage and incapacitating abilities. Also I'm not using a shield but a Thing of the Deep mojo for the 20' radius so i'm sure to pick every health globe, Nephalem buff and elite purple ball without effort.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Erha-2932/hero/48211560

Crusader #2 is using Shield Glare ability, and has a Cord of the Sherma belt, combined with Promise of Glory bracers, and with the 20'+ pickup of the WD i'm sure to have 3 stacks of Nephalem Glory 100% of the time, which nobody cares about, but it's a very under-rated feature IMHO.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Loup-2764/hero/39084501

Also my WD wears 3x Blackthorne for the 4p immunity bonus, which means that the team will only suffer 75% of ground effects (they all wear Unity rings) when that occurs. I tried to gear all followers with Unity, but it doesn't work (as confirmed in the Diablo forums).

One more thing, with this setup, Cold Snap is unable to freeze the team, not sure why. He still casts the frozen balls, but when they explode I'm not paralyzed (they still do a lot of damage tho).

[Devile]

I gave up on mixed parties for now since at least for 2.1.2 GR they are very inefficient. For group play is way better but not for multiboxing unless u find a way to micro each char easily without making them stop attacking and/or die. DHs are by far the class that does the highest burst damage but they die in 1 in GR40+. A tiki WD will do NOTHING to save them. There are a ton of mobs that will annihilate them before the WD CCs, not to mention all the annoying Elite effects there are. If there was a way to have formations in D3, by all means, mixed party would be the way to go for multiboxing.

The whole point of a zDPS char is to have CC and boost your party DPS, but if u pick a class that doesn't have high burst damage, what's the point? The zDPS will boost low damage so overall u won't benefit much compared to having all 4 chars of the same class. If it's for permaCC, some/most classes have a way to permaCC with 4x chars (or close to). Obviously some are better than others. I rather do this instead of mixing classes and adding a zDPS char to the party. So far to me, it only makes sense if u have DHs but survivability is a huge issue there.

4x Crusaders has worked the best for me, followed by 4x monks. I'm sure I can do GR50+ with my DHs if I get REALLY lucky with mobs and elites affixes but whats the point? It will not be a real scenario since getting easy white mobs + easy elites + good map layout is like a 1% chance. There's no mix I found with DHs that worked in GR43+, they just die over and over. Crusaders are tanky and can do very good at higher GR but they don't have very high burst damage. Adding a different class will add debuffs but I'll lose laws uptime which will hurt me more overall.

2.2 adds certain items that will change a lot of things, making mixed parties a lot more appealing. But right now, I don't see a setup that can be competitive in GR with mixed classes. My objective is not breaking records, but just upgrading my gems to higher levels and be able to do faster GR35 for exp.

[Cmoidudu]

Oh I'm doing the same at the moment, which is stacking a few yellow pool stuff and then go for GR35-37's.

We'll see what 2.2 does, in the meantime I stacked (more or less) one of every set on every character... However, what people seem to forget is that the new 2.2 items will most certainly be on season 3, so I won't be able to get them on the regular dudes. The changes in the existing sets will be interesting, but no new "orange" legendaries (like the In-Geom sword) in the near future. Unless i'm wrong.

What I'm not sure of is wether the updated versions of old items (like the "new" Obsidian ring of the Zodiac with the cooldown reduction thing) will drop in non-season in 2.2... it should...

[Shodokan]

Oh I'm doing the same at the moment, which is stacking a few yellow pool stuff and then go for GR35-37's.

We'll see what 2.2 does, in the meantime I stacked (more or less) one of every set on every character... However, what people seem to forget is that the new 2.2 items will most certainly be on season 3, so I won't be able to get them on the regular dudes. The changes in the existing sets will be interesting, but no new "orange" legendaries (like the In-Geom sword) in the near future. Unless i'm wrong.

What I'm not sure of is wether the updated versions of old items (like the "new" Obsidian ring of the Zodiac with the cooldown reduction thing) will drop in non-season in 2.2... it should...

Updated legendary power items will only drop the updated version in season. Theres a blue post on it.

[Doom1332]

Updated legendary power items will only drop the updated version in season. Theres a blue post on it.
Not all of them... most seasonal items are complete shit (except zodiac ring and the DH quiver)


You can view the full list of seasonal items for Season 3 here :
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/16780417929#3

[Shodokan]

Not all of them... most seasonal items are complete shit (except zodiac ring and the DH quiver)


You can view the full list of seasonal items for Season 3 here :
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/16780417929#3


Skull grasp was on the list at one point. But still zodiac is a huge one, though a lot of builds do not use it.

[Cmoidudu]

Thanks for the link.

I posted a short video on how the team works. It's GR36, I can do much higher, but the video is about the mechanics so...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ztaH8RfxxQ

Also another small video about my zDPS Witch Doctor. At the moment I'm not very satisfied with the use of the Asheara set, the followers aren't doing much damage (they are well-stuffed tho).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53oYQQrY0wQ

[Yelgis]

The only items worth keeping in prep for 2.2 are set items. The changes to them will be retroactive, but not completely. For instance the IK hammer won't get the new COTA damage buff it has in 2.2

Legendaries and new affixes on set items aren't retroactive. Only the sets bonuses themselves are retroactive changes. So you can save Focus and Restraint rings for instance, but saved Nat handxbow won't get RoV damage on it.

[Las]

Nice videos Cmoidudu. Too much flashing light there for my taste though:). Is 3 crusades+ 1 WD working better than 4 Crusaders for you?

[Cmoidudu]

(...) Is 3 crusades+ 1 WD working better than 4 Crusaders for you?
The theorycrafting would say yes, however I just completed GR42, but Devile reached GR44 with his 4x Crusaders so...

Anyway this build will be obsolete in a week ;)

[Cmoidudu]

This is what I should do in a week. Thanks for showing me that nice tool.

3x Crusaders : http://ptr.d3planner.com/364775759
1x zDPS : http://ptr.d3planner.com/260426424

I already have most of the items, including the 3x complete Roland set (some ancient pieces), and the zDPS gear. I just need 1 Furnace (I only have 2) and obviously 3x bracers. The bracers are supposed NOT to be seasonal, I hope they won't change their minds at the last minute...

This will require some adjustements of course, like is Shield Bash - Shield Cross better (overall) than Shield Bash - Pound... Fortunately both are Physical damage.

[Cmoidudu]

OK so I got the needed bracers pretty quick. Then I tried a GR33. It's a little messy on the trashes and elites, and then the Rift Guardian was Perendi... One of the most annoying ever for a melee class... See what happens.

Specs and gear are as listed below save for the weapons, I used polearms with +25/30% physical damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4TAKBJXps

[Cmoidudu]

So, I tried GR43 in order to see what this team setup can really do, and... it was a disaster. Well, having to fight shielding Exarchs didn't help exactly, but still, here are some flaws.

- The obvious desync from charging with Shield Bash. Most of the time it's ok, but then suddenly one of my Crusaders charges half a screen away.

- Shield Bash is a very slow attack. It seems that it can't keep Iron Skin up, which is a problem, because as soon as it goes off, I die. With "Steel Skin", Iron Skin lasts 7 seconds, but with a cooldown of 30s (minus the Paragon buff), it means that I have to hit about 25 times in 7 seconds to reset it, and I can't seem able to achieve that. I might try a Diamond gem in the helm and a CD reduction on shoulder, but this 23% (purple gem in head socket) + 15% (shoulders) less life so...

I'll ty to figure out something maybe, but if I can't pass GR43 with this setup, and I completed GR45 with my condemn setup, I don't see the point.

[Yelgis]

Life will be worht losing for better uptime. Life highly inflates your toughness and is over rated in my opinion.

I have a Tiki doc that can break a million hp and he can still get one shot in mid 40's. I would never stack life on purpose unless there wasn't a better option on that slot. Get enough to have between 400-600k with paragon and you are fine in most cases.

[Devile]

Tried Roland's a little bit and I think it can do pretty good. It needs a lot of work tho. I still see it more viable with 4x Crusaders than with 3x + 1 WD. Dsyncs are completely gone if u go with 1 Condemn Crusader. U never charge, besides Shield Glare blind locks even RGs. I didn't try FnR yet, but I guess the damage will increase a lot with that. I do miss 100% uptime of AC. I didn't have problems with Iron Skin uptime but I tested with a lot of CDR so I may have problems once I optimize my gear for Roland's and use FnR.

I wanna test if a single Crusader can have 100% uptime of 1 law so I can have 3-4 laws/runes up all the time.

[Cmoidudu]

(...) Dsyncs are completely gone if u go with 1 Condemn Crusader (...)
Thank you for that dude ! The solution was there, right under my nose, yet I couldn't see it. I'll be testing a variant of this later this evening ;)

[Cmoidudu]

Well, GR 46 completed at first try. It was a pretty favorable rift I have to admit, with a Power Pilon just next to the boss. But still, obviously I can go higher. Here is my setup :

- 1x Crusader, Roland build with Shield Bash, whom mission is to focus the big elites and the Rift Guardian. He has a nice weapon (ancient Heart Slaughter with +27% physical damage), and the rest of his stuff is ok, but nothing amazing. I need a physical SoJ, and I have to craft a better shield. He crits elites for 3.5-4.5 billions.

- 2x Crusaders, Condemn build, their mission is to gather and AoE the white trashes. The gear is so-so, I only have one ancient Blade of Prophecy with bad damage, I don't have Holy damage on the amulets, and the Rings of Royal Grandeur are very bad. But there is no way I'm doing caches anymore.

- And of course my zDPS Witch Doctor. I know you guys don't like this kind of setup, but now that I included a zDPS in my team, I won't go back. I need a Haunting Girdle, a Unity with a socket and cooldown reduction, a mask with 8 seconds on Horrify, and new rings for my followers (Oculus and Wyward).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwOhMfxJdKc

Heroes are here, but I changed specs and gear 3 hours ago, so you probably won't see the actuel setup.

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/cmoidudu-2696/hero/39084022
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Loup-2764/hero/39084501
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Fango-2485/hero/39084932
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Erha-2932/hero/48211560

[Yelgis]

You cleared with nearly 5 minutes left. I would definitely say you could push it higher. Getting the pylon right at the end was pretty lucky.

I am not against mixed teams if you can manage to play them well and they mesh together. Crusaders are probably one of the safer classes to mix with a Tiki doc because they are pretty sturdy and can still stand in lightning affixes better than other classes. I just don't like playing mixed as muc, because I like to keep my teams as simple to play as possible.

I think Deville's argument is that adding a zdps usually isn't a big of a gain as people think. You would in a lot of cases get better overall damage and clear speed if you just focused on 4 dps classes assuming you can find a way to make them able to survive higher difficulties.

Tiki doc is great to add in to other teams because they provide the ability to prevent elite affixes and provide some damage buff while they do so (really good ones at the like BBV Slam Dance). They just don't work in all teams. Trying to run a tiki doc with WW barbs for example would probably be in exercise in frustration due to the desync that would cause. Or running a Tiki with DH's. The DH's are still so squishy even with the tiki support that they just can't hang in melee like your Sader/WD comp can.

[Zum]

Well done Cmoidudu (http://www.dual-boxing.com/members/65527-Cmoidudu) , impressive

[Devile]

Gratz on GR46. I haven't pushed GR yet. Still farming trying to get my sets for DH, Wizard and Crusader. I'll go first with 3x Roland Crusaders + 1 Condemn. That looks like the best combo for DPS. Not convinced about the Tiki WD ... tho for reflect packs works amazing and that's pretty much the only affix that kills me. I'll try raw damage first and see how that goes. From there I'll try other options.

[Devile]

I did GR46 tonight at first try with 3x Shield Bash + 1 Condem but it didn't feel right. Maybe it's gonna take some time to get used to it, but I didn't like it much. The damage is obscene ... RG went down stupidly fast but the main problem wasn't the RG but the elites. Even with Condemn, many elite packs were just nasty. The lack of perma inmmunity makes it VERY hard to not dsync. Since surviveability was an issue, switched Laws of Hope Wings of Angels to Laws of Justice Immovable Object, but its taking a long time to get used to that. Not going thru mobs is such a pain, specially with Vacuum pulling everything towards u and making your party dsync a few feets from each other. I'm sure I would do better with a Tiki WD so elites are not such a pain.

I think I'll try Sweep Attack now. Shield Bash is pretty good, but the charge kinda sucks, besides Sweep Attack has a stun rune and doesn't need bracers so I can use Ancient Parthan Defenders for more damage reduction. Nice synergy there. Not sure if the damage is comparable to Shield Bash but from initial tests, it does insane damage too when paired with Denial Shield which drops like candy. Just need to get some Golden Flenses.

[Cmoidudu]

Dude there is no way you can withstand the wrath cost of Sweep Attack. Or, if there is a way, you tell me ;)

[Devile]

U sure? How come I see some ppl in top10 leaderboards using Sweep Attack? Or are they trolling? Cause I see they are stacking RCR:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/striker-6426/hero/45785321
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Nolife-2282/hero/39231422

The short test I made seemed alright when I had perma Unstoppable Force. Maybe adding Provoke or worse case scenario, Reaper Wraps should do the trick. With a bunch of RCR, it may work better than Shield Bash. Besides, u are still going to use a generator.

[Cmoidudu]

GR 47 completed with a lot of pain.

I can do GR 45 all the time, and then suddenly at 47 everything hurts so much... I switched one of my epic DPS gems for Molten Wildbeest's with 52k life/s regen on all my characters, and that helps a lot. Instant dps is down, but overall dps is the same, since I die less. With the 48k life/s area heal of Consecration + Bathed in Light (almost always up on my Shield Bash dude), that's a 100k life/s so I'm fine with that most of the time, assuming I don't get one-shot.

Also, Akarat's Champion + Prophet + 68 stacks of Taeguk (the whole being up all the time on my 2x Condemn dudes) is really superior to Iron Skin + Steel Skin (up all the time on my Shield Bash dude). But the Condemn dudes are amost useless on the Rift Guardian so...

Speaking of Rift Guardians, I met the rat-lord-what's-his-name-again and good luck with this one. Ouch. Also Raiziel now has clones, so he was a cool Rift Guardian before, and now he hurts a lot. He still doesn't have a lot of life however.

Maybe I can push to GR48 with a "good" dungeon and Rift Boss, but this is probably the best I can do with this setup. I can still improve my gear, but not that much.