One other build I played on the PTR that I found to be exceptionally good and tanky with low gearing is Condemn Sader. There is many different viable runes that can be used for for the various skills, but in particular I found using the Law of Justice, Decaying Strength makes it very tanky. Also I recommend using Esoteric Alteration too in addition to the standard Trapped and Stricken. I geared using the Traveler's Pledge, Compass Rose, CoE, with the Illusionary Boots and Unity in the Cube. Make sure to have at least 55.6% CDR in order to ensure perma Akrarat's Champion. Just to give you an idea of effectiveness of Condemn, on PTR with less than 1 mil profile DPS, I cleared a GR 100 in 13:29 on the first try in HC. Though there are many good forgiving choices for Season 12, Shadow Impale and Condemn Sader are my favorites.
I recommend the following changes to the build listed above:
For Iron Skin, use Steel Skin instead of Flash
For Slash, Guard is a fine choice, but Zeal is also nice as an offensive alternative.
For Provoke, Too Scared to run is a good option, so is Cleanse for more recovery.
Get CDR on shoulders, gloves, both rings, belt, shield and weapon, with a diamond in helm and CDR in paragon, it's possible to get over 55.6% CDR for permanent Akarat's champion w/o needing to use the Gogok of Swiftness. Use Esoteric Alteration in its place for substantially more toughness which allows for Endless Walk to be more effective at buffing damage since you will not have to move around as much.
The optimal stats on the Shield would be Strength, Crit Chance, CDR and Condemn dmg.
The optimal rolls on weapon would be % Dmg, Strength and CDR
The optimal rolls on bracers would be Holy Dmg, Strength, Crit Chance and LoH.
I would make sure to use Diamonds in pants and chest, as they provide a much larger toughness increase than Rubies would increase DPS.
Note that without Vitality on gloves, weapon, shield and bracers it will most likely be necessary to put some paragon points into Vitality to compensate.
I hope this helps as I never got around to making a guide myself.
In my opinion the easiest most forgiving build to play at the 90ish range would be a Shadow Impale DH. You have over a Billion toughness and you do a crazy amount of damage. I was able to do a GR 96 with no augments and only a couple ancient items. This builds ease of gearing also comes from the fact that you can upgrade daggers as a DH and you have a 50% chance to get a Karleis Point so getting a solid ancient weapon should not be to hard to farm. This build is so versatile you could do Split Bounties, T13, Gr Speeds, Gr Pushes up to 110 with great gear, anything. It transitions to group play so effortlessly and can function as a Rift Guardian Killer up to very high GRs for group.
This is a great guide for the build with tons of info.
Enjoy
Thanks for the shout out on the Impale guide. Obviously I share your high opinion of Shadow Impale. One other build I played on the PTR that I found to be exceptionally good and tanky with low gearing is Condemn Sader. There is many different viable runes that can be used for for the various skills, but in particular I found using the Law of Justice, Decaying Strength makes it very tanky. Also I recommend using Esoteric Alteration too in addition to the standard Trapped and Stricken. I geared using the Traveler's Pledge, Compass Rose, CoE, with the Illusionary Boots and Unity in the Cube. Make sure to have at least 55.6% CDR in order to ensure perma Akrarat's Champion. Just to give you an idea of effectiveness of Condemn, on PTR with less than 1 mil profile DPS, I cleared a GR 100 in 13:29 on the first try in HC. Though there are many good forgiving choices for Season 12, Shadow Impale and Condemn Sader are my favorites.
Here is a list of all the Classes / Builds (SC) in Season 12 on PTR 2.6.1 that currently have cleared 100+
Barb: IK Hota - 103
Sader: Akkhan Condemn - 100
DH: UE Multishot - 102
Shadow Impale - 100
Monk: Sunwuko WoL - 101
Necro: Pestilence Corpse Lance - 105
WD: Arachyr Fire Bats - 103
Wizard: Firebird Channeling Meteors - 104
Tal Rasha Channeling Meteors - 104
Of course these builds are not the only ones that can clear 100+, but the ones that have cleared it so far. Patch 2.6.1 will make mutiple builds across every class viable and truly great to play. It looks like Season 12 will have the best build diversity ever. We'll all be kids in a very well stocked Candy Store ;-)
Currently in Season 12 on PTR 2.6.1, in SC, there are 100+ clears for every class. Literally you can't go wrong, the best thing to do is think about which class you enjoy playing the most and play it. All classes are shaping up to have very good competitive builds for season 12. Blizzard and Don Vu are doing a terrific job providing the kind of build diversity that we all have been asking for, for a long long time.
As a side note, here is a video of my S12 HC Impale DH clear from last night: GR 100 HC
First of all the Necromancer's Blood is Power passive does not seem to proc the 20% cdr when cumulatively losing 100% health as it states it should. Second it seems to be a poorly designed cdr passive even if it worked as advertised. As it stands it's just an inferior version of the evocation passive for wizards. If there is going to be a gimmick involved, then the resulting cdr granted should be higher than one granted w/o a gimmick.
On another Note I really think Blizzard is missing an opportunity to make this passive something interesting and unique in the game. My suggestion would be to redesign the passive so that when you cumulatively lose (some amount of) health it reduces all cd's by one sec. This way it will be possible to continuously benefit from the passive in a way similar to the grave injustice passive for Witch Doctors, but not in a way that is game breaking.
I agree that primal ancients are not visual at first, but when hover over a primal it does a give a cool red border with teeth braided in, and therefore visually stands out in a cool way. But the most important aspect about primal ancients is that they are rare and potentially perfect, the best you can get, end game gears. Because of this, they will be coveted and worthy to be sought after. I've been around this game from the beginning and see how people grind out even the smallest improvement or advantage. Primal Ancients will be no different, players will want them and grind till they find them.
Don't discount the QoL changes that will be brought in patch 2.5.0. They are a real and noticeable improvement to the game. Also, the change to Primals was much needed, as it will feel very good to get one, while not making you feel really bad if you don't. The maps that spawn in GR's are noticeably better than on live, giving a much improved experience. Bad maps still exist, but don't dominate as they do now. Then there are several buffs to various sets to help improve the diversity of builds that are viable to play. I am especially excited for Shadow Impale DH with the newly buffed Holy Point Shot quiver. Not only will DH's get a great newly viable build to play in general, but it will finally open up the group meta to DH, a class that has been left out in the cold for a very long time. All in all, patch 2.5.0 will bring a lot of welcome changes to the game that I think most will really appreciate.
The 64 bit client is not working properly. It did not work right on PTR either. When playing solo it seems to do fine, but as you add players to the party, the fps lag gets progressively worse. From what I notices using gpu-z, the gpu utilization is very inconsistant and drops to low levels frequently. So the game does not seem to be loading the gpu fully when using the 64 bit client while playing in a party. Changing back to the 32 bit client seems to solve the problem. Hopefully Blizzard will resolve the issue as the graphics do look noticeably better in 64 bit, just not good enough to deal with the fps lag.
1
I recommend the following changes to the build listed above:
For Iron Skin, use Steel Skin instead of Flash
For Slash, Guard is a fine choice, but Zeal is also nice as an offensive alternative.
For Provoke, Too Scared to run is a good option, so is Cleanse for more recovery.
Get CDR on shoulders, gloves, both rings, belt, shield and weapon, with a diamond in helm and CDR in paragon, it's possible to get over 55.6% CDR for permanent Akarat's champion w/o needing to use the Gogok of Swiftness. Use Esoteric Alteration in its place for substantially more toughness which allows for Endless Walk to be more effective at buffing damage since you will not have to move around as much.
The optimal stats on the Shield would be Strength, Crit Chance, CDR and Condemn dmg.
The optimal rolls on weapon would be % Dmg, Strength and CDR
The optimal rolls on bracers would be Holy Dmg, Strength, Crit Chance and LoH.
I would make sure to use Diamonds in pants and chest, as they provide a much larger toughness increase than Rubies would increase DPS.
Note that without Vitality on gloves, weapon, shield and bracers it will most likely be necessary to put some paragon points into Vitality to compensate.
I hope this helps as I never got around to making a guide myself.
1
2
Here is a list of all the Classes / Builds (SC) in Season 12 on PTR 2.6.1 that currently have cleared 100+
Barb: IK Hota - 103
Sader: Akkhan Condemn - 100
DH: UE Multishot - 102
Shadow Impale - 100
Monk: Sunwuko WoL - 101
Necro: Pestilence Corpse Lance - 105
WD: Arachyr Fire Bats - 103
Wizard: Firebird Channeling Meteors - 104
Tal Rasha Channeling Meteors - 104
Of course these builds are not the only ones that can clear 100+, but the ones that have cleared it so far. Patch 2.6.1 will make mutiple builds across every class viable and truly great to play. It looks like Season 12 will have the best build diversity ever. We'll all be kids in a very well stocked Candy Store ;-)
1
Currently in Season 12 on PTR 2.6.1, in SC, there are 100+ clears for every class. Literally you can't go wrong, the best thing to do is think about which class you enjoy playing the most and play it. All classes are shaping up to have very good competitive builds for season 12. Blizzard and Don Vu are doing a terrific job providing the kind of build diversity that we all have been asking for, for a long long time.
As a side note, here is a video of my S12 HC Impale DH clear from last night: GR 100 HC
1
First of all the Necromancer's Blood is Power passive does not seem to proc the 20% cdr when cumulatively losing 100% health as it states it should. Second it seems to be a poorly designed cdr passive even if it worked as advertised. As it stands it's just an inferior version of the evocation passive for wizards. If there is going to be a gimmick involved, then the resulting cdr granted should be higher than one granted w/o a gimmick.
On another Note I really think Blizzard is missing an opportunity to make this passive something interesting and unique in the game. My suggestion would be to redesign the passive so that when you cumulatively lose (some amount of) health it reduces all cd's by one sec. This way it will be possible to continuously benefit from the passive in a way similar to the grave injustice passive for Witch Doctors, but not in a way that is game breaking.
1
@truerasp,
I agree that primal ancients are not visual at first, but when hover over a primal it does a give a cool red border with teeth braided in, and therefore visually stands out in a cool way. But the most important aspect about primal ancients is that they are rare and potentially perfect, the best you can get, end game gears. Because of this, they will be coveted and worthy to be sought after. I've been around this game from the beginning and see how people grind out even the smallest improvement or advantage. Primal Ancients will be no different, players will want them and grind till they find them.
1
Don't discount the QoL changes that will be brought in patch 2.5.0. They are a real and noticeable improvement to the game. Also, the change to Primals was much needed, as it will feel very good to get one, while not making you feel really bad if you don't. The maps that spawn in GR's are noticeably better than on live, giving a much improved experience. Bad maps still exist, but don't dominate as they do now. Then there are several buffs to various sets to help improve the diversity of builds that are viable to play. I am especially excited for Shadow Impale DH with the newly buffed Holy Point Shot quiver. Not only will DH's get a great newly viable build to play in general, but it will finally open up the group meta to DH, a class that has been left out in the cold for a very long time. All in all, patch 2.5.0 will bring a lot of welcome changes to the game that I think most will really appreciate.
1
The 64 bit client is not working properly. It did not work right on PTR either. When playing solo it seems to do fine, but as you add players to the party, the fps lag gets progressively worse. From what I notices using gpu-z, the gpu utilization is very inconsistant and drops to low levels frequently. So the game does not seem to be loading the gpu fully when using the 64 bit client while playing in a party. Changing back to the 32 bit client seems to solve the problem. Hopefully Blizzard will resolve the issue as the graphics do look noticeably better in 64 bit, just not good enough to deal with the fps lag.