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Updates:

#1:

Yeah i probably should have worded the OP differently but whatever.

So these are the several possible actions that could help reduce the lag (Ordered by their likelihood to happen in my opinion):

1. Reduce the number of monsters spawned in greater rifts and increase the progress you gain for every monster killed.

2. Remove area damage from the game or replace it with something that is less intensive to constantly calculate.

3. Somehow make sure that damage numbers do not get bigger than uint.max.

4. Change D3 to run in 64 bit.

I personally think that they could provide a fix with relative ease if they just tune the GR numbers as point #1 suggests. Sure, the game might become a bit less exciting because you won't have crazy density maps in GR anymore, but the pros would certainly outweigh the cons if it would mean that you can play a GR 65+ with 4 people or solo with no lag at all.

After this "fix" is deployed, they could investigate more complex solutions that would enable them to bring back the density - without the lag.

#2:

So more players hitting more mobs with many different types of attacks that have procs like area damage, along with constant damage over time ticking, all of that creates insane lag. It looks like their only chance to fix this shit would be to actually design the game mechanics differently from now on i.e get rid of most DOTs and limit procs to once per x amount of time etc...

I just wish they address this problem as a whole and not just provide small fixes that are usually addressing only certain a build.

Original post:

*TL:DR at the bottom*

The game is currently almost unplayable in high greater rifts like 60+ or so and especially in groups of 4 players. I’m not sure if this is the case on all realms but at least on EU it is.

Some builds suffer very badly from this even in solo like the Helltooth WD for an example. Some people claim that if you have 0% area damage then you won't lag in solo but that's just a workaround and not a fix.

In the past, the argument against investing time into fixing this issue was the fact that only a very small percentage of the player base experienced it because it was only evident on high end greater rifts. But today, the lag starts occurring even on 60+ which is not considered that high anymore and i'm pretty sure that more and more people will get to that level and experience the horrible lag.

To the people that are rushing to post things like "no lag here lol noob", please understand that this issue is not always reproducible as it really depends on several factors like the time you play at, what build(s) you are running, the map layout / type you're at and the mob type you are facing. A possible solution to this problem would be to divide all the numbers in game by 100 and display them in the client as strings with added 0's just to keep the consistency.

TL:DR - The game lags horribly on high gr and a possible fix would be to simply divide all the damage and health points numbers in game by 100 so the server calculations, database queries and server-client traffic won’t be as heavy anymore.

Posted also on:

Official forums (US): http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/18695103869#1

Official forums (EU): http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15162513563#1

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3j368b/fix_the_lag/

How to start a new season (season 4)

In this guide I will discuss every topic you could imagine for getting started and getting started FAST most importantly in a new season. I will be covering how to prepare for the season start, different strategies for leveling from 1-70 plus my own strategy for leveling, level 70 gearing strategies, and paragon farming.

TLDR/TLDW : Prepare by writing down skills for 1-70, Level by Cursed Chest bounties, Halls of Agony Level 3 and Rifts, collect Kanai’s cube mats while gearing to gear faster, gear pool to gear even faster(read the post if you wanna know what that means), 2-3 xp/leech builds most efficient for farming paragon levels.

Video Guide: https://youtu.be/HZuJ6OftFbU

Bounty Map: http://imgur.com/j08EaYG

Will also leave a link to the reddit post for those interested in the questions/discussion brought up there

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3hnove/guide_how_to_start_a_new_season_fastest_170/

Links to 1- 70 skill order cheat sheets/notes for all classes below.

Demon Hunter notes and spread sheet version

Due to many requests for spreadsheets for other classes the following spreadsheets were created, the ones below are untested by me and are there just as a general idea for each class so use at your own discretion.

Barbarian Spreadsheet

Crusader Spreadsheet

Monk Spreadsheet

Wizard Spreadsheet

Witch Doctor Spreadsheet

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Preparing for the Season

1-70 Leveling Strategies

Level 70 Gearing Strategies

Paragon Leveling Strategy

FAQ

Edits

Foreword

I realize many of you may have heard some of these tips before and while I will be combining ideas and information that has been spread out into one place. I will also be providing my own insight on existing ideas and providing to my knowledge "original" tips, tricks, and strategies or at least ones that have been kept somewhat secret. For those interested in reading something (I hope) you have read no where else before skip to Hybrid leveling strategy and gear pooling.

Preparing

Preparing for the season is mostly about cutting out the time you would normally spend in game wondering what to do next, you might think it is not important but that time will start to add up if you don’t prepare. So to prepare for the new season I suggest doing a few things. First of all knowing when the season will start. Season 4 starts Friday August 28th at 5:00 p.m. for North America. Europe and Asia start times can be find here: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/19842943/season-3-ending-soon-8-7-2015

. Next you will want to figure out what class you will be playing and who you will be grouping with whether it be friends, clanmates, or random players. I highly advise forming a 4 man group for fastest leveling (sorry solo players), because of the group xp buff. Knowing what class and who you will be partying with ahead of time will allow you to get started on your journey from 1 to 70 the second the season goes live, instead of fiddling around with that once it has already begun. Additionally you may want to form a party or pick your characters based around group synergy as well. Having a person dedicated to bunching up mobs will be nice, could be a monk, crusader, or witch doctor (however wd pull comes very late into leveling). Probably the most important thing you can do to prepare though is to write out a detailed list of what skills and keys tasks you will be doing and at the levels you need to assign those skills or do those tasks. This will help cut down a lot of time wasted checking your “new” skills every 5 levels and wasting time deciding what skills to change. You can check my DH notes/cheatsheet http://imgur.com/Zgjsv61. I list out every skill and rune I will take, what level I will take them at, and which key they will go on. I also have other key tasks in that list which I will discuss later. Two finals things to do for the season is to know what difficulty you should be playing on and what leveling strategy you want to do, doesn’t matter too much which strategy as long you know what you are going to do once you enter the game. As for the difficulty you should be on a difficulty where you 2-3 shot most white mobs and also note that expert is the least efficient difficulty so its advised to either bump it up one above or drop one below.

1 to 70 leveling strategies

There are 3 fairly well known strategies to level from 1-70 at the beginning of a season. I will explain all of the strategies and my own hybrid strategy that involves using all 3 of the strategies. I will also include the “Key tasks” that are on my list that I mentioned early when I explain my hybrid strategy.

Cursed Chests

Pros: High Density, Completion Reward(chest, handin xp & gold)

Cons: Inconsistent (don’t always spawn)

This method involves doing cursed chest bounties over and over until you reach level 70. The reasoning for this strategy is that the cursed chests you will be looking for provide a lot of easy to kill mobs and are generally harmless and you get the resplendent chest, and bounty xp and gold. The cursed chests you will be looking for include: Cursed Chapel act IV, Cursed Bellows act I, Cursed Cellar act I, Cursed Court act I, Cursed Grove act I, Cursed Hatchery act I, and one that most people don’t mention but I really like it Cursed Peat act V - Paths of the Drowned. All the waypoint locations can be seen in the Bounty Map http://imgur.com/j08EaYG. So you look for the corresponding bounty(ies) in each act (only one should spawn per act as a bounty). If they spawned go complete the bounty if not remake the game and look again. Repeat until level 70.

Halls of Agony

Pros: Consistent, High Density, Low threat

Cons: Boring, No guaranteed bonus rewards

This strategy is to go to Halls of Agony level 3 in act I and clear out the entire floor leave the game and repeat. This is claimed by many to be the fastest although I think it is very debatable I think all 3 strategies are nearly equal each having its pros and cons. Pros to this strategy is its consistency since it is always there and the high density low threat mobs that Halls of Agony level 3 provides. Its packed with mostly slow moving skeletons.The con to this strategy is that it becomes boring as hell when done repeatedly for hours. So once again you just clear the entire floor back out and remake. Some people choose to do Halls of Agony levels 1 and 2 as well but they tend to have lower density.

Rifts

Pros: Increased Legendary droprate, Bloodshards, Hand in Bonus

Cons: Random Density, Random Mobs

This strategy explains itself fairly well you just do rifts until you hit level 70. Since you no longer needs keys to enter rifts you can now just do rifts back to back until 70. Reason behind doing rifts is for the increased legendary drop rate in rifts so you can upgrade your gear faster than you normally would, which can make a big difference. If you have ever gone for a couple levels without finding any major upgrades you know that feeling of the monsters becoming increasingly difficult to kill. Doing rifts should help prevent that from happening. However the drawback to rifts is the random mob types and random density which can slow things down.

Hybrid Strategy

Pros: Somewhat Consistent, Bloodshards, Hand in Bonuses

Cons: A lot of teleporting around

Ok so I am going give a brief overview of the rotation and reasoning behind the strategy then go into detail of the exact plan and key points I’m going to hit while leveling from 1-70.

So the rotation will be go into a Rift and start clearing as normal. Once 1 or 2 people find big upgrade getting a big power spike we will then teleport back to town.From there we will look for the cursed bounties I listed in the cursed bounty strategy and clear any of them if any spawned, once we do that we will also go clear halls of agony level 3. Then we will head back into the rift finish it hand it in and reset the game. I’m sure someone will ask for me to define a “big upgrade/power spike” while it all depends on how you and your group feels so adjust the following example to something that feels right. Here is an example: If your progression is <25% look for 75% dmg increase combined among members (ie 3 people each find weapons increasing damage by 25%), progression <50% 50% dmg inc, <75% 30-40% dmg inc, <100% 20%dmg inc, if you find no dmg increase finish the rift then do the cursed chest bounties and halls of agony level 3, then reset and repeat.

Philosophy behind this strategy is that you gain the benefits of getting increased drop rates and once you hit a power spike you can take advantage of the guaranteed easy xp of Halls of Agony and easy xp and loot of potential cursed chest bounties. Only downsides are the extra time spent teleporting around and again the uncertainty of rift mobs and density. Here are the exact steps I will be doing while trying this strategy.

LVL 1: Steal Follower Weapons & Find Cursed Chest Bounty or Easy Boss Bounty

Why?: The chests rewarded at the end will provide initial blues/yellows to get you started

LVL 1-12: Do cursed chest bounties and halls of agony.

Why?: Guaranteed easy mobs to get through the first few levels

LVL 6-7: Check Fence Merchants in Act I and Act II for rings.

LVL 10-12: Check Fence Merchants in Act I and Act II for amulets

LVL 16-18: Switch to Campaign go through until you can kill Skeleton king.

LVL 18: Kill Skeleton King

LVL 20: Kill Skeleton King

Why?: First time killing SK guarantees a Leoric's Crown being lvl 20 ensures socket. Put ruby in the socket

LVL 20-70: Run Hybrid Strategy rotation.

LVL 45: Craft lvl 60 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it

LVL 60: Craft lvl 70 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it

General Tips for All Strategies

Keep an eye out for the following items

Leoric’s Signet: %xp roll

Puzzle Ring: save for lvl 70 put into cube for greed’s realm

Bovine Bardiche: save for lvl 70 cow level

Nagel Ring: Provide huge burst dmg while lvling

Craft lvl 60 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it

Craft lvl 70 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it

Craft and wear Cains if you find the recipe for %xp

Level 70 Gearing Strategies

Bounties First Strategy

So this first strategy for gearing up is definitely up for debate since I have not tested it. So once you have hit 70 spend your blood shards and go get Kanai’s cube. Use up your puzzle rings and Bovine Bardiches if you found any. The reason you may want to start bounties first depends on what items you found while leveling up 1-70. If you found something worth extracting right away you can start doing bounties otherwise doing rifts and greater rifts first will be the best to gear up. So do bounties until you have the item or items you want extracted early in the cube then switch over to rifts asap because they will give much more reward until you are ready to farm mats again at t6+.(Thank you to mhgd3 for replying and correcting me here).

Rifts First Strategy

Alternatively you could start doing rifts right away and start looking for a weapon and set pieces that way since there is the increased chance of finding legendaries in rifts and you get more blood shards. After obtaining sets and once you can do about t6 or higher you can start farming bounties for the mats to reroll legendaries and extract them.

Gear Pooling

This is a strategy that I almost never hear people talk about which surprises me because it is so strong. Maybe I am out of the loop or maybe people are just too greedy and that is why it has not caught on yet but here it is. Note that this strategy will work with either of the ones previously mentioned. So what you will do is get in a party with 2 or more players of the same class as you that you trust(clanmates or friends, usually best). Determine who is going to carry (I recommend whichever person will be playing the most) then everyone will pool all of their important set pieces to the carry. For example if it were DH’s the three people being carried would give the person who is carrying EVERY piece of Marauders, Natalya’s, and Unhallowed Essence. Pool set pieces into the carry until he has finished one then bump up the difficulty as high as you can, which will most likely be t6 to start and then ease your way up. The carry then carries (hence the name) the other 3 through t6 until they finish their sets. The carry should also be handing set pieces out to the group that he finds since he obviously already has a set. To restate the person carrying should be the one who plays the most incase people leave before they finish their sets the carry will hopefully be online when you regroup. This is a super effective method for gearing up fast if you have trustworthy people to do it with because even if just one person has a set finished it will be enough to crank up the difficulty and the entire party will find gear faster and level up faster.

Paragon Leveling Strategy

So as many of you may know %xp has changed from Season 3 to Season 4. The xp is now shared with the entire party instead of just the one person wearing xp gear. They also changed Greater Rift keys so you can no longer recycle keys. This means the paragon farming meta is going to shift. Now when you are running greater rifts you will want 2-3 people wearing “leech” setup even though now it would be more appropriate to call it xp build or something since they are no longer leeching but helping the entire party gain more xp. So the builds for an xp build will essentially be the same as they were last season give or take a few skills due to the cc changes. I have a feeling running 2 people with full xp gear and 2 dps (maybe with a few pieces of xp gear on them) will be the most efficient way to farm xp but it is still up in the air as things will shift once the season pans out. Also since keys were changed there will also need to be some experimenting with exactly which greater rift level will be the most efficient for most groups. Now that it takes longer to get greater rift keys, since you can’t recycle anymore, you have to find the sweet spot between doing grifts fast but also doing one of high enough level so you get the full value out of your greater rift keystone. I imagine having times between 7-10 minutes will end up being the sweet spot but it needs to be tested further.

That is all I have to offer for now guys, thanks for reading and or watching. I will do my best to provide updates when the meta changes. Let me know your questions, ideas, and comments on how to start next season.

FAQ

Q:Any advantage to doing the previously high exp bounties (ie. clear x lvl 2) or things of that nature? Or do crafting mats / cube mats only drop at lvl70?

A:You can get cube materials before level 70 and you will still get the cache and extra xp/gold for handing in all the bounties for an act however some bounties are not worth the time to complete all of an acts bounties. If you have something that you plan on cubing once hitting 70 you could collect them while leveling but it will most likely slow down your leveling. If the correct bounties spawn in act 1 it can be efficient to clear the act. Believe it was more thoroughly discussed here which bounties to look forhttps://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/3g81kb/updated_23_season_4_fastest_leveling_guide_full/

Q:You cant cube legendaries with a lvl below 70, right?

A:You can use any level item in the cube, unless it specifies otherwise in the recipe.

Q:Can I ask why have you not included the Cursed Chest events at Howling Plateau (The Cursed Outpost) and Archives of Zoltun Kulle (The Cursed Spire - Unknown Depths)?

A:I listed the ones that were proven to be best for seasons 2 and 3. I will definately check these two out though and add them if they seem worth it. If you like them though by all means do them when you level up.

Q: see everyone suggesting to hold on to the bovine bardiche to open the cow level, but what's good on that level at all? I know there's a greater spawn of resplandent chests, but is that it? or does it have any kind of increased xp/legendary drop chance?

A:Like you said there are a lot of resplendent chests. There are also high density easy mobs to clear out that give fairly high xp. So a fresh lvl 70 will get pretty good benefit out of opening a bunch of resplendent chests to start getting your lvl 70 items.

Q:Two questions to those who've played the past few seasons. 1. With the high traffic of a new season start, does entering and exiting games to get the right bounty result in queues? 2. If doing this method at an average pace, roughly how long would it take to get to 70, assuming you don't have optimal xp gear?

A:There have not been queues in the past. Their live servers are much larger than their ptr servers. 6-7 hours at an avg pace can be done in 5 hours at a fast pace or even less with an optimized strategy.

Q: for "LVL 45: Craft lvl 60 Weapon roll reduced lvl req on it". Blacksmith/Mystic level that is necessary?

A: Lvl 10 Blacksmith and lvl 2 or 3 mystic (either way mystic costs almost nothing compared to the gold you need for Blacksmith).

Q: Can you make skill layouts similar to your Demon Hunter notes for other classes?

A: I have a bit of free time before the season starts so I will do my best to create skill orders for all of the classes before the season starts and link them here. Of course I am more experience with DH than any other class so use them to your own discretion and feel free to modify any of the skill orders to your liking and leave feedback on them.

Edits

Edit 1: Revised statements under gearing section about doing bounties vs rifts

Edit 2: Added in edit section and link to reddit post.

Edit 3: Added FAQ

Edit 4: Updated FAQ

Edit 5: Reworded Hybrid strategy for further clarity.

Edit 6-10: Added Cheatsheets for all other classes

Edit 11: Updated for Leorics Crown changes

Top paragon level players are not botters. If you play legit in a group of 4 and farm speed GR you will get 5 times more xp than what the best bots can do. Whole arguement is pointless.

People express their dissatisfaction with the system because it's flawed. It forces people to farm the same content 24/7... If there was a balance between the different types of content in the game in terms of xp gained, then people would be able to farm different types of content without feeling forced to farm just this ONE THING. That's the main problem that many people seem to be missing. Botting has nothing to do with this.

Also, if someone bots and gets really high plvl, he will get banned. In EU for an example, there aren't more than a few thousands of people who are close to or are above plvl 1k... Botters can be spotted quite easily if they go overboard (and sometimes even if they don't).

Oh and you are wrong... paragon > skill is actually true. Please tell me more about how you can skillfully beat a plvl 2k player when you are plvl 800... yeah good luck. And you might not know, but it's not mainly about solo... In a group where the average plvl is 1.5k, this group can beat the shit out of trials or GR levels that a plvl 800 group will never be able to - or only be able to with extreme fishing and luck.

There's nothing wrong with a system that rewards players for playing the game more... The problem is that this specific system completely overshadows any other sort of character progression i nthe game and it has become the only way to actually play while being effecient once you have the gear.

Thank you Bagstone for the charts.

For the people who don't handle Math good, here is TLDR explanation:

At P2000+ you will earn paragon levels faster than when you were P2000.

Theoretically this is a suicide design done by the developers.

I wrote in the D3 forums before that the paragon mechanic needs tuning. With this info now - well, it needs a complete redesign.

My suggestion:

Cap the bonus from stats at P800.

Turn the points after P800 in a currency:

With this currency the dedicated players who reach P1k, P1.5k, P2k etc can buy special cosmetic rewards, more stash space etc...

What happens if blizzard doesn't fix the paragon design:

After some years the items will be less important than the Paragon level.

It's their choice after all. Do they want to gain botters/lose players or not?

Wizard Tier 59 4p (DH PoV)

Hi everyone,

you might know me from over at the DH forums. I'm just here to share my latest video, a 4-player tier 59 run. Avoid of our clan has found a way to boost the Wizard's dps to crazy levels in specific situations, making use of the Hydra spell alongside Flame Blades. It's really strong, potentially stronger than a 2xDH combo, and excels when fighting many targets at once. This clear was done a few nights ago and recently Avoid has agreed to let me stream and share it, so here it is. We have done only a few runs, spawning the RG in time almost every time up to tier 60 (but unfortunately we always got a very bad RG on 60). In this particular clear, we managed to use only one 58 key and upgrade it to 59 and 60 afterwards. Since the season is so short, we will not continue to push further because both Avoid and me are busy pushing for rank 1 solo, but it certainly has the potential to clear 61-62 and take the rank 1 non-sever clear if you put in some time to fish for a good rift.

Previously, whenever a Wizard tried to enter a group for serious greater rift attempts, he would have to resort to playing a different class or would have to be carried by his teammates. With this new build (that I don't know all the details of, but you should be able to tell just from seeing and hearing the video), Wizards can be a good or even better alternative to a second DH in groups.

The Wizard had the potential all along - and this is a prime example of how focusing on only one class will ultimately leave everyone blind to other options. It's not an optimal situation to have only two options for the dps slots, but it's certainly better than one. I hope this encourages everyone to try out new things, especially with all the changes coming up in season 3, and not just sit there crying for buffs or nerfs =)

[Further links]

DH profile

Wiz profile

Crus profile

WD profile

Avoid's livestream

Clx's livestream

My livestream

[EU leaderboards - 4 player - S2]

[Diabloprogress - Wizards - 4 player - S2]

Reddit Link

Official Forums Link

[Summary, FAQ and video compilation at the bottom]

Hi everyone,

so it's been a while and with season 1 now being concluded, I decided to come out with a few things that I have learned about DH in 2.1.2 recently. Because I got a little unlucky with pylons pre-patch, I still had to up my rank a bit before the end of the season, so I decided to try out various things. As always, there was so much misinformation floating around on the forums that I decided it would be best to not trust any of it, and after some initial testing, I went with Cluster Arrow. Following some disappointing attempts with the grenade-heavy runes of the skill I realized that in solo play, the accuracy and utility of rockets is pretty much unbeatable, so I was left with two choices: Physical and Cold. Since the mainstream was focusing on Cold so much, I decided to start with the other one first, and cleared a tier 50 rift after two tries on patchday, and my tier 52 rift quickly thereafter, lifting me up to the second highest DH solo clear after patch 2.1.2 (only to be beaten by my clan mate Kampfkoloss) and a top 10 spot overall. I have also used this build on my hardcore character to get two then-rank 1 spots (tier 44 + 45, beating my own previous rank 1 twice) shortly after the patch, even with suboptimal items, and also took it to even higher tiers with great success.

Since I didn't want to rely on my gut feeling alone, I needed some math to back it up. I wanted to be as exact as possible in order to produce the best possible combination of items, skills and stats; some basic napkin math just didn't catch it, so I crafted a spreadsheet to include everything. I calculated the damage versus various amounts of enemies, factoring in accuracy loss (because you can't hit everything all the time) and area damage, different weapons (generic 2h Xbow, generic 2h Bow, Etrayu, Kridershot, Calamity), various combinations of runes for Kridershot, follower, sentry deployment and multiplier for sentry effectiveness, health globes, CD use, buff uptime, time spent on RG / elites / trash packs, legendary gems, generator:spender ratios, just everything, and weighed the numbers to my best knowledge. Even though I had ceased testing with Hexing Pants pretty quickly back on the ptr, I was encouraged by oogieboogie to continue to do so on live, and I have also plotted this item against the very common Pride's Fall, with interesting results. (FYI: You can keep the bonus of Hexing Pants when constantly stutter stepping).

Here is a screenshot of a part of the spreadsheet to give you an idea how I calculated things in there. Disclaimer: The purpose is not to calculate actual damage values, but to provide a comparison for different builds. (Full-scale link: http://puu.sh/fpAvZ/6b1f3247a1.png)

There is also a second page where I basically calculated the effectiveness of the different runes based at its heart on "rift composition", which looks like this. (Full-scale link: http://puu.sh/fmjnj/16126b7bcc.png)

There's also some more, like a whole page devoted to Kridershot and the results of all the different weapon types. Still, the most interesting part of this whole thing is this, where "Element = 1 is cold, = 0 is physical":

Note that physical pulls ahead for every weapon type. Cold vs. physical is pretty close for Kridershot, because I included the Spitfire Turrets for cold, but not for physical (since you will slow with Elemental Arrow), causing the gap to narrow by ~8%. For every other weapon, physical wins out by approximately 10%, even considering that you will spent a lot less time on the RG and elite packs because the rockets are considerably stronger in those situations. Hexing Pants lose effectiveness if you get a power pylon and gain some more if you get a channeling. If you lose Pride's Fall buff more than once per minute, you should use Hexing Pants in any case. If you get a plagued elite pack during your rift, Hexing Pants is almost guaranteed to be better.

The numbers uses in this spreadsheet are the values I have on my items; I used the same numbers for all bows (because I have neither an Etrayu nor a Kridershot), my Xbow and Bow rolls are within ~2-3% of the maximum, while my Calamity is lacking behind by ~6-7%.

Some further information about itemization:

- Resource cost reduction is king

- Hatred reg vs RCR on quiver is about ~1% worse for Xbow, increasing up to ~3% for Calamity. Hatred reg + RCR is also an option (another 1-4% worse than CA)

- Area Damage is very strong, close to RCR on quiver and weapon (~-2-3% worse), depending on rift layout this might even shift into a net gain

- CDR is not really important (e.g. dropping 12,5% gem is a ~3% loss), the best combination for shoulders is RCR, Sentry, Area Damage

- CA wins out by far vs Sentry on quiver

- Taeguk is the best third legendary gem to use in conjunction with Zei's and Bane of the Trapped, by far. Enforcer is an option in group play (requires ~150% external damage increased by skills at about rank 60 of both gems). BotP is a ~3-10% loss.

- Ancient Saffron Wrap is an option compared to nonancient Witching Hour (2-5% worse)

- Hellfire Amulet is probably unbeatable

- Using a generic 1h Xbow is not worth it, Calamity is a ~8-12% boost

- Always get % damage on your weapon, and add RCR to it (not for Etrayu). IAS is okay for Kridershot as well (~2-4% worse)

- Kridershot 3 Hatred vs 4 Hatred is a ~3-4% dps increase

- Dropping Reaper's Wraps for IAS bracers is an option, possibly a gain with high attack speeds

- Elite dmg is not included in the calculations, but it should be safe to assume that you will be fighting elites about 1/2 to 2/3 of the time, thus every point of elite damage should boost your overall dps by ~0.5%

- Zei's is not included for now, it's safe to assume that your sentries benefit a little less than you do, and Kridershot with Spitfire Turrets will benefit a bit more from Zei's

The exact skills used are these: Build

Use Steady Aim, Single Out or Night Stalker (with Calamity) as your 5th passive, and Frost Arrow + Spitfire Turrets or Nether Tentacles as your generator with Kridershot.

Some closing remarks: Please note that by choosing to run physical, you won't suddenly clear tier 50 easily. It's still difficult, you are still going to get oneshot, you will still have to dodge everything. It's a ~10% increase over cold, plain and simple, if you have a well-rolled Etrayu, it's even less. For lower tiers, you can still stack toughness and Unity if you like, the gearing priorities don't change at all. I hope this information helps and encourages you to try out the physical element of the Demon Hunter and make your character stronger as a whole. The spreadsheet will be improved upon in the future, and I have many ideas that I need to include and test ingame, but this will take some weeks or months. I will share what I know when I find out new things.

I will return to streaming very soon, I just had a busy time at university during the last weeks/months, but this will be over in a few days. Feel free to check out my Twitch channel if you want to watch me play and interact with me, or look for me on Youtube. If you are interested in more of my recent work, you should check out this thread and the links there for some information on the lightning DH in 2.1.2. (As of now, I'm not sure if lightning will take the top spots in the end, since you essentially need to stack layer upon layer of good RNG (in terms of drops and rift) in order to complete a tier ~55+ rift, which makes it a lot easier for versatile builds like this to achieve.)

Cheers,

wudijo

Video compilation

Tier 52 sc [Era 1]

Tier 48 hc [S1]

Tier 52 sc [Era 2]

Tier 45 hc [S2]

Kridershot + Taeguk demo

Tier 51 sc [S2]

Tier 52 sc [S2]

Tier 49 hc [S2]

Summary

Physical is about 10% stronger for solo GRs that you complete in close to 15 minutes. For this purpose, almost all the weapon choices are very close to each other (given equal rolls), and cold Kridershot or cold Etrayu can compete. Quick runs favor cold, and groups favor fire. Stack RCR, learn to use Taeguk and run with zero toughness for maximum efficiency.

FAQ

Keep in mind that I use some more clear-cut answers here than usual to keep it short. As always, usually the answer is "it depends", and you should read it up if you want to know the details. You'll find it somewhere.

Is physical really better at all times?

- No, it isn't. These calculations are done with very concrete assumptions in mind, and there will be rifts where cold will in fact be close to or even better than physical, but these are very rare. In turn you will also find rifts where physical is even stronger. I've tried to strike a balance here. Especially for speed runs and T6 you might want to consider cold because you'll oneshot many enemies anyway. Fire is not an option for solo.

Which weapon should I use?

- Usually I just recommend to use your best-rolled weapon. You have to keep in mind that these calculations are done assuming exactly 900 seconds runtime. Xbows gain an advantage for quick runs because you have to spend less time shooting and regenerating, same for group runs where you usually have people spawning globes for you. In extreme cases (e.g. zerodog WD), a fast weapon will be better.

Which build should I use for groups?

- Usually it's fire cluster. Cluster Bombs vs. Loaded for Bear is still open to discussion, both is used by top performing groups. Each has its advantages, just try them out. Physical can be really good in speed runs where it's your job to kill elites and RGs, e.g. when you have Monks or Barbs clearing the trash.

What to choose if I don't want to use Taeguk?

- Difficult to answer, because all the options are really bad. Usually I recommend BotP, but you really should get used to Taeguk if you want to go higher. Enforcer can be an option in groups if you die a lot, Pain Enhancer is crap. If you don't like any of these options, get a Phys, Dex, CC, CHD amulet.

So what's better, Hexing Pants or Pride's Fall?

- I recommend Hexing Pants for Xbows and Kridershot, Pride's Fall for anything else. If you don't like Hexing Pants, Pride's Fall is still fine. Other options are not even close dps-wise. For groups, always use Pride's Fall.

So how about the 5th passive?

- In short, my preference: Single Out > Night Stalker > Steady Aim. For speed runs, you can consider Blood Vengeance. For more info, see above. I strongly recommend to craft a Hellfire.

How should I reroll my items?

-Check the part about itemization above, and don't use any toughness. If you don't want to go full glass cannon, you can use a Unity instead of SoJ. For more toughness, replace these stats in the following order of priority: 1) Shoulders: Sentry -> % Life 2) Chest: Sentry -> % Life 3) Shoulders: Area Damage -> Vit 4) Helm: Cluster -> Vit 5) Quiver: Resource -> Vit

Updates

Edit 4 Feb 2015: Added links to Reddit and official forums

Edit 25 Feb 2015: Added video compilation and FAQ

Edit 28 Feb 2015: Added a quick summary

Quin talks about the 2.2 changes to sets and possible builds.

2.2 Monk Sets

1. "Monks will be Gods."

---Boost your attack speed through 2 piece Raiment, Flying Dragon, Miranae and Alacrity passive.

---Remove all CHC on your character. This is to game Broken Promise which will give you 100% CHC if you don't crit for 5 hits. With all that crazy attack speed you will have 98% uptime of that 100% buff

---Get perma Serenity through reworked Zodiac ring that now gives RCD to one of your skills every time you use a resource.

---Quin thinks this can easily take you to GR50s and was able to get his sheet dps to 10-11 million through some gear optimization.

2. "Monk Sentries"

---6 piece Innas now causes your Mystic Allys to cast spenders like EP, LTK, WoL when you cast them.

---2 Piece Innas doubles the passive effect of your Mystic Ally and base passive effect of your Mantras.

---In the video he shows how you can range down mobs by casting EP through your Mystic Allys, effectively turning Monks into M6 Demon Hunters.

---However the effect of the rune used for the mantras is not being doubled. Also the fact that you are forced into using the Inna wep instead of a Furnace if you want the full Inna-Wuko synergy kinda holds this build back.

3. "Raekor Monk"

---4 piece Raiment increases wep dmg of Dashing Strike to 5000%

---6 piece Raiment makes Dashing Strike cost 50 spirit and refund a charge when used.

---Use reworked Zodiac to have perma Epiphany : Insight. Through this you can spam Dashing Strike to your hearts content.

---Using un-optimized gear and a 4k Furnace he was getting 700million crits. He thinks 1 billion hits can be achieved with optimized gear.

Edit:- Sorry for just posting the vid Baggy

Hi everyone, even though this thread has been inactive for a while, I don't really want to create a new one just for this purpose.

Many people have been asking me to create a video guide for the Helltrapper lightning build as well as the Kridershot lightning build, so recently I have done so. The guide includes the items, paragon, skills and a tier 45 solo run (no rift-fishing). Right now I can only upload the Helltrapper guide because of some weird copyrights claims by twitch, even though I consciously shut down all music save for ingame sounds; I have appealed their claim and hope this issue can be resolved soon. In the meantime:

Twitch Link: http://www.twitch.tv/wudijo/c/5343481

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehvaQpc-oIA

Quote from halvlitern

But it seems like some stats are harder to roll than others?
It's like if you have 8 possible stats to get on your reroll. Some of them will show up again and again. While others never turn up.
It does not seem like there is an equal chance to roll all stats.

That's because there isn't an equal chance.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/288xch/datamined_rarity_of_all_affixes_calculating_your/