With the holidays upon us and me finally getting a break from work, I decided to really push my characters. Out of boredom, I decided to push my Sorcerer just because I haven’t played her in a while, but more importantly because there was a patch that up’d the droprate of Uber Uniques from Duriel as a holiday gift. I did a little more than that, but I want to first talk about my experience so far.
I have a weird hybrid Ball Lightning/Arc Lash Sorcerer that functions quite well and is level 100. However, I don’t follow the build guides paragon point by paragon point that I know of and am slowly trying to upgrade my Glyphs to level 15 (for now). I managed to get about 4 of them to level 15 today (not all at once but overall) and figured to give the Grigoire uber boss a try since he’s way under my Sorcerer’s level. This was after attempting to farm a new Tal Rasha’s Iridescent Loop ring since the first one I managed to secure sucked. Because Varshan proved quite easy, it got me in the mood for some boss hunting.
In nailing down the Grigoire fight, I decided to farm him a bit which lent to motivating me in trying out Duriel. The first time around wasn’t great because I still have been using a subpar hybrid build and did this solo. However, from that first fight, I managed to secure two Flickerstep boots, one which wasn’t too bad. From that I got rid of my old Esu’s Heirloom boots immediately and found the new uniques to be a huge game changer in fighting Duriel. While the fight still isn’t smooth, I can mostly manage it with a few sketchy moments. Along the way, I got two Soulbrand chest, X’Fal’s Corroded Signet, three Flickersteps and Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander.
Yes, my first unique was the Spear of Lycander. Now, a Harlequin Crest is what most people are aiming for since it’s by far one of the best, if not THE best, helmets in the game. But with the increased Uber Unique drop rate, I’ll take it just to say I’ve managed to secure at least one Uber Unique on my own.
With the fight becoming more manageable as my gear improves, I’m going to start steadily farming Duriel. Already, I used a whole stack of Living Steel for Grigoire and I’ll probably do more Varshans sometime. Of course, this gives me incentive to do more Helltides and strictly farm the Living Steel boxes. With a little luck, I’m hoping to secure at least the Tibault’s Will and Godslayer Crown so I can fully transition my sorcerer to a pure Ball Lightning build. Also, I hope to secure a Banished Lord’s Talisman necklace for my Barbarian as I push her to level 100. And with a Tibault’s Will, I will be able to trade it around for my alts until they can get ones of their own.
One unfortunate consequence of my push has been spending almost all my gold unconsciously when I was trying to reroll and amulet. That sucked as I went from 800 mil to 4 mil without getting the rolls I needed. But I guess that isn’t such a bad thing since I’m going to need more materials from Whispers regardless.
Now, that I see the main end game event loop, I do know that I’ll be doing more vampire events on my main again. Matter of fact, I’ll probably just rotate characters while I’m running solo just to keep the mats until I get better gear. The Varshan and Grigoire fights are easy enough that I can do them casually on my Sorcerer at least until I bring up my next level 100.
In that situation, I started pushing my Barbarian further. I think she’s level 96 and I probably can get her to level 100 tomorrow. What I might do is continue to farm Duriel until I get Tibault’s Will and a Godslayer Crown. If I manage those, then I might switch back to my Barbarian.
The other character I had been leveling was my Blood Surge Necromancer. I got her to level 90 and find her more enjoyable than my Bone Spear one (although I’m playing that character with a friend very casually). I’m probably going to push her Glyphs and do what I can to improve her gear. Once she hits level 100, I might have her farm a Lidless Wall from Lord Zir. That way she outlevels the content. But the only piece that might make an immediate impact is the Blood Moon Breeches which are found on Duriel. I don’t have high hopes of my Blood Surge Necromancer being a good boss farmer so we’ll have to see how that goes.
My Druid is becoming a kind of guilty pleasure class. I really enjoy playing Pulverize but I’ve come to learn that situation mostly applies to outdoor settings. I think he’s over level 90 (maybe 91?) so the plan is to get him to level 100 after my Barbarian. I want to eventually start farming Varshan for an Ancestral version of a Greatstaff of the Crone as well as the Mad Wolf’s Glee. Since I have a few of the Tempest Roar helmets and a Sacred version of the Mad Wolf’s Glee, I could swap his spec to Tornado. However, what I really want to try is the Stormclaw build. I think that might be the best Druid build out there. While Pulverize is a lot of fun for basic dungeon clears, against bosses it’s literally hit or miss. I’m sure I can do a better version than what I have, which is the traditional one (i.e. no Shako) but I think the Stormclaw build might be more reliable for my playstyle.
Then there’s my Rogue which has become a bit of le sigh. Part of the issue is that there’s not a lot of great gear to farm outside of Uber Uniques. The only real mandatory unique I’ve seen that I lack is Tibault’s Will for her. And the only true difference maker would be both a Shako and Doombringer. At this stage though, I think it’s better if my Barbarian farms those for my Rogue. While the Rogue does great damage, survivability has been the main issue and I don’t know how she’d do against Duriel right now.
Regardless, now that I found some interesting stuff, there is a small temptation to create a new character. Obviously, I won’t do a new one immediately since I need to rebuild my gold and have some new goals in farming Duriel. But lately I’ve been thinking about a Firewall Sorcerer. Because I discovered that X’Fal’s ring and have a good number of great uniques for a new Sorcerer, I honestly wouldn’t mind as long as I don’t use this character as a boss killer type. This one will be just for fun to see what I can get out of the variety of uniques I’ve managed to pick up. So that might be a project in the coming week with my time off.
Either way, tomorrow, I’m going to hit Duriel hard. Hopefully, I can get the above stuff as well as some other good uber uniques for my xmas presents.