Fire Wall

Posted by Brian On April 5, 2014 ADD COMMENTS

Here is a tanking Crusader build: Fire Wall

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/crusader#aZSdfi!YUhV!acZcYa

This build raises all defenses and punishes those who want to pass through them. With this spec, the Block is like its Hot (block 100,000 damage in 10 seconds) achievement popped on the 1st group of mobs (at level 64)  within about 3-5 sec (had a level 60 shield so it only stopped a maximum of about 4,000 per hit). The best part, is right when that achievement popped, all of the enemies were dead, due to Punish-Roar. This causes all blocks to deal 45% weapon damage as fire to all enemies within 15 yards.

This is one of the main AoE damage methods of this build, but it has several more tricks up its sleeve. Whether enemies are up close and personal or are a fair distance away, and group of enemies fall quickly to Blessed Shield-Combust, due to its 33% chance to cause a fiery explosion  on its original target and its 3 ricochet victims. Plus, if you have recently hit something (doesn’t have to be an enemy) your Punish effect increases your block chance, which further increases the damage of your Blessed Shield. Then, if you want to close the gap between you and that group, or just have a single target, Shield Bash will be your next choice skill (which also gains more damage from having an increased block chance) since it deals 550% weapon damage.

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Spirit Bomb

Posted by Brian On March 29, 2014 ADD COMMENTS

This is my Monk build Spirit Bomb.

This spec is actually possible as of level 48 but is detailed as a lvl 70 due to Mythic Rhythm (as the 4th passive skill).

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/monk#UeYXjQ!dbci!YZbYbZ

I recommended a 2 handed weapon, and if you have any Paragon points, I highly suggest reducing casting costs and increasing your maximum Spirit (core and utility sections).

This spec constantly replenishes your massive quantity of available spirit and then releases it en masse with several explosions of light in all directions for a lot of damage. The main source of damage is Wave of Light, which costs 75 spirit. Since Monks normally have a total of 150 spirit, this would mean that only 2 castings are possible. However, this is where everything really starts to get fun for this build!

We will start with the Passives on this spec, since they are highly important. Exalted Soul automatically increases your spirit maximum by 100, giving you a total base of 250 spirit along with 2 spirit every second. Next, The Guardian’s Path will give you a bonus 35% to all spirit gains and Chant of Resonance gives additional spirit every second and reduces the cost of your Mantra ability by 50% (in this case the mantra grants you a protective shield for survival purposes).

The next part of the fun is the spirit generation. Your Way of the Hundred Fists generates 12 spirit for every hit plus an additional 40% chance to generate an additional 6 spirit (both of those numbers are base, since I’m not adding the bonus from The Guardian’s Path). Then, if you really need more spirit, you can use your Breath of Heaven, which not only heals you, but for 5 seconds after using it also gives your Way of the Hundred Fists a boost to 16 spirit for every hit. Plus, if you are surrounded by enemies and are low on spirit, your Blinding Flash takes enemies off of you for 3 seconds and gives you 7 spirit for every enemy that was blinded. This in conjunction with Mystic Ally’s activated ability which grants 100 spirit to the monk.

Using all of these skills, I have been able to perform a total of 8 consecutive Waves of Light which is a total of 600 spirit used up out of my character’s maximum pool of 258. That’s a 232.5% of my maximum spirit pool all used within about a 6-10 second period!

If you happen to be traveling alone, I recommend using the Templar as your follower, so you can get his level 20 ability Inspire, which grants an additional 10% spirit generation.

All in all this spec will keep your spirits high and your enemies in pain!

For Whom the Pickup Radius tolls

Posted by Brian On March 14, 2014 ADD COMMENTS

Welcome to my first Diablo 3 build. Just like WoW, these builds are not for pinching out every last bit of DPS possible from your class, but are rather a way of making sure that you have a lot of synergism between skills and most of all, for fun!

So, without further ado, here is my Witch Doctor build, For Whom the Pickup-Radius tolls.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#gZUdYl!ZYTi!abbcZY

While playing I noticed that most players I saw seemed to always use either attack speed or critical chance/damage to throw out as much damage as possible. I however wanted my Witch Doctor to be completely different. This build is all about increasing the Doctor’s Pickup-Radius in order to make your enemies’ lives hell… err, unformed land… the way that this is done is mainly through Grave Injustice (and when the expansion RoS comes out, Piranhas and Physical Attunement). However, since it’s not out, it should look more like this (without Physical Attunement of course):

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/witch-doctor#gZUdYi!ZYTi!abbcZb

This build’s main damage will actually come from your Grasp of the Dead, Soul Harvest, and most definitely the Angry Chicken. While Spirit Walk with Umbral Shock can throw out some damage, you still also want to keep it for the just in case mob that can surround you.

My typical approach to enemies is to walk right into them, Soul Harvest, Angry Chicken, Explode (the Angry Chicken ability), then Spirit Walk (to get away). That pretty much kills all enemies in the area, which due to Grave Injustice, fully restores my health, mana, and resets all cool downs back to zero!

As for survivability, Circle of Life is a huge help, since whenever you kill an enemy (if they are within your pickup range boost) you have a 30% chance of getting a new zombie dog, or having 1 of your old zombie dogs that isn’t at full health replaced with a healthy one, which has a 15% chance of giving you a health globe. And, thanks to Gruesome Feast, that health globe gives you additional damage. This spec is a very nasty circle for your enemies, but thats just the way I like it! The unformed land will thank you later.

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