Lifesteal in inferno

[PapaSmurf]

This is so others don't make the same mistake that I did. Don't bother with lifesteal. It's effectiveness is reduced by 80% in inferno. I.e. if you have 10% lifesteal on items you get 2% in inferno.

[Roland]

This is so others don't make the same mistake that I did. Don't bother with lifesteal. It's effectiveness is reduced by 80% in inferno. I.e. if you have 10% lifesteal on items you get 2% in inferno.

It's Blizzard's thought that as players' damage climbs lifesteal will eventually outweigh life on hit, especially given the proc coefficient of life on hit. See here for more info. For myself, 3% life steal heals better than my current life on hit, and that can only improve with a better bow. Granted, getting 1000 LoH would be better short term, but doubling my damage (I'm just clawing back towards 21k after the nerf, which seems very low for a DH) would easily overtake that. Plus, abilities that hit multiple targets should leech back significantly more life than Life on Hit - again, due to the proc rate.

[Trevan]

Well let's be honest, can we really be surprised after what happened in diablo 2? I don't really blame them.

[DeeBye]

Well let's be honest, can we really be surprised after what happened in diablo 2? I don't really blame them.

But Diablo 2 was fun dammit.

[MongoJerry]

Well let's be honest, can we really be surprised after what happened in diablo 2? I don't really blame them.

But Diablo 2 was fun dammit.

Haha. I'm sure we'll all be invincible soon enough.

[Concillian]

For completeness:

Normal = 100%
NM = 80%
Hell = 50%
Inferno = 20%

[RTM]

Life regen follows the same pattern, I believe. At least, I am getting 50% of my listed value in Hell.

[Chesspiece_face]

Life regen follows the same pattern, I believe. At least, I am getting 50% of my listed value in Hell.

Life regen ticks come every half second. Thus, double what you see popping up on your character and it should match your regen stat.

[Tal]

For completeness:

Normal = 100%
NM = 80%
Hell = 50%
Inferno = 20%

Does this count towards mechanics like Barbarian's revenge with the life steal rune?

[RTM]

Life regen follows the same pattern, I believe. At least, I am getting 50% of my listed value in Hell.

Life regen ticks come every half second. Thus, double what you see popping up on your character and it should match your regen stat.

I did not know that (obviously), thanks! That makes me feel better about my attempt to make WD summons viable in hell+.

[Concillian]

For completeness:

Normal = 100%
NM = 80%
Hell = 50%
Inferno = 20%

Does this count towards mechanics like Barbarian's revenge with the life steal rune?

I haven't played a barbarian yet, but I would be VERY surprised if it didn't. It does apply to 'healing blades' rune for spectral blades for a wizard.

[Frag]

For completeness:

Normal = 100%
NM = 80%
Hell = 50%
Inferno = 20%

Does this count towards mechanics like Barbarian's revenge with the life steal rune?

I haven't played a barbarian yet, but I would be VERY surprised if it didn't. It does apply to 'healing blades' rune for spectral blades for a wizard.

Thank you for posting that before I went and did something silly like trying to make a critical tank wizard spec.

[Concillian]

Just hit 51 on my (SC) critical tank wizard spec, and it works fine. You don't need healing blades. Some Life on Hit and the higher coefficient on deep cuts helps, but galvanizing ward is really all the healing you need in most cases. Meteor puddle damage will crit. Once that gets rolling on a big pack, iamond skin and frost nova are off cooldown in ~3 seconds. When that happens, it takes a LOT of damage to kill you. Deep cuts seems the better rune to use for higher coefficient on LoH. I haven't looked into whether the DOTs from the deep cuts crit or not. Cycling between frost nova and diamond skin makes you pretty durable. Horde + ANYTHING, I can just stand there and let them beat on me because I'm getting enough crits to have 100% uptime on diamond skin and frost nova. I've stood in a 3 stack of desecration before just because they surrounded me, for example. Meteor puddle is the key to the whole spec. You need stuff standing in that puddle. Spectral blades is just a bonus and a quick skill that hits three times.

Ranged that move around a lot are the bane of the spec. Meteor delay is difficult to deal with, plus they don't stay in the puddle.

Corrupted angel boss pack at the end of NM was fun. Almost died on nightmare + illusionist. I had to use hydra or blizzard just to get reliable damage on the illusions to kill them between all the charge + knockback + fear into their meteors. a pack of 5 or 6 is bad enough, but illusionists too, they'd spawn and charge before the meteor could even land. Then, of course, it would land and hit nothing.

It's fun to play, but I have died a couple times. HC without another player could be rough. You also pretty much have to use another spec up until you get critical mass (50) unless you are doing MAJOR twinkage. I suppose it's requires some twinkage no matter what, I mean you need to get your crit up at least 5-10% more than baseline in Hell (plus pinpoint barrier on energy armor). WITH another player you can drop spectral blades just spam meteor if you have an +AP on crit source to swap for your shield when you solo.

[vor_lord]

Is this something like what you're using?

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wi...bfg!aYacZc

One of the things I have been curious about -- some spells can be cast while channeling another. For example, I can recast Energy Armor while channeling Disintegrate. Or I can cast Marked for Death while using Rapid Fire.

However, I can't cast Frost Nova while channeling Disintegrate. I was trying to come up with a spell that would allow a tank build like the above to pick off dangerous things at range.

Is there a consistent system to what can be cast while channeling? I haven't tried any testing, but if no one knows I might give it a try with the classes I have high enough levels to try.

[Concillian]

I think this is what I'm using:

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wi...afg!aZYabZ

more meteors rune > harder hitting meteors, IMO.

On that theme, the next thing to try is prism rune on diamond skin, that should yield even more meteors. You want those puddles everywhere doing their crit thing. The idea is to also get a piece of gear that has "critical hits restore x Arcane Power" at which point you don't even really need Spectral Blades or any signature spell, and can just spam meteors.

The hydra can be anything, but I like hydra or blizzard for helping with the ranged stuff that moves around a lot. The runes are a little flexible too. Frost nova rune can be just about anything. I'm not getting NV yet, as I'm not 60 and mostly play the hardcore monk right now, so I use the 5x enemies = 15% crit for most stuff, then lower the cooldown for bosses.

[Athenau]

Does the Meteor DOT stack?

[Concillian]

Puddles stack, yes. That's the power of meteor in a crit build.

[Athenau]

Excellent. Meteor was my favorite sorceress skill in D2 so I want to try out a wizard built around meteor in D3. The stacking DoT makes the skill much more attractive.