At the moment, I’ve been focused on my demon hunter, who is now Paragon level 18. I’m mostly using a glass cannon type of gearing and build. I’ve managed to balance my play style with the gear and talents so that I can do okay both solo and when I group up with my friend. The idea is that I can take a few shots but take down mobs quickly. At the same time, when I play with my friend the only abilities I change out are Shadow Power: Gloom with Vault: Cinder Trails (meaning, I use Vault to keep up since my friend plays a whirlwind barbarian).
Usually, the way it goes is he can deal with enough damage to maintain aggro, but I’ll nuke the hell out of mobs along the way. The only times I really have problems at the moment are with reflect damage mobs. I think because my gear is heavy on the damage side, I sacrifice preventative measures like gaining life on hit. Not to mention my dps is extremely high so I end up punishing myself. Right now, I’m keeping a pants and amulet in my bags and switch between the two depending on whether I’m soloing or if I’m playing with a tank. My two items afford me more health and give me life on hit, thus allowing me to survive reflect damage mobs.
However, I think that at higher monster powers, things will get more interesting since I can belt out enough damage to help prevent enrage timers. It’s hard to say at this stage since I only play higher monster powers with others. Mostly, I’m concentrating on gaining Paragon levels, for which I don’t use monster power at all.
One thing that I am seeing as I slowly climb up the Paragon level ladder is that the quality of rares is slowly increasing along with the quantity of rares. With a full five stacks of Nephlam Valor, I can easily obtain 3-4 rares per encounter. In fact, I often see normal mobs drop rares. But before most of the rares were absolute garbage. Now, I’m seeing one out of say 30 actually be worth something on the auction house.
I feel that the best thing to do is just keep pushing on the Paragon levels by doing monster power zero until I start to a wall. I’m looking forward to see how the upper 20’s play out in terms of rares. I occasionally find a legendary every 2-3 runs now. Most are garbage but they should improve as I gain more Paragon levels.
Some people might say that it might be better just to keep a spare set of Magic Find gear in my bags and swap them once I’m ready to kill a boss. The biggest issue I’ve found is that this technique can be problematic and tedious. There’s no easy way to swap out on the spot your gear. I prefer to depend on things like Nephlam Valor stacks and my natural Magic Find through Paragon levels instead. The biggest issue to me is simply underestimating how much life a mob can have. Since things tend to get chaotic in fights, swapping gear at the last minute can cost your life. So for me, it just isn’t worth it.
Something I do that isn’t as efficient as other people pushing for their Paragon levels is that I pick up as many blue and yellow items along the way. My idea is that I’m focused on not just leveling but making good money. It might take longer but I’ve been able to make decent gold all the time. Gradually, I’ve been building up a war chest of gold that I can disperse among my other guys as they level up.
Still, my primary focus is on my demon hunter. The idea is to get one really solid character that can act as the primary farmer, rather than split my attention between too many other guys. If I manage to push him high enough, then gold and gear for everyone else will never really be an issue.
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