How's all my friends Bronze ANB progress?

[mousse]

I always cheap out in Bronze; no legendary crate. The new drop rate really hurts, since I can't scrap together enough resources to craft anything worthwhile. The Books of Learning drops is pretty bad too. I miss always getting a Greater BoL at TL80. I burned through all my MoT to get a single Rare BoM with Frost Beam. And it's a level 71. I miss the 3 legendary gear drops. At least then I could get enough essences combine into greater essences.

I'm gonna trying completing Story Mode if for no other reason than for the resource drops. Bronze gives us plenty of time.

Gonna bite the bullet and get a legendary crate in Silver. I always get a crate in Gold.

[Splendor]

I think if you're not buying crafting crates story mode is the way to go, you are basically guaranteed MoTs by act 3 by salvaging the legendary diedre's you get for the trial of the mire quest. I was lucky enough to get my first MoT from Trial 2 broken dragon and my second from a chest in canyon of whispers, but if you just rush story mode to act 4 you should get enough to at least craft gmc weapons and from there progress speeds up in trials.

[RAFERS102]

Cheap Bronze for me. Trying to do 600 gem spend and TL130 in under 5 hours. Currently at 1300CL at 3:45 into the game. Will start push in 45 min of game play and try and do TL130 in the 30 minutes to take me down to 7 hours left. About to run out of 200% exp boost, so may up my spend to 800 gems and buy one booster.

[Splendor]

I've only purchased 1 50 gem crate so I could craft a fire lily at lvl 4 which helps speed things up. Other than that I've only spent gems on ability and companion slots, inventory increases, adding sockets, and reforging. I've had to run some 5 star story mode with my main characters to raise gems, but I'm now closing in on 2000 cls, have completed trial 120 in 3:24, crafted great push jewelry that's better than what you can make with the ephemerals, and the only things I have left to do before my push are finish upgrades, add a couple more sockets, reforge 1 more piece of gear and make 1 ring and 1 necklace enchantment (I've already got 1 push ring enchanted with rage). I don't have the BoM recipe and I've had bad luck finding one (only 1 that has dropped from trials was a dfa) but my anb is still going great and I'm noticing that even without a BoM a fire lily elr mage can still deal alot of damage just by triggering thermal shock after a frostbeam. I know the bracer makes a difference, but not as huge a difference as people might think (I have a fire lily elr mage with a frostbeam bracer as one of my main toons and I my thinking is that adding the bracer is probably the difference between hitting around 130-135 without vs 145-150 with) Significant but not so much so that you can't have success without one. Of course my fingers are still crossed that I'll finally get one to drop in a trial, even an epic one with block rating, deflect rating, and life regeneration or some similarly useless stats lol.

Update: Just finished trial 130 in around 5:40, still no BoM

Update #2: Just finished trial 135 in 6:30 or so, still no BoM, I'm starting to think 140 might be possible without one, dealt over 10B damage 80% of which was thermal shock!

Final Update: I topped out at trial 138 in 9:57, I could have pushed a little farther I think but fatigue caught up with me and I managed to die to one of Garm's aftershocks on trial 139, and I ran out of event time. I think in the future I'll leave more time for my final push. Overall still really happy though, and at 95 glory I know I'll be able to afford a bracer next AnB.

[bojck]

Great job! 140 is certainly possible, judging by your 135 time. Bracers can take you 5 levels higher at most - this is a lot and not much at the same time, depending on how you look at it

[Splendor]

Thanks! After hitting 127 with no bracer in gold (I did purchase one 2,500 gem crate in gold) my goal was to see how far past 130 I could make it in bronze without spending a lot of gems and I'm very pleased so far.

[Turgeon]

Yeah nice job men !

[Ozymandius]

I am running a hybrid 4 pc Demo BH with Havoc hood and gloves. Made some tradeoffs between story mode and trials to get second companion, but I still hit level 70 hero status in 40 minutes. I was able to run a level 2 common VoWS and Fire Lily all the way through Trial 60 before upgrading them to Epics [mainly because they did not have very much XP on them]. I completed Trial 70 running all Epic gear before I started upgrading to Legendary pieces. I only have 3 pieces of Legendary gear so far; a level 74 Firebug, a level 72 Torch, and a level 73 Demo tunic. I ended up using gems to buy a Legendary Crafter's Crate to make up for the lower rate of salvage materials on trail drops. I pushed ahead to get the last jewelry reward, but now I need to drop back and grind XP and materials a bit. Aside from the salvage gear drop nerf, I am also suffering from having less gold, so I crafted one legendary ring with XP, XG, AR, & Haste to boost gold drops a bit. Still collecting a full set of XG gear drops before doing my first serious gold mining runs.

Interestingly, at 1:30 minutes into the event, I am still on pace with trial completion times compared to the last BH hero that I ran two ANBs ago. I am definitely not crafting as often or as much, so the addition of Legendary gear will be slower, but it is looking like I will have more CLs than my normal benchmark for a BH. This time I started crafting CR/CD into my Legendary gear. Even though I am still running Fire Lily a bit longer, I want to be able to make the swap to CR/CD build easier that it has been in ANBs past. I had played Warrior in the last few ANBs, so I am enjoying being a gun slinging BH again, especially the Sticky Bomb explosions leveling large mobs. So far, my goal is to just have fun, but I would like to see how far I can push a Demo set.

[Arawn]

I'm not liking the direction this game is headed... The only reason I ever played the ANBs was for the CTs (and prior to that, the custom legendaries), but the pseudo RNG in this game is configured so that the 77 rolls are so infrequent that realistically I have nothing to use these CTs on. They're just piling up in my stash now and are rather useless. And now that the drops have been nerfed (not only trials-- previously I could farm lots of rares in Morgenheim but now each run only gives me a few uncommons) farming enough materials to craft items (which, again, are never 77s to begin with) is even more futile.

I'm trying to think of something analogous... it's like someone giving you an increasing supply of gold-plated forks and knives to eat a steak that's sitting in front if you but is always just out of reach anyway.

This may be my last ANB until possibly a future update

[Ozymandius]

Arawn I totally feel your pain; it is hard to go backwards like this. The only thing saving my ANB right now is that I had 13K gems from the last season, so I bit the bullet and purchased the Legendary Crafter's Crate. So far, I have only crafted 4 Legendary pieces, since I have to run several trials between crafting attempts to get enough gold to make the next piece. At some point, I will have a full set of XG gear [from dropped gear] that would make the gold farming run worthwhile, but for now, I am just slowly chipping away and mostly grinding XP, which seems to be the one thing that hasn't changed in the latest version.

[Nhat]

Target achieved, but I think I'll switch back to my Fury Axe Lily build for future ANBs...

[Ozymandius]

Nhat Congratulations on reaching your goal! How did SW Warrior do for farming XP? I have been running the 4 Fury:2 Warlord hybrid Fire Lily Warrior for grinding XP during the last several ANBs, but I switched to Demo BH for a change of pace on this one.

[Nhat]

Ozymandius I'm no good at rounding up mobs, so not getting the most out of Shield Slam... which results in it feeling slower than my usual full Fury Axe build...

For me, Shield Wield adds Block into the mix of stats, so it feels more spread out - need to first survive the mobs to trigger Shield Slam & Deadly Throw to kill them. With Dual Wield, I can just brute force my way through the low to mid level trials - charge through and kill them before they even get a chance to hit me. And then there's the obvious slower boss fight for Shield Wield...

[Ozymandius]

Nhat sounds like I should stick to the DW Fury hybrid for now...

[DethStrike]

My BH is doing ok, amidst the new drop rate, and chilling on trial 105 with about 1600 CL's and over 6 hours left to play. It was a really rough start, as nothing I was salvaging early on provided MOT's. It took me forever to get a Stalker set going, and set me back pretty significantly. Spent about 1000 gems on my typical Bronze plan of research slot, add a Maggie, and 1 basic 50 gem crate. Crafting has been so slow I only just now reached the second half of my first crafting bag. Nothing special as far as crafts go, but we'll see what the 77 is. Having a ton of trouble with the game crashing this ANB as well. Also I've encountered the item deletion bug twice so far, and once on an early 2200 damage Pistol. Meh...

My buddie's Mage account that I've been playing is once again a blast however. I'm loving ELR mage a lot, and other than both dying to a light breeze, there's really no similarities between the Mage and BH. My crafting luck is always insane on his account, and I had 12 MOT's from salvaged rares and epics, by the time she hit 70. Got a level 74 chest, 75 hood, and 76 frostfire sash, all socketed, in just the first 8 crafts. One of those 8 crafts was a level 72 Ice Beam BOM, also socketed. Just insane. If I knew how to play ELR mage better it would have been a run of the ages. No extra followers, no crates, no boosters on his account, just the research slot, and standard unlocks.

Still, I'm just finally getting the ebb & flow of ELR, and this could be a promising ANB when all is said and done. Regardless, it's been a fun ride figuring out a new class that plays so differently from my trusty Stalker. Plus I just forced the issue when I got to the second half of my bag, to guarantee a level 77 Staff. Wiped me out of materials crafting mostly Igneus's over and over (maybe 10 of them, lol). But it's worth it for my boy (delinquent owner of the account), who needs the 77 anyway.



She's been farming Trial 90 and is now cooking for about 60 hours after busting through Trial 100 for all the goodies. I've never been past 130 with a mage in ANB, so we'll see how I cope with the new mob tendencies and the new class when this little powerhouse rolls into some real competition. All I know is she smoked my Bounty Hunters Trial 100 time and has way better gear, so I'm hopeful for the 500 gem wonder. Also have about 6 1/4 hours left on this account as well.

[Splendor]

Nice staff! I've played 6 anbs now and have probably crafted well over 100 staffs between my different characters, the best I've managed so far are 2 lvl 75s and a lvl 76 with low damage. I ct'd the 76 so at least I have one 1 decent damage, and last 2 anbs I've ended up cting 75s just to maximize dmg. I must say I'm a little jealous of your crafting luck!

[DethStrike]

Splendor Well it wasn't entirely luck, just being stubborn and trusting in the crafting bag methodology. I had crafted a level 71 item in my first 32 items, so I knew that the 77 would be in the second batch of 32 items. Also, given my records of all my crafting results, I knew that theoretically, or statistically given you trusted my records, I had a greater chance of the 77 showing up earlier in the second batch of 32 items. So I crafted 10 straight staffs from item # 33 until 42, when the 77 finally showed up. I had some good luck with the first 32, so I knew I could sacrifice a little of other the gear pieces, as I already had a 76, 2 75's and 3 74's covered for my other pieces.

Like I said though, it was costly as hell in materials, considering the new barren wasteland that is Eternium drop rates, and completely wiped me out of most essences. Slowly trying to rebuild now, and crafting a new item every 3 or 4 trial runs.

:EDIT: That is apart from those first crazy 8 crafts... that was dumb luck lol.

P.S. This is my 7th ANB, so maybe lucky number 7 will come through for you

[TheExorcist]

Nice Fire Lily SW you have there Nhat.
trial 90? with 9 hrs time left. great
me? rest at trial 113
too much/many? (have problem with this English Grammar ) time at the Story Mode i'm afraid. Just 1 hr 13 min time left for final push
would try my best towards the end of the ANB (still have a few important skills not yet at "10")
thank you

[Nhat]

I've been running Misty Island whenever I get the key, and cleared up to Act 4 (just once each map) because I was bored waiting for Whirlwind...

Good luck with your final push, I probably won't get near TL110...

[DethStrike]

I am morose no more. The stingiest of all ANB's has come in clutch for me. No matter what I place, this ANB will be a success for me after my level 77 craft. I've been Stalking these pants for some time now...



After a dry streak of 3 ANB's I finally crafted one of the last 77's for my main BH. It's my fault as I've been forcing my 77's into pistols recently when not finding/crafting a decent early weapon, just so I can be competitive. This ANB left me no opportunity to be picky as I have so few materials. Turns out it worked in my favor by preventing my usual Gun Greed (I still managed to greed-craft yet another Malice for the junk pile at home, old habits die hard). Only 3 pieces left to CT; Shoulders, Molten Belt and VOWS.

[TheExorcist]

this "fire-lily" whirlwind shield warrior thing is very difficult and tough at trial 110+
54 min left...dunno wether i can make it at trial 120?
later will try try my best. Still need one or two skill upgrading
don't have time/enough gems/materials etc etc to turn into CD/CRbuild i'm afraid
Just go along with this fire-lilly
Just for fun
it's fun indeed

addition

maybe i could do somethin with fire-liily SW build at normal playin later? make it more powerful? how? no CD CR it seems impossible. or ermm..is "block block block: the highest block that is possible" the answer to fire-lilly Shield warrior build? i just don't have any idea yet. Will try and error later. hahaha
thank you

[Raingold]

Thanks. You're doing great, Eternium2020. Congrats on the 2 CT. Yes, more glory would be terrific. I just got the final Season Event reward, so that helped. I've been doing Story into Act 4, and just reached T77. Want to kill Kara fast enough to keep leaping by 5s and get CTs.

That is sad about the bracer. I was glad Vial of Wind Spirit I got in my first ANB works for Mage and Warrior. I suspect the Belt I got Wind Storm? that reduces cooldown is only for Warrior. Wish you well on scoring that bracer.

[Eternium2020]

yea thank u sir same to you, but just a reminder it is super important to lvl up your crafting mastery to lvl50 asoon as possible because that is super useful at AnBs what u should do is make a gold sets and farm resources at trials if u can do 100+ yet u can stick to lower trials like 70-60 because u need alot of u know cloth stuff or just craft armor one the chest one that requires cured lether and make it lvl14-19 and spam crafting till u hit lvl50 it takes me 1month till i maxed mine. and that was a month ago not too long ago, coz what i see here is u are getting low lvl items when u craft, because the higher the itemlvl the higher the damage and if its lvl77 u can use the max potential of the item itself, so once your done to this event AnB you can start lvling up your mastery crafting to lvl50.

[Raingold]

Thanks, Eternium2020. I'm only at 20 Crafting. I'll keep at the lower trials and level up the crafting, thanks for the tips. I have gold set in progress, still new to gold farming. My gear is mainly lv 70 Epic and Legendary. I'm not buying gems, and I don't have any recipes for Fury or Warlord. I used the custom boxes to craft some of them, and scored some in drops. I have the Bladestorm Set. I'm still buying recipes.There are many ANB factors that I didn't know. Appreciate your help! When I saw your unkillable Warrior post, I knew I was doing something wrong. Great going on your ANB.

[Arawn]

Got my two CTs. Six hours left but I think I'm out... don't really have anything left to do.

I noticed everyone on the leaderboard is playing ELR. Literally the exact same build. It's like a hundred carbon copies. I really like the Stormcaller for a change. Fun to play (but mage is difficult on mobile). I DON'T like the AR/ alacrity nerf. First haste was soft- capped, then AR, then alacrity nerfed... stinks to have abilities but not be able to cast them. It was fun to play a different build though

[Benedicto]

I'm done with this event... Played mage after a long time, but surprised what I achieved this time. At first, I'm worried about the nerfed drops of GBoLs and epics at Trial 80+, but still tried to craft my two level 77 gear which is always my goal every ANBs. I did not bought a legendary or other crates aside from basic crates. Tried Lily build for the very first time competitively, and I felt very comfortable in farming exp for nine hours of playtime, but this time I didn't zerg to Morgenheim, but just stayed at TSM for gold farming for more than 200 runs. I put one +exp on one of my ephemeral jewelry then crafted a push ring, which I used all brilliants on all uncommons, but I think that crafting three push jewelries in silver is doable, but I still managed to gain 1980+ CLs and 150 synergy. I started to push within 2 hours left, and Elban at TL138 was so hard that I retried it 5 times. But my timer elapsed, hoping my first top 50 finish after a long time will still hold until the event ends.

[TheExorcist]

Congrats to all my dear friends for their achievement
me? ANB completed:

"one the lowest achievement in any of my ANB's. Dunno wether it's possible to be at the top "500?"

well how high can you go with the "Fire-Lilly Shield Warrior"??
"Arionthe the Wise" says you should be King until trial +120
i'm afraid i can't even reach trial 120
but still it's so much fun
i wont continue till the end if it isn't
would try later at normal playin if i can "further up" in trials with this "Flower Protector Build"
Thank you

addition:

observation:

1. USING DT BRACES PLUS GIRDLE OF HEROISM (early trials until Trial 116): "it's not so much about facing bosses": It's just I'M NOT STRONG ENOUGH. erm. have to think of somethin later in normal playin.

2. one other thing: According to the Chart below: MY Shield Slam and DT not far from each other (in damage values): 46% and 41%. Wat to conclude from this? any ideas?

[Benedicto]

I think that build would still be better before the AR nerf... Now SW cannot survive in higher trials because it is now impossible to benefit from SB all the time, and the Illusionist elite one shot kill bug.