Destroyer (Season 13)

I’ve played every Season in Diablo III. Season 13 was the first time I completed Destroyer.

In this blog, I have Twitch videos, screenshots, and some commentary about my experience through the Destroyer portion of the Season Journey for Season 13 in Diablo III.

I began working on the Destroyer part of the Season Journey in Season 13. I discovered that I had already completed one Destroyer objective – Level 20 Seasonal Cubist: (put) 20 Legendary Powers into Kanai’s Cube. I completed a second Destroyer objective – Regards from the Realm of Madness: Craft a Hellfire Amulet during the season.

I earned the “Never Reap Alone” Seasonal Achievement – for the first time ever! The Achievement is not part of the Destroyer Season Journey.

In the video above, I killed a Rainbow Goblin and it left me a portal to Whimsydale. I got really lucky and ended up with the Spectrum sword. None of this counts for the Destroyer part of the Season Journey – but it was fun!

In the video above, I ran some Bounties because I wanted to get stuff out of my Stash and into Kanai’s Cube. I earned the “Kulle Duel” Seasonal Achievement. It is not part of the Destroyer Seasonal Journey.

Kulle Duel: Kill Zoltun Kulle at level 70 without killing either of his Eternal Guardians on Torment II difficulty or higher.

I started working on two of the Destroyer objectives. One required players to level three Legendary gems to 45. It doesn’t matter which Legendary gems you choose to level up. The other objective required players to complete a Greater Rift 50 solo. The solo part would be easy, because I was playing in the Solo Self Found League for Season 13.

Greater Rift Level 44 at 10:52:199

This is not a very impressive Greater Rift completion time, but it worked. I was able to finish it before the timer ran out. Doing so gave me the opportunity to start leveling some Legendary gems.

Greater Rift 45 at 10:09:366

Again, not a very good completing time. But, I was able to finish it before the timer ran out, and to level up some Legendary Gems. I decided to give Greater Rift 45 another try, in the hopes of getting a better time (and being able to level gems).  It’s nice that players can work on these two Destroyer objectives at the same time.

Greater Rift 45 at 9:59:650

Tier 45 – 9:59:650 – 5/1/18 – 2:24:15 AM

That was my best time (so far) for a Greater Rift Level 45. By the time I completed this Greater Rift, I was five Greater Rift levels away from 50, and I had two out of three Legendary Gems leveled up to 45.

I continued working on Greater Rifts and leveling Legendary Gems.

Greater Rift 46 at 9:37:033

Tier 46 – 9:37:033 – 5/1/18 – 2:38:35 AM

 

Greater Rift 47 at 10:30:583

This was my best time on a Greater Rift 47 (so far). The other attempts I made on Greater Rift 47 didn’t go as well. I still needed to get one more Legendary Gem to level 45. The farthest I got was level 41.

I was playing while tired, and forgot to click the button on my streaming software that enables me to record my gameplay. So, I don’t have a video of me leveling the final Legendary Gem to Level 45.  A screenshot of the completed Destroyer objective will have to do.

Insane in the Gembrane: Level three Legendary Gems to level 45.

In the video above, I completed a Greater Rift 50 solo for the first time, ever! This one counts towards the Destroyer objectives.

The Longest Road: Reach Greater Rift Level 50 Solo. Greater Rift keystones can be obtained from any Nephalem Rift guardian.

Greater Rift 50 Completed at 10:50:816

Tier 50 – 10:50:816 – 5/7/18 – 3:42.08 AM

Next, I started working on the Easy objective in Destroyer.  It wasn’t actually easy, so I’m guessing the title of the objective is intended to be sarcastic. To earn this one, a player has to choose a Conquest – and complete it.

Half of the Conquests are for Softcore, and the other half are identical Conquests that are for Hardcore. I’m playing Softcore this Season. My first choice was to do a Conquest that required players to do a speed run through all five Acts in an hour (or less).  This resulted in multiple failed attempts.  My Necromancer is just not fast enough – not even when I put the game on Normal difficulty.

So, I decided to try the Conquest that required players to complete a Greater Rift 45 without using any set pieces. I swapped out my set pieces for Ancients that were Legendaries (and not part of a set).  I learned that it is definitely worthwhile to hang on to Ancients.

The result was that my Necromancer had a very different look than before!

I failed to click the right button on my streaming software, so I don’t have a video of me completing the Conquest.  Screenshots of the results will have to do.

I completed Greater Rift 45 at 13:08:200.  That’s not a very good time, but that’s ok. The objective did not specify a time limit (other than killing the Rift Guardian before the timer went out.)

From this experience, I learned just how powerful sets can be! The difference between using a full set – and using no set pieces at all – was immediately obvious. As you can see, to took me longer than usual to finish the Greater Rift 45. If you look at the top of that screenshot, you can see that my armor took a ton of damage!

Easy: Complete 1 Conquest this Season. Conquests are difficult challenges with Leaderboards associated with them. You can find a list of this Season’s Conquests in the What’s New or the Leaderboard menus.

I was absolutely thrilled to have completed the Easy objective!  Things got more exciting when a bunch of other “Achievement Toasts” popped up on the screen.

The Thrill: Reach Greater Rift Level 45 Solo without any Set items equipped.

Alone Tonight: Reach Greater Rift Level 15 Solo without any Set items equipped.

20/20 Vision: Reach Greater Rift Level 20 Solo without any Set items equipped.

Quarter Rift Crisis: Reach Greater Rift Level 25 Solo without any Set items equipped.

Under My Skin: Reach Greater Rift Level 30 Solo without any Set items equipped.

Swagger Like Us: Reach Greater Rift Level 35 Solo without any Set items equipped.

Legendary: Reach Greater Rift Level 40 Solo without any Set items equipped.

This was the point where a good friend gave me some excellent advice about what to do to improve my Necromancer. Long story short, he suggested I use the Rathma’s set (instead of the Inarius set I had been using). He helped me figure out what gems to use, and which skills to switch, and then showed me how with this worked with his Necromancer.

The result was I ended up with a stronger, faster, more powerful Necromancer than before. After taking some time to get used to the Rathma’s set, I started streaming on Twitch and running some Greater Rifts.  I completed a Greater Rift 50 at a much faster time than I did in my previous attempt.

Greater Rift level 50 completed at 4:43:583

Tier 50 – 4:43:583 – 5/21/18 – 6:43:53 PM

One of my goals for Season 13 was to hit Paragon 500.  I wasn’t sure if I could reach that goal while playing Solo Self Found. The Rathma’s set was definitely a factor that made it possible for me to reach that goal before Season 13 ended.

Paragon 500!

Paragon 500 Portrait – A stunning achievement!

In the video above, I completed a Greater Rift level 66.  This is the highest Greater Rift I’ve ever completed.

Greater Rift 66 completed at 4:55:583

Tier 66 – 4:55:583 – 5/22/18 – 3:27:23 AM

There were three Destroyer objectives left to complete. One of them required a player to complete a Nephalem Rift on Torment XII in 6 minutes or less.  This took several attempts before I was able to complete it.

I wish there was some sort of in-game timer that would allow players to see how close they were getting to completing a Nephalem Rift within a certain amount of time.  I found it stressful to have no idea how close I was to finishing the objective. It was also very disappointing to turn in the Nephalem Rift and have…. nothing happen because I hadn’t done it in 6 minutes (or less).

The last remaining Destroyer objectives required players to kill Zoltun Kulle on Torment XIII, and to kill Malthael on Torment XIII.  When I started working on Destroyer, it felt like those objectives were out of my reach. By the time I got around to trying them, I discovered that my Necromancer was ready for those challenges.

Destroyer (Season 13) is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.

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