Tell me more ×
Arqade is a question and answer site for passionate videogamers on all platforms. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite

I'm getting ready to build my Infernal Machines, and I'm trying to decide if I should start looking for groups to run with, or if I can handle the fights solo.

Given how time-intesive it is to obtain sufficient keys to build a sufficient number of Infernal Machines, I'd like to complete the Uber boss fights on a higher MP level.

It seems like most of the strategies I see assume you are in a group, so you can split the bosses. Is that required, or are other tactics for a solo player viable?

I can comfortably farm MP4 with my MF gear, and could probably handle MP6 or even higher. Is it realistic to expect to be able to solo farm Uber bosses at, or slightly below, the MP level I am comfortable farming?

If class is a determining factor, I play a Witch Doctor.

share|improve this question
yes its possible, but why would you want to? sharing uber portals with other people means you get to farm multiple times. – spartacus Oct 26 '12 at 17:10
@spartacus For some, it is the challenge. For me, it is because my ability to play for more than 20-45 minutes at a stretch is limited to 1-3 times a week, at unpredictable times/days, which makes it difficult to coordinate groups with people that I know to be competent (I don't want to waste my playtime/Infernal Machines on some random person in all blues who thinks they can do MP8). Also, as more people get their rings, I suspect fewer good players will be interested in running ubers. – Beofett Oct 26 '12 at 17:18
Its not even possible to turn on MP in public games, so you'd have to do it with people you know or be willing to waste all your Infernal Machines on MP0. – bwarner Oct 29 '12 at 13:43
@bwarner Good point. My ignorance indicates how often I join public games :P The official forums are full of people looking for groups, so I could at least check their gear, but I'm more comfortable with people that I have some indication have at least an idea of how to play their class (plus a reasonable chance of being honest about having their own Infernal Machines). – Beofett Oct 29 '12 at 13:47
10,000 views. 3 votes :P – Beofett Dec 28 '12 at 0:18

6 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

The other answers both provide useful information, but I don't feel they really answer the question fully.

After wasting an Infernal Machine to attempt to solo it, asking around on the forums, and going through the fights with a wizard capable of soloing them on MP6, I feel I now have enough of a handle on it to answer.

Short version: There are certain gear/build combinations available (presumably for each class, although I can't say for certain) that make soloing absolutely feasible. However, just because you can solo all 4 Inferno acts at a given MP level effectively does not mean you can solo the uber bosses.

Many farming builds rely upon burning through enemies quickly and efficiently, and may relegate healing or resource regeneration to health globes or time. These builds still work with regular bosses because those encounters were designed to allow you to learn the mechanics enough to avoid or mitigate most of the major sources of incoming damages (i.e. dodging the butcher's chain attacks, avoiding the ground attacks during the appropriate phases of Belial, Azmodan, or Diablo, etc.).

This is much less feasible for the ubers, due to the combined attacks.

Therefore, in order to be able to solo, you need to have some form of sustained self-healing available (either high levels of life steal or stacked Life on Hit with a properly synergistic skill). Interrupting crowd controls will help a lot, but aren't as mandatory. Uber Siegebreaker, in particular, makes some form of healing on hit of utmost importance, even when grouping.

Without this, it isn't feasible to solo the encounters.

Even with the appropriate levels of survivability, you need to have sufficient DPS, as not only are enrage timers an issue, but you have to worry about keeping the NV stacks up. If you take too long, particularly if it takes you multiple attempts, you will have to periodically go out and hunt elites to refresh your stacks, lest you risk losing your stacks partway through an uber fight (and thereby guaranteeing that they will not drop the organs you seek).

share|improve this answer
1  
I think the short rule of thumb is, if you can solo the respective inferno bosses at some MP, you can probably solo the ubers at that MP-1 – spartacus Oct 29 '12 at 15:01
1  
I play on MP 4 and could not handle MP-1 Siege Breaker/Zoltan. One of them had a vampirick attribute and it just killed me without taking another type of hit. No health globes were dropped. As mentioned about I think you need a life on Hit which I currently do not have – Mike Nov 2 '12 at 19:12
Confirming what @Mike said, I solo quite easily on MP5. When trying to solo MP4 ubers, I had little difficulty (and no luck on drops!) soloing the first two pairs, but when I got to ZK + SB, it was extremely difficult, even with <1k LoH, 3% LS, and 1.5k regen. – Beofett Nov 6 '12 at 18:01
Oops... switched my > and <. I'm at almost 1.4k LoH. Reflect damage sucks :P – Beofett Nov 7 '12 at 13:21
If memory serves my rightly, there is no enrage timer against Übers. I read it somewhere in the official website but seem unable to find it right now. – Solem Nov 12 '12 at 16:49
show 2 more comments
up vote 1 down vote

I would advise to play in a group, because you as a group will get more ring parts per Infernal Machine. (edit for misunderstanding: You can get a ring part from someone else's infernal machine when you play in a group)

Also, since it takes time to gather the machines, it's advisable to run at at least the MP level you can farm with.

Note that the ubers are in a narrow space (about the size of the siegebreaker area) and hit hard. I played them with a party of 2, and when one dies, the other doesn't have the time to resurrect, so either play alone or with at least 3. (Unless you're sure you won't die)

share|improve this answer
2  
I thought that there was no ability to trade the ring parts between different characters/accounts. If that is the case, then a higher chance for anyone to find a ring is mostly irrelevant. This also doesn't actually address the question. – StrixVaria Oct 23 '12 at 12:58
You are right: keys, plans, organs and rings are accound bounded. – Solem Oct 23 '12 at 14:06
1  
Yes, they are account bounded, but everyone in the party has a chance to get a ring part for each infernal machine. Even if it's not your own infernal machine. – BazzPsychoNut Oct 23 '12 at 18:40
This is certainly useful information, but the question is "can the uber bosses be soloed", and not "is soloing the uber bosses the best way to get a hellfire ring". – Beofett Oct 26 '12 at 17:23
up vote 1 down vote

Edit 2: Monk thread was deleted off the forums. I will see if I can find his videos posted on YouTube later. In the meantime, the stats I remember him having were:

  • 39k Damage
  • 600 All resists
  • 1700 Life on Hit
  • Roughly 35k hp
  • 4k Armor

The main factor is his weapon, Sledge Fist (Fist weapon) providing a high chance to stun, and his high LoH on top of his defensive stats.

Another key factor is he swaps in gear to buff his Sweeping Wind damage as high as possible, and keeps that buff up the entire time. This only works due to how Sweeping Wind works by taking a "snapshot" of the monk's damage when it's cast.

I don't if this is possible with other classes, but I assume if you can eventually get the best in slot gear, you'll be able to solo the Uber bosses even at MP10.

On higher monster power, you will need to have the necessary DPS to beat the bosses before enrage. I don't know what the time limit is, so if anyone could fill in that information, it would be much appreciated.

share|improve this answer
2  
That thread has been deleted. – fbueckert Oct 23 '12 at 14:01
Since the thread was deleted before I got a chance to read it, do you know how well geared that monk was? It's one thing if someone wearing BiS for all their gear can solo, and another if someone who, like me, is at a more moderate level of gear. – Beofett Oct 23 '12 at 14:21
@Beofett - I feel like his gear level was relatively easy to obtain. Since he didn't run high damage, life steal isn't a huge problem. It's mostly dependent on whether you can live through the fights. – boiledham Oct 23 '12 at 19:30
That still makes it difficult for me to evaluate. One person's "easy to obtain" could be another's "never in a million years!" :P This is why I was trying to focus the question in terms of farming MP level, rather than specific statistics. For what its worth, my WD has ~=110k DPS, 55k health, 4k armor, and ~=600 AR. I consider that somewhere above the "relatively easy to obtain" level, but others would likely disagree. – Beofett Oct 23 '12 at 19:34
I guess I should clarify that he was able to do so using a monk only weapon with an extremely high chance to stun. I have no idea about whether WDs have successfully soloed Uber bosses at a reasonable level. The only consistent thing across every class is whether you can survive the fight. Hence, you can tank a reasonable amount of incoming damage and heal it back up every single time. Have you checked out WD class forums on the official D3 website? – boiledham Oct 23 '12 at 21:04
show 4 more comments
up vote 1 down vote

Re: Is it realistic to expect to be able to solo farm Uber bosses at, or slightly below, the MP level I am comfortable farming?

Short answer: Yes

I completed mp 5 ubers including ZK/seige last night on my barb. I had to go heavy on cc abilities:

1.Leap Death from above (stun) 2. War Cry Impunity (all resist) 3. Rend Blood (dps + life steal) 4. battle Rage Marauders (dps) Left mouse: Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash (stun) right mouse: Frenzy smite (20% chance 1.5 sec stun)

weapon: 1 hand with chance to stun/freeze etc (i had to go with a shield due to low health around 30k) and life steal

shield: good block % (i need to research shield attributes so there could be additional benefits if there are stuns available)

passive: tough as nails (again the health issue) gives more armor than nerves of steel

I was able to lock down the dude that picks you up, leap/stun him to get out of those stupid bubbles that slow you down, and slowly whittle him down. Zultan Kulle was easy to kill after that. I didn't time it, but it probably was a good 2-3 minute fight with about 100k dps.

I expect to be able to do mp6 with current gear, but mp7 would probably require more than the 30k health I am rocking right now.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

Uber bosses are tough. I'm fairly well geared and can solo all mp10 bosses without a problem. However, i can't beat uber sk/magda or uber kulle/seige. When seige picks me up, kulle's tornado and rocks can hurt me. Ghom/rakanoth at mp10 was easy though. I might go around beating sk/magda when i get some 200 extra All Resist to survive 3 stacking butterflies. I have no idea how to solo kulle/seige.

share|improve this answer
1  
Crowd control, lifesteal/life on hit, resource rep, high All Resist are the keys to soloing ubers. If you get killed by 1 combo, you need more all resist... if you can't keep up crowd control, you need more resource rep... if you can't stand for a long time in a fight and have to backout for healing, you need more lifesteal/life on hit. Figuring why you died in the first place will lead to your gear improvements... as i did. – VanzRainer Nov 12 '12 at 16:12
up vote 0 down vote

Just built and launched first infernal machine, farmed at MP4, against MP2 Ubers to see what the deal was. Self-geared wizard. Naturally its Zolton/Siegebreaker. After getting clobbered switched to the original Diablo kiting build. Force Armor, Diamond Skin, Hydra, Blizzard, Magic Missle (seeker) Teleport (fracture). Just stay away, teleport out of the bubbles, diamond skin if you get grabbed, throw missles and blizzards over your shoulder and let hydra do the damage. Concentrate on Zolton first. ONce he is gone Siegebreaker was easy to avoid and finish off. Also ran the enchantress with a Maximus, so the Demon slave tanked well. No Drop, but I feel like I could consistently kill at this level.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.