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I started playing on Torment with my Crusader and I'm not sure what would be the best way to upgrade my gear so I can play at higher Torment levels.

Should I aim for crafting recipes? Doing rifts? Bounties? Using blood shards? Going to a higher Torment level? Are there some bosses that are known to have a better drop rate (kind of like Mephisto was in Diablo 2) that I could farm?

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  • related: gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/269719/…
    – l I
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:12
  • In addition to | |'s excellent post, here's a couple things to answer your own specific questions. Bosses will sometimes drop some good loot, but the best legendaries tend to come from Bounty rewards and the bosses of Greater Rifts, from my experience. Blood shards are okay, but typically you get rares. I typically do blood shards if I'm looking for a specific piece.
    – nightsurfer
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:25
  • To Kaizerwolf's comment: good legendaried don't come from any specific source. Item generation is exactly the same regardless of item drop source. Bounty rewards do drop legendaries quite often and Rift bosses drop quite a lot of those, hence the perception that good ones come from them. Also, Blood shards typically get you rares because there is exactly 90% to get a non-legendary. Kadala is actually quite an efficient way to get armor legendaries (weapons drop too many items from one purchase to be reliable).
    – Orc JMR
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:32
  • @OrcJMR By good loot, I meant legendaries, sorry for the confusion!
    – nightsurfer
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:41

2 Answers 2

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Here is my typical priority while starting a new season (similar to starting out completely new):

  1. Fill every slot with a legendary. To do this, I will gamble using blood shards on every slot that doesn't have a legendary in it (other than weapon, I craft those). Once you have a complete set of legendary gear, no matter how bad, you can handle torment 1 no problem.
  2. Complete a class set. Any complete set, even the worst set, is drastically better than having no sets at all. Pick the set you are closest to completing after doing step #1. If you are on seasons, completing season journey chapter 2-4 will give you a free set.
  3. Complete the other items required for the class set (jewelry, weapons, etc). I typically use the kanai's cube to upgrade rare weapons into legendaries for the specific one I need. Also, completing the focus and restraint ring set is usually a huge damage boost.
  4. Collect some Legendary gems. Even level 1 gems can be a huge boost in damage if you pick the right ones (bane of trapped, zei's vengeance, bane of powerful, etc).
  5. Start farming for the best set of my class. I use blood shards to gamble for armor pieces, and kanai's cube to upgrade weapons for the one I need.
  6. Once you are using your class's best set and have the right legendary gear in every slot, you should be easily T10 capable at this point. After this, its the long grind of slowly getting better mods on your gear and pushing your way up to T13 and high GRs, upgrading gems, etc.
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  • You're too quick for me! :p
    – nightsurfer
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:24
  • Would it be helpful to include information about regular gems as well? I've found that adding gems to sockets can definitely help with DPS.
    – nightsurfer
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:27
  • @Kaizerwolf its not really a priority, when you don't have the right mods on your gear (low crit, for example), an emerald in your weapon won't make a huge difference. If it has a socket sure stick a gem in it, but if it doesn't I wouldn't bother trying for one.
    – l I
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:29
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    @jgadoury it won't affect the quality*, but higher torment means higher drop rates of legendaries. You have to balance that against kill speed to find your happy medium. *I don't think ancient legendaries can drop at difficulties below torment though.
    – l I
    Oct 14, 2016 at 18:31
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    @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft No, i mean to get a good travelers ammy, you want to just keep reforging an existing crappy one until you get one with better mods. Since they're relatively rare gambling/upgrading for them is not worth it.
    – l I
    Apr 28, 2017 at 15:18
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Upgrade gear is not a very good term to use in Diablo. Gear upgrades could have multiple meanings. Are you trying to upgrade it by getting a set, just stat upgrades or a specific item? All of these would be valid for "upgrading gear".

I would first suggest pinpointing what kind of upgrades you want to get. You should first aim at a specific build that you want, and then looking for that.

As for your question, here we go:

  1. Crafting recipes in Diablo are generally useless unless you have really weak gear in a specific slot. I'd stay away from them because you can use salvaged parts in the cube.

  2. Bounties are good for cube materials, which will ultimately help your build, but not your standard gear items.

  3. Blood shards are great, but stay away from weapons and jewelry. They are too expensive and are not cost efficient while first upgrading your gear for the late game.

  4. There are no specific bosses that are better for gear and bosses are not worth it.

  5. When you are looking for a SPECIFIC piece of gear, the fastest way to obtain it is to turn a rare (yellow) item into a legendary of that type through the cube. You can view the cube recipe's by clicking the little book icon in the cube menu.

The best place to upgrade gear is rifts because there is a bonus to legendary drop rates. You should always go to a higher difficulty if your clear speed will remain high. Always go down a level if your clear speed drops to something that is not time efficient.

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  • Can you elaborate on the last paragraph- what is a time-efficient and a time-inefficient clear speed? As long as I clear withint 15 minutes, is that not enough?
    – marts
    Dec 23, 2020 at 9:59
  • @marts If it takes you 50% longer to kill an enemy, but you only get 20% more MF because of the increased difficulty, you're technically not being as efficient as you could be. You're specifically talking about clearing greater rifts within 15 minutes, I am talking generally about clearing regular rifts as efficiently as possible.
    – FoxMcCloud
    Dec 23, 2020 at 20:50

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