Diablo III – Pets to Receive Boost through Patch

Pet survivability has been a bit of an issue in Blizzard’s Diablo III, with players complaining on the official forum of the game that their pets were dying all the time. While the game philosophy behind the pet system is quite sound at its core, the developer has apparently decided to address the issue through a patch nonetheless.

According to designer John Yang, the Blizzard crew has begun a sweeping review of the Rift Guardian abilities and of the various monster skills which seem to deal an unreasonable amount of damage to player pets.

Apparently, there are a number of monster abilities in the game which do not follow the guidelines the majority of such abilities do. An example in this respect would be the Mallet Lord’s Arm Attack and a number of other such abilities named in some of the discussion threads regarding the problem.

While at it, Yang also addressed the general issue of pet survivability, which – according to the game’s philosophy – is directly linked to the player’s own stats. Toughness seems to be the key variable of the pet survivability equation, as pets draw their toughness from that of the player. Those who skip on upgrading their toughness can expect their pets to die a lot more often.

The interesting aspect of all this is that some players seem to underestimate the importance of keeping their own toughness up for the very reason that they have pets to protect them. Obviously, this sort of thinking doesn’t hold any water as pets and ultimately the player will suffer as a result of it.

The bottom line therefore is that while the future patch will weed out some of the above mentioned obvious problems, it will be ultimately the player’s responsibility to address the issue after all.

Phil Thalberg works for GosuGamers, the top source of eSports-related gaming news.

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Gold Find Gear List

Here is a list of some/all of the most practical gold finding items. I excluded things like the Litany/Wailing host set bonuses because they aren't really worth getting (2pc = 15% GF). Make sure to socket Boon of the Hoarder into a ring/amulet for extra gold. If I missed anything let me know.

Helm

• Leorics Crown - Socketed with a Flawless Royal Emerald (+41% GF) and with a GF secondary provides up to 117% GF. Does NOT always roll GF.

Shoulders

• Profane Pauldrons - Always rolls 4-6 yd pickup radius. Does NOT roll GF.

Chest

• Goldskin - Always rolls 100% GF, Chance for enemies to drop gold when you hit them.

Gloves

• Gladiator Gauntlets - After earning a massacre bonus, gold rains from sky. Does NOT always roll GF.

Wrists

• Custerian Wristguards - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Gain EXP equal to the amount of gold picked up.

Belt

• Goldwrap - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Huge defense boost after picking up gold for 5 seconds.
• Harrington Waistguard - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Huge damage boost after opening a container for 10 seconds.
• Blackthorne's Notched Belt - Always rolls 30-35% GF, 3 piece Blackthornes also gives +25% GF, 250 vit, and +10%/-10% elites damage.

Pants

• Hammer Jammers - Always rolls 30-35% GF.

Boots
(none)

Rings

• Avarice Band - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Each time you pick up gold, increase your Gold and Health Pickup radius by 1 yard for 10 seconds, stacking up to 30 times.
• Stolen Ring - Always rolls 30-35% GF, Always rolls 1-2 yd pickup radius.

Amulet

• Pre 2.1 Kimbos Gold - Always rolls 75-100% GF. Secondary stat can be re-rolled to GF for a max total of 180% GF.
• Post 2.1 Kimbos Gold - Always rolls 75-100% GF. Picking up gold heals you for an amount equal to the gold that was picked up.
• Rondals Locket - Always rolls 4-6 yd pickup radius. Does NOT roll GF.

Weapon

• Sunkeeper - Always rolls 70-80% GF.
• Devils Tongue - Always rolls 70-80% GF.
• The Raven's Wing - Always rolls 70-80% GF.

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With over 100 attempts at 43 solo, I've come to some conclusions about GR scaling and why it is no longer fun.

This is not a rant (well perhaps a little one) but more of a speech to identify fundamental problems with the GR scaling at and above lvl 40 for solo play. I'll try and share some thoughts that were going through my head as I spent fifty 43 keys and only got 1 playable to the end map. Here goes.

• Monsters that deal unavoidable damage need to be forbidden from spawning in giant hoards. If the game developers want me to stack defense to survive hits from these creatures then that is fine, but no amount of toughness will keep me alive against an unfair amount of winged assassins and anarchs (just to name a few).
• Certain monsters need to be forbidden from spawning as champion/elite packs. Looking at you Ghosts out there. Many mobs from act 4 and 5 should be considered as well.
• Certain monsters need to be forbidden from spawning. Period. Rock worms, and tunneling scavengers are the main culprits.
• Monsters that jump or turn invisible should not be immune to every form of CC and damage while in their scripted sequence. Make that shit dynamic so we can have a fighting chance!
• Never ending single map corridors were designed for you to fail. One death after you've covered some distance is known as "the walk of shame". You're better off just turning around and leaving the game even if you are ahead of the progress bar. Allow checkpoints after a certain distance covered to be a thing please!
• Our list of "pre approved" GR maps is a joke. I'm tired and bored of fighting in a god damn linear cave with no room to avoid which should be avoidable damage. Where did our open fields go?
• Whoever thought it was a good idea to make every single act 5 mob shoot something, jump on your face, sneak up under you, or blast you with giant laser beams from off screen... is retarded."Oh lets's make the new content really difficult so players can test how tough they are and feel accomplished when they kill something". You failed. you failed hard at that and reverted the entire act to what D3 was as a vanilla infant. Difficulty does NOT = enjoyable.

Basically GR 40+ (solo play) has come to be known as Wretched mother conduit gaming. Farm the perfect trash mobs over and over again until you stumble upon that elusive conduit pylon conveniently located by the RG.

Things I did not mention but am aware of...

• Farming GR keystones is boring. Let us craft what lvl we want...
• Frozen is stupid. It's supposed to be a control affix, not a damaging affix
• Pylons in GR's are stupid
• Adjust many of the RG bosses, Trash mobs, and elite mobs (difficulty vs reward)**
• More QQ about certain things

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Bane of the powerful proc

Observed behaviour

The buff apears even if you aren't in the same map as the elite, i got the buff while doing bounties and a party member in a normal rift killed an elite.
The reverse also happened, he received the buff while fighting nothing @ all after i killed an elite.
Being in a different Grift floor as the killed elite also seems to be inrelevant.
Illusions also trigger the gem, allowing a "on demand" buff to be prepared for some1 in a greater rift.

How to exploit this for Grifts.

Create a game on any difficulty, search for a illusion elite, lure that to a waypoint.
Prepare a Grift stone and invite a friend to the party, who then joins the game, leaves (but stays in group) and whenever you lose your bane buff that person can log in and port back+leave game.

Free 20% damage in GR, regardless of if you killed an elite recently or not.

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Diablo III Just Got Harder

Torment VI used to be the hardest setting in Diablo III, a place where only the most hardcore players would go in order to show off their skills, their characters, their gear and of course, to secure those all-too-important bragging rights. Well, that’s no longer the case: Torment VI has been left in the dust difficulty-wise, with the addition of Greater Rifts – tiered dungeons. With the Greater Rift in the picture, everything above rank 25 is in fact more difficult than Torment VI.

Doing a rank 40 Greater Rift is beyond the capabilities of most recreational players: the mobs are ultra-strong, possessing billions of HP and each of them well capable of killing the player with one blow. There are quite a few of them bustling around too, so one has to be adept at stunning them in order to avoid instantly falling victim to one of them. To add to the already formidable difficulty: players are given a mere 15 minutes to do the Greater Rift run. With the odds stacked so ridiculously high against the player, one would expect that very few could ever successfully complete such a run. Nothing’s further from the truth though: there are actually players out there who can complete a rank 40 Greater Rift in under 8 minutes.

On September 7, Alkaizer and Philos, both of them Diablo III veterans and elite players (Alkaizer was in fact the first to reach Paragon Level 100 in the game), made it in about 7 minutes and 43seconds.

If you think they used some uber-characters to pull off the feat, you can think again: they both did it with season 1 characters, which essentially means that the characters used for the run did not even exist two weeks ago.

Admittedly, the two did get lucky here and there in the way of mob density and type and pylons, but their accomplishment is quite phenomenal nonetheless.

Philip Thalberg works for GosuGamers.net, the internet’s top eSports destination. 

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With so many stats/affixes not affecting Sheet Damage, now, more than ever, we need a True Damage output indicator.

Right off the bat I'm gonna mention that Blizzard's reasoning for not giving us DPS meters or anything of the sort is because they don't want it to become the focus of the game. However, I feel most people are gauging their character's power by the current sheet damage anyways, that "sole basis of progression" focus will always be there so might as well make it a reliable one.

For example, when most players find a new item the first thing they focus on is the % damage increase. That is because its almost always the most sure way to determine if you will become more powerful or not. It is the most direct feedback we have to assure a power increase.

Now, if we had some type of DPS gauge, we could get a far more accurate feeling of character power, since the sheet damage is basically just telling us how many core stat/crit/speed we have, and as Blizzard is trying to force out the cookie cutting itemization going on for end game builds by introducing unique mechanics or elemental focused builds, that damage stat becomes very useless but at the same time creates a gray area where we don't have any real feedback on if certain items are the better decision or not.

At the very least, make it optional.

To follow up, this DPS meter they introduce has to automatically tailor itself to how many mobs are in the area otherwise it would be too inconsistent based on the wide range of densities the game currently offers. e.g. 10.5m damage per mob per second

Pros:

• Accurate Character Power feedback
• More reliable theorycrafting experiences
• No more "weak feeling" in multiplayer

-In public or multiplayer games, if another player is being a ball and chain or has really low dmg output, I get that feeling of weakness. If I knew I was still putting out good DPS, that subtle weak feeling wouldn't happen.

• Re-engage the player if they begin to glaze over on their 1000th rift run and notice their dps is dropping significantly.

Cons:

• Contradicts Blizzard's design philosophy.

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Minimalist UI

Figured I would run a screenshot through GIMP and see if the UI could be moved around a little. The goal was to make a rough sketch of how it would look like if there was an option in D3 to use a more minimalist UI.

Now, it is not perfect and it is just meant to give you an idea of how much more space you would have in the gameplay area. How many times have you not wanted to target a spell in one of the corners only to instead highlight the chat or click one of the buttons?

I think there is room in D3 to have an option for those who so choose to free up some of that precious gameplay real estate. For those who prefer it the way it is, no problem - this is optional!

Most elements were scaled down 20% and also moved closer to the edges of the screenshot. I did not touch the Action Bar much except for downscaling it, but one could imagine more could be done about that.

Not really happy about the Objectives placement or the way it looks, but as mentioned it is just meant to give you an idea. In this case the Objectives would fan out upwards, not downwards.

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Greater rifts density must be addressed

This problem was brought up during the PTR, and its still a problem in the current live version. Why hasn't anything been done regrading this problem?

greater rifts are time based, if anything they need to be more packed than normal rifts. We're running against the clock and other players.

I find myself seeing many empty hallways, rooms and walking around looking for mobs - seeing my timer beat me not because of dying but endless walking with with handful of mobs or none at all.

some ideas:

1. all maps must have equal density
2. some maps must be changed to remove dead end hallways. 3.higher rank elites should drop more purple things (40+)

my biggest issue is simply fighting the RNG density in maps currently. rolling bad map simply means I just wasted my key, this isn't fair nor is it fun. All maps should have equal amount of density, and it must be increased further more from what we're dealing with now.

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50x+ xp on Greater Rifts trick

There's currently a XP exploit available in greater rifts being used by many top lvl paragon and streamers. Posting here so everyone can use it so it can be fixed soon.

I used it myself in seasons and got paragon 1-277 in under 4 hours. Gabynator and many others are using this as well to boost their paragon lvl.

Exploit consist of the following :

Make a greater rift lvl 27-36 (the one you can clear faster) with 4 players(can be done with 3 as well). Player A will be the leecher. Players B-C-D will clear the rift.

Once the rift is opened, Player A will zone in with the group to kill 10 + mobs. after 10+ mobs he will port to town and stay there for the whole rift while players B-C-D clears the rift. For some reasons, you get 50x+ more xp while in town than while in the rift. You get even more XP with an XP pool and +XP gear (hellfire ring, leoric crown with ruby, etc). Once the rift is cleared you switch roles.. Player B becomes the leecher and players A-C-D clear the next rift.

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100m Gold/hour farm

With the addition of new gem Boon of the Hoarder from Goblin rift you can get insane gold drops. It offers 25% chance +1.5*level that every monster you kill will drop piles of gold.

Best place to farm gold atm is Halls of Agony level 2. I farm with jade harvester WD T6 and with rank 33gem (74.5%) and +7k gold find every mob i kill drops around 70-250k gold.
Another zone worth looking into is Arreat creater but it is lot harder.

Even with worse gear and gold set you shoud be able to get to 30-50m gold/hour easy.
I feel like with even better items i shoud be able to get up to 150-200m gold/hour.

I highly advise you to use Goldwrap belt as it gives you enaugh toughness to facetank everything they throw at you the moment you kill one monster and get proc.

Here is a good guide for this (and optional equipment to get more gold)

 

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I found out pretty useful tool which shows the chances of upgrading the gem on diablofuns website.

Here is the picture for levels 1-25. The chances remain the same for all levels.

Here is the adress of the tool itself:
Diablo 3 - Gem Upgrade Chance

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Diablo 3 XP “Cheat” Quests Finally Removed

Those hoping for a quick trip up the levels in Blizzard’s Diablo 3 Seasons will be disappointed: the company has announced yesterday that the controversial quests, which allowed players to collect vast amounts of XP by barely doing anything, would be removed. The problems with the said quests surfaced immediately after the launch of Seasons. When the first level 70 characters turned up less than two hours after the launch, it became obvious that the quests amounted to a major bug.

While the removal of the cheesy quests called “The Matriarch’s Bones”, “The Jar of Souls”, “The Miser’s Will” and “A Miner’s Gold” is certainly welcome news, the only question still on fans’ minds is: how come it took so long when the problem was so obvious?

Accompanying the announcement concerning the removal of the said “cheese” quests, there was a lengthy explanation from Blizzard, in which they sought to re-assure players who had used the technique of abusing the above said quests, that they wouldn’t be penalized and that no Conquest credits or ranks would be lost on account of the hot fix on one hand. On the other hand, they explained that the said quests would only be removed from the bounty pool and not the game itself.

Furthermore, the quests will apparently be back for bounties of future seasons, obviously in a tweaked format. They did not say when the quests would be re-introduced to the bounty pool, but according to the announcement, they may be re-added for Season 2.

Blizzard then went on to explain that the goal behind the removal of the said quests was to encourage players to explore the content and to try various other ways of forwarding their Seasonal Conquest.

The bottom line: with the right tweaks in place, Season 2 promises to be more challenging and therefore much more engaging than the Season 1 fiasco.

Philip Thalberg is a GosuGamers member. GosuGamers have been around since 2001 and the site has been dealing with the eSports side of various competitive onlinegames.

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Top 100 leaderboard-worthy passives & skills

I suck at figuring out which builds aren't terrible and whatever, so I wrote a script to scrape the US leaderboards and tell me which passives/skills are popular.

Without further ado......

## COUNT

    class     | count | min_tier | max_tier |      avg_tier

--------------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------

 barbarian    |    96 |       32 |       38 | 33.3333333333333333

 crusader     |    92 |       32 |       37 | 33.5217391304347826

 demon-hunter |    92 |       38 |       40 | 38.4130434782608696 (WHO SAW THAT COMING????)

 monk         |    97 |       32 |       37 | 33.4329896907216495

 witch-doctor |    93 |       33 |       38 | 33.6344086021505376

 wizard       |    98 |       33 |       38 | 33.7346938775510204

## PASSIVES (>5 users)

    class     |        skill         | count

--------------+----------------------+-------

 barbarian    | Boon of Bul-Kathos   |    85

 barbarian    | Ruthless             |    78

 barbarian    | Rampage              |    74

 barbarian    | Berserker Rage       |    55

 barbarian    | Superstition         |    31

 barbarian    | Brawler              |    21

 barbarian    | Tough as Nails       |    15

 barbarian    | Weapons Master       |    10

 barbarian    | Bloodthirst          |     8

 crusader     | Heavenly Strength    |    89

 crusader     | Finery               |    75

 crusader     | Holy Cause           |    72

 crusader     | Long Arm of the Law  |    68

 crusader     | Indestructible       |    25

 crusader     | Wrathful             |    14

 crusader     | Lord Commander       |    10

 demon-hunter | Cull the Weak        |    83

 demon-hunter | Ballistics           |    83

 demon-hunter | Awareness            |    63

 demon-hunter | Steady Aim           |    60

 demon-hunter | Custom Engineering   |    50

 demon-hunter | Tactical Advantage   |    13

 demon-hunter | Archery              |    11

 monk         | Alacrity             |    73

 monk         | Beacon of Ytar       |    62

 monk         | Seize the Initiative |    59

 monk         | Sixth Sense          |    49

 monk         | Unity                |    27

 monk         | Transcendence        |    13

 monk         | Momentum             |     6

 witch-doctor | Pierce the Veil      |    69

 witch-doctor | Grave Injustice      |    68

 witch-doctor | Spirit Vessel        |    61

 witch-doctor | Creeping Death       |    51

 witch-doctor | Midnight Feast       |    34

 witch-doctor | Fetish Sycophants    |    24

 witch-doctor | Gruesome Feast       |    22

 witch-doctor | Fierce Loyalty       |    16

 witch-doctor | Zombie Handler       |    11

 witch-doctor | Tribal Rites         |     9

 witch-doctor | Jungle Fortitude     |     7

 wizard       | Blur                 |    90

 wizard       | Illusionist          |    83

 wizard       | Unstable Anomaly     |    70

 wizard       | Conflagration        |    45

 wizard       | Evocation            |    39

 wizard       | Elemental Exposure   |    26

 wizard       | Dominance            |    11

 wizard       | Glass Cannon         |    11

 wizard       | Audacity             |     8

## ACTIVES (>5 users)

    class     |          skill           |          rune           | count

--------------+--------------------------+-------------------------+-------

 barbarian    | Wrath of the Berserker   | Insanity                |    86

 barbarian    | Call of the Ancients     | The Council Rises       |    81

 barbarian    | Furious Charge           | Battering Ram           |    48

 barbarian    | Battle Rage              | Bloodshed               |    47

 barbarian    | Earthquake               | Molten Fury             |    41

 barbarian    | Frenzy                   | Maniac                  |    40

 barbarian    | Leap                     | Death from Above        |    36

 barbarian    | War Cry                  | Impunity                |    35

 barbarian    | Ignore Pain              | Iron Hide               |    34

 barbarian    | Sprint                   | Marathon                |    16

 barbarian    | Battle Rage              | Marauder's Rage         |    15

 barbarian    | War Cry                  | Invigorate              |     9

 barbarian    | Ignore Pain              | Ignorance is Bliss      |     8

 barbarian    | Call of the Ancients     | Together as One         |     8

 barbarian    | Wrath of the Berserker   | Striding Giant          |     7

 barbarian    | Ignore Pain              | Contempt for Weakness   |     7

 barbarian    | Ground Stomp             | Wrenching Smash         |     6

 barbarian    | Whirlwind                | Volcanic Eruption       |     6

 crusader     | Akarat's Champion        | Prophet                 |    80

 crusader     | Laws of Valor            | Unstoppable Force       |    78

 crusader     | Heaven's Fury            | Fires of Heaven         |    72

 crusader     | Steed Charge             | Endurance               |    72

 crusader     | Shield Glare             | Divine Verdict          |    48

 crusader     | Provoke                  | Too Scared to Run       |    45

 crusader     | Provoke                  | Charged Up              |    26

 crusader     | Iron Skin                | Steel Skin              |    26

 crusader     | Shield Glare             | Zealous Glare           |    15

 crusader     | Laws of Valor            | Critical                |    13

 crusader     | Provoke                  | Hit Me                  |     8

 crusader     | Akarat's Champion        | Fire Starter            |     8

 crusader     | Phalanx                  | Stampede                |     7

 crusader     | Condemn                  | Vacuum                  |     6

 crusader     | Fist of the Heavens      | Heaven's Tempest        |     6

 demon-hunter | Multishot                | Arsenal                 |    89

 demon-hunter | Companion                | Wolf Companion          |    81

 demon-hunter | Sentry                   | Spitfire Turret         |    79

 demon-hunter | Elemental Arrow          | Frost Arrow             |    73

 demon-hunter | Cluster Arrow            | Maelstrom               |    67

 demon-hunter | Vault                    | Tumble                  |    57

 demon-hunter | Smoke Screen             | Healing Vapors          |    25

 demon-hunter | Cluster Arrow            | Loaded for Bear         |    21

 demon-hunter | Sentry                   | Polar Station           |    13

 demon-hunter | Impale                   | Chemical Burn           |     8

 demon-hunter | Companion                | Boar Companion          |     6

 demon-hunter | Smoke Screen             | Lingering Fog           |     6

 monk         | Way of the Hundred Fists | Fists of Fury           |    80

 monk         | Sweeping Wind            | Inner Storm             |    79

 monk         | Epiphany                 | Desert Shroud           |    73

 monk         | Mystic Ally              | Air Ally                |    43

 monk         | Mantra of Salvation      | Agility                 |    38

 monk         | Dashing Strike           | Radiance                |    37

 monk         | Breath of Heaven         | Infused with Light      |    28

 monk         | Mantra of Healing        | Time of Need            |    20

 monk         | Epiphany                 | Insight                 |    18

 monk         | Mystic Ally              | Fire Ally               |    18

 monk         | Cyclone Strike           | Implosion               |    17

 monk         | Dashing Strike           | Way of the Falling Star |    17

 monk         | Dashing Strike           | Quicksilver             |    12

 monk         | Dashing Strike           | Blinding Speed          |    10

 monk         | Blinding Flash           | Faith in the Light      |     8

 monk         | Serenity                 | Ascension               |     8

 monk         | Inner Sanctuary          | Forbidden Palace        |     8

 monk         | Mantra of Salvation      | Perseverance            |     7

 witch-doctor | Spirit Walk              | Jaunt                   |    80

 witch-doctor | Piranhas                 | Piranhado               |    68

 witch-doctor | Haunt                    | Resentful Spirits       |    51

 witch-doctor | Soul Harvest             | Siphon                  |    43

 witch-doctor | Locust Swarm             | Pestilence              |    41

 witch-doctor | Big Bad Voodoo           | Slam Dance              |    40

 witch-doctor | Horrify                  | Frightening Aspect      |    38

 witch-doctor | Summon Zombie Dogs       | Burning Dogs            |    24

 witch-doctor | Gargantuan               | Wrathful Protector      |    20

 witch-doctor | Fetish Army              | Tiki Torchers           |    18

 witch-doctor | Plague of Toads          | Rain of Toads           |    15

 witch-doctor | Piranhas                 | Frozen Piranhas         |    14

 witch-doctor | Fetish Army              | Legion of Daggers       |    12

 witch-doctor | Summon Zombie Dogs       | Life Link               |    12

 witch-doctor | Locust Swarm             | Devouring Swarm         |     8

 witch-doctor | Plague of Toads          | Addling Toads           |     7

 witch-doctor | Summon Zombie Dogs       | Rabid Dogs              |     7

 witch-doctor | Spirit Walk              | Honored Guest           |     6

 witch-doctor | Soul Harvest             | Vengeful Spirit         |     6

 wizard       | Energy Armor             | Prismatic Armor         |    80

 wizard       | Magic Weapon             | Force Weapon            |    67

 wizard       | Blizzard                 | Apocalypse              |    66

 wizard       | Black Hole               | Blazar                  |    52

 wizard       | Hydra                    | Mammoth Hydra           |    41

 wizard       | Mirror Image             | Duplicates              |    36

 wizard       | Teleport                 | Safe Passage            |    32

 wizard       | Black Hole               | Event Horizon           |    29

 wizard       | Hydra                    | Blazing Hydra           |    25

 wizard       | Teleport                 | Wormhole                |    22

 wizard       | Meteor                   | Molten Impact           |    20

 wizard       | Energy Twister           | Gale Force              |    14

 wizard       | Frost Nova               | Bone Chill              |    11

 wizard       | Teleport                 | Calamity                |    10

 wizard       | Black Hole               | Spellsteal              |     8

 wizard       | Explosive Blast          | Chain Reaction          |     8

 wizard       | Energy Armor             | Force Armor             |     8

disclaimer: since the leaderboard rankings are linked to profiles and not heroes, I had to guess which hero a player used to get the ranking, in some cases I got that wrong so there's less than 100 records for each class. Some of this data might be shoddy or wrong or whatever, so take it with a pinch of salt.

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