I’ve been chipping away at the Diablo III season, and I’ve made really good progress. Actually, last weekend I did amazingly well – my seasonal crusader is now wearing an almost complete set of best-in-slot items. I just need to find a few items for the cube; namely the Convention of Elements ring and the Blood Brother sword, and he’s “done”. Of course, after that there’s finding ancient or better-rolled versions of his gear, but I’ll be happy just have him at that point.

Screenshot 2016-01-24 17.16.56](http://www.adamantlycomplacent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screenshot-2016-01-24-17.16.56.jpg)

A seasonal and personal best. Even if I don’t get any further item upgrades, I feel I could push from here to GR60.

At the end of season 4, I set myself some new goals, and I’ve made good progress on them. So far I’ve reached Greater Rift 55, and I’m completing Nephalem Rifts on Torment X with ease. I did wonder how much of that was down to items being rebalanced and general “power creep”, so I hopped back onto my witch doctor from last season who was at GR40, just to see how things felt. They still felt very slow and difficult. I’m sure a little bit of power creep has helped the crusader along, but he’s so much more powerful than the witch doctor already, even at a lower paragon level. I’ve been incredibly lucky with some of my items; several of which are pretty much perfectly rolled. I’d say my worst item, unfortunately, is my weapon, a Pig Sticker. It has amazing attack speed (which really is the main consideration for a Thorns build), but its other stats could be better.

Screenshot 2016-01-23 18.16.24](http://www.adamantlycomplacent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Screenshot-2016-01-23-18.16.24.jpg)

I’m now equally as progressed in season 5 as I ended season 4, but much better geared.

Here’s my updated goals checklist:

  • Reach Greater Rift 50
  • Get at least one stage further in Season 5 than I did in Season 4
  • Complete at least one Conquest in Season 5
  • Beat Malthael on Torment X difficulty

So the next thing I need to give some serious consideration to is completing one of the Conquests – that’ll let me tick off both of my remaining personal goals. I’m going to look at doing either the 50 million gold streak, or trying to reach GR45 with no set items. I tried that using a jumble of legendaries from my stash, but I got destroyed. It needs some more planning and co-ordination. Luckily, running a Nephalem Rift on Torment X seems to give me five or six legendaries on average, so I can start putting together a set with some complimentary bonuses. I can also swap out one of my gems for a Boon of the Hoarder and start levelling that up too, with the aim of finding a Gilded Baron to explode in a shower of cash. I killed one on TX the other day and it dropped 35 million gold, so with some bonus gold find (+42.857%, I believe), I might be able to hit the required 50 million from one encounter.