Some Ramblings about Diablo 3

So... Diablo 3 Season 9 Chapter 4. I'm playing a barbarian. Good things that happened today:

I'm currently wearing two pieces of the Immortal King set, where the 2-piece set bonus is "Call of the Ancients lasts until they die." (Normally they only hang around for 20 seconds at a time.)

Meanwhile, my hired minion, the Scoundrel, is wearing a token that says "Follower cannot die." Somehow the game has interpreted this to mean that the ancients are also followers, therefore they also can't die.

So of course the rune I'm using with Call of the Ancients is "50% of damage dealt to me instead goes to the Ancients."

Thus: I have four really good invincible minions following me around at all times (3 ancients and the scoundrel), and I take half damage.

I'm also wearing four pieces of the Might of the Earth set. The set bonus at 2 pieces is "Timers for Leap, Avalanche, Ground Stomp, and Earthquake are reduced by spending fury." The set bonus at 4 pieces is "Leap causes Earthquakes."

Earthquake is one of the high dollar powers. It normally has both a lengthy timer and a fury cost, but since it goes off with Leap, I don't have to put it in a slot and it doesn't cost fury. Leap has a default timer of 10 seconds, but with the 2-piece bonus, I can pretty much use it all the time.

And speaking of reducing the timer by spending fury...

I'm ALSO wearing two legendaries. One is bracers that say "Hammer of the Ancients is 50% faster and does 193% more damage." The other is a weapon that says "Hammer of the Ancients does 100% more damage" and "Hammer of the Ancients returns 25 fury when hitting 3 or fewer targets."

That last doesn't sound like much, until you remember that Hammer of the Ancients costs 20 fury. In practice, since I don't hit more than 3 targets at a time very often, it means Hammer of the Ancients is free. (And does 293% more damage.)

BUT, that fury is STILL SPENT before it's returned, which means that not only is it free, it reduces the timer for Leap, Avalanche, and Ground Stomp, all of which I'm using.

I have thus equipped Hammer of the Ancients (normally a high dollar power) as my default left-button attack. And I can go around with my four invincible minions hammering the crap out of everything. :D

To make things even better, one of the last things I found as I was wrapping up my playtime was a ring that says "set bonuses for one less set piece (minimum 2)." Meaning, I can get the 6-set bonus for Might of the Earth while only wearing 5 pieces. So... if I had the chest armor, I'd be wearing 5 pieces, and then I could keep on the hat from Immortal King and keep my Ancients...

Might of the Earth is the barbarian set to earn this season. I've earned 4 of them so far. I've found two others, so I do have 6 pieces, but two of them were boots. I tried to Kanai Cube the boots, but they turned into shoulders, and I already have those too. I just need to find more Forgotten Soul so I can try for the chest armor again. (Or finish Chapter 4 to earn the last two pieces, which I will be doing anyway because I'm going for the pet.)

This is the first time I've had a character that has been well-equipped enough to actually go beyond Chapter 4. (I play casual and usually solo.) There's not anything notable to earn past that point without doing a ton of work though.

I wonder if any of this post will make sense if I come back to read it ten years from now...