Is RF actually the fastest build out there for mapping?

Now before you get your pitchforks out and start saying well XXXX build is WAY better, please understand I am asking a legitamate question because I don't have a ton of experience and have made some observations.

Let me be clear, there are LOTS of builds that kill trash and bosses faster. That being said, I believe the speed of mapping is not just about killing, but also is based on lowering your non-killing down time- i.e. while you are picking up loot.

From my limited experience, RF is the best of both worlds because you can shield charge around the map and pretty much insta kill anything except bosses AND while you are looting you are still killing as stuff continues to implode on your RF. I have watched a lot of videos on "fast" builds and inevitably what I see is a build that can destroy mobs but is not efficient on picking up loot down time or is a build that has to stay very ranged and therefore while it kills quickly, it has to make slow advances across a map.

I like playing with new builds and so if you have a build that is a monster (legacy gear is fine as I generally play on standard- just nothing crazy expensive over 100ex please) I would like to hear about it and understand why the loot speed issue is not a problem for the build. Mind you, I run a ton of IIQ/IIR, 2xbreaches, chisel, alch, 5 sextants t13s+ so there is a lot of time spent picking up quality loot.

Thanks for helping me understand this better.

RF will never be the absolute fastest. If you like the idea of being able to loot and open chests while killing, totems/minions is even better. Still won't even approach a well built wander or other META speed clear build.

If AoE/ES was unnerfed and you were doing some sort of ungodly low life thing then it is possible to achieve amazing speed but as it stands RF remains one of the slowest builds in the game for map clears.

Kinetic blast wanders are the fastest. Or you can go tornado shot with Windripper if you want a full MF build.

lots of builds.. I dont think anyone can tell you what is "the best", as noone played all of the possible builds and its variants..

Lighting strike has insane coverage, combine it (or whatever with similar coverage) with something like 150%+ movement speed a voila..

most wasted time does not come from picking up loot (you are not supposed to pick up lot of things actually), it comes from looting and doing other stuff in town/HO

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Nephalim wrote:

If AoE/ES was unnerfed and you were doing some sort of ungodly low life thing then it is possible to achieve amazing speed but as it stands RF remains one of the slowest builds in the game for map clears.

That's totally not fair, it's way faster than 90% of melee skills.

But it'll never compare to ranged builds.

I tend to agree that KB is the fastest right now.

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codetaku wrote:

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Nephalim wrote:

If AoE/ES was unnerfed and you were doing some sort of ungodly low life thing then it is possible to achieve amazing speed but as it stands RF remains one of the slowest builds in the game for map clears.

I tend to agree that KB is the fastest right now.

Wanderp is the biggest sheeple build in recent history and what's funny is that it is so delicate and expensive that most of the people attempting to do are left with a broken build and wasted currency.
It is on par with people trying to do harbinger bows + signal shot builds during the es meta in terms of success rate.

There is nothing wands can do that bows can't do just as well for far less the cost and mental investment at least on a temp league where ridiculous mirrored and legacy items are not readily available.

I appreciate the input. Please help me understand how the ranged builds which require active killing mechanisms (you have to stop and shoot) and don't do damage while looting are actually faster at mapping.

I agree that looting should be kept to a minimum if you are focusing on exp, but if you are focusing on loot runs I think a reasonable amount of looting is necessary. I probably pick up an inventory full a t13 clear. Is that really too much? If not, I just don't get how these fast builds compete when you factor in looting time.

I admit, I have almost no experience in a range build other than from back in the beta days but still, the videos I watch seem to show awesome kill speed but an overall mechanic that results in more time spent.

Looting takes 2 seconds if you're slow. This feels like you had a meek idea and thought it was clever. Not to be rude, but I don't wanna insult you by sugarcoating.

I don't know if you just haven't seen the right videos or what. A good speed clear is finishing a map in less than two minutes without breaking a sweat.

Are you filtering bad bases? Picking up trash currency like jeweller's/shards?

Another question I have is on your point of "I'm still killing while looting". Does it really help you that much? Let's walk through a couple of scenarios.

You have your RF build. You walk up to a pack of melee with a pack of ranged half a screen further past them. You charge into group one and they melt. Do you stop there and pick up loot while the ranged are shooting at you? If so that can be dangerous. More likely you charge to that ranged group, then have to backtrack to the melee group's loot.

The wander just clicks once, clears the melee pack, the ranged pack and three more packs that aren't even on screen yet. They have 400%+ MS so they are three screens away while you are picking up scraps.

I'm not saying one is better. Do what is fun for you. But don't delude yourself that RF is fast. It's not.