A Definitive Guide to CR ($0, $200, $500, $1000, Max!)

Submitted 22 hours ago

Real figures about power scaling in this Reddit are sorely lacking, tbh, especially in the context of swiping. Lucky for y’all, I have some here, along with a definitive explanation for CR, which isn’t really discussed much in game despite how important it is. Basically, this is all the stuff I wanted to know but didn’t until I sat down to figure it out, so for anyone who is in my shoes, here you go!

What is CR?

So first some data on how CR, specifically PVE Combat Rating (there’s also a PVP CR, but it’s fairly meaningless), works. Your CR is a strength rating for your character, but also so much more than just that. It is calculated in a simple way - total base stats (NOT including resonance) plus legendary gem direct CR boost plus Helliquary direct CR boost. Nothing else counts, full stop. Regular gems, Paragon boosts, HP boosts, etc. - none of those count towards PVE CR! Only the five base stats, ie str, int, fort, vit, will.

What does CR do?

In PVP, the effect of CR is fairly negligible, although it’s fairly useful as a general barometer of comparative player strength. In PVE, however, CR’s direct effects can be huge. This is because CR is an artificial barrier that Blizzard has created, which is quite ‘unique’. Basically, if your CR is below the recommended CR when fighting PVE, the game applies what can be a massive debuff to you, causing you to take more damage and deal less damage to mobs.

How much is the debuff?

In PVP, CR is controlled to have only a max of a 10% impact - in an 8v8, not a huge deal. So how big is the debuff in PVE? Well, you take exactly 1% more damage per point of CR ‘missing’ between you and the recommended CR. If you are CR 2000 in Hell 3, which recommends 2120 CR, then you will take 120% more damage. Damage dealt is calculated using a different sliding scale that isn’t as easily quantified, but as an example, at a 360 CR difference, you will deal 79% less damage, ie be debuffed down to dealing 21% damage.

So this is why whales are blowing through PVE leaderboards fast - not because their stats are so much stronger, but because their higher CR means that they are less subject to the massive debuffs! When they already have higher base stats, their higher CR means that they are only subject to say just a 30% damage dealt debuff where a F2P is might be subject to a 90% debuff. This, obviously, is very significant.

But why?

So why did Blizzard do it this way? In short, I believe they are trying to thread the needle. Contrary to what I originally thought, in PVE at least there IS a significant difference between F2P and swipers. However, Blizzard also doesn’t want to ‘excessively’ trivialize content - hence, instead of making mobs (and whale strength) exponentially more powerful, they instead use a much slower power growth to set a baseline and then uses the CR debuff to gatekeep. This also has the benefit of making it so that PVP isn’t completely whacked out - more on this in a separate post (the outlook is better).

Anything at your CR, you should blow through. Anything PVE within 100 CR, you can do with a bit of work. Anything within 200 CR can be done with smart play, but will be very slow and probably not worth doing (unless your group is carrying you, ie dungeons or Lassal). Above 200 CR, just not realistic even if you can technically accomplish it, unless it’s for one-time rewards (Challenge Rifts, Path of Blood). Your time is probably better spent grinding to the next gear tier which will give you higher stats (and hence higher CR), which will reduce the debuff and make challenging content much more reasonable. Or, of course, swipe.

How fast can I increase CR after Paragon?

Assuming P30-P60 is the same as P1-P30, your gear won’t change that much - stat ranges seem fairly static on gear dropped in each tier (Normal, Hell 1, Hell 2, etc.). Therefore, the bulk of your CR gains will come from Helliquary, blacksmith level ups, legendary gem level ups, and (if you are super lucky) triple-stat equip. This… will be very slow. Be prepared. As far as I can tell, each Paragon level up on average is expected to be worth 20-25 CR points, with your first 60 regular levels worth 520. The higher you go, the less the Paragon level is worth. Note that these are averages - generally, the increases actually come at the breakpoints as you tier up (H1, H2, H3, etc.).

You can get a total of around 1400 CR points through legendary gems, so an absolute max-out would be the equivalent of roughly ~70 Paragon levels.

…What if I open my wallet? Show me the money!

Okay. Now we come to it. How much money do you need for a CR increase? One of the criticisms of my previous posts was that at $200, I hadn’t spent enough to have sufficient firsthand knowledge. So - fine, fuck it, two days ago I went ahead and dropped $800 more, all in the name of science, trying lots of different gem combos (that I eventually fed to my ?/5 gems). This was more meant for the upcoming resonance/ PVP post, but I thought it may be useful here as well. Shit on me if you wish, but know that you are shitting on science.

I tried to be efficient, and along the way I took notes. I also spoke to several whales in the server about how much they spent. They gave what I feel to be truthful answers - it matched with my napkin math, and whales tend to be fairly honest to other swipers because there’s no concern about judgment. Everyone in that community just trying to figure out how much they should spend to be at a happy place. The below are for P30+ necromancers.

Zero gem baseline - CR 1368. Me. All items P30 or higher, only one 3-attribute item. Using the 520+25x=1368 formula, we get P34 - close enough! Can farm Hell 2 with ease.

F2P/Battlepass - CR 1456. Me. A mix of 1 and 2 gems at low rank. This requires about 30 total gem power-equivalents (including the base value of the gems themselves). P37 equivalent.

$200 - CR 1608. Me. Three ?/5 gems leveled to rank 2, one 2 leveled to rank 4, one 1 leveled to rank 10, one 1 leveled to rank 8. The total value in gem power, about 610 iirc - this was ‘cheaper’ because of the various bundles. This will take about 6 months of true F2P farming, based on some posts I have seen. P43 equivalent.

$500 - CR 1716. Me. Four ?/5 gems leveled to rank 3, one 1 at rank 10, a 2 at rank 4. Total value in gem power, about 850, with about 200 leftover gem power. P48 equivalent.

$1000 - CR 1842. Me. Four ?/5 gems leveled to rank 4, a 1 at rank 10, a 2 at rank 6. Total gem power, about 1650, with about 150 leftover gem power. P53 equivalent.

$1600 - CR 1986. NOT ME. Necro friend 1 with similar equip, self-reported spend. Two 4/5 gems at rank 5, rest at rank 4. Total gem power, about 2600. P59 equivalent.

~$5000 - CR 2254. NOT ME. Necro friend 2 with similar equip, self-reported spend - had three 5 at rank 6, and the others at rank 5. Total gem power, about about 6000. CAVEAT - he actually self-reported spending about $10k, but I believe he “wasted” a lot of money buying at least one of his two perfect 5/5 gems from auction house (imo, not worth it - difference compared to 4/5 is negligible). I also know he has a lot of left over gems. Real spend for his set (excluding cost of buying 5/5), probably around $5000, so that’s why I set it as. Switch to 22 CR/Paragon level by now, P79 equivalent - right around the money for Hell 3.

SIMULATED $35,000 - CR 2848. Simulated Necro, six 5 at rank 10. Total gem power, around 40,000. FYI Hell 3 starts at 2120, while Hell 4 is 3250 - so you’d still be doing the same open world content as the $5000 dude, just be farther along in rifts and what not. Oh - and this isn’t including awakened gem resonance costs, because those do not impact CR, afaik. Switch to 20 CR/Paragon, P116 equivalent.

Final Takeaways

First, each gem point is worth just slightly under a dollar - which makes sense. A ten-pull costs around $25, and on average you will get around 30 gem points (45% chance for a 32 point gem, plus 9 more gems worth 1 or 4 points).

Second, from $0-$200, each point of CR boost will cost around $1.33 - because bundles. From $200-$500, each point will cost $3. From $500 to $1000, each point costs $4. From $1000 to $1500, each point will cost almost $4.5. And from $1500 to $5,000, each point will cost $12 (!!!) due to the massive ramp-up cost for 5 gems at ranks five and six.

In other words, the more you swipe, the slower your rate of unpaid/natural progression will be, as the costs increase astronomically. As for maxing out CR? From $5000 to $35,000 each CR point costs about $50. Whew!

Hope this is useful and that I got my math right! Tomorrow I’ll move onto resonance and pvp… it’s actually simpler.