Build Guide
Skill Rotation:
The 6-piece bonus from the Firebird's Finery set will scale your damage and defense with each burning enemy near you, thus your goal should always be to get as many enemies burning as you can. Alternating between Disintegrate Convergence, and Electrocute Forked Lightening is the best way to spread the fire, and ensure maximum bonus from the Firebird's set. Casting Disintegrate will also cast Blizzard Apocalypse, raining fire from the sky thanks to the legendary effect of the Etched Sigil source. In addition, Casting either Disintegrate or Electrocute will have a chance to spark the burn effect from the Magic Weapon Ignite rune. Mowing down enemies with Disintegrate should ignite most of them, as they will take damage from Disintegrate, Blizzard, and Magic Weapon. If an enemy is still not burning, a second or two of Electrocute should do the trick. You will also have passive buffs from Magic Weapon Ignite and Ice Armor Crystalize, as well as great mobility from Teleport Safe Passage.
Active Skills
Disintegrate Convergence should be pretty self explanatory in the build. As one of the two options for a channeled fire spell, it will continually trigger the legendary effect of the Etched Sigil source, casting Blizzard Apocalypse every second that you are channeling. The other alternative is Arcane Torrent Flame Ward, which trades away some AOE potential for some additional defense.
Your second main active skill, Electrocute Forked Lightening, serves to spread fire, replenish Arcane Power, and trigger the set bonus from the Bastions of Will set rings. There are a few alternatives, but the speed of Electrocute and the ability to hit many targets without aiming is outmatched at generating AP and spreading fire. Spectral Blade Flame Blades will give you a massive fire damage boost, but will put you much closer to the action.
Blizzard Apocalypse takes it's place on the bar as the only damage dealing spender for the Etched Sigil to choose from, ensuring that every second of Disintegrate is another cast of raining fire. Its place here as a massive area spell ensures the fire is spread to as many victims as possible. Arcane Orb Scorch would be the only potential alternative, but the area damage of Blizzard Apocalypse is unmatched in this slot. (NOTE: Many builds using the Etched Sigil also use Explosive Blast. While the damage of Explosive Blast can be massive, skills with cool downs simply don't fit well in this build)
The fourth and final source of fire damage comes from the Ignite rune of the Magic Weapon skill. While the 20% damage bonus of Magic Weapon Force Weapon is tempting, the extra fire damage ensures that you maintain max stacks from the Firebird's 6-piece set effect.
The best armor for this build is Ice Armor Crystalize. With an already impressive damage reduction due to high intelligence, physical damage is the focus of our armor. Further increased by the Crystalize rune, this armor is perfect for the build, and is further amplified by the Halo of Arlyse ring.
Finally, for mobility, Teleport Safe Passage. With the Aether Walker wand, Teleport no longer has a cool down, rather a 25 AP cost. As AP is no issue in this build, you can safely bounce around the map, gaining mobility usually reserved for Demon Hunters, and also gaining 25% damage reduction.
Passive Skills
With the channeled nature of the build, you will most likely be attacking from range. Power Hungry gives you a solid 30% damage boost when attacking from greater than 30 yards away. If you opt for the fire damage buff from Spectral Blade Flame Blades, you will likely want to swap this for Audacity, the same damage boost to enemies within 15 yards of your character.
For defenses, Blur will help with damage reduction, and Unstable Anomaly will keep you alive when you should have died (especially important for a Hardcore character).
The final passive slot depends on the content you play and the gear you have. If you are feeling extra tanky, take Glass Cannon, trading away defenses for damage. If you are feeling rather squishy, take dominance, gaining a 20% absorb shield as long as you keep killing.
Alternatives: If you are struggling with Arcane Power (shouldn't be a problem, unless you don't have The Shame of Delsere) you can take Astral Presence or Prodigy to boost your Arcane Power reserves and regeneration. Conflagration also fits in nicely as every enemy you hit will have a 6% higher chance of grit hit, from all source.
Gear
The Firebird's Finery 6-piece set is essential to this build. Icy-Vines author Deadset wrote a great description of this sit:
To clarify the Firebird set bonus, dealing Fire damage with any character skill (weapon damage and item procs are excluded) cause the enemy to burn for 1000% weapon damage over a 3-second period. Doing fire damage with any other skill will add to the DoT damage in 1000% increments, and reset its duration. Once the enemy is burning from three separate fire skills, he will ignite with an indefinite 3000% weapon damage per second DoT — which does not imply, of course, that you should stop attacking that enemy. There is an accompanying visual over the head of the monster in the shape of a flame, once the permanent DoT is applied. The DoT will not crit (similarly to other DoTs in the game), but will factor in your crit stats into an average number. The DoT will display every 0.8 seconds and will not interact with attack speed in any way. Moving more than two screens away from the burning enemy will make the DoT fall off, but coming back in range will resume it.
The stacking fire damage and the increase in you characters damage and defense for each enemy ignited is impressive, and is the central theme of this build. Burn Everything. In addition to the Firebird's Finery, the Etched Sigil source is the only other required item for this build, and ensures that when you can Disintegrate, you also cast Blizzard.
Damage is increased by the other set, Bastions of Will, which grants you a 125% damage bonus, so long as you effectively alternate between Disintegrate and Electrocute. Damage is further increased by the Mantle of Channeling, the Deathwish sword and the Eye of Etlich amulet (fire skill damage). For defense, the Halo of Arlyse substantially increases the effectiveness of your Ice Armor, and Ashnagarr's Blood Bracers similarly increase the effectiveness of your Dominance shield. Defenses are further increased while channeling Disintegrate thanks to the Mantle of Channeling. The Shame of Delsere is essential for Arcane Power regeneration, as well as a faster spread of fire with electrocute. The Aether Walker grants you mobility usually reserved only for Demon Hunters, at the expense of some Arcane Power, which is no issue for this build.
Gems
The Taeguk gem finds a natural home in this largely channeled build, increasing your damage and defenses when you channel Disintegrate. Pain enhancer serves as a straight damage buff. For defensive gem, if you have high healing, take Esoteric Alteration, or, if you have low healing, take Molten Wildebeests' Gizzard. For your other sockets, put an Emerald in Weapon, Amethyst in Helm, and Topaz everywhere else.
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