Build Guide
Mirrorball is the absolute requirement, without it the first skill choice is obsolete. Make sure to check out zirkaloy's comments below for alternatives, especially if you don't have Mirrorball (use Spectral Blade - Flame Blades)!Prioritization of stats:
1) Cooldown reduction on paragon, shoulders, offhand, and gloves are mandatory. You might also consider CDR on rings; don't get it on amulet.
2) Attack speed is almost totally useless for this spell, Explosive Blast does not benefit from it. Do not sacrifice any stat for it.
3) While the best stats on amulet/rings are CHD, fire damage, intelligence, and CHC (in this order), you should also look out for jewelry pieces with at least two of these stats and a socket - for legendary gems in 2.1.
4) Do avoid high life, focus on mitigation. 300-400k life is perfectly fine; get high armor rolls (550+) on Tal's chest and Captain's legs.
5) A perfect Tal's chest would come with a high armor roll (550+) or elite damage reduction; in that case you can roll off the attack speed to the respective other stat and have a maximum mitigation Tal's chest, or re-roll the attack speed to Explosive Blast damage (don't do this if it's your only Tal's chest).
6) Try to get Explosive Blast damage on chest, shoulders, and source.
7) For a detailed stats breakdown per slot, check thischeat sheet.
For amulet, Tal's is just the best, but any other will do - as long as it has decent stats. For belt, String of Ears is the defensive option, Witching Hour the offensive option, and Tal's just to complete the set bonus.
My view on your build:
- MM does not synergize very well with EB because of its range. On top of that, MM (without +% damage) does not deal much damage and applying the stacks of conflagrate is too slow to be efficient. I believe Spectral Blade (Flame Blade) is a better spell. Its easy to quickly reach 20+ stacks.
- If you don't get MM, then replace the Mirror Ball with a good Tal Rasha. I was also thinking playing around with a Cosmic Strand.
- You can use Frost Nova instead of Magic Weapon. Bone Chill for a burst of damage, or Cold Snap for more Crowd Control.
- I use Ice Climbers as boots, for the immune Immobilize effects: Freeze, Slow (from spider-webs, chill on the ground...), Jail etc. Therefore, I use the Captain Crimson belt. NB: The Captain Crimson set can be replaced by a Vigilante Belt if it still rolls CDR on live.
- Elemental Damage on the weapon does not trigger a meteor from Tal Rasha, since it does not deal any actual damage (except if you have Nephalem Glory). It does trigger the Elemental Exposure though.
- If you are using Explosive Blast (Fire) with Black Hole (Arcane), Frost Nova (Cold) and Tal Rasha 4p set, you can have 3 bonus meteors.
Its a nice build overall. I use it a bit differently:http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Zirkaloy-1968/hero/25339831
All your options are totally viable variants of Chainpocalpyse. Great suggestions for alternative, I'll add a comment to redirect readers to read your advice - make sure you post your builds as well, as it makes searching easier (if people search for Wand of Woh, but NOT Mirrorball).
Char:http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Feh-1783/hero/15306183 (black hole, not archon as in skill setup there).
Stats:http://www.diabloprogress.com/hero/feh-1783/Akebrett/15306183
Any tips for improvement?
I'd like to add though, that this build is also indeed viable with arcane instead of fire if you've got a Moonlight Ward. In skill setup just swap EB rune to Unleashed and MM rune to Charged Blast and swap gear for arcane equivalents. I got lucky and found a max 25% arcane MW + arcane andariels + arcane soj within a few days, and by swapping bracer to arcane I still ended up at ~80% elemental dmg. That has a potential to boost up to 95% (if lucky) after 2.1 when the arcane dmg on Moonlight Ward gets retroactively buffed to 30-40% arcane.
Edit: If you're lacking survivability, Hellcat Waistguard is surelly not the way to go. IAS isn't especially good, and you're sacrificing a lot of defensive stats in favour for it.
If you die too often then why the hell would you run Glass Canon? For 99% of WoW wizards, Glass Canon is not an option. There are a few who feel fine with it, but if you ever feel that you need more survivabilitydon't use Glass canon.
Regarding your gear, you have two many items that cost you important toughness stats for small damage boosts: Andariel's is a terrible glass canon item which offers absolutely zero survivability. The attack speed is useless for EB, and the 9% fire debuff is really bad. Get rid of your Andariel's (a 5% fire debuff Andy's and 6% CHC with the IAS rolled off to socket might be acceptable in rare cases, but it still makes you squishy). Cindercoat is also completely useless as you do never have any need for resource cost reduction, so you're sacrificing a decent secondary stat (e.g., 6-7% melee reduction) in addition to the additonal primary stat that a Tal's chest might offer. Also, the Hellcat Waistguard is not a good belt, as Arakai pointed out.
Overall, you have waaaaay too much useless attack speed (gloves, belt, helmet, RoRG) that you want to get rid of and replace with CDR or toughness stats (armor and all resist). That should get you to higher levels.
Way i play is:
Teleport and stun enemies with calamity (i dont use the illusionist passive cause i feel my Cdr makes up for it)
When the teleport stun is about to drop i frost em, shortly after BlackHole.
Here you can run away a bit and teleport back to the pack for another stun.
Rince and repeat and stuff should die fast enough + you should very quickly feel good about the build.
Im spamming EB all the time during this ofc.
Paragon points:
Core - Movement + Int
Offense - CDR (PRIO) + whatever you are lacking from gear CHD or CHC.
Defense - Armor + All Res
Utility - Area dmg + Life on hit (nothing else to put the points in)
If you are low on health sub 300k ish just ad some points in Vit or Life.
My profile:http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Adrii-2973/hero/35790989
Again im no theorycrafting expert, i play around with stuff and see what i feel works better and whats FUN.
Good Luck! and if you have any questions just add me on battle.net
It feels annoying that impossible-to-find items are required for the best builds, like the Wand of Woh or the Fate of the Fell. I'd like to try this build, but the weapon is non-existent.
When 2.2 comes out, will Firebird's be a better option than the mixture of tal/aughild/crimson? Especially because of the new 4-piece bonus that makes enemies explode for 400% weapon damage in a 10yrd radius when you hit them with a fire skill. Surely that, combined with the 6-piece bonus from firebird's which will now get to 3000% almost instantly would provide a MUCH higher damage output than what is shown here.