Alkaizer run definitely works for Archon. Keep 2 + Crater 2 are the spots where you sometimes get so many kills that you'll leave it with 2-3 minutes remaining on Archon buff. I personally don't cancel it for the rebuff but try to take at least 40s to the Fields of Slaughter because it sometimes may drop there. Core of Arreat and Tower are sometimes a bit more difficult, but it's still important to do them first because in these first ~4 minutes you get 4-5 NV. When I start the run and encounter serious problems (extremely annoying combo of phase beasts at the entrance to Azmodan), I even do a re-start; it takes ~15 seconds which is better than waiting for more than a minute for Archon to come back.
I've mostly been just running Field through bridge to siegebreaker, Keep level 2, then go for the keywarden. I don't like Core because the phasebeasts are just too annoying. I find the mob density of tower to be too low, though sometimes I still run there anyway because it often has 1-3 elites. If I don't really care too much about the key, I'll also run crater.
If you're having problem refreshing Archon, buy a cheap wand with 10 APoC, LoH, and low dps and do the same with OH. Switch to new weapon+OH and just spam WW. With that setup it only takes me 10s or so to refresh my Archon most of the time. I also prefer Illusionist over evocation for Teleport because then you can teleport pretty much every time you are hit, which is great against phasebeasts and tremors.
What about the events at the bridge and the two doors that are sometimes opened - do you go in there for the quick elite kill? And in general, do you try to stack up NV5 asap and then skip elites or are you killing every pack you find?
Sadly, I can't do the bridge anymore - annoying lag every time I get there, makes it totally unplayable...
I only do events if I'm under 5 NV since you don't always get rares from the elites. I always go in the storeroom for the elite if it's there at the end of the bridge. It takes very little time and is usually pretty easy as Archon. I don't skip any elites, or mobs, I just mow through everything as fast as possible.
I'm a bit baffled at how I can see wizards breaking even the 350k mark in terms of dps, it seems that every upgrade I look at nowadays costs hundreds of millions and according to spread sheets gives me a 10k dps gain at max.
Also how is it that high dps wizards can survive against reflect dmg mobs in high mp lvls, even in archon form? or god forbid if they come across them while archon is on cd for whatever reason.
/signed a slightly confused and oddly squishy wizard
We don't run Archon at high MP levels. To survive against reflect mobs, it doesn't matter what your DPS is or MP level, only your damage resistance. If you reach the point where you gain as much life as you lose, you can raise your DPS while keeping your damage reduction the same and the balance remains. Alternatively, if you just kill damage reflect elites before they do much of anything, because of high dps, then you don't have to worry about them much. That's partly what I do since my damage reduction isn't very high and I still lose life with over 4% life steal. That and pop a health pot or teleport to health globes.
Well, to be honest... there's a small difference between your DPS (it's just insane and most of us will probably never get there) and that of usual players like us ;-) And even if someone reaches that dps - having > 400k EHP at the same time is amazing, many people just go for the dps and wonder why they can't survive on higher MP levels.
I was wondering - when you run MP8, you can't possibly 1shot mobs. Given the steep HP increase for any enemy on higher MP levels, I'd like to know how you sustain Archon. When I run Archon in a group with 1-2 demon hunters, I have a lot of downtime - even just on MP2/3, and even though they try to let me have the killing blows whenever I'm in Archon. (I'm at ~110k (unbuffed)/150k (buffed) dps currently).
Well, to be honest... there's a small difference between your DPS (it's just insane and most of us will probably never get there) and that of usual players like us ;-) And even if someone reaches that dps - having > 400k EHP at the same time is amazing, many people just go for the dps and wonder why they can't survive on higher MP levels.
I was wondering - when you run MP8, you can't possibly 1shot mobs. Given the steep HP increase for any enemy on higher MP levels, I'd like to know how you sustain Archon. When I run Archon in a group with 1-2 demon hunters, I have a lot of downtime - even just on MP2/3, and even though they try to let me have the killing blows whenever I'm in Archon. (I'm at ~110k (unbuffed)/150k (buffed) dps currently).
I don't sustain Archon. The longest my Archon's been active on MP8 was 1 minute. The whole point is to make use of Arcane Destruction (1600% weapon damage). Activate Archon, beam everything while you can, spam Living Lightning, Diamond Skin, Frost Nova until Archon is up again, nuke, do your thing, repeat.
By doing that, I think anyone with decent enough EHP can use Archon at high MP levels as long as you have the crit chance to do so.
Why not use WW with that spec? Then you're basically a CM build with Archon for the 1600% blast, though I guess that requires APoC so that's probably the main reason to use a sig spell. I've actually been tempted to try adding Archon instead of Teleport for my last CM skill, though i'm not sure the overall dps gain will be any better than Magic Weapon or Slow Time would, especially since Slow Time works for the whole group.
I am playing a kitting build : blizzard/hydra, I would like to know if it is possible to change my build for an archon farming build ?
I have 3 millions gold only.
My profile : http: //eu.battle.net/d3/fr/profile/Sora-2690/hero/3127034
Yes, you should be able to run Archon with your dps, at MP0-1 for maximum efficiency, I would say. You might need a Life Steal weapon but you can try with just the Blood Magic run on Magic Weapon and see how it goes, since you can probably kill elites very fast at MP0 or 1.
1) In terms of XP and loot efficiency, I'd say MP1-2 would be optimal. You can probably run MP3 with the Archon build, but I don't see it being as efficient since mobs have like 50% more health than MP2.
2) In my experience, Echoing fury is probably overpriced for wizards because we don't get as much out of the +0.2x attacks per second as dual wielding classes. My guess is you'd get more dps out of a 1k dps sword, wand, or dagger with a socket (and life steal).
3) I really suggest a CM melee spec for soloing uber bosses. It also works great in groups at high MP level or for high MP key farming. It's what I did, though i've only solod the bosses once. Keeping a few dps pieces like your chest, shoulders, and 2pc zuni, you can probably slap together a basic set with about 60-80k+ dps capable of soloing MP4-5 for a few million. The APoC is the tricky part, but you only need 2 pieces of gear with APoC. I use helm (storm crow) and OH (triumvirate). You'd likely want to grab some bracers with resist, 140+int, 4.5% crit, and maybe armor and/or vit as well as a necklace with 8+% crit (maybe one with good defensive stats like armor and resist all, should be able to fine one for 1 mil or less). I'd recommend some Blackthorn set pants, which you can get for pretty cheap, possibly with Armor on them for a tiny bit extra. They have high EHP and a little LoH.
Overall for soloing uber bosses I'd recommend around 40% crit, 3500-4k armor, 500+resists, 16+ APoC, 30-40k hp+ as a start with CM/WW spec with full defensive stats, though at MP4-5 with those stats you can probably use pinpoint barrier over prismatic armor. One of the limiting factors in soloing the bosses is the enrage timers, which may or may not be an issue except mainly for Siegebreaker since he and Kuele are quite tough to solo, compared to the other two.
Side Note: I never really considered swapping to a high LS 2h for RD packs. I might try doing that since I have the most problems with them, though it's annoying having Magic Weapon fall off when I swap weapons or OH, but it probably won't affect my farming all that much.
3 - This spec doesn't feel great for solo uberbosses - any suggestions for an optimal spec/MP level for these?
Loroese already answered all your gear questions, I have nothing to add but one small thing: there is absolutely no reason to solo uber bosses. If you like a challenge - sure, go for it. But you will always find a group of people to help you, because for them it's a free chance for organs and you might get an invite back if they have machines and are looking for a CMWW tank mage. It's a win-win situation. If you decide to try the bosses solo you face the possibility of failing and wasting machines. Oh, and another thing: if you have a disconnect, the the portal is gone; in a group the portal stays open and you can re-join (the group has to abort the uber kill attempt though because you can't join an ongoing fight).
Should my next upgrade be a weapon? Lately I've just been staring at memptos hoping one with crit will be posted for cheap, with no luck...
and every other slot an upgrade is either 1000mil+ or more of a side grade. I even have a pair of innas temperance, but at the cost of 5k dps...I like my survivability.
Guess my post is just asking which slot of mine is behind the most? (archon farming gear on atm) and is there any chance of getting a meaningful upgrade in the 100mil range?
Should my next upgrade be a weapon? Lately I've just been staring at memptos hoping one with crit will be posted for cheap, with no luck...
and every other slot an upgrade is either 1000mil+ or more of a side grade. I even have a pair of innas temperance, but at the cost of 5k dps...I like my survivability.
Guess my post is just asking which slot of mine is behind the most? (archon farming gear on atm) and is there any chance of getting a meaningful upgrade in the 100mil range?
Honestly, for 100M, I'm not certain you'll be able to get any meaningful upgrades. You're at the point where everything will probably be at least 300M and up. For 100M, you can probably nab a slightly better Vile Ward with slightly more DPS at the cost of a few hundred HP's worth of vitality, or a higher DPS Witching Hour without as much EHP.
If you can manage to find a pair of Inna's Temperance with vitality, you should still be in good shape EHP-wise for Archon farming. However, you will not likely be getting a 90+ int with decent vit Inna's for 100M. You're better off continuing your farm and continue selling things you find for quick gold. At paragon 50, you should be relatively decent drops if you're farming MP3+ with Archon. Grind out some more paragon for the MF bonuses. On average, I get about 1-2 unique items per Alkaizer run, which is essentially at least 6 uniques per hour. Chances are at least one of them will be worth 10M+ when running with over 425% MF on MP3, not to mention the pages and pages of rares that are gathered. This is just my average, but it's all dumb luck in the end.
Farm and be patient, or if you have the extra income to do so (as a last resort), you can treat yourself to $50 worth of gold or something. I'm at the point where I cannot by any means make an upgrade unless I farm for a month or two straight. I occasionally put some money in to cover whatever extra gold I need to buy out an upgrade. I don't recommend doing this unless you're at the level where upgrading anything significant at all is near impossible with grinding alone. Some people go out to the bar once a week and bust $80 on drinks. I might bust out $50 from my weekly paycheck to add some more gold to the bank.
Off topic: I keep forgetting to update this guide...
Can't decide which slot I should upgrade next. I have 197k dps buffed in archon spec, still a lot of room for improvement, but I have no idea how I can get extra dps w/ loosing too much EHP.
Last week I also started to play as CM wizzard and killing ubers with my friends. Before that I was thinking about upgrading OH or right ring or even getting rid of my pants, now I'm unsure about what piece I should change to benefit both specs=/
PS Kinda offtopic, but where CM wizzards get loh/LS ? CM wizzards are bound to chantodo's will, which can't roll LS/socket (or crit dmg) at the same time.
My armory (saved in cm gear) eu.battle. net/d3/en/profile/taro-1109/hero/20845003
diabloprogress saved me in archon gear diabloprogress. com/hero/taro-1109/tarya/20845003
Some good CM sources of LoH include Blackthorn pants, Blackthorn amulet, Storm Crow helm, or rare rings/amulet. I currently use the pants and helm from that list for 890 or so LoH and it works pretty well at my gear level.
Regarding Archon upgrades, dropping a little EHP could be ok, depending on how much you have. I'm using around 240k for MP2 and it works fine. For MP3 I'd recommend a bit more, like 260-270 since mob damage only increases by about 10% (1.2 to 1.31 damage modifier). I also only have 25.5k hp, so damage resistance of around 90% is what I'd try to shoot for, in Archon form of course (with whatever armor you normally use). Otherwise, I can't really recommend specific upgrades unless I see your Archon gear.
If you're having problem refreshing Archon, buy a cheap wand with 10 APoC, LoH, and low dps and do the same with OH. Switch to new weapon+OH and just spam WW. With that setup it only takes me 10s or so to refresh my Archon most of the time. I also prefer Illusionist over evocation for Teleport because then you can teleport pretty much every time you are hit, which is great against phasebeasts and tremors.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Sadly, I can't do the bridge anymore - annoying lag every time I get there, makes it totally unplayable...
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Also how is it that high dps wizards can survive against reflect dmg mobs in high mp lvls, even in archon form? or god forbid if they come across them while archon is on cd for whatever reason.
/signed a slightly confused and oddly squishy wizard
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
http://us.battle.net...XYSO!bgf!caaccc
Magical against ubers and elite packs. Although using Arcane Destruction on Reflect mobs (and uber Siegebreaker) is a big no-no.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I was wondering - when you run MP8, you can't possibly 1shot mobs. Given the steep HP increase for any enemy on higher MP levels, I'd like to know how you sustain Archon. When I run Archon in a group with 1-2 demon hunters, I have a lot of downtime - even just on MP2/3, and even though they try to let me have the killing blows whenever I'm in Archon. (I'm at ~110k (unbuffed)/150k (buffed) dps currently).
I don't sustain Archon. The longest my Archon's been active on MP8 was 1 minute. The whole point is to make use of Arcane Destruction (1600% weapon damage). Activate Archon, beam everything while you can, spam Living Lightning, Diamond Skin, Frost Nova until Archon is up again, nuke, do your thing, repeat.
By doing that, I think anyone with decent enough EHP can use Archon at high MP levels as long as you have the crit chance to do so.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Yes, you should be able to run Archon with your dps, at MP0-1 for maximum efficiency, I would say. You might need a Life Steal weapon but you can try with just the Blood Magic run on Magic Weapon and see how it goes, since you can probably kill elites very fast at MP0 or 1.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
2) In my experience, Echoing fury is probably overpriced for wizards because we don't get as much out of the +0.2x attacks per second as dual wielding classes. My guess is you'd get more dps out of a 1k dps sword, wand, or dagger with a socket (and life steal).
3) I really suggest a CM melee spec for soloing uber bosses. It also works great in groups at high MP level or for high MP key farming. It's what I did, though i've only solod the bosses once. Keeping a few dps pieces like your chest, shoulders, and 2pc zuni, you can probably slap together a basic set with about 60-80k+ dps capable of soloing MP4-5 for a few million. The APoC is the tricky part, but you only need 2 pieces of gear with APoC. I use helm (storm crow) and OH (triumvirate). You'd likely want to grab some bracers with resist, 140+int, 4.5% crit, and maybe armor and/or vit as well as a necklace with 8+% crit (maybe one with good defensive stats like armor and resist all, should be able to fine one for 1 mil or less). I'd recommend some Blackthorn set pants, which you can get for pretty cheap, possibly with Armor on them for a tiny bit extra. They have high EHP and a little LoH.
Overall for soloing uber bosses I'd recommend around 40% crit, 3500-4k armor, 500+resists, 16+ APoC, 30-40k hp+ as a start with CM/WW spec with full defensive stats, though at MP4-5 with those stats you can probably use pinpoint barrier over prismatic armor. One of the limiting factors in soloing the bosses is the enrage timers, which may or may not be an issue except mainly for Siegebreaker since he and Kuele are quite tough to solo, compared to the other two.
Side Note: I never really considered swapping to a high LS 2h for RD packs. I might try doing that since I have the most problems with them, though it's annoying having Magic Weapon fall off when I swap weapons or OH, but it probably won't affect my farming all that much.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Loroese already answered all your gear questions, I have nothing to add but one small thing: there is absolutely no reason to solo uber bosses. If you like a challenge - sure, go for it. But you will always find a group of people to help you, because for them it's a free chance for organs and you might get an invite back if they have machines and are looking for a CMWW tank mage. It's a win-win situation. If you decide to try the bosses solo you face the possibility of failing and wasting machines. Oh, and another thing: if you have a disconnect, the the portal is gone; in a group the portal stays open and you can re-join (the group has to abort the uber kill attempt though because you can't join an ongoing fight).
and every other slot an upgrade is either 1000mil+ or more of a side grade. I even have a pair of innas temperance, but at the cost of 5k dps...I like my survivability.
Guess my post is just asking which slot of mine is behind the most? (archon farming gear on atm) and is there any chance of getting a meaningful upgrade in the 100mil range?
Honestly, for 100M, I'm not certain you'll be able to get any meaningful upgrades. You're at the point where everything will probably be at least 300M and up. For 100M, you can probably nab a slightly better Vile Ward with slightly more DPS at the cost of a few hundred HP's worth of vitality, or a higher DPS Witching Hour without as much EHP.
If you can manage to find a pair of Inna's Temperance with vitality, you should still be in good shape EHP-wise for Archon farming. However, you will not likely be getting a 90+ int with decent vit Inna's for 100M. You're better off continuing your farm and continue selling things you find for quick gold. At paragon 50, you should be relatively decent drops if you're farming MP3+ with Archon. Grind out some more paragon for the MF bonuses. On average, I get about 1-2 unique items per Alkaizer run, which is essentially at least 6 uniques per hour. Chances are at least one of them will be worth 10M+ when running with over 425% MF on MP3, not to mention the pages and pages of rares that are gathered. This is just my average, but it's all dumb luck in the end.
Farm and be patient, or if you have the extra income to do so (as a last resort), you can treat yourself to $50 worth of gold or something. I'm at the point where I cannot by any means make an upgrade unless I farm for a month or two straight. I occasionally put some money in to cover whatever extra gold I need to buy out an upgrade. I don't recommend doing this unless you're at the level where upgrading anything significant at all is near impossible with grinding alone. Some people go out to the bar once a week and bust $80 on drinks. I might bust out $50 from my weekly paycheck to add some more gold to the bank.
Off topic: I keep forgetting to update this guide...
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Thanks for the advice as always Jatech
Last week I also started to play as CM wizzard and killing ubers with my friends. Before that I was thinking about upgrading OH or right ring or even getting rid of my pants, now I'm unsure about what piece I should change to benefit both specs=/
PS Kinda offtopic, but where CM wizzards get loh/LS ? CM wizzards are bound to chantodo's will, which can't roll LS/socket (or crit dmg) at the same time.
My armory (saved in cm gear) eu.battle. net/d3/en/profile/taro-1109/hero/20845003
diabloprogress saved me in archon gear diabloprogress. com/hero/taro-1109/tarya/20845003
Regarding Archon upgrades, dropping a little EHP could be ok, depending on how much you have. I'm using around 240k for MP2 and it works fine. For MP3 I'd recommend a bit more, like 260-270 since mob damage only increases by about 10% (1.2 to 1.31 damage modifier). I also only have 25.5k hp, so damage resistance of around 90% is what I'd try to shoot for, in Archon form of course (with whatever armor you normally use). Otherwise, I can't really recommend specific upgrades unless I see your Archon gear.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard