Do you know if reflect damage is reduced by your armor/resistances?
I am trying to estimate how much LoH I need, since I dont want to change from my wand+source combo
Preface: this is only conjecture as I have not seen a blue post and only have my anecdotal experience to cite, but :
Reflect damage is mitigated by resistances(physical resist to be specific), so I would assume armor does as well. I've personally noticed that as I geared up I finally started being able to gain life back form reflect damage mobs, where as earlier in my gearing I would only lose life. (my only source of healing being from life steal)
Do you know if reflect damage is reduced by your armor/resistances?
I am trying to estimate how much LoH I need, since I dont want to change from my wand+source combo
Get life steal if you can. It scales much better than LoH especially for Archon builds. Also the coefficient for Archon beam is 0.25 so LoH only returns 25% of your LoH each tic. For example, at ~70k dps with 1 attack per second, 2.5% life steal is about the same as 4.2k LoH, at 1.5 attacks per second it would be equivalent to 2800 LoH roughly.
These numbers might be a little off though, because that's assuming the beam tics at the same speed as your attack. Does anyone know the mechanics of the beam tic for sure? Does it tic at same speed as your attack or does it just tic a specific amount of times per second? I have been of the impression that the damage shown as tics is some averaged damage over the tic interval, which makes me think the damage is being done over discrete time periods, and the tics show up every 0.5s. As far as I know just about anything that tics shows up in 0.5s intervals (health regen, WW damage, LoH return from WW to name a few).
made some updates to the guide with farming route as well as SoJ / disintegrate update
I've been playing around with an Archon spec and have a question about the farming route you mentioned.
"8. Take the waypoint to keep level 1, zone into the keep level 2 right away and do a full clear of the place"
When you say do a full clear of the place, do you mean all 3 levels, or just level 2? If it's all 3 levels, do you start with level 2, head to level 3, take lvl 3 waypoint back to lvl 1 to clear that backwards?
Do you know if reflect damage is reduced by your armor/resistances?
I am trying to estimate how much LoH I need, since I dont want to change from my wand+source combo
Get life steal if you can. It scales much better than LoH especially for Archon builds. Also the coefficient for Archon beam is 0.25 so LoH only returns 25% of your LoH each tic. For example, at ~70k dps with 1 attack per second, 2.5% life steal is about the same as 4.2k LoH, at 1.5 attacks per second it would be equivalent to 2800 LoH roughly.
These numbers might be a little off though, because that's assuming the beam tics at the same speed as your attack. Does anyone know the mechanics of the beam tic for sure? Does it tic at same speed as your attack or does it just tic a specific amount of times per second? I have been of the impression that the damage shown as tics is some averaged damage over the tic interval, which makes me think the damage is being done over discrete time periods, and the tics show up every 0.5s. As far as I know just about anything that tics shows up in 0.5s intervals (health regen, WW damage, LoH return from WW to name a few).
Don't forget that Life Steal is reduced to %20 in inferno, that or %25.
I would only recommend EXCLUSIVELY using life steal over life on hit for someone who has a 2 hander because it can roll up to %6 rather than just %3.
however with some LoH %3 life steal works just fine.
Do you know if reflect damage is reduced by your armor/resistances?
I am trying to estimate how much LoH I need, since I dont want to change from my wand+source combo
Get life steal if you can. It scales much better than LoH especially for Archon builds. Also the coefficient for Archon beam is 0.25 so LoH only returns 25% of your LoH each tic. For example, at ~70k dps with 1 attack per second, 2.5% life steal is about the same as 4.2k LoH, at 1.5 attacks per second it would be equivalent to 2800 LoH roughly.
These numbers might be a little off though, because that's assuming the beam tics at the same speed as your attack. Does anyone know the mechanics of the beam tic for sure? Does it tic at same speed as your attack or does it just tic a specific amount of times per second? I have been of the impression that the damage shown as tics is some averaged damage over the tic interval, which makes me think the damage is being done over discrete time periods, and the tics show up every 0.5s. As far as I know just about anything that tics shows up in 0.5s intervals (health regen, WW damage, LoH return from WW to name a few).
Don't forget that Life Steal is reduced to %20 in inferno, that or %25.
I would only recommend EXCLUSIVELY using life steal over life for someone who has a 2 hander becuase it can roll up to %6 rather than just %3.
however with some LoH %3 life steal works just fine.
I use 2.7% lifesteal and have no life on hit, but have about 1500 life regen. I hardly notice reflect damage.
I use 2.7% lifesteal and have no life on hit, but have about 1500 life regen. I hardly notice reflect damage.
I only have about 300 regen, no life on hit, and when I tried using a %2.8 life steal 1 hander along with a triumvirate OH (dps increase) I couldn't really keep myself up while facetanking mobs anymore. So I swapped back to my 2 hander.
And that was with like 800 resists and 6k armor outside of archon form after energy armor.
Don't forget that Life Steal is reduced to %20 in inferno, that or %25.
I would only recommend EXCLUSIVELY using life steal over life on hit for someone who has a 2 hander because it can roll up to %6 rather than just %3.
however with some LoH %3 life steal works just fine.
I already took the Life Steal reduction into account when posting those numbers. Regardless of 1h vs 2h, Life Steal should outperform LoH for Archon builds with any decent dps. Don't forget 2h can roll up to 2k LoH meaning both Life Steal and LoH are doubled for 2h so it doesn't matter if you use 1h vs 2h in that respect.
I've been playing around with an Archon spec and have a question about the farming route you mentioned.
"8. Take the waypoint to keep level 1, zone into the keep level 2 right away and do a full clear of the place"
When you say do a full clear of the place, do you mean all 3 levels, or just level 2? If it's all 3 levels, do you start with level 2, head to level 3, take lvl 3 waypoint back to lvl 1 to clear that backwards?
Keep levels 1 and 3 are more sparse and less circular. I found keeping Archon up hard. Once you get the hang of the general layouts of Keep level 2, you will find that it is the easiest place to keep Archon up.
So, to summarize, do only keep level 2.
PS: Watch out for those suicidal monsters.
I've been playing around with an Archon spec and have a question about the farming route you mentioned.
"8. Take the waypoint to keep level 1, zone into the keep level 2 right away and do a full clear of the place"
When you say do a full clear of the place, do you mean all 3 levels, or just level 2? If it's all 3 levels, do you start with level 2, head to level 3, take lvl 3 waypoint back to lvl 1 to clear that backwards?
Keep levels 1 and 3 are more sparse and less circular. I found keeping Archon up hard. Once you get the hang of the general layouts of Keep level 2, you will find that it is the easiest place to keep Archon up.
So, to summarize, do only keep level 2.
PS: Watch out for those suicidal monsters.
Thanks. I had noticed I was having a heck of a time keeping Archon active, and thought it might just be due to my dps (only 70k or so). And I really hate those exploding mobs. I die to them at least once everytime I farm.
Can someone enlighten me on a FREE screen capture software that allows to do GOOD quality 1080p? I spent the last 3 hours trying to find something that does it well and there's nothing, there's a bunch out there but most of them lag the hell out of my game with 2-3 seconds play time followed by 2-3 seconds freeze. Xsplit was not lagging the game at all, but the pathetic free 25 FPS and 720p looks like absolute crap.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
If your defenses and healing are high enough, a nicely rolled echoing fury+ triumvirate would beat a skorn. It would also greatly increase the dps benefit you get out of IAS gear.
Would skorn be your fav weapon compared to 1h + offhand combo?
It's a personal preference + what you can afford. Skorn is good for it, if you are aiming to be ranked No. 1 in the DPS across the world, then 1 hander is going to be there, however a high end 1 hander will cost approximately 200m, a good high end off-hand will cost about 100m. A single skorn will with life leech and high end stats will cost 100m, a mid-range one with life-steal will be about 40-50m.
Also, as i covered in the guide, it depends on your filler spell and what you are building, fast recharge with CM procs - then you need 1 hander + OH with APoC, if you are able to stay in archon without that - then you should use a 2 hander simply because it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper and you can spend all that gold on upgrading your other slots first.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
I stated this in another post but it is also relavent to the guide here but CM does indeed work to reduce the CD of Archon even while Archon is active. The easiest way to test it is to active a 2 min Armor buff right before activating Archon, then killing as many mobs as possible to keep archon active for a good 90s+, then cancelling Archon and just waiting for the CD to resume. The CD should be up before the armor falls off.
This is mostly relevent as an alternative to Evocation for people having issues running out of time in Archon form. I also like the fact that CM reduces the CD of your Archon Blast (#1 hotkey that does not interrupt your beam). I use that ability a lot when face tanking elites to gain a bit more health.
On a side note, regarding Stone of Jordan or any other item with +elemental damage, the bonus damage is applied to all your skills, not just skills with that damage type, as long as the affix doesn't mention skills. So any stone of jordan damage type will work and add extra damage. I mention this because in section 5 of the guide you mention Stone of Jordan and +arcane damage. The only issue is the bonus damage is only applied to your total minumum physical damage. Also this extra damage does show up on your in game damage number, so people considering switching to a Stone of Jordan won't see quite as much of a dps drop on their char sheet as they might think.
On a side note, regarding Stone of Jordan or any other item with +elemental damage, the bonus damage is applied to all your skills, not just skills with that damage type, as long as the affix doesn't mention skills. So any stone of jordan damage type will work and add extra damage. I mention this because in section 5 of the guide you mention Stone of Jordan and +arcane damage. The only issue is the bonus damage is only applied to your total minumum physical damage. Also this extra damage does show up on your in game damage number, so people considering switching to a Stone of Jordan won't see quite as much of a dps drop on their char sheet as they might think.
That's good to know. I was considering getting a SoJ. Thanks for the info
Try "Life After Kill" stats. It actually works surprisingly well given that your main goal in Archon form is to kill as much as you possibly can.
LAK tends to be far cheaper than LOH items, as well. It's how I personally deal with Reflect mobs. I don't run any life leech or LOH, but I always have spare mobs (or extra health globes) nearby to kill and quick-heal when I find myself against Reflect.
Edit: I run both LAK and life steal now. Works like a charm.
Great guide. A couple of things you might consider adding:
LOK is a great alternative to LOH/Lifesteal and 5 times cheaper. Between a 3.5k LOH Skorn and +20k from health globes I never suffer from a lack of healing. (Jaetch already mentioned this)
Perhaps this is too obvious but its usually better to wait for a large group of mobs before engaging Archon. Once you've you've got that 20 or 30 second buffer, you shouldn't ever have a problem with archon running out.
In fact i'm usually able to keep Archon up so easily that my buffs start wearing off. In this case you're actually better to manually deactivate Archon, re-buffing and then reactivate it again.
Any guide for 1.05? Been having some thoughts about what should I use next. I got about 100 Mil ready for upgrades but wanted to wait a couple of weeks for the items to start rolling in. Any suggestions on what skills/gear upgrades I should do with 1.05 changes? I am looking right now to buy Lacuni Prowlers. Thanks!
Battle net ID:Swoosh#1236. Wouldn't let me post a link yet.
http ://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Swoosh-1236/hero/3842623
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Preface: this is only conjecture as I have not seen a blue post and only have my anecdotal experience to cite, but :
Reflect damage is mitigated by resistances(physical resist to be specific), so I would assume armor does as well. I've personally noticed that as I geared up I finally started being able to gain life back form reflect damage mobs, where as earlier in my gearing I would only lose life. (my only source of healing being from life steal)
Get life steal if you can. It scales much better than LoH especially for Archon builds. Also the coefficient for Archon beam is 0.25 so LoH only returns 25% of your LoH each tic. For example, at ~70k dps with 1 attack per second, 2.5% life steal is about the same as 4.2k LoH, at 1.5 attacks per second it would be equivalent to 2800 LoH roughly.
These numbers might be a little off though, because that's assuming the beam tics at the same speed as your attack. Does anyone know the mechanics of the beam tic for sure? Does it tic at same speed as your attack or does it just tic a specific amount of times per second? I have been of the impression that the damage shown as tics is some averaged damage over the tic interval, which makes me think the damage is being done over discrete time periods, and the tics show up every 0.5s. As far as I know just about anything that tics shows up in 0.5s intervals (health regen, WW damage, LoH return from WW to name a few).
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
did Einstein really say that? surely he must have known that there are more than 2 things which are infinite in nature ,......
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I've been playing around with an Archon spec and have a question about the farming route you mentioned.
"8. Take the waypoint to keep level 1, zone into the keep level 2 right away and do a full clear of the place"
When you say do a full clear of the place, do you mean all 3 levels, or just level 2? If it's all 3 levels, do you start with level 2, head to level 3, take lvl 3 waypoint back to lvl 1 to clear that backwards?
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Don't forget that Life Steal is reduced to %20 in inferno, that or %25.
I would only recommend EXCLUSIVELY using life steal over life on hit for someone who has a 2 hander because it can roll up to %6 rather than just %3.
however with some LoH %3 life steal works just fine.
I use 2.7% lifesteal and have no life on hit, but have about 1500 life regen. I hardly notice reflect damage.
I only have about 300 regen, no life on hit, and when I tried using a %2.8 life steal 1 hander along with a triumvirate OH (dps increase) I couldn't really keep myself up while facetanking mobs anymore. So I swapped back to my 2 hander.
And that was with like 800 resists and 6k armor outside of archon form after energy armor.
I already took the Life Steal reduction into account when posting those numbers. Regardless of 1h vs 2h, Life Steal should outperform LoH for Archon builds with any decent dps. Don't forget 2h can roll up to 2k LoH meaning both Life Steal and LoH are doubled for 2h so it doesn't matter if you use 1h vs 2h in that respect.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Keep levels 1 and 3 are more sparse and less circular. I found keeping Archon up hard. Once you get the hang of the general layouts of Keep level 2, you will find that it is the easiest place to keep Archon up.
So, to summarize, do only keep level 2.
PS: Watch out for those suicidal monsters.
Thanks. I had noticed I was having a heck of a time keeping Archon active, and thought it might just be due to my dps (only 70k or so). And I really hate those exploding mobs. I die to them at least once everytime I farm.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Short of an insanely rolled yellow with high DPS+socket+high int+high crit+Life Steal, yes Skorn is the best 2h around.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
It's a personal preference + what you can afford. Skorn is good for it, if you are aiming to be ranked No. 1 in the DPS across the world, then 1 hander is going to be there, however a high end 1 hander will cost approximately 200m, a good high end off-hand will cost about 100m. A single skorn will with life leech and high end stats will cost 100m, a mid-range one with life-steal will be about 40-50m.
Also, as i covered in the guide, it depends on your filler spell and what you are building, fast recharge with CM procs - then you need 1 hander + OH with APoC, if you are able to stay in archon without that - then you should use a 2 hander simply because it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper and you can spend all that gold on upgrading your other slots first.
This is mostly relevent as an alternative to Evocation for people having issues running out of time in Archon form. I also like the fact that CM reduces the CD of your Archon Blast (#1 hotkey that does not interrupt your beam). I use that ability a lot when face tanking elites to gain a bit more health.
On a side note, regarding Stone of Jordan or any other item with +elemental damage, the bonus damage is applied to all your skills, not just skills with that damage type, as long as the affix doesn't mention skills. So any stone of jordan damage type will work and add extra damage. I mention this because in section 5 of the guide you mention Stone of Jordan and +arcane damage. The only issue is the bonus damage is only applied to your total minumum physical damage. Also this extra damage does show up on your in game damage number, so people considering switching to a Stone of Jordan won't see quite as much of a dps drop on their char sheet as they might think.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
That's good to know. I was considering getting a SoJ. Thanks for the info
LAK tends to be far cheaper than LOH items, as well. It's how I personally deal with Reflect mobs. I don't run any life leech or LOH, but I always have spare mobs (or extra health globes) nearby to kill and quick-heal when I find myself against Reflect.
Edit: I run both LAK and life steal now. Works like a charm.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
LOK is a great alternative to LOH/Lifesteal and 5 times cheaper. Between a 3.5k LOH Skorn and +20k from health globes I never suffer from a lack of healing. (Jaetch already mentioned this)
Perhaps this is too obvious but its usually better to wait for a large group of mobs before engaging Archon. Once you've you've got that 20 or 30 second buffer, you shouldn't ever have a problem with archon running out.
In fact i'm usually able to keep Archon up so easily that my buffs start wearing off. In this case you're actually better to manually deactivate Archon, re-buffing and then reactivate it again.
Again, great guide - much appreciated!
Battle net ID:Swoosh#1236. Wouldn't let me post a link yet.
http ://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Swoosh-1236/hero/3842623