But just got a Balefire Caster with +17% Fire damage with higher overall sheet damage that puts me up to 1814K damage.
(I can always reroll some Wraps for Fire Damage)
Now I have 3 options that I need to know where I'd get the most bang for my buck
Keep my Calamity Spec, and stay with the cold spec
Change out the Balefire Caster and go fire, with a potential of having 37% fire damage with Wraps and weapon.
Or keep both weapons with the Marked for death 20% damage, plus change to fire spec while dual wielding, but if I do that I lose the Bombardiar's Rucksack. (Losing potential 200% damage and damage from extra Turrets) Dual wielding puts me at 1991k Sheet Damage also.
Keep in mind if I stay cold I'm trying to get the Frostburn gloves, or if I go fire I still need to later get a Cindercoat.
What you guys think??
Some things might sound obvious just by looking at the numbers, but I need some expertise on how which of these specs would shine more.
PS
Gems Using (can always change)
Bane of the Trapped
Bane of the Powerful
Enforcer (might go Zei's with Turret change, but what about the lost pet damage and Survivability)
DISCLAIMER: all reasoning aim to get best performance in high level grifts. For T6 farming basically any conceivable build is viable since once reached a certain amount of stats we can steamroll stuff easily.
The point of a cold build is to have a permanent way to proc CCs and get full benefit from BotT. In solo play, it's much more valuable because you're the only source of damage, while in party play you don't need it if someone else is providing some kind of CC effect - hence fire is a perfectly viable build for party play (and you can keep BotT even if you're not the one providing the slow/CC).
Also, 1h are better than before since while they hit for less, they shoot faster and this means also turrets shoot faster. Don't have a comparison table here but mechanic-wsie, they are surely more viable than before. Only think i don't feel right is dual wield - you pass over a Rucksack only for a Chakram build, and this brings another world of advantages; losing 2 sentries for nothing in exchange isn't worth it.
As a side note, cold/missile build seems to be the best one because of the synergy with the skills (namely CA/Maelstrom, Spitfire and Ballistic) that nets the most raw damage.
Lastly, drop Enforcer. The damage increase from turrets is now really small compared to before, while BotP and Zei grant you a much higher bonus - Sentries cannot die, and the pet damage is negligible (you use them for the cooldown and passives mostly).
maelstrom is the hardest hitting skill right now and the only point for dropping less than 5 sentries if you are going lightning spec.
although cold missile is not always dependable in solo since there are times that you'll get screwed over by mortar+jailer in g40+ but they wreck really hard.
there was a thread earlier about lightning still viable and using calamity with only 3 sentries and still managed to do g47 solo.
not sure on fire spec tbh, the lack of missles to hit extra enemies is just too good to miss out on. since cold sentry is required now.
Often people forgets that while Maelstrom has higher tooltip numbers, missiles work differently from grenades.
Maelstrom missiles only hit one target and don't do aoe (not counting aoe damage from paragon/affixes). So, on guardian only 1 missile actually hits the target, the others are wasted (that's the reason multiplier on both missile skills and Ballistic are higher).
On the contrary, LfB drops grenades that deal aoe damage - they work also on single target and every single one hits the guardian.
Cold build (as the now old Forstfire build) is based on missiles damage - you should use Spitfire as Sentry rune to maximize damage since slow is provided by other means.
I got an Ancient Calamity as well. I use multishot fire build for group play and cold when alone. Maelstrom works well with sentries because the whole lot of missiles will hit everyone, while loaded for bear will have a lot of "overhit" (I mean, the 5 sentries can fire at the same target and overkill it), but I'm still in doubt. Will keep testing but I do think that my multishot build with calamity is working better than the cold one even when alone. Another thing I'm in doubt is Zei gem. Pretty hard to get all that damage bonus alone, I'm thinking about using the poison one instead.
Atm i'm runnign Toxin because i never bothered to raise its level, but i'll bring it to 25 at least and test it.
Afaik the bonus is strong because it's a) multiplicative and calculated based on the single monster and c) sentries get a bonus based on both their and your position (read: when a mob is in melee with a Sentry, they still get some kind of bonus).
Often people forgets that while Maelstrom has higher tooltip numbers, missiles work differently from grenades.
Maelstrom missiles only hit one target and don't do aoe (not counting aoe damage from paragon/affixes). So, on guardian only 1 missile actually hits the target, the others are wasted (that's the reason multiplier on both missile skills and Ballistic are higher).
This is huge, I need to find a way to verify this!!
thing is, while the rocket only hits 1 target and less dependable 1 v 1 vs guardian, it proved slower clearing grifts due to the lack of aoe coverage. yes, the grenades wreck in a focused area. but then when you have a situation where they are scattered too much, you need wider aoe. hence i prefer maelstrom than loaded for bear.
and for personal grift runs, doing cold g40 was faster than fire
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Curse PremiumCurrent spec
But just got a Balefire Caster with +17% Fire damage with higher overall sheet damage that puts me up to 1814K damage.
(I can always reroll some Wraps for Fire Damage)
Now I have 3 options that I need to know where I'd get the most bang for my buck
- Keep my Calamity Spec, and stay with the cold spec
- Change out the Balefire Caster and go fire, with a potential of having 37% fire damage with Wraps and weapon.
- Or keep both weapons with the Marked for death 20% damage, plus change to fire spec while dual wielding, but if I do that I lose the Bombardiar's Rucksack. (Losing potential 200% damage and damage from extra Turrets) Dual wielding puts me at 1991k Sheet Damage also.
Keep in mind if I stay cold I'm trying to get the Frostburn gloves, or if I go fire I still need to later get a Cindercoat.What you guys think??
Some things might sound obvious just by looking at the numbers, but I need some expertise on how which of these specs would shine more.
PS
Gems Using (can always change)
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ModeratorThe point of a cold build is to have a permanent way to proc CCs and get full benefit from BotT. In solo play, it's much more valuable because you're the only source of damage, while in party play you don't need it if someone else is providing some kind of CC effect - hence fire is a perfectly viable build for party play (and you can keep BotT even if you're not the one providing the slow/CC).
Also, 1h are better than before since while they hit for less, they shoot faster and this means also turrets shoot faster. Don't have a comparison table here but mechanic-wsie, they are surely more viable than before. Only think i don't feel right is dual wield - you pass over a Rucksack only for a Chakram build, and this brings another world of advantages; losing 2 sentries for nothing in exchange isn't worth it.
As a side note, cold/missile build seems to be the best one because of the synergy with the skills (namely CA/Maelstrom, Spitfire and Ballistic) that nets the most raw damage.
Lastly, drop Enforcer. The damage increase from turrets is now really small compared to before, while BotP and Zei grant you a much higher bonus - Sentries cannot die, and the pet damage is negligible (you use them for the cooldown and passives mostly).
although cold missile is not always dependable in solo since there are times that you'll get screwed over by mortar+jailer in g40+ but they wreck really hard.
there was a thread earlier about lightning still viable and using calamity with only 3 sentries and still managed to do g47 solo.
not sure on fire spec tbh, the lack of missles to hit extra enemies is just too good to miss out on. since cold sentry is required now.
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ModeratorMaelstrom missiles only hit one target and don't do aoe (not counting aoe damage from paragon/affixes). So, on guardian only 1 missile actually hits the target, the others are wasted (that's the reason multiplier on both missile skills and Ballistic are higher).
On the contrary, LfB drops grenades that deal aoe damage - they work also on single target and every single one hits the guardian.
Cold build (as the now old Forstfire build) is based on missiles damage - you should use Spitfire as Sentry rune to maximize damage since slow is provided by other means.
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ModeratorAfaik the bonus is strong because it's a) multiplicative and
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Curse Premiumand for personal grift runs, doing cold g40 was faster than fire