I had a look at cryospark's build (http://www.diablofan...lass-archannon/) and thought it may be worth having another look at. The builds in the previous thread are outdated, so I've composed my own updated build:
With archon activated;
and assuming you always have energy armor up your bonus stats from the skills are the following:
+95% Armor
+30% Resistances
+15% Damage
+5% Crit
80 AP cap
Archon Abilities:
Arcane Blast Cooldown:120 seconds
Release a wave of pure energy dealing 100% weapon damage as Arcane to all nearby enemies.
Arcane Strike Strike the ground in front of you, causing 1000% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies in the area.
Disintegration Wave Thrust a beam of pure energy forward dealing 1000% weapon damage as Arcane.
Pretty decent, but you want to cut into that 85 second Arcon cooldown (thanks to Pure Power Rune and Evocation passive). Of course we do that through Critical Mass. Right now the increased crit chance spells are:
Frost Nova - Deep Freeze (+15% crit chance for 12 seconds)
Energy Armor - Pinpoint Barrier (+5% crit chance for 120 seconds)
I've given the build some extra thought, and decided that Blizzard will be your best spell to land extra crits, whilst kiting enemies (as you are a glass cannon).
So the chain of spells here would be:
Blink into a 5+ mob.
Frost Nova, and blink out with reversal.
Land your 8 second Blizzard on the mob (@ a +20% crit chance).
Electrocute (@ +20% crit chance)
(By now teleport and Frost Nova should come off CD) - Repeat 1-4.
There's a question of rune selection for blizzard- depending of your preference you could pick any. As with any build, there are weaknesses, namely:
Dependance on Frost damage while Archon is down.
Dependance on Arcane damage whilst Archon is up.
-10% Resistances whilst Archon is down.
Overall, if you could drop the CD on Archon by ~20-30 seconds, I think this build may work. It is impossible to keep Archon up all the time (unless you're in the Secret Cow Level!), but by having a ~50 second CD on the spell makes it an attractive option. Being able to kite enemies and land maximum crits out of Archon form is crucial to surving. I think all the skills synergise well, providing large AoE damage, defense and CC.
-All credit goes to cryospark for his original idea.
4 things (even if liquify hits with crit). Why do you teleport at all. Just sit with mobs and hit meteor/nova. Second, after half of that time you may happen to have half of the mobs. Third, what did you do to the archers? Are they waiting in the queue ? Four, couldn't it be even more tiresome to do this rinse and repeat.
4 things (even if liquify hits with crit). Why do you teleport at all. Just sit with mobs and hit meteor/nova. Second, after half of that time you may happen to have half of the mobs. Third, what did you do to the archers? Are they waiting in the queue ? Four, couldn't it be even more tiresome to do this rinse and repeat.
I dont like the idea of being surrounded by a mob with only a 3sec CC on a ~5sec CD (after deductions). Furthermore, I think Reversal synergises well with close range aoe spells- it acts as almost an offensive abilty, allowing you to get in drop your frost nova and get out quickly.
Back to the mob situation, if they are widely spaced, you could use the frost nova to CC the melee, and drop a meteor on the ranged-that should melt them quickly, followed by electrocuting the mob.
Even if Archon lasted 30 seconds with the extra kills, there is no way that you are going to get 50+ seconds out of critical mass. There is bound to be some kind of internal cooldown, like 1 second on the ability.
Can you even use the frost nova while the archon is up?
Old cryosparks idea aint so original. I thought about this a long time ago, as I am sure many others did as well, and we discarded the idea. Its simply not possible to keep archon up all the time, or even most of the time.
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One is never hurt by being given additional choices, only by taking them away. A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
Can you even use the frost nova while the archon is up?
Nope, archon has it's own set of skills with certain skills added with runes.
The biggest problem with a build centered around archon is that it does not [directly] help your survival in any way. The extra armor and res doesn't matter much since it doesn't make up for the lack of utility skills. I learned that the hard way in an arena booth.
Even if Archon lasted 30 seconds with the extra kills, there is no way that you are going to get 50+ seconds out of critical mass. There is bound to be some kind of internal cooldown, like 1 second on the ability.
We can't really say one way or another whether there is a CD on the -1 second. I could see it going either way, we'll have to wait and see.
I think the Idea would be to frost nova-archon-pewpew so that you keep the crit buff when you have your shiny new 1000%WD abilities. (i'm about 90% certain that THAT number is not right, but I have no basis other than it's too much damage)
Even if Archon lasted 30 seconds with the extra kills, there is no way that you are going to get 50+ seconds out of critical mass. There is bound to be some kind of internal cooldown, like 1 second on the ability.
We can't really say one way or another whether there is a CD on the -1 second. I could see it going either way, we'll have to wait and see.
I think the Idea would be to frost nova-archon-pewpew so that you keep the crit buff when you have your shiny new 1000%WD abilities. (i'm about 90% certain that THAT number is not right, but I have no basis other than it's too much damage)
Arcane Blast Cooldown:120 seconds
Release a wave of pure energy dealing 100% weapon damage as Arcane to all nearby enemies. Arcane Strike Strike the ground in front of you, causing 1000% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies in the area. Cancel Release the powers of the Archon and return to your natural form. Disintegration Wave Thrust a beam of pure energy forward dealing 1000% weapon damage as Arcane. Slow Time (Rune effect) Cooldown:120 seconds
Project a bubble of warped space and time that moves with you, slowing the movement and attack speed of enemies by 40% and the speed of projectiles by 60% for 10 seconds Teleport (Rune effect) Cooldown:120 seconds
Teleport through the ether to the selected location up to 1 yards away.
Just leading on from this, could you please provide any suggestions as to which spells provide the most "hits per second" and their related runes?
I went with Electrocute (Chain lightning) and Blizzard (Unrelenting Storm- although this could be replaced by stark winter to hit a larger area over a shorter period):
Electrocute is signature, with a guarantee 6 target hit (runed)- 0 AP cost.
Blizzard is a ranged CC, with a decent AoE
Electrocute can be cast whilst the targets are actively affected by blizzard-sort of cast and forget.
Let's assume we have a mob of 6 melee targets; what two spells in combination could score the highest number of critical hits per second?
The most hits per second signature MAY be spectral blade, depending on if the mutliple-hits-per-target-from-one-cast can each trigger a crit. Depending on how the "20 yard range" rune for it works, that either makes it a big AOE, or allows you to cast from range (i think the second is more likely).
I also think the explosive blast rune that gives it 3 explosions instead of 1 is a good candidate. As well as Disintegrate-explode-on-kill rune. There are a few potential candidated from Disintegrate. Wider beam may work better, there are a few others that i can't recall right now, some testing will need to be done.
Teleport: 15 ap
Blizzard 45 ap (might consider snowbound rune?)
Teleport reversal: 15 ap (?) - we can't be sure about this, but it's not unlikely.
Energy Armor: -20 ap
After the combo you will be standing with 5 ap (~25-35 if we count regen). There is bound to be a delay between fights. Perhaps this will be time spent looting, who knows. Time will tell.
This is true. I suppose you could replace Glass Cannon with Astral Presecence or Prodigy, and even go as far as Blizzard runed with Snowbound? The AP friendly build will look like this ;
Simply replacing Glass cannon (which may be suicide in inferno), with Temporal Flux. Assuming you'll be gathering yourself between Inferno mini-battles, the wait for that ~60second archon cd will be worth it. Seeing as you'll be in Archon form for the majority of actual fighting, the much needed armor and resistance bonus will see you through Inferno (+105% armor +40% Resistances). So why Temporal Flux? Well without Archon runed with Slow Time, the form has no real CC. Therefore by adding a slow to all its arcane spells, you've turned it into a ranged and melee AoE-CC-tank-killing machine :-)
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With archon activated;
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#UlQYmO21bgaaaaacaaaZ!bgY!acbYbZ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4p3og-eYZk
and assuming you always have energy armor up your bonus stats from the skills are the following:
So the chain of spells here would be:
-All credit goes to cryospark for his original idea.
How does meteor have a 100% crit?
Fixed. Yeah missed it too.
I dont like the idea of being surrounded by a mob with only a 3sec CC on a ~5sec CD (after deductions). Furthermore, I think Reversal synergises well with close range aoe spells- it acts as almost an offensive abilty, allowing you to get in drop your frost nova and get out quickly.
Back to the mob situation, if they are widely spaced, you could use the frost nova to CC the melee, and drop a meteor on the ranged-that should melt them quickly, followed by electrocuting the mob.
(120-20)*0.85 = 85 seconds
Even if Archon lasted 30 seconds with the extra kills, there is no way that you are going to get 50+ seconds out of critical mass. There is bound to be some kind of internal cooldown, like 1 second on the ability.
Can you even use the frost nova while the archon is up?
Old cryosparks idea aint so original. I thought about this a long time ago, as I am sure many others did as well, and we discarded the idea. Its simply not possible to keep archon up all the time, or even most of the time.
A QUADRILLION MAGIC FIND is worthless if you can't kill shit!
Nope, archon has it's own set of skills with certain skills added with runes.
The biggest problem with a build centered around archon is that it does not [directly] help your survival in any way. The extra armor and res doesn't matter much since it doesn't make up for the lack of utility skills. I learned that the hard way in an arena booth.
We can't really say one way or another whether there is a CD on the -1 second. I could see it going either way, we'll have to wait and see.
I think the Idea would be to frost nova-archon-pewpew so that you keep the crit buff when you have your shiny new 1000%WD abilities. (i'm about 90% certain that THAT number is not right, but I have no basis other than it's too much damage)
Release a wave of pure energy dealing 100% weapon damage as Arcane to all nearby enemies. Arcane Strike Strike the ground in front of you, causing 1000% weapon damage as Arcane to enemies in the area. Cancel Release the powers of the Archon and return to your natural form. Disintegration Wave Thrust a beam of pure energy forward dealing 1000% weapon damage as Arcane. Slow Time (Rune effect) Cooldown: 120 seconds
Project a bubble of warped space and time that moves with you, slowing the movement and attack speed of enemies by 40% and the speed of projectiles by 60% for 10 seconds Teleport (Rune effect)
Cooldown: 120 seconds
Teleport through the ether to the selected location up to 1 yards away.
I agree with you!
I went with Electrocute (Chain lightning) and Blizzard (Unrelenting Storm- although this could be replaced by stark winter to hit a larger area over a shorter period):
I also think the explosive blast rune that gives it 3 explosions instead of 1 is a good candidate. As well as Disintegrate-explode-on-kill rune. There are a few potential candidated from Disintegrate. Wider beam may work better, there are a few others that i can't recall right now, some testing will need to be done.
This is true. I suppose you could replace Glass Cannon with Astral Presecence or Prodigy, and even go as far as Blizzard runed with Snowbound? The AP friendly build will look like this ;
http://us.battle.net...aaaZ!bgX!abbYbZ
It's good that you pointed this out, as with more AP, the more spells can be cast, and the greater the opportunity to land critical hits.
However, a balance must be in place between damage output and AP regen and survivability.
The safer option for inferno difficulty, whilst still having more than 1 damage type would look something like this;
http://us.battle.net...aaaZ!bgU!acbYbZ
Simply replacing Glass cannon (which may be suicide in inferno), with Temporal Flux. Assuming you'll be gathering yourself between Inferno mini-battles, the wait for that ~60second archon cd will be worth it. Seeing as you'll be in Archon form for the majority of actual fighting, the much needed armor and resistance bonus will see you through Inferno (+105% armor +40% Resistances). So why Temporal Flux? Well without Archon runed with Slow Time, the form has no real CC. Therefore by adding a slow to all its arcane spells, you've turned it into a ranged and melee AoE-CC-tank-killing machine :-)