So between internet and work related issues, I haven't had time to post or do any decent farming till recently, right when the patch came out. I'm loving the patch, but that's another post for another day.
It seems like a lot of the people I'm seeing are running MP8-10. While I've been able to run with the big boys and comfortably survive at MP10, I know for a fact that my dps is way under par. Hell, these days, it seems like 200k is the new standard for DPS.
So, I'm putting out a call for suggestions on what I can do with my wizard. I've got barely 200m in the bank, and I don't like being tied down to one spec. Any ideas?
Witching Hour with int/AR/Life% (or you can go pure glass if you want)
CC Zuni Pox if you want....
Trifecta ring (gonna be tricky this area... you might wanna scout AH for good deals)
High int/vit 2-socket rare pants (pretty meh) or Inna's Temperance with int/vit (for 8-10k dps boost if you don't mind the EHP loss)
1k+ dps rare black sword with CD+OS+LS
Trifecta gloves (another tricky area...)
Craft bracers until you get 6CC (with maybe vit and AR too)
It seems like a lot of the people I'm seeing are running MP8-10.
Many people say they're running MP8+ while what they're really doing is "barely surviving". There's a difference between what people say and what they do. There's lots of "showing off" involved.
While I've been able to run with the big boys and comfortably survive at MP10, I know for a fact that my dps is way under par. Hell, these days, it seems like 200k is the new standard for DPS.
If you're having fun everything's fine. I know lots of people who're still below 200k DPS. Don't put too much pressure on you. Besides, with 200k DPS the probability of actually finding an upgrade is down to almost zero.
So, I'm putting out a call for suggestions on what I can do with my wizard. I've got barely 200m in the bank, and I don't like being tied down to one spec. Any ideas?
If you want to go past 200k DPS with 200m you should really settle on at least 1 or 2 main specs. For example, your Strongarm Bracers are really bad for CMWW (because of knockback). If you go CMWW, you should buy Storm Crow+Blackthorne's pants+Chantodo's set. But with these items you'll have a hard time getting past the 200k DPS for an Archon build. See what I mean?
I also like flexibility, and that's why I have 2 (or maybe even 3, if you consider Black Ice) different sets in my stash - but none of them is among the super high DPS ranges.
Some ideas:
Rare amulet (you could also try to craft one, but it takes looooooots of time and money)
Helm (Storm Crow for CMWW, Mempo for other builds)
Crafted bracers (CMWW) or Lacuni's (Archon)
Witching Hour (that's probably an overall item that would be beneficial for any build)
Better Zuni ring (with IAS or CC) or rare ring with IAS and CC for CMWW
Hellfire Ring (and also ruby in helm) are not really necessary on high MP levels, as the bonus XP from high MP levels is such a huge factor
First off - thanks for all the helpful replies! It again reinforces my faith in humanity when people tell me my gear's not THAT bad.
I should have mentioned that I do have spare gear in my stash (I'm not TOTALLY destitute, even if I don't ever want to pay a single cent for RMAH - I'm one of those people who think the gold AH is a fine idea, but the dollar AH, while I'm sure it has its place, goes against all my principles).
I do have an extra Chantodo's set (actually, it's my girlfriend's, but she doesn't want to touch CMWW ever again with a ten foot, hazmat-reinforced polearm). It's not the best I've seen, but it'll prolly increase my real DPS if not my paperdoll DPS for CMWW.
I have a spare APOC wand with roughly the same stats as the LS wand I have on now.
I have an extra int Lacuni's with CC (though I'm leery of getting too attached to Archon at the moment - I have no problem with the spec, though it's not my favorite, but Wyatt's already declared his intent to nerf its duration, which I heartily agree with).
I can get a Witching Hour, but I've always been leery of the sheer drop in EHP it's going to hit me with - for me, a good run is one I don't die on more than once, so the killing power would really have to justify the loss in survivability.
From what I can see from people's suggestions, the main stat I need to get more of is CC. It actually makes sense, since a lot of my dps comes from CD. I drop HUGE bombs playing Meteor specs (close to a million), but it happens a little less often than I'd like.
Helm (Storm Crow for Archon, Mempo for other builds)
Why do you uneed Storm Crow for Archon? Am i missing something here?
I never wrote that!
J/k, sorry... completely messed up. Obviously it should read "Storm Crow for CMWW, Mempo for other builds". Edited my post. Thanks for spotting that mistake, I hope OP hasn't made a wrong purchase yet ;-)
Why do you uneed Storm Crow for Archon? Am i missing something here?
Possibly two things:
DPS vs Elites (3-4%).
Elemental damage applied to black weapon (7-8% Lightning damage).
However, my personal feeling is that Tal's Helm and/or Mempo is better for Archon. But that's just me.
The 7-8% lightning damage might look nice, but the DPS vs. elites is kind of a waste. Archon feeds on white mobs mostly. Furthermore, LoH and APoC on a Storm Crow are completely useless for Archon. Sorry for the mistake, but let me make this crystal clear: Storm Crow is not a good choice for Archon. Your personal feeling is right, almost every Mempo, Tal's helm, and lots of rare helms are better for Archon. Thanks ;-)
The 7-8% lightning damage might look nice, but the DPS vs. elites is kind of a waste. Archon feeds on white mobs mostly. Furthermore, LoH and APoC on a Storm Crow are completely useless for Archon. Sorry for the mistake, but let me make this crystal clear: Storm Crow is not a good choice for Archon. Your personal feeling is right, almost every Mempo, Tal's helm, and lots of rare helms are better for Archon. Thanks ;-)
Oh thank goodness it was a mistake. I was thinking, "Damn, Bagstone's finally lost it.".
The 7-8% lightning damage might look nice, but the DPS vs. elites is kind of a waste. Archon feeds on white mobs mostly. Furthermore, LoH and APoC on a Storm Crow are completely useless for Archon. Sorry for the mistake, but let me make this crystal clear: Storm Crow is not a good choice for Archon. Your personal feeling is right, almost every Mempo, Tal's helm, and lots of rare helms are better for Archon. Thanks ;-)
Actually, SC isn't too bad for Archon, if you get one with Crit. The dps of a high crit SC can compete or even beat the dps from a mempo. The reason I use a mempo is because of the huge EHP boost over the SC, for a minor dps loss. I also use a SoJ so the elite bonus from the SC would suffer from diminishing returns (no idea why they programmed +elite damage like that).
I don't agree that the bonus vs elites is negligible though. IMO elites are the limiting factor for Archon efficiency, assuming you don't just skip them. Extra damage against elites will let you push a higher MP easier. Though that's what a SoJ is for since it gives much more benefit then the bonus on SC.
Another benefit of SC is it lets you use WW to refresh CM without requiring it on your weapon or OH, or eliminates the need to quick swap to an APoC item to refresh Archon form if it falls off somewhat frequently.
All that said I still prefer mempo. I just quick swap to a SC to refresh Archon, which isn't needed very often, then swap back to mempo to continue my rampage.
I agree to disagree with you ;-) For every affix on every item, you should not only see what you get, but also what you are potentially giving up.
-On a typical farming run as Archon wizard, encounters versus elites probably take up 10% (definitely not more than 15-20%) of your time. So the 3-4% increased elite damage make your run what... 0.5% faster? Even a few int will do the same, but for all mobs. I doubt that many people use Archon as "elite farm build", especially not the huge majority of people that is still below 200k DPS. Low budget players use CMWW to farm elites.
-The huge majority of wizards does not use WW to refresh Archon with CM. Weapon swap is just too cumbersome and time-consuming, and so is "running out of AP". Unless you have quite reasonable gear with some APoC or extremely high crit chance, a signature spell is what most people prefer to reset Archon cooldown. Just look at all the threads we've seen in the past few months - I don't remember too many using WW to reset Archon. And even the high-end wizards prefer LL over WW, if you check the top500 skill stats. Again, this is an affix wasted for your main DPS spell because it only kicks in during downtime - and if you're playing on a suitable MP level with almost 100% Archon uptime, the APoC on your Storm Crow is just a waste.
-If you go for a CC Storm Crow, you have absolutely zero EHP stats (sure, you could get a 100 vit / 0 int SC, but let's be honest... that's just ridiculous). No allres, no bonus armor, no vit, no life%. But you'll compete with all CMWW wizards who want this item. Why not just go for a non-crit Mempo, a nice Tal's helm or (my favorite at the moment) an Andariel's? An Andariel's without socket (it's not really necessary anymore on high MPs) costs almost nothing, even with good stats. It has some EHP (at least more than a Storm Crow) and a huge chunk of DPS.
I really believe that unless you're on some AP-heavy Archon/CM hybrid build, you should not go for the Storm Crow helmet that every CMWW wizard wants. What you're describing seems to me as an edge case, but the majority of players (especially low budget) would be better off to look for a different helmet.
^^ Agreed with Bagstone here. Right now I'm doing my runs with a Tal's Helm and I was so pleased with the result that I bought another one with All Resistance.
The INT amount + Critical Chance (5~6), %Life and Open Socket makes this helm very competitive on cost/benefit. Obviously a Mempo with Critical will net more DPS (and possibly more EHP), but the cost is just to high for medium-geared players as I am.
I agree in principle and I prefer mempo to a SC but I was mainly trying to say that a high CC SC still gives competitive dps and costs a lot less than a CC mempo, so it's not terrible to run with a SC. What's also nice about an Archon SC is you don't care about the LoH so you can get the cheaper versions without paying 2-10x as much for 400-450+LoH. And technically SC has 90-100 bonus armor, 90-100 vit, 90-100 dex baseline so you aren't completely without EHP stats.
It's kind of funny because on the official forums there's several people trying to say SC is BiS for all wiz builds, even Archon (ok, maybe it's mostly just Aimless), while here it's mostly the other way around. I'll stick with mempo for my Archon since it's pretty annoying to try and make up all that extra EHP on other slots to be able to run high MP.
For builds besides Archon, SC is pretty good since most will need some APoC. Then again, thanks to mob density, 10 APoC works reasonably well for most builds besides Meteor and CMWW.
Finally, I can't be the only one using WW to refresh Archon. I actually recommend WW to refresh Archon since it works a lot better in my experience (5-10x the CM proc rate) and works just fine with 10 APoC thanks to high mob density. The equipment swap takes a fraction of a second once you get used to it and if you use a helm it doesn't drop your MW buff, so you can even pop Archon with the SC helm on and wait to swap back til the mobs are dead and you're ready to move to the next group.
Basically I feel SC is a reasonable option. Maybe not the most ideal but it has its place. Like I said before I prefer a mempo and I'll always use a mempo for Archon because I find it a lot harder to make up the extra EHP, and EHP is pretty important at high MP. I just felt like defending the poor Crow. I'll go back to my corner and get back to doing my math now.
Current Update: Just picked up a Witching Hour off the AH for testing purposes (I hadn't realized how cheap the durn things had gotten on the lower ends). Definitely feeling the loss of 8k hp, and Act 2 Inferno suddenly feels a lot like Act 2 Inferno... circa 1.02. Things are certainly dying a lot faster, but my Unstable Anomaly is popping way more often and I'm dying a lot in some places (like anywhere in Act 2 with the friggin' BEES).
I think the logical choice would be to buy maybe 2-3 different item upgrades at the same time (unless it's an obvious direct upgrade, such as a better witching hour).
Often when upgarding gear, you are forced to make tradeoffs between pieces (AKA, if I drop this piece, I gain 10k damage, but lose 5k health and 50 all resist, etc). If you set a reasonable budget for yourself and instead aim for obtaining 2-3 different pieces, you can afford to lose 50 all resist and 5k health on one piece because you'll be gaining 70 all resist, +150 armor, and 4k health on another piece.
Then once you get past 200k (especially 300k), you basically need some of the best possible items to start gaining damage/EHP... which honestly starts sucking real bad.
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It seems like a lot of the people I'm seeing are running MP8-10. While I've been able to run with the big boys and comfortably survive at MP10, I know for a fact that my dps is way under par. Hell, these days, it seems like 200k is the new standard for DPS.
So, I'm putting out a call for suggestions on what I can do with my wizard. I've got barely 200m in the bank, and I don't like being tied down to one spec. Any ideas?
Other than that I am out of ideas
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Twoflower-2131/hero/47336841
Witching Hour with int/AR/Life% (or you can go pure glass if you want)
CC Zuni Pox if you want....
Trifecta ring (gonna be tricky this area... you might wanna scout AH for good deals)
High int/vit 2-socket rare pants (pretty meh) or Inna's Temperance with int/vit (for 8-10k dps boost if you don't mind the EHP loss)
1k+ dps rare black sword with CD+OS+LS
Trifecta gloves (another tricky area...)
Craft bracers until you get 6CC (with maybe vit and AR too)
Many people say they're running MP8+ while what they're really doing is "barely surviving". There's a difference between what people say and what they do. There's lots of "showing off" involved.
If you're having fun everything's fine. I know lots of people who're still below 200k DPS. Don't put too much pressure on you. Besides, with 200k DPS the probability of actually finding an upgrade is down to almost zero.
If you want to go past 200k DPS with 200m you should really settle on at least 1 or 2 main specs. For example, your Strongarm Bracers are really bad for CMWW (because of knockback). If you go CMWW, you should buy Storm Crow+Blackthorne's pants+Chantodo's set. But with these items you'll have a hard time getting past the 200k DPS for an Archon build. See what I mean?
I also like flexibility, and that's why I have 2 (or maybe even 3, if you consider Black Ice) different sets in my stash - but none of them is among the super high DPS ranges.
Some ideas:
I think you're on my friends list...? If so, I may or may not have something for you, but again I'll have to check later.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I should have mentioned that I do have spare gear in my stash (I'm not TOTALLY destitute, even if I don't ever want to pay a single cent for RMAH - I'm one of those people who think the gold AH is a fine idea, but the dollar AH, while I'm sure it has its place, goes against all my principles).
I do have an extra Chantodo's set (actually, it's my girlfriend's, but she doesn't want to touch CMWW ever again with a ten foot, hazmat-reinforced polearm). It's not the best I've seen, but it'll prolly increase my real DPS if not my paperdoll DPS for CMWW.
I have a spare APOC wand with roughly the same stats as the LS wand I have on now.
I have an extra int Lacuni's with CC (though I'm leery of getting too attached to Archon at the moment - I have no problem with the spec, though it's not my favorite, but Wyatt's already declared his intent to nerf its duration, which I heartily agree with).
I can get a Witching Hour, but I've always been leery of the sheer drop in EHP it's going to hit me with - for me, a good run is one I don't die on more than once, so the killing power would really have to justify the loss in survivability.
From what I can see from people's suggestions, the main stat I need to get more of is CC. It actually makes sense, since a lot of my dps comes from CD. I drop HUGE bombs playing Meteor specs (close to a million), but it happens a little less often than I'd like.
Why do you uneed Storm Crow for Archon? Am i missing something here?
Possibly two things:
I never wrote that!
J/k, sorry... completely messed up. Obviously it should read "Storm Crow for CMWW, Mempo for other builds". Edited my post. Thanks for spotting that mistake, I hope OP hasn't made a wrong purchase yet ;-)
The 7-8% lightning damage might look nice, but the DPS vs. elites is kind of a waste. Archon feeds on white mobs mostly. Furthermore, LoH and APoC on a Storm Crow are completely useless for Archon. Sorry for the mistake, but let me make this crystal clear: Storm Crow is not a good choice for Archon. Your personal feeling is right, almost every Mempo, Tal's helm, and lots of rare helms are better for Archon. Thanks ;-)
Oh thank goodness it was a mistake. I was thinking, "Damn, Bagstone's finally lost it.".
Oh, please, Bags, I'm not THAT noob. <_<
Actually, SC isn't too bad for Archon, if you get one with Crit. The dps of a high crit SC can compete or even beat the dps from a mempo. The reason I use a mempo is because of the huge EHP boost over the SC, for a minor dps loss. I also use a SoJ so the elite bonus from the SC would suffer from diminishing returns (no idea why they programmed +elite damage like that).
I don't agree that the bonus vs elites is negligible though. IMO elites are the limiting factor for Archon efficiency, assuming you don't just skip them. Extra damage against elites will let you push a higher MP easier. Though that's what a SoJ is for since it gives much more benefit then the bonus on SC.
Another benefit of SC is it lets you use WW to refresh CM without requiring it on your weapon or OH, or eliminates the need to quick swap to an APoC item to refresh Archon form if it falls off somewhat frequently.
All that said I still prefer mempo. I just quick swap to a SC to refresh Archon, which isn't needed very often, then swap back to mempo to continue my rampage.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
-On a typical farming run as Archon wizard, encounters versus elites probably take up 10% (definitely not more than 15-20%) of your time. So the 3-4% increased elite damage make your run what... 0.5% faster? Even a few int will do the same, but for all mobs. I doubt that many people use Archon as "elite farm build", especially not the huge majority of people that is still below 200k DPS. Low budget players use CMWW to farm elites.
-The huge majority of wizards does not use WW to refresh Archon with CM. Weapon swap is just too cumbersome and time-consuming, and so is "running out of AP". Unless you have quite reasonable gear with some APoC or extremely high crit chance, a signature spell is what most people prefer to reset Archon cooldown. Just look at all the threads we've seen in the past few months - I don't remember too many using WW to reset Archon. And even the high-end wizards prefer LL over WW, if you check the top500 skill stats. Again, this is an affix wasted for your main DPS spell because it only kicks in during downtime - and if you're playing on a suitable MP level with almost 100% Archon uptime, the APoC on your Storm Crow is just a waste.
-If you go for a CC Storm Crow, you have absolutely zero EHP stats (sure, you could get a 100 vit / 0 int SC, but let's be honest... that's just ridiculous). No allres, no bonus armor, no vit, no life%. But you'll compete with all CMWW wizards who want this item. Why not just go for a non-crit Mempo, a nice Tal's helm or (my favorite at the moment) an Andariel's? An Andariel's without socket (it's not really necessary anymore on high MPs) costs almost nothing, even with good stats. It has some EHP (at least more than a Storm Crow) and a huge chunk of DPS.
I really believe that unless you're on some AP-heavy Archon/CM hybrid build, you should not go for the Storm Crow helmet that every CMWW wizard wants. What you're describing seems to me as an edge case, but the majority of players (especially low budget) would be better off to look for a different helmet.
The INT amount + Critical Chance (5~6), %Life and Open Socket makes this helm very competitive on cost/benefit. Obviously a Mempo with Critical will net more DPS (and possibly more EHP), but the cost is just to high for medium-geared players as I am.
Wizard | Demon Hunter
It's kind of funny because on the official forums there's several people trying to say SC is BiS for all wiz builds, even Archon (ok, maybe it's mostly just Aimless), while here it's mostly the other way around. I'll stick with mempo for my Archon since it's pretty annoying to try and make up all that extra EHP on other slots to be able to run high MP.
For builds besides Archon, SC is pretty good since most will need some APoC. Then again, thanks to mob density, 10 APoC works reasonably well for most builds besides Meteor and CMWW.
Finally, I can't be the only one using WW to refresh Archon. I actually recommend WW to refresh Archon since it works a lot better in my experience (5-10x the CM proc rate) and works just fine with 10 APoC thanks to high mob density. The equipment swap takes a fraction of a second once you get used to it and if you use a helm it doesn't drop your MW buff, so you can even pop Archon with the SC helm on and wait to swap back til the mobs are dead and you're ready to move to the next group.
Basically I feel SC is a reasonable option. Maybe not the most ideal but it has its place. Like I said before I prefer a mempo and I'll always use a mempo for Archon because I find it a lot harder to make up the extra EHP, and EHP is pretty important at high MP. I just felt like defending the poor Crow. I'll go back to my corner and get back to doing my math now.
Crusader DPS and EHP Spreadsheet, meant for Crusaders
My Wizard
Often when upgarding gear, you are forced to make tradeoffs between pieces (AKA, if I drop this piece, I gain 10k damage, but lose 5k health and 50 all resist, etc). If you set a reasonable budget for yourself and instead aim for obtaining 2-3 different pieces, you can afford to lose 50 all resist and 5k health on one piece because you'll be gaining 70 all resist, +150 armor, and 4k health on another piece.
Then once you get past 200k (especially 300k), you basically need some of the best possible items to start gaining damage/EHP... which honestly starts sucking real bad.