I don't know if it's just me, but it feels like ranged fire spells are really disappointing compared to the lightning and frost spells. I know fire is meant to deal DoT, but compared to running a Frozen Orb build on T1+ solo, a Scorch Orb/Conflagrate build just doesn't seem to have that same wow factor. I mean, Frozen Orb alone has this massive piercing AoE when it moves compared to Scorch which is basically a small piercing fireball that leaves a trail of flames behind.
As for Meteor, it's either got a really long cooldown and delay (Molten Impact), or it's too random and too slow (Meteor Shower). I get the feeling that fire damage was meant to be more focused on the close range with Wave of Force and Explosive Blast being really popular from what I've seen in random groups. Do you guys think it's disappointing?
Wrong! No I don't want to sound cocky, but I built my Wizard based on fire. I only have 200,000 DPS, but my items are all built around fire and I farm T4 solo, and T5 with a group just fine.. Magefist, Cindercoat, bracers with +15% fire, and I have + damage to magic missile and + damage to arcane orb items. Arcane Orb- Scorch usually crits for 2.5M and DOTs for about 600k every tick afterwards from the flame left on the ground. Magic Missile Conflagurate is the highest DPS single target SKILL, the Wizard has. Yes skill as in, not just signature skill. Fight a boss and just spam this magic missile, it refreshes the damage stacks over and over and adds to them. Example: If you are fighting a boss in T5, just spamming Magic missile after about 20 seconds if you attack speed is high enough, make the fire damage over time deal 5,000,000 every tick. If you continue this after 40 seconds on that same boss the fire damage over time is ticking for 10,0000,000 every time, and this is on top of the initial 170% it deals on the initial impact. Couple this with Gale force energy twister which makes all mobs hit take +15% fire damage for 4 seconds, while keeping stacks up, you do an insane amount of damage. Here is my current skill build:
Magic Missile Conflag (which btw pierces, so isn't just single target)
Arcane Orb Scorch
Energy Twister Gale Force
Energy Shield Prismatic Armor
Magic Weapon Force Weapon
(any defensive skill in last slot, teleport, Diamond skin, or Mirror Images I switch between often)
Wrong! No I don't want to sound cocky, but I built my Wizard based on fire. I only have 200,000 DPS, but my items are all built around fire and I farm T4 solo, and T5 with a group just fine.. Magefist, Cindercoat, bracers with +15% fire, and I have + damage to magic missile and + damage to arcane orb items. Arcane Orb- Scorch usually crits for 2.5M and DOTs for about 600k every tick afterwards from the flame left on the ground. Magic Missile Conflagurate is the highest DPS single target SKILL, the Wizard has. Yes skill as in, not just signature skill. Fight a boss and just spam this magic missile, it refreshes the damage stacks over and over and adds to them. Example: If you are fighting a boss in T5, just spamming Magic missile after about 20 seconds if you attack speed is high enough, make the fire damage over time deal 5,000,000 every tick. If you continue this after 40 seconds on that same boss the fire damage over time is ticking for 10,0000,000 every time, and this is on top of the initial 170% it deals on the initial impact. Couple this with Gale force energy twister which makes all mobs hit take +15% fire damage for 4 seconds, while keeping stacks up, you do an insane amount of damage. Here is my current skill build:
Magic Missile Conflag (which btw pierces, so isn't just single target)
Arcane Orb Scorch
Energy Twister Gale Force
Energy Shield Prismatic Armor
Magic Weapon Force Weapon
(any defensive skill in last slot, teleport, Diamond skin, or Mirror Images I switch between often)
Passives:
Prodigy
Conflagurate
Blur
I only have magefists with 19%. Nothing else, how do you deal with enemies that make it to you in melee range?
It is an interesting question. I don't have an answer good Wizards will like. But, it is all about kiting and move speed. Sometimes instead of using a 2nd defensive skill like mirror images, I will use Time warp with the 80% movement reduction + -2 second cool down. That helps slow the mobs down quite a bit and give you a little more freedom. But, on top of that, it is why I have Energy Armor with prismatic rune and I have high resistance/armor items with max move speed so when I am hit, I don't take too much damage, and move quickly. Also occasionally the enchantress slowsand or charms enemies which cause a bit of distraction. But, I really enjoy the fire skills because I don't see them too often, and the animations look pretty cool. Kills quickly too.
IMO, the problem with Fire is a design decision that most Fire spells deal part of their damage over time. I mean, it may be ok for T6, where stuff doesn't die in a blink of an eye, but when I go to T4 in full damage gear, I expect shit to EXPLODE immediately as I touch it with something. DOTs are useless in those situations.
IMO, the problem with Fire is a design decision that most Fire spells deal part of their damage over time. I mean, it may be ok for T6, where stuff doesn't die in a blink of an eye, but when I go to T4 in full damage gear, I expect shit to EXPLODE immediately as I touch it with something. DOTs are useless in those situations.
I actually like the dots. It's something different that the other specs don't have. And then again, why not run T6? Better experience than T4 for sure. (Although T5 is the most efficient exp/hr in normal farming, not COTA etc.)
I run T6 most of the time. It's just that sometimes I want to play god - to run around and command everything to die instantly. T4 is a perfect place for that.
i have a few +fire dmg items so i did run a fire sorc for some time, my setup was conflagrate, heat wave and meteor shower with the usual sparkflint, force weapon and an armor of your choice, i highly recommend heat wave instead of scorch, more reliable spammable aoe damage, for packs and bosses i just used meteor shower and conflagrate in the downtime, stuff just melts
Entro, I appreciate the suggestion with wave of force, but I'm more of a fan of ranged builds and skills, which is why I'm asking if other people think that ranged fire spells feel disappointing compared to other elements such as frost and lightning.
@Savius, Isn't it more effective to just run the familiar for 10% damage increase over Energy twister?
More effective in terms of convenience sure, because you don't have to do anything to make it work. But, as far as damage output certainly not. If you are running all fire, Gale Force adds a ton more damage. 15% for 4 seconds over the 10% you get from Sparkflint, and Energy twister does 1000% damage over 6 seconds which is a lot of damage and has a pretty significant AOE. On top of those, Energy twister helps proc AP on hit to help you with AP on the in between. ALSO, Sparkflint helps just you. Many other classes after the patch now include fire damage into their builds in some way, and energy twister benefits them as well in two ways. 1: +15% fire damage for them, 2: If you are using Conflagurate passive, energy twister is helping apply the +6% crit rate for your whole party.
i have a few +fire dmg items so i did run a fire sorc for some time, my setup was conflagrate, heat wave and meteor shower with the usual sparkflint, force weapon and an armor of your choice, i highly recommend heat wave instead of scorch, more reliable spammable aoe damage, for packs and bosses i just used meteor shower and conflagrate in the downtime, stuff just melts
Entro, I appreciate the suggestion with wave of force, but I'm more of a fan of ranged builds and skills, which is why I'm asking if other people think that ranged fire spells feel disappointing compared to other elements such as frost and lightning.
Yeah, I personally think Heatwave kills slower than Scorch on higher Tiers, and also kiting with Heatwave can be a pain because the animation forces you to stay put for a long time. I still think with practice, these fire builds are as good if not better than Ice, Lightning, and Arcane. At least prior to Reaper of Souls. They take getting used to, but my damage output matches that of equal geared Wizards using other elements.
To be honest, a spell that acts like the traditional fireball would be very nice. If it left a large burning field, it would be even better. In fact, if Scorch just explodes on impact and left a burning field, that would exactly the type of fire spell I'd be looking for.
I don't know if it's just me, but it feels like ranged fire spells are really disappointing compared to the lightning and frost spells. I know fire is meant to deal DoT, but compared to running a Frozen Orb build on T1+ solo, a Scorch Orb/Conflagrate build just doesn't seem to have that same wow factor. I mean, Frozen Orb alone has this massive piercing AoE when it moves compared to Scorch which is basically a small piercing fireball that leaves a trail of flames behind.
As for Meteor, it's either got a really long cooldown and delay (Molten Impact), or it's too random and too slow (Meteor Shower). I get the feeling that fire damage was meant to be more focused on the close range with Wave of Force and Explosive Blast being really popular from what I've seen in random groups. Do you guys think it's disappointing?
Nah, I think you have it backwards, Wave of Force and Explosive blast are useless, they don't do anywhere near enough damage to compete with the build that I used when I was rocking fire.
So here is a definitive Fire Build that will melt everything in the game;
For skills % damage, you want all gear that enhance Magic Missile.
This gives you 120% to fire damage skills.
You can also get up to 30% to magic missile on shoulders and a belt, you can get another 15 on pants too. So that gives you 45% to magic missile, but with the mirror ball, that's actually an additional 135% on magic missile.
So with this, you get double hydra damage [because you get 2 of them] * 100% Fire skill damage.
How to play it;
So you open with the double hydra, then shoot a magic missile to get a stack of conflagration, drop a meteor or two, and lay down the scorch over the hydra fire walls, keep using the magic missile with *885% bonus damage[Brings you to over 1000% weapon damage on magic missile] to fill back up your arcane power to drop more meteors and scorch. If you get in trouble, you have teleport handy, with the new illusionist, it resets teleport when you get hit basically by anything on T4 or higher, so you have plenty of escape options as well. If you are confident you don't need the escape options or are playing with a good group, you can drop teleport for magic weapon force weapon for an additional 20% damage which gives you knockback that gives you 20-30% enhanced damage from the legendary passive on the Strong Arm Bracers. I'm not entirely sold on Ignite, although, it's possible that's a viable rune too when stacking all this bonus fire damage gear.
*The break down on magic missile bonus damage.
Magic Missile does 175% weapon damage, with a mirror ball, you shoot 3. This gives your magic missile effectively 525% weapon damage. You have 20/20/20/20/20 bonus to fire damage, this is 120% bonus to fire damage skills * 3 magic missiles.
You have 45% weapon damage on magic missile, but since you are shooting 3, and each one gets the bonus, you get an additional 135%. The Familiar gives you 10% * 3 magic missiles, and magic weapon another 20% * 3 magic Missiles.
Totaled Magic Missile does 1,110% [1,140% to elites with a 30% SoJ] weapon damage per attack. This is why the mirror ball is absolutely ESSENTIAL to any fire build, this makes your generator one of your most damaging skills, the entire time -- all the enemies are roasting in the DoT's from the double Mammoth Hyrdas and the scorches [which do stack.] The meteor is your big damage aoe that capitalizes on the conflagration stacks caused by magic missile, enhancing your crit chance and doing mega damage.
You don't want to stack +% to meteor damage at all, since you're going to be shooting a ton more magic missiles than meteors. The magic missile IS your bread and butter and because the mirror ball triples the damage output you end up dealing WAY more damage stacking magic missile damage. I don't care how alluring the +% to meteor is, it's all about magic missile.
This is an end game fire damage build, and it's certainly nothing to scoff at if you have a decent crit chance [30% or better] and good crit damage [280% or better.]
Touching on Cold Damage There is also a similar build for cold damage. It won't put out as much damage as fire for obvious reasons, but it will make the harder difficulties easier to solo. Why? Because you'll be freezing things at all ranges with almost the same efficiency as old Critical Mass frost nova builds, with the added advantage that you can do it from ANY range.
I don't know if it's just me, but it feels like ranged fire spells are really disappointing compared to the lightning and frost spells. I know fire is meant to deal DoT, but compared to running a Frozen Orb build on T1+ solo, a Scorch Orb/Conflagrate build just doesn't seem to have that same wow factor. I mean, Frozen Orb alone has this massive piercing AoE when it moves compared to Scorch which is basically a small piercing fireball that leaves a trail of flames behind.
As for Meteor, it's either got a really long cooldown and delay (Molten Impact), or it's too random and too slow (Meteor Shower). I get the feeling that fire damage was meant to be more focused on the close range with Wave of Force and Explosive Blast being really popular from what I've seen in random groups. Do you guys think it's disappointing?
Nah, I think you have it backwards, Wave of Force and Explosive blast are useless, they don't do anywhere near enough damage to compete with the build that I used when I was rocking fire.
So here is a definitive Fire Build that will melt everything in the game;
For skills % damage, you want all gear that enhance Magic Missile.
This gives you 120% to fire damage skills.
You can also get up to 30% to magic missile on shoulders and a belt, you can get another 15 on pants too. So that gives you 45% to magic missile, but with the mirror ball, that's actually an additional 135% on magic missile.
So with this, you get double hydra damage [because you get 2 of them] * 100% Fire skill damage.
How to play it;
So you open with the double hydra, then shoot a magic missile to get a stack of conflagration, drop a meteor or two, and lay down the scorch over the hydra fire walls, keep using the magic missile with *885% bonus damage[Brings you to over 1000% weapon damage on magic missile] to fill back up your arcane power to drop more meteors and scorch. If you get in trouble, you have teleport handy, with the new illusionist, it resets teleport when you get hit basically by anything on T4 or higher, so you have plenty of escape options as well. If you are confident you don't need the escape options or are playing with a good group, you can drop teleport for magic weapon force weapon for an additional 20% damage which gives you knockback that gives you 20-30% enhanced damage from the legendary passive on the Strong Arm Bracers. I'm not entirely sold on Ignite, although, it's possible that's a viable rune too when stacking all this bonus fire damage gear.
*The break down on magic missile bonus damage.
Magic Missile does 175% weapon damage, with a mirror ball, you shoot 3. This gives your magic missile effectively 525% weapon damage. You have 20/20/20/20/20 bonus to fire damage, this is 120% bonus to fire damage skills * 3 magic missiles.
You have 45% weapon damage on magic missile, but since you are shooting 3, and each one gets the bonus, you get an additional 135%. The Familiar gives you 10% * 3 magic missiles, and magic weapon another 20% * 3 magic Missiles.
Totaled Magic Missile does 1,110% [1,140% to elites with a 30% SoJ] weapon damage per attack. This is why the mirror ball is absolutely ESSENTIAL to any fire build, this makes your generator one of your most damaging skills, the entire time -- all the enemies are roasting in the DoT's from the double Mammoth Hyrdas and the scorches [which do stack.] The meteor is your big damage aoe that capitalizes on the conflagration stacks caused by magic missile, enhancing your crit chance and doing mega damage.
You don't want to stack +% to meteor damage at all, since you're going to be shooting a ton more magic missiles than meteors. The magic missile IS your bread and butter and because the mirror ball triples the damage output you end up dealing WAY more damage stacking magic missile damage. I don't care how alluring the +% to meteor is, it's all about magic missile.
This is an end game fire damage build, and it's certainly nothing to scoff at if you have a decent crit chance [30% or better] and good crit damage [280% or better.]
Touching on Cold Damage There is also a similar build for cold damage. It won't put out as much damage as fire for obvious reasons, but it will make the harder difficulties easier to solo. Why? Because you'll be freezing things at all ranges with almost the same efficiency as old Critical Mass frost nova builds, with the added advantage that you can do it from ANY range.
Yes you can virtually permafreeze mobs in 2.0.
That's a really nice build--assuming you have the gear for it. Considering this posted build absolutely requires legendaries to be effective (and that all depends on RNG to a degree), it seems to me that in terms of pure non-gear based builds, fire builds are lacking compared to lightning and frost builds.
Frost builds are even worse without legendary gear.
Frostburns/Magistrate/Winterflury/Azurewrath/Serpent Sparker/Mirrorball/SoJ/Eye of Etlitch/Cold Andy's/Cold Bracers.
There really isn't any really good build that doesn't require legendary gear. You won't ever get passed T3 without them. And yes, it is RNG -- hence why BoA is BAD for the game, but fire does more damage than cold, also does more damage than lightning with zero gear.
So, yeah. Arcane and Fire = DPS builds, Cold and Lightning = CC Builds. That's just how the cookie crumbles.
Cold is the best CC, lightning has more damage potential than cold, but still has strong CC. Arcane has the strongest damage, but no DoT, and fire has the DoT. Fire beats Arcane in terms of damage potential imo, but then again, Arcane has Archon. So arcane is your uber boss killer build, fire is the better farming build.
They all have equal AoE properties, but that's the break down.
Scorch could be reworked to explode in a big AoE on impact instead of going through mobs.
Nooooooooooooooooo! It does explode, and the explosion does bonus damage, but if it didn't pierce, you don't have fire wall. Scorch is Diablo III's version of firewall, and it rocks as it is, you want a big aoe on impact, you go Arcane instead of fire. Arcane Orb does exactly that.
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As for Meteor, it's either got a really long cooldown and delay (Molten Impact), or it's too random and too slow (Meteor Shower). I get the feeling that fire damage was meant to be more focused on the close range with Wave of Force and Explosive Blast being really popular from what I've seen in random groups. Do you guys think it's disappointing?
Magic Missile Conflag (which btw pierces, so isn't just single target)
Arcane Orb Scorch
Energy Twister Gale Force
Energy Shield Prismatic Armor
Magic Weapon Force Weapon
(any defensive skill in last slot, teleport, Diamond skin, or Mirror Images I switch between often)
Passives:
Prodigy
Conflagurate
Blur
I've been playing with that for past week, and I am totally in love with that item, its SUPER powerful with conflagrate.
I have had an insane luck on drops and lately moved up to T5 due to the insane amount of "too much dmg" to feel any challenge at t4 or lower..
I don't mind that fire isn't as fast as the other builds. I have great fun currently with putting everything on fire and wreck havoc everywhere.
So here is a definitive Fire Build that will melt everything in the game;
Build:
WALLS OF FIRE - [WoF Wizard]
Skills;
Actives
Mammoth Hydra - Hyrda
Spark Flint - Familiar
Meteor Shower - Meteor
Scorch - Arcane Orb
Conflagrate - Magic Missile
Wormhole - Teleport
Passives
Conflagration
Prodigy
Illusionist
Supporting Gear;
Jewelry
Stone of Jordan - 20% Fire Damage
Eye of Etlitch - 20% Fire Damage
Armor
Bracers
Demons/Strong Arms - 20% Fire damage
Gloves
Magefist - 20% Fire damage
Chest
Cindercoat - 20% Fire Damage
Helm
Andariels Visage - 20% Fire damage
Source
Mirrorball - +2 Additional Magic Missiles
Weapon
Serpent Sparker - +1 Additional Hydra
For skills % damage, you want all gear that enhance Magic Missile.
This gives you 120% to fire damage skills.
You can also get up to 30% to magic missile on shoulders and a belt, you can get another 15 on pants too. So that gives you 45% to magic missile, but with the mirror ball, that's actually an additional 135% on magic missile.
So with this, you get double hydra damage [because you get 2 of them] * 100% Fire skill damage.
How to play it;
So you open with the double hydra, then shoot a magic missile to get a stack of conflagration, drop a meteor or two, and lay down the scorch over the hydra fire walls, keep using the magic missile with *885% bonus damage[Brings you to over 1000% weapon damage on magic missile] to fill back up your arcane power to drop more meteors and scorch. If you get in trouble, you have teleport handy, with the new illusionist, it resets teleport when you get hit basically by anything on T4 or higher, so you have plenty of escape options as well. If you are confident you don't need the escape options or are playing with a good group, you can drop teleport for magic weapon force weapon for an additional 20% damage which gives you knockback that gives you 20-30% enhanced damage from the legendary passive on the Strong Arm Bracers. I'm not entirely sold on Ignite, although, it's possible that's a viable rune too when stacking all this bonus fire damage gear.
*The break down on magic missile bonus damage.
Magic Missile does 175% weapon damage, with a mirror ball, you shoot 3. This gives your magic missile effectively 525% weapon damage. You have 20/20/20/20/20 bonus to fire damage, this is 120% bonus to fire damage skills * 3 magic missiles.
You have 45% weapon damage on magic missile, but since you are shooting 3, and each one gets the bonus, you get an additional 135%. The Familiar gives you 10% * 3 magic missiles, and magic weapon another 20% * 3 magic Missiles.
Totaled Magic Missile does 1,110% [1,140% to elites with a 30% SoJ] weapon damage per attack. This is why the mirror ball is absolutely ESSENTIAL to any fire build, this makes your generator one of your most damaging skills, the entire time -- all the enemies are roasting in the DoT's from the double Mammoth Hyrdas and the scorches [which do stack.] The meteor is your big damage aoe that capitalizes on the conflagration stacks caused by magic missile, enhancing your crit chance and doing mega damage.
You don't want to stack +% to meteor damage at all, since you're going to be shooting a ton more magic missiles than meteors. The magic missile IS your bread and butter and because the mirror ball triples the damage output you end up dealing WAY more damage stacking magic missile damage. I don't care how alluring the +% to meteor is, it's all about magic missile.
This is an end game fire damage build, and it's certainly nothing to scoff at if you have a decent crit chance [30% or better] and good crit damage [280% or better.]
Touching on Cold Damage There is also a similar build for cold damage. It won't put out as much damage as fire for obvious reasons, but it will make the harder difficulties easier to solo. Why? Because you'll be freezing things at all ranges with almost the same efficiency as old Critical Mass frost nova builds, with the added advantage that you can do it from ANY range.
Yes you can virtually permafreeze mobs in 2.0.
Frostburns/Magistrate/Winterflury/Azurewrath/Serpent Sparker/Mirrorball/SoJ/Eye of Etlitch/Cold Andy's/Cold Bracers.
There really isn't any really good build that doesn't require legendary gear. You won't ever get passed T3 without them. And yes, it is RNG -- hence why BoA is BAD for the game, but fire does more damage than cold, also does more damage than lightning with zero gear.
So, yeah. Arcane and Fire = DPS builds, Cold and Lightning = CC Builds. That's just how the cookie crumbles.
Cold is the best CC, lightning has more damage potential than cold, but still has strong CC. Arcane has the strongest damage, but no DoT, and fire has the DoT. Fire beats Arcane in terms of damage potential imo, but then again, Arcane has Archon. So arcane is your uber boss killer build, fire is the better farming build.
They all have equal AoE properties, but that's the break down.