My intention is to update this guide everytime I find something new or a new constructive feedback is given by you guys.
Enjoy!
...
As a lot of wizards lately I was aiming for 6 piece Firebird to play with the fire build.
Then I came across a lot of itens which provided me a good amount of % lightning damage and decided to try it out.
This build is a result of some testing with the gear I had (FAR from optimal) and some suggestions for what in theory are good itens.
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SKILLS AND PASSIVES
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Skills:
Arcane Torrent (Static Discharge) -> This one is INSANE. The damage output is huge even in single target. It reminds me of the old Well of Souls Witch Doctor build with the upside of being REALLY GOOD for AoE.
Familiar (Sparkflint) -> 10% passive damage increase.
Alternative: Familiar (Arcanot) -> If you feel your mana regen is a problem, switch to this rune. Prioritize this instead of changing any of your passives to Astral Presence.
Alternative 2: Blizzard (Lightning Storm) -> It provides a good damage output (good, not great), and it will increase all your lightning damage dealt to enemies affected by the storm by 15%. This is an alternative because you want to spend your time casting AT only for higher dps output.
Teleport (Safe Passage) -> Survivability and mobility.
Alternative: Teleport (Wormhole) -> This rune saved me so many times from death I can't count. Also the better option for mobility.
Black Hole (Supermassive) -> The damage output is HUGE and the upside (as if the damage was not) is that it will pull everything together for your Arcane Torrent destruction.
Alternative: Black Hole (Event Horizon) -> I'd say that this rune is mandatory for higher content, as it provides GREAT survivability at the cost of some dps.
Storm Armor (Shocking Aspect) -> The dps loss without this rune + the stuns you won't get from Paralysis make this option unique.
Alternative: Storm Armor (Prismatic Armor) -> Survivability!
Alternative 2: Energy Armor (Force armor) -> Provides survivabilty if you are too squishy. Good for boss fights.
Magic Weapon (Conduit) -> Provides "infinite" arcane power. You'll NEVER starve as long as you hit something.
Alternative: Magic Weapon (Force Weapon) -> If you feel like your regen is enough with your Arcane Power on crit.
Paralysis -> MUST HAVE. Main purpose is survivability. As you are hitting with a LOT of lightning your opponents are often stunned. (Bonus: Every 30 seconds you'll summon shadow clones from Haunt of Vaxo).
Unwavering Will -> MUST HAVE. Really good! When you are in a rush situation (lower greater rifts, for instance), it won’t make any difference. At higher Torment you’ll have to stop and dps in most situations. I’m almost getting into the point where I set this as a MUST HAVE passive.
Illusionist -> Movement speed + reset for your Teleport can be really good to escape death.
Blur -> Survivability!
Alternatives:
Dominance -> You'll kill a lot of things...and FAST! This passive will provide you a shield for every enemy killed (up to 10). Not good during most boss fights thou.
Glass Cannon -> Damage at the cost of survivability. Really good at lower Torment.
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GENERAL COMMENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About itens and attributes:
1. Always try to get % Lightning damage.
2. Focus on attack speed. Reason? Attack speed provides more hits which means you’ll trigger Paralysis more often. Also it plays really well with Arcane Power on crit and life on hit.
3. As there's no item set in the game in favor of lightning skills, choose whatever you want between Cain's (Attack Speed), Vyr(Intelligence) , Tal Rasha (Intelligence), Firebird(500 Intelligence)….. Or stick to a good item with +% lightning damage.
4. If you want to have % damage for a skill, choose Arcane Torrent, not black hole or any other.
5. Ice climbers are always good.
6. RoRG is not a must have in this build as you won't be focusing on getting more than 2 parts of any set (maybe Aughild's).
7. Speaking of Auguild's, it is the best set to aim for. Craft it until you perfect it.
8. 2 handed builds are good, as they provide a decent dps, but I miss the stuns and arcane on crit. I guess it is a matter of taste.
Legendary Gems:
Sometimes a matter of taste, but so far:
1. Wreath of Lightning
2. Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver
3. Bane of the Powerful
4. Bane of the Trapped
Being tested: Zei's Stone of Vengeance.
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PARAGON POINTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Core:
1. Movement Speed
2. Max Arcane Power (can be switched to intelligence if you find yourself confortable with your arcane power regen).
Offense:
1. Attack speed
2. Crit chance
Defense:
1. Resist All
2. Armor
Utility:
1. Resource Cost Reduction (focus on Life on Hit if you find yourself confortable with your regen).
2. Life on Hit
HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY!
ANY FEEDBACK IS MORE THAN WELCOMED.
BIG THANKS TO BLACKMORGRIM FOR THE THEORYCRAFTING.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/10/09 -> Added T3-T6 guide.
2014/12/09 -> Removed the lower torment part of the guide. Testing, the skills mentioned were not as effective as the ones used at higher Torment. Instead, I’m offering alternatives to skills/passives.
2014/17/09 -> Changed some skills, runes, passives and gems after testing and theorycrafting.
I've found that dropping Storm Armor - Shocking Aspect results in a pretty big DPS loss. I'm also unable to sustain infinite arcane power with Conduit without using Arcanot(even though I also have additional regen from Tal's set), so I use that instead of Blizzard.
Alacor, thanks for your feedback.
I wasn't able to find in your gear any arcane power on crit.
In testing, I've found that the offhand bonus of 3 arcane power on crit was enough to sustain arcane power in most situations. I guess you should give it a try if you are somehow allowed to drop vitality from your offhand.
By doing that you'll probably be able to give up Arcanot for a boost in dps with Sparkflint.
Soulzek, haven't tried GR30+ with this.
IF you go all survivability you lose a lot of dps as stated by Alacor.
If you try it out at higher GR levels, please let me know.
Personally, in my lightning build(http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Blackmorgrim-1728/hero/42023928) I actually prefer the poison and bleed gems (since my crit is over 50%) in addition to the smite gem (this crits for over 33 million for me). I personally ditched the lightning wreath gem merely because it tended to get me in too much trouble with damage reflect mobs. Basically having lightning bounce 20 times was survivable, but throw in additional damage from lightning wreath and it was just too much in high level rifts. Otherwise, my main switch point here is lightning wreath vs pain enchancer. The increased attack speed from pain enchancer (keep in mind electrocute is getting double the effect of attack speed) helps to make short work of particularly large packs. Plus pain enchancer will proc on anything you hit with a crit, regardless of range. Lightning wreath has a range limitation.
Another swap out I have is a 20 lightning, 6% crit, 30% damage strongarm, which is really nice for groups when I don't need the survival of the defender wrists.
Many people seem to think the smite gem is horrible, but for me, the main reason I take it is for single target with arcane torrent. When I get to focus on a target like a rift guardian, that gem is easily proccing at least once a second. I know for my build, I'm easily completing solo rifts around rank 26, though I begin to struggle in 27 or 28 whenever a get rift levels lacking high density. In general, I tend to find a do better the more dense rifts are packed. One of the tricks to keeping your damage output high and retaining your momentum is whenever you see 2-3 mobs, cast a single chain lighting at them and move on, as the bouncing will take care of them.
Otherwise, between the mass stuns, poison gem, and 10% elemental exposure, it seems to work very well when supporting fire wizards. (as I tend to run all wiz LS runs).
@blackmorgrim: is the "combo" from Velvet Camaral + Myken's Ball of Hate worth it? In my initial theorycrafting I've found that it was good on paper, but bad on practice. Reason? If you are using electrocute you are spending a skill slot where you could put something like Familiar (Sparkflint) for more damage. Also, you are not casting Arcane Torrent, with is a pretty big dps loss.
With the 4 arcane power on crit from your offhand + Magic Weapon (Conduit) you should be ok with your regen (even vs single target) as you stated your crit chance is over 50%.
I'll try the gems you mentioned and I'll let you know the result. Maybe smite is good for single target dps.
Why are you running Elemental Exposure and Audacity? As far as I know you should not be close to your enemies. Have you tried Paralysis (must have IMHO) for the stuns?
@ Macalpine Since they removed the jump penalty, the dps loss isn't as big as it once was. I look at chain lightning as a carrier of procs, especially from electrify wep and shocking aspect. (While chain does have a low proc coef, I honestly don't think electrify wep or possibly shocking aspect actually use it) Even trying to look at my damage in slow motion, its very hard to tell what is actually procing and what isn't (between two enemies there's just sooo many hits, but if you test using only one, there's not enough happening to see what's actually is proccing). However, I actually use paralysis, since its the passive on my hellfire amulet. That's the one ability that keeps me using electrify weapon, because without electrify weapon, I rarely ever lock groups down. Otherwise, between chain lightning, electrify weapon, and shocking aspect, I've literally had times where and entire champ pack was stun-locked until under 10% health. Something in that combo is certainly not limited by chain lightning's meager 8% proc coef.
The main thing I've started to think about is if you try to consider shocking aspect in the place of CHD. If shocking aspect procs on all crits, it could effectively act like CHD, meaning you stack crit to proc it more. However, tbh, I really don't know what the proc rate of shocking weapon/shocking aspect is... and as I try to research it, I seem to get conflicting/vague answers. All I really have been going by is the rate at which things seem to stay paralyzed.
Elemental Exposure was something I tried out and seem to like since when doing wizard LS, most fire wizards don't run it, so between my lightning damage, and the cold damage on my TF, its pretty much 10% increased damage for everyone, plus the further 10% from the poison gem. Dropping audacity is something I've considered however, especially for an ability that might up my survivability. At the same, time audacity is a pretty big damage increase for when enemies have reached the point the can't be stunned, meaning things within that 15 yard radius melt.
I will say two elements of your build I did try out... first was conduit, which I did like for AT (it was pretty much infinite AP on packs) However, as I said, the loss of electrify weapon was very noticeable in my ability to keep packs locked down. However, I loved safe passage over fracture. (particularly good when lightning would chain to a damage reflect pack) Its the one ability really making me want to swap out audacity for illusionist.
One thing the camarel-enchanced chain is good at is aggro'ing mobs and damaging them in a wide area. Especially since the chains will travel along pots, doors, and other breakables... you can sometimes aggro mobs and packs from as far as 2-3 screens away. The chain lightning, along with electrify wep, shocking aspect, and TF... seems to do a very good job of spreading around bleeds and poison, while crits from the smite gem will take out lesser/weakened mobs in 1 hit. Once the mobs are aggroed, they can be corralled for more effectient killing with AT. Also, since fire wizards have a tendency to burn things and run, often failing to actually reach the dot cap for firebirds... in groups chain lightning does very well for cleanup of these large packs of armageddon victims. Again, its a large, wide area mob... which chain lightning is very good at bouncing around to deliver bleeds and poison to in order to actually kill them.
Side note: 1 special case that is really good for camarel and mykens is in the Kulle-type dungeons where there are 'breakable crystals' that can be 'broken' over and over. With these, you can drag over large single targets like a rift guardian, and use these crystals like a 2nd target.
@blackmorgrim: What level of content are you SOLOING right now with your build? Can you do T6 rifts with ease?
I've tried both smite and bleed gems (my gems are only rank 1 atm...not having much time to play lately) and bleed was better. Will try poison during the week.
Today I'll try swapping Familiar(Sparkflint) for Familiar(Arcanot) (and maybe 1 passive for Astral Presence to guarantee my regen) and Magic Weapon(Conduit) for Magic Weapon (Electrify) and check the results of more procs(electrify) vs regen and final damage output. Maybe it's a better configuration (I've never tried electrify rune).
Once I know the results, I'll let you know.
Thanks for all the discussion on this matter. I like when people devote their time to exchange information and theorycraft instead of just copy/pasting a build
Generally I can solo up to around 26-28 Grifts, without the use of unity (completion many times depends on rift density). My gems are all lvl 30 at this point. I will say that for some of those gems, the rank 25 bonus does make a huge difference in the strength of gems. I'd probably pick Lightning wreath over smite sub rank 25.
I like discussion, I've been a major theorycrafter for Howtopriest.com and shadowpriest.com before that. Tbh, its nice to theorycraft about something other than Warlord of Draenor for once! Diablo 3 is a particular challenge merely because you don't have all the parsing tools like WoW does.
I will say, that more experimentation with your build has me tempted by the sheer raw power that AT has on its own. Though I think for a pure AT build (only targeted damage skills I'd use would be AT and BH) I'd probably be tempted to use poison, smite, and either bane of the trapped or bane of the powerful. Then I'd probably look for a really good 2 hander like Furnace, Shaeffer's Hammer, or maybe even try to craft a good cinder switch to give me all 4 elements with arcanot.
Good to know that you are a fellow WoW players as well. I've been playing Rogue since WotLK and read A LOT about the class. I was always a casual player but since Pandaria hit and melee became jokes in PvE I had to switch to mage instead. Anyway, the point is that reading, practicing and theorycrafting became something intrinsic.
Back to the discussion:
I've tried your build yesterday for like an hour. I don't have the helm + offhand combo, but I don't think it is the core of the build anyway. My final impression was that I was wasting damage everytime I had to stop casting AT to fuel my arcane power pool. I mean: using Electrocute gave me NOTHING in terms of survivability to justify using it instead of pure AT (which provides more damage).
Thinking about it, maybe the reason is that I don't have the aforementioned 2 pieces combo, which doubles my chances of stunning the target with Paralysis. But even if I had, the stun from Paralysis is only 1,5 seconds. I don't think stunning more vs the initial delay for AT to start doing damage is worth it.
Additionally, we should not forget that AT full power is only achieved 3 seconds after the initial click and switching back and forth from Electrocute and AT would be only a bigger dps loss, what can be a problem at higher GR.(I felt this specially during boss fights, in which we should be using the full power of AT + Unwavering Will).
As a side note, using my build you have the versatility to choose whichever skill/rune you want to replace Familiar(Sparkflint) (which only provides 10% dps after all).
Big thanks for showing me the importance of Shocking Aspect. It is now mandatory for this build. I felt the difference the second I started using it.
Regarding GEMS, have you tried Zei's Stone of Vengeance with my build? I'll start leveling it this weekend, as at level 25, it has 20% chance no hit to stun the enemy for 1 second. This might be THE thing that can carry this build to higher rift levels. (this went unnoticed until I reviewed my gem choices).
One thing I will say is that when it comes to chain lightning, the helm+offhand is a must. Velvet Camaral ups the jumps of chain lightning to 19 or 20 (dunno if it counts the initial hit in the doubling), while Myken's almost makes sure you're always getting the full worth of every chain. Honestly, without the two together, I'd probably just be using just AT as well. Myken's+Camaral is almost like my vengeance to all the fire wizards that cover up every fire hazard with flames... I just fill the screen with lightning. Once you have the two, I'd have to say anyone that likes lightning wizards will never want to take the two off.
If Chain bounces 19 times... that's 66% WD X 19... That's 1254% WD (or 1320% if it hits 20 times) per cast. Plus electrocute is using double the APS that AT uses. (my current build has 2.05+ APS, so I'm casting electrocute more than 4 times a second.
Unless it has a cap I don't know about) That's also 76-80 chances a second to proc electrify weapon/shocking aspect. ( I sooo wish wizardspike's orb took on the element of the arcane orb rune you had...)
I've thought about Zei's too (mine's still like rank 8 atm), but damage wise, I'd think overall its a loss over some other gems. I believe AT's range can't even take full advantage of the gem unless you're on a vantage point. However, I'd agree if you want maximum control, its probably the way to go.
The fire AT build I tried out yesterday looks something like this:
Skills:
Black Hole- Blazar
AT- Flame Ward
Magic Weapon- Deflection
Familiar- Sparkflint
Energy Armor- Pinpoint Barrier
Teleport- Safe Passage
Helm- Firebird
Shoulders- Firebird
Gloves- Firebird
Legs- Firebird
Feet- Firebird
Chest- Cindercoat
Belt- Tal's, witching hour, string of ears
Neck- Tals or Hellfire
Ring1- RoRG
Ring2- SoJ or Unity
Bracers- Stongarm or good Steady Strikers... anything with 20% Fire Damage, 6% crit, and intellect
2H Weapon- Furnace, Maximus, or Cinder Switch (This fireball really hits pretty hard)
Orb: Tal's orb if you have a good hellfire, Triumverate, Cosmic Strand
1H Wep- Sunkeeper, Devastator, Burning Axe,
Passives:
Blur, Unwavering Will, Illusionist, Conflag, Astral Presence (not needed if you have Tal's set)
With 30% Cindercoat and 10% cost reduction from Paragon... I had infinite arcane power to run AT.
(Tbh... really want a cindercoat for all elements! Its pretty much the item that makes fire so good)
The build:
http://www.diablofans.com/builds/1614-electric-eye
My intention is to update this guide everytime I find something new or a new constructive feedback is given by you guys.
Enjoy!
...
As a lot of wizards lately I was aiming for 6 piece Firebird to play with the fire build.
Then I came across a lot of itens which provided me a good amount of % lightning damage and decided to try it out.
This build is a result of some testing with the gear I had (FAR from optimal) and some suggestions for what in theory are good itens.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SKILLS AND PASSIVES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Skills:
Arcane Torrent (Static Discharge) -> This one is INSANE. The damage output is huge even in single target. It reminds me of the old Well of Souls Witch Doctor build with the upside of being REALLY GOOD for AoE.
Familiar (Sparkflint) -> 10% passive damage increase.
Alternative: Familiar (Arcanot) -> If you feel your mana regen is a problem, switch to this rune. Prioritize this instead of changing any of your passives to Astral Presence.
Alternative 2: Blizzard (Lightning Storm) -> It provides a good damage output (good, not great), and it will increase all your lightning damage dealt to enemies affected by the storm by 15%. This is an alternative because you want to spend your time casting AT only for higher dps output.
Teleport (Safe Passage) -> Survivability and mobility.
Alternative: Teleport (Wormhole) -> This rune saved me so many times from death I can't count. Also the better option for mobility.
Black Hole (Supermassive) -> The damage output is HUGE and the upside (as if the damage was not) is that it will pull everything together for your Arcane Torrent destruction.
Alternative: Black Hole (Event Horizon) -> I'd say that this rune is mandatory for higher content, as it provides GREAT survivability at the cost of some dps.
Storm Armor (Shocking Aspect) -> The dps loss without this rune + the stuns you won't get from Paralysis make this option unique.
Alternative: Storm Armor (Prismatic Armor) -> Survivability!
Alternative 2: Energy Armor (Force armor) -> Provides survivabilty if you are too squishy. Good for boss fights.
Magic Weapon (Conduit) -> Provides "infinite" arcane power. You'll NEVER starve as long as you hit something.
Alternative: Magic Weapon (Force Weapon) -> If you feel like your regen is enough with your Arcane Power on crit.
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Passives:
Paralysis -> MUST HAVE. Main purpose is survivability. As you are hitting with a LOT of lightning your opponents are often stunned. (Bonus: Every 30 seconds you'll summon shadow clones from Haunt of Vaxo).
Unwavering Will -> MUST HAVE. Really good! When you are in a rush situation (lower greater rifts, for instance), it won’t make any difference. At higher Torment you’ll have to stop and dps in most situations. I’m almost getting into the point where I set this as a MUST HAVE passive.
Illusionist -> Movement speed + reset for your Teleport can be really good to escape death.
Blur -> Survivability!
Alternatives:
Dominance -> You'll kill a lot of things...and FAST! This passive will provide you a shield for every enemy killed (up to 10). Not good during most boss fights thou.
Glass Cannon -> Damage at the cost of survivability. Really good at lower Torment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL COMMENTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About itens and attributes:
1. Always try to get % Lightning damage.
2. Focus on attack speed. Reason? Attack speed provides more hits which means you’ll trigger Paralysis more often. Also it plays really well with Arcane Power on crit and life on hit.
3. As there's no item set in the game in favor of lightning skills, choose whatever you want between Cain's (Attack Speed), Vyr(Intelligence) , Tal Rasha (Intelligence), Firebird(500 Intelligence)….. Or stick to a good item with +% lightning damage.
4. If you want to have % damage for a skill, choose Arcane Torrent, not black hole or any other.
5. Ice climbers are always good.
6. RoRG is not a must have in this build as you won't be focusing on getting more than 2 parts of any set (maybe Aughild's).
7. Speaking of Auguild's, it is the best set to aim for. Craft it until you perfect it.
8. 2 handed builds are good, as they provide a decent dps, but I miss the stuns and arcane on crit. I guess it is a matter of taste.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LEGENDARY GEMS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legendary Gems:
Sometimes a matter of taste, but so far:
1. Wreath of Lightning
2. Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver
3. Bane of the Powerful
4. Bane of the Trapped
Being tested: Zei's Stone of Vengeance.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PARAGON POINTS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Core:
1. Movement Speed
2. Max Arcane Power (can be switched to intelligence if you find yourself confortable with your arcane power regen).
Offense:
1. Attack speed
2. Crit chance
Defense:
1. Resist All
2. Armor
Utility:
1. Resource Cost Reduction (focus on Life on Hit if you find yourself confortable with your regen).
2. Life on Hit
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOY!
ANY FEEDBACK IS MORE THAN WELCOMED.
BIG THANKS TO BLACKMORGRIM FOR THE THEORYCRAFTING.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATES
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/10/09 -> Added T3-T6 guide.
2014/12/09 -> Removed the lower torment part of the guide. Testing, the skills mentioned were not as effective as the ones used at higher Torment. Instead, I’m offering alternatives to skills/passives.
2014/17/09 -> Changed some skills, runes, passives and gems after testing and theorycrafting.
I just copied and pasted everything from your builds segment here. It's a hassle to click back and forth for discussion purposes.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
I've found that dropping Storm Armor - Shocking Aspect results in a pretty big DPS loss. I'm also unable to sustain infinite arcane power with Conduit without using Arcanot(even though I also have additional regen from Tal's set), so I use that instead of Blizzard.
I wasn't able to find in your gear any arcane power on crit.
In testing, I've found that the offhand bonus of 3 arcane power on crit was enough to sustain arcane power in most situations. I guess you should give it a try if you are somehow allowed to drop vitality from your offhand.
By doing that you'll probably be able to give up Arcanot for a boost in dps with Sparkflint.
If you try, let me know the results.
IF you go all survivability you lose a lot of dps as stated by Alacor.
If you try it out at higher GR levels, please let me know.
Another swap out I have is a 20 lightning, 6% crit, 30% damage strongarm, which is really nice for groups when I don't need the survival of the defender wrists.
Many people seem to think the smite gem is horrible, but for me, the main reason I take it is for single target with arcane torrent. When I get to focus on a target like a rift guardian, that gem is easily proccing at least once a second. I know for my build, I'm easily completing solo rifts around rank 26, though I begin to struggle in 27 or 28 whenever a get rift levels lacking high density. In general, I tend to find a do better the more dense rifts are packed. One of the tricks to keeping your damage output high and retaining your momentum is whenever you see 2-3 mobs, cast a single chain lighting at them and move on, as the bouncing will take care of them.
Otherwise, between the mass stuns, poison gem, and 10% elemental exposure, it seems to work very well when supporting fire wizards. (as I tend to run all wiz LS runs).
With the 4 arcane power on crit from your offhand + Magic Weapon (Conduit) you should be ok with your regen (even vs single target) as you stated your crit chance is over 50%.
I'll try the gems you mentioned and I'll let you know the result. Maybe smite is good for single target dps.
Why are you running Elemental Exposure and Audacity? As far as I know you should not be close to your enemies.
Have you tried Paralysis (must have IMHO) for the stuns?
The main thing I've started to think about is if you try to consider shocking aspect in the place of CHD. If shocking aspect procs on all crits, it could effectively act like CHD, meaning you stack crit to proc it more. However, tbh, I really don't know what the proc rate of shocking weapon/shocking aspect is... and as I try to research it, I seem to get conflicting/vague answers. All I really have been going by is the rate at which things seem to stay paralyzed.
Elemental Exposure was something I tried out and seem to like since when doing wizard LS, most fire wizards don't run it, so between my lightning damage, and the cold damage on my TF, its pretty much 10% increased damage for everyone, plus the further 10% from the poison gem. Dropping audacity is something I've considered however, especially for an ability that might up my survivability. At the same, time audacity is a pretty big damage increase for when enemies have reached the point the can't be stunned, meaning things within that 15 yard radius melt.
I will say two elements of your build I did try out... first was conduit, which I did like for AT (it was pretty much infinite AP on packs) However, as I said, the loss of electrify weapon was very noticeable in my ability to keep packs locked down. However, I loved safe passage over fracture. (particularly good when lightning would chain to a damage reflect pack) Its the one ability really making me want to swap out audacity for illusionist.
One thing the camarel-enchanced chain is good at is aggro'ing mobs and damaging them in a wide area. Especially since the chains will travel along pots, doors, and other breakables... you can sometimes aggro mobs and packs from as far as 2-3 screens away. The chain lightning, along with electrify wep, shocking aspect, and TF... seems to do a very good job of spreading around bleeds and poison, while crits from the smite gem will take out lesser/weakened mobs in 1 hit. Once the mobs are aggroed, they can be corralled for more effectient killing with AT. Also, since fire wizards have a tendency to burn things and run, often failing to actually reach the dot cap for firebirds... in groups chain lightning does very well for cleanup of these large packs of armageddon victims. Again, its a large, wide area mob... which chain lightning is very good at bouncing around to deliver bleeds and poison to in order to actually kill them.
Side note: 1 special case that is really good for camarel and mykens is in the Kulle-type dungeons where there are 'breakable crystals' that can be 'broken' over and over. With these, you can drag over large single targets like a rift guardian, and use these crystals like a 2nd target.
I've tried both smite and bleed gems (my gems are only rank 1 atm...not having much time to play lately) and bleed was better. Will try poison during the week.
Today I'll try swapping Familiar(Sparkflint) for Familiar(Arcanot) (and maybe 1 passive for Astral Presence to guarantee my regen) and Magic Weapon(Conduit) for Magic Weapon (Electrify) and check the results of more procs(electrify) vs regen and final damage output. Maybe it's a better configuration (I've never tried electrify rune).
Once I know the results, I'll let you know.
Thanks for all the discussion on this matter. I like when people devote their time to exchange information and theorycraft instead of just copy/pasting a build
I like discussion, I've been a major theorycrafter for Howtopriest.com and shadowpriest.com before that. Tbh, its nice to theorycraft about something other than Warlord of Draenor for once! Diablo 3 is a particular challenge merely because you don't have all the parsing tools like WoW does.
I will say, that more experimentation with your build has me tempted by the sheer raw power that AT has on its own. Though I think for a pure AT build (only targeted damage skills I'd use would be AT and BH) I'd probably be tempted to use poison, smite, and either bane of the trapped or bane of the powerful. Then I'd probably look for a really good 2 hander like Furnace, Shaeffer's Hammer, or maybe even try to craft a good cinder switch to give me all 4 elements with arcanot.
Back to the discussion:
I've tried your build yesterday for like an hour. I don't have the helm + offhand combo, but I don't think it is the core of the build anyway. My final impression was that I was wasting damage everytime I had to stop casting AT to fuel my arcane power pool. I mean: using Electrocute gave me NOTHING in terms of survivability to justify using it instead of pure AT (which provides more damage).
Thinking about it, maybe the reason is that I don't have the aforementioned 2 pieces combo, which doubles my chances of stunning the target with Paralysis. But even if I had, the stun from Paralysis is only 1,5 seconds. I don't think stunning more vs the initial delay for AT to start doing damage is worth it.
Additionally, we should not forget that AT full power is only achieved 3 seconds after the initial click and switching back and forth from Electrocute and AT would be only a bigger dps loss, what can be a problem at higher GR.(I felt this specially during boss fights, in which we should be using the full power of AT + Unwavering Will).
As a side note, using my build you have the versatility to choose whichever skill/rune you want to replace Familiar(Sparkflint) (which only provides 10% dps after all).
Big thanks for showing me the importance of Shocking Aspect. It is now mandatory for this build. I felt the difference the second I started using it.
Regarding GEMS, have you tried Zei's Stone of Vengeance with my build? I'll start leveling it this weekend, as at level 25, it has 20% chance no hit to stun the enemy for 1 second. This might be THE thing that can carry this build to higher rift levels. (this went unnoticed until I reviewed my gem choices).
If Chain bounces 19 times... that's 66% WD X 19... That's 1254% WD (or 1320% if it hits 20 times) per cast. Plus electrocute is using double the APS that AT uses. (my current build has 2.05+ APS, so I'm casting electrocute more than 4 times a second.
Unless it has a cap I don't know about) That's also 76-80 chances a second to proc electrify weapon/shocking aspect. ( I sooo wish wizardspike's orb took on the element of the arcane orb rune you had...)
I've thought about Zei's too (mine's still like rank 8 atm), but damage wise, I'd think overall its a loss over some other gems. I believe AT's range can't even take full advantage of the gem unless you're on a vantage point. However, I'd agree if you want maximum control, its probably the way to go.
The fire AT build I tried out yesterday looks something like this:
Skills:
Black Hole- Blazar
AT- Flame Ward
Magic Weapon- Deflection
Familiar- Sparkflint
Energy Armor- Pinpoint Barrier
Teleport- Safe Passage
Helm- Firebird
Shoulders- Firebird
Gloves- Firebird
Legs- Firebird
Feet- Firebird
Chest- Cindercoat
Belt- Tal's, witching hour, string of ears
Neck- Tals or Hellfire
Ring1- RoRG
Ring2- SoJ or Unity
Bracers- Stongarm or good Steady Strikers... anything with 20% Fire Damage, 6% crit, and intellect
2H Weapon- Furnace, Maximus, or Cinder Switch (This fireball really hits pretty hard)
Orb: Tal's orb if you have a good hellfire, Triumverate, Cosmic Strand
1H Wep- Sunkeeper, Devastator, Burning Axe,
Passives:
Blur, Unwavering Will, Illusionist, Conflag, Astral Presence (not needed if you have Tal's set)
With 30% Cindercoat and 10% cost reduction from Paragon... I had infinite arcane power to run AT.
(Tbh... really want a cindercoat for all elements! Its pretty much the item that makes fire so good)