1/22/15: Full update
1/17/16 : Updated Video of 4x wizards doing some of the new patch in T6. http://youtu.be/1jh9BUnpVTE 1/14/15: As of the new patch, the information listed is now under-review. The main points of the thread are still very true, but some adjustments will come in the near future !
This build excels at this very important part of the game, T6 is one of the best places to gear up your wizard or your alternates, acquire EXP, and to have get blood shards for gambling. While 2.1.2 didn’t change the way this build plays T6, it has made the other classes very attractive options. With that said, I consider this the best wizard build for T6.
I hope this guide will allow people that have a good grasp of the build and mechanics already to push their limits and increase their efficiency for T6. One of the biggest factors however is whether or not to pick up loot. If you are picking up loot, my only advice is be a bit more selective. Pick from goblin drops, resplendent chests, rift guardians or just legendaries. This would boost your speed efficiency greatly.
Besides being selective with looting, when we talk about gear and skill setups, here are a couple things I am aiming to get across with this. There's really 3 important factors.
1) DPS
2) Speed
3) Survivability
I've attached a video with some vocal instructions (different people learn differently), but i'll go over the choices here for people looking for more details.
For T6 farming, we can spec more towards DPS and less towards survivability. Whether it be solo or group, you don't want to be that guy that only tickles things and flies away.
1) Weapon choice:Ancient Furnace is the #1 choice here, there are many arguments for other weapons, but for upfront reliable damage this weapon is hard to beat.
Alternatives: include Ancient versions of the following Maximus and (Crafted) Sunder as 2 Hander alternatives and Sunkeeper and (Crafted) Devastator as the opposing 1 handers. A very strong Burning Axe of Sankis can be serviceable if non of the above are comparable. I would not consider using any Serpent Sparker unless using Tasker and Theos as well.
Any other weapon I would not deem competitive.
I’ve attached BDF’s comparison between some Ancient weapons against regular Furnaces:
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The below values will be direct indicators as to how hard your firebird dot ticks, your fire attacks hit (minus channeling spells or hydras due to IAS), and how hard your DoT gems tick:
Weapon Name Dmg Elite Dmg Fire Dmg Fire Elite Dmg
Sunkeeper + FB source: 100% 160% 220% 352%
A-Deva + FB Source: 121% 158% 291% 379%
A-Deva + A-FB Source: 130% 169% 311% 405%
Furnace: 134% 241% 241% 433%
Ancient Sunder: 158% 206% 285% 370%
All of the above is normalized relative to the white non-fire damage of a sunkeeper+firebird source set-up.
Updated the above numbers, fixed an incorrect assumption that base dmg of ancient weapons was higher.
TLDR: Furnace still king, Ancient alternatives are strong options
2) DPS Gem choices: For people that don't know or are too stubborn to believe it, Pain Enhancer is an unreal gem for damage. Currently my level 52 gem is an extra 920% per second for 3 seconds triggered by a crit. Both blizzard and Frozen storm crit very often and have no problems triggering PE. Trust me it deals a ton of damage.
Take Zei's stone of Vengeance as well obviously and the last gem should be Toxin gem or Bane of the powerful. Bane of the trapped is not effective enough using templar alone or in a group so its effectiveness is limited in fast T6 groups.
TLDR: ZEIS + TOX + Pain Enhancer, BOTP is useful for solo or low elite % setups, results may vary slightly between setups
3) DPS passives choices: At this point, take whichever DPS passives you can afford to take. If you have a suitable element on your weapon (anything other then fire) take Elemental Exposure for a no sacrifice damage boost. Glass Cannon would be the next best passive to take if you can handle playing around reduced defensive stats. Conflagration is also a solid choice to use in solo or groups. Its drawback (not effecting your Firebird DOT) is not that important since most mobs will die before infinite DOT is reached. In that instance, its basically a free 6% CHC boost for you and your group.
Evocation while not really top of mind for DPS, is quite important and should 100% be in all builds where DPS is a priority. It offers more black holes, more meteors and more teleport for DPS and survivability boost. Its a must for this build. Currently my set up uses 42% CDR, it works well enough.
TLDR: Use Elemental Exposure or Glass Cannon, Evocation as well
4) DPS skill choices: Meteor is actually a good alternate attack. It one shots elites, and it's cool down disadvantage isn't as glaring since you only need to strategically place it once in a while. However, Molten impact meteors should be considered on supplemental damage when your Black Hole is on cool down and you need a heavy hitter. Many people use Mammoth Hydra instead of Meteor, and here is the reason I choose the latter. Hydra does indeed more damage over sustained periods of time, however since fights last <5 seconds, Hydra does not shine in T6. The immediate damage of Molten impact makes it vastly more effective then Hydra for T6. Please give it a try.
Spellsteal is now worth using in this new 2.1.2 density.
Next, take magic weapon Conduit. DPS buffing skill, and resource management rolled into one skill. With 2.1.2 and increased density, we traded our previous Force Weapon for Conduit to manage our resources better and apply our damage more consistently on a crowded screen.
TLDR: Use Molten Impact, Black Hole and Conduit
5) DPS gear choices: The absolute best set up for T6 from my experience has been Cindercoat / RORG. Here is the reasoning. AP management for T6 is a must have since going through content so fast requires more Blizzards spams. Blizzard becomes a lethal weapon and not trivial herding attack like in Greater Rifts. Blizzards do damage and kill quickly in T6. So we need to fire off more of them. This means resource management. Cindercoat is the 1 stop shop for resource management.
I know what your thinking, don't use Cindercoat or conduit rune. This will hinder your ability to cast spells, and when your moving through content so fast, this is a huge clear time blow.
Gearing Alternatives: There are alternatives, but overall DPS and playability will go towards Cindercoat and its 20% elemental damage and 30% resource cost reduction. Furnace set ups which are high on elite damage % and lower on fire elemental damage % benefit much more from additional elemental %. This gives the DPS edge to Cindercoat compared to say
Since 2.1.2, we have several options since getting an Ancient Furnace is our end goal, many of us will not be that fortunate for some time. An easy upgrade would be to craft an ancient Sunder or ancient Devastator (paired with an ancient off hand).
As for 1-Handed setups, we are still using RORG, this allows us to use 1 extra non-firebird piece on top of using Cindercoat. I would suggest using Leoric’s Crown and slot a Diamond for cool down reduction. Another option would be use Gloves of Worship. GoW gained a lot of value since 2.1.2 with more consistency in shrines popping up, they are much more reliable now and are worth using for their 10-minute buffs.
Some jewelry alternatives include using a top end Endless Walk set (compass rose and traveller’s pledge) , but I don’t see how getting an end game version of this set is easier then getting a Cindercoat/RORG. But it is a close option, however resource management is a problem.
Unity can be used for T6 solos as well.
WItching hour VERSUS Harrington Waistguard???
Personally I use Harrington Waistguard, mainly because I enjoy clicking clickables like chests and bodies (a lot of loot comes from chests FYI) and T6 is really the only place I can use my Harrington ! Outside of those two arguments I don't see a clear winner between the two DPS items and view it as a battle of constantly less but reliable damage versus absurd burst situational damage. You take your pick upon preference!
TLDR: Use Cindercoat/RORG, Ancient 1 Handers open up more options
2.1.2 Gear affixes alternatives
With 2.1.2, each point of vitality was increased so our toughness was inflated going into 2.1.2 without any effort. This allows us to trade some toughness for more damage. All the below points are huge luxury stats and are only worth exploring if you feel comfortable with your survivability.
Cool down Reduction % : We trade toughness for more cool down. Since our burst capabilities and movement is based off cool downs, adding more is always a nice gain. Items to look to add CDR% in place of toughness would be shoulders, gloves, off hand (if applicable) or weapon. Keep damage stats on jewelry always. Always have a diamond in helm if possible.
Area Damage % : Adding area % is a nice way of adding some extra damage and taking advantage of the new density in 2.1.2. Although the damage is marginal, it might still be worth while if you have convenient gear. Here is how area damage works:
Example: Assuming you Black Hole 5 monsters for 20M a tick. You currently have 100% Area damage. Area Damage always has a 20% chance to trigger per monster within 10 yards of the source. 100% Area Damage means each trigger deals 20M. Area Damage assumes the damage type of the source, so it helps stack the fire DOT if the source is fire. Pets and Gems do not trigger Area Damage.
Movement Speed: For T6, having movement speed on your boots frees up 120 INT from paragon points.
Increase Skill damage% : Again, minimal realistic gains from any increase in skill damage %, having increase blizzard % would be preferred since this is our most frequent skill used. The overall gain would be negligible, but is a nice luxury DPS stat if you have a convenient item.
TLDR: Trade Toughness stats for more damage stats
Speed
1) Warzechian Armguards : These are one of my favorite items. They offer a new game play experience and are very effective when triggered. 50% speed boost while destroying breakables is an excellent movement speed boost and is almost 100% necessary to going fast in T6 runs.
2) Frozen Storm: The best "passive" ability that has so many different uses. For T6, it is perfectly viable to not use an energy armor to boost your defensive stats. This ice armor rune does so many things its a main stay for any build that revolves around Warzechian bracers. It destroys breakables passively, opens doors without you needing to attack, crits often triggering Pain Enhancer, and also provides another 5% damage towards elemental exposure.
3) Teleport: Take Wormhole for your rune here, you want to move around as fast as possible and over great distances to cover bad maps and terrain. Really no need for another rune here especially for T6. Maybe calamity to apply another 5% towards elemental exposure, but might not be the best trade off from my experience.
4) Alternatives: Avarice band / Gold Wrap / Boon of the Hoarder gem provide a 30% speed boost after collecting gold, this is really useful, but the drawback is a substantial DPS loss.
Wreath of Lightning Gem, nice little speed boost, but a big hit on DPS. Also not 100% uptime on this gem bonus either. Not worth the use for speed alone if you can help it.
Diamond skin - Sleek shell rune, if you can squeeze this in somewhere, sure I guess, however the skill bar is pretty restrictive with the skills you can use so this, most likely ineffective skill just doesn't make the cut.
Illusory Boots are great for movement, but would not replace Cindercoat for.
TLDR: Use frozen storm, teleport and Warzechian Armguards
Survivability
1) Defensive Passive Choices: Take Dominance over Blur here. Dominance is incredible for T6 if you can kill enemies fast enough to constantly reset its shields. Its also party wild so your group kills to increase your shields as well. Blur while good, does not offer the top end upside of Dominance. When all else fails you have the Firebird cheat death trigger to save your bacon when you have a brain fart or get 10 shot by spear chuckers. Currently my gear is set up around 7900 armor and 1300 AR.
As an alternative, you could use unstable anomaly or Blur together with Dominance to shore up your defenses a bit, this will of course eat into your overall DPS, but if you need it, then by all means.
2) A good offense is a the BEST defense: This rings true here, if you can obliterate enemies in 1 cast, you don't need to worry about long fights and dangerous affixes coming out to hurt you. As well killing huge packs of enemies constantly refresh your key passive: Dominance and provide you enough eHP to survive through most enemy barrages.
TLDR: Use Dominance, kill fast to survive
Please give it a try, I know many have already given me thumbs up for a lot of the pointers mentioned above, but make sure you give some of them a try you will not be disappointed.
I don't agree with the guide's choice of legendary gems, it is quite obvious that poision gem increases fire birds DOT and all spells also. The bane of trapped with blackholes and plenty CDR and templar with TF also is legit.
Pain enhancer is not what poster makes it out to be IMO, Bane of the powerfull, zei stone and (bane of the trapped or poison) would be my choices. Also the post doesnt mention 2.12 in which hydra, especially mammoth hydra will rule, so kinda lousy advice when people have to reroll gear in a week or whenever it comes.
Have you tried the PE gem at all ? An extra 900% weapon damage per second.
I can show you mathematically how Pain enhancer front loads damage against the other gems in question over time. Both trapped and BOTP do not compare. Also for t6 how much of your damage comes from the Infinite DOT ? Most enemies die before they reach infinite.
The strength of the gem will be over shorter fights which is the case in T6, in greater rifts where more of yor damage over time is from the FB DOT, then yes other gems that affect your DOT size is more important like trapped, toxin , zei and powerful. But for T6 PE is awesome.
And in response to your Hydra comment. This thread has information that pertains to NOW, how can you dismiss the information because of a future changes that may or may not happen? Re-roll in a week? whenever? Good job.
And don't be so quick to dismiss the advice, you might prevent yourself from learning something.
I don't agree with the guide's choice of legendary gems, it is quite obvious that poision gem increases fire birds DOT and all spells also. The bane of trapped with blackholes and plenty CDR and templar with TF also is legit.
Pain enhancer is not what poster makes it out to be IMO, Bane of the powerfull, zei stone and (bane of the trapped or poison) would be my choices. Also the post doesnt mention 2.12 in which hydra, especially mammoth hydra will rule, so kinda lousy advice when people have to reroll gear in a week or whenever it comes.
Pain Enhancer offers burst damage in T6, which is all that matters. It doesn't really matter how much your infinite DoT goes for or whether something is CCing a target when a single Molten Impact can wipe an entire elite pack even in a full party game. A single cast of Apocalypse is enough to wipe out any cluster of trash mobs. It's the complete opposite for high level Greater Rifts when sustained damage is the game.
Nice guide, certainly showed me several things that I personally hadn't thought of, especially utilizing the burst from PE. Quick quiestion though, how come BoTP isn't superior to BoTT for t6 farming? surely you will have the buff up 100% of the time, which is 20% vs. 10% and a 'slow' dot. Not even counting in the elite dmg, which is ofc slightly weaker if you have the furnace.
Quick note, your guide video is really really low. Had to turn my volume all the way up and I still struggled to hear you clearly.
Hope you share more of tips like these in the future =)
3 Months ago I would have said to use BoTT and BOTPl full time in T6. However after lots of in game experience, the lingering DOT gems and their damage from their effects is what is more important.
BOTP is roughly equivalent in eDPS to a Toxin gem when active in T6. The upside of the BOTP is not that great due to, as you mentioned, the overflow of elite% already with furnace set ups. 20% additive bonus from the BOTP also gets diluted by the numerous additive buffs you have on your plate already as well, so overall the gain is not as strong as it looks.
This is why weapon damage DOTs on gems are stronger (for T6). Yes the damage doesn't boost the size of the FB DOT, but this is not as important since most of your damage doesn't come from the FB DOT ! Its all front loaded damage, and this is why gems like TOX/ and PE are super strong. Even though TOX is a "slow" DOT, my level 52 TOX gem does 465% weapon damage per second, by comparison, Blizzard does a pitiful 196%.
I've listed BOTP as near equal to TOX however for T6, you can go either way.
And the issue with BOTT is that relying on only BH and templar is not enough for T6 when you are flying through content. For GRs, its a premium gem, but doesn't work as well for T6. Also in groups it doesn't even apply unless someone else can trigger it (which may or may not happen).
Thank you for your suggestion, it was late and i didn't want to disturb my women. Hopefully it wasn't too much of a strain to hear me!
Well I did play around with pain enhancer, going to give you the credit of the doubt and try it out again instead of BotT. I got around 2.3 mill DPS with the BotP buff and 100% fire dmg% on top, so maybe its a matter of setup & playstyle what works.
I'm planning on using PE and Toxin, instead of PE + BOTP, and I recently found a very good amulet with 20% fire/chd/chc/socket. But I was wondering, if my DPS or burst DPS is reliant on the %wpn legendary gems, isn't it better to have a standard intel/chc/chd/socket instead of a fire/chc/chd/socket? What do you think guys? I'm talking about a pure dps throughput point of view, toughness isn't a problem obviously.
OP's profile is using a fire/chc/chd/socket combo but I'm still wondering about it.
The legendary gems are not your primary damage dealers. Your fire spells (Apocalypse, Molten Impact, Blazar, secondary DoT from Firebird + infinite DoT if you even need it) are still your main offense. Same reason why you wouldn't be stacking physical damage bonuses just to milk the bleed damage from Pain Enhancer or poison for Toxin.
I Kinda disagree as well, firebird + WoW + goldwrap + hoarder and there you're immortal, can go for full dps and pretty much zerg everything in T6. But one WoW is needed.
I will guarantee you that this spec will leave any (100%) WoW user in the dust. Far, far in the dust. If you're a WoW user running with another Firebird wizard with this spec, the only enemies you'd be able to kill are a couple of lone stragglers barely hanging on with 10% of their life just because they luckily wandered outside the AOE of Apocalypse. Any enemy touched by Blazar and/or Molten Impact are guaranteed dead.
Dominance already keeps you immortal. Goldwrap means no Harrington or Witching Hour, which means a colossal DPS loss. Good luck being able to one-shot an elite pack in a four player game with a Goldwrap. Using Boon of the Hoarder also means dropping a offensive legendary gem for another huge DPS hit.
One common situation I see WoW users in is that they speed ahead before things die behind them, considering the extra EB procs from WoW do not contribute to Firebird at all, unless the initial EBs have made contact. As a result, as you're passing through mobs, unless you have the initial cycle timed perfectly every single time you engage, you will not be able to get the most damage out. In order to maximize kills, you have to cast Apocalypse in one area, EB in another, whereas in a Apocalypse oriented build with pure speed, all you do is maximize the damage output per cast, which is all you need.
The damage range for a weapon is what you place emphasis on, as APS means absolutely nothing for Firebird other than animation.
If you only kill elites, that's not optimal. And even in this setup, if you're geared properly, you can carry three other people on your own.
It's easily doable to complete a T6 Rift in less than five minutes on your own with three other players sitting behind you doing nothing. And this involves killing clusters of trash and elites, not only elites. In a group involving two or more properly geared Apocalypse wizards can clear a T6 Rift in less than two minutes fairly often.
I'd advise you check out Boozor's sample T6 run video above. The first Rift took about 3.5 minutes to clear and that also involved backtracking and picking up some items. That's more or less average speed potential there. I'm not sure what Boozor's fire DPS is, but I'm running around 1.8 million sheet DPS self-buffed and closing in on 4 million fire damage on sheet.
Many people in a group try to keep up, but they forgo actually killing anything. The Apocalypse spec, when optimized, has speed, mobility, and damage. The only other spec right now (at least in 2.1.1) that can keep up with speed and killing power is the Raekor barb when Empowered Shrine is active.
I'm planning on using PE and Toxin, instead of PE + BOTP, and I recently found a very good amulet with 20% fire/chd/chc/socket. But I was wondering, if my DPS or burst DPS is reliant on the %wpn legendary gems, isn't it better to have a standard intel/chc/chd/socket instead of a fire/chc/chd/socket? What do you think guys? I'm talking about a pure dps throughput point of view, toughness isn't a problem obviously.
OP's profile is using a fire/chc/chd/socket combo but I'm still wondering about it.
This is a good question and something I was thinking about yesterday. Is the damage more from PE and TOX then it is from the Firebird DOT and fire spells ? Well I am not sure.
It will depend on time spent, instant casts of blizzard will mean instant activation of PE and TOX so their damage is immediate. But as fights get long, the fire spells and DOT get more and more time to deal their damage. I need to plug some of these numbers into a spead sheet to see whether fire% is more worthwhile then stacking addition stats to boost your gem DOT damage. If the DOT gems is the main source of damage then Stat items (no fire%) might be the most optimal set up so Endless walk set will become more powerful.
As it stands if we assume DOT gems are not the primay source of damage, then Fire%/CHC/CHD/socket is our best bet, i'll report back I I have new findings.
Well I did play around with pain enhancer, going to give you the credit of the doubt and try it out again instead of BotT. I got around 2.3 mill DPS with the BotP buff and 100% fire dmg% on top, so maybe its a matter of setup & playstyle what works.
If you used the PE gem you will know that I am not full of hot air. Dismissing someone's advice as "lousy" without due diligence is pretty unjustified, so hope you give it a shot.
Having excessive amounts of fire% isn't doing your set up any favors unless you have elite % and other good damage modifiers as well.
Sheet dps doesn't tell much about the particular build, I'd need more details in regards to your items and other stats to make any sort of further analysis
I'm planning on using PE and Toxin, instead of PE + BOTP, and I recently found a very good amulet with 20% fire/chd/chc/socket. But I was wondering, if my DPS or burst DPS is reliant on the %wpn legendary gems, isn't it better to have a standard intel/chc/chd/socket instead of a fire/chc/chd/socket? What do you think guys? I'm talking about a pure dps throughput point of view, toughness isn't a problem obviously.
OP's profile is using a fire/chc/chd/socket combo but I'm still wondering about it.
This is a good question and something I was thinking about yesterday. Is the damage more from PE and TOX then it is from the Firebird DOT and fire spells ? Well I am not sure.
It will depend on time spent, instant casts of blizzard will mean instant activation of PE and TOX so their damage is immediate. But as fights get long, the fire spells and DOT get more and more time to deal their damage. I need to plug some of these numbers into a spead sheet to see whether fire% is more worthwhile then stacking addition stats to boost your gem DOT damage. If the DOT gems is the main source of damage then Stat items (no fire%) might be the most optimal set up so Endless walk set will become more powerful.
As it stands if we assume DOT gems are not the primay source of damage, then Fire%/CHC/CHD/socket is our best bet, i'll report back I I have new findings.
Remember the DoTs are all aggregated into one number. It's easy to compare if you cast Blizzard with PE, then Blizzard with Toxin, then Blizzard alone.
I would go in favor of fire because your PE/Toxin are not going to strike a target for 300M damage (i.e. with Molten Impact/Blazar). Apocalypse already ticks for 30M+ with Toxin (that's the usual number I see) before PE and that's overkill for trash.
I'm tempted to put on my Meteor boots. I already use a Blizzard chest and I also have Firebird shoulders with Blizzard damage.
Alright I spent the day messing with the figures for this type of question on which set up is actually more optimal.
Just using BDF's pain enhancer spreadsheet while adding CHC/CHD/INT values to determine total damage, it appears that RORG / Cindercoat / Force Weapon will out perform Endless Walk set / Conduit magic weapon after 2 seconds of enemies standing in blizzard. Looks like the temporary Firebird damage is equivalent or better (depending on fire%) then PE DOT gem at the 5 second mark. Toxin obviously out DPS blizzard's DOT.
As more damage is applied by your other fire skills, i'd expect this duration to be shorter and more in favor of the Cindercoat/RORG set up.
@Jaetch
Blizzard % looks more and more unappealing from these calculations. It attributes around 10% of your total damage over 5 seconds, and drops as time progresses.
Its effectiveness would decrease further as you incorporate more spells along with it.
However DPS is DPS, and if no EHP stat is needed definitely use everything at your disposal !
I have a question though, are you sure the elemental damage on a weapon triggers elemental exposure? When I tested the tal rasha set as I was trying to find a good fb/tr mix, I seem to recall that the lightning damage on my serpent's sparker only triggered the lightning meteor when I would cast a "white attack" (basic attack cast when out of arcane power).
Guess I never read that tooltip to the end, thanks.
Yea TR and EE work slightly different from each other. Your dry wand attack trigger lightning meteor example is one of the differences. I sometimes forget which does what as well.
EE will work off the element range from your weapon. (Note: will not work off your followers weapon or attacks)
Also things like wreath of lightning's lightning element I believe will count towards EE as well.
After some number crunching it appears at least with a 5 second timeframe, that Fire damage (blizzard / meteor/ black hole / FB DOT and temp DOT) will out damage the TOX / Pain Enhancers' DoT damage.
The margin is quite small though, but it appears benefits from 20% fire damage for example, will benefit your overall output more then push for sheet stats (avg damage/ more CHD/CHC, etc) This instance will be true at least in the simulation that I ran, 40% fire to 60% fire, and 60%-80% fire. 80% to 100% might not be as benefitical to your actual damage because of diminishing returns, but I haven't tested that range since it is unobtainable for my gear set.
For people that don't believe in Pain Enhancer here is some food for thought from a previous thread.
12/04/2014 07:38 AMPosted by vishnu
In T6 pain enhancer wins no question, the DoT is so much more powerful, with full force right away.
In GRs the issue is less clear cut. Pain enhancer is dramatically more DoT damage, but then there's the 10% damage bonus to consider. This would be easy to calculate if you didn't use mammoth hydra, but hydra complicates it a bit. Lets do the calculation without mammoth to start:
Looking at your profile, you have 58% fire damage. Since we're ignoring hydra for the moment, the firebird DoT can be considered to be essentially all of your fire damage, at 3000%/s. Looks like you have level 50 gems, so pain enhancer is 2700%/3s
(2700/3)/(3000*1.58) = 18.9%
So pain enhancer is an 18.9% increase in your DoT damage.
Toxin is 4500%/10s and 10% increased damage, additive. The additive nature makes the following calculation an absolute best case estimate, any other additive bonuses make it worse.
[(4500/10)*1.1 + (3000*1.58)*0.1]/(3000*1.58) = 20.4%
So toxin is a 20.4% increase in your DoT damage.
So the two are pretty close. However, Hydra will tend to make toxin better, benefiting from the 10% damage buff, while any other additive buffs you may run (strongarm, glass cannon, force weapon) will tend to make toxin worse.
Lets repeat the calculation with strongarm (all elites other than fatties and the RG should be strongarmed), glass cannon, 2-element EE, force weapon = 30% + 15% + 10% + 20% = 75% additive bonuses.
[(4500/10)*(1+0.75 + 0.1) + (3000*1.58)*(0.1)]/[(3000*1.58)*(1 + 0.75)] = 15.8%, or clearly worse than pain enhancer.
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Now including hydra is a little sketchy. Lest assume 2 stacks of mammoth hydra (800% weapon damage) burning all the time on stuff, for the sake of comparison, and include that in the above calculations:
Pain enhancer: (2700/3)/((3000+800)*1.58) = 15.0%
Toxin (w/ other additive buffs): [(4500/10)*(1+0.75 + 0.1) + ((3000+800)*1.58)*(0.1)]/[((3000+800)*1.58)*(1 + 0.75)] = 13.6% So even with hydra included, the additive buffs end up being a bigger deal, and landing toxin behind pain enhancer.
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If we repeated these calculations for a sun keeper user (40% more fire damage) we might find things looked a little more favorable for toxin. (12% pain enhancer, 12% toxin, a tie) But the higher raw damage, lower fire damage on furnace setup allows the actual DoT effects from the gems to be more prominent, and of course the pain enhancer DoT is much stronger than the toxin DoT, so that's good conditions for PE.
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TL;DR: Pain enhancer is better raw damage, usually.
edit: but as BDF points out, angel utility on toxin is nice.
1/22/15: Full update
1/17/16 : Updated Video of 4x wizards doing some of the new patch in T6.
http://youtu.be/1jh9BUnpVTE
1/14/15: As of the new patch, the information listed is now under-review. The main points of the thread are still very true, but some adjustments will come in the near future !
This build excels at this very important part of the game, T6 is one of the best places to gear up your wizard or your alternates, acquire EXP, and to have get blood shards for gambling. While 2.1.2 didn’t change the way this build plays T6, it has made the other classes very attractive options. With that said, I consider this the best wizard build for T6.
I hope this guide will allow people that have a good grasp of the build and mechanics already to push their limits and increase their efficiency for T6. One of the biggest factors however is whether or not to pick up loot. If you are picking up loot, my only advice is be a bit more selective. Pick from goblin drops, resplendent chests, rift guardians or just legendaries. This would boost your speed efficiency greatly.
Besides being selective with looting, when we talk about gear and skill setups, here are a couple things I am aiming to get across with this. There's really 3 important factors.
1) DPS
2) Speed
3) Survivability
I've attached a video with some vocal instructions (different people learn differently), but i'll go over the choices here for people looking for more details.
*****Please view this for instructional video: http://youtu.be/AZgsD16Pq4Q
*****Here is a casual T6 Rift video: http://youtu.be/u5vvcwEGnw0
*****2.1.2 Wizard group T6 video: http://youtu.be/1jh9BUnpVTE
I've attached my profile for easy viewing: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Boozor-1433/hero/14262855
Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#lQfSPN!gdbR!YZcZcY
Here is more information and other's variations on the FB build, all good reads:
BDF' FB Basics: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15083138357?page=1
Jaetch's Solo Grift FB guide http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14422562400
Kiza's Blizzhydra Guide: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/13273107979
Kiza's T6 brainstorm: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/14730303495#1
For T6 farming, we can spec more towards DPS and less towards survivability. Whether it be solo or group, you don't want to be that guy that only tickles things and flies away.
1) Weapon choice: Ancient Furnace is the #1 choice here, there are many arguments for other weapons, but for upfront reliable damage this weapon is hard to beat.
Alternatives: include Ancient versions of the following Maximus and (Crafted) Sunder as 2 Hander alternatives and Sunkeeper and (Crafted) Devastator as the opposing 1 handers. A very strong Burning Axe of Sankis can be serviceable if non of the above are comparable. I would not consider using any Serpent Sparker unless using Tasker and Theos as well.
Any other weapon I would not deem competitive.
I’ve attached BDF’s comparison between some Ancient weapons against regular Furnaces:
TLDR: Furnace still king, Ancient alternatives are strong options
2) DPS Gem choices: For people that don't know or are too stubborn to believe it, Pain Enhancer is an unreal gem for damage. Currently my level 52 gem is an extra 920% per second for 3 seconds triggered by a crit. Both blizzard and Frozen storm crit very often and have no problems triggering PE. Trust me it deals a ton of damage.
Take Zei's stone of Vengeance as well obviously and the last gem should be Toxin gem or Bane of the powerful. Bane of the trapped is not effective enough using templar alone or in a group so its effectiveness is limited in fast T6 groups.
TLDR: ZEIS + TOX + Pain Enhancer, BOTP is useful for solo or low elite % setups, results may vary slightly between setups
3) DPS passives choices: At this point, take whichever DPS passives you can afford to take. If you have a suitable element on your weapon (anything other then fire) take Elemental Exposure for a no sacrifice damage boost. Glass Cannon would be the next best passive to take if you can handle playing around reduced defensive stats. Conflagration is also a solid choice to use in solo or groups. Its drawback (not effecting your Firebird DOT) is not that important since most mobs will die before infinite DOT is reached. In that instance, its basically a free 6% CHC boost for you and your group.
Evocation while not really top of mind for DPS, is quite important and should 100% be in all builds where DPS is a priority. It offers more black holes, more meteors and more teleport for DPS and survivability boost. Its a must for this build. Currently my set up uses 42% CDR, it works well enough.
TLDR: Use Elemental Exposure or Glass Cannon, Evocation as well
4) DPS skill choices: Meteor is actually a good alternate attack. It one shots elites, and it's cool down disadvantage isn't as glaring since you only need to strategically place it once in a while. However, Molten impact meteors should be considered on supplemental damage when your Black Hole is on cool down and you need a heavy hitter. Many people use Mammoth Hydra instead of Meteor, and here is the reason I choose the latter. Hydra does indeed more damage over sustained periods of time, however since fights last <5 seconds, Hydra does not shine in T6. The immediate damage of Molten impact makes it vastly more effective then Hydra for T6. Please give it a try.
Spellsteal is now worth using in this new 2.1.2 density.
Next, take magic weapon Conduit. DPS buffing skill, and resource management rolled into one skill. With 2.1.2 and increased density, we traded our previous Force Weapon for Conduit to manage our resources better and apply our damage more consistently on a crowded screen.
TLDR: Use Molten Impact, Black Hole and Conduit
5) DPS gear choices: The absolute best set up for T6 from my experience has been Cindercoat / RORG. Here is the reasoning. AP management for T6 is a must have since going through content so fast requires more Blizzards spams. Blizzard becomes a lethal weapon and not trivial herding attack like in Greater Rifts. Blizzards do damage and kill quickly in T6. So we need to fire off more of them. This means resource management. Cindercoat is the 1 stop shop for resource management.
I know what your thinking, don't use Cindercoat or conduit rune. This will hinder your ability to cast spells, and when your moving through content so fast, this is a huge clear time blow.
Gearing Alternatives: There are alternatives, but overall DPS and playability will go towards Cindercoat and its 20% elemental damage and 30% resource cost reduction. Furnace set ups which are high on elite damage % and lower on fire elemental damage % benefit much more from additional elemental %. This gives the DPS edge to Cindercoat compared to say
Since 2.1.2, we have several options since getting an Ancient Furnace is our end goal, many of us will not be that fortunate for some time. An easy upgrade would be to craft an ancient Sunder or ancient Devastator (paired with an ancient off hand).
As for 1-Handed setups, we are still using RORG, this allows us to use 1 extra non-firebird piece on top of using Cindercoat. I would suggest using Leoric’s Crown and slot a Diamond for cool down reduction. Another option would be use Gloves of Worship. GoW gained a lot of value since 2.1.2 with more consistency in shrines popping up, they are much more reliable now and are worth using for their 10-minute buffs.
Some jewelry alternatives include using a top end Endless Walk set (compass rose and traveller’s pledge) , but I don’t see how getting an end game version of this set is easier then getting a Cindercoat/RORG. But it is a close option, however resource management is a problem.
Unity can be used for T6 solos as well.
WItching hour VERSUS Harrington Waistguard???
Personally I use Harrington Waistguard, mainly because I enjoy clicking clickables like chests and bodies (a lot of loot comes from chests FYI) and T6 is really the only place I can use my Harrington ! Outside of those two arguments I don't see a clear winner between the two DPS items and view it as a battle of constantly less but reliable damage versus absurd burst situational damage. You take your pick upon preference!
TLDR: Use Cindercoat/RORG, Ancient 1 Handers open up more options
2.1.2 Gear affixes alternatives
With 2.1.2, each point of vitality was increased so our toughness was inflated going into 2.1.2 without any effort. This allows us to trade some toughness for more damage. All the below points are huge luxury stats and are only worth exploring if you feel comfortable with your survivability.
Cool down Reduction % : We trade toughness for more cool down. Since our burst capabilities and movement is based off cool downs, adding more is always a nice gain. Items to look to add CDR% in place of toughness would be shoulders, gloves, off hand (if applicable) or weapon. Keep damage stats on jewelry always. Always have a diamond in helm if possible.
Area Damage % : Adding area % is a nice way of adding some extra damage and taking advantage of the new density in 2.1.2. Although the damage is marginal, it might still be worth while if you have convenient gear. Here is how area damage works:
Example: Assuming you Black Hole 5 monsters for 20M a tick. You currently have 100% Area damage. Area Damage always has a 20% chance to trigger per monster within 10 yards of the source. 100% Area Damage means each trigger deals 20M. Area Damage assumes the damage type of the source, so it helps stack the fire DOT if the source is fire. Pets and Gems do not trigger Area Damage.
Movement Speed: For T6, having movement speed on your boots frees up 120 INT from paragon points.
Increase Skill damage% : Again, minimal realistic gains from any increase in skill damage %, having increase blizzard % would be preferred since this is our most frequent skill used. The overall gain would be negligible, but is a nice luxury DPS stat if you have a convenient item.
TLDR: Trade Toughness stats for more damage stats
1) Warzechian Armguards : These are one of my favorite items. They offer a new game play experience and are very effective when triggered. 50% speed boost while destroying breakables is an excellent movement speed boost and is almost 100% necessary to going fast in T6 runs.
2) Frozen Storm: The best "passive" ability that has so many different uses. For T6, it is perfectly viable to not use an energy armor to boost your defensive stats. This ice armor rune does so many things its a main stay for any build that revolves around Warzechian bracers. It destroys breakables passively, opens doors without you needing to attack, crits often triggering Pain Enhancer, and also provides another 5% damage towards elemental exposure.
3) Teleport: Take Wormhole for your rune here, you want to move around as fast as possible and over great distances to cover bad maps and terrain. Really no need for another rune here especially for T6. Maybe calamity to apply another 5% towards elemental exposure, but might not be the best trade off from my experience.
4) Alternatives: Avarice band / Gold Wrap / Boon of the Hoarder gem provide a 30% speed boost after collecting gold, this is really useful, but the drawback is a substantial DPS loss.
Wreath of Lightning Gem, nice little speed boost, but a big hit on DPS. Also not 100% uptime on this gem bonus either. Not worth the use for speed alone if you can help it.
Diamond skin - Sleek shell rune, if you can squeeze this in somewhere, sure I guess, however the skill bar is pretty restrictive with the skills you can use so this, most likely ineffective skill just doesn't make the cut.
Illusory Boots are great for movement, but would not replace Cindercoat for.
TLDR: Use frozen storm, teleport and Warzechian Armguards
1) Defensive Passive Choices: Take Dominance over Blur here. Dominance is incredible for T6 if you can kill enemies fast enough to constantly reset its shields. Its also party wild so your group kills to increase your shields as well. Blur while good, does not offer the top end upside of Dominance. When all else fails you have the Firebird cheat death trigger to save your bacon when you have a brain fart or get 10 shot by spear chuckers. Currently my gear is set up around 7900 armor and 1300 AR.
As an alternative, you could use unstable anomaly or Blur together with Dominance to shore up your defenses a bit, this will of course eat into your overall DPS, but if you need it, then by all means.
2) A good offense is a the BEST defense: This rings true here, if you can obliterate enemies in 1 cast, you don't need to worry about long fights and dangerous affixes coming out to hurt you. As well killing huge packs of enemies constantly refresh your key passive: Dominance and provide you enough eHP to survive through most enemy barrages.
TLDR: Use Dominance, kill fast to survive
Please give it a try, I know many have already given me thumbs up for a lot of the pointers mentioned above, but make sure you give some of them a try you will not be disappointed.
Thanks for reading !
Link: Thread on official US wizard forums: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15539136116
Thanks for sharing, Booz.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Pain enhancer is not what poster makes it out to be IMO, Bane of the powerfull, zei stone and (bane of the trapped or poison) would be my choices. Also the post doesnt mention 2.12 in which hydra, especially mammoth hydra will rule, so kinda lousy advice when people have to reroll gear in a week or whenever it comes.
@abyssia
Have you tried the PE gem at all ? An extra 900% weapon damage per second.
I can show you mathematically how Pain enhancer front loads damage against the other gems in question over time. Both trapped and BOTP do not compare. Also for t6 how much of your damage comes from the Infinite DOT ? Most enemies die before they reach infinite.
The strength of the gem will be over shorter fights which is the case in T6, in greater rifts where more of yor damage over time is from the FB DOT, then yes other gems that affect your DOT size is more important like trapped, toxin , zei and powerful. But for T6 PE is awesome.
And in response to your Hydra comment. This thread has information that pertains to NOW, how can you dismiss the information because of a future changes that may or may not happen? Re-roll in a week? whenever? Good job.
And don't be so quick to dismiss the advice, you might prevent yourself from learning something.
Thanks.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
BOTP is roughly equivalent in eDPS to a Toxin gem when active in T6. The upside of the BOTP is not that great due to, as you mentioned, the overflow of elite% already with furnace set ups. 20% additive bonus from the BOTP also gets diluted by the numerous additive buffs you have on your plate already as well, so overall the gain is not as strong as it looks.
This is why weapon damage DOTs on gems are stronger (for T6). Yes the damage doesn't boost the size of the FB DOT, but this is not as important since most of your damage doesn't come from the FB DOT ! Its all front loaded damage, and this is why gems like TOX/ and PE are super strong. Even though TOX is a "slow" DOT, my level 52 TOX gem does 465% weapon damage per second, by comparison, Blizzard does a pitiful 196%.
I've listed BOTP as near equal to TOX however for T6, you can go either way.
And the issue with BOTT is that relying on only BH and templar is not enough for T6 when you are flying through content. For GRs, its a premium gem, but doesn't work as well for T6. Also in groups it doesn't even apply unless someone else can trigger it (which may or may not happen).
Thank you for your suggestion, it was late and i didn't want to disturb my women. Hopefully it wasn't too much of a strain to hear me!
Nice, Booz.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Dominance already keeps you immortal. Goldwrap means no Harrington or Witching Hour, which means a colossal DPS loss. Good luck being able to one-shot an elite pack in a four player game with a Goldwrap. Using Boon of the Hoarder also means dropping a offensive legendary gem for another huge DPS hit.
One common situation I see WoW users in is that they speed ahead before things die behind them, considering the extra EB procs from WoW do not contribute to Firebird at all, unless the initial EBs have made contact. As a result, as you're passing through mobs, unless you have the initial cycle timed perfectly every single time you engage, you will not be able to get the most damage out. In order to maximize kills, you have to cast Apocalypse in one area, EB in another, whereas in a Apocalypse oriented build with pure speed, all you do is maximize the damage output per cast, which is all you need.
The damage range for a weapon is what you place emphasis on, as APS means absolutely nothing for Firebird other than animation.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
It's easily doable to complete a T6 Rift in less than five minutes on your own with three other players sitting behind you doing nothing. And this involves killing clusters of trash and elites, not only elites. In a group involving two or more properly geared Apocalypse wizards can clear a T6 Rift in less than two minutes fairly often.
I'd advise you check out Boozor's sample T6 run video above. The first Rift took about 3.5 minutes to clear and that also involved backtracking and picking up some items. That's more or less average speed potential there. I'm not sure what Boozor's fire DPS is, but I'm running around 1.8 million sheet DPS self-buffed and closing in on 4 million fire damage on sheet.
Many people in a group try to keep up, but they forgo actually killing anything. The Apocalypse spec, when optimized, has speed, mobility, and damage. The only other spec right now (at least in 2.1.1) that can keep up with speed and killing power is the Raekor barb when Empowered Shrine is active.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
It will depend on time spent, instant casts of blizzard will mean instant activation of PE and TOX so their damage is immediate. But as fights get long, the fire spells and DOT get more and more time to deal their damage. I need to plug some of these numbers into a spead sheet to see whether fire% is more worthwhile then stacking addition stats to boost your gem DOT damage. If the DOT gems is the main source of damage then Stat items (no fire%) might be the most optimal set up so Endless walk set will become more powerful.
As it stands if we assume DOT gems are not the primay source of damage, then Fire%/CHC/CHD/socket is our best bet, i'll report back I I have new findings.
Having excessive amounts of fire% isn't doing your set up any favors unless you have elite % and other good damage modifiers as well.
Sheet dps doesn't tell much about the particular build, I'd need more details in regards to your items and other stats to make any sort of further analysis
Thanks.
I would go in favor of fire because your PE/Toxin are not going to strike a target for 300M damage (i.e. with Molten Impact/Blazar). Apocalypse already ticks for 30M+ with Toxin (that's the usual number I see) before PE and that's overkill for trash.
I'm tempted to put on my Meteor boots. I already use a Blizzard chest and I also have Firebird shoulders with Blizzard damage.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Just using BDF's pain enhancer spreadsheet while adding CHC/CHD/INT values to determine total damage, it appears that RORG / Cindercoat / Force Weapon will out perform Endless Walk set / Conduit magic weapon after 2 seconds of enemies standing in blizzard. Looks like the temporary Firebird damage is equivalent or better (depending on fire%) then PE DOT gem at the 5 second mark. Toxin obviously out DPS blizzard's DOT.
As more damage is applied by your other fire skills, i'd expect this duration to be shorter and more in favor of the Cindercoat/RORG set up.
@Jaetch
Blizzard % looks more and more unappealing from these calculations. It attributes around 10% of your total damage over 5 seconds, and drops as time progresses.
Its effectiveness would decrease further as you incorporate more spells along with it.
However DPS is DPS, and if no EHP stat is needed definitely use everything at your disposal !
But things don't last for more than five seconds, usually.
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
Armory | YouTube | Twitter | Clan Site
EE will work off the element range from your weapon. (Note: will not work off your followers weapon or attacks)
Also things like wreath of lightning's lightning element I believe will count towards EE as well.
The margin is quite small though, but it appears benefits from 20% fire damage for example, will benefit your overall output more then push for sheet stats (avg damage/ more CHD/CHC, etc) This instance will be true at least in the simulation that I ran, 40% fire to 60% fire, and 60%-80% fire. 80% to 100% might not be as benefitical to your actual damage because of diminishing returns, but I haven't tested that range since it is unobtainable for my gear set.
For people that don't believe in Pain Enhancer here is some food for thought from a previous thread.
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/15523352400#new-post