I'm evaluating Iceblink currently, as I use a Delrasha build with a cold bubble. At the moment, I'm using BotT/Molten/Zei. Replacing Zei with Iceblink would give snare (ST is 60% and the cap is 80% iirc), which would be moderately useful, as it does nothing against leapers and chargers.
It would also Chill, which opens up Cold Blooded.
Regarding pure damage, my current Zei (46) gives ~+6.5% dmg/10y. I'm around 50%CHC / +500% CHD, so 10% CHC from Iceblink would give (1+0.6*5)/(1+0.5*5) ~= 1.14.
So it's between 20 yards and 30 yards Zei bonus in my situation. My typical combat situation is casting the bubble with enemies inside (BH/ET+Ransor) and my character just out of it. The bubble radius is 20 yards and for reference:
Basically we need -cooldown on teleport. 5 sec CD wormhole would be nice. Scramble and illusionist both rely on being hit, and ideally you should melt everything instantly, making those counterproductive.
We have oculus (-4) and Evocation (~-2). Both working with wormhole.
Scramble has very good uptime in a blizzard rush build as mobs die in 2-3s depending on DPS so you graze them a lot.
I've tried illusionnist, but it's too risky to graze mobs at the same time to use Scramble.
not really, considering he barely beat with his 700k sheet dps 2 players who had at best 400k sheet dps fully buffed so unless he does it with a different spec i think a barb or DH with matching gear could easily beat him (no offense to him, its just the way the game is designed)
Wizards skills inflate the character sheet dps more than any other class can do (GC/force weapon/sparkflint/pinpoint). Those players have, in fact, nearly matching gear. Diabloprogress is far better at comparing gear than bnet profiles.
hmm what for do you have arcane dynamo? AFAIK, 5 flash of insight buffs only first 'ray of death' while in archon form, not the entire duration of it.
Situation where I (re)activate Archon during an elite pack happen quite frequently. Basically I try to burn them down in one cast, sometimes item-swapping to a SoJ.
It is also the case in Uber battles.
Alternative for this slot is Blur, which makes it quite comfortable in mp7. I wouldn't use Glass Cannon, and find Galvanizing ward non necessary, as I usually don't sustain Archon for more than a minute or two.
Does it buff the enormous explosion on activation from Arcane Destruction Archon? That would be pretty funny.
I think it does, I'll test it tonight. I also want to know if it buffs the 1st ray as well, isn't it the same "cast" ? As in one action from the player ?
* strings of 5*MM/seeker, 1*dynamo-boosted Meteor/molten is
about the best single target damage you can get bar Archon
very good at proccing CM
very flexible when kiting is needed
* Force armor is a no-brainer
* I need LS from both my weapon and Blood magic against Siegebreaker's Reflect damage. Those huge dynamo-molten crits hurt like hell.
* TP/fracture to resurrect the dead. I'm quite the efficient rezzer, it seems
* Last passive can be Conflagration or Galv, Blur.
I won't run hydra as it does not take critical damage into account.
Double posting, but on topic and wizards should now: Frostburn "Cold skills deal +% dmg" affix is bugged, and I suspect it is also bugged on other similar items (Tal set maybe ?).
Blue post: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6412104194?page=2#25
A few answers, as I continue playing and enjoying blizz/hydra even at high-end DPS:
1) No.
"adds %elemental damage" is a very badly worded affix on items. It doesn't add a bonus to elemental damage, instead it adds an elemental damage component from your physical damage. So no, imho it doesn't make sense.
Some rare items really have a bonus TO elemental damage (Frostburn gauntlets, Fragment of Destiny) but they are still inferior to their generalist counterparts.
On the Passive side of things, Paralysis is currently uneffective, Conflagration makes use of Fire element, which we practically don't have. Cold blooded is good, either with Blizzard or with a Cold bow scoundrel follower.
So you can imagine a cold build with Ray of Frost, Fragment of Destiny wand and Frostburns, but it's more of a roleplay kind of things.
I prefer specializing in my signature of choice (Electrocute/FL) with a 12% SoJ and 14% helm.
2) True.
LoH returns life based on a coefficient per spell called "proc coefficient", mainly because it's the same number that is used to trigger Critical Mass. Blizz/Hydra and signature have very bad coefficients. Plus, anytime you spend moving and not casting, you won't get any life. So, go for regen if you play Blizz/hydra.
3) Yes.
With some DPS, you'll be able to kill most white mobs with your signature alone before they even touch you, standing still. Pop Diamond skin when they reach you, as it is "off cast" and doesn't interrupt your casting.
Harder mobs and elites get the Blizz/hydra treatment. For kiting, pre-teleport just before they reach you, then diamond skin when they reach you again to take the hit and trigger illusionnist+tp, then take the next hit in your life pool, illusionnist+tp.
The goal is to maximize your signature casting time. You can add "stutter stepping" to the mix.
4)Imho, no.
Kiters need to cast fast, to allow stutter stepping and reactive tp. And most your damage should come from the signature, that directly benefits from your casting speed. By the way, hydra also benefits from it.
I do around 35M XP/H with ruby, no leoric. +24%ms, no scramble armor, I'm not geared defensively enough. 175k dps+SoJ.
All my runs have 2 parts:
1) high elite, low trash density zone until 5NV:
Core - Keep3 - Tower of the damned 1
2) as soon as I hit 5 NV, wp to:
Arreat1 from towerD1 - Skycrown from stonefort wp - Keep2 - Rakkis south to Fields of slaughter circular clear - Arreat2
If you take Glass Cannon into account, which is chosen by most Archon players, it becomes:
(50k hit, 6k base armor 800 base resists, EA+Prism+GC)
1.0.4
No Archon, you take 2941 damage
With Archon you take 1995 damage :
=> Archon counts as a 32.17% dmg reduction.
1.0.5, before 25% nerf
No Archon, you take 3772 damage
With Archon you take 2445 damage
=> Archon counts as a 35.18% damage reduction
So yeah, ~3%. Not a big deal. But it's not my main point.
Now, let's do some very approximative "maths". If you consider that Archon builds
1) are the most efficient once viable because of the very nature of the beam (instant pew pew, no resource management)
2) become viable at a threshold of (DPS/mob life)/damage taken, also called "burn them before they burn you",
1.0.4 with Archon: 1995 damage
1.0.5 with Archon (.75 factor): 1833.
So we get a 8.12% "Archon threshold decrease". Not a good point for build diversity.
Yes it does. 16.7% for each target hit if I recall correctly.
But you use it as an all-around nuke, it's quite versatile and powerful while you wait for your Archon CD to be up. I prefer FL though.
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(sorry if it's too much of a necro)
I'm evaluating Iceblink currently, as I use a Delrasha build with a cold bubble. At the moment, I'm using BotT/Molten/Zei. Replacing Zei with Iceblink would give snare (ST is 60% and the cap is 80% iirc), which would be moderately useful, as it does nothing against leapers and chargers.
It would also Chill, which opens up Cold Blooded.
Regarding pure damage, my current Zei (46) gives ~+6.5% dmg/10y. I'm around 50%CHC / +500% CHD, so 10% CHC from Iceblink would give (1+0.6*5)/(1+0.5*5) ~= 1.14.
So it's between 20 yards and 30 yards Zei bonus in my situation. My typical combat situation is casting the bubble with enemies inside (BH/ET+Ransor) and my character just out of it. The bubble radius is 20 yards and for reference:
http://diablo.incgamers.com/gallery/data/632/medium/D3_Distance_Map.jpg
So it would be similar damage in most situations, better when I TP offensively to trigger TR/arcane, worse when I kite heavily.
We have oculus (-4) and Evocation (~-2). Both working with wormhole.
Scramble has very good uptime in a blizzard rush build as mobs die in 2-3s depending on DPS so you graze them a lot.
I've tried illusionnist, but it's too risky to graze mobs at the same time to use Scramble.
And you can get very good uptime on Scramble speed boost with a rush build, grazing mobs all the time at low MP.
Wizards skills inflate the character sheet dps more than any other class can do (GC/force weapon/sparkflint/pinpoint). Those players have, in fact, nearly matching gear. Diabloprogress is far better at comparing gear than bnet profiles.
It is also the case in Uber battles.
Alternative for this slot is Blur, which makes it quite comfortable in mp7. I wouldn't use Glass Cannon, and find Galvanizing ward non necessary, as I usually don't sustain Archon for more than a minute or two.
I think it does, I'll test it tonight. I also want to know if it buffs the 1st ray as well, isn't it the same "cast" ? As in one action from the player ?
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#bmXYSO!bgT!ccaZcZ
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/wizard#aPSOXQ!Tge!cacYaY
* strings of 5*MM/seeker, 1*dynamo-boosted Meteor/molten is
- about the best single target damage you can get bar Archon
- very good at proccing CM
- very flexible when kiting is needed
* Force armor is a no-brainer* I need LS from both my weapon and Blood magic against Siegebreaker's Reflect damage. Those huge dynamo-molten crits hurt like hell.
* TP/fracture to resurrect the dead. I'm quite the efficient rezzer, it seems
* Last passive can be Conflagration or Galv, Blur.
I won't run hydra as it does not take critical damage into account.
APoC * CC * 0.125 * WW_ticks/6
Try to reach 9 for near-perfect chaining on single mobs.
An example of balanced stats for this value : 25 APoC, 48%CC, 2.74 att/sec.
You can find the WW_ticks value corresponding to your datasheet attack speed there:
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6794871641?page=1
Blue post: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6412104194?page=2#25
1) No.
"adds %elemental damage" is a very badly worded affix on items. It doesn't add a bonus to elemental damage, instead it adds an elemental damage component from your physical damage. So no, imho it doesn't make sense.
Some rare items really have a bonus TO elemental damage (Frostburn gauntlets, Fragment of Destiny) but they are still inferior to their generalist counterparts.
On the Passive side of things, Paralysis is currently uneffective, Conflagration makes use of Fire element, which we practically don't have. Cold blooded is good, either with Blizzard or with a Cold bow scoundrel follower.
So you can imagine a cold build with Ray of Frost, Fragment of Destiny wand and Frostburns, but it's more of a roleplay kind of things.
I prefer specializing in my signature of choice (Electrocute/FL) with a 12% SoJ and 14% helm.
2) True.
LoH returns life based on a coefficient per spell called "proc coefficient", mainly because it's the same number that is used to trigger Critical Mass. Blizz/Hydra and signature have very bad coefficients. Plus, anytime you spend moving and not casting, you won't get any life. So, go for regen if you play Blizz/hydra.
3) Yes.
With some DPS, you'll be able to kill most white mobs with your signature alone before they even touch you, standing still. Pop Diamond skin when they reach you, as it is "off cast" and doesn't interrupt your casting.
Harder mobs and elites get the Blizz/hydra treatment. For kiting, pre-teleport just before they reach you, then diamond skin when they reach you again to take the hit and trigger illusionnist+tp, then take the next hit in your life pool, illusionnist+tp.
The goal is to maximize your signature casting time. You can add "stutter stepping" to the mix.
4)Imho, no.
Kiters need to cast fast, to allow stutter stepping and reactive tp. And most your damage should come from the signature, that directly benefits from your casting speed. By the way, hydra also benefits from it.
All my runs have 2 parts:
1) high elite, low trash density zone until 5NV:
Core - Keep3 - Tower of the damned 1
2) as soon as I hit 5 NV, wp to:
Arreat1 from towerD1 - Skycrown from stonefort wp - Keep2 - Rakkis south to Fields of slaughter circular clear - Arreat2
(50k hit, 6k base armor 800 base resists, EA+Prism+GC)
1.0.4
No Archon, you take 2941 damage
With Archon you take 1995 damage :
=> Archon counts as a 32.17% dmg reduction.
1.0.5, before 25% nerf
No Archon, you take 3772 damage
With Archon you take 2445 damage
=> Archon counts as a 35.18% damage reduction
So yeah, ~3%. Not a big deal. But it's not my main point.
Now, let's do some very approximative "maths". If you consider that Archon builds
1) are the most efficient once viable because of the very nature of the beam (instant pew pew, no resource management)
2) become viable at a threshold of (DPS/mob life)/damage taken, also called "burn them before they burn you",
1.0.4 with Archon: 1995 damage
1.0.5 with Archon (.75 factor): 1833.
So we get a 8.12% "Archon threshold decrease". Not a good point for build diversity.
But you use it as an all-around nuke, it's quite versatile and powerful while you wait for your Archon CD to be up. I prefer FL though.