Build Guide
Channeling Twister. Retro feel to it, and not necessarily tied to melee any longer, due to our now usable defensive item, Halo of Karini.
The reason we're using Karini here is to fit more items in. Traditionally this build would run Halo + APDs with OID, which gave a huge defensive bonus. Since we don't have the weapon slot for OID any more, we have to make up the defense elsewhere.
Karini lets us slot an additional item, in this case, Mantle of Channeling, which boosts our damage and defense. We also use Flame ward, Taeguk, and Unwavering Will to give more defense while channeling / standing still. Other defensive measures include: Blur, Safe Passage, DMO4, Exhaustion.
Deflection and LoH on weapon give us some nice recovery as well. Unstable Anomaly for the second life.
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All of these defensive measures make up for the loss of OID, and also let us slot Mantle of Channeling, CoE, and Endless Walk. These are big multipliers, on top of the already huge multipliers of DMO6, Trapped, Deathwish, and Etched Sigil.
Taeguk, Unwavering Will, and Deflection also supply a large chunk of additive damage to the build.
For mobility, we have both Safe Passage and Illusionist. Since we use both Slow time and Teleport in this build, both of them will be reset by Illusionist, which is really nice.
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Etched Sigil has Attack speed breakpoints that you need to be aware of. See this link for a full breakpoint chart.
For this particular build, we want to optimize for Etched Sigil, but still put out as many twisters as possible. More twisters, specifically utilizing manually casted Twisters will increase damage and utility for a few reasons:
- Raging Storm will combine and give us increased damage.
- Twisters last up to 6s (more if they combine) while on the field of battle, and having more out when your CoE hits the arcane phase lets you deal increased damage overall.
- Higher attack speed also shaves about 4 frames off the manual cast time of your Twister, letting you get back to channeling as quick as possible, which is a nice little bonus.
- The higher AS helps us keep up Taeguk stacks easier.
- Reset Slow Time, in case our Illusionist doesn't proc.
The particular Arcane Torrent breakpoint you want to be at is 1.818182818 to 2 APS (10 Frames / Tick). This ensures your Etched sigil is at a 60 Frame ICD (1 second), and not higher than that. It also gives us the attack speed needed for the build to manually cast twister as well.
How I play this build is a 1:1 rotation typically. I do one action, whether that be casting a manual twister, casting Safe Passage, or casting Exhaustion, in between Etched sigil Twister procs. The addition to this rotation occurs when CoE comes around.
When the lightning phase of CoE comes around make sure you output as many Twisters as possible. When the Arcane phase hits, try to just channel (don't interweave) if possible. This will ensure your Deathwish and Etched sigil multipliers are up when the CoE is, which will allow the Twisters that are out on the battlefield deal as much damage as possible.
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Due to the very random nature of the Twisters, it's often beneficial to cover a wide area. Kiting backwards is often a very good strategy. Use Teleport to reposition and place slow time as you go, to keep up your set bonuses.
I really like that this build isn't considered ranged or melee. It allows the freedom to position yourself wherever could be the most beneficial for either damage, or survival. If possible, try to stand in the Oculus ring procs when they spawn favorably, however, due to the kiting nature of the build, this may prove difficult.
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Power of the Storm, Hergbrash's, and APoC on source provide some much needed resource cost management. Topaz in helm is optional.
I prefer the Templar for his healing and Inspire abilities. I recommend Thunderfury with Oculus ring on follower. Place AS and CDR on your follower items.
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Considering at least a minute ahead of the timer, not perfect play, good but not perfect rift, non-ancient source, missing 25% multi on Twisted Sword, no arcane% on amulet, and other gear being imperfect as well, I'll rate this build GR108+. That's at about 1300 paragon, better augments and items than seen in the video.
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Alternates:
- Time Warp (swap out Exhaustion rune on slow time)
- Intensify (swap out Flame Ward): Lower defense, but gives a 15% arcane damage debuff. Higher resource cost, would likely require the Topaz.
- There is an option to swap out Taeguk for Zei and UW for Power hungry. This sets the build as a ranged build. The multipliers are harder to manage, and the swaps are less defensive, however, the stuns with Zei are pretty nice, and not having to manage Taeguk makes it a little easier to focus on dealing damage at range. IMO though, Taeguk with UW is superior, since it doesn't depend on being at range, and offers the higher defense.
- Zei (swap out Taeguk)
- Power Hungry (swap out Unwavering Will)
Yep, they really start to hit hard after GR100, that's when incoming monster damage scaling doubles.
Wudijo's | [2.4.1+] Incoming Dmg / XP numbers and what they mean:
http://www.diablofans.com/forums/diablo-iii-general-forums/diablo-iii-general-discussion/165821
Without OID or Unity, I felt it best to make up defense in other ways, considering the whole point of the build is to stand there and channel. If you're not channeling, your Twisters tick for significantly less damage.
There's probably a higher risk / more reward way to build it, but this suited me best. Feel free to play around with it for certain. One thing I saw done by some players was slotting APDs and then running Point of no return (the stun rune) on slow time. I tried that out but it felt really inconsistent.
Have you ever tested the Crown of the Primus hat? I used it in the cube and it seems quite effective not only for multiplayer but also for solo. It takes mobs longer to get out at you which allows me to remain in channeling mode for max damage. I have looked around and I do see that NOBODY uses it but I have tested with and without it and at best/worst it doesn't seem like a slam dunk either way.
Thoughts?
By the way I play on Xbox1, not sure if that would make a difference or not.
Love this build. Most fun thing in the game is when I find a CHANNELING SHRINE. That is so fun to have and just bubble the entire screen and then hold down tornado casts until everything is dead!
This build is really a fun and powerful build for GRs. I have never been one to sit down and do the math to understand how the multipliers work but can someone explain to me what the difference would be between wearing a Witching Hour belt with a Hergbrash Binding in the stash vs wearing a Hergbrash Binding and putting Mantle of Channeling in the stash. I get you would be giving up the damage reduction of Mantle of Channeling but would you do more damage with Witching Hour?
I cleared GR 102 last night on my Xbox at paragon 1,000. I love the tankiness of this build!
For what its worth, I did several GR 100's last night on the Xbox 1 and have come to the conclusion that I prefer CONDUIT over DEFLECTION. Have MORE arcane power enables me to kill the mob faster which enables me to actually play safer without dying as much. There is nothing worse than having no arcane power to complete the battles. Just my 2 cents.
EDIT (7/7/2018): Swapped cube and worn rings. Now listing CoE worn, Karini cubed. No change in items here, just listing it differently.
@cratic is it ok to change arcane torrent into disintegrate? Just want to chill doing GR90's.